Dead By Dawn: The Road To Revolution

Hi, I've finished much of my Timeline, Dead By Dawn, and it can be discussed here.

The Rise of National Socialism[/SIZE]

Arguably, the first step on the road to the German Revolution, was the failure of the Beer Hall Putsch. Although it often believed to have begun in September of 1919, when a young Corporal in the Reichswehr by the name of Adolph Hitler, was ordered by his superior to spy on the German Workers Party. The German Workers Party was a nationalist party with strong Pan-German overtones formed by a small radical group. When the young Hitler was sent to spy, the leader of the small party, Anton Drexler, was impressed by his oratory skills and invited the young soldier to join the party. After considering the offer, Hitler joined the small political party and quit the Reichswehr.

The small political group was soon won over to Hitler's own political ideals and was renamed the German National Socialist Workers Party to gain a wider audience. Using Hitler's oratory skills as its center stage, the party grew rapidly. Hitler and as a result the NSDAP, soon gained prominence amongst Bavarian right wing movements. Soon Hitler gained control of the party, usurping control from Drexler, and proceeded to layout his platform. A Greater Germany, Eastern Expansion, abrogation of the Versailles Treaty and most prominently the expulsion of German Jews from citizenship. In 1921, Hitler organized the creation of the Strurmabteilung (SA), a corps of shock troopers designed as the military arm of the National Socialist Revolution. It became clear that the purpose of National Socialism was the violent overthrow of the Weimar Republic.

By September of 1923, bolstered by the success of Mussolini's March on Rome, Hitler decided the time to strike was imminent. He formed the Kampfbund, a coalition of right wing movements, the largest of which was the NSDAP, but it also included the Reichskriegflagge Society and the Oberland League, both comprised of disgruntled war veterans. Hitler at the time of the Putsch had up to 15,000 soldiers to call upon for his his planned grab at power. Originally, Hitler had planned to utilize the state of Bavaria's Prime Minister, Gustav Ritter von Kahr, to march on Berlin. However, when it became clear that von Kahr had no plans to go through with the plot, Hitler decided to take action.

On November 8th, 1923, after months of planning, 600 surrounded the Beer Hall where von Kahr was speaking and Hitler famously declared "The national revolution has broken out! The hall is filled with six hundred men. Nobody is allowed to leave. The Bavarian government and the government at Berlin are deposed. A new government will be formed at once. The barracks of the Reichswehr and those of the police are occupied. Both have rallied to the swastika." From that point, the so called Putsch went down hill. Von Kahr and his cohorts refused to play along with Hitlers coup, even when faced with the support of General Ludendorff, a national icon.

By the new day, had become apparent that the Putsch had failed to meet its goals. It was temporarily saved when Ludendorff exclaimed "We shall march!" loudly. As a result about 2,000 men aimlessly left the Beer Hall for the Bavarian Defense Ministry, lead by General Ludendorff. The key moment in the planned coup came when they reached the Odeonsplatz in front of the Felddernhhalle where the force met with 100 state soldiers. The two groups exchanged fire and when it was over, 4 state officials and 16 Nazi's, including Adolph Hitler, were dead. The day would end with the Putsch unsuccessful and its main conspirators arrested. The NSDAP was banned and its headquarters raided, and its main leaders were sentenced to fortress prison, an honorable punishment for people who had committed crimes that the state felt was for a good cause, if not in the wrong place. The most prominently sentenced was Rudolf Hess, Hitler's second in command and de facto leader of the Party upon his death.

Butterflies of the Orient

About two weeks after a small, seemingly unimportant failed coup in Germany, the crown prince of the Japanese royal family was on his way to attend the opening of the Japanese Diet. On his route from the Akasaka Palace to the diet, Prince Hirohito's carriage was passing an intersection known as Toranomon, when a young man emerged from the crowd and fired 2 shots at the carriage. The bullets shattered a window and hit the crown prince. The assassin then screamed "Long live the Communist Party of Japan" and was seized by the crowd. The prince was rushed to a hospital, but died before he could reach proper medical attention. The assassin, Daisuke Namba, the son of a Japanese Diet member, was a radical who supported the Communist Party of Japan. He was sentenced to death and killed weeks later.

The death of Hirohito was a watershed moment for Japan. It pushed anti-communist sentiment in Japan to a new high and people accused of communism either fled or committed suicide. The Emperor Taisho, was forced to give the regency to his second son Chichibu, who would be crowned Emperor Tensho upon his fathers death in 1926, was distraught over the loss of his eldest son and went into seclusion. Chichibu was popular and received sympathy from other nations for the loss of his brother. But Chichibu was noted to have less interest in the office of Emperor then his older brother had been. His military career, which had only just begun, received a major boost as he was promoted from Second Lieutenant to Colonel, in the face of anti-communism. It was a flimsy pretense for the military to garner favor with the soon to be emperor.

While half a world away a new king was being fitted for his crown, the same was the situation in Germany. The death of Hitler and the banning of the party had placed a divide in the NSDAP. With the de facto leader of the NSDAP, Rudolf Hess, imprisoned the party began to reassemble themselves differently. Two of the most influential members of the party received early release from their sentence after being elected to the Bavarian Landtag under the Nazi aligned Volkischer Block, Gregor Strasser and Ernst Rohm.

Gregor Strasser, a Bavarian born veteran and Freikorps commander, was an able politician and fiercely loyal to the NSDAP. After Hitlers death, Strasser pushed to support the anti-capitalist strain of National Socialism and gained the support of not only new recruits, like young Joseph Goebbels, but from close friend of Hitler and leader of the SA, Ernst Rohm. Rohm saw the SA as the building block of a new military, one that would replace the old Prussian run military that many of the men in the National Socialist Party had worked under. Strasser was noted for his organizational skills, and although he lacked the great oratory skills of Hitler, he made sure to evoke the memory of the Fuhrer to the people to whom he spread the word. Strasser's popularity helped gain him the de facto leadership of the party from the imprisoned Hess, which caused a split as many saw Strasser's new form of National Socialism as to communistic. This helped bolster the support the German National Peoples Party, the DNVP, but only in a minor fashion. It soon became clear that the National Socialist movement was now here to stay, and as it spread throughout Germany, out from its base in Bavaria to the masses of Northern and Central Germany, that its new leader was to be Gregor Strasser.

National and socialist! What goes first, and what comes afterwards?

By 1926, the evolution of the National Socialist German Workers Party, whose ban had long since been ignored, was astounding. Under Strasser, the party had grown by leaps and bounds. The populist message of the Nazis, as they came to be known, was received well by the lower class citizens of Germany, while it's revolutionary overtones were looked at cautiously by the government on the Wilhemstrasse. It was also noted as a far different party by the old party base.

Rudolf Hess, after being released found what he dubbed as "a damnable organization". Hess attempted to take control of the party at a meeting in February of 1925, but was rebuffed by the Strassists who had gained control of the party. Many of the people who had participated in the Beer Hall Putsch had left the party after Hitler's death, claiming differences with the party's new direction. Some joined with Hess's new splinter party, the National Socialist Peoples Party (NSVP), but most joined with the German National Peoples Party, which was lead by Kuno von Westarp and funded by media tycoon, Alfred Hugenberg. The DNVP were a nationalist, monarchist, pro-business and anti-semitic party connected with the largest veterans organization in Germany, the Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten. With all of its goals and its backing it would seem that the DNVP was the perfect choice for a German nationalist in the 1920's. There was one major difference between it and the NSDAP, was the S.

Under Gregor Strasser, the National Socialists had brought the Socialism in National Socialism to the forefront. It was famously said by Strasser at a speech in Berlin that "First socialist redemption, then comes national liberation like a whirlwind!", to which the gathered crowd of over 6,000 cheered. They had also begun to intimidate their political opponents. Under Rohm, the SA had been transformed from a rabble to a private army. Their former leader, Hermann Goering, who had perished in Austria from wounds received during the Beer Hall Putsch, was invoked often at meetings by the Brownshirts, as the SA were growing to be called. So strong were they that the generals of the Reichswehr were beginning to worry, and a young officer by the name of Kurt von Schleicher began to amass power by rebuilding the army with help from an unlikely ally in Moscow.

The growth of National Socialism didn't just occur in Germany, but related movements began to spring up in areas with large ethnic German populations. In the Free State of Danzig, Poland, Austria and Czechoslovakia. The reason for this, was that the Nazis were committed to the cause of Pan-German unity. Gross-Deutschland as a future state was often found in Nazi propaganda leaflets, which found their way into Poland and the Sudeten region of Czechoslovakia. In the Sudetenland, where the ethnic Germans were being persecuted by the Czech community in a form of social justice for past transgressions, the movement caught on with the lower class workers, while the upper class tended to support the DNVP which also supported a Gross-Deutschland. In Austria, the National Socialist movement had first taken form in the 1900's and was thought to have influenced the later German parties ideology. It also had a Pan-German standpoint but the largest party in Austria under the Pan German Banner was the Greater German Peoples Party or the GDVP. However, the Austrians also had a nationalist movement of their own. Descended from the Heimwehr militia's of German Austria, whose only mission was to defend the border of the new Austria. The two forces would soon clash.

Blood and Soil

With the success of the Nazis in the inner city and industrial regions of Germany, there was a certain nationalist backlash. Under Strasser, the party had taken steps to emphasize the worker in National Socialist German Workers Party. This caused the farmers to decidedly move away from their support of the Nazis. It also lead to an increase in membership for the Artaman League. Founded in 1923, the AG (Artaman Gesselschaft) was in support of a return to ruralism and helped relocate over 6,000 city dwellers to the German provinces of Silesia, Saxony and East Prussia in an effort to combat the settlement of these areas by Slavs, Poles in particular. Although the Artamanian movement had similarities with the Nazis, its followers were anti-Socialist, supporting the remarkably similar Volkisch movement. The League formed its settlers into the Wehrbaueren a group of soldier-peasants whose purpose was to defend the settlements from slavic attack. In reality they turned into roving death squads, terrorizing the Slavic neighborhoods and villages. Their crimes were ignored by the police.

The Artamanians as a political force were mostly represented by the National Socialist Peoples Party. Under Hess, the NSVP had found a niche with people who, although supportive of Nazi policies, were wary of the socialist tinge it had taken under Strasser. The representative of the League's interest in the NSVP was Richard Walther Darre, whose speeches soon won over the majority of the League. Darre, an Argentinian born whose background as a farmer helped establish the NSVP amongst the agrarian movement. The League soon became the dominant force in the NSVP. Darre soon was able to take the party chair from Hess, who would spend the rest of years in obscurity before being killed in 1932 for his past affiliation with the Nazis. Darre also moved the movement towards a neo-paganist tinge, with unusual rituals becoming a part of daily life in the Artamanian camps. These rituals became whole heartedly accepted by the Artamanians as a rejection of the Judaic based religion of Christianity.

One particular settler by the name of Heinrich Himmler, rose to power in the Wehrbauren to the position as its commander. He became a close confidant of Darre and formed a special troop of Wehrbauren that followed Darre around Germany, protecting him as he made speeches. In one particularly memorable moment in 1927, a rally by the National Socialists in rural Saxony was met by an opposing rally by the NSVP. The speaker at the Nazi rally, Wilhelm Frick, referred to the NSVP as "reactionary heathens", which caused the SA to get involved in a street brawl with the Wehrbauren of the NSVP. The brawl was noted because the public of the rural Saxon village were decidedly against the Nazis and forced the Nazi rally to leave. And although the NSVP would remain a minor political force on a national level, it soon came to prominence in Saxony, with Reichsprasident Hindenburg to refer to Darre as "Fuhrer of Saxony".

Red Star in a Sea of Blue

It was the stroke of Vladimir Lenin that began the power struggle for the leadership of the newly created Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. At the time of the stroke there were a number of men who were poised to take control of the nascent Soviet Union. There were many candidates but the one who was deemed the most likely to succeed was Leon Trotsky. Trotsky was born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein to a well to do Jewish farmer. His main opponent to the position of party chairman and leader of the USSR was a Georgian socialist by the name of Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili better known by his chosen name, Joseph Stalin. Stalin, a feared and powerful member of the party, was disliked by Lenin, largely because of an insult paid to his wife by the young Georgian. Lenin, in the spring of 1923, disowned Stalin as a member of the party in a speech delivered by Trotsky by at the 12th Congress of the Russian Communist Party. The speech blew Stalin out of the water and turned the Party's opinion on the Georgian out of whack. When Lenin's death came months later, Stalin fled from the USSR to Turkey, from where Stalin and his supporters would continue to support guerilla's against the rule of Trotsky, especially in Georgia, where Stalin remained popular.

Trotsky's ascension to the head of the nation was looked on wearily from Europe, who saw Trotsky as a troublemaker. Their assumption was correct. Trotsky was a believer in the theory of continual revolution. The idea that the revolution wasn't truly over until over until every capitalist nation had been liberated. This allowed for a complete mess in the foreign policy department. One major instance was the Northern Expedition in 1926. The Expedition was an attempt by the Kuomintang, a nationalist political and military organization that wanted to unite China under their rule, against the warlord cliques of Northern China. Although Trotsky supported the Guominjun, who were allied with the Kuomintang, he also offered support to the Communists who caused uprisings against Kuomintang rule and sponsored the Wuhan Government under left wing KMT leader, Wang Jinwei. The resulting chaos forced the abortion of the Northern Expedition and a continued divide in the legitimacy of the government of China between Chiang Kai-Shek in Guangzhong and Zhang Zoulin in Beijing.

Trotsky wasn't an idiot however and realized that certain allies were necessary. He continued the agreement with the Weimar government that allowed the German's to rebuild their military and circumvent the Treaty of Versailles. Many have assumed this was because of Trotsky's opinion of National Socialism. Trotsky recognized that the party held dangerous power and could potentially be a threat to the Soviet Union, especially considering their plans for Eastern expansion. Not to mention their constant use of the term "Jewish Bolshevism" in reference to the Soviet Union. Trotsky also funded the Communist Party of Germany and met personally with Ersnst Thalmann, whom he described as "a true revolutionary". Trotsky overall became a symbol of the Soviet pledge to continue the revolution, which would alienate the Soviet Union from the mainstream international scene for the next decade.

Stuck between a Rock and a Hard Place

Of all the national leaders watching the Nazi movement closely, none was more aware of the movements potential than Jozef Pilsudski the leader of Poland. After taking power in a swift a decisive coup d'etat in 1926, Pilsudski's regime was one that was considered authoritarian, but was not in many ways. Truly the father of the Second Republic, Pilsudski had defended his nation from Soviet invasion in 1920 and had saved his country from chaos. In his mind. He was distrusted by the Communists, although the feeling was mutual in that regard, and was not a fan of socialism, which he had used as a mean to a gain. Pilsudski did very actual ruling during his "Sanation" Regime, leaving most of the tasks of government to his colonels. The most prominent of these colonels was Edward Rydz-Smigly, who was considered to be Pilsudski's anointed heir. Rydz-Smigly became the leader of Poland's armed forces and pursued a closer alliance with France, Czechoslovakia and the United Kingdom. He was also at the helm when war erupted in their neighbor to the west, Germany.

When the Berlin Uprising occurred in May of 1931, the Polish government was quick to act. The National Socialist Uprising in Germany was followed by similar actions in Danzig and the Silesian territories of Poland. The Polish military quickly put down the rebels in Polish territory and occupied Danzig. They then set forces on the border of not only the German border to the west, but to the east. East Prussia, an exclave of the German Reich, was quickly brought under the control of its Social Democratic government and its leader, Otto Braun. Braun was able to take command of the Reichswehr soldiers in East Prussia and convinced them to uphold the government in East Prussia, by violently putting down the Nazi, Communist and pro-Schleicher elements in East Prussia. As a result the small enclave became the last holdout of the legitimate Weimar government, as Germany proper dissolved into pro-Schleicher and Nazi held territories. After the civil war ended in 1935, the Braun government of East Prussia refused to recognize the legitimacy of the government in Berlin and retained its independence with the help of Poland.

The breakout of war in Germany proved the beginning of the Polish rise to power. Suddenly far more worried about the potential of war, Yugoslavia, Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland signed a treaty of mutual defense and alliance in 1932, with Dollfuss, Pilsudski, Benes and King Alexander's signature, the Litlle Entente was formed. Although its primary aim was to protect from German invasion, it was also based on Polish fears of a Soviet attack and Yugoslav fears of an Italian invasion. The Entente was viewed warily from Moscow and Berlin. But it would assure peace in Central Europe, for years to come.
 
The Berlin Uprising of 1931

By 1930, it had become painfully clear that the National Socialists would not be elected into power. President von Hindenburg was actively promoting the success of the DNVP, who were supported by the rural based NSVP, against the KPD and the NSDAP. In inner city neighborhoods throughout Germany, Nazis competed with Communists for votes and membership, whilst they were persecuted by the government. At a meeting in Munich in August of 1930, it was put forward by Gauleiter of the Berlin Party and the Berlin SA, Karl Daluege, reported to Otto Strasser and Ernst Rohm that he had a approached a member of the Reichswehr, who was in charge of a division of troops in the capital and who were sick of the direction the nation was going and whom were sympathetic to the cause of the Nazis. Daluege suggested they could use the division to take the capital and establish a National Socialist state. When Otto brought it to the attention of his brother, Gregor told his brother "The revolution will come soon, but we must be patient".

What Strasser was waiting for was the arrival of a shipment of weapons from American supporters of the Nazi's, mostly from the German-American community. The weapons would be used to arm the SA, which although large was poorly trained and less than controlled. For over a year the SA trained, in what they thought was secrecy. The whole plot was being followed closely by Kurt von Schleicher, who had risen to the rank of general and was a personal confidant of the President. Schleicher, along with other generals of the Reichswehr, were planning a coup to coincide with the Nazi Rebellion and had all the piece's in place. In May of 1931, on the 3rd to be exact, Strasser gave Daluege the go ahead, who contacted his conspirator in the Reichswehr, Walter Model. On the night of May 3rd, the SA and the Reichswehr under Model marched on the Reichstag, where they were prepared to raise the new flag of Germany, the Swastika. However upon their arrival, they discovered a fortified position held by Reichswehr forces. The revolutionary force was cut to ribbons on the streets Berlin and that very night von Schleicher through a coup in order "to preserve the freedom of Germany and of all Germans". Throughout Germany similar attempts were made, with all but a few succeeding. In Koln, Munich, Hamburg and Nuremberg, the Nazis were able to capture the bases. Elsewhere, the Reichswehr forces were able to defeat the ragtag SA force.

At the outbreak of hostilities, the only region with little to no Nazi activity was Saxony, where the NSVP recognized the legitimacy of the new Berlin Junta. The Nazi's soon established their base as Southern Germany, with Bavaria being their stronghold. East Prussia also escaped from harm, when the Prime Minister of Prussia, Otto Braun, escaped to Konigsberg. Braun was able to gather the armed forces in East Prussia to round up and defeat the Nazi's and pro-coup forces. As a result of Polish intervention, Braun would remain in power in East Prussia until his death in 1955.

International reaction to the breakout of civil war in Germany was mixed. In the USSR, Chairman Trotsky offered Soviet support to the KPD so that they could take power. Of course the Politburo had no expectations of Germany going red, but figured Thalmann's outfit could create chaos amongst the Germans and a weaker Germany would benefit a stronger USSR. In Poland and Czechoslovakia, the Nazi's convinced the local ethnic German populations to revolt. In Danzig, the Nazi's managed to take control of the government, but they were soon defeated by the Polish army that occupied the city. The occupation of Danzig would be indefinite, ending in the annexation of Gdansk in 1940. In Austria, the Nazi rising allowed the Heimwehr and other nationalist forces to seize power in Austria, forming a nationalist, authoritarian state under the control of Engelbert Dollfuss, who immediately outlawed all other parties and closed the border with Germany. In Italy, Mussolini supported the Nazi's personally but for reasons of ideology offered support to the new regime in Berlin. In France and Britain, the populace's of each nation had collectively decided to ignore the war, while securing the borders so that conflict did not spill over. The French forces reoccupied the Ruhr and shot at any armed forces that attempted to take the region.

Public support for the Nazi's was high in Germany and internationally. Civilian groups from America, Britain, France, Argentina, Chile and Brazil flew to Germany to fight with Strassers forces, whilst an Italian division of "volunteers" was dispatched to the Berlin government from Rome. As the fall began to set in, it became clear that the war was just beginning.

The Iron Fist

The German Civil War is remembered for being one of the most brutal exercises in futility ever seen on the European Continent. Of all the interwar conflicts, none had a death toll as high, not just in terms of military, but in terms of civilian lives. With the borders all around Germany closed off, the people of Germany were in a word, quarantined. Food shortages became a major worry after NSVP Wehrbauren burned their crops in an effort to keep from feeding the Nazi troops. During the war morale was low on both sides, with the high command of each army doing all the thinking. In the National Socialist camp, the Army of the Revolution was lead by Otto Strasser, which caused a slight divide in the troops who supported Ernst Rohm. Rohm himself respected Strasser to much to make an issue of it, besides the fact that Rohm homosexuality was the reason that Gregor Strasser kept him out of the position. In the Reichswehr camp, Schliecher was the commander in chief of all Republican forces, including the Reichsmarine, the Reichswehr and the Reichluftstreitkrafte, an air force created at the time of the coup.

The Nazi's were at an immediate disadvantage, because whilst they had a massive army, they had no air force or Navy, nor did they have any hope of gaining either. This caused setbacks at first and forced the Nazi's to retreat to the southern part of Germany by the winter of 1932. Under Otto Strasser the armed forces recollected themselves for a planned offensive on the capital. Otto confidently boasted to his brother that the swastika would be flying over the Reichstag by Christmas of 1933. The confidence proved unfounded as the war turned into a hideous stalemate. The names of Efurt, Zwickau, Steinau and Leipzig plastered the headlines of daily papers in Paris, New York, London and Moscow. The Battle for Thuringia would end the Nazi offensive on Berlin and the Nordenmarsch ended in February of 1934, forcing the Nazi's into the realization that the war was possibly unwinnable. Some similar feelings were being expressed in the capital where President von Schliecher was worried that Festung Bayern, would be in the hands of the Hitlerites forever if an offensive could not succeed. He continually extended offers of alliance to any neighboring nation in return for assistance in the war. By the summer of 1934, he had found two allies.

Benito Mussolini, Il Duce of the Kingdom of Italy and leader of the National Fascist Party, had been offering the involvement of Italian troops since as early as 1932. However, the anti aircraft guns in Nazi held territory were shooting down any planes flying overhead, so the only viable route was by land and the only route by land from Italy to Germany was Austria. Austria, now under the rule of Engelbert Dollfuss, a self described Austrofascist, was an ally of Italy and a confidant of Mussolini. He was however, wary of helping the Germans as he was firmly against a Greater Germany. Thus, he would refuse to allow Italian troops to move through Austria if Schleicher swore not to promote the annexation of Austria, a move that von Schleicher approved of. By October of 1934, he agreed to the deal. And on Christmas Eve, 1934, the Austro-Italian force launched its invasion of Germany.

The attack on their rear caught the Nazi High Command completely off guard, and Munchen, which had been bombed occasionally by Reichswehr planes, was now being bombed continuously. At the beginning of the war, the Nazi's had placed a large army on the Austro-German border, but in order to push towards Berlin, had left a small remnant force under the command of Sturmabteilung-Standartenfuhrer Theodor Eicke. Eicke's orders were to make sure no saboteurs or people escaped and most of his force were young soldiers drafted to the cause from the streets and juvenile halls of Bavaria. Which would explain his surprise at the massive armed force that quickly overwhelmed his position. Soon forces were called back from the front to protect Munchen, the capital of the National Socialist Republic of Germany, from the Austro-Italian force. The retreat from the front coincided with the Reichswehr offensive which gradually overwhelmed and captured territory until the National Socialist Army was left to nothing but a remnant in the region south of Nurnberg to Munchen. The Nazi capital was relocated to Regensburg where Strasser announced that the revolution was a failure. Gregor decided to flee from the country to Switzerland. He left the Nazi forces in the hands of Ernst Rohm, who would continue the fight. Gregor Strasser and his small group of 10 bodyguards fled south until they were stopped at a Reichswehr checkpoint in Sigmaringen. The guards recognized Strasser and a firefight ensued. When it was over Strasser and the bodyguards were dead.

By January of 1935, Munchen had fallen and the Nazi's only held official control over a small region surrounding Regensburg. Rohm swore every soldier to fight to the death and the siege only ended in late February when an Italian-German force captured the city, Rohm was captured and executed by the state days later in Munchen. The war was over and National Socialism and all of its brother organizations were outlawed. Otto Strasser escaped to Denmark, through bribery and deceit. But for the thousands who had served in the SA and the other Nazi forces, a form of oath was required to be let back into normal society. And while the fighting was officially over, National Socialist Guerilla's remained a problem in the South of Germany until the late 1950's. In Berlin, Kurt von Schleicher declared the nation to be at peace and formally signed an alliance with Austria and Italy. And Europe breathed a collective sigh of relief, the war was over, even if the smell had not yet left the air.

The Chosen People In A Forsaken Land

Of all the ethnic groups that were present in Germany at the start of the Civil War in 1931, none would be dealt a blow as harsh as the Jews. With a history in Germany stretching back to the Roman Empire, the Jews had been persecuted since the time of Charlemagne. But the chaos experienced after Germany's loss in the Great War, lead to an unprecedented surge in anti-semitism. One of the large reasons for this was the Dolchstosslegende, which was the concept that were it not for the traitorous actions of the government of Germany, the communists and most importantly, the Jews, Germany would've won the Great War. The concept grew popular in right wing circles and was a pillar of National Socialism, both in the form of the NSDAP and the NSVP. It was also hugely popular in the DNVP, who would become the de jure party of the state after the civil war.

During the war, the Nazi's routinely raided Jewish neighborhoods, selected certain men and women and had them shot as a manner of raising morale in the Nazi camps. Jews in Nazi held territory, suffered losses more than any other civilians in Nazi held territory. Synagogues were routinely burned in Bavaria and throughout the south of Germany. These atrocities were widely publicized by the government in Berlin in an attempt to garner more Jewish support for their cause. And it worked, a special battalion of Jewish soldiers, led by Oberst Erwin Rommel, served with distinction against the Nazi's during the Battle for Thuringia. Although given dangerous assignments and having a high casualty rate, the soldiers were loyal and were awarded for their service. Its veterans were given special treatment during the Schleicher regime (1935-1954) even as their fellow Jewish citizens fell prey to the governments anti-semitic actions.

Even as their young men served in the Reichswehr, the Jewish community under the control of the Berlin Government were persecuted. In order to free up soldiers for the fight against the Nazis, the Stalhelm and Bismarckjugend of the DNVP were given the right to police the territory. These Great War veterans and nationalist youth organizations were anti-semitic and brutal, mostly tasked in fighting communist saboteurs present throughout Prussia and the north of Germany. However, they often just invaded Jewish neighborhoods and lynched the Jewish men whom they assumed were responsible for the acts of treason. Although not nearly as severe as the actions of the Nazi's, the Jews of the north were under harsh treatment. It was for these and the over all devastation in the country that caused many Germans to immigrate, many of whom were Jews. It is considered that an estimate of 45% of Germany's jewry left Germany for the Netherlands, France, Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Free Germany* and the United States.

By wars end, about 25% of the prewar German Jewish population had died, with Jewish war orphans being quite common in the post war era. Most of them were raised in state run orphanages, run by the DNVP, where a process of Germanization occurred, causing many to lose touch with their Jewish heritage, this act of cultural assassination caused a huge outrage in the world's Jewish communities, when the details of the scheme were released to the public in 1959. The remaining Jews in Germany, grew gradually more distant from the von Scleicher regime, especially after Alfred Hugenberg was declared Reichskanzler in 1936. Laws banning Jewish citizens who had not served in the Reichwehr, known as the Rommel Exemption, passed in 1938, proved the final straw in a long list of grievances. By 1950, their was only a small minority still active in Germany that still practiced their faith. Large amounts had migrated to British Palestine, which was open to Jewish settlers and Zionist recruiting agencies were common in Jewish neighborhoods throughout Germany. There were a larger group of Jews who remained in Germany, who were German and Christian in upbringing and were non practicing. These were the results of the DNVP youth cultural rehabilitation program. The fate of the German Jew, was a bleak one, forced from their home and scattered across the globe, a fate unenvied.

* Free Germany, also known as the Konigsberg Government, the German Reich and East Prussia. Active from 1931 to 1957, under claiming the legitimacy of the Weimar government, lead by Otto Braun of the SPD.
 
From the Rubble

Post war Germany was a desolate place. Although Reichswehr victories early on in the war had spared much of the country from devastation, the entire southern portion of the nation was in ruins. Munich, Cologne, Nuremberg, Stuttgart, Mainz, Frankfurt, Erfurt and Leipzig had become nothing more than piles of rubble with people. The south of the country was under joint Italian, Austrian and Reichswehr occupation and Nazi partisan activity was still quite common in Bavaria and Wurttemberg. The German government was nothing to speak of. There was no Reichstag and there were no plans for the opening of a civilian government. During the war, the nation had been run by edicts from von Schleicher's personal office in the Benderblock. After the war ended, Von Schleicher was sworn in as Reichspraesident. This caused a minor uproar amongst the DNVP who believed that their loyalty should be rewarded. Von Schliecher was hesitant but succumbed to the requests in January of 1936, when Alfred Hugenberg, leader of the DNVP, was declared Reichskanzler. Hugenberg would serve in this capacity until his death in 1951. The rise of Hugenberg to power was met with the outlawing of any other political party in Germany, which was met with public outrage, although none more violent than in Saxony.

In what was referred to as the Saxon Revolt, the declaration of the outlawing of all other political parties was met with disgust in the NSVP stronghold of Saxony. The Wehrbauren brigades had fought bravely against the Nazi forces in the civil war, especially at Leipzig and Zwickau, and saw this development as an act of betrayal. The NSVP immediately organized an assault on the Reichswehr base in Dresden. This small outpost had been left largely empty, as soldiers were needed on far more important fronts, and was easily captured by the NSVP. The leader of this revolt, Heinrich Himmler, took the officers present hostage and sent demands to the government in Berlin to overturn the declaration and allow the NSVP to continue its existence. The demands were ignored and the Wehrbauren were slaughtered two days later by an overwhelming force. The swastika was formally banned and so was any form of a National Socialism as a political organization. Saxony, along with Bavaria, would remain stronghold's of anti-government sentiment for years to come.

In foreign relations, the German Reich was quick to establish a formal alliance with both Austria and Italy. Soon the Reich began to establish relations with the United Kingdom, France and the majority of the world. Certain holdouts remained, however, and the von Schleicher regime was far from global popularity. The Second Polish Republic, under Edward Rydz-Smigly, gave formal recognition to the Weimar remnant in East Prussia, which drove an early wedge between the new German Government and Poland. War had almost broken out when a Reichsmarine fleet had steamed out from Kiel to retake the rebellious territory, but were met by the Polish MWRP, who blockaded the German ships. The German ships left with the message that any attempt by the German Reich to retake East Prussia would be considered as an act of war against the Polish Republic. The German ships backed down, as Germany needed to recover from their own conflict before starting another. Another area of contention was the Polish occupation of Danzig. Danzig, officially a free city state under the Treaty of Versailles, had been occupied by Polish forces in 1931 and had remained under Polish control since that time. Germany initially complained to the League of Nations about this, which resulted in a sanction against Poland. In response, Poland withdrew from the League. Germany, Czechoslovakia, Italy and Austria would withdraw soon after.

In Germany, the government under Hugenberg began to pass a series of laws prohibiting Jews from participating in the new Germany. Small laws were passed, prohibiting Jews from owning pets, receiving drivers licenses, owning stores or homes and finally a law barring any Jewish citizen from voting, which was a redundant concept, as no one in Germany could vote, and wouldn't be able to until 1968, but the symbolic gesture was strong. It did face opposition from decorated war hero Erwin Rommel. Rommel, who had commanded a Jewish battalion during the war, pleaded on their behalf to von Schleicher who allowed the laws to be passed, unless the Jewish citizen could prove they had served in the Reichswehr, in which case they would be exempt from the laws. This act of kindness was never forgotten and across Europe, ex-patriate communities of German Jews applauded Rommel's stand on their behalf, earning him the nickname in British and French circles as "the good German" or "le bon Allemand". In 1937, the German national flag was switched to the old Imperial flag, along with the formal renaming of Germany to the German State or Deutsches Staat, to avoid confusion with the old Weimar government. The renaming of Germany, was matched in Konigsberg to the title of the Free Republic of Germany, or Freirepublik de Deutschland.

