Man-Made Hell: The History of the Great War and Beyond

Is this a good timeline?

  • Yes, it's great!

    Votes: 198 56.9%
  • Yes, it has a few flaws but is still good.

    Votes: 111 31.9%
  • No, it's very implausible.

    Votes: 28 8.0%
  • No, it's boring.

    Votes: 11 3.2%

  • Total voters
    348
Aaand I’m back, this time with a British Empire-centric chapter. Sorry this took so long to get out, but school starting up has gotten in the way a bit. Anyway, hopefully you enjoyed this chapter and are looking forward to the next one, which will focus on the United States, Brazil, and maybe Japan.
 
Finally! This thread ain't dead!
Nope, thirty page chapters just take a long time to write. :coldsweat:

Actually, to keep this TL active a bit more often, I’d love to take suggestions for quick little graphics and whatnot ITTL. I’ve gotten a few thus far and I’ll be sure to get around to them sooner or later, but I wouldn’t mind making a flag or map or whatever.
 
And the Titanic clash for Eurasia between the Soviets and the Japanese have been more or less set.

I guess phase three and four would see more use for their toys in killing off whole populations, though for what reason it is, it is still too vague.

I guess Africa will be the last bastion of socialism colonialism because I didn’t care to read first.

Edit: that
 
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And the Titanic clash for Eurasia between the Soviets and the Japanese have been more or less set.

I guess phase three and four would see more use for their toys in killing off whole populations, though for what reason it is, it is still too vague.

I guess Africa will be the last bastion of socialism.
Interesting guesses! I don’t want to give away much, but Japan will be having a pretty interesting role to play on the international stage somewhat soon, just not where you’d probably expect and not how you’d probably expect either. The seeds of this should be hinted at in Chapter Eight.

Ain't that the truth.
I just hope I’m not stuck writing this TL for years. I love MMH, but I’d much rather finish it sooner rather than later. My new goal is basically to write one page of any TL every day to hopefully speed up the process a tad bit. Either way, good to see that people still stick around regardless of long breaks.

Anyway, this TL is dope as fuck and I'm having a blast reading