AH challenge: caribbean front

The challenge today is to somehow have a caribbean front in world war two. It must be a major front with the same level of fighting as the pasific front. bonouse points if it involves a caribbean nation invading the U.S.
 
For whatever reason, the Spanish-American War is avoided. (Maybe the USA focuses some imperialistic might somewhere else?) Spain eventually crushes the Cuban revolts and consolidates it's rule over the island, perhaps even making governmental reforms that lets more power into Cuban hands.

With the Phillipines still in Spanish hands into the 20th century, tensions with Japan increase. Instead of going after Russia, Japan decides to expand into the Phillipines, attacking in 1905. It is a war Spain swiftly loses, without much loss. The Phillipines are "sold" to Japan.

Spain decides to increase and modernize it's naval fleet after it's swift loss against Japan. Spain goes to Germany for help in this, who is currently engaged in the battleship-building race with Britain. German advisors help the Spanish upgrade their fleet. By World War 1, Spain has a small, but effective fleet.

World War 1 goes much the same way, with Germany defeated and Austria-Hungary dissolved. Russia plunges into revolution. Hitler and the Nazis come to power in Germany. In Spain, however, the Spanish Civil War was avoided by having a much more effective government. Spain becomes more of a republic, with a figurehead monarch.

For fun, let's have Frano become Prime Minister or President, still with an authoritarian mindset. He slowly takes over the government, kind of how Hitler did, but not to the extent.

On September 1st, 1939, Nazi Germany invades Poland, touching off the Second World War. Hitler attempts to coerce Spain to join, but at first, Franco declines. In December, 1941, the Japanese attack Hawaii, with a much more dedicated force (no Phillipines to attack). The USA enters the war in full bore.

In 1942, Germany and Japan convince Spain to join the Axis, with the promise of the return of the Phillipines at the end of the war. Franco jumps in, reluctantly, and the Germans and the Spanish begin their assault on Gibraltar.

The USA declares war on Spain soon after, and attacks Cuba. The Spanish Fleet, mostly based in Havana and Guantanamo Bay, fights back with dedication. The Americans cannot put force their entire effort while fighting a much more serious war with Japan, so the fleet that fights in the Carribean is a much smaller and older force. The Spanish perform small raids on Miami, Galveston, Mobile and New Orleans.

Eventually, the Spanish are defeated and the Axis crushed. (Perhaps a two-pronged D-Day, one at Gibralter and another at Normandy?)

Just a fairly quick idea. Any comments on plausibility?
 

Thande

Donor
If there was no Spanish-American War, I don't think the US would have developed as quickly (or rather, it would still be inward-looking). In other words, it might not be as powerful in WW2, and certainly not in WWI. Mind you, I always wondered what a siege of Gibraltar would turn out like...
 
Interesting.. Another way might be that Denmark keeps the Danish West Indies, and during the occupation of Denmark in WW2, German troops take over the islands, and the Americans invade to boot them off.
 
1870’s -Spain regains Santos Domingo
1890’s --No Spanish American War
1905-- Japan loses Manchuria in Russian War , Starts concentrating on the Pacific
1906-- Spain declares Cuba , SD, & PR. oversea provinces of Spain [like French Guinea]
1914-- WW1-- Japan takes German Asia. With the post 1905 focus on the Pacific, Japan gets more and ANZAC gets less.
1917--- Russian civil War-- USSR
1921-- Great Depression starts in Agricultural Sector.
1924-- La Duce take power in Italy
1926-- Spanish Fascists take over in Spain , like the Fascists had in Italy, US unhappy about Fascists in the Caribbean but does little but protest.
1929-- Great Depression reaches Industrial sector
1933-- Fascists take over in Germany “Mon Fuhrer- Hitler”
1939 -- Germany invades Poland --WW2
1940-- Germany invades France, Italy & Spain declare war on France. Spanish navy in Cuba invades French Caribbean. Attacks Jamaica, Bahamas.
1941-- Pearl.
1942-- US opens Caribbean Front.
 
Thande said:
If there was no Spanish-American War, I don't think the US would have developed as quickly (or rather, it would still be inward-looking). In other words, it might not be as powerful in WW2, and certainly not in WWI. Mind you, I always wondered what a siege of Gibraltar would turn out like...

Well, the USA doesn't have to develop as quickly for my timeline to work, in fact, it's probably better that it doesn't. If it's not as powerful in WWII, it makes Spain's job a little easier. With the main force of the USN engaged against the Japanese, the small, yet effective Spanish force operating out of Cuba would have less of a fight against them. Personally, I liked the idea of Spanish raids on the Gulf of Mexico coast.

Eventually, though, whether or not the USA would be as developed, the Axis would probably lose with as few butterflies as I put into the timeline. This world, dare I say it, might actually be a slightly better one than ours. Following Spain's defeat in WWII, Franco would be disposed of and Spain wouldn't be a fascist dictatorship until the '70s, and would probably be a founding member of NATO and the predecessor to the EU. Cuba would be better off; after a short occupation the USA would set up a democratic republic without Castro and his Communist buddies, and it wouldn't be in the poor condition it is today.

Also, back to the former point, there's still a good chance the USA would be just as developed. Like I said earlier, they'd probably find somewhere else to throw their weight around about that time. Instead of just inciting a Panamanian revolt, they could wage full-scale war against Columbia, for a possibility.

Any other comments on the TL?
 
I don't really see this Spain joining the Axis. Franco didn't after all the help he got from the Axis in the spanish civil war, and it was in 1940 when Germany was all too powerfull. IMHO, Franco would never join the war unless GB is out of it. About Cuba or Filipines being a democratic place after a brief US ocuppation, only two words: Batista and Marcos.
 

Neroon

Banned
Why would the Japanese attack the U.S. if they don´t have the Phillipine Islands as a US base to worry about?
Better would be to have Spain join in 1st and then U.S. declares war on the Axis to kick the Axis out of Cuba.
 
Hmmm, WI Cuba somehow during the 1920s or 30s becomes a fascist dictatorship along similar lines as Nationalist Spain, and is pumped up with enough munitions and military advice by Hitler (despite his distaste at assisting such a 'mongrelised' nation) and/or Mussolini, so that either the Cubans embark on some covert war against Florida and along the Gulf of Texas and then tries to invade the Dominican Republic and other neighbouring island nations, or inevitably the US decides that the Cubans can't be trusted being such a threat so close to America and launch a combined ops invasion of the island before or during WWII, so it's an earlier version of the Kennedy's ORTSAC invasion plan ?

BTW, there were a few thous US support personnel stationed in the Caribbean during WWII, including a few AA and coastal arty regts (in turn numbering at least 1 black outfit whose presence was initially rejected and questioned by British colonial authorities) dispatched to British Dominion islands, inn addition to all the Caribbean bases acquired under the Lend-Lease agreement in exchange for trading 50 old USN destroyers to the RN. In this scenario, these US forces in Caribbean command would probably see action against the fascist Cubans.
 
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