In 1936, Italian troops were forced to evacuate from Germany to be shipped to East Africa, where the Italians were fighting a war of imperialism. Although little reported by the German State, thousands of veterans who had served in the Sturmabteilung, were given to the Italians to help serve in their war. They were given the choice of fighting for Italy or living the rest of their lives in back breaking labor camps. The choice of the majority was unsurprising. The troops who would serve in East Africa, were to never return to Germany, either gaining homes in Italian Libya or moving to South America.

The Danzig War

By 1939, Poland seemed poised to take power on the world stage. The weakness of the Germany and the lack of a threatening Red Army on either side, the Polish Republic was growing more an more powerful. In a scheme devised by Jozef Beck, with assistance from the Maritime and Colonial League, the Jews of Poland were advised to leave for the French colony of Madagascar. This was because of overpopulation within Poland and the prominent anti-semitism prevalent in Polish politics. From June of 1939 onwards ships filled to the brim with Jewish citizens departed for Madagascar. The trip was long and hard and once the immigrants landed on Madagascar, the Jews ended up moving to the capital of Tannarive. The almost 100,000 Polish Jews would end up becoming loyal french subjects, backfiring against the Polish plan to convert the colony to their rule. An additional 100,000 Poles, containing a Jewish minority, departed for Liberia after an agreement between the governments of Monrovia and Warsaw. This half of the scheme would work quite well and Liberia would grow into an Polish colony by the 1970's.

This era of Polish nationalism was topped off by the dedication of a large memorial to Pilsudski in Warsaw. And in an event that Poland hoped to keep quiet, annexed Danzig and formally renamed the city Gdansk. This move caused an uproar in Berlin. Von Schleicher had ended occupation in all areas of Germany excluding Saxony and Bavaria by 1938. But morale amongst the people was low and worried that his own power might be challenged, von Schleicher took advantage of the Danzig annexation. He called on Poland to immediately exit Danzig or face war. President Rydz-Smigly immediately dismissed the threat as a hollow one. In the summer of 1939, von Schleicher commissioned three generals as Field Marshals, in command of three army groups. Erich von Manstein, Ferdinand von Bredow and Fedor von Bock were each given the tasks of capturing Konigsberg, Warsaw and Krakow respectively. Von Manstein's force was headquartered in Stettin, whilst the other two generals were headquartered in Breslau. In the Fall of 1940, the Generals were ordered to strike.

The attack, which was supposed to be a surprise that forced the Poles to capitulate. However, the Polish, thanks to intelligence gathering, was well aware of the Reichswehr's plans. When the Germans marched on Poland in September, they were met with heavy resistance. The Polish had built a heavy set of fortifications across their border with Germany during the Civil War. As a result the German force became mired in a stalemate. The only general to gain ground was von Manstein, whose force was able to lay siege to Danzig by December of 1940. But the Polish were to dug in. The war proved to be a tremendous waste of the German's time. By March of 1941, it was clear that the Germans would not gain any further territory and von Schleicher sued for peace. The Treaty of Breslau agreed a return to pre-war borders. The war seemed to be a waste in the eyes of the German military, but von Schleicher vowed to return to war, to his generals at least. Von Schleicher made sure that the next time he went to war, he would have an alliance. The war resulted in a surge of Polish nationalism unseen since the Polish-Soviet War.

Powderkeg Redux

In July of 1923, the army of Bulgaria was prepared to overthrow the legal government in Sophia. The reason for this was the signing and ratification of the Treaty of Nis, which weakened Bulgaria immensely in the eyes of the nationalist right wing factions in the capital. The army of Bulgaria with the blessing of the Tsar overthrew the government and instituted a white terror upon Bulgaria under Aleksandar Tsankov. Tsankov was decried as a fascist by Comintern, and after the assurance of Trotsky's ascension by Lenin, the Soviet Union invaded Bulgaria, by landing troops on the northern shore of Bulgaria's Black Sea coast. The invasion coincided with the rising of Agrarians, Socialists and Communists. After limited fighting the Soviets captured Sofia and declared the Peoples Republic of Bulgaria, under the control of Georgi Dimitrov. The right wing government was dismantled and the Tsar fled from Bulgaria to Greece. The success of the Bulgarian Intervention reflected well on Trotsky in Moscow and resulted in White Terror throughout the Balkans.

In Greece, the military rule of Greece was almost ended with the declaration of a republic. The fall of Sophia in February of 1924, was met with surprise and horror in Athens, where the General Theodoros Pangalos declared the creation of the Second Hellenic Republic, under his control. Pangalos instituted a white terror in Greece, outlawing the Communist Party of Greece. The Communists fled to Bulgaria and supported terrorist acts against the new Greek Republic. Pangalos also instituted nationalist sentiment and promoted the removal of Turkish control of Asia Minor. His rule was unpopular, but with Communist Bulgaria and the Soviet friendly Turkey surrounding Greece, the army had no choice but to throw its support behind Pangalos. Pangalos would eventually forge an alliance with the Italians, and formed a Treaty of Friendship with Mussolini in July of 1927. One stipulation of the treaty was the recognition of Italian claims in Albania, along with Greek claims in Albania.

In Romania, which shared a large border with the Bulgarians and a large border with the Soviet Union, anti-communist sentiment was high. The Peasants Party and the National Romanian Party formed a coalition and took power in Bucharest. The Peasants Party was largely pro-monarchy and virulently anti-communist. It also lead to the rise of the power of the National Christian-Defense League, an anti-semitic organization who became very popular in the Southern and Northern regions of Romania. By 1927, a firebrand by the name of Corneliu Zelea Cordeanu came to the head of the party and united the right wing under his control. The Lancieri, known as the Blue Shirts in Western papers, became increasingly violent and grew to hold huge power and support, especially in the Romanian government. In 1930, the NCDL took power in Bucharest and had CZ Cordeanu established as the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Romania. They created Romania as a statist society, with the Eastern Orthodox Church as its official religion. By 1931, all other parties had been effectively marginalized, with the revolt by the National Socialists in Germany being the impetus for the outlawing of all other political parties. Although many people compared the Romanian government to the Nazis, most likely because they both used the Swastika as their symbol, Cordreanu despised the National Socialists and considered them nothing but "German Bolshevists" when some Nazis attempted to reestablish themselves in Romania, Cordeanu had them banned from Romania. The Kingdom of Romania established relations with the von Schleicher government in 1933, being one of the first to do so.

The Third Balkans War

The Third Balkans War, one of the largest conflicts since the Great War and preceding the Second Danzig War, had its origins in the rise to power of Leon Trotsky. Trotsky's main opponent had been Joseph Stalin, a Georgian born socialist whose rough exterior and ruthlessness were not to be diminished by his exile to Turkey. Once in Turkey, he established himself on the border with the Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Republic and sent funding and weapons to Georgian rebels who rose in violence in 1924. The revolt was put down, but the rebels escaped to Turkey, and the Peoples Army of Free Georgia was established in Trabzon and began to receive unofficial support from the Republic of Turkey. Stalin even met with Ataturk, events which were discovered by the GPU and brought to the attention of Trotsky. Trotsky, who realized that Turkey was necessary to keep the balance in the Balkans decided to keep the information secret to keep relations good. The tactic worked, with the Turkish-Soviet relations growing colder. Things grew worse when the Soviet backed assassination of Greek President Pangalos failed and the Greeks signed a formal alliance with the Romanians. In 1934, the August Uprising of former military officers in Bulgaria failed, but caused significant damage to the regime of Georgi Dimitrov, who became increasingly propped up by the Soviets. With the military buildup of Romania and Greece and the Italian invasion of Albania in 1939 really pushed Trotsky over the edge. Accompanied with the continued attacks on Soviet government officials, Trotsky decided to fell two birds with one stone.

On July 15th of 1940, the Soviet Union sent a demand to Turkey to extradite the Georgians, especially Stalin. Turkey refused and the next day the Soviet Union declared war on the Republic of Turkey. In a similar case, Bulgaria sent a demand to Athens to immediately extradite the Bulgarian nationalist responsible for the August Uprising. Pagalos outright refused and the next day hostilities broke out when the Greeks and the Romanians launched an invasion of Bulgaria. The Bulgarian Peoples Army, which although well stocked, was small. In order to defend themselves the government in Sofia instituted a draft. The fighting stalled in the Rhodope Mountains between the Peoples Army and the Greeks. The Romanians were in far more luck and took Sofia in the Spring of 1941. The Soviets in Turkey were stalled on the road to Ankara and were caught off guard when the Romanians launched an invasion of the Ukraine in an attempt to capture the Ukraine. The Soviet counterattack came late and all the veterans of the Soviets were in Turkey at the time. Local militia's were called to arms to fight the Romanians and were able to stall the Romanians outside of Kiev by winter of 1940.

After the fall of Sofia in 1941 caused the Greek army to launch an invasion of Turkey. The Greeks were assisted by the new Kingdom of Bulgaria, the collaborationist government established under the restored Boris the Third. The return of Boris and the toppling of the Communist government was met with mixed feelings from the public, and while communist partisan activity was not uncommon, it was also matched by support for the restored Tsar. The new Royal Army of Bulgaria was dispatched to join the Greeks as they marched on Constantinople. The Greco-Bulgarian offensive was stalled before they could enter Constantinople and the Greeks launched a secondary invasion, with help from Italian troops, of the Aegean coast of Anatolia. The Greeks attacked Izmir in particular and captured the city from Turkish troops and began the march on Ankara. The Soviets were forced to re-evaluate their situation by the end of 1941, after a Romanian offensive had captured Kiev, expecting the Soviets to request a truce. No truce came, and the Soviets launched a secondary offensive against the Romanians, whilst relaunching their march on Ankara. The offensive against the Romanians liberated Kiev, even after the Lancieri ethnically cleansed large portions of Kiev, while Soviet ships proceeded to shell Romanian cities on the Black Sea. By Spring of 1942, the Soviets had captured Adana and were fighting the Turks in Yozgat, when the Turks called for peace. In the humiliating Peace of Ankara, the Republic of Turkey was forced to cede it entire Aegean Coast to the Greeks. Everything east of the 33rd Meridian would be ceded to the newly created Peoples Republic of Turkey. The Greeks would receive all Turkish land West of the 30th Meridian. This humiliating peace left the Republic of Turkey a humiliated rump state. The Soviets were able to transfer their veterans across the Black Sea to the Crimea to the new front in the Ukraine and leave the newer troops to occupation duty and help train the new Peoples Turkish Army being formed in the new nations capital of Malatya.

The new Soviet force pushed into Romania, only to be stopped by a massive uprising in Georgia and Turkey. The Greeks and Bulgarians not busy in occupation came to the help of the Romanians. The war was in a firm stalemate by the winter of 1943. The war was bankrupting the Soviets but Trotsky refused to accept anything but total victory. On Christmas of 1943, the military in Moscow killed Trotsky and initiated the new Soviet governments offer of return to pre-war borders with the Romanians. As a result the Treaty of Kiev lead to the end of hostilities in the Third Balkans War. It was one of the most violent conflicts in Europe since the German Civil War, and forced the British and French to finally take notice of events taking place in Eastern Europe, because of their refusal to get involved in a new war, the Red Army had a base on the Mediterranean.
 
Look To The East

The rise of the Emperor Tensho to the throne of Japan was an event of monumental importance to Asian history. The new Emperor was young and his nationalist attitudes were well known at this point. The assassination of his brother 3 years previous had shocked Japan, and had set the future of Japan in motion. With the the rise of Emperor Tensho came the Kodoha, of the Imperial Way faction, to power in the Army of Japan. The Kodoha wished to push north and eradicate communism. The Emperors support of the Kodoha faction allowed its leader Sadao Araki to the post of War Minister. Araki was an expansionist and wanted to physically expand the Japanese Empire, even if it was at the expense of European colonial powers. The idea of this was put to a stop when the Emperor Tensho renewed the long dead Anglo-Japanese Alliance into a full cooperation between the two nations. Soon enough Tensho began to suggest to the government that Japan should look north for its treasures. Tensho also pushed forward the plan to place the Prince of Korea to the head of the Korean General-Government. Basing the new set up in Korea on the Canadian system, Prince Yi Kang was made the King of Korea, a position subservient to the Emperor of Japan. This compromise angered some in the Kodoha faction, but the overall opinion of the Emperor forced them to accept. The Kingdom of Korea was therefore founded in 1926. The compromise, created to appease the Korean revolutionaries did not bring an end to the Korean Independence movement, but rather bolstered those who viewed the new Korean government as collaborationist. In fact the new Korean government lead to the monarchists being discredited in favor of the Communist and Democratic rebels.

By 1927, Chiang Kai-Shek in Kwantung, bolstered by support from the Soviets originally were now ready to take control of the rest of China. His Northern Expedition was launched in an effort to take the land held by the Chihili Faction, headquartered in Nanjing and lead by Sun Chuanfang. Chuanfang was originally in combat with the Beiyang Government, but when the Japanese came to him and offered him arms against the coming Kuomintang invasion, Chuanfang and Zuolin were able to broker a peace. Zuolin was able to take power in Beijing as a result of a Japanese backed coup that very year. The joint defensive front established against the Kuomintang and the Kuominchun was able to keep both armed forces from conquering either Beijing or Nanjing and the established government of Beiyang under the Zhili Clique formed an alliance with the Chihili Clique and became known as the Eastern League. They were able to foil the Kuomintang's attempts at unification. The revolt of the Communists in the camp of the Kuomintang was not helped, and neither was the desertion of Wang Jingwei to Wuhan, where he established a government supported by the Soviets. The failure of the Kuomintang and the Kuominchun lead to the joint Western Expedition, which eradicated the Wuhan Government and united the governments in Guangzhou and Xi'an. Chiang Kai-shek and Feng Hu-Hsiang were able to form a united Kuomintang government and began to force their control over the rest of China.

The Western Expedition (1928-1931), was the KMT's attack on the Kwangsi Province, the union with T'ang Chi-yao's Yunnan based government and the KMT's solidification of the Sinkiang and Sechuan provinces. By 1931, the KMT had basic control over the whole of China, excluding the consolidated territory of the Beiyang government. The Eastern League, fully backed by the Japanese, especially after concessions to Japanese control over the Liaodong Peninsula to the Kingdom of Korea, went about solidifying its control. In 1928, Zhang Zuolin ordered the assassination of Sun Chuanfang, while the New Beiyang Army, trained by Japanese soldiers, consolidated control over the territory of Chuanfang. As a result Zuolin became the head of state of the Republic of China (Beijing) while Chiang Kai-shek became the President of the Republic of China (Guangzhong). The Japanese support for the Beiyang government prompted the French Government to lend its support to the KMT. The British continued their formal influence over Tibet, which was recognized by the KMT and the French, and offered support to both governments. The important thing in all parties minds was the destruction of the Communists in China. The defeat of the Wuhan government and Jingwei's assassination at the hands of Communists hardliners had not helped their cause and by 1930, the only Communists left were considered nothing but outlaws. After 1931, the two states came to an uneasy peace with each Republic fighting for legitimacy. Both became radically anti-communist and in Guangzhong, a faction of the ultra-nationalist KMT known as the Blue Shirts Society began its rise to power in the government, while the authoritarian rule of Zuolin became infamous abroad.

The Hook Cross and the Christian General

After the end of the Western War and the union of the Guominjun and the Kuomintang, the Guangzhou government was forced to consolidate. The eradication of the warlords in the south of China was key to the unification process, but disputes began to arise between Hu-Hsiang, the leader of the former Guominjun, and Chiang Kai-shek, the President of the Guangzhou government and leader of the Kuomintang. Hu-Hsiang was in all honesty a leftist, his ideology being a splice of nationalism, militarism and Christian socialism. He was opposed to communism, but was not wholly against them, as a large wing of the Kuomintang was. One wing of the party, lead by Kai-shek and his allies from the Whampoa Clique, was the Blue Shirts Society, who had gained prominence after the fall of Wuhan. Kai-shek had promoted many of its members to higher points in the military because of their affiliation with the organization and their rise had alienated Hu-Hsiang and the left wing of the party. With the Communists marginalized and Jingwei's death, the left wing became strongly under the control of Hu-Hsiang and the former Guominjun members. Feng's political concepts became heavily influenced, not from Moscow, but from Munich. Support for the National Socialist ideology in the left camp became high and caused Strasserist policies to fall to the wayside in the Blue Shirts. The leader of Strasserist theory in the Blue Shirts, Liu Jianqun, lost his influence in the society as a direct result of this, the main ideological contributor becoming He Zhonghan, who drew mainly from Italian fascism and Japanese Statism. Zhonghan managed to take over from Jeng Tie, who had attempted to make the Blue Shirts the only wing of the party. The refusal of Jeng Tie to recognize the control of Chiang on the movement, lead to his disposal by the secret police. His execution was rumored to have been carried out by Dai Li, the head of the KMT's secret police. A strike on Hu-Hisang was proposed by Dai, but Chiang vetoed it.

After his escape into Denmark in the Spring of 1935, Otto Strasser became the face of the failed Nazi Revolt in Germany. He became popular in academic circles across Europe and was a frequent visitor in Paris, London and Madrid. In early 1936, Strasser was contacted through an intermediary from the French interests in Yunnan, that his presence had been requested by Feng Hu-Hsiang. After explaining who the general was and his views on Otto's late brothers theories, Strasser, along with 600 or so Nazis, most of whom had fought in the war, traveled to China through French Indochina, traveling to the Northwest to met with Hu-Hsiang. Hu-Hsiang, by the winter of 1936, had grown weary of Chiang's support of the Blue Shirts, who had grown from secret society to a massive group, encompassing the right wing of the party. Hu-Hsiang had gathered some left leaning generals and was prepared to force a civil war in an attempt to dislodge the Blue Shirts from power. With the arrival of Strasser in the Spring of 1937, the left wing's cause was bolstered and were ready to challenge the the government in Guangzhong. The first move of war was when Li Zongren agreed to join the plot. Although Zongren was not ideologically opposed to Chiang and the Blue Shirts, he believed it threatened any chance of his taking power. The forces loyal to him launched the attack on Guangzhou, capturing the city and forcing the KMT to retreat to Chenzou in the Hunan. The fall of Guangzhou was considered a death knell for the Kuomintang, especially when the newly revived Guominjun, with German volunteers, marching south. The siege of Hunan went on between June of 1937 and August of 1937, when Chiang ordered the retreat to Yunnan. However, Chiang was killed by an artillery raid on the force as it retreated and when the KMT reached Yunnan, the party was faced with a political struggle between Liu Chih, the remaining strong military commander in the KMT and the Blue Shirts lead by Zhonghan. The struggle was won by the Blue Shirts, with Chih being killed in his sleep. It was believed at this point that the KMT was out for the count, except that, seeing the disunity in the west, Zhang Xueliang, the son and heir apparent of Zuolin, convinced the new Beiyang Army that now was the time to strike. As a result, the army strode south from Nanjing towards Guangzhou, forcing the anti-Chiang Clique to respond in a defensive maneuver. As a result the KMT was able to recuperate and rebuild its strength. War had reopened in China, and as leaders in the colonies of Europe looked on, it could be contained.

And Yankee Doodle Went To Town...

In the 1920's, while the rest of the world was struggling, the United States was facing unmatched prosperity. The 20's was a time of social growth and as a result there was a traditionalist backlash. This included the passage of the Volstead Act of 1920, which made alcoholic beverages illegal. There were loopholes, including the legalization of Sacramental wine and legalized prescription of alcohol in certain quantities. It was during this time that the Presidency of Warren Harding ended as a result of his death, which resulted in the rise to power of Vice President Calvin Coolidge. Coolidge, the former Governor of Massachusetts, was the expected standard bearer of the Republican and did not disappoint, winning the Republican nomination for the presidency and went up against the Democratic candidate William G. McAdoo, who received the nomination thanks to the support of the Prohibitionists and the Ku Klux Klan. The election of 1924 was heated and the breaking point came when Coolidge was asked to define an American. The answer, while not inflammatory, was twisted by the McAdoo campaign to sound as if Coolidge favored immigrants and "negroes" over the average American. As a result, McAdoo was elected to the office of President, with Oscar Underwood as his vice president. President McAdoo's first term saw the unprecedented rise of the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan, afraid of Coolidge's plans for the United States, had thrown total support behind the McAdoo/Davis campaign and in some cases were suspected of rigging elections.

Throughout the country, opposition to Prohibition continued to grow with the circumvention of the Volstead Act being assisted by the growth of organized crime and corrupt politicians. McAdoo was not blind to this, but decided it was best to ignore it beginning what would become referred to as the "Second Gilded Age". The laissez faire attitude adopted by the McAdoo presidency lead to unlimited economic growth. By the time re-election came in 1928, McAdoo and Davis easily defeated the Republican ticket of Lowden/Hoover. A year into McAdoo's second term, the stock market crashed, causing unemployment to skyrocket. As a result dissatisfaction with the ruling party became increasingly apparent. McAdoo became one of the most unpopular presidents in American history and as a result it became clear the next president would be a Republican. In the upcoming election of 1932, the main candidates were Herbert Hoover, the former Secretary of Commerce, John J. Blaine, Senator and former Governor of Wisconsin, and Joseph Irwin France, a former Senator from Maryland. The original frontrunner was Hoover, who ran on a promise to return to the prosperity of the 1920's and the Harding Administration, even if his economic policies were considered a carbon copy of McAdoo's failed policies. As a result of this, Blaine jumped to the forefront, becoming the favorite progressive in the election. Blaine would win the nomination and the election, with the Blaine/France ticket going up against the progressive Democratic Governor of New York, Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Minority Leader of the House, John Nance Garner. Blaine won by a landslide setting in motion the future of the United States.

Two Presidents and a Depression

The presidency of John James Blaine, was marked by the repealing of the Volstead Act, which had been kept in its totality by the McAdoo Administration. The abolition of prohibition helped boost the president early on, along with his plans for the economy. Blaine's economic plans, included a nationalization to a degree. This included the creation of the Third National Bank and newly created bureaus to handle the rampant unemployment. Blaine, although popular, became sickly in 1933 and died of a heart attack shortly afterwards. His Vice President, Joseph France, was a radical. He was the definition of progressive, not only in the sense of being liberal, but in his opinions on communism. Under President France, the United States began to openly court the Soviet Union and its leader Leon Trotsky. President France, was also noted for his minor support for the National Socialists in Germany, and although it was never proven, shipments of arms to the Nazis were believed to have come from the United States. France began to push forward economic programs that reflected a more socialist lean, causing a backlash from the more conservative members of the Republican party and a division of the Democrats, with the more progressive voters and politicians switching to the Republicans. As a result the Democrats gained the more conservative end of the party. The Democrats also began to grow more and more isolationist, as France and the Republicans began to approach the concept of internationalization. The Presidents popularity was increased as the working mans life became better. Public work programs were quite common at the time and were opposed by the Democrats, who agreed that a Laissez faire policy was best in the world of business.

In 1936, the Democrats put forward the former governor of Georgia, Richard Russell Junior, a conservative with clout in the Southern spectrum and his running mate, Cordell Hull of Tennessee. The Russell/Hull ticket was defeated in a landslide victory for the France administration. France's running mate was Kansas Governor Alf Landon. Landon would be remembered for nothing but being a seat filler. Regardless of the Vice President, France remained popular and although his popularity continued, his programs weren't working. The economy had yet to recover to the state it was in during the McAdoo Administration and as a result, many people were getting tired of just getting along. In 1939, President France passed away, pushing Landon to the forefront of the party for the upcoming 1940 election. Landon would be going up against a Democratic Party burgeoned by the failure of the Republican Party's failures to fix the economy. The Democrats had no frontrunner, but many different candidates. It included John N. Garner and Charles Lindbergh were able to jump to the head of the pack and while Garner gained the nomination, with Lindbergh as his VP candidate. However, Landon was able to win a close election, thanks to the nomination of Robert Taft to the position of Vice President. Thanks to the good feelings left over from the France administration, Landon was able to win the election and the United States prepared for 4 more years of a Republican White House.
 
Die Alter Mann

After the failure of the 1st Danzig War, President Von Schleicher was faced with a country torn apart by war. The wreckage from the civil war had yet to be rebuilt although allies from abroad, including the United States and South Americans, helped rebuild city centers destroyed in the fighting. Much of the new buildings reflected a minimalist architecture, much like the new Fascist cities being constructed throughout Italy. Although most construction would not be finished until 1953, the reconstruction of Germany or Umbauen, would go down as a credit to Schleichers regime and explain his popularity in future generations of Germans and his reputation as the father of modern Germany. His rule was not unopposed however and in Bavaria and Saxony, symbols of the failed revolution were quite common. The swastika, although officially banned, became a symbol of liberty in the German State, as it symbolized defiance against the Reichswehr and their rule. It was during the 40's when German culture began its modern development. After years of war, the people wanted peace and stability. The failure of the Danzig War was a mark of the German people's mood. There were no riots, just sadness for those who had lost sons and fathers to the front. Trade with the rest of Europe became normalized by the late 40's and relations with Western Europe were reestablished almost immediately. In the east, the Germans maintained relations with Moscow and Bucharest, but there was a cold relation between Poland and Germany. Many felt that the animosity was not just over the last war or Danzig, but the lost province of East Prussia. Many Germans felt that East Prussia was rightfully the territory of the German State and that its people were being forced to remain free of Germany thanks to Franco-Polish influence.

These feeling were not just held by the people, they were encouraged by the government. Reichskanzler Hugenberg, used state radio and press to convince the people that East Prussia was willing to rejoin Germany, if only it wasn't held back by Rydz-Smigly and La Rocque. Officially Schleicher had a good report with the French President, but in fact the two were great rivals. They had a personal hatred for each other and clashed because both felt that, were it not for the other, they would rule the continent. It is believed that the threat of La Rocque's France is what kept Germany from invading Poland again during Schleichers presidency, as it was only France's distraction in the Yunnan that gave Schleicher the free hand he desired. In Britain, von Schleicher was seen as a convenient leader, as he was not only powerful, but sane. He was not an uncommon leader in Europe, as military dictators ruled throughout Europe. In Spain, Damaso Berenguer held the power, Pagalos in Greece, Horthy in Hungary, Rydz-Smigly in Poland and Peter the Second in Yugoslavia. They were considered far better than the ideological dictators that reigned supreme in Romania. The LANC and their leader Codreanu, were looked at wearily from Western Europe, where Henri de Man and his Labour Movement were gaining traction with the local populace. Schleicher was an ally of Romania, but only when it suited himself. When Tukhachevsky took power in Moscow in 1946, Schleicher was quick to reestablish closer relations with the Soviets.

As the 40's ended, Schleicher began to crack down on attempts at liberalization being made by the populace. The influence of literature and culture from East Prussia, known as Free Germany to the younger generations of the 50's, was becoming overwhelming, with East Prussia becoming a haven for musicians. In Free Germany, the rule of Otto Braun was that of a benevolent ruler. Although it was a technically a multi-party democracy, Braun was never voted out of power, and would remain in control until his death in 1955. Free Germany was an SPD stronghold and was opposed completely to the German State. In culture, it became more akin to the Baltic States, becoming friendly with Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. It was also towards the end the 40's in which the Nazi guerilla's lost their strength. The Nazi's became nothing more then a terrorist organization, being supplied by the government in Xian in China. Von Schleicher became sickly in 1954, and died in 1956 of natural causes.

The Belgian Crisis of 1950

After the brutality of the Great War, Belgium was left in a state of utter destruction by 1918 and the nation fought to recover throughout the 1920's. Politically Belgium became far more diverse. After years of Wallon and Catholic domination of the small nation, Universal suffrage was enacted finally giving political options to the Flemish population. As a result of the particular devastation in Flanders during the war, a party was formed composed of Flemish veterans known as the Frontbeweging, whose goal was greater autonomy for the Flemish regions of Belgium and a greater consideration towards their language, which was respected far less then the use of French in the military. Even as the Frobtbeweging pushed for peaceful means to accomplish their goals, the government seemed to ignore their pleas. As a result there was a very radical shift to Right amongst the Flemish population. One such party was Verdinaso, a party inspired by Italian Fascism. Although it did not grow at first, its popularity became far more viable as French businessmen heavily invested in the Wallonie region of Belgium.

As a result economic parity between the two regions became quite large with the Walloons regaining a monopoly over the Belgian government, helped by the rise of Catholic supremacist politicians like Leon Degrelle. Degrelle gained popularity with his Rexist form of religious populism pushing at the divides between Flanders and Walloon. The failure of the Socialist party caused the country to become politically split by 1939. The French government began to send feelers out to the Rexists as early as 1937 as to whether they would be interested in gaining independence. They received enough positive feedback, but La Rocque refused to antagonize the British, who would not take kindly to the dismantling of Belgium. As a result it was only after his death in 1949, that a crisis emerged. In April of 1950, the Belgian parliament, useless for years, received a demand from the Walloon regions to secede. The Belgian government refused and as a result, France invaded to assist the Walloons, easily defeating the Belgian Army in the Battle of Brussels. In London, the government was furious and sent a demand to France to withdraw all troops from Belgium. France refused and expelled the British ambassador from Britain. As a result, the Franco-British War began several days later.

Italia-New Rome

Italy entered the Great War in an attempt to take control of Italian populated area's within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The war was not popular with large parts of the population and much strife preceded the actual entry of Italy into the war. By the end, Italy had failed to gain all that it wanted and had lost over 600,000 lives to the war. As peace took hold in Europe, nationalists became more prevalent in Italy, as a result of anger over the failure to take territory seen as Italian. One such nationalist who became prevalent in the political community, was Gabriele D'Annunzio. D'Annunzio, a nationalist writer who had fled to France in the 1880's, returned to Italy as war drew imminent. During the war he famously volunteered as a pilot for the Italian Air Force and dropped Italian propaganda over the city of Vienna in early 1918. This stunt caused D'Anunnzio to become a bonafide celebrity, which was expanded on after his demands for the annexation of Fiume to Italy were ignored. D'Annunzio would not be deterred and along with 2,000 nationalist irregulars captured the city of Fiume from its allied occupiers. He then tried to get Italy to annex the city, which has an Italian majority population. Italy refused, and D'Anunnzio declared the creation of the Italian Regency of Carnaro, a state which would use several ideas closely related to what would become Fascism. D'Annunzio even declared himself Duce or leader of the Regency. In 1920, Fiume was made into its own independent city, the Free State of Fiume, in a situation not unlike that of Danzig, however this still displeased D'Anunnzio who declared war on Italy itself. The regency was destroyed after an attack by Italian military who evicted the nationalists from Fiume in Christmas of 1920.

Returning to Italy, D'Annunzio retired to writing in his lake front home. His writings were one of the influences on the young activist and master orator, Benito Mussolini. Mussolini, a former Marxist and veteran of the Great War, created a movement called Fascism and began to march against Socialists and communists. Mussolini found a following and in 1922, performed a daring "March on Rome", in which he forced the hand of King Vittorio Emmanuele the Third to make Mussolini the new Prime Minister, in order to avoid civil war in Italy. In his first year as a Prime Minister, Mussolini was able gain dictatorial powers from the government, legal at the time, and incorporated the MVSN, aka the Blackshirts, the military wing of the National Fascist Party, into the military of Italy. In 1923, Italy invaded and occupied the Greek island of Corfu, proving the powerless nature of the League of Nations. It is considered by many, that the Corfu incident gave Mussolini the license to be more bold in his actions. Around the same time the Squadristi, the unofficial version of the MVSN and avid Fascist supporters, began to attack and kill prominent socialists and liberals, although there was hope that these actions would lead to an end to Fascist rule by the opposition, an anti-fascist movement never came to fruition.

