Xen
Banned
A prelude to something Ive been working on to avoid the Cold War, its not finished yet, but I am working on a timeline for this so please be patient with me.
Prelude:
The Cold War in my honest opinion is probably the most wasteful event in human history, how many trillions of dollars did the two superpowers spend trying to prevent the other from gaining the upper hand? How much better could the world be if this money was spent on something more useful, such as education, health care and infrastructure both domestically and internationally? But how does one avoid a Cold War when you have two powerful nations, each having capable and well armed military, different political and economical philosophies, and an interest in spreading said philosophy to the world?
I have done a little research into the origins of the Cold War, and though the rivalry between the United States and Russia stretches well beyond the Bolshevik Revolution, World War II is the catalyst that allowed such an event to happen, but it could have been avoided on such a large scale, and while it is hard to see either Super Power backing from their position, the Soviet Union was actually more flexible to change this status than the Americans.
In OTL, Stalin’s economic advisors informed him the United States could not continue to keep up with its wartime production, along with returning unemployed soldiers looking for employment would wreak havoc on the American economy creating a second Great Depression. He was also advised the American government to avoid this would give massive amounts of aid to the Soviet Union. Stalin in 1945 was more concerned with the rearmament of Germany and Japan than the threat the United States, Great Britain and France could impose, and was a supporter of the Morgenthau Plan.
What seemed to touch the Cold War off was how to shape post-war Europe, since the times of Napoleon, Russia had suffered numerous and costly invasions from the west, obviously Stalin wanted to create a buffer on the western front to prevent such events from happening again. The United States for its part stood to make a major financial gain by rebuilding Europe with an economically healthy Germany at its center, Stalin would not stand for this and coupled with other events created East Germany.
For the sake of the timeline let us assume the United States and Soviet Union come to some sort of an accord, prior to the war Stalin was more concerned with internal security rather than a World Revolution as proposed by Trotsky, one can understand where World War II would shake this view to its very core, but let us suppose rather than installing Communist puppets in Eastern Europe, Stalin decides to allow the nations of Eastern Europe to have any form of government they desire but under the condition the Soviet Union will be allowed to keep military bases on their soil, in particularly in Poland and Romania, the Soviets will also maintain a Naval Base in Bulgaria, an Air Force Base in Hungary and Czechoslovakia, and of course a couple of military facilities in Germany along side their war time allies. The entire province of East Prussia is annexed into the Soviet Union, as is the Baltic States, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia. The west does not press the issue of the Baltic States. Like the United States bases in Britain, Germany and Japan, the Soviet military will not interfere with domestic politics and foreign affairs.
As for Germany, original plans called for the country to be divided into two parts a north and a south, however in OTL this became East and West, in this timeline Germany is divided along with original plans, but the split goes even further than originally attended, South Germany is divided between Bavaria and Rhineland. The United States and Soviet Union both maintain military facilities in northern Germany. Bavaria will most likely restore the monarchy, northern Germany could possibly restore its monarchy as well. Germany is allowed to have a small military for purposes of defense only, but is constitutionally forbidden from entering into military alliances, neither is Germany allowed to build any military grade weapons and must purchase them from a foreign power.
Western Europe develops similarly to OTL, but the real winner is Central and Eastern Europe. Czechoslovakia develops into a wealthy industrial nation and already has a democratic tradition which is resumed in the postwar years. Poland benefited from loans from the United States as well as western investors eager to prove the benefits of capitalism to communist Russia. Likewise Romania received less, but a great amount of investment from the west causing the standards of living to soar in both nations.
Hungarians voted to restore the Hapsburg monarchy in 1947 and developed in parallel to Austria and Czechoslovakia; though was always sucking hind-tit to its neighbors. Bulgaria didn’t experience an economic boom like much of the rest of Europe, the monarchy was retained but as a constitutional monarchy. However many wealthy Westerners bought property along the beach front and in the interior claiming beautiful unspoiled views of the country side. Bulgaria spent the post-war years playing catch up to the west, and like Hungary continues to lag behind but enjoys much improved standards of living.
Spain, Portugal and Yugoslavia are the problem children of Europe, Yugoslavia is barely held together by Tito but experiences great economic growth. Spain continues to dwell in poverty by practicing autarky which leads to student riots in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The students are soon joined by workers and an army of the unemployed, the Spanish Army is deployed to prevent the nation from breaking out into Civil War, but after years of martial law riots break out in Toledo, Barcelona and Madrid resulting in the Second Spanish Civil War. This causes concern among Europeans, it is also a golden opportunity to open Spain up for investment, and simply put the wheels of economy drive an alliance between Italy, France and the United Kingdom to involve itself in the Spanish Conflict. The Spanish Army is no match for the alliance and is annihilated. The birth of the Third Republic of Spain is, which receives massive amount of aid from the west, and begins its long journey from dictatorship to democracy.
Portugal follows a similar route as OTL, however the Spanish riots and the resulting invasion by the Franco-Italian-British Alliance sends Portugal on a different path. Salazar begins to “liberalize” his government in the mid 1960s, finally decreeing upon his death Portugal will become a monarchy again.