During the late 20's, Mussolini began to dismantle all constitutional constraints on his office, turning Italy into a police state completely under his own control.
By 1930, Mussolini was in complete control of Italy, and ordered the construction of new "Fascist" towns that espoused everything that Fascism stood for. He also orchestrated many construction programs, putting people to work while maintaining internal growth. He also supported the Italianization of non Italians in Italian territory. He supported massive immigration to Libya, which he referred to as Italy's "Fourth Shore" after the merger of Tripolitania, Cyrenaica and Fezzan. He also supported immigration to Italian East Africa, although it was substantially less successful then the effort in Libya. In Libya, Mussolini had put his presumptive heir Italo Balbo in charge, as what many saw as an attempt by the Duce to humble the ambitious Balbo, who had become a darling in the west, whose skills as a pilot were renowned, on par with the American Lindbergh. Balbo however, took to the job with zeal and gradually turned Libya into the most profitable colony in Italy. It is commonly said that Balbo was the father of Modern Libya. Mussolini believed that by exiling Balbo he could weaken him, instead he gave the steadfast young politician his own power base.

In 1934, Italy and Austria joined with the Reichswehr government of Germany to defeat the Nazi's in the south of Germany. It was this intervention in the German Civil War that finally justified Mussolini's arms spending and military buildup. However, gaining an ally was simply not enough for Mussolini, and he began to agitate for Imperial conquest. And in late 1934, he orchestrated the Wal Wal Incident, in which Italian and Ethiopian troops had a skirmish on their shared border in Africa. However, this war did not go as planned. When Italy launched its invasion, it received sanctions from Great Britain, France and Japan. Britain and France, worried about the seeming rise in Italian power, warned Italy against such an action, and while France pledged support to the Ethiopians, Britain merely boycotted Italian goods, in what became known in British daily papers as the Pasta War. France almost went to war with Italy at this point in Europe, but Britain warned that the situation on the continent was to fragile and that Britain would work to end the conflict as quickly as possible. Taking this response as a rather cryptic one, France could do nothing as French Somaliland was occupied by the Italians. As a result the French launched an invasion of Libya, and launched ships from Madagascar to Italian Somalia. The French were joined in the war by the Japanese. In Japan, Pro-Ethiopian sentiment was high, and the Emperor Tensho approved of an "African excursion to prove the superiority of the Japanese soldier". The Japanese Navy, small and modern, was useless as anything but a regional force, but the Japanese Army was a force to be reckoned with. After sending 70,000 troops to French Indochina, they boarded French ships en route to Africa. The Japanese would be essential to the aquatic attack on Jubaland.

The assault on Juba in the summer of 1935 was a success and the Franco-Japanese force marched on a and successfully took Mogadishu. The Japanese troops then moved into Ethiopia and met up with Ethiopian forces and helped defeat the Italian army during the Christmas Offensive, which helped force the Italians out of Ethiopia. As everything began to go bad for Italy, Balbo and his Libyan forces defeated the French force in the Battle of Fezzan. This would be considered the only Italian victory of the war, which forced Mussolini to capitalize on Fezzan, after the war, ensuring the continual survival of Balbo. By the time 1936 had rolled around, French reinforcements in Ethiopia had taken Eritrea from the Italians along with French Somaliland. Italy was forced to sue for peace in Spring of 1936. At the Treaty of Cairo, Italy lost Somaliland to the French and was forced to cede Eritrea to Ethiopia, a feat largely attributed to the Japanese diplomats at the table in Cairo. It forced Italy to pay reparations for starting the war to Ethiopia, Japan and France. As a result of the war, Ethiopia began to exercise its power as an independent nation and began to build a modern navy with French help. Remaining ethnic Italians in Eritrea and Somaliland relocated en masse to Libya, home to Balbo, hero of the Fezzan. Many veterans were in favor of overthrowing Mussolini and installing Balbo and riots broke out across Italy. When it looked like Italy was on the brink of civil war, Balbo came to Rome and spoke to the masses on behalf of Mussolini, swearing his own "eternal loyalty to our Duce". It was with this broke that Balbo kept himself alive even longer. The riots subsided and Balbo returned to Libya.

As a result of the failure in Ethiopia, Italy's imperial ambitions were forced to take a backseat to practical practices. In 1940, Mussolini set into motion a joint Greco-Italo Invasion of Albania, by which the territory was split into Italian territory and Greek North Epirus. This small war would be followed by Italian assistance in the Third Balkans War. By 1950, Italy was a first world nation with a strong economy and a people used to the rule of Mussolini, while a counterculture grew throughout the cities of Northern Italy. The south and Libya became the base of Fascist political control, while the North, originally the birthplace of Fascism, became home to more radical interpreters of Fascist ideology. Their ideology, followed the writings of D'Annunzio to the letter and gave birth to what was called "Italian National Socialism". When Il Duce died at the age of 72 in 1955, the calls for a free election began to become more public, with massive marches in Milan and Genoa calling for the Grand Fascist Council to be dissolved. Instead of answering their demands, the Grand Fascist Council elected Italo Balbo, aged 59, to be the new Il Duce of Italy. This caused an uproar of civil disobedience in the North resulting in harsh government crackdowns, as the year turned to 1956, a fragile peace had been created, all weighing on the shoulders of Italo Balbo.

Franco-British War: 1950-1954

What began as what many thought would erupt into a Second Great War, would end with a nation neutered and an empire is disarray. The French declaration of war was not as much an actual declaration as an act of war. The French forces in French Somaliland invaded British Somaliland in Late April of 1950. The French also invaded the Belgian Congo, which remained loyal to the Belgian remnant in Flanders, taking most of the territory by August. The British forces in Africa, caught off guard, decided to launch an invasion of French Somaliland, while blockading France. The blockade worked perfectly and effectively ended all contact between the French colonies and Metropolitan France. In mainland France, there were about 300,000 colonial troops anyhow, included with the population, the French were prepared to take on the British. The British immediately made landings in Flanders and began to push their way into Walloon territory, which was backed entirely held by French forces. Degrelle's Rexist Army were a largely show military, with the French military taking 90% of all battles. The British and French began the Battle of Brussels in November of 1950, just as British Somaliland fell to french Forces. At the same time, an Australian-Japanese force steamed towards French Indochina and began the Battle of Indochina. By December, French troops had seized Malta in a daring raid. This resulted in the French disruption of the Royal Navy's hegemony. A month later, in January of 1951, British forces had seized the French Levant, facing only minor resistance in Aleppo, in fact the Mesopotamian Brigades were greeted as liberators, and were left to occupy the French territory as the British regulars were moved to the French Front.

Throughout 1951, the British continuously attempted to make landings on the Channel coast of France. The French seizure of the Channel Islands made the option of invading from Jersey impossible. Attempts to break into Nord-Pas-de-Calais failed consistently, as the French military was adamant in not bringing the battlefields to France. As a result throughout 1951, Belgium was a battlefield, with the fight for Brussels taking center stage. The Battle of Brussels would continue into late September, when British troops finally broke through French lines, resulting in a horrific retreat by French forces. By December of 1951, much of Belgium had been liberated by the British, as the Royal Navy's blockade and the bombing by the Royal Air Force on French coastal towns began to take effect on the civilians in France. The French military was not prepared to give up and launched a daring raid on India in December of 1951, landing troops on the west coast of the Raj. Indian self rule had been enacted in 1938, but there was still a lot of support for total and complete independence from Britain, about equal to those who supported greater autonomy within the commonwealth, but the independence supporters were far more militant. Thanks to the French "invasion" the Indian Freedom Movement rose up against British forces. In South Africa, the white population viewed the Indian revolt with disgust and launched an invasion of the Belgian Congo as 1952 began. As 1952 progress, the British gained allies. After the French were defeated at Lille and Metz. The invasion of Metropolitan France was met with aid from Italy, who launched an invasion across their border with France. The Portuguese and Spanish also joined in, invading the French colonies near them in Africa. By the end of 1952, the French had been defeated in India, which was open in revolt, France controlled very little in Africa besides Somaliland and Madagascar in anything but name and British forces were outside of Paris, whilst Italian forces were outside of Lyon.

As 1953 started, President Laval relocated the government to Orleans and began to assess the situation in France. Lava made contacts with the Italians, and Mussolini wanted Corsica and all of French territory east of the Rhone River as payment for exiting the war. Laval immediately declined, as Paris was torn apart by war. By the time Paris fell in July of 1953, the city had been largely level, with such landmarks as the Notre Dame left to rubble and the Eifel Tower good for nothing other then scrap metal. When French forces were defeated in Somaliland by December, Laval decided to finally contact London and ask for their terms. The last fighting ended in February of 1954 when Laval surrendered officially to British forces. France was forced to cede their territory in Morocco to Spain, Tunisia and Algeria to Italy, Gabon and French Guinea to Portugal, French Somaliland North to Ethiopia and Corsica, French Somaliland South, French Indochina, the French West Indies, French Guiana and the remainder of French Africa to Great Britain and Northern Ireland. In regards to mainland France, the French military was gutted so that it could only hold up to 50,000 men at any time, forced to have a demilitarized zone with all neighboring nations, the elimination of the French Navy and the cession of everything East of the Rhone River to Italy. There was also a clause in the Treaty of Orleans (1954) which called for free elections in France. These free elections resulted in the French Socialist Workers Party receiving the Presidency. Belgium was reunited and payed war reparations by France. and while the end of this war seemed good for the United Kingdom, all was not well. In the massive new territory the British faced numerous revolts, including those in India, Indochina, Corsica and smaller scale revolts throughout Africa. The British Empire would be stuck in these Colonial wars throughout the 1950's and into the late 60's, ending in the humiliating fall of Delhi and the Red Coalition across Asia.
 
World War One: 1957-1960

A Dragon, Once Felled, Rises

After the death of Chiang Kai-shek in 1937 and the exile of the KMT to Yunnan, where they were under nominal protection of the French Army, who had entered the province to protect French interests in the are. It was in Kunming where Zhonghan began to set up his new government. It was completely based around the Blue Shirts Society, which was declared as the new party of the Republic of China. As a result there were officially three Republic of China's. One based in Guangzhou, one in Beijing and one in Kunming. Of course the Kunming Republic, unofficially referred to as Yunnan by the Western world. While the Guominjun battled against the Beiyang Army, Zhonghan began to build his forces. With French assistance, he disassembled the Tusi system of tribal leaders, who he saw as an obstacle to complete loyalty. These tribal clearings were completed by 1943, with resentment against Zhonghan and the Blue Shirts amongst the local populace at an all time high. During that time, violence by the largely Han Blue Shirts against the Yi population was on the rise, leading to the formation of the Yi Liberation Army, who had ethnic and socialistic overtones, who began to attack KMT installations throughout the province.

In the central plains of China, the armed forces of Zhang Zuolin under his son Zhang Xueliang, had attacked across the agreed upon the border to take advantage of the weakened KMT. Xueliang led the main force in an attempt to capture Shensi from the Guominjun, only to be caught in the Battle of Yanan, which was a bloodbath. While a force lead by Wu Peifu managed to strike through KMT territory and capture the Wuhan, severing the KMT territory under Hu-Hsiang from the territory under Li Zongren. Zongren, against the National Socialist overtones of Hu-Hsiang, but hoping to rule the KMT, fought viciously to retake Hupei from the Beiyang Army. However, his forces were stalled and he was defeated by May of 1938, with Beijing ruling the Southern provinces. In the North, the National Socialist Republic of China was proclaimed by Hu-Hsiang with the fall of Guangzhou, after the Guominjun defeated the Beiyang Army at the Battle of Yanan in the Summer of 1938. After the dislodging of the Beiyang Army, Xueliang ordered a retreat and a ceasefire. With the fall of Guangzhou, the National Socialist Republic was left in control of Inner Mongolia, Kansu and Shensi, receiving funding from Moscow, and totally isolated from the world. Xueliang, who had lost prestige after his failure at Yanan, regained his heroic reputation after he lead the Conquest of Sinkiang province, holding the territory for the Republic of China. The only remaining pockets of resistance were in the Yunnan where Zhonghan managed to remain in power until France was toppled in 1954. The new Republic of China, the officially recognized one, would become allayer in east Asian politics, even if they were seen as a tool of the Japanese.

The Great Crisis

In December of 1954, President Kurt Von Schleicher took ill. As the caesar of the German State, Von Schleicher had presided over the most peaceful period in German History since before 1914. Under his rule, politics had become something of unimportance and he became the one unifying figure in German life. The National Socialist rebels had been reduced to nothing but occasional roadside bandits, with the majority fleeing for China, where Otto Strasser had become a prominent member of the government in Xian. However, with Von Schleicher becoming more and more sick as the days went by, the government began to panic. In 1954, Reichskanzler Hugenberg had passed away and the post had remained empty. The Reichswehr was also split, with two major camps forming. The first major camp, was the Rommel Faction. Erwin Rommel, a tactical genius, was a General who had served valiantly in both the Civil War and the 1st Danzig War, was considered by most to be a liberal, who was supportive of calling free elections and abstaining from war. The other camp was lead by Admiral Reinhard Heydrich. Heydrich, as leader of the Reichsmarine, was considered one of the most popular military personnel of the time, having taken the command of the Reichsmarine out from Schraeder, the man who built the Reichsmarine into a naval force to be reckoned with. When Von Schleicher died, the country looked ready to plunge into chaos. However, before anything could occur, Rommel threw his support behind Heydrich, who was sworn in as President in February of 1955.

Heydrich immediately began to prepare for war. He fully mobilized the Reichswehr and ordered naval manuevers in the Baltic Sea, near the Polish border, in hopes of sparking a conflict. He made contact with Balbo, Dolfuss, Horthy, Codreanu and Tukhachevsky about whether or not they would intervene in a war with Poland. Balbo rebuffed the overtures of the German Foreign Minister, as he was still pacifying Italy's territory in Algeria, Tunisia and Rhone-Alps. Dolfuss was reluctant to enter the war with Poland, but was agitating against Czechoslovakia. Horthy, facing a Fascist coup at home, declined and Cordreanu replied in the negative, as he prepared his forces for a possible two front war against Hungary and the USSR. Tukhachevsky was the only leader to respon positively. He had been planning since 1951 on an all out invasion of Eastern Europe, targeting the Baltics, Finland, Poland and Romania. The German entry was seen as a positive in Moscow, and the two agreed to not fight one another as they invaded Poland. As a result war seemed ready to boil over. In Western Europe, Polish pleas for assistance were ignored, as British forces were busy suppressing a Communist Revolt in the North of India as well as facing large guerilla attacks on their occupiers in France.

As the New Year rolled around, it appeared that war was unavoidable. On January 3rd, 1956, the USSR occupied the Baltics in a huge strike and launched the invasion of Finland, Poland and Romania. Poland, who had been building defensive structures all over their respective borders, was unable to hold the Soviet Army and by early February, Lwow had been captured and much of the East was occupied, to compound their troubles, the German army surged across the border and occupied the Corridor, striking down and begininng the Siege of Warsaw. The World War had begun.

1957- A Year of Violence

The World War had begun in a lightning strike of activity. The German capture of Gdansk (Danzig) and occupation of West Prussia, had taken advantage of the Polish preoccupation with the Soviet force invading from the East, who had captured Wilno, Bialystock and Lvov and were pushing toward Lublin. The German 3rd Army was being held at bay in the West, protecting Poznan from attack and keeping Germany from crushing all resistance in Poland. The Polish Navy, without a port to take refuge in, had been completely defeated by the Reichsmarine at the Battle of Rugen. Although the battle was far off of Rugen, the name was given by German Naval Commanders, rather then the Polish name, which roughly translates as the Ambush of the Baltic. The German ships lied in wait and launched an attack against the polish ships as they left Polish waters. The Polish fleet was defeated and the ships that weren't sunk, were captured by the Germans, renamed and put into service with the Reichsmarine. The Polish Front quickly transformed into one of the most violent in European history. With thousands dying every day, although casualties were much higher amongst the Polish. As 1957 began, the Germans entered East Prussia, taking Konigsberg in days, defeating the local armed force and declaring the "liberation" of East Prussia. Political dissidents, aka supporters of the SPD regime in Konigsberg.

The Soviets also began to launch their assault on Romania and Finland. The USSR's plan was to take the capital's of each nation in a lightning offensive. According to Soviet plans, Helsinki and Bucharest would be in Soviet hands by the end of the year. However they faced some serious opposition. The Polish front was proving to be far more difficult then anticipated. Added to that, Romania had entered Greece and Bulgaria into the war with them. The additional land forces added to the Romanian army, allowed the Romanians to keep the Soviets at bay. In Finland, the harsh terrain proved to difficult for Soviet tanks to traverse easily and threw a gigantic monkey wrench into Soviet planning. The Finnish managed to hold them off, but by no means were winning the war. The Finns and the Romanians both suffered heavy losses.

The rest of the world was shocked by the outbreak of war. In Hungary, Miklos Horthy, the long time regent, died of old age, and the far right took advantage of Hungarian fears that the Soviet Army would roll across Romania and take Budapest, by throwing a coup, establishing Laszlo Endre as the new Regent of Hungary. The far right coup established a state eager for war, and Hungary was swept up into a nationalistic fervor, with calls by Regent Endre to retake Transylvania and reestablish all of Hungary stolen in the Treaty of Trianon. In Austria, Dollfuss was facing a population divided. His ministers and those in support of the far right were agitating for war with Czechoslovakia, while Labor organizers, working in secret, were organizing protests against the war. In Great Britain, the war was seen as a power play on the part of the Germans and the Soviets, but with rebellions in former French Africa, India and the Asian territories, Britain had enough on its hands. In the United States, the war was plastered over the American media, with radio reports from Warsaw garnering special interest amongst the populace. Polish and German immigrants and Americans of Polish and german descent clashed in the streets of American cities, like Chicago and Milwaukee and formed volunteer legions to assist their homelands in their respective fights.

1958- Death Comes Swiftly

In 1958, the war that had at one point been considered a war of German and Soviet conquest took a very sharp turn. Emperor Tensho, with the support of his generals ordered the formulation of an attack plan on the Soviet Union. The Republic of China also began to mobilize its forces, skirmishing with National Socialist troops on the border. The war seemed ready to gain its historical name, the World War. In Europe, Regent Endre ordered the Hungarian invasion of Romania. The Hungarians gained some early advantages, occupying the Romanian province of Crisana in the early months of 1958. The Romanian reaction was swift, with a Romanian force of 60,000 facing the Hungarians at the battle of Cluj. It was in the instance that the Romanians defeated the Hungarians decisively and forced them to retreat back to Crisana, where the Hungarians began to garrison forces. The Romanians, busy with the massive Soviet force present in Bessarabia, were to busy to dedicate forces to liberate Crisana, but were able to begin a mass persecution of the Hungarian's remaning in Transylvania. As a result, more then 60% of the remaining Hungarians fled to either Hungary or to Crisana, settling in what was declared as the newest County of Hungary.

With the Romanians slightly occupied, the Soviets attempted a push into occupying all of Bessarabia, which succeeded, pushing back the Balkan forces, who faced heavy casualties in the face of Soviet aggression. The Balkan forces fell back, but were able to stabilize their ground. In Anatolia, the Soviets began overtures to the government in Ankara to allow Soviet troops to march through their territory. Turkey responded that any Soviet forces in Turkey would be considered an act of war, and would force Turkey to join with the Greeks. However, the Soviets ignored this, and merely invaded, declaring that the Treaty of Kiev had been violated by the Turkish government. As a result the government in Malataya was declared the legitimate successor of the Turkish State. In Greek Anatolia, the Turks had been ethnically cleansed from many areas surrounding the coast and had been replaced by ethnic Greeks and Slavic Christians. Taking advantage of the advancing Soviet and Communist Turkish armies, the Turks in Greek territory rose up in defiance, forcing the Greeks to fight a two front war in Anatolia itself. Although Rebel activity was kept to mostly guerilla warfare, the rebels did have success against Greek forces, as proven by the fall of Izmir to Turko-Soviet forces in the Summer of 1958. The Greeks, as a result were forced to pull support from Romania and to use its full populace to defend against the Turko-Soviet push to capture Constantinople.

It is considered at this point in the war, that the German High Command began to consider going to war with the Soviets. While the Germans had much to lose from entering against the Soviets, the USSR was fighting a war on 4 fronts and was poised to take control of Eastern Europe, a goal that the Germans did not agree to. The first plans to attack the Soviets came in August of 1958, as German forces began to break the Siege in Warsaw. The proposal was to make the Polish their puppet and use Polish and German soldiers to attack the USSR along with Greece, Finland, Romania and to a lesser extent Bulgaria. The concept was appealing, but Heydrich was unconvinced it would succeed. He began to speak with the Japanese ambassador on a regular basis, questioning if and when the Japanese would enter the war, assuring the ambassador that any Japanese entry would be accompanied by a German advance. The Japanese Ambassador, after gaining permission from his superiors, told Heydrich that the Japanese would enter the war in the Spring of 1959. This was good enough of a promise for Heydrich to order the strike against the USSR.

As a result in late August of '58, German forces opened up warfare against the Soviet forces across the border from them in Lithuania. From East Prussia, the Germans launched a lightning attack liberating the Baltic States by October. The Soviets were caught off guard, and were forced to draft more troops to deal with the Baltic situation. The recruits were not enough and the Baltics remained in German hands, as they dug in for defense over the long winter, planning to advance in the Spring, coinciding with the Sino-Japanese invasion of National Socialist China and Mongolia.

Gas to the Fire

As 1959 began, the Germans settled into the Baltics for a defensive position. It was during this time that Germany got Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia to sign treaties that essentially made each nation into a German protectorate. There was some resistance amongst the governments of the Baltics, especially Lithuania, but the situation proved to be either Germany or the USSR and the government chose the better of two evils, which was the Germans in their case. Germany also included the annexation of the Memeland in the treaty with Lithuania and the ceding of the Vilnius region to Lithuania after the war. There was a problem with this however. Although the Germans had been able to push the Soviets out of Lithuania, they had not been able to dislodge the Soviets from Western Poland, including the Vilnius Region. And even as the Germans claimed victory in the Baltics, raids on German positions were common and the help from the local armed forces was a large part of the German strategy. However, the majority of Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian forces had been disarmed and taken as prisoners by the Soviets. They were then shipped to POW camps in Byelorussia. As a result, the Germans were alone in the Baltics against a far larger force. The Soviets were still attacking Finland, Romania and were laying siege to Constantinople with a Turkish force as the year began. The Germans began to push the Japanese to attack earlier then planned, however the Japanese refused to break with the plan and the Germans suffered because of this choice.

The Baltic Front, originally meant to be a launching pad towards Moscow, became a self made prison, with the borders being riddled with trenches and a gigantic drain on troops for the Germans. In Berlin, Reinhard Heydrich began to plan a German offensive to capture Leningrad, to break the Baltics Front and liberate the POWs kept in the camps outside of Minsk. He planned to use the Reichsmarine to blockade Leningrad in the winter and to land troops to coincide with a Finnish offensive. However, the Finnish commander, Ruben Lagus, was hesitant to advance. The Finnish forces had managed to force the Soviets into a stalemate and Lagus had ordered his forces to remain defensive, even as nationalists in Parliament called for the liberation of Karelia and Ingria. Lagus was aging and near death so Heydrich had hope that his successor would be more reasonable to his plan. However, Lagus's successor, Hugo Ostermann was even more worried about the potential of the Red Army seizing Helsinki and was completely opposed to any offensive.

In Asia, the President of China, Zhang Xueliang began the invasion of National Socialist China. The Nazi Republic, had been popular amongst the locals, even after the death of Hu-Hsiang in 1948. The European Nazi's had long since aged but had given birth to a generation of half-Asian, half European children littered throughout the Xi'an. Otto Strasser, the brother of the famed Nazi rebel Gregor Strasser, had become an active part of the Xi'an government, ruling as a part of the government. He served to legitimize the stance of the Xi'an government that they recognized the true dream of Adolph Hitler, and more importantly Gregor Strasser. The writings of the Strasser Brothers were translated into the local dialects throughout China and spread by Nazi agents. The Nazi movement benefited from Xueliang's harsh rule and the view of the populace of the Beijing government as nothing but Japanese puppets. But no major movement had formed to challenge the government since the fall of the Yunnan KMT in 1953. The formation of Nazi cells in China would become key to world history later on. As Spring began in Asia, Japanese forces seized control of Karafuto and landed a force to capture Vladivostok, as well as advancing across Eastern Russia with a goal of capturing Irkutsk by December. With the Soviets busy in Europe, the Japanese figured such a strike would be easily completed. They were correct and Irkutsk fell in December of 1959 to a Sino-Japanese force, which had formed after Chinese force had occupied NS China and Mongolia, linking up with the Japanese. However, the invasion had stretched the supply line quite thin and Japan and China were forced to devote all resources to the armed forces.

In Russia, the German force managed to break the Soviet front in Estonia, but became caught in the Battle of Leningrad, massively outnumbered and were forced to retreat by the winter of 1959. As 1960 began the USSR had amassed a force to defeat the Japanese force occupying their territory.

1960- The Oriental Express to Hell
When the Empire of Japan declared war on the USSR in 1959, it did so in the face of mounting internal and international pressure to do so. When the Emperor Tensho died in 1953 of tuberculosis, his brother, the Prince Takamatsu, was crowned as Emperor Shouhei. Shouhei, like his brother, was an anglophile and interested in increasing ties to the west. However, unlike his brother, Shouhei was far more interested in a closer relationship with the United States, not the United Kingdom. In 1955, the Emperor Shouhei met with President Earl Warren in Honolulu and signed the Pacific Ocean Peace Pact (POPP), which essentially stated that Japanese and American military would agree to an alliance in regards to the Pacific Ocean. That was the official reason at least. One of the men who accompanied the Emperor to Hawaii was General Sadao Araki, who met with American military personnel to discuss what their response would be to a Japanese attack on the USSR.

The US made clear that while they would not openly support Japan, they would definitely assist in the way of arms and support should the Japanese attack. Ever since the France Administration, America had swung towards an anti-Soviet policy, following the precedent set by the Dewey Administration. When the World War broke out in 1956, the United States began to benefit from selling arms to all sides, including the Soviets. However, in 1958, President Warren ordered American companies to cease weapon sales to the USSR. This resulted in a diplomatic break with the United States. Little did the USSR know that this would precipitate the opening of hostilities with Japan. This is considered why Tukhachevsky was caught off guard by the Japanese attack. The attack was lead by General Araki, who was credited with the quick campaign to Irkutsk. However, a large portion of the Japanese strategy was based on the ability of the Germans to capture Leningrad and push forward on all fronts. Without this, the Japanese were forced to draft even more men and place them at important intervals throughout the "occupied" territory. The majority of the men who would end up with these assignments were Koreans, who had been drafted from the Kingdom's populace. This is not to say that there were no Japanese, but the records do show that a large portion of those set to garrison the important towns throughout the Soviet Far East were Korean. In Irkutsk, General Araki had ordered his men to wait during the winter, hoping to begin the assault in Spring. However, he had underestimated the harshness of Siberian winter and the refusal of the locals to recognize defeat.

The supply line from Vladivostok to Irkutsk was long and fragile. It was also filled with partisans who were attempting to dislodge their foreign occupiers. These partisans would make daily and nightly raids on Japanese held positions and casualties began to rise, as Chinese soldiers would be found dead, from either the cold, hunger or a bullet to the head. Many soldiers would fear leaving their trenches, which had been built in huge numbers surrounding the city and the occupied area, and instead would defecate on themselves. Stories like these were often circulated, insisting that if any Chinese, Korean or Japanese man was caught alone, the Russians would skin him alive and leave his pelt nailed to a tree. These horror stories quickly became propagated thanks to the tactics of NKVD agents who had penetrated the long front. In fact, the NKVD was heavily involved in training the partisans and there was an NKVD agent assigned to each partisan group. This was considered the first step in the Soviets plan. General Gregory Zhukov, famed for his role in defeating the Antonovschina, was assigned an Army group to deal with the invasion. According to the Red Army generals, the Japanese would be taken care of when the Germans had been defeated. Until that point, the USSR would move with scare tactics.

It was with this in mind that Zhukov mobilized his force to move against the Japanese while the winter remained. He made his attack in March overwhelming the small force that Araki had stationed at Bratsk, and set up his headquarters in the small city. His plan was to attack Irkutsk just before the end of winter, all the while beginning skirmishes with the local Japanese force. Most of the troops the Soviets encountered were Chinese and poorly trained. The capture of POW's was common and a plan to convert the captured POW's into Soviet troops actually had a high success rate, with large amounts of Chinese soldiers disillusioned over the reason for them being in Siberia. The Chinese who did switch sides became branded as traitors on home front by the Beijing government, with their families having to pay a heavy "Traitor Tax" which if not payed would result in forced labor.

The soldiers were not the only ones who were becoming disillusioned. On the home front, China was rapidly descending into chaos. With the capture of Xi'an, the Beijing government had hoped to quash any Strasserist behavior, but instead the ideology had spread like wildfire, with its adherents joining anti-government militias across the countryside, primarily in the South and West. Famine broke out in China as the demands to feed the army became overwhelming, and as the Chinese continued to send shipments of food to Japan, where food shortages and government rationing was proving insufficient to feed the people. In Korea, food shortages and a rising death toll in the Far East lead to public shows of defiance to the government, with people marching in the streets of Gyeongseong and Heijo, protesting the war and calling for greater autonomy. These calls were met with bullets, after King Yi Geon ordered the Korean Army to disperse the traitors. This caused endless unrest in Korea, which added onto the situation in China and the growing dissatification in Japan to make the war ever more of a quagmire. The shit really hit the fan when the Soviets launched their attack on Irkutsk, accompanied with the assassination of the Japanese High Command, which ended in a complete retreat by the Japanese, initially out of the city and then back towards Vladivostok. The army reformed with the surviving officers regrouping in Baykalsk, but the damage had been done. When news of Irkutsk reached East Asia, the Beijing government faced its first serious challenge from the formation of National Peoples Republic of China in Guangzhou, under a coalition of Strasserists, KMT and Communists. As winter turned to Spring, the Russians would advance against a seemingly incapable Japanese force, recapturing Vladivostok in September of 1960. Although the Empire of Japan would never officially admit defeat, the war in the Russian Far East was over, as Korea, China and Japan erupted into unrest and rebellion

1960- The House of Cards Comes Tumbling Down

The year of 1960 began with the World embroiled in War for the fourth year and things were going poorly in Europe. Constantinople had fallen to Turkish and Soviet troops and the Greeks had been expelled from Anatolia, in what was described in the New York Times as "the single worse act of mass murder recorded in history". While the American media may have been slightly exaggerating in their depiction of what the Turks saw as the "National Reunification", the ethnic cleansing that took place in the Winter of 1959-1960 displaced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes, and resulted in a great retreat of settlers back to Greece, where they would remain for the rest of their lives, excluding the few who chose to return in the Peace Agreement of 1978. In Greece, the death of President Pangalos in 1952, followed by the death of President Papagos in 1955, had forced the aging General Charalambos Katsimitros, to take power at the age of 69. The General had been famous for his success during the Anatolian Campaign of 1941-42 and was personally shocked by the loss of the Anatolian campaign. The Campaign and the ongoing deaths of Greek youths in the military, lead to growing support for a truce and an end to the war. Although the movement for peace was not Communist in nature, the response of the Katsimitros Presidency was to treat those who didn't support the war as traitors, and had troops based in Athens open fire on one protest in front of the Old Royal Palace, which housed both the Greek Senate and the Vuoli. This reaction by the Greek government resulted in the radicalization of the Anti-War movement, which would result in the General Strike of 1960 as the people of Greece came out vehemently against the war, with the Greek government at the brink of calling its troops to fire on its people en masse. This situation resulted in the Turko-Soviet assault on Crete and the Aegean Islands being a rousing success. As Soviet and Turkish forces prepared to attack from Constantinople, the call came from Athens. President Katsimitros had called for a truce on all fronts, giving the order shortly before taking his own life. Although he did not say such in his suicide note, the capitulation of the Katsimitros government would prove the death knell for the 2nd Hellenic Republic. By the time the Turks and Soviets had finished listing demands to the Provisional Government of the Hellenic Republic, people were revolting in the streets and desertion became an epidemic in the Greek Army. The Athens Treaty of 1960, would result in the Greek government canceling all claims to Turkish territories, as well as paying the Turkish government up to 50 billion USD in war reparations. It would also result in the Turkish annexation of the Aegean Islands, Crete and East Thrace, forcing a new migration of ethnic Greeks back to the mainland. It was in this environment that the 3rd Hellenic Republic was born.

With the Greeks out of the picture, the Romanians and Bulgarians were forced into a tight spot. In Bulgaria, the exit of Greece was seen as leaving an open door for the Soviets on their shared border with Turkey. This forced the Bulgarians to make keeping the Turks at bay their number one priority. Fortunately for the Bulgarians, the Turks, convinced that they had contributed enough to the war effort and had told the Soviets of their intentions and the USSR had agreed to allow the majority of Turkish units begin the task of occupation of newly acquired territories. This, added with the Soviet plan to defeat the Japanese, which would require a major drain on troop sources and the almost fanatical resistance maintained by Bulgarian forces against Soviet troops, would result in a de facto truce on the Bulgarian front. With the Bulgarians concentrated on keeping the Soviets from reinstating the Peoples Republic of Bulgaria, Romania was left to its own devices in terms of protecting themselves from the Soviets. With the sake of Romanian lives at stake, and with C.Z. Codreanu at the helm, the Romanian military threw a coup on April 14th, killing Codreanu and many leaders in the LANC as well as the Lancieri, and established a dictatorship under the military of Romania. The new government accepted the terms of peace as the cession of Bessarabia to the USSR. By April, with the complete exit of the Balkans from the World War, the Germans were in full on retreat mode. By August, the Germans were only left in Lithuania and Poland. Latvia and Estonia had both been "liberated" and the Soviets were pushing towards Kaunas and Wilno and were facing heavy resistance from German and local forces. However, German and Russian diplomats were in the beginning of peace brokering, as Soviet forces captured most of Lithuania by September. The Soviets also began to push into East Prussia and Eastern Poland. By November, the Vovoideships of Wolyn, Wilno, Nowogrodek and Polesie coming under Soviet occupation. By November, the Germans, tired of war with the Soviets called for a cease fire on any front. This would be the beginning of peace on the European continent.
 
The Spread of National Socialism Part 1

Although originally known as a fringe radical force in a neutered European nation, National Socialism as an ideology spread gradually over the next 30 years, across the globe and into the mind of like minded individuals. The first places for National Socialism to spread to, were states with large German minorities. In the 1920's, the NSDAP (National Socialist German Workers Party) spread to Czechoslovakia and Poland, popular amongst the Germans of the Sudetenland and Silesia. The parties were popular in their ideology and in Czechoslovakia, the NSDAP absorbed the upper class German National Party and became the most powerful party in the Sudetenland. In 1931, they were banned because of the NSDAP's actions in Germany. This revolt in Germany was matched with a smaller one in the Sudetenland. The Sturmabteilung in German Bohemia were able to take control of Reichenberg briefly, before being occupied by the Czechoslovakian Army. Sudeten German territories would remain occupied until the end of the German Civil War, with German Bohemia and the Bohemian Forest region being the exception, as both shared borders with Germany and Austria. Although the NSDAP would remain banned, the Sudeten German Party would take its place, using National Socialist ideology to preach for German annexation of the Sudetenland, late in the 1960's.

In Poland, the NSDAP and National Socialist symbols were immediately banned by the Sanation Regime. The success of the NSDAP in Danzig were one of the Polish reasons for its annexation. Poland was largely worried about German irredentism for West Prussia and now that it held an independent nation, East Prussia, and as a result were eager to have less Germans in its territory. The area seen as most dangerous by the Polish was the Poznan Voivodship, which had a heavy ex-Nazi community and a vibrant anti-government movement. National Socialism would remain banned and much of the veterans of the German Civil would depart Poznan for China, weakening the Polish Nazi movement to its eventual deathbed in the late 1940's, being replaced by the more conservative DNVP based DVP or NPL as it was known. Nazism would also spread across Europe, becoming most popular in Great Britain and France.

In France, the power of the Croix de Feu and its hegemony on power in France, was palpable. However National Socialism began to appear in student organizations throughout the 1940's. The younger people of France admired Otto Strasser and Gregor Strassers ultimate goal, socialist unity. They used National Socialist symbols, banned by the government, as a way to casually rebel. They formed an underground movement, known as the French Socialist Workers Party, creating a far more leftist version of Nazism. After the fall of the Croix de Feu in 1953, and the holding of free elections in France, the French Socialist Workers Party (POSF), won an overwhelming majority, gaining 60% of the vote, an act which many claimed was thanks in large part to its famous defiance of the Croix de Feu throughout its existence. The POSF would go on to enact many social reforms, taking part in the de-Rocqueization of France, famed for their use of a militia wing of the party, known as the Sturmtruppen to break up "Conservative", "Reactionary" movements, allowing for its dominance to be retained.

In Great Britain, a nation which seemed unlikely to accept such a radical movement, was one which would be majorly affected by the spread of Nazism. During the German Civil War, some 250,000 German Jews sought refuge in Great Britain, gaining approval from Labour Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald.
MacDonalds "Refuge Scheme" would cost him the Ministership, and allow for Baldwin to regain the Ministership in the 1931 General Election. As a result, the Jews would still arrive, staying mostly in the South of England, around London, adding to the ever growing melting pot of British society. However, these German Jews, arriving in such a large fashion, allowed for the spread of xenophobic attitudes amongst the native English population, especially in the lower class. Although xenophobia and anti-semitism were already quite common amongst populations across the world, it began to rise and in 1933, the National English Workers Party was founded in the Greater London Area, as an organization dedicated to the deportation of all non-English people from Great Britain. They were a fringe party, but were able to win several seats in the House of Commons in the late 30's. In the 1940's, the NEWP, experienced a makeover. The party was taken over by famed orator and Labour MP from Smethwick, Oswald Mosely, who shifted the party from a fringe, xenophobic, English nationalist party, to a populist, nationalist, xenophobic British Party. Once Winston Churchill took the Ministership in 1940, the people of Great Britain began to experience a malaise. The Empire was at a standstill, culturally, people were growing restless, and many feared that the wounds of the Great War were not yet healed and about to be reopened in a painful second chapter. The Danzig War and the Third Balkans War were both seen as catalysts, but the position of the Conservatives and the Croix de Feu to remain neutral until attacked became the saving grace for Europe.

However, increasing tension between France and Great Britain, would be cause for worry amongst the British community. Taking advantage of those fears was the newly christened National British Workers Party, whose new platform attracted more people to its banner, gaining the approval of the Conservatives as a more likeminded secondary power. The party to be most affected by the rise of the NBWP was Labour, who lost many voters to its populist and Nationalist stance, including a vibrant anti-semitic strain, while the descendants of the Jews who had arrived thanks to the MacDonald were firm in their support of Labour. As a result a divide occurred, wherein the British workers shifted their support to the NBWP, breaking much of Labours power in England. However, the dominance of the Tories in Great Britain, ensured the NBWP a long time before it could challenge for power. Their chance came in 1951, when Winston Churchill was replaced by Conservative whip, Douglas Dodds-Parker, Churchill's protege. Dodds-Parker was considered to have done a good job and would remain popular in Britain as a result of his leadership in the Franco-British War. However, Dodds-Parker was left in charge of the Indian War, which would last until 1965, bringing the highest casualties worldwide in 1960, more then all of the fronts of the World War. In 1963, the Conservatives lost the Ministership for the first time in 32 years, to a NBWP-Labour coalition. The coalition government was less then successful, with Labour and the NBWP having major issues working together. Mosely gained the Ministership and attempted to broker a peace that would retain parts of India within a British dominion. All hope was lost, and in 1964, British troops evacuated India. This "retreat" would enact the dominoes that would lead to the British Civil War.

Alas, Yugoslavia, we hardy knew ye


In the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, in the year of 1928, the Croatian Peasants Party (HSS), the largest party of opposition in to the government held by the ethnically Serbian Peoples Radical Party (NRS), were railing against the Serbian domination of the Kingdom and were looking for greater autonomy for Croatia as itself. In 1928, one particular member of the NRS, Punina Racic, a Macedonian Serb who was angered by the HSS’s refusal to recognize the legitimacy of the Nettuno Convention, which would allow Italy to interfere in Slavic politics whenever it suited them. In one session of parliament, Racic got into an argument with Ivan Pernar, a member of the HSS, and drew a revolver on the assembled politicians. one of the politicians in the room was Stjepan Radic. Racic attempted to shoot Pernar only to have the gun misfire and give the NRS politician an eyepatch. After this incident, Radic and the HSS were able to push through a compromise resulting in the creation of the semi-autonomous Banovina of Croatia, of which Stjepan Radic was unanimously chosen to be the first Ban.

After the creation of the Banovina of Croatia, politicians pushed for the creation of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, of which the Serbs began to retain even larger control. Thanks to the creation of the Banovina, the NRS was able to retain political dominance over Yugoslavia for the next 15 years. In Croatia, Radic would serve as Ban until 1941 when he was assassinated by members of the Ustasa, the Croatian Revolutionary Movement, an Italian supported irredentist group in favor of complete independence and the annexation of all “rightfully Croatian” territory, including all of Bosnia. The Ustasa were known for their cooperation with the IMRO, a group dedicated to the independence of Macedonia from Yugoslavia, who received funding from the Bulgarians. This was followed by Ustasa attacks on Yugoslavian official buildings throughout Croatia, as well as leaders in the HSS. The IMRO also launched a bombing campaign in Serbia attacking Yugoslavian military installations. It was during this time that a group of officers of the Royal Yugoslavian Army, led by Draza Mihailovic, threw a coup taking power as the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, suspending elections and the occupation of Croatia and Macedonia. In 1943, the Banovina of Croatia was suspended and it was fully reintegrated into the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The reign of Mihailovic, entailed the division of the Royal Yugoslavian Army along ethnic lines, and the creation of Chetnik units to patrol the border of Yugoslavia. Mihailovic also was responsible for the extremely harsh treatment of the Croatians and Macedonians. In 1945, Yugoslav troops exited Croatia, after sufficiently crushing the Ustasa’s presence in Croatia. Mihailovic and his cronies would go on to establish a hegemony under Serbia. The Serbian dominance of Croatia and Macedonia would be remembered as relations between the three “equal partners of Yugoslavia” began to sour. Mihailovic would retain his hold on power until 1961, when the Croatian portion of the Royal Yugoslav Army rebelled against their Serbian officers in what became known as the Mostar Mutiny. This mutiny, although unsuccessful caused the Croatian people to march in the streets of Zagreb demanding independence. The Yugoslav Army was quickly dispatched to disperse the protestors, but when they did they were met with stones and even bullets in response, as the Ustasa had received a boost after the death of Ante Pavelic, and the treatment of the Croatian people by the Mihailovic regime. The Croatian Rising was also met by the Bulgarian invasion of Macedonia, with a Bulgarian force besting the Royal Yugolsav force present.

In Greece, which had just been badly defeated in the World War, referred to as the Anatolian War in Greece, was faced with a huge wave of refugees who once again chose to relocate to Western Thrace, an area home to an ethnic Macedonian minority known as Thracians. The native Thracians, under a revitalized ITRO, began a bombing campaign against the refugees. The Greeks, under specific orders from the Soviet government not to remilitarize, were helpless and asked for the help of the Bulgarian government. The Bulgarians, detecting the time was right, merely marched into Western Thrace and annexed the region. When the Third Hellenic Republic attempted to raise a force to stop the Bulgarians, a Russo-Turkish force based in the Aegean Islands swiftly occupied Greece. With the Royal Yugoslavian Army busy with the state of affairs in Macedonia, Austria, a nation which had remained the quiet stronghold of Engelbert Dollfuss, the leader referred to by his own people as Millimetternich. Dollfuss, after biding his time, had kept his nation from entering the World War when Italy, Austria’s key ally, chose to remain neutral. However, in the aftermath of the Soviet defeat of the Greeks, Italy, lead by Il Duce Italo Balbo, was not prepared to let another nation fall to Communism.

So on August 3rd, 1961, Austrian forces marched across the border with Slovenia, occupying and defeating the regional force within a month. They were assisted by the Italian entry into the war, which began with a bombing raid on Dubrovnik and other Yugoslavian naval installations, followed by the invasion of Yugoslavia. Balbo, in what was considered a master stroke, installed Vjekoslav Luburic as the head of the newly independent Republic of Croatia. Although many in Italy saw this as an opportunity to claim land coveted by Italian irredentists for years, Balbo saw no reason to add to the instability of Italy by adding another province that would be rebellious inside of a year. With this in mind, the Italian Army and the Croatian Army pushed into Bosnia, facing heavy resistance from the Serbian population already present. The land was claimed by the Republic of Croatia and the Italians were firm in their stance to gain control of the territory. As the year turned to 1962, the Italians had moved on from Bosnia, leaving the bulk of the occupation duty to the Croatians. The Italians, then, from Montenegro and Croatia made a push towards the capital of Belgrade, capturing the capital in March of 1962. The Italians then organized a treaty recognizing the independence of the Republic of Croatia and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro). Balbo also formed the Republic of Albania from Italian Albania and the Kosovo region of Yugoslavia, and finally bound the three states in an alliance with Italy. Italy then extended their alliance to Bulgaria, creating the Southern European Treaty Organization or SETO, founded to keep the threat of Communism at bay.

The SETO would soon become clear as the Americans closest allies in Europe, with President Johnson visiting with Italo Balbo in the summer of 1963. The United States, bouncing back after years of isolation, began to sell arms to nations across the world, beginning to “flex its muscles” militarily. After the election of Dewey in 1945, the United States began to reinstate the dominance of the United States throughout the Western Hemisphere. Under Wilson, the United States had invaded and occupied Haiti, overthrowing its government and establishing military rule. When Blaine was elected, he officially ended American involvement in Haiti upon reaching the Oval Office in 1933. Due to the American withdrawal in September of 1933, Stenio Vincent had been able to establish his rule with the assistance of the Garde, a military lead by American trained officers, standing as President from 1930 to 1947, when the United States invaded and occupied the nation, with the intention of establishing a democracy. Dewey used the “War of Freedom” as he referred to it, to rile American patriotism and gain support for intense interventionism in Central America, South America and the Caribbean. Dewey also began what would be referred to as the Second Red Scare. Under the Republican administrations of France and Landon, the US had pushed for positive relations with the USSR. Under Dewey, relations grew cold between the Americans and the Soviets, with America attacking hotspots of Communism throughout the Western Hemisphere.

In Haiti, Dewey pushed for support of the mulatto Elie Lescot. Lescot was fervently anti-communist and jailed Marxist writers present in Haiti. The Lescot regime pushed for closer relations with Trujillo’s regime in the Dominican Republic, sponsoring the use of Haitian laborers as slave labor paid a pittance by the Lescot government, who would travel to the Dominican Republic and return home when they had finished working. This oppressive rule, sponsored by the United States, lead to a failed Coup d’etat in 1950, by members of the Garde, whose failure resulted in the gutting of the Haitian military, and the transfer of all military powers to the United States. With this, all notions of Haitian sovereignty went out the window, with Trujillo deporting massive numbers of Haitians living within the Dominican Republic to Haiti, as well as the deportation of any dark skinned Dominican citizens. Haiti, already unstable was rife with unrest between the newly arrived “Refugees” and the native Haitian population. In 1954, under the Warren administration, a riot broke out in Hinche, when Dominican refugees living in the shanty town that had grown around the city, were assaulted by American troops who were investigating the theft of a native Haitians bicycle. The troops, arriving at the shanty, saw a child riding a bicycle and asked him how he got the bike in Creole. The child, being Spanish, didn’t understand and went to his father to get help. The troops, following the child, shot the boys father, causing the locals assembled to begin pelting the small group of American soldiers, who were forced to flee to the garrison in Hinche to get reinforcements. However, the refugees, began to chase the soldiers rioting in the small city near the Dominican border, demanding to be returned to their homes. The refugees were then caught in a full on brawl with the native Haitian residents, who were unhappy about the immigrants as well. In the ensuing chaos, American troops began to attack all those in the crowd, not being able to distinguish the refugees from the Haitians. This lead to the Hinche Massacre, which would cause a state of open revolt within Haiti. Port-au-Prince was mobbed by people attempting to dislodge Lescot from power and expel the Americans. In an attempt to gain a handle on the situation, President Warren orchestrated the entry of Dominican troops into Haiti. With the entry of Dominican troops, the situation in Port-au-Prince became untennable, with the native Haitian Police, turning their weapons on the American troops, attacking the Presidential Palace and lynching the President in the streets of Port-au-Prince. This new development caused President Warren to transfer full control of the military duties to the Dominican Republic, withdrawing the majority of American personnel by 1956.

Australian-Japanese Relations in the Former Indochina

In 1952, the last French forces had surrendered to the Australian-Japanese force that had captured the far off colony in a pincer move. Australian ships had begun a bombardment of Cambodia and Cochinchina, coinciding with the invasion from the West from Thailand. The Japanese, attacking from Taiwan, blockaded the coasts of Tonkin and Annam, landing an invasion force the next month and capturing the two provinces in a matter of 3 months, rallying support around the puppet Republic of Viet Nam, which was lead by a coalition of Communists and Republicans. In the south, the Australians reestablished the Kingdom of Cambodia as a Australian Protectorate. By 1951, the French had moved the majority of the force to Laos, completely surrendering to Japanese and Australian forces in Cocinchina and Cambodia. It was at this stage in the war that the Thai had gained the agreed upon cessions for Thailand, which included all Indochinese territory assumed by France in 1904 and 1907. The Thai, held territorial ambitions over Laos and attempted to take the territory along the Mekong River Delta and capturing Luang Prabang, the city from which the French were operating, thanks to the Thai capture of Vientiane in July of 1951. The attack by the Thai was a failure, with French trained Lao units effectively stopping the Thai attack.

The Thai were beaten to the punch by a joint Japanese-Vietnamese force, capturing Luang Prabang in February of 1952. The French forces were detained by the Japanese and detained on the Chinese island of Hainan until their release in 1955. After the Japanese defeat of the French in Laos, and the annexation of Laos to the fledgling Republic of Vietnam, the Thai were expected to capitulate. However, the Thai continued their attempts to annex Laos, and began to fight a war against the Japanese and Vietnamese. The Australians, in Cambodia and Cocinchina, had made a formal peace with the Thai, and refused to dedicate Australian forces to the conflict in Laos. As a result the Laos War, began, with Japanese troops picking apart the Thai force and forcing them out of Laos by September of 1953, excluding the failure of the Japanese-Vietnamese force to capture Vientiane, in which the Thai were firmly entrenched. The war was ended with a peace treaty in December of 1953 and the Franco-British war would end soon after. At the treaty of Vientiane, the regions version of the Treaty of Orleans, the creation of Cambodia and Cochinchina as unitary state was agreed upon by the present nations, France, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Australia and Japan. The Republic of Viet Nam's borders were agreed to and the French were forced to resign all claims to Indochinese territory. Vientiane was also annexed to the Kingdom of Thailand, although there was much anger in Thailand over the surrender of rightfully Thai land to the Japanese.

After the Treaty of Vientiane, the situation in Indochina grew ever more tenuous. The Japanese, with the assistance of the Chinese, finally squashed the Yunnan Blue Shirts, but faced new opposition from the Yi Liberation Army, who had grown under the reign of Zhonghan, and were opposed to rule by anyone not Yi, adding a new ethnic tinge to the Chinese political spectrum. The Republic of China occupied the territory, but the Yi Liberation Army were not squashed, and continued to make raids on the Chinese and Japanese garrisons within the Yunnan. In Vietnam, the newly established Republic, was placed under the control of Bao Dai, the former King of Annam, who ruled as the President while political parties lead by the Viet Minh, vied for control of the puppet parliament. Ho Chi Minh, while upset at the concept of putting the former King in the position of power, he decided to play the long game, going with the government until such a time when he could take power. A major point of contention in the Republic of Vietnam, was the Cambodian annexation of Cochinchina, considered an integral part of the Viet nation. The people of Cochinchina opposed being a part of the Cambodian Kingdom and in 1956, with support from the Viet Minh in Vietnam, rose up against the Cambodians, only to be defeated by the Australian force placed within Cambodia. The Japanese, while officially allied with Australia, secretly supported the Viet Minh in Cochinchina in an effort to keep the Viet Minh in line with the Republicans. As a result a pro Vietnam insurgency became a very large presence within Cochinchina and the province was ready to begin an open revolt at the drop of a hat. That drop of the hat came in 1960. With Japan's humiliating defeat in the World War, the Japanese government voted to withdraw its troops stationed in Vietnam to deal with the burgeoning situation on the home front. With this move, the situation in Indochina quickly spiraled out of control. In early 1961, Ho Chi Minh seized power in Hanoi, and launched an invasion of Cochinchina, coinciding with a popular revolt in the province. The response to the invasion was quick with the Australians ordering the deployment of new troops to defend Cambodia, while the Thai took this chance to capture both Laos and Cambodia. The Great Indochinese War had begun.

Down with the Devil In Cochinchina

In 1956, Prime Minister James Dodds-Parker had issued a message to all of its Commonwealth members, asking for their complete support militarily in the Indian Revolt. The Australians had applied in the affirmative, along with most of the Commonwealth, with the lone exception of South Africa, who refused to send troops to India. As a result, occupation duty in Cambodia had been a largely conscript force, with the majority of the veterans being sent to India, to assist the British assault on Pondicherry, which began shortly after the end of major hostilities in Cochinchina and Cambodia. As a result, when Vietnamese forces launched their attack on Cochinchina in February of 1961, the Australian Command in Cambodia, was caught with a small force of battle ready troops, and a slightly larger force prepared to fight. As a result of demands of the Indian Front, the Australian presence in Cambodia had been drastically reduced from 700,000 in 1951, to 162,500 in 1961. The Vietnamese force had been raised from the veterans of the Laos War, and had grown under Japanese supervision, into a highly competent force. Vietnam, after its independence in 1951, came under the influence of Japan, and quickly developed a mutually beneficial trade relationship. Japanese forces were present in Vietnam, with major naval bases in Tonkin and Annam, and a much larger force on the border with Thailand, keeping the Thai from acting against the Vietnamese. With the withdrawal of Japanese forces, the Vietnamese took complete control of border duty with Laos, while the Japanese maintained their naval bases.

The Vietnamese, in their first strike across the border with Cambodia, met minor resistance from the Australians and the Royal Cambodian Army, while receiving major support from the local population. By April of 1961, Saigon was under attack from the Vietnamese, when the first wave of Australian arrived to salvage the situation in Cambodia. The Thai, while attacking Laos, also attacked Cambodia, hoping to conquer all of Indochina, now that the Japanese couldn't interfere. The Thai, facing a small Cambodian force, were able to capture Phnom Penh in late March of 1961, declaring the Kingdom of Cambodia a Thai protectorate. The Australians responded by blockading Thai ports, which did little to stop the flow of funding from France and the United States, both of whom supported the Thai over Vietnam and Cambodia. Australia also gained the support of the Malayan and Sarawakan armies, who jointly launched an invasion of Thailand, in February of 1961. The Australians assisted the invasion by launching an attack on Chumphon Province, locking the Thai forces into an inescapable position. By the New Year, the entire Malayan Peninsula was under Commonwealth occupation.

As the war raged on in Indochina, it served as a background to the greater East Asian chaos that followed the defeat of Japan in 1960. In Japan, the Shouhei government was facing major opposition from the people about entering any more foreign conflicts. This came from the heavy Japanese involvement in the burdgeoning Chinese conflict, in which the Japanese allied Republic of China, was badly losing a war of attrition to the United Socialist Peoples Republic of China. The National Liberation Army fought against the Beiyang Army in several major battles, including the NLA's capture of Nanjing in the fall of 1960. The overthrow of the Chinese governor in the Yunnan, and their alliance with the USPRC, pushed what little remains of the ROC to the Northeast of China, where the government was facing massive casualties and desertion. The Soviets, fresh off their success in recent conflicts, joined the war effort by invading Manchuria, in an effort to pull the NPSRC into their growing circle of allies. With Soviet help, a general Japanese withdrawl, the ROC fell in May of 1961, with Zhang Xueliang being lynched, shot, lynched a second time and then mutilated through the streets of Beijing. The Soviets, with the assistance of the National Liberation Army then moved into Korea, where the Japanese government was facing massive unrest, with Japanese troops firing on crowds daily. The Sino-Soviet force moved quickly and by the end of 1961, Korea was under Soviet occupation, and Japan had been forced to sign a treaty recognizing, among other things, Soviet influence over China, Korea and Vietnam. As a result of this treaty*, the Soviets assumed control of the Japanese naval bases in Vietnam, a move that would usher into play the establishment of the Peoples Republic of Vietnam and the entrance of Soviet forces into the Indochinese War.
 
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Romania: The Light at the end of the Tunnel

Under the Treaty of Kiev (1960), the Romanian state was forced to resume responsibility for the conflict between the USSR and Romania and pay a yearly tithe to Moscow to ensure that peace would last. This was completely insane in the minds of the average Romanian, considering that the war had started as a result of Soviet aggression and Romania had already been forced to cede Bessarabia to the USSR. Under the new government, General Dragos Lupei established himself as Chief of State, theoretically second in power only to King Michael, but in reality establishing himself as dictator. The new position of Chief of State, disregarded the parliament of Romania and allowed for Lupei to circumvent Democratic channels. Of course, Cordreanu had already held such powers previously, but that had been assisted by the LANC's majority in parliament. Under Lupei, the LANC was banned and symbols of the old regime were also banned. The Swastika, which had been added to the Romanian tri-color in 1932, was taken off the flag, with the flying of the flag from 1932-1960 becoming a crime punishable by 3 years in prison. The Lupei regime was also marked by crippling depression, unseen in Romania since the early 1930's. The nation had been crippled by the war, and with the military retaining its full funding, social programs floundered. Unemployment and discontent with the government hit a new high when Bulgaria, fresh from its victories in Macedonia and Greece sent an ultimatum to Bucharest, demanding that Dobruja be ceded to Bulgaria. According to the ultimatum, if the territory was not ceded to Bulgaria by August of 1963 (the ultimatum being issued in June of 1963), the Bulgarians would invade. The Bulgarians hesitated to attack, because they were still negotiating with the Hungarians, hoping to involve the Romanians in a two front war. By July 3rd, the Romanians had responded in the negative, and the Romanian force was stretched across the large border with Bulgaria. As a result, it was quite a surprise when the attack emanated from Crisana.

Crisana, annexed by Hungary in 1958, had largely been ignored by the Lupei regime, who had used the victory at Cluj as propaganda, regardless of the lost county. As a result, the military surrounding Crisana was lightened as tensions with Bulgaria rose. So when a massive Hungarian force surged across the border, Romania was caught completely off guard. As they struggled to respond, the Bulgarians marched against the Romanian force. By August the Hungarians had reversed the Battle of Cluj's fortunes, capturing Cluj and occupying the whole of the region of Crisuri. The Hungarians were also pushing into Timis, as Bulgarian forces occupied Southern and then Northern Dobruja. After doing so, Bulgaria advanced on Bucharest. In an attempt to save the capital from destruction, and himself, Lupei ordered a ceasefire. In the resulting Treaty of Bucharest, Hungary was ceded all of Transylvania as lost in the Treaty of Trianon and Dobruja was ceded to Bulgaria. The rump Romania that was left was highly vassalized and forced to sign a treaty of alliance with Bulgaria and Hungary.

Romania, now humiliated in two wars in less then 10 years, was filled with displaced people from the newly Hungarian territory to the west, and newly Bulgarian territory to the East. Not to mention the hundreds of thousands veterans who came home to find nothing for them. All of these displaced and out of work assembled around Bucharest. By February of 1964, they were marching in the streets. Peaceful protests began to center around Iancu Serban, a young veteran with a knack for public speaking. Serban was unlike many speakers, as he spoke of a return to democracy, and hopes for peace. The crowds camped out in front of the Presidential Palace, built by the Codreanu regime in 1934, the official residence of Chief of State Lupei. The request for free elections was ignored and the crowds dispersed. This was until a colonels coup in Bucharest in Spring of 1964, where the people raided the Presidential Palace and Lupei fled to Bulgaria. After the coup, the colonels, followers of Serban, promised free elections. The Party of the Nation, or PN, gained the majority in the first election. The party was a loose alliance of social moderates, who under Serban, made for a promising future for Romania.

A New Deutschland

Following Germany's defeat by the Soviets in the World War, Germany hit a period of cultural renaissance. With the reintroduction of East Prussia, the art scene of Germany, long held to government approved "German" standards, was revitalized. Konigsberg, before the war and after, had become a city of bohemians. During the Civil War, the territory had been cut off from the rest of Germany and ruled by Otto Braun of the SPD. This came as a surprise, given that East Prussia had been one of the few states to vote overwhelmingly for the DNVP before the war and its populace was largely against the defiant government. But years of refugees from Germany, Italy, the Balkans and the Soviet Union had transformed East Prussia into a melting pot with progressive policies. The Germans retained the majority in the region, with 65% of the population, but the minorities, as well as a thriving Jewish community, made East Prussia far more disconnected to Germany then any of the newer territories, such as the Polish Vovoideships of Pomorskie, Sloskie and Poznanskie, which were integrated into the German State at the expense of the Third Polish Republic. Veterans, returning from the war, were granted territory in the new territory, which resulted in the expulsion of the majority of the Polish population, which was met with firm resistance by the Polish Army, who continued guerilla operations against both Germany and the USSR. The Polish attacks on civilians would result in the military occupation of the new territories for the following 5 years, which would still fail to squash the attacks on German civilians.

The effect of the culture emanating from East Prussia, would result in what many saw as the "radicalization" of Germany's youth. After years of cultural stagnation, French, British and American music began to be heard in youth gathering places. Calls for a Reichstag with a vote became more and more vocal, and National Socialism, seen as dead in Germany by the time the World War had started, was brought back with help from the French PNSTF. An underground political party known as the National Socialist Unity Party (or NSEP) became increasingly powerful as support for the DNVP began to wane. The symbols of the Sturmabteilung and the propensity for wearing brown, was emulated in the parties paramilitary, known as NSE-Aktion, who began to brawl with Bismarckjugend neighborhood patrols. In 1964, the so called "White Revolution" or "Weißputsch" of Romania had bolstered the opinions of German youths and massive protests against the government became common. President Heydrich, unwilling to see the government fall ordered the military to force the protestors to disperse using force. In February of 1965, in Berlin's famed Tiergarten, the military fired on the protestors, who had been joined by many of the police of Berlin. The protestors would hurl stones, petrol bombs and even small grenades, but were eventually dispersed. The Tiergarten attack would lead to rioting throughout Germany's largest cities, eventually, Heydrich ordered a ceasefire and promised to step down in 1968 with free elections.

As a result, the next three years were built up with American and Swiss advisors joining the fray to make sure the election was fairly run. The parties that would eventually stand for contention would number in the hundreds, but the main parties would remain the DNVP, NSEP and a revitalized SDP. When the elections took place, the DNVP and NSEP both received 35% of the vote, the SDP received 21% and the rest went to fringe parties. The fringe parties, together with the SDP joined with the NSEP to gain a plurality and take control of the government of Germany, breaking the DNVP hegemony and ending the military rule in Germany. It was in this way that for the first time in decades, things were seen as positive in Germany. The optimism, would not last long.

The Cookie Crumbles: China after the World War

Before the World War, China was ruled for the most part by the former warlords, now legitimized despots, of Beijing. The Republic of China was a corrupt kleptocracy, whose military were considered worse then common thugs, often known to treat those who crossed the regime with extreme brutality. However, when China entered the war, and dispatched most of its troops to Mongolia and the Soviet Union, the regime had reached its breaking point. In the opening move of the war, they had captured the National Socialist Republic of China (comprised of Ningxia, Shaanxi & Gansu) and put down the majority of its leadership. However, the National Socialists had become quite popular in the area and guerilla's persisted to cause harm to Chinese caravans. Also, before and during the war, China was the main provider of food to Japan, when the war started, this continued, with China also supporting the Japanese armies. By 1959, widespread hunger had caused many to join the National Socialists and the remaining Communists in attacking troops garrisoned throughout the nation. The final straw came when the Traitor tax was instituted. Under the Traitor Tax, if any soldier joined the ranks of the Soviet Peoples Liberation Army, lead by former Communist leader Zhu De, their family was forced to pay 50% more on all of their taxes. The punishment for not complying with this tax, was death. With all of this, the people of China began to openly revolt. The National Socialists, bolstered by this new wave of support, formed a new army under Jun Strasser-Ruan, the Eurasian son of Otto Strasser and his Chinese wife. Strasser-Ruan lead his army towards Gunagzhou, where after a short constitutional convention he declared the United Socialist Peoples Republic of China, under control of a majority of National Socialists.