Prelude:
The Cold War in my honest opinion is probably the most wasteful event in human history, how many trillions of dollars did the two superpowers spend trying to prevent the other from gaining the upper hand? How much better could the world be if this money was spent on something more useful, such as education, health care and infrastructure both domestically and internationally? But how does one avoid a Cold War when you have two powerful nations, each having capable and well armed military, different political and economical philosophies, and an interest in spreading said philosophy to the world?
I have done a little research into the origins of the Cold War, and though the rivalry between the United States and Russia stretches well beyond the Bolshevik Revolution, World War II is the catalyst that allowed such an event to happen, but it could have been avoided on such a large scale, and while it is hard to see either Super Power backing from their position, the Soviet Union was actually more flexible to change this status than the Americans.
In OTL, Stalin’s economic advisors informed him the United States could not continue to keep up with its wartime production, along with returning unemployed soldiers looking for employment would wreak havoc on the American economy creating a second Great Depression. He was also advised the American government to avoid this would give massive amounts of aid to the Soviet Union. Stalin in 1945 was more concerned with the rearmament of Germany and Japan than the threat the United States, Great Britain and France could impose, and was a supporter of the Morgenthau Plan.
What seemed to touch the Cold War off was how to shape post-war Europe, since the times of Napoleon, Russia had suffered numerous and costly invasions from the west, obviously Stalin wanted to create a buffer on the western front to prevent such events from happening again. The United States for its part stood to make a major financial gain by rebuilding Europe with an economically healthy Germany at its center, Stalin would not stand for this and coupled with other events created East Germany.
For the sake of the timeline let us assume the United States and Soviet Union come to some sort of an accord, prior to the war Stalin was more concerned with internal security rather than a World Revolution as proposed by Trotsky, one can understand where World War II would shake this view to its very core, but let us suppose rather than installing Communist puppets in Eastern Europe, Stalin decides to allow the nations of Eastern Europe to have any form of government they desire but under the condition the Soviet Union will be allowed to keep military bases on their soil, in particularly in Poland and Romania, the Soviets will also maintain a Naval Base in Bulgaria, an Air Force Base in Hungary and Czechoslovakia, and of course a couple of military facilities in Germany along side their war time allies. The entire province of East Prussia is annexed into the Soviet Union, as is the Baltic States, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia. The west does not press the issue of the Baltic States. Like the United States bases in Britain, Germany and Japan, the Soviet military will not interfere with domestic politics and foreign affairs.
As for Germany, original plans called for the country to be divided into two parts a north and a south, however in OTL this became East and West, in this timeline Germany is divided along with original plans, but the split goes even further than originally attended, South Germany is divided between Bavaria and Rhineland. The United States and Soviet Union both maintain military facilities in northern Germany. Bavaria will most likely restore the monarchy, northern Germany could possibly restore its monarchy as well. Germany is allowed to have a small military for purposes of defense only, but is constitutionally forbidden from entering into military alliances, neither is Germany allowed to build any military grade weapons and must purchase them from a foreign power.
Western Europe develops similarly to OTL, but the real winner is Central and Eastern Europe. Czechoslovakia develops into a wealthy industrial nation and already has a democratic tradition which is resumed in the postwar years. Poland benefited from loans from the United States as well as western investors eager to prove the benefits of capitalism to communist Russia. Likewise Romania received less, but a great amount of investment from the west causing the standards of living to soar in both nations.
Hungarians voted to restore the Hapsburg monarchy in 1947 and developed in parallel to Austria and Czechoslovakia; though was always sucking hind-tit to its neighbors. Bulgaria didn’t experience an economic boom like much of the rest of Europe, the monarchy was retained but as a constitutional monarchy. However many wealthy Westerners bought property along the beach front and in the interior claiming beautiful unspoiled views of the country side. Bulgaria spent the post-war years playing catch up to the west, and like Hungary continues to lag behind but enjoys much improved standards of living.
Spain, Portugal and Yugoslavia are the problem children of Europe, Yugoslavia is barely held together by Tito but experiences great economic growth. Spain continues to dwell in poverty by practicing autarky which leads to student riots in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The students are soon joined by workers and an army of the unemployed, the Spanish Army is deployed to prevent the nation from breaking out into Civil War, but after years of martial law riots break out in Toledo, Barcelona and Madrid resulting in the Second Spanish Civil War. This causes concern among Europeans, it is also a golden opportunity to open Spain up for investment, and simply put the wheels of economy drive an alliance between Italy, France and the United Kingdom to involve itself in the Spanish Conflict. The Spanish Army is no match for the alliance and is annihilated. The birth of the Third Republic of Spain is, which receives massive amount of aid from the west, and begins its long journey from dictatorship to democracy.
Portugal follows a similar route as OTL, however the Spanish riots and the resulting invasion by the Franco-Italian-British Alliance sends Portugal on a different path. Salazar begins to “liberalize” his government in the mid 1960s, finally decreeing upon his death Portugal will become a monarchy again.