Just as the Strasserists had gained power in one end of China, a similar ideology was gaining power in another. In Manchuria, the heartland of the Xueliang regime, the Soviets centered an invasion force, ostensibly to give the area to the Guangzhou government. However, Premier Tukhachevsky did not trust the National Socialists and instead planned to seat Zhou Enlai as the head of a People Republic of China, under the control of the USSR. In 1961, the invasion force, comprised of Chinese, Mongolian and Soviet troops marched into Manchuria and faced little resistance, as Japan was busy with a full scale civil revolt at home, and a rebellion in Taiwan and Korea. In Spring of 1961, Sino-Soviet forces captured Beijing, as Republican leaders in Nanjing sued to join with the newly established PRC, as to avoid being slaughtered by the fanatical Strasserists. At the treaty of Beijing in 1961, the Japanese surrendered the rights to any territory within China, gave indpendence to Korea and transferred their sphere of influence in Vietnam to the USSR. They also gave the Soviets the island of Taiwan, which was quickly transferred to the PRC. As of a result of this chaos, China was once again split in two. The dividing line came with China controlling all of the provinces north of Chekiang to Chahar, with the UPSRC controlling everything else.

The Sudeten Crisis-1969

Following the elections of 1968, the leader of the NSE, Diedrik Holzknecht became the newest German Chancellor. Among the first acts of the new Reichstag was to reinstate the constitution of the Weimar Republic, as well as abolishing the position of President. The DNVP refused to cooperate with the new parties, attempting to stall as much as they could, but they were hopelessly outnumbered and legislation moved quite fast without any open opposition to the reforms being brought out. Among one of the most controversial was the NSE's famed Equality bill, which would allow for all German citizens, regardless of gender, reinstating the rights of German women as established during the Weimar era, and taken away by Chancellor Hugenberg and the DNVP in 1942. The leader of the DNVP, Ingolf Falkenrath protested against the reinstatement of the womens right to vote, considering it "an abomination upon the principles of the German State." Falkenrath, a member of the Reichstag since 1946, would soon be infuriated by the next step of the NSE and their associates, which involved the German State, first established by von Schliecher in 1937, being transformed into the Republic of Germany, with the reinstatement of the black, gold and red tricolor of the Weimar Republic. All of this lead to the incensing of the DNVP and their loyal voters, who after years of not voting, wished to finally show their support for the old regime.

It was at this point in late 1968, that Holzknecht was looking for a distraction to keep the German people busy, without having an actual committment. So in November of 1968, Chancellor Holzknecht met with the leaders of the Sudeten German Party in Regensburg, the town where Ernst Rohm and the SA made their last stand in 1934, and proclaimed that as Chancellor, he would seek to reunite all of the Germans under one nation. While this satisfied quite a number of the DNVP's loyal voters, the members of the Reichstag knew that Germany, in its current fragiel state couldn't survive a war, at least not without help. Which is why Holzknecht began to search for allies, making nice with Iancu Serban, the brutal dictator of Romania, whose cult of personality was feared across Europe. He also began to actively court an alliance with France, who under President Adolphe Geroux, had become a complete Strasserist state. The potential for a Franco-German alliance became strong, and in January of 1969, at the First Annual National Socialist Convention, Holzknecht was photographed shaking hands and jovially laughing with both President Geroux of France and President Jun Strasser-Ruan of the UPSRC. With these overtures, both Austria and Czecholsovakia began to worry about the potnetial for war. Austria, being a member of the Pact of Rome and under Italian protection, was safe, but Czecholsovakia, after years of peace, was isolated completely with no allies anywhere. With Britain embroiled in its civil war, no one would be able to come to the rescue of Czechoslovakia in the possible German assault. As a result, Czechoslovakia signed the Pact of Rome in May of 1969, saving themselves not only from a possible German invasion, but also a possible Hungarian annexation of Slovakia, which the Hungarians held major claims to.

The Sudeten region of Czechoslovakia had worked out a nominal form of autonomy from Prague, and may had grown happy with the Czechoslovakian system. Radicals in the Sudeten German Party still maintained their ultimate goal as joining with a unitary German state. Under its leader Konrad Heinlein, the Sudeten German Party had espoused moderate views, more conservative then the leftist tinge of the National Socialists, but still advocating German autonomy. In 1942, as the Third Balkans War raged, President Benes agreed to allow for greater autonomy from Prague, for the German minority. The Prague government still held the ultimate power of veto, but the devolved parliament of the Sudeten Region, seated in Iglau, still held a good amount of local power. The requests from Heinlein to form a Sudeten German Police force was declined, and the Czechoslovak Republic maintained control over law and order, a point of contention between the Iglau and Prague governments.

In 1968, when the Regensburg declaration was heard in the Sudeten region, there were protests in Reichenberg, from young Sudeten Germans who let it be known that they did not want to be joined with Germany. This movement, known as the Sudeten National Party, was formed by those Sudeten Germans who found their current situation preferable to joining Germany. The protests in Reichenberg were met by support by the Prague government. In January of 1969, President Vojta Benes spoke on the floor of the Iglau Parliament building, commending the Sudeten National Party and promising his support for the continued union of the Sudetenland and Czechoslovakia. The Czechoslovak Republic finally emerged from its long and uneventful neutrality and signed the Pact of Rome, becoming the recipient of massive Italian military aid.

In Austria, Engelbert Dollfuss, confident in his rule, was threatened by the Regensburg Declaration and looked to finally destroy the threat of Pan-German Nationalism. In an effort to find a unifying figure to unite the nation, Dollfuss declared the abolition of the Austrian Federal State, and declared the reestablishment of the Empire of Austria, with Otto von Habsburg as the Emperor of Austria. The position was purely symbolic, but it did give the Fatherland Front a new propaganda piece. The reestablishment of Austria to its former glory, with Dollfuss being promoted as the father of modern Austria. The announcement was met with an explosion of Austrian nationalistic fervor, with a parade in Vienna being followed by a national tour of Austria by the new Emperor. The Chancellor retained the true power and Austria was far from a democracy, but the restoration of the monarchy of Austria was considered a message to the Germans, that Austria would not surrender their sovereignty to a German state.

As the continent tensed up in preparation for the next war, August of 1969 provided the largest surprise occurred. At the Konigsberg Accords, held in East Prussia, representatives from France, National Socialist China, the USSR and it's allies in Comintern and Germany met to broker a military alliance in defiance of the Italian dominated Pact of Rome. The Konigsberg Accords solidified the threat of war on the European continent, and marked the beginning of major American support for the Pact of Rome. In a seeming defiance of the Konigsberg Accords, President Lyndon Johnson met with Il Duce Italo Balbo, and Queen Elizabeth of Australia and New Zealand in Tripoli in September of 1969. This coming together of heads of states was considered the beginning on the road to war, as Czechoslovak forces massed on the border with Germany, and German military build up along with French militarization of the Rhone border, it seemed a powder keg was ready to burst, it just needed the right match.

To Bare A Cross of Fire

In 1931, France was in a tricky position. As war raged in Germany between the forces of the military and the National Socialists, France began to face the effects of crippling economic depression. As the government attempted to handle the economic situation, the Reichswehr remilitarized the Rhineland, in an attempt to hold off on a Nazi invasion of the territory. This caused panic in France, as rumors of war spreading into France grew, along with mass protests against the economic position of France. The people of France began to radicalize, with a large portion joining the veterans organization, the Croix de Feux, led by Lieutenant Colonel Francois de La Rocque, who had served on the Western Front, after requesting a transfer from the safer post in Morocco. His service and his leadership qualities were recognized, and the CDF grew as a result.

As the war continued to rage, the threat of violence in France grew ever present. Under La Rocque, the far right gained an ever present figure head, who began organizing nationalist parades throughout France, all ending with speeches espousing the message of French strength in the face of adversity. The largest of these parades and protests came in the face of calls for a general election by the Socialist Parties and various Communist groups throughout France. These groups began to protest outside the Palais Bourbon. In response to these protestors, the Croix de Feu dispersed its own rival protest and as the two clashed, military forces were dispatched to keep order in the streets of Paris. Rioting broke out, and in the wake of widespread panic, the National Assembly allowed La Rocque to speak before them. According to some sources, La Rocque's impassioned speech about the threat of a communist revolution rallied the Assembly behind him, while others claim that La Rocque threatened to spread the rioting into open revolt if not given the powers he desired. Either way, by July of 1932, Francois de La Rocque had been given dictatorial powers, unseen since the last Napoleonic Era.

La Rocque was appointed as the Constable of France, a title that had been disbanded after the Revolution. As the Constable he had the right to declare Martial Law, which he did and readily so. He also overturned the marginalization of the armed forces, returning France to 50 divisions, and ordering a complete overhaul of both the Air Force and Navy. Although there was little money for these programs, La Rocque kept the people in awe with military parades and speeches claiming this was the only path to national victory.

This sudden veer to the right caused many intellectuals, artists and those with political agenda's against La Rocque's to flee France for America, Great Britain, Switzerland, Canada and Denmark. France's new government received nod's of approval from Italy, Great Britain, Ireland and pretty much the world over. La Rocque also annexed the Saar and began to support the Reichswehr in terms of arms, to be repaid once the German Civil War had ended. When the war finally did end, the Germans and French signed a Non-Aggression Pact binding both until 1945. The NAP would never be broken.

La Rocque spent his first two years in power, consolidating control of the population and 1934, just as the German Civil War came to an end, France entered war with Italy in defense of Ethiopia, who had been invaded by Italian forces. Despite the threat of war in Europe, neither the Italian or French forces on their border engaged in anything more then minor skirmishing. The real war began in Libya, where a French force headed by Phillipe Petain launched an invasion of Libya from Algeria and Tunisia. The battles between Italian and French forces was head to head, with a French force outside of Tripoli in 1934, being turned back in January of 1935. The Italian forces fought bravely in Libya, and the French were never able to maintain any sort of force in the region.

The real victory for the French came under General Charles de Gaulle, whose mastery during the assault on Juba and during the Ethiopian campaign, assured victory in the Abyssinian War, and gained France a new colony in the form of Italian Somalia. With a military victory, France gained a day of celebration, and in the nationalistic fervor of the moment, La Rocque abolished the National Assembly , outlawing all political parties, and making France in essence a nation under his personal control. This period, known as the Constabulary (1932-1949), was one in which the oppression of the Croix de Feu and the military caused many to flock to symbols of National Socialism, with student organizations becoming wide spread and against the rule of La Rocque, however, these organizations were cracked down on and outlawed. In 1949, at the age of 59, La Rocque was assassinated in Paris during a speech to college professors. The gunman was a 24 year old student, whose name was never released. To this day, some assume it was a plot by the more radical elements to take control the nation. With the death of La Rocque, Pierre Laval, an aging leader of the Croix de Feu, was appointed Constable of France. Within a year, France would be at war. Within four years, everything La Rocque had worked to build would be destroyed.

Iancu Serban: A Wolf In Sheeps Clothing

In the history of Europe, there were said to be few who could hold a crowd like Serban. Historians of early post Great War Germany, have compared Serban to Adolph Hitler, the second leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party, but given the lack of a soundbite or footage, this assertion is incomplete. Upon rising to the position of Prime Minister in 1964, Romania was a nation defeated. With its military gutted, and the foreign policy of the nation being dictated from Sofia, Budapest and Moscow, Romania was rife with disorder. The Party of the Nation coalition in power was far from a unified structure. A large portion were former members of the LANC, who during the first session of parliament in August of 1964, left the Party of the Nation to reform as the LANC under the leadership of the aging Horia Sima, who was able to claim legitimacy and was famed for his time spent in the Lancieri. This left Serban in control of a party split between his base of supporters, who followed Serban with a fervor, the Communists and Socialists, largely marginalized from years of repression and unpopularity following the Soviet capture of Bessarabia. And finally the Monarchists, who sought to retain loyalty to King Michael, who lost some of his popularity do to the succession of dictatorships that rose to power under his stead.

Serban pushed through however, and was unafraid to walk in the streets of Bucharest, alone, and talk to the countless refugees who had made their home in the city. He made speeches wherever he could, using soapboxes to persuade his viewpoint, and was truly beloved by his people. Time Magazine listed Iancu Serban as 1964's Man of the Year and after conducting a poll of the citizens of Romania, found that Iancu Serban held a popularity rating of 73%, while King Michael only held a popularity rating of 47%. Serban also declared May 10th as Independence Day and marked August 5th, the day of the Romanian surrender to Bulgarian and Hungarian forces, as Remembrance Day. During this time Serban began to push passionately for the designation of Romania as a secular state, with a complete separation of church and state. This caused a surge of anger and violence by the LANC, and during the December session of Parliament in 1964, Serban was assaulted with personal attack from Horia Sima, who declared Serban as a communist and a traitor. Without hesitation, Iancu Serban rose from his chair, walked to the center of parliament, turned to Sima, drew his personal pistol and shot the man dead.

The next day, he ordered the complete purge of all LANC politicians and released documents claiming that the LANC, in cooperation with King Michael, had been plotting a coup to restore the LANC to power in Romania. Serban declared a state of emergency, and declared a state of emergency. King Michael was arrested and thrown into Doftana Prison. As this madness ensued in Romania, Serban quickly shut down the press as to suppress the knowledge of these events taking place in already fragile Romania. On New Years Day, he declared the Kingdom of Romania abolished, and called a Constitutional convention in Bucharest to form the new laws of the Republic of Romania. At the end, he was declared President for Life and given personal control of the armed forces of the nation. The Party of the Nation became the only legal party and there was a complete separation of state, with churches losing their tax free status. On January 10th, the royal family of Romania were hanged at the gallows in Romania, for crimes against the state, including Michael's children. Many were shocked and appalled at these acts, but Serban had been swift and now his power was absolute, and the rest of the world could do nothing but look on in horror.
 
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Dewey, Dewey, Dewey, Dewey, Dewey!

The election of 1944, was considered in many ways to be a lame duck election. After years of Republican administration, the people of the United States were ready for a change in Washignton, and that change, almost certainly meant Thomas Dewey. Dewey, as a famed prosecutor in New York, became Governor of New York in 1942, on the Republican ticket. The Republicans in New York had yet to shift to the left like much of the Republican parties and remained the conservative party. When Dewey put his name forward for the Presidential election of 1944, he switched parties, causing a minor scandal in Albany. Dewey ran a lightning campaign and used the threat of communism as his main issue in the election. After winning the Democratic nomination, Dewey debated President Landon in Chicago Stadium, in front of a solidly Republican audience. And yet, when Dewey diplayed large pictures of the harsh treatment of Turkish civilians by Soviet forces, he received the shock he needed. Dewey began to bombard President Landon with accusations, calling him a communist and a war criminal for allowing these acts to go on during his presidency. Landon attempted to rebuttal with sanity, but he was to late, the crowd had turned, and with the crowd the election was lost. On March 4th, 1945, Thomas Edmund Dewey was inaugurated as the 35th President of the United States of America.

Following the Chicago debate, a Red Scare had swept across America. The actions of Soviet soldiers resulted in protests outside the Soviet embassy in Washington and the Consulate-General in New York. By the time Dewey was elected, the average American was being swept up in a frenzy of anti-communist activities. One of Deweys first acts as President was to withdraw recognition of the Soviet Union and put the military on high alert. The hysteria of anti-communism was ridiculous. Under the new government in Moscow, communism had been placed on the back burner. While officially communism was still the ideology of the state, it was more propaganda then anything by 1945, with the party losing all power after the Red Army coup in 1943. Tukhachevsky was rather surprised by the sudden change in attitude by the Americans, but adapted rather quickly, using the American hysteria as proof of the failure of capitalism.

Dewey, taking advantage of the Red Scare, pushed for large scale intervention in Central America, South America and the Carribean, ostensibly to stop the growth of communism, but actually to force American influence on those nations who would rather assert their independence. In an effort to establish American dominance peacefully, he established the Pan-American Union, with the help of President Vargas of Brazil and President Luis Miguel Sanchez of Peru, both of whom represented anti-communist strongholds in South America. President Juan Pablo Bennett of Chile responded positively to the concept and had been suppressing resistance in Chile since the failed coup d'etat in 1925. Likewise, with these three in tow, Argentina nad the Central American nations followed. The only nation to reply in the negative was Colombia.

In 1932, Peru had invaded the Colombian town of Leticia and in a surge of patriotism annexed the territory. The Colombians at first attempted to defeat the Peruvians in Leticia, but during the attempt to capture the city, fired on Brazilian merchant ships. Vargas, in Brazil, used the attack, as an excuse for Brazil to enter the conflict. With Brazilian support, the Peruvians forced a humiliating peace upon the Colombians, limiting their military to almost nothing and forcing them to recognize Leticia as rightfully Peruvian territory. This humilating result, lead to the assassination of President Enrique O. Herrera in Bogota, and lead to a more fervently socialist program for the Colombian Liberals. Alfonso Lopez Pumarejo became the new President and pursued a very anti-American agenda, as well as promoting relations with the Soviet Union. Pumarejo would remain in power, with the army being purged of non-socialists in 1937. The aging Pumarejo remained in power in 1945 and Dewey intended to push against the Colombians.

In August of 1945, America discovered that the USSR had begun funding projects within Colombia to rebuild their military. The United States demanded that these projects cease. When Colombia refused, the United States declared war on Colombia, followed by similar declarations from Brazil and Peru.

India: Before the War

The British Empire first established its presence in India when Jahangir, the Mughal Emperor, allowed the English East India Company to establish a factory at the western port of Surat in 1612. From there, the British would expand until they had established control over all of India, with Queen Victoria being crowned the first Empress of India in 1858. The Raj, as the British regime in India was referred to, was divided into 13 Provinces, and 4 nominally sovereign Princely states, which had their own royal head of state while remaining subservient to the British Raj. In the 1920's, following the Great War, the people of India began to push for self rule, and an increasing group began to push for independence. One such early leader was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, a Bombay born barrister who had worked in both Britain and the Natal before returning to India as a leading nationalist. His time in South Africa had molded him into a leader, and upon his return to India, he worked his way to the head of the Indian National Congress, a political party dedicated to the freedom of India from British rule. In 1921, he gained control of the INC, and began to push forward the role of non-cooperation and non-violence that would be his legacy. This tactic was successful, but as a result of a violent clash in a small town in Uttar Pradesh, Gandhi was imprisoned. Although released two years later, to be given treatment for his appendicitis, the popular Gandhi would die in surgery, at the age of 55.

The death of Gandhi, would result in the splintering of the Indian National Congress, or INC, into several smaller groups all seemingly dedicated to the concept of Independence. One of the prominent groups to come to the forefront after the death of Gandhi, was the All-India Muslim League. Lead by Muhammad Ali Jinnah, and bolstered by the failed Khaliafat Movement, the Muslim League became a leading figure in the Independence Movement. Jinnah also became a member of the Central Legislative Assembly, the legislature used by the Raj to meet the needs of self governance. Jinnah showed his talent as a politician and was offered a Knighthood by the Viceroy of India, only to decline. In the late 1920’s, the British sent a commission to deal with the concept of Indian independence, which was met with massive protests, lead by nationalist Lala Lajpat Rai, who was martyred by a police charge while leading a non-violent protest in Lahore. This death would lead to the bombing on the Central Legislative Assembly in late 1929, by Bhagat Singh and Butukeswara Datta, which was a nonviolent bombing, as neither bombs contained shrapnel. Singh and Datta were arrested, tried and executed at the gallows in New Delhi, causing an uproar amongst the population. The reaction to this, was a mass General strike, organized and influenced by the Indian Communist Party, lead by Shripad Amrit Dange, who, backed by heavy support from the Trotsky government in Moscow, began to arm Socialist vanguards in the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, where they received shipments from the USSR via Mongolian based Chinese Communist Party members.

This massive strike caused Prime Minister MacDonald began legislation to institute self rule in India. This accompanied with the flow of Jewish refugees into England, following the outbreak of civil war in Germany, caused MacDonald and Labour to be voted out of power for the next 8 years. But in India, the promise of self rule did much to quell the public anger. The Communist Party of India began to garner a power base in Agra and Oudh, as well as in the cities of India, Bombay and New Delhi being large centers of Communist support. The rise of the Communists in India, especially amongst the Independence movement, caused the All-Indian Muslim League to gain a powerful position in India entering the 1930’s.

Dange and his followers were being funded largely by the Soviet government, while Muhammad Ali Jinnah began receiving support from the Islamic citizens of India. Jinnah began to advocate the separation between the largely Hindi portion of India and the smaller Islamic portions. The nation was to be called Pakistan, and comprise the regions of Baluchistan, Sind, Punjab, Kashmir, the Northwest Frontier Province, Eastern Bengal and Hyderabad. Much of Jinnah’s support was from the Nizams of Hyderabad, who ruled over a princely state, where the vast majority of its citizens were Hindu. The ruling Islamic class wished to retain its status, and pushed for the success of the Pakistani movement.

This caused Hyderabad to become a hotbed of Communist activity amongst the Hindi community. By 1932, hope for the passage of home rule laws for India, had been lost. After Prime Minister Baldwin and the Conservatives had voted down the law, skirmishes began to occur throughout India. Groups of young and angry Communists throughout India’s cities began to attack police officers. In Lucknow, a riot broke out when a rally was attempted to be broken up. These riots and the rising tensions caused the government to crack down on the Communist Party of India and arrest S.A. Dange.

After Dange’s imprisonment, the Communist attacks continued throughout India. A new front for the Indian Communist Party was formed, the Socialist Action Party, was formed and garnered more support as the events reached a fever pitch in 1933. As the Communists under Dange became seen as a larger threat, the Conservative government began to enter into discussion with Muhammad Ali Jinnah about the possibility of greater autonomy for a Pakistan region, within the Commonwealth. The concept was expected to gain a loyal portion of the Indian populace, and so when it came to a vote in Parliament, the Conservatives approved the formation of a separate Commonwealth of Pakistan, with it’s devolved government being placed in Karachi. In the first meeting of the Pakistani government, Muhammad Ali Jinnah was selected as the first Prime Minister of Pakistan. The Pakistani separation only further served to fuel the divide between Muslim and Hindu in India, with the population of Hyderabad especially growing restless, with several attempts on the life of Osman Ali Khan, Asaf Jah VII, the Nizam of Hyderabad.

While the new Pakistani government abolished much of the former administrations of the Raj, the Nizams of Hyderabad were allowed to retain their system of rule, and as result, Pakistan was allowed access to the Nizams personal treasury, and along with support from the British government, developed the new Pakistani military. The Pakistani military gained their first action after being dispatched to deal with communist instigated riots in Hyderabad, in 1935. The harsh treatment of Pakistani citizens in Hyderabad, caused famed Muslim leader, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, to protest against the continued rule of the British in Pakistan, advocating complete and total independence for Pakistan. The Pakistani government was also worried about the growth of Communism in the Eastern Bengal province, which became palpable.

With the success of the Pakistani movement and Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s success, people throughout India began to campaign for more control. After the splintering of the Indian National Congress, one movement to gain a large share of support from non-Communists in support of independence, was the Indian Independence League, who, with substantial foreign support, happened to gain a lions share of the attention in the foreign press. Its leader, Rash Behari Bose, gained significant funding from both the French and Japanese, eager to see the monopoly of British power in the region come to an end.

The often forgotten component of the Indian independence movement, were the Anglo-Indians. Although small in populace, they did gain a large share of control in the government in certain parts of Indian life, and with the growth of Communist aggression, many began to relocate to relatively peaceful Burma. Rangoon became a very well known city to British intellectuals, and its large Anglo-Burmese community held a high position in the government of Burma. In 1936, a delegation of Anglo-Burmese merchants, along with the head of the Burmese police, Eric A. Blair, pushed for the separation of Burma from India. This was granted, but during the creation of the Burmese government, the power of the government was largely restricted to that of the British and Anglo-Burmese. Blair, having joined the Burmese Police Service in 1924, was elected as the first Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Burma, much to the chagrin of the native Burmese people, whose attempts to protest were cut down.

As Burma and Pakistan developed their own autonomy, the Raj was suffocating from the tight grip of British control. Communist violence continued throughout the 1930’s, limiting their appeal to a small portion of the population, while maintaining their position through intimidation. In 1939, Attlee gained power in Britain, prompting hopes of liberalization from the more moderate masses of India, who merely wished for some reform and home rule. However, Attlee was unfortunate to be elected into power during a crisis in Europe, and would be replaced by Winston Churchill before the end of 1940. The Churchill Ministry was particularly harsh, in direct opposition to the push for independence. After allowing Dange to lounge in prison for 7 years, Churchill had the communist leader executed in New Delhi for crimes against the Raj.

With the execution of Dange, the hope was that the independence movement would flounder. The opposite occurred with support for the Communists growing within India, as many began to see the party as the only viable option for Indian independence. After short struggle, Puran Chand Joshi was able to establish himself as the head of the Socialist Action Party and Communist forces throughout India, thanks to the aid of the Tukhachevsky regime in Russia. Joshi would flee India for Tashkent, where the Indian Communist Party was reformed after the Socialist Action Party was banned by the Raj.

With the abolishment of the communists as a political force, while their presence remained palpable, the Indian Republican Party was formed in the United Provinces under the leadership of Jawaharlal Nehru, who gained a large amount of support, evoking the memory of Gandhi and the former Indian National Congress. With Nehru’s support of independence, came some anger from the British government. Churchill attempted to push for a cancellation of Pakistani and Burmese autonomy, only to be met with a ultimatum from Prime Minister Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who point blank stated that any cancellation of Pakistani autonomy would be met with secession. Churchill found a large base of support amongst the Burmese ruling class, while Communism began to spread to the Burmese populace. As a result, Churchill retained Pakistan and Burma as separate entities and continued to crackdown on Indian attempts for independence. The 1940’s remained a very tense period, but it wasn’t until 1949 that the threat of war faced the Indian subcontinent.

With tensions rising between the British and French in Belgium, the communists began to be bolstered by the flow of support from French officials in Pondichery. As 1950 began, it became very clear, if France and Britain were to go to war, India would be drawn in as well.

Obituary Notice- January, 1950: Rangoon Times

Today, Burma's greatest politician has died. Eric Arthur Blair, Prime Minister of Burma, and champion of the Imperial Commonwealth, succumbed to a bout of malaria in his family's estate in Moulmein. Although born in India, and raised in England, Blair has been an integral part of the landscape since his arrival in 1922. After a short period of doubt, Blair returned to Burma in 1926, married to his lifelong friend, Jacintha Buddicom. His work in the Imperial Police became well noted, and by 1934, he was promoted to the head of Burma's newly separate police force. In 1936, Blair was a leading member of the assorted patriots who gathered in London to plead for independence. As a result of his passion, Burma gained its rightful freedom. He then served as the Prime Minister from 1936 until his death at this point. He is succeeded by the honorable Gregory Kirkham, as the new leader of the Conservative Party.

Eric Blair is survived by his wife Jacintha, aged 49, as well as his children, Richard, aged 23, Julia, aged 20 and his youngest, Charles, 17. His wake will be held to the public at the Strand Hotel in Rangoon on Sunday. He was 46.

Land of the Fallen Sun
Following Japan's defeat in the World War, Japan was in a panic. Although the Soviets hadn't actually harmed mainland Japan, their empire was gone. The Treaty of Gyeongseong, signed in August of 1961, forced Japan to withdraw all of its forces from the continent of Asia, as well as recognizing Soviet sovereignty over Taiwan and Sakhalin. These losses, accompanied by the fall of the Kingdom of Korea and the Republic of China, was followed by the exodus of over a million Japanese settlers and collaborators, to Japan, which pushed the already fragile state of Japan closer to the breaking point. Returning veterans added to the lack of stability. After years of fighting in the cold of Siberia, and against the harsh reprisals of Communist and Nazi bandits, they come home to find that there is no work. Much of the work that would have been available, had been taken by Korean and Chinese slave workers imported during the war, to work for nothing, in order to ensure the survival of their families. After the war ended, many of the migrant workers remained in Japan, and their employers began to pay them, not as much as one would garner if they were Japanese, but enough to scrape by a living.

Many of these veterans, enraged by this, began to protest. Although the first of these protests were ordered dispersed by police, the veterans refused to leave. Soon, an encampment of veterans was assembled in Nagatacho, in front of the National Diet, demanding work for the veterans and the restoration of Japan's empire. The National Diet, an almost useless political device, was befuddled by the demands. The veterans were joined by citizens demanding an end to the food shortage and all the while, anti-communist elements were pushing for the recreation of a democratic system within Japan. Emperor Shouhei, after the embarrassing defeat of his nation, had gone into seclusion, but emerged after hearing of the protests. In a speech before the protestors on June 4th, 1962, Emperor Shouhei made a speech before the National Diet. In the speech, he stressed that Japan as a nation must be united in the face of communist aggression.

The National Diet applauded the Emperor, and as he prepared to leave, a shot rang out in the Diet. The Emperor was shot, but was not mortally wounded. Moments later, Kempeitai lead military units moved towards the protestor's encampment. Shortly after encircling the protestors, they fired, causing what became known as the June 4th Incident. Over 400 died in the first volley. The protestors, enraged by what they saw as an unprovoked attack, began their charge against the military. The military force numbered around 1,000, while the protestors numbered around 5,000. The protestors at first attempted to escape, but when the military began to fire indiscriminately, it quickly became clear that the military had no intention of letting them leave. So, in a futile effort, they charged the nearest army forces. Within 40 minutes, 3,000 protestors were dead, and 4 soldiers as well. The rest were arrested, and summarily charged with being responsible for a communist plot to assassinate the Emperor. The trial was highly publicized in Japan, and while few believed the story, the people of Japan understood that open disobedience was not to be tolerated. However, a small but growing movement, propagating the separation of the military and the government began to grow. Strasserist elements found their ways into the movement, with anti-capitalism being a main proponent of the movement, which was translated into anti-Americanism, as ties between Japan and the United States increased in the post-war period.

After the assassination attempt on the Emperor, the National Diet was occupied by the military and General Ando Teruzo was appointed Prime Minister, in a clear challenge of democracy. With the installing of a completely military government in Japan, the United States began to push for the installation of American military in the Ryukyus, an island chain still in the control of the Japanese. The chain was right in the path of Taiwan, now under the control of the Soviets. So, at the Treaty of Honolulu, the United States formed the Pan-Pacific Pact, a military alliance comprised of Australia, Japan, Thailand, New Zealand, Malaya, Sarawak, Ecuador, Peru, Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Chile, Canada, the Philippines and the United States. Each nation submitted a portion of their armed forces into the PPP, and these forces were stationed in area's that were important to halting the spread of communism. Japan and Thailand became the main recipients of these troops, and Okinawa became the main station for the naval forces of these nations. So in the face of mounting Soviet power, the United States began to build it's political base.
 
The Land of Skanderberg

Throughout history, the land of Albania has amounted to nothing more then a regional backwater, in the eyes of the world. Albania is a land that has had many rulers. Short lived principalities, divided by their clans and local disputes, dot Albanian history. But in 1911, Albania revolted against the Ottoman government, attempting to break the segregation imposed by the Ottoman Empire. The rebels managed to secure the Kosovo Vilayet, and captured a smaller portions of the Scutari and Monastir Vilayets, three of Albania's four principal territories. Janina remained in the hands of the government, but the rebellion resulted in providing the spark for the First Balkans War. As a result of the war in the Balkans, Albania was able to carve out a small semi-independent state, which, although officially unrecognized, was able to secure partial independence. Albania would lose both the regions of Kosovo and Chameria to Serbia, Montenegro and Greece.



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Albania in 1912

Following the partition imposed by the Treaty of London, Albania faced a divide. Under the Ottoman government, the gap between rich and poor had been monumental, with a landed gentry of Islamic noblemen, controlling the vast majority of the wealth. Ismail Qemali, the founding father of the Albanian state, faced resistance from within, as Essad Pasha Toptani, established the Republic of Central Albania in 1913. This was followed by the Peasant Revolt of 1913, in which the Ottomans, in hopes of regaining suzerainty over Albania, sent agents into Albania to rile up support for an Ottoman return. However, Ismail Qemali's provisional government, beheaded the representative of the Ottomans, causing a sense of hopelessness to perpetrate those who wished for Albania to return to the Ottomans. In January of 1914, Qemali resigned and Prince Wilhelm of Wied, with the support of the Western powers, took to the throne, as Prince of Albania. Allying his new government with Essad Pasha, the prince quickly began to look for allies throughout the nation, offering positions to any rebels who could support him, all the while residing in Durres, forcing him to pay nice with Essad Pasha, whose forces controlled the region.

In 1914, the pro Ottoman peasants of Central Albania revolted, hoping to regain the Ottomans as their rulers, however, this was nothing but fantasy. Even with the litany of forces present in the virtually lawless Albania, the prince still retained the recognition that would allow him to retain his throne. Following the outbreak of the Great War, Albania was occupied, leading to another series of squabbles, and the flight of Prince Wilhelm. At the negotiation table, the Triple Entente partitioned Albania yet again, selling off portions to the Greeks, Italians, Serbians and Montenegrins. Austria-Hungary occupied Albania for a large part of the war, only to be replaced by Italy, Greece, Serbia and France after the war.

Following the end of hostilities, Albania found itself a country in chaos. Yugoslavian, Italian and Greece occupied much of the country, and still retained no unitary government. In 1920, at the Paris Peace Conference, Essad Pasha, in exile, attempted to represent Albania, claiming the throne as the King of Albania. He was assassinated, by Avni Rustemi, a young democratic organizer within Albania. Before his death, Pasha had organized a coup against Prince Wilhelm, his one time ally. At the conference, the Allies had divided Albania amongst the occupying powers. But on his return to Albania, Rustemi was appointed president of Adtedhu, a democratic organization, promoting an end to the feudal traditions of Albania. Adtedhu was shut down, leading to the founding of Bashkimi, a new democratic progressive party, built around Rustemi's political ideals.


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The main opponent for power in Albania, was Ahmet Muhtar Bej Zogolli. Zogolli, a former Governor of Skhoder and minister in the government of Wilhelms Principality, was also a Bey. The Bey were hereditary governors, Islamic in nature and installed to power by the Ottomans. In 1922, Zogolli changed his name to Zogu. Zogu gained support from the feudal beys of Southern Albania, while Rustemi gained support from the new generation of Albanian politicians, who looked to enter the stage of Europe, as an equal partner. In December of 1923, Rustemi staged public demonstrations, pushing for an end to the Principality, and the establishment of an Albanian Republic. Zogu, looking to intervene attempted to assassinate Rustemi. Rustemi killed the assassin, and blamed Zogu for the attack. As a result, when the Principality fell in 1924, Rustemi was elected President of Albania, from the new capital of Elbasan, which was chosen for its central location. It helped even the balance of power, by not givings way to the clannish rivalries held by Durres, Tirana and Vlore.

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Zogu remained in Albania for the meantime, but travelled to Rome in August of 1924. In September, he returned with 13,000 Blackshirt mercenaries and two Italian Cruisers and air support for an assault on Vlore. The Vlore Raid, while a failure, would provide for the greatest dispute between Albania and Italy. When the Italian force arrived in Vlore, they captured the city, as Albania's army was still in training. However, Zogu attempted to exit the city, and march on Elbasan. The force got as far as Berat, when the assembled Albanian force, numbering 50,000 well trained but fresh troops, simply overpowered the well trained paramilitary. The Italian mutineers were returned to Italy, while Zogu was exiled, to avoid the cost of a blood feud between Zogu and Rustemi's clans.
Zogu settled in Rome, endlessly petitioning Mussolini for support in claiming power in Albania. In 1926, at a formal meeting of the Grand Fascist Council, Zogu, wile waiting in the wings, was assaulted by Roberto Farinacci, a head official in the Blackshirts. He fled Italy, without his possessions in January of 1927, and settled in Turkey.

In Albania, Rustemi was able to establish a stable government, and received recognition from the League of Nations, of which Albania became a full member. Rustemi played against incursions by the Yugoslavians, Greeks and Italians, but received support from the Soviet Union, and later Bulgaria. Although Rustemi was an industrialist, he still accepted the Communists as a legitimate faction, even if they were minuscule in comparison to the varying degrees of agreement and disagreement with the government. In 1926, Rustemi orchestrated that the government would not take no for an answer, supporting a crackdown on powers held by the semi-independent feudal lords throughout Albania. In 1929, he declared victory for Albania, as he entered his second 5 year term. Rustemi's Bashkimi became the number one political movement, after taking after the practice of forming a paramilitary to accompany the political ideology of the part. The Revolutionary Guards, formed in 1928 in Durres, became an efficient force and influential, basing a large part of their organization on the Italian Blackshirts.


The Rise in Terror Tactics during the Inter War Period (1961-1974)

Although the continent was relatively peaceful in the decade or so of peace before the Second World War began, it is notable for the pre-eminent tactics employed by insurgent and terrorists. In 1972, 13 women were killed at a bombing of a factory in Brest. The culprit was the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, who had proclaimed the independence of an Ukrainian Republic in Lwow in 1969. Although the OUN had engaged in previous actions against the Polish government, all of which had been on military targets. Police and officials from the government in Warsaw had been going missing in West Ukraine since the end of the First World War. The Polish government had lost credibility when the fall of the Sanacja government, resulted in the institution of a German puppet, in President Zygmunt Berling. Berling was respected for his actions in the Danzig War, after his force was able to stop the advance of Warsaw by the German army. However, when the Germans came a second time in 1957, Berling was appointed President of the Third Polish Republic in the first cabinet meeting in Warsaw, under the watchful eye of German military officials. He famously signed away huge portions of Polish territory to Germany and the USSR and allowed for the Polish Army to be neutered into a gendarme.

However, Berling proved to be a competent puppet, thanks to his brutally efficient secret police force and the loosening of restrictions on Poland in 1964, which allowed for the creation of a new Polish Armed force to combat the still operational Polish Army, lead by Generals who had never surrendered to the Germans and had refused to accept the new Warsaw government. The main leader of the underground movement was Karol Rómmel, the son of the famed general, named for his uncle. Rómmel orchestrated raids on Polish military installations and acts of sabotage against the occupying German and Soviet armies in former Polish territory. As such he came into conflict with Berling's government and had to remain in hiding.

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President Zygmunt Berling speaking to a crowd in Warsaw, following the rebirth of the Polish Armed Forces.

But terrorism was not merely a problem in Poland, but also throughout Europe. In particular the Soviet Union and Italy. In the USSR, Neo-Makhnovists and Ukrainian nationalists had begun to launch attacks against the Soviet government. The Red Army Junta had been in place since the end of the Third Balkans War, but Tukhachevsky was aging, and had died in 1969. Georgy Zhukov, the hero of Siberia, was appointed to the head of the the Central Executive Committee to replace Tukhachevsky as the Chairman. With a rise in attacks on government officials and random acts of sabotage by the resurgent Black Army, and the a return to the Basmachi in the Bukharan, Kirgizistani, Turkestani and Khorzem Republics. The Basmachi were a Pan-Turkic Fundamentalist movement, based on the old movement that existed in Central Asia during the Russian Civil War. With the rise of anti-government ethnic and anarchist movements, the Soviet GPU was disbanded and replaced by the Cheka, reborn in the necessity of the nation. Radical infiltration operations helped the Soviets cull the tide of public resistance, but was unable to destroy the appeal of the new underground movements.

In Italy, Neo-Makhnovists also became a problem as small groups of Anarchists had begun to assemble. Even worse was the growing ideology of Anarcho Syndicalism, in which workers attempted to create better conditions for themselves, and when they were constantly arrested and tortured by the Organizzazione per la Vigilanza e la Repressione dell'Antifascismo, or ORVA who succeeded in suppressing those who openly talked against the regime. However, the rise of the National Socialist Liberation Army, is what solidly gave the Balbo regime worries on the Italian mainland. In the newly annexed Rhone territories, the Nazi's were able to exercise almost complete control over most rural villages, where the Nazi's were seen as the closest thing to the Popular government of Firmin Sauveterre in France. The movement was largely comprised of French and Italian youths with grievances against the oppressive and conservative society that they had been born into, but was lead by dangerous men and women, who had experience in dodging ORVA agents and had remained underground since the ascension of Balbo to power after the death of Mussolini.

However, the largest problem by and large for the Italians, was the rise in the influence of the Mujahideen. Following Balbo's Italianization efforts in Libya, much of the native population of Libya was deported, away from the coastal regions, and into the harsh Fezzan. Formerly sparsely populated, the Fezzan had become filled with most of Libya's native population, as the coast had become the home to white settlers, who had expelled those natives who refused to adapt to the Italian national culture. By 1970, 45% of the Libyan population were ethnically Italian, with majority populations in Tripoli, Benghasi and Misrata. Tripolitania had become the heartland of a thriving Italian community, which was shocked by the introduction of a rash of suicide and car bombings in the summer of 1969. Between 1967 and the outbreak of hostilities in Spring of 1975, 400 civilians would be killed by Mujahideen attacks, largely in Tripoli, but throughout Libya as well. The Mujahideen were reportedly being supplied with arms by the French government and its links with the Algerian Islamic Liberation Front, who were fighting in Italian allied Algeria, attempting to dislodge the white minority Pied-Noir regime from power in Algiers. With this rise in terror attacks in Libya, Italy would not be far behind, with attacks taking place across the peninsula, resulting in the death of hundreds of people, who began to grow tired of living in a police state, that couldn't even keep its people under control.


A President For A New Era

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Then Representative, John C. Carter, speaking to a crowd in Washington about Civil Rights Legislation in 1963.

Born in Evansille, Illinois on the Fourth of October, 1923, to Lilla Charlton and Russell Whitford Carter, a construction worker by trade. As an infant, Carter and his family moved to Saint Helen, a rural community located in Michigan's Roscommon county. Young Carter spent much of his time there in an idyllic state, hunting and fishing in the woods. In 1933, Carter's parents divorced, and Carter, along with his mother and his new step father, Chester Heston, moved to Wilmette, Illinois, a wealthy suburb north of Chicago. While attending New Trier High School, Carter became involved in the drama program, which Carter would later claim was the beginning of his interest in public speaking. Graduating in 1943, Carter moved to Chicago and woke a series of odd jobs, attempting to get his acting career off the ground, before the election of 1945, in which Carter became involved in the Republican Party's youth program, organizing Illinois youths to the vote for the Republican Party.

During Dewey's Presidency, Carter joined the United States Navy, and served during America's War of Freedom, from 1947 until 1957, returning to civilian life, shortly before running for Illinois's 7th District in the 1960 Congressional elections, at the age of 37, defeating the incumbent Democratic candidate, and gaining a reputation in Congress as a new Liberal Republican. Representing the same district as Abraham Lincoln, Carter became quickly known in the Congress for how steadfast support of civil rights for America's Negroes, gun control laws and a larger role of the government in American society. In 1963, Representative Carter was chosen to lead a conference on the merits of integration to the politicians of the United States. It was intended by most of the nations major leaders, including both President Lyndon B. Johnson and Vice President Edmund Muskie. Many southern Democrats, the base of the Democratic Party, refused to attend, and a motion to impeach President Johnson for attending the conference was shortly entertained, although only 20 senators from the Democratic party even supported the motion and it was quickly shot down.

Following his prestigious career as a representative, he was a favorite to run for President in 1968, but chose not to run for office, after learning that Massachusetts's John Fitzgerald Kennedy would be running on the Republican ticket. Instead, Carter remained a Congressman, and was chosen to run for the Senate's Republican ticket in 1970, and quickly gained the seat for Illinois, being notable for gaining 90% of the Negro vote. In 1971, with an assortment of Republican and northern Democratic senators and pressured President Kennedy to support integration. Kennedy, who had been elected by Republicans and Democrats on a pledge of change, was a moderate, who was not attuned to the plight of the American Negro. Kennedy's predecessor, President Johnson, had been the largest proponent of integration, but was unable to persuade the Democratic party, who excluding some small stalwarts in the West and Northeast was largely based in the Jim Crow South, and thus was never able to push the topic of integration. Crater would not budge on the issue, and thanks to a Republican majority in both the House and Senate, was able to pass the first civil rights legislation, banning the segregation of public places. This law, known as the Carter-Wallace Act, did not extend to private institutions, but did apply to public universities, not unlike the University of Alabama, which in 1972, received its first Negro applicant, Derry Parker, an 18 year old honor student from Birmingham. However, when Parker attempted to enroll, he was blocked from entering by Governor Asa E. Carter, a Democrat with ties to the Ku Klux Klan, and the Alabama National Guard. When Parker attempted to enter, he was killed.

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Derry Parker, 18, killed while attempting to register.

The country was inflamed. In the Northeast there were protests, composed of Negros and Whites, both arguing for an end to Jim Crow all together. In an attempt to diffuse the crisis, President Kennedy went to meet with the Governor, who organized a pro-segregation rally at Alabama's Legion Field. Kennedy, while attempting to enter the stadium, was mobbed by anti-segregation protesters, and all of the sudden, shots rang out. After clearing the crowd with shots, secret service discovered that the President had been shot, 3 times in the chest, the culprit was never found. Governor Carter, unaware of the assassination, infamously yelled "Alabama, White now! White forever!" moments after the assassination, echoing from the stadium's loud speaker as paramedics attempted to treat the president. Two hours later, Vice President Hubert Humphrey was sworn in as President. An hour after that, martial law was declared in Alabama, and US Armed forces began to restore order in Alabama, which was whipped into a frenzy over the recent violence, particularly the Negro population, who were angered over the loss of both Kennedy and the young Parker.

President Kennedy, was campaigning for reelection when the crisis began in Alabama, and his Vice President, Hubert H. Humphrey was forced to replace the popular president in September of 1972. The Democratic candidate, Thomas Eagleton of Missouri, and his running mate, Terry Sanford of North Carolina, saw a chance to take a lead in the polls. Although Humphrey would have the sympathy vote, the moderate Republicans and Democrats who had found Kennedy acceptable, would be less likely to vote for the senator from Minnesota, who was a well known leftist within the Republican Party. As such Eagleton and Sanford began to gain in the polls, even outside the South, which was now the sole location of the Democrats, having lost the last of the Northeast after the tirades from Governor Carter in Birmingham, much to Humphrey's chagrin. Senator Carter was offered the Vice Presidential nomination, but turned it down, as he began to plan for a push towards ending all Jim Crow laws still in effect, and so Humphrey gave the position to the California governor, Dutch Wilson, famed for his smile, patriotism and racial acceptance. Wilson proved to be just the spark necessary to appease the moderates, which, coupled with Eagleton's poor handling of the Alabama Crisis, which he labeled as a " tragic misuse of force, by the government, against it's most loyal of citizens". Although Alabama was unable to vote during the elections of 1972, polls taken afterward showed the Eagleton carried 60% of the votes in the state. Regardless of his popularity in the South, the Democrats lost, allowing the Republicans to get 4 more years on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Humphrey, whose political savvy had resulted in the Republican Party's absorption of the Farmer-Labor Party in Minnesota, proved to be a popular president for the most part, but much came from the positive legislation passed in both houses of congress during his term as president. Much of this came through the hands of the newly appointed leader of the majority, John C. Carter of Illinois, who was able to abolish all laws that discriminated against citizens based on race. However, an end to integration did not mean that the nation was no longer divided, and the cultural gap continued on throughout the nation, despite the best efforts of the government to promote improvements to interracial relations. Senator Carter continued his distinguished career, and in 1975, announced his candidacy for the Presidency of the United States, challenging both Humphrey and Wilson for the nomination. Carter, far more popular then both Wilson and Humphrey, was able to win the support of the Republicans, and partnered with Senator Kuchel of California, to challenge the Scoop Jackson/James Carter ticket from the Democrats. In a shocking development, Dutch Wilson announced the formation of a new third party to challenge the two, resurrecting the Democratic-Republican label to challenge the two established tickets. Selecting former Senator George Wallace as his running mate, Wilson sought to challenge for the presidency of the United States. The stage for the election of 1976 was set.

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Governor Wilson announces the creation of the Democratic-Republican Party
 
Migracja

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Shot of life in one of Monrovia's many slums.

In 1939, Jozef Beck, under the auspices of the Polish government, authorized the settlement of Liberia with 100,000 citizens initially, with plans to send more afterwards. The initial 100,000 arrived in the spring of 1939 and Polish military units, numbering 15,000 in number began to train the Liberian military, while establishing a Polish embassy in Monrovia. The Liberian government, lead at the time by President Edwin Barclay, was eager to build stronger relations with Europe, especially after the controversy over the governments sale of the inland tribes to Western rubber companies for use of slave labor. So when the Polish offered to assist the Liberians, and asked only to be able to settle Polish populations within the nation, Barclay wholeheartedly accepted.

In 1920, the Americo-Liberian powers that be, were forced to put down a rebellion by the Kru tribe, who inhabited portions of Liberia's Western Province. As a result of this, the Polish settlers were designated to serve as the colonists who would pacify the region. At first the plan went according to plan, but as the wet season began, the Polish colonists found themselves unable to adapt and approximately 13,000 died in the small townships created throughout the countryside in the first year. In 1940, plans were being made to return up to half of the colonists to Poland, when the Danzig War broke out. As a result, the Polish living in Liberia concentrated themselves in Monrovia, building what would eventually become known as the Ciepło, or as it became known to the Liberians, the Shep. However, seeking to build something that would last, 30,000 Poles were organized by the new Polish ambassador to Liberia, Tadeusz Brzeziński, organized the founding of a settlement in the north of Liberia's Central Province.

The town of New Rysy (Nowyrysy) was established at the highest point in the nation of Liberia, in what the colonists hoped would keep them from catching Malaria. This was a wish that was not to succeed, but the extensive use of Malaria nets resulted in what the Man and Dan people referred to as "the basket". Nowyrysy began as a town of 30,000, but with time began to attract indigenous Liberians, who were barred from entering the town, and began to settle on the outskirts of the settlement. Due to this new settlement, the Polish settlers found themselves with something close to a new home. After the end of the Danzig War in 1941, no Poles returned to their homeland, as those who had settled in Nowyrysy were happy with their current location, and the inhabitants of the Shep were to impoverished to do anything. The residents of Nowyrysy formed their own militia to deal with the intrusion of natives into their settlement, known as the Drużyna, primarily because of their cavalry, which were emulating the old cavalry of the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth.

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The Drużyna line up in Nowyrysy.

The second wave of Polish immigration to Liberia began in 1942, after Poland began to recover from its war with Germany. Between 1942 and 1956, it is estimated that 167,300 Poles left for Liberia, primarily from the war torn west of Poland. The majority arrived in Monrovia, began to occupy the Shep, which quickly became overcrowded before leaving for Nowyrysy, which quickly became a regional hub. The Yekepa Road as it was known, quickly became filled with traffic, as Poles took the route to their new home in the north of Liberia. With the discovery of iron ore deposits in the region of Nowyrysy, the Polish populace quickly became rich by Liberian standards, working as overseers over the indigenous African laborers. It was at this time that the Colored community of Liberia began, when the Poles, who had remained largely homogenous during their time in Liberia, began to intermarry with the local populace, resulting in a new ethnic group tying the Poles, Dan, Man and Liberian government to each other.

Following the defeat of Poland in the First World War, more Poles arrived in force, realizing the dream of the Polish Marine and Colonial League to make Liberia into a Polish colony. However, the Polish colony was one of culture and not domination. By the 1970's, the Polish community was thriving in Liberia, while the Colored and Americo-Liberian communities grew as a result of intermarriage. However, in spite of the seeming prosperity, this was only of a minority of the nation and the majority, constituted by African indigenes were largely unrepresented in the government. However, with the independence of much of British Africa, the indigenes found a new ally, the Ivory Coast, who began to fund rebels in Liberia, in hopes of fully wiping out the symbols of colonialism. As a result, as the world moved towards war, so did Liberia.

Singurătate

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Iancu Serban, shortly before his assumption of power in 1964.

Time Magazines Man of the Year in 1964, Iancu Serban quickly became a name synonymous with terror. Shortly after the execution of the Royal Family, Serban began to work towards making his grip over the nation as tight as possible. With this in mind he formed the Department of State Security (Departamentul Securității Statului or Securitate), who began to purge the remainder of royalist sentiment in Romania. Serban also ordered the closing of all borders with Europe, excluding the entry of ethnic Romanians into Romania, which continued under Serban, almost exclusively from Hungary, who continued to deport Romanians from the new Transylvanian territories. The newly arriving refugees were almost all sent to Bucovina, which had managed to escape annexation to the Ukrainian SSR thanks to the unwillingness of the Germans to have the Soviets in control of all of the Ukrainians. However, the OUN had become active in the region, in cooperation with the activities in Poland and the Soviet Union, and became a constant enemy of both the Securitate, and the refugees who found their new homes in Hotin, Cernăuți and Storojineţ being attacked. As a result, Serban ordered the death of 5 Ukrainians for every 1 Romanian killed in an attack by the OUN. As a result, most of the Ukrainian population was radicalized, with many fleeing to the Soviet Union in hopes of escaping the persecution by Romanian authorities. Serban, who saw this as a positive, also began to institute laws that would require any non-ethnic Romanian to sell their property to a ethnic Romanian who offered to buy any of the non-Romanians property, no matter the price, and no matter if the property was for sale. Those who disobeyed said laws were to be interned in forced labor camps. By 1968, the vast majority of non-ethnic Romanians were interned in camps throughout Romania, where many would face their deaths at the hands of hard grueling labor and lack of basic health care and meals.

That is not to say that life was any easier for ethnic Romanians. In 1967, Iancu Serban began to order taxation on all of the nations churches. The Jewish population of Romania, long since marginalized by the LANC, were also subject to this taxation, but were given the option of leaving. By 1970, up to 70% of Romania's remaining Jewish population had left for the United States. The remaining 30% were either interned, or friends of the regime, which although non-religious, retained the anti-semitic overtones of the previous Romanian governments. The taxation also applied to the Romanian Orthodox Church, which had long been exempt from any taxation, thanks largely to the LANC's veneration of the church, and had previously held a high standing in the nation. However, following the fall of the LANC government and then the Lupei regime, the Orthodox Church had become largely associated with the past regimes and had lost much of its popularity. So when Iancu Serban began to actively persecute the church, many of the people of Romania cheered, as church officials were shot in public, and hung from street lamps for "reactionary and traitorous actions against the state". Than again, it should be noted that if the people of Romania did not cheer, they very likely would have joined the church officials in the body pits that were being dug throughout Europe.

In 1970, recognizing that "the spirituality of the nation is in grave danger", President Serban established the Cult of Romania. Basing the cult off of the old Roman traditions, whose connection to Romania Serban began to champion on a daily basis, the center of worship was Romania, the national personification of the nation in feminine form. Also included in the worship were historical figures who were considered "champions of Romania" such as Alexandru Ioan Cuza, Mihai Viteazu and Constantin Prezan, whom Serban considered as his personal hero. At first the cult was voluntary, however, due to lackluster support, Serban made the cult mandatory, and ordered the conversion of all houses of worship into Temples of Romania. This resulted in the desecration of hundreds of churches and the destruction of "heretical objects" such as holy relics, crucifixes and any symbols that could be construed as worship of what became referred to as "the dead jew". Many of Romania's Christians merely kept worshiping, at their own risk, in private, away from the prying eyes of Serban's spies.

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The personification of the nation of Romania.

In 1971, Iancu Serban visited France, on the invitation of President Adolphe Geroux, who wished to discuss the inclusion of Romania into a possible alliance with Germany, France and the Soviet Union. While Serban made clear that he would not join any alliance, he did promise that Romania would remain neutral in any future conflict. However, while in France, he met with one of his perceived Campion de Romania, Henri Coanda, the Romanian pioneer of flight. Serban met with Coanda during his visit, and promised him the command of Romania's, small, but growing, national air force. As such, Coanda returned to his homeland, and began construction on the Aerodina Lenticulara, a flying saucer of his design. In 1972, the first practical model took flight, and just before his death in October of 1972, the Romanian Air Force began to modify the Lenticulara to have military applications.

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Designs for the Lenticulara in 1965.

While the Romanian military began its upgrading, Serban began to work on his most radical plan yet, the dissection of the nuclear family. In September of 1972, he decreed that all children born after the date of January 1st, 1973, would be raised by the government in dormitories, divided by sex. Although the plan seemed sudden, the concept had been under development since Serban had taken power, theorized by his confidants as the only way to raise a completely loyal nation, with no dissent. At first protests began to form, with the people of Romania saying that this was finally enough. On September 3rd, 1972, over 20,000 people descended on the Presidential Palace in Bucharest, much lime they done in 1964 under the control of Serban. However, this time, the government had planted moles within the dissenters, and the main organizers of the event were in the employ of the government. When they began to protest, the organizers began to announce that they were all under arrest for "reactionary crimes against the state". Those who attempted to flee were killed by the amassed police, who had encircled the protest. Afterwards none dared to openly question Serban, who was quickly becoming known throughout the world for his cruelty. In 1973, following the first batch of children to enter the dormitory system, officials from the United Peoples Socialist Republic of China arrived in Romania to research the plausibility of introducing the program in China. The findings were most satisfactory, and the Chinese began to prepare for the implementation of such a program in China. The dormitory program raised the children to believe that the nation of Romania was their mother, and that the President of Romania, Iancu Serban was their father. As such, political indoctrination began at the earliest ages, and worship of the cult became second hand nature. Although many saw Serban's actions as horrific, none could be prepared for what was to come next.

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Girls are taught hymns to Mother Romania in a dormitory in Craiova, 1976.

King Eddy On A Hot Tin Roof: The British Civil War

Opening Moves


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Denizens of London take shelter in an abandoned subway tunnel as the Siege of London begins in earnest.

Following the election of the Mosley government in 1964, the Tories had been in shambles. While still retaining enough MP's to be the single largest party in the parliament, the NSBWP (or Natties as they became known) and Labour had forced Prime Minister Dodds-Parkers to step down, and for the Conservatives to seek out new leadership. As such the party found itself splintered. The Doddies, self proclaimed Patriots, believed in carrying on business as usual, pushing for an agenda that the people of Britain were clearly no longer behind. At the first session of the new parliament, MP Daniel Shepard of the Conservatives was forced to leave after hurling insults at the new prime minister, labeling him as a Nazi and a Communist. Although this was a rather extreme accusation, it was one widely held by the Conservatives. Those who had not lost their seats, retained the Conservative heartland of Great Britain, but lost most of their Scottish seats in the last election, where in Labour became the de facto representative of Scottish interests in parliament. Wales was bit more of a mixed bag, with Labour and the NSBWP vying for most of the seats, and England depended solely on where one was. In the Northern industrial sectors, in particular cities like York, Hull and Liverpool, the Natties were the number one party in local elections. Moseley's brand of Nativist Populism appealed to the lower rungs of British citizens, who feared not only for the lives of their children in India, but also of the threat of "outsourcing" a program by which the government had begun alleviating Britain of industrial responsibilities by having the products constructed in the colonies, and flown in to Britain.

In the major cities, London in particular, the Natties and Labour were locked in street battles with Conservative "Brownshirts" so called for their use of brown military uniforms, being mostly comprised of war veterans who refused to lose the war in India. It was this pride in the Empire, and the prestige that it brought, that gave the Conservatives their base in England. However, this base was largely located in a varied grouping of upper to middle class men and women who found the status quo not only appealing, but stable. In contrast to Europe, the United Kingdom had done well since the end of the Great War, and had even grown territorially since. Government propaganda constantly spewed about the brave men who were dying for king and country, and believed what they saw. In 1965, the British military held only the Madras, Ceylon and the self governing Dominions of Burma and Pakistan. As such, after the fall of the Conservative majority, for the first time since 1931, Prime Minister Mosley put forward the motion to draft a ceasefire on all fronts in India, with the intent to diplomatically recognize a unitary Indian government, that would recognize the sovereignty of Pakistan, Ceylon and Burma, while respecting the rights of its citizens and allowing for continued British influence in business.

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Prime Minister Oswald Moseley

The Labour and Nattie MP's, voted to pass the motion, but the Conservatives were able to pull out a coup, when the Liberals, small but vital to the passing of legislation, sided with the Conservatives miring the motion in an array of debates and procedure. In the first 3 months of government, the Labour-Nattie government were able to procure a settlement with the Conservatives and Liberals, that ensured that any ceasefire would be conditional on the surrender of any and all Commonwealth POW's. After another month of debate, the Conservatives surrendered their position that all Indian POW's were traitors and should remain interned. The ceasefire took effect on September 3rd, 1965, and as the transfer of POW's began to take place, India underwent a clear and quick transformation. The Republican Nehruist New Delhi government, took the peace to convene a detente between the Communists and the Democratic forces working within India. At the Nagpur Conference, Gulzarilal Nanda, the leader of the New Delhi government, was ambushed by the Communist leader, E. M. S. Namboodiripad, who after orchestrating the assassination of Nanda, quickly pushed forth the creation of the Republic of India, under Marxist rule. The Communist Party of India became the only party in the state, and although the people of India were far from thrilled, the ever present threat of war was to much, and the nation resolved itself to its fate.

Shortly after the ceasefire was signed, the first reported meeting of what would become the Traditionalist faction convened in a North London pub known as the Willow. At the Willow Meeting, it was established that the new government was radical, pacifist and would drive Britain into the fold of international communism before to long if left to their own devices. As such they hatched a plan. The leader was Brigadier Woodrow Kemp. Born to modest means in Birmingham in 1925, Kemp entered Sandhurst at 19, due to his families connections in the military. Graduating in 1946 as a second Lieutenant, he earned his stripes in the Franco-British War in Africa, and became a Brigadier through his skill in India. As such, Kemp was well known and well liked by many of Britain's top generals, and as such, began to assess his closest confidants about the possibility of conspiring to retake the government. Also in the camp of the conspirators was Edwin Bramall, a graduate of Eton who had risen to Brigadier during his service in India, who unlike Kemp, had access to the King himself.

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Brigadier Woodrow Kemp, Fall 1965
 
Fire and Brimstone

The Colombian Crisis began under rather auspicious circumstances. The USSR, seeking influence in Latin American markets, entered into an agreement with the Colombian government to help fund both civil and military projects in Colombia, and in return, Colombia would be open to trade with the Communist nations of the world. The agreement was finalized on June 7th, 1945, and two days later, ships from Turkey and the Soviet Union began to arrive. In the United States, President Dewey condemned President Alfonso Lopez Pumarejo of the Colombian Liberal Party. Although Pumarejo was a socialist at heart, he didn't believe in communism as system and certainly didn't wished to be dragged into another sphere of influence, while actively trying to avoid the influence of the United States. In reaction to the announcement, Italy, Austria, France, Japan and the United States seized all Colombian goods in their nations, and with the exclusion of the United States deported any Colombian nationals residing in their nation.

On June 12th, shots were fired at President Pumarejo in his home. As June turned to July, three more attempts were made on Pumarejo's life. He seemed to walk through death on a daily basis, and as each bullet whizzed by his ear, got stopped by a wristwatch or a bible, so did his popularity grow with the Colombian people. On August 1st, 1945, the United States declared war on the Republic of Colombia, followed quickly by Peru and Brazil. Brazilian and Peruvian troops attempted to occupy the Caqueta and Vaupes departments. The Colombian army, on the rise, but far from capable of defeating such a force, was forced to retreat. As preparations began to invade Colombia in the United States, the USSR publicly stated it's support for Colombia, and sent a squadron from the Black Sea Fleet to aid their allies. Fresh off their victory in the Third Balkans War, the USSR was attempting to gauge the potential of war between the USSR and the USA. The loss of America as an international ally had left the USSR with little in the way of backup on the global stage. Tukhachevsky simply contacted President Dewey with a warning, unless the US desired war on a global scale, the US would withdraw its threats. Although Dewey fought for his war, Congress and the Senate immediately voted to cancel the declaration of war.


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A Soviet ship leaving Odessa for Cartagena.

With the withdrawal of American support for the war, Brazil and Peru found themselves at a disadvantage. While still supported by the United States, the threat of Soviet intervention weighed heavy in Lima and Rio de Janeiro. The death of General Oscar Benavidas, the de facto dictator of Peru after the defeat of Colombia, had lead to the rise of Gonzalo Larrea, one of Benavidas's most trusted lieutenants to the position of power. Promises of election had lead to hope amongst the Peruvian people for peace, but the outbreak of war with Colombia provided Larrea with the motive for declaring a state of emergency. As a result much of Peru was restive against the prospect of another military junta taking control. Seeing this, the Soviet Union, who declared war on Peru on September 3rd, 1945, began to actively support communist guerilla's to attack the Peruvian government in hopes of drawing troops from the main front against the Colombians. The attacks did work, but not on a large enough scale to result in anything but a stalemate in Caqueta.

In Brazil, Vargas saw Peru rife with unrest and found himself in a unlucky position. Brazil was large, populous and under an ever tightening grip. In 1945, growing dissent within the ranks of Brazilian society had reached its tipping point, and with the outbreak of war, southern Brazil erupted in violence, with peaceful protests by Socialists and Social Democrats being quashed by the Brazilian army. The protests seemed to be dispersed until the arrival of the
Força de Atadura, an Integralist splinter movement who advocated the violent overthrow of the Vargas government. With the entrance of the USSR into the war, Brazil found itself weary of an overstretched armed force and pushed for a quick victory in Colombia.

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Anti-Larrea propaganda spread by Communist forces. Larrea was a known Nazi sympathizer, and had volunteered for the Strasserist faction during the German Civil War.

In Colombia itself, Pumarejo was unsure of how to take the Soviet offers of help. In October of 1945, Pumarejo was advised by his military officers to accept the offer by Soviets to increase the presence of the Soviet military personnel from 60,000 to 200,000. After some a week, Pumarejo declined the offer, saying "we are already fighting one occupation, and you ask me to invite another?" It was these anti-Soviet policies that first began the plan by the Soviets to get rid of Pumarejo. As the war continued to rage in the south of Colombia, a cabal began to form in Colombian military circles, seeking more Soviet aid to rid Colombia of Peruvian and Brazilian occupiers. Eventually Soviet agents found the man for the job. Colonel Moises Moreno had always been open to the ideals of communism, not unusual, considering his poor peasant upbringing, and had studied at the Soviet military academy in Yekaterinburg from 1932 to 1935. However, Moreno was a loyal follower of Pumarejo, and unless Moreno could be persuaded to switch his allegiance from the aging leader of Liberal Party, the war could very well be lost. In January of 1946, Peruvian troops captured Florencia in the Caqueta department, and Moreno folded. On February 3rd, Moreno orchestrated the assassination of Pumarejo through a front, capturing and trying 13 "plotters" who had sought to overthrow the rightful government and Colombia and establish a "plutocratic dictatorship" under the lead of most of Colombia's military leaders. The top generals were killed and replaced with Moreno's men. Two days, the Soviets began to enter Colombia, as Moreno cemented his grip as Provisional President of the National Restoration Council. Following the full entrance of Soviet troops into the Colombian war allowed for a rapid flood of weapons and aid to communists in Peru and Brazil, which had been nothing but a trickle before. In addition to this, Spetsnaz troops became active in assisting the Peruvian guerilla's, allowing for the portioned control of several villages in the more rural areas of Peru. By March, Soviet troops, in addition to Turkish and Colombian forces had evicted the Brazilians and Peruvians from Colombia. Moreno found himself in a position of power, riding on the memory of Pumarejo, while Larrea and Vargas fought to keep their countries from falling apart. Shortly after the war, Vargas was deposed allowing for a semi less corrupt government to take power in Rio de Janeiro, while the Peruvian insurgency would plague Larrea until his death in 1977.

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Spetsnaz in Colombia-1964 Training exercise with Bolivarian Vanguard.

Paris: 1973: The First National Socialist World Congress

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Marshal La Rocque in 1938.

After France's defeat in the Franco-British War and after the Treaty of Orleans, the French government before La Rocque's crew were reinstated. The Democratic Alliance had collapsed in the forties, as more and more French left for the United States, the Croix de Feux became the de facto party of most French working class people. The nationalism evoked in propaganda inspired the people, and La Rocque's personality cult was considered quite dangerous at the time. Although later compared to Iancu Serban's regime in Romania and the Morales Junta in Colombia, La Rocque was no demagouge. As such, following Frances defeat, support for the Croix de Feux remained in many upper to middle class French. The lower class, the poor, however had turned to a much more sinister inspiration. In 1923, Adolph Hitler lead a failed and abortive coup. Following this, his name was used by both Gregor and Otto Strasser to evoke the symbol of National Socialism. His name graced the youth wing of both the NSDAP and the NSE, but the power of the Strasser Brothers in forging National Socialism left Adolph Hitler relatively forgotten.

In France in the 1940's, the writings of Max von Scheubner-Richter inspired thousands of young lower class students to idolize the Austrian founder of Nazism. In 1950, Bidane Oleastro, a Spanish Basque poet living in Paris, wrote an epic poem about a male character strongly suggested to be Adolph Hitler and as he continued to grow in the minds of the average man and woman, so did his message. The message of Hitlerian class struggle lead to an intellectual revival. In underground jazz clubs, poets and artists spoke of rebellion. The view of a messiah, a man to save France from the dark cloud of the conservative, industrialist and capitalist regime that currently held it, and give birth to a free France for all. Firmin Sauveterre, a member of the board at Columbia, returned to France in the fall of 1952, having left for the United States 23 years previous seeking work and a future. After 10 years in New York, he owned his own house, and 10 years later had graduated from Columbia, earning his masters and becoming a professor of political theory at Yale. 2 years later he gained a seat on the board of Columbia and began to discuss the rebirth of the image of Hitler. After one particularly long intellectual session, Sauveterre wrote out what would become his 26 point plan for the revitalization of France. After publishing the book in the United States, he embarked to France in order to send his message to those who need to hear it most.

After being smuggled into France through still unknown means, he became involved in the underground movement of National Socialism, and quickly found a place at the head of most tables in the underground movement. In 1954, following the capture of Paris by British troops, the Democratic Alliance was reinstated to power. However, when the planned election occurred, the Democratic Alliance was over come by the French National Socialist Workers Party or Parti National-Socialiste des Travailleurs Français (PNSTF) and Firmin Sauveterre became the President of the newly established Fourth French Republic. Using the Sturmtruppe, the PNSTF were quickly able to push down any growing restlessness amongst the populace. Sauveterre still faced resistance from the Parti Populaire Français, the Croix de Feu successor run by Charles de Gaulle and the Parti républicain-socialiste, a liberalized semi-communist party. In 1960, Firmin Sauveterre was able to secure a coup and after a constitutional convention, declared the Popular Republic of France, outlawing all other political parties, and further driving France's population from its shores, resulting in a new wave of French immigrants to the United States, Britain and Canada in particular. In 1962, Sauveterre announced he would retire in 1966, and anointed his protege, the young, charismatic Adolphe Geroux.

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Honor ceremony for the NSDAP in Paris 1973.

Born Francois Geroux, he changed his name at the age of 12 to that of his personal hero, Adolph Hitler, and became involved in the PNSTF at a young age. Fighting in the Sturmtruppe from age 16, he eventually found his way into the party and became a favorite of the most powerful man in France. Sauveterre was considered to be dangerous, with a frightening aura that inspired submission. Geroux held crowds with his voice, a gift only shared by his contemporary in Romania. In 1968, Geroux, aged 37, became the new president of the Popular Republic of France. Within four months, planning for the First National Socialist World Congress had begun. The planning took a detour in 1969, as France, Germany and the USSR hammered out the details of the Konigsberg Accords, an alliance system designed to overpower the Italian bloc. In August of 1973, construction on the exposition grounds were finished, including a French pavillion, a German pavillion and Chinese pavillion, along with delegates from the world's various National Socialist organizations. During the meeting Strasser-Li took offense to the centralistic depiction of Adolph Hitler in the French pantheon, and left early, but the Germans retained their exposition, resulting in the closest relations between France and Germany. Adolphe Geroux and Diedrik Holzknecht had found friendship during the conference and as the Italians looked on in shock, the most powerful potential military alliance became bound by ideology as well.

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The PNSTF pavillion at 1973 Paris. Members of Nachtwache enjoy the beautiful French sun.


Little Known Facts

- In 1933, France occupied Andorra, in the midst of a particularly volatile campaign, being the first in Andorra to extend the franchise to all men over the age of 20. In 1934, after Boris Skossyreff declared himself Prince of Andorra in the name of the "King of France", Marshal La Rocque ordered the occupation of the small mountain state. In Spain, Damaso Berenguer was unable to act, as the Basque and communist insurgency were rocking the nation. The Spanish government, unwilling to enter war at that point, petitioned the League of Nations for support, only to be stonewalled in the face of Italy's war with Ethiopia. Following France's performance in the Abyssinian War, Spain continued to hold claims to Andorra, but did not act until 1953, when Generalissimo Francisco Franco entered the Franco-British War on the side of the British. In 1942, Marshal La Rocque had formally annexed Andorra into France. In 1954, after the Treaty of Orleans, the Spanish petitioned for the annexation of the territory to Spain, which was denied in favor of establishing Andorra as a completely sovereign state. The new Republic of Andorra was founded with Franco-Spanish recognition on January 1st, 1955. Since then, French and Spanish leaders have had little to do with the small state, both of whom make up the small nations biggest training partners in the world.

- San Marino is considered the worlds oldest republic, who since it's foundation in 301 have been peaceful, law abiding and relatively sane in the political department. However, in April of 1923, the Sammarinese Fascist Party took power thanks to the political positioning of it's leader, Giuliano Gozi. Since his rise to power, only the Sammarinese Fascist Party has held the office of Captain-Regent of San Marino. Mussolini and both Balbo's often neglected their close ally, who played such a small role in world politics, that it was assumed silly to waste time with such a state. However, San Marino remains Fascist, steadfastly so, even in the face of growing resistance to the ideology the world over.

- Following the defeat of the French in 1954, Corsica was ceded to the British. The territory was used to give the British a solid base in the Mediterranean and was largely planned to keep the French from expanding their fleet into the Mediterranean, which was banned under the Treaty of Orleans. However, as soon as British forces occupied the island in spring of 1954, they faced military resistance from the native Corsicans, divided among pro-French and separatist forces. From 1954 to 1958, the British attempted to hold the island, before attempting to transfer the duties of governance to the local Corsicans, in an attempt to keep a British force on the island. The Ajaccio Convention of 1958 established a Corsican Republic within the Commonwealth, and organized an election of local officials. At the 1960 Independence Ceremony, bombs and gunfire were set off by the Corsican Liberation Army and the entire plan was scrapped. In 1961, the Italian government was ceded the island of Corsica, to the chagrin of most of the population.

Hungary: Trianonsense

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Miklós Horthy de Nagybánya, Regent of Hungary, 1920 to 1957.

The seat of King of Hungary had been left empty after Horthy assumed power in 1920. The position of regent was an unusual one in Europe, as under Horthy, Hungary was nominally a parliamentary democracy with a prime minister at it's head. While officially a constitutional figurehead, Horthy's influence gave him the ability to exert his own rule in a sense. From 1921 to 1931, Count István Bethlen de Bethlen served as a largely powerful prime minister. His Party of National Unity (Nemzeti Egység Pártja or NEP) cemented control through electoral fraud and appeasement of the labor unions. Although he gained power on the promise of land reform, he quickly shout out the peasants and stifled their political voice. Thanks to Bethlens unwillingness to support the peasantry, support for Bethlen began to decline, and with the only minimal foreign investment in Hungary, from the United States and Italy largely, dissipating after the Great Depression, Bethlen was forced to consider resignation. On May 5th, Count Bethlen tendered his resignation before the National Diet, in response to the Berlin Uprising in Germany. He was replaced by Gyula Count Károlyi de Nagykároly, Károlyi only served in this position until Szilveszter Matuska blew up portions of a bridge in Budapest, and the continued lack of land reforms started a small uprising in Budapest by socialists.

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Gyula Gömbös de Jákfa, from 1931 to 1935.

In November of 1931, Gyula Gombos was instated as the new prime minister. Gombos had gained the trust of Miklos Horthy after preventing Charles Habsburg from retaking the throne of Hungary in 1921, and had served as István Bethlen's Minister of Defense previously, and as such was an obvious replacement for Károlyi. Following the victory of the Reichswehr and the DNVP in 1934, Hungary followed the lead of Mussolini and established relations with the government. Like his predecessors before him, Gombos agitated for the reversal of the Treaty of Trianon, and hoped to further establish Hungary as a nation under his sole control. However, this was not to be as Gombos would die of testicular cancer in Rome in 1935. Gombos was replaced by Kálmán Darányi, who sought to squash the rising tide of support for Nazism within the nation, along with challenging the growth of liberal parties amongst the general populace. It is believed that Horthy selected Darányi for his lack of support for outright fascism, but willingness to rule by authoritarian means. Darányi also attempted to grow Hungary's international profile, especially with France and Great Britain only to find no interest from the powers of the world in the small and weak Central European backwater. Italy continued to support Hungary, and as their alliance grew so did the influence of Fascism in Hungary.

Darányi increased the suffrage and began to expand the military, as well as cracking down further on National Socialism and Communism throughout the country. However, in 1939 at the age 53, and was succeeded by Jenő Rátz, the former minister of defense. Rátz was unique in that he was the first non-partisan Prime Minister in Hungarian history, after the NEP was banned by a Royal decree in 1940, following the outbreak of the Third Balkans War. Under Rátz, the Scythe Cross paramilitary, who supported Nazism, were defeated and it's leader Laszlo Endre executed. In 1946, Rátz died of old age, and was replaced by Vilmos Nagy de Nagybaczon. Nagy, the second of the non-partisan prime ministers, would also become Hungary's last. Under Nagy, the military reform expanded, and thanks to Italian investment and support, Hungary began to push ever towards regaining territories lost in 1919. In the early 1950's, Nagy once again squashed a rebellion by Nazis and Communists within the nation, and finally established land reforms to appease the ever restless peasant class, while encouraging full industrialization within Hungary. In 1957, Nagy was selected to replace Miklos Horthy as regent, and after doing so he abolished the position of prime minister. In 1958, Nagy pushed for the Hungarian entry into the World War, and after a short war with the Romanians, annexed the county of Crisana in Transylvania. The wave of nationalism following this cemented Nagy's control of power, and in 1962, joined with the Italians in their Rome Pact. In 1963, in cooperation with the Bulgarians, Nagy neutered Romania, and annexed all of former Hungarian Transylvania. With this victory, Nagy was able to finally reinstall the monarchy of Hungary, with himself, as King Vilmos the First of Hungary.

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By the Grace of God, Apostolic King of Hungary, Grand Prince of Transylvania, Count of the Szeklers, Vilmos the First.

As King, Nagy was faced with the trouble of retaining control over the new territories, and while at first he merely supported the deportation of Romanians into the rump state that it had created, that soon became very clear as an unsustainable position. Afterwords, he began to push for greater Magyarization, and gained the support of the businessmen of Italy, who used the cheap labor of the Romanians within Hungary to build countless construction projects throughout Pact territory. With the rise of Iancu Serban, the Kingdom became ever present of dissent from within and out, and the Royal Security Service was founded to protect the power of the King in Hungary. However, it should be noted that after the conquest of Transylvania, King Vilmos began to loosen the controls on elections, and reinstated the National Diet. In order to avoid power struggles, political parties were banned, and candidates were forced to run as independent. The Diet was realigned into a unicameral body, presided over by the King, or in his absence, his Regent, a handpicked person operating in the stead of Vilmos.
 
Where are they now?

FRANZ VON PAPEN: 1879-1955: Following the end of the Great War, the rich aristocratic von Papen became involved in politics, representing the Centre Party in the Prussian Parliament, from 1921 until the start of the Civil War. During the Civil War, von Papen orchestrated the merger of the DNVP with Centre and became a key political figure in the post-war political scene. During the German State, von Papen was influential on the policy of the DNVP, having a close relationship with Reichskanzler Hugenberg. After Hugenberg's death, in 1951, von Papen attempted to replace the fallen leader of the DNVP, but was shunned in favor of leaving the position absent. Von Papen attempted to make a grab at power after the death of von Schleicher in 1955, but was killed by pro-Heydrich party members in his home in Upper Swabia.

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PAUL VON HINDENBURG: 1847-1931: President of Germany from 1925, von Hindenburg was a war hero, who had transferred his fame into a political position that gave him a large amount of control over the German Reich. He was given dictatorial powers thanks to the political maneuvering of General Kurt von Schleicher and his son Oskar von Hindenburg. In 1931, when the Berlin Uprising occurred, an attempt was made on his life. Although von Hindenburg was killed, it was only discovered later that the assassination was carried out by von Schleicher's supporters, not those of Gregor Strasser.

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OSKAR VON HINDENBURG: 1883-1960: Oskar von Hindenburg, as the son of the hero of Tannenberg, received power and influence from his fathers position as President of the German Reich. His personal friendship with Kurt von Schleicher was key to the rise of the future leader of Germany into the Presidents close circle of advisors. Following his father's assassination and the outbreak of Civil War, von Hindenburg was given a cushy position in Berlin, far from the front. His position in the government of the German State, following the Civil War, was a private one. Von Hindenburg never lived up to the memory of his father, and remained one of von Schleicher's most loyal supporter. After his close friends death in 1955, von Hindenburg was considered a favorite amongst the Reichswehr to take power. However, Erwin Rommel eventually gained the support, and Oskar retired to his home in a Berlin suburb. When he died in 1960, he was given a state funeral, attended by the leader of the German State, Reinhard Heydrich.

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THEODOR DUESTERBERG: 1875-1950: An early member of the DNVP, Duesterberg was a veteran of the Great War, who joined the Stalhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten in 1923, after disagreements with the DNVP leadership. This veteran's association was largely revanchist and nationalistic, and the largest in Germany next to the moderate Reichsbanner Schawrz-Rot-Gold. Duesterberg quickly rose to the leadership of the group, and in the 1920's was a major kingmaker in German far right politics. When the Berlin Uprising occurred in 1931, Duesterberg and the Stahlhelm made a deal with the DNVP to merge both organizations together, with the Stahlhelm becoming the official paramilitary wing of the DNVP. This merger lead to Duesterberg's continued survival under the von Schleicher government. Duesterberg died in 1950, and is largely remembered for his support of the Rommel Exception.

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ARTUR MAHRAUN: 1890-1950: Mahraun, a veteran of the Great War, and like many in Germany's far right, active in the Freikorps following the war, he was the founder of the Young German Order, or Jungdo. The Jungdo, a back to nature movement with major Teutonic influences, was a major youth group involved in far right nationalist politics throughout the 1920's. The Jungdo, along with the Bismarckjugend of the DNVP, were the main combatants against the NSDAP's Hitler Jugend and the KPD's Kommunistischer Jugendverband Deutschlands. When Civil War broke out in Germany, the Jungdo were merged with the Bismarckjugend and Mahraun was given the leadership of the Bismarckjugend. Mahraun attempted to gain a following amongst adults, but found that the majority of those who found the back to nature aspect appealing, were supporters of the NSVP and the Artaman League. Mahraun died in 1950, in his home in Westphalia. His funeral was attended by an honor guard of the Bismarckjugend.

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HERMANN EHRHARDT: 1881-1937: Ehrhardt, was a monarchist veteran of the Navy, who gained fame in the 1920's, as the leader of the Freikorp group known as Marinebrigade Ehrhardt. In 1920, Ehrhardt commanded upwards of 6,000 men and was involved in the unsuccessful Kapp Putsch of 1920. After the failure of the coup, the Freikorps were forcibly disbanded and Ehrhardt went into hiding in Bavaria. In 1921, Erhardt was responsible for the formation of the Organisation Consul, a group comprised of former members of the Freikorps, who operated across swathes of the nation. The OC began a reign of terror, killing over 350 people for being associated with the Weimar government and the Treaty of Versailles. In June of 1922, the OC was responsible for the assassination of Walter Rathenau, the foreign minister of the Weimar government, and a signee of the Treaty of Rapallo, which ended German claims on Russian land. Although the assassination was celebrated amongst the far right, the publicity it gave the OC, a secret society by design, forced it to disband. After this, Ehrhardt created the Viking Bund, as a replacement for the OC. The Viking Bund became closely involved with the NSDAP's Sturmabteilung, but Ehrhardt refused to participate in Adolf Hitler's planned putsch in November of 1923. As such he received no jail time and continued to retain influence amongst the far right. However, Ehrhardt's refusal to compromise and his blunt leadership, doomed him from taking a political role. The Viking Bund remained, often assassinating political leaders from the KPD or NSDAP, but faded into the background by the German Civil War.

Von Schleicher, recognizing Ehrhardt's brutality, assigned him as the leader of the newly created Reichsnachrichtendienst, or the German Intelligence Service. His role as it's leader was to orchestrate assassinations of those who served as a threat to the German government, and eventually the German State. Ehrhardt eventually established the RND as the official secret police of the German State, and became the most hated man in Germany. In 1968, with the fall of the Heydrich government, Ehrhardt fled Germany for Argentina, and died in 1970, at the age of 89.

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MAXIMILLIAN ERWIN VON SCHEUBNER-RICHTER: 1884-1952: Born in the Russian Empire, as an ethnic Baltic German, Scheubner-Richter was a veteran of the 1905 Revolution and the former German vice consul to the Ottoman Empire. After the Great War, he fought on the side of the White's in Russia, but moved to Germany in 1918, with his associate Alfred Rosenberg. Both joined the nascent German Workers Party and became friends with the new leader, Adolf Hitler. Scheubner-Richter also founded the Aufbau Vereinigung, an organization whose goal was to overthrow the governments of Germany and Russia, and install far right authoritarian governments. Scheubner-Richter and his Aufbau Vereiningung had a major ideological influence on the NSDAP and Hitler, and Schneubner-Richter, along with Rosenberg, planned the failed putsch. During the putsch, Schneubner-Richter was walking arm and arm with Adolf Hitler when the shooting began. Hitler was hit, and dragged Schneubner-Richter down with him. Surviving the putsch, but imprisoned, Schneubner-Richter was among the founders of the NSVP, the splinter group of the NSDAP founded the wake of Gregor Strasser's power seizure. Although initially considered the best possible candidate, Schneubner-Richter's pro-slavic tendencies assured that Rosenberg would be chosen above him. In 1925, he left the NSVP and dedicated his full time to the Aufbau Vereinigung. Schneubner-Richter published several books detailing the necessity of freeing the Russian people, and found popularity with a far right audience, but no political influence, being associated with the dead wing of the NSDAP and the counter-revolutionary NSVP. In 1930, when Civil War broke out in Germany, Schneubner-Richter fled to Austria, where he lived in peace until his death in obscurity at the age of 68 in 1952.

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MIGUEL PRIMO DE RIVERA: 1870-1940: Following the Great War, Spain was racked by economic instability with rampant unemployment and poverty leading to greater development of labor movements and socialism amongst the people of Spain. Afraid of a communist takeover, and upset at the inability of the constitutional monarchy to get anything done, Miguel Primo de Rivera, a captain in Barcelona, lead the military in overthrowing the government of Spain and establishing himself as a dictator. Although King Alfonso attempted to legitimize the military coup by naming the Rivera Prime Minister, the captain refused, stating that he would reinstate the constitutional monarchy when "the country offers us men uncontaminated with the vices of political organization". A fiercely nationalist patriot, Rivera went on a speaking tour of Spain, hoping to assuage the anger of those who opposed him, while simultaneously using the state to assuage the problems of the working class. He established himself as President of a Directory of eight, who were given control over Spain's day to day operations. Rivera declared martial law, and suspended the Cortes, as well as exiling those who opposed his rule. In an early blow to his career, Spain lost it's holding's in the Rif. Although the Republic of the Rif wouldn't last, being taken by French forces in 1931, it was a huge blow to Spanish pride.

However, Rivera did much to modernize Spain, creating a system of highways, damming rivers, and bringing electricity to much of the nation. Rivera, although a dictator, was also a reformer, while being tied to the Army and the Catholic Church, he still managed to improve the daily lives of the average Spaniard. In 1926, Rivera re-established a legislative body, the National Assembly, and the party of his creation, the Patriotic Union, won the majority. The new Assembly, under the watchful eye of the military, created a new constitution, largely based on the old, but with a far more pro-clerical and anti-liberal bias. Rivera, then allowed the holding of elections. The elections were largely fixed, and Rivera retained his hold on power, but discontent began to grow throughout Spain, as more and more began to experience what was the Great Depression.

In 1930, students began to protest against the dictatorship of Rivera, and the one party system. The military withdrew their support for Rivera and launched a coup against the dictator. Following the coup, Damaso Berenguer established a far more brutal dictatorship then Rivera's, and purged Spain of public disobedience. Rivera fled, and lived the remainder of his days in Italy, dying in 1940, at the age of 70.

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ALBERT EINSTEIN: 1879-1955: Albert Einstein, a Nobel prize winner and genius, was a noted Jewish scientist who emigrated to the United Kingdom from Germany following the outbreak of Civil War in Germany. Although he found his new home to be quite comfortable, he soon found the growth of anti-semitism unsettling and relocated to Konigsberg in 1941. He died in his family home in Konigsberg in 1955, as the professor of Physic's at the University of Konigsberg.

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GUSTAV STRESSEMAN:1878-1926: As Chancellor of Germany, Stresseman gained notoriety amongst the right by attempting to adhere to the Treaty of Versailles, while he alienated the Social Democrats by refusing to deal harshly with the perpetrators of the Beer Hall Putsch. He is perhaps best remembered for instituting the Rentenmark, a new currency intended to stop the hyper inflation of the Deutschemark. Stresseman's coalition government fell apart and he became Germany's foreign minister. Although far from a collaborator, he was seen as an enemy of German interests and was assassinated by Ehrhardt's Viking Bund in 1926.

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FRANCISCO FRANCO Y BANAMONDE: 1892-1975: Franco, a veteran of the Spanish war against the Rif (1909-1925), became the leader of the Spanish Foreign Legion before the withdrawal of Spanish forces in 1925. Following the Coup of 1930, Franco used his Legion to help defend the government of Damaso Berenguer. Franco, known for his brutality, became key to the massacre's of students across the nation, and gained notoriety during the Emergencia (1930-1935), a period of martial law and brutality against the people of Spain. Eventually, after the end of the Emergencia, Franco gained a prominent position in the government of Berenguer, and succeeded the dictator after his death in 1953. He is remembered for entering Spain into the Franco-British War on the side of Britain, regaining Morocco in it's entirety. His annexation of Morocco became his crown jewel of accomplishment, and would cement his legacy. Upon his death in 1975, the military installed yet another military dictator.

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Now with pictures!

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Marienplatz in Munich during the failed coup.

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Two members of the Kampfbund meet with a SA member as the coup takes place.

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Former members of the Marinebrigade Erhardt march under the control of the Sturmabteilung.

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Nazi Putschtists await command.

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Odeonsplatz during the Coup attempt.
 
Cluster Fuck 76

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Vice President Dutch Wilson, campaigning in Texas in 1976.

In Spring of 1975, Europe erupted into war, followed quickly by Asia and Africa. The United States were pledged to provide support to the Italians in case of war, but the results were odd. The initial beginning of hostilities had begun when the Italians, chasing Nazi rebels in the Rhone-del-Est, accidentally crossed over into France. They were captured by French border guards, who after holding a kangaroo court, found the Italians guilty of crimes against the French people, and sentenced them to hard labor. In America the reaction was one of indifference. The French and Germans seemed to be nothing more than leftists with a flare for the dramatic. And thanks to a blitz of German and French ads on American television, tourists from the United States became welcome guests in Paris, Berlin, Konigsberg and Bordeaux. And as such, public opinion on the Nazis in the United States was at an all time high. College students and leftists often wore Swastika arm bands to reference their rebellion against the system.

The Italians were America's strongest ally, but their annexation of French territory was seen as idiotic at the time, and was largely granted due to an extreme Francophobia that pervaded the Conservative Party in Great Britain following the Franco-British War. Following the Treaty of Orleans, the Italians orchestrated full control of trade on the Rhone River, but only controlled the eastern bank. The western bank was still French territory, including the city of Lyons which was infamously divided between the Italians and French. In 1956, the French government unceremoniously blocked all bridges leading into France from Italy, as such the border became closed, with the Rhone providing a natural border in lieu of heavily patrolled forces. In the 1960's, Italy saw France as a pest, something to be easily squashed, and as such neglected to provide attention to the growing insurgency in the former French Provence. In the United States however, journalists took full advantage of the free roam given to them by the Italian government and actively reported on the growing Nazi force, which more often then not, appealed to the American infatuation with liberty and made Italy look bad in the same glance. As such, much of the candidates in the running for '76 were pro isolationist, Senator John C. Carter, was not.

In 1975, he outlined a peace plan that could be implemented with US approval with a minimum of casualties in total. As such, Carter soon found himself, along with his supporters in the Republican Party, running on the peace ticket. This caused quite the uproar from VP Wilson, who stated that American intervention in Europe, would reopen hostilities in South America and with the Soviet Union, who remained the cultural bugaboo of the United States. At a debate in August of 1975 between the Republican candidates, Wilson was ambushed by Carter, who attempted to rebut the criticisms of the Vice President in regards to his peace plan. The two never raised their voices, but rather logically stole the entire debate from President Humphrey, who was clearly frustrated by the lack of attention and applause his answers were getting. Following the debate, Humphrey announced he would not seek re-election. Wilson, quickly found himself as the odd man out and in December of 1975, he declared the rebirth of the Democratic-Republicans, which was unusual in that he took a sizable protion of votes from both parties, but mostly from the Republicans, and the Democrats were solely representing the interests of white southerners. As the campaign trail heated up in 1976, Carter began to campaign nationally, knowing he had only to run to win in the Republican primaries. He faced staunch opposition from Wilson and Scoop Jackson, but his charm became famous as the election grew closer to an end.

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Then Senator, John C. Carter and Vice President Dutch Wilson at a function in 1975.

They say they Rana Revolution...

In 1777, the King of Nepal, Pratap Singh Shah, died of natural causes and left his two year old son, Rana Bahadur Shah as the King of Nepal. From 1777 to her death in 1785, the Queen Rajendra Laxmi ruled as his regent, which was followed by the regency of his uncle, Bahadur Shah. Under Bahadur Shah, Nepal had expanded via conquest, to absorb the neighboring territories of Kumaon, Sirmur, Garhwal, Sikkim and Morung. As such, in order to establish his own right, Rana Bahadur Shah had his uncle imprisoned in 1797, only to abdicate in 1799, after the death of his mistress, after which he engaged in blasphemous activity, such as the destruction of temples and blaming her deaths on the gods. After being forced to abdicate, he gave his throne to his illegitimate son, Girvan Yuddha Bikram Shah Deva, in order to live his life as a holy man in Varanasi. However, in 1804, Rana Bahadur Shah returned to Nepal, with Bhimsen Thapa in tow.

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Bhimsen Thapa, Mukhtiyar (Prime Minister) of Nepal, 1806 to 1837.

Though Bhimsen Thapa had become friends with the young king when they were both held together at the age of 11 in Gorkha, this friendship would grow to last a lifetime. In 1798, Thapa joined Rana Bahadur Shah's bodyguards, and after the king's abdication, became his personal advisor. While in India, Thapa took time to study the growing power of the English in India, where through a system of proxy governments, they had begun to accumulate power. Fearing that Nepal could share the same fate, Thapa urged the king to return to Nepal, to reign in his sons stead. However, the young King Girvan was being controlled by the Mukhityar, Daomadar Pande. Upon Rana Bahadur Shah's return Daomandar was put to death, and Rana assumed the role of Mukhityar for his infant son. However, given his lack of tact, Bhimsen Thapa became his head advisor and in essence the leader of Nepal. Following this, Bhimpsen Thapa went about annihilating any and all who would challenge his authorities, confiscating land from members of the Shah family, imprisoning one of the king's wives and in one very cruel case, blinding the 10 year old nephew of Prithvi Narayan Shah, the first king of unified Nepal. In 1806, after mounting pressure within, Rana Bahadur Shah and his stepbrother Sher Bahadur Shah had an argument in court, possibly over the recent usurping of the position of Mukhtiyar by Bhimsen Thapa, and after some shouting, Rana Bahadur Shah was killed by his stepbrother, who was immediately felled by Bal Narsingh Kunwar, a member of Rana Bahadur Shah's personal guard. Immediately following this, Bhimsen Thapa tooka advantage of the chaos, and with Kunwar's assistance, used the occasion to massacre any and all obstacles in the way of Bhimpsen Thapa. For his assistance, Bal Narsingh Kunwar was given the post of Kaji.

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India in 1805

Following the death of Rana Bahadur Shah, King Girvan remained to young to assume his full responsibility, his stepmother assumed the regency, in alliance with Bhimsen Thapa, as the young Queen Regent was the Mukhtiyar's own niece. Under Thapa, Nepal continued to expand, extending from the Sutleej river to the west and the Teesta River to the east. As Thapa began to assert Nepalese independence, it only became natural that it would come into conflict with the looming British monopoly over the subcontinent. Following several major victories in it's past, the Nepalese believed that they were undefeatable, especially after "defeating" the Chinese after an excursion into Tibet, although the end of the war was more due to lack of will on the side of the Chinese and the harsh terrain of the Himalaya's than the fighting of the Nepalese. That is not to say that Nepal was not a formidable foe, but the technological advantage of the British was not to be underestimated. From 1814 to 1816, the Anglo-Nepalese War was fought, for a myriad of reasons, including the perceived threat of Nepal to British dominance of the sub-continent, as well the appointment of Bhimsen Thapa's father to border regions with the English East India Company, with the Nepalese bearing the brunt of a British invasion, which helped develop British techniques in hill warfare, as they were largely used to fighting in planes. Regardless, the Nepalese lost, and although forced to sign a treaty, Bhimsen Thapa was able to retain his grip on power.

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Nepal after the Treaty of Sugauli

Shortly after the war, King Girvan died, and his infant son, Rajendra took the throne, being dominated by Bhimsen Thapa from the beginning of his reign. Thapa was able to retain control, despite the intrigue of the Pande's, until the King announced his intent to rule independently in 1837, which led to the demise of the Thapa's power. In 1843, King Rajendra dismissed the member of the Pande family he had appointed Mukhtiyar, and announced his plan to keep only the advice of his queen, who in an attempt to give her own son precedent over the king's older sons, had the son Bhimsen Thapa, Mathabarsingh Thapa appointed Mukhtiyar. However, Mathabarsingh proved insufficient in the eyes of the Queen, and in 1846, he was murdered by Jang Bahadur Rana, the lover of the Queen and son of Bal Narsingh Kunwar, which lead to the murder of 40 nobles of the royal court, which in turn, led to the establishment of the Rana autocracy.

After the Kot Massacre of 1846, and a short time afterwards, Jang Bahadur Rana established the position of Mukhtiyar as a hereditary one, with the Shah family playing a minor role in comparison to the Rana Prime Minister's. Over the centuries, Nepal developed more and more into a client state of the British, who became more and more invested in India, with the Gurkha troops of the Nepalese making up some of the British Raj's most elite soldiers. When the Indian Revolt began, Nepal was clearly on the side of the British, and that support only continued with the rise of the Communists. The Rana's continued to lend their support to the British, even as the people of Nepal began to plot the overthrow of the Rana's, aided by the King of Nepal, Tribhuvan. The people were also supported by Communist guerilla's and after the occupation of Tibet (1962), explicit aid from the USPRC in the form of military aid to the people. In 1966, as civil war descended on the British Isles and with the Sub-continent beginning to settle, the United Socialist Peoples Republic of China, under the orders of Strasser-Li invaded Nepal. Following a short and bloody conflict, the Kingdom of Nepal was overthrown, and the Peoples Socialist State of Nepal was established with Tribhuvan Shah, former King of Nepal, established as Director of the State, where he was unfortunately in the position he didn't want, as a puppet for the real power, which instead of the Rana's, was now the diplomat of the USPRC in Kathmandu.

Citadelle

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Modern day photo of tourists enjoying Montreal's Underground City.

In 1949, following year after year of escalating violence due to the rising presence of Swastika Clubs, normally comprised of second generation Irish and English immigrants, who took exception to the newly arriving West Indian and Jewish immigrants from Europe, the city of Montreal, in collusion with the government of both Quebec and Canada, announced the construction of an series of interconnected underground tunnels, which would serve to reinvigorate the flailing state of business in Montreal, and encourage tourism, if not for the sights of the city, than for the marvel of something that had never been done before. Although construction was impeded by the start of the Franco-British War, by 1957, Montreal introduced it's 54 block underground complex to the world, even though by this time, the men of the Swastika Clubs had either been jailed, retired, or had traded in their billy clubs, for parliamentary whips, beating on immigrants and Jews through the means of legislation, as members of the Conservative-National Christian-Social Credit minority coalition. Designed to reinvigorate the commerce of Montreal, it worked, and shot life back into the city's failing heart. Around the world, reaction to this system were varied, usually from praise for the engineering, to questioning the folly of the solution to the social problem. But nowhere in the world did the news of the underground city have an effect, than in the city of Algiers, where the Executive Council of the Republic of Algeria, discussed the possibilities that such a project had brought forth. In 1957, it was still several years before the creation of the Rome Pact, and although both immigration from the "homeland", which among the newly arrived refugees almost always meant the Rhone-del-Est, as the Italians had dubbed the region, and the government of Algeria, run by the Pied-Noir's was facing open resistance from the majority Islamic population of Algeria.

This is not to say that all Muslims within Algeria were against the government, given that most of Algeria's army was Muslim at the time, but there was a growing dissatisfaction with the status quo of Algeria, and thus, the Executive Council grew worried, and inspired, creating the groundwork for Codename Citadelle. The plan was actually written out into a coherent manuscript by Minister of Finance, Edmond Leblanc, who theorized that in the Doomsday Scenario for the Algerian State, there would be three safe havens (or havrepaix in laymans terms), Algiers, Constantine and Oran, home to the three biggest populations of French in Algeria. Oran and Algiers, both being coastal cities, would be surrounded by a large and modern wall, which would not only allow the government to detect all traffic in and out of the city, but provide an imposing psychological deterrent to the "Musulman Hordes". Constantine, being landlocked, but being isolated by the series of ravines and it's natural topography, it was a natural choice for a safe haven. These three "citadel's" would be connected by a series of fortified roadways, which would also serve to connect the Algerian government to the newly discovered oil fields on the border with Libya and Tunisia, as well as other fortified outposts which would serve as positions to "retake" the land of Algeria once the rebels had been quelled. In the meantime, the Pied-Noirs would enjoy the pleasures of a Five Star resort, thanks to the creation of an extensive underground complex in each of the three safe havens.

However, in 1957, this was considered by most of the Executive Council as to extreme to carry out, and as such was tabled. It was revisited in 1962, following the donation of 300,000 European laborers from the Rome Pact to Algeria, however, and with the rise of attacks by the Mujahideen in Libya, along with the demand for gated communities, it was announced publicly, that heightened security would require stricter protection of the Ouargla oil fields would require brick and mortar defensive positions. Following this, it was announced, that Algiers would be creating a subway system, construction on which would never be completed, or at least to public knowledge. In reality, the Algiers subway was completed in 1966, but the construction of the Algiers underground, which was being done simultaneously, would not be done, until at least according to some sources within the Citadel State of Algeria, until 1972. In 1964, construction began on the walls for both Algiers and Oran, as well as two intricate series of checkpoints. By 1968, both Algiers and Oran had been divided into literally two parts, one on either side of a wall, as they began to expel bit by bit, Muslim inhabitants on the "wrong" side of the walls. In 1971, the walls surrounding Algiers and Oran were complete, as well as the necessary fortifications in Oran. As the Algerian government prepared for what they saw as inevitable, progressives from both the Muslim and French communities of Algeria fought to unite the two segregated societies, which had both separate parliaments, police and cultures, but at this point the divide was to great. The Algerian Liberation Movement, being funded by the French government of Adolphe Geroux, which was staunchly anti-colonial, was growing in strength and influence more and more by the day, with young Muslims being radicalized by the oppressive government of the Grand Colons.

As the government of Algiers began to lose more and more control each day, the Algerian Islamic Republic was declared in Bechar, following Ramadan in 1973. With this, the anti-government forces began to ramp up actions against the French community, and the war for control of Algeria was on in earnest. By 1976, with Italy fighting off a French advance, Operation Citadelle was given the green light, and without so much as message to their enemies, on New Years Day, 1977, Algiers, Oran and Constantine, had gone quiet.

The Hype

In 1975, the French had 600,000 men on the Italian-French border, although countless irregulars joined the conflict as well, attacking outposts within the Rhone, territory that was the bone of contention between Italy and France. The request had been made in a fit of anger that occurred when the French Minister of Defense, Charles De Gaulle, made a snide remark in French. Mussolini, flew into a rage, and following a few moments, stated that Italy would annex the entire occupied territory. Mussolini, with only a few years left, massacred French villages, burning down statues and laying waste to Marseilles. The city was largely rebuilt, to represent the concept Ruin Theory, provided by the architects at Speer & Hammond, a New York firm, in 1955, and following his death, the Blackshirts remained to strong in memory of Mussolini, that the position of Il Duce was left vacant. The MVSN began to run Italy through a syndicate, with independent Ras's each being autonomous from central authority, only answering to the semi deified Mussolini. As a result, after three months of this short lived sovereignty, Balbo arrived with the 3rd Italian Fleet, and 100,000 men of the Army of Africa, many in Italy refuted the so called savior of Italy, and broke with the National Fascist Council. Northern Italy, in particular Milan, were plagued by political wars as Fascists, loyal to Mussolini, few in number, fought against radical D'annunziasts, who wore black arm bands over dark red jackets, and fought for a non-conformist, anti-colonial, Italian Supremacism. Not to mention the Italian Red Army, and the National Social-Fascists, an odd crossbreed between German Esoteric theory, racial theory, Hitlerian class struggle and plain out vehement New Roman Empire aspirations, lead by a Caesar. The Italian Army spent six weeks beating obedience into the Italian populace, with the military occupying schools, and placing portraits of Italo Balbo in every classroom, a common Libyan trend. Balbo quickly showed that he had been sent to Libya, and although it was not his choice, he had forged his legacy onto the African continent.

Balbo soon filled the positions of power in Italy and created a lower house, which could protest to the passage of new laws, although still at the whim of the Grand Fascist Council, and the Senate, who represented all those with "interests of the state" who were appointed. The Senate proved an effective tool, given that it's ranks were by appointment, filling the positions with loyal Fascists from across Italy, as well as placing loyal aides from Tripoli and Misrata in power in the new government, while the rabble could scream at the high seated judge with the ultimate decision. This began what some would call Limited Franchise, a new theory in managing nations. In 1975, at the time of the start of the Second World War, South Africa and Algeria were governed by a populace that only amounted to 25% and 3% of the possible franchise. In Burma 1% of the population was considered "civilized" enough to vote, even though there was an additional 4% that were of British descent, 5% Anglo-Indian and 14% Eurasian, who were given no say in the governance, and 81% of the population who constituted the majority of the country, even though the "Burmsese" were in reality a patchwork of different tribes and ethnic groups, all sharing the same border.

Limited franchise came of common usage and was used a promoted concept for the Democrats in the United States, and was commonly sued by South African diplomats and was presented as better than the oppressive tendencies of Strasserism and Communism. This culture war proved to be the real irritant in the German, French and Soviet high circles. Coupled with a deep sense of national pride and racial unity, the NSE government of Germany aspired to annex Austria and the Sudeten, leaving a Czech puppet in the sense of Poland. They wanted to hold the line in Poland, working extremely hard with Polish government agents to capture and root out Ukrainian Nationalists and the Second Republican Army, the title assigned to the loyalists to the government of the Second Polish Republic, and in 1974, the Nationalumstürzlerischdruck, lead by Erhard Wulle, took their forces into Poland , occupying the nation, albeit with blessing of the Third Republic of Poland. They began to run counterterrorist actions against the UNO and the Home Army, the self appointed name of the Polish loyalists. Wulle turned a blind eye, as Joachim Peiper and his Nachtwache troops captured any and all Jews or suspected Communists, rebels or nationalists, and executed them en masse before burying them in mass graves. Afterwards, they would wait a week, and three or four would return with a handful of Polish "laborers" and force them to dig up the bodies. Following a cleaning period, and a series of bleaching, a number of skulls would be converted to cups, one group of Nachtwache members, took the wearing the face's of skulls over their own as masks, finding that it inspired terror in their night time raids.

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Nationalumstürzlerischdruck (NSD, or National Revolutionary Force) soldiers patrol the Czechoslovakian-German border.

In perhaps a parrot of these actions, where the Italian government was under the control of Il Duce Italo Balbo's internal council, as the dictator had retired to seclusion in his home. Italo's son, Giuseppe Balbo, aged 42, had managed to take control of most of the government, with dissent rampant among the former political forces of Northern Italy. The Free Army, as it became known, became active in Italy, was allied with the French nationalists fighting Italian troops in the the Rhone del Est, and stood against the government in staged protests, and collusion with Communists to begin a bombing campaign against the Italian government. As a result, Gisueppe Balbo, Il Duce in all but name, Giuspeppe Balbo ordered the MVSN and ORVA to act against the political dissidents, and had dozens of teenage activists brutally murdered for standing against the government, earning him the derisive nickname the Shadow Ras.

However, brutal acts were common amongst the French revanchists in the Rhone-del-est who left the heads of Italian soldiers on spikes lining the roads, and fed the meat of Italian soldiers to Italian troops stationed there. Mimicking the actions of the Moroccan and Libyan Mujahideen, they took to slaughtering so called interlopers and would kill any man, woman or child they caught speaking Italian. As such, the Italians sent troops to counter their actions, only to be caught chasing the guerilla's back into France. One particular force was captured and for all intents and purposes enslaved in a form of public humiliation. In response, the Italians threatened war. In April of 1975, Bulgaria declared neutrality in the conflict and retracted it's troops from the Rome Pact. This was perceived as a break, but was actually a plot to keep Soviet intervention into the war at a minimum, knowing that violating a nations neutrality, would force American intervention, where as the Konigsberg Accords nations stood a chance of winning American support in the next election, or at least being ignored by the Americans. German forces began to hustle around the Austrian and Czechoslovakian border, causing a state of high alert in Austria and the Czechoslvak Republic.

The Kingdom of Hungary, the Republic of Croatia, Albania, Yugoslavia and Algeria pledged a combined force of 80,000 troops to serve for Italy in the upcoming conflict, while maintaining their own more marginal forces. The Italian Army began to fully mobilize, bring a force of over a million to bear, thanks to heightened birth rates and conscription. Libyan youths by the hundreds of thousands were shipped off to the Italian Peninsula and the Balkans. The Italians planned to remain defensive on the Rhone River, while striking out against the Germans from Austria. The Soviets, in light of Bulgarian neutrality, planned to push most of their troops through the Albanian-Greek border, while launching amphibious assaults on Italian Rhodes and Cyprus. The French had planned a full frontal assault across the Rhone, hoping to occupy all the territory they could, with the help of Strasserist rebels.

Following a few weeks of tense looking, the Germans and French launched an assault on April 22nd, 1975, starting the shooting and the Second World War. Three days later, the Soviets launched their assault into Albania. By January of next year, the fronts had extended, as newspaper headlines were dominated by war in the Punjab, China, Italy and Albania. And in the Kalahari Desert, inside the Commonwealth of Botswana, 130 scientists, with origins from American, Polish, German and even to Korean, along with Afrikaner, saw the fruits of their labor, when they dropped over 10,000 pounds of Atomic weaponry on Human soil for the first time in human history. It was a weapon that would come to define the Second World War.

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The First Atomic Bomb, 1976, Tshane Base, Union of South Africa
 
Building An Army

Shortly after the Willow Meeting in 1965, the Traditionalist faction began to grow from a small cabal, to a full fledged movement. The opinions of most of the British Army, was that the duty of the armed forces was to serve the British people in defending their nation. Support for the new government was a divisive issue within the military, with the ceasefire in India being a huge bone of contention, especially after the newly established Republic of India fell to Communists. The decade of conflict and resulting deaths caused many to see the ceasefire as a sign that their comrades had died in vain and that the British Empire was being forfeited. This was not a majority view, but certainly engrained in the opinions of the people of Great Britain. The Conservatives found ever more and more reason to support this line of thought, and following the Saint George's Day Coup, much of the Conservative heartland would take the side of the new government.

After some meetings with top financial officials in London, who were outright enraged at the prospect of losing the massive cheap and usually free labor force in the African colonies, that were forced to do business with the British as they were still colonies of the United Kingdom, Mosley and the NSBWP-Labor government had made promises to dissolve the Empire in support of self-determination, many in the elite began to support the hypothetical concept of a regime change, that would restore the Doddies to full power and keep things running on schedule. And as a result were more than willing to assist in terms of financial support. In the south of Britain, a paramilitary force composed of conservative veterans of the Indian War, known as the League of Saint George began to organize rallies in coalition with the Conservatives echoing the moral ineptitude of the governing bodies to rule over Britain. The concept that an International Communist Conspiracy, funded by Jewish bankers was in the process of taking over the United Kingdom. While no Conservative MP said such things outright in Parliament, they were more than willing to endorse the opinion to the masses. In the Highlands, the Conservatives began to campaign on the prospect of self determination and autonomy from the Jews in Edinburgh and the Catholics in Glasgow. Scottish officers in the British Army coalesced around Colonel Richard O'Connor of the Cameronians. The Cameronians had seen heavy losses at the Fourth Battle of Delhi in 1963, during the Anglo-Pakistani retreat in the face of the newly organized Nehruist-Communist coalition, but had achieved great fanfare for their actions during the Offensive of 1959 and 1960. O'Connor was a member of the Church of Scotland and vastly against the current anti-religious government in place, seeing the National Socialists as heretical for advocating the separation of Church and State.

While the Traditionalists began to grow, especially in the barracks of Lanark and Aldershot, they found a hotspot of support in Northern Ireland. While the rest of Great Britain had sent their children off to war as a result of conscription, Northern Ireland, due to the presence of a virulent nationalist minority in support of unifying with the Irish Republic, was exempt from this fact of life throughout the Commonwealth. Even though there was no official conscription, between 1953 and 1964, somewhere in the area of 100,000 men volunteered to join the British Army. The vast majority of these soldiers were from the Protestant community in the North, but close to 15% were from Catholic families, regardless of which side of the border they would rather be on, the British Army provided a nice pay check to any Irishmen willing to join. Although unrelated in the grand scheme of things, 4,000 men from the Republic of Ireland fought in India for various regiments through this time, only to receive a cold hearted reply from the general populace on their return.

Sectarian violence erupted in 1965, following the return of the majority of those who had fought in India, and the long held back promises of ending the monopoly on power held by the Unionists, who were only challenged in the slightest by Independent Unionists and Labour, as the Nationalist parties were gerrymandered into having the smallest potential influence, which, considering they boycotted the Northern Irish Parliament, was almost unnecessary. The returning veterans, imbued with new patriotic fervor, found the protesting Catholic's who had "shirked their duty" to serve King and Country, demanding what many saw as special treatment, and were angered. Also on the minds of many of the returning veterans, was the rise of attacks by the Irish Republican Army, who, influenced by Socialist literature, were in favor of a true Irish Republic, even more so than the established Republican government in Dublin. These returning veterans would become the basis of the Ulster Volunteer Force, an irregular paramilitary group that was sworn to defend the Protestant and Loyalist community of Northern Ireland, while actually engaging in terror tactics against the suspected supporters of the IRA. For the large part, the majority were caught between violent minorities all around them, with the Ulster Constabulary doing little to assist in any positive way, often due to corruption and bias.

The Northern Irish Unionist sentiment would also help the Traditionalists find a completely loyal territory, thanks to the Ulster Unionist monopoly power in Stormont, as many in the UUP were against the overtures of socialism and anti-church attitudes. The NSBWP did have a following in some of the North's more grab areas such as Belfast and Londonderry, but not enough to even control those voting areas and had only one member of Northern Ireland's Parliament. By 1966, the plotters of the Coup had achieved a blessing of sorts from the ailing King Edward, who was terrified of a communist takeover of Britain, who stated he would support a return to power of the Conservatives. The Conservatives, were kept largely in the dark, to avoid a scare in Westminster. That being said, the Coalition government had it's doubts as to the military's political ambitions.

In light of this, much of the Labour Party relocated to Edinburgh, with the NSBWP moving from London to Manchester and York over a period of several months, all in preparation for an event that no one desired, but few had any answers to solve the political incapability of the old conservative base and the new progressive leftist-nationalist alliance.


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Traditionalist Tanks in London, April 25th, 1966

On April 23rd, the League of Saint George assembled a massive spontaneous rally across England, in the Holland region of Northern England, all of Southern England excluding Sussex, and the Southwestern Wales, as well as several isolated areas of Wales, the League of Saint George attempted to portray the revolution to come as one of England, as Saint George slaying the Red Dragon, representing what they perceived as the Communist alliance between the Natties and Labour. In Scotland, the Church of Scotland, lead by General Richard O'Connor, well known for his actions in the Bengal against superior forces, as well as how command of the Cameronians in the last Pakistani offensive of the war. The conservative highlands were rather against the new racial makeup of Scotland, with African-Britons * making up 12 % of the Scottish regional populace in 1966, largely due to veteran rights of transit to Britain, a title granted to all of Britain's former colonies, by the new government during the peace process in India, allowing a massive movement of Indians from the new Republic, and largely to communities created in Northwestern Australia, and slums in Ceylon and Kenya. However, the 100,00 Indians who did arrive in England, caused a massive culture shock to the entrenched English middle class. And so, in order to absolve themselves of this dilemma, following two days of festivity, tanks rolled into London and across Southern England and Northern Scotland, as well as Northern Ireland, creating a new government for England. Prime Minister Mosley escaped to Birmingham, as a new Conservative led Parliament was established. On April 25th, the British Civil War began in earnest.

*- A term created to designate all those who came from "Commonwealth Africa".

Summer Olympic Games
1924: Paris, Republic of France
1928: Amsterdam, The Netherlands
1932: Los Angeles, United States of America
1936: Lausanne, Switzerland
1940: Tokyo, Empire of Japan
1944: Berlin, German State
1948: Philadelphia, United States of America
1952: Melbourne, Commonwealth of Australia*
1956: Buenos Aires, Republic of Argentina
1960: Rome, Kingdom of Italy
1964: Brussels, Republic of Belgium
1968: Mexico City, Republic of Mexico
1972: Montreal, Dominion of Canada
1976: Suspended
1980: Los Angeles, United States of America

Winter Olympics
1924. Chamonix, Republic of France
1928. Saint Moritz, Switzerland
1932: Lake Placid, United States of America
1936: Saint Moritz, Switzerland
1940: Sapporo, Empire of Japan
1944: Gamisch-Partenkirchen, German State
1948: Lake Placid, United States of America
1952: Saint Moritz, Switzerland
1956: Oslo, Kingdom of Norway
1960: Grenoble, Kingdom of Italy
1964: Innsbruck, Empire of Austria
1968: Grenoble, Kingdom of Italy
1972: Banff, Dominion of Canada
1976: Denver, United States of America
1980: Lake Placid, United States of America

* The 1952 games were originally selected to be placed in London, but with the Franco-British War in full swing the event was switched to Melbourne.
 
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All the World's a Stage

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Female members of the German Revolutionary Force on the front lines in Austria

The expansion of the Second World War was rapid and quick. The Soviet Union began the invasion of Albania in late April 1975. By May the front lines had extended across Europe with Germans occupying swathes of Austrian territory and the French facing a torrent of resistance in a slow but steady advance into the Italian Rhone-del-Est. Comintern forces, comprising 60,000 Soviets, 150,000 Greeks and 300,000 Turks, as well as assisting contributions from Mongolia, Kurdistan and even China. The First Battle of Albania, a name that betrays the later actions of the war, would last until 1976, when Comintern forces entered Tirana and orchestrated the Albanian Socialist Republic's rise, but began with horribly cramped hill fighting between a massive Communist force and well distributed and trained defenders, with Croatian, Yugoslavian, Italian and Albanian troops doing their best to stop the massive force from occupying Albania and giving the Soviets a foothold into the Balkans.

The Italian Dodecanese, and the small fleet that defended them, were isolated and faced little chance of relief in case of a Turkish invasion. The Dodecanese were known for harboring members of organizations who fought against both the Turkish government and the Peoples Hellenic State, and as such were marked for occupation by the Comintern High Command in Istanbul. On April 27th, a flotilla of the Aegean Fleet of the Joint Greco-Turkish Navy was dispatched to take the islands, the people of the Italian Dodecanese took flight, with over 10,000 ethnic Italians fleeing in personal boats and any other form of transport they could get and fled after the Italian Navy to Cyprus, although only 3,000 would make the trip, with most falling behind or being captured by Turkish raiders, who were proceeding to seize all Italian, and Rome Pact ships that sought trade in the Levant and other areas. The Dodecanese were unceremoniously occupied and annexed to the Worker's Republic on May 3rd, and the Italians began to regroup in order to defend their hold on Cyprus, which was under assault by Soviet and Turkish forces in the North. However, due to the new attitude of mercantile warfare by Turkey and the USSR, tensions began to be raised between the states of the Levant and Egypt. In Egypt, the Pharaonist state of Egypt, under Gamel Nasser, and the Republic's of Palestine and Syria, all third way and neutral, began to face harassment from the Soviet and Turkish ships who were in the process of war. Thus began the entrance of the Republic of Syria (May 11th), the Republic of Palestine (May 13th) and the State of Egypt (May 24th), into the growing conflict known today as the Second World War. The actual war itself is referred to in the Middle East as a separate war against Soviet incursion on each state's independence. Actual conflict was limited, with most of the battles occurring at sea, with Comintern High Command prioritizing the Middle East after Europe, a theatre which would never come.

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Taha Hussein: Autocrat of Egypt: 1962-1973, Predecessor to Nasser

As German troops assaulted down the Danube on a course for Vienna, the war seemed to devolve into a series of slow, bloody, bone grinding events of carnage, with the new advent of jet aircraft adding to the death toll, thanks to a policy of total war evoked by the Konigsberg Accords states, civilian targets in Italy, Hungary, Austria and Czechoslovakia were facing terrible tolls. The Rome Pact were clearly on the retreat, and in the first initial months, many thought that the war would be over soon. However, events would not be so serendipitous. In June of 1975, after a period of heated cables between the Indian government in Hyderabad, and the Pakistani government in Karachi, a massive attack began on the subcontinent, with the Republic of India launching a massive invasion of Gujarat and the Kashmir. As war erupted in India, the war continued to spread, with the USPRC invading the Peoples Republic of China on June 17th, and betraying the Soviets, who were forced to enter into conflict in Asia on a mass scale, transporting troops to assist their allies in Asia against their former ideological ally. By August, German forces had captured Vienna and the Imperial government had fled to Klagenfurt, where the mountainous Alps were providing a mountain redoubt from which to defend against the mechanized assault of the German army under Ehrhard Wulle, and were beginning to make their attempt at conquering Bohemia in earnest, as the Battle of the Sudeten had yielded halting success. The French had taken or liberated Marseilles, depending on the reporter, and the campaign to seize the highlands from the grip of the Italians was going well. Albania remained mired in death, and new fronts continued to open, with even the oddest of regions entering conflict.

In North and South America, the Organization of American States had passed a boycott on trade with the states of the Konigsberg Acords on a matter of enforcing a continental neutrality. However, due to pre-existing blockades on trade, this left the Comintern-aligned Colombia of General Moreno completely isolated. As a result the people of Colombia were forced to rely on a steady stream of goods smuggled out of those countries who followed the OAS motion. Most of this smuggling was in the Caribbean islands of Colombia, with the small island of Bajo Nuevo Bank proving to be the spark plug in North America. On September 16th, 1975, as German forces entered Prague and the Czechoslovak government capitulated, a smuggler of Jamaican rum was being pursued by three coastal ships in the employ of the West Indian government, when it crossed into disputed waters de facto under the control of the Colombian government, after capturing the ship, the ships were themselves captured and imprisoned by Colombian ships, who proceeded to imprison the sailors in San Andres City, as the West Indian government demanded their return. On September 23rd, the Federation of the West Indies went to war with the Republic of Colombia and, due to a rather hollow declaration of war two days later, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
 
Bumps On The Road To Revolution
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Günther Rall, Marshall of the Reichluftstreitkrafte 1957-1970

In 1969 after Holzknecht gained control of the German government, head his lieutenants set out to reform the armed forces of the German Republic. The Reichsmarine proved the largest bastion of reactionary support, with the memory of Heydrich still present, even with the former president in exile in Denmark. Erhard Wulle, leader of the NSE-Aktion, fought to dismantle the current three separate wings, with an overarching national force led by the NSE and not the plutocratic Prussians who still ran much of the Reichswehr. Of all the military wings, the Reicshwehr and Reichsmarine were considered to be the most dangerous, which is why the fall of 1970 would prove so surprising. The leader of the Reichsluftsreitkrfate (RLSK), Günther Rall, watched warily when the December purge of 1969 killed off the opposition and gave the National Socialist government supreme control over the government. With the promised reorganization the RSLK was surely to be included in any orchestration by the government against the current system of military, and with it's relative separation from the government, the RLSK looked towards a new position.

The Reichswehr, in February of 1970, was shocked when 135 officers were killed in training exercises and replaced promptly with new officers, raised from the ranks of the infantry by the government. In March, after Erhard Wulle was declared the leader of the Reichswehr, the Reichsmarine attempted to act. On March 14th, two ships fired on Hamburg, while others scrambled to capture Danzig. The Marineputsch was a unsubstantial failure, uncoordinated and relied heavily on civilian groups joining in a popular rising that never came. Communist riots in Chemnitz were squashed and the NSE government used the excuse to gut the Reichsmarine, leaving only the RLSK. The heroism of Rall during the World War made him and the RLSK almost untouchable by the new government and whatever reactionary elements remained, began to rally around the air commander. With the Reichsmarine and Reichswehr all but compromised, they relied on the yet to be disbanded Stahlhelm, who remained in a much quieter capacity, despite the ban on private paramilitaries by the government in January of 1970. With around 30,000 troops on the ground, and a base in the East, where the RSLK had won their greatest victories, Rall was assured that he could force a stalemate that would bring the National Socialist government to it's knees and provide Germany with a true democracy, or at least a sane government. Proceeding with plans carefully, Rall used his adjutant Erich Hartmann, a war hero in his own right, to make contact with foreign militaries to seek support. His biggest mistake was when in August of 1970, he made contact with the Polish underground, attempting to orchestrate a general uprising that would confuse the government and bring about their downfall. The man who made contact with the air commandant, was actually a member of the Stabswache secret service, designed to protect the leadership at all costs. As Joachim Peiper, head of Security for the new government, and leader of the Nachtwache and Stabswache began to gather evidence to bring down the war hero, unable to arrest Hartmann, who fled to Sweden on August 31st.

On September 3rd, as the government made its move, the RLSK struck first. 100 planes took the air, and rained an attack down on Berlin, while Stahlhelm troops marched into a slaughterhouse. After the bombing, and the attack on the capital, Günther Rall was declared Reichspraesident and entered Berlin to a firestorm. However, two days later, they were overrun by the Reichswehr led by Erhard Wulle, who restored Holzknecht to power, and used the excuse to finally unite the forces of the nation into the National Revolutionary Force under his control. Following the Rallputsch, slightly less than 90,000 former military men fled the country for the West, many of whom would find work as mercenaries during the Second World War, and in Africa, notable for their actions in the South African Bush War (1960-1990) in particular. Following this, the NSE was able to solidify control over Germany, as squabbles began to arise internally between Erhard Wulle and Joachim Peiper, fighting for the favor of Holzknecht, the newly declared Fuhrer of the German Republic.
 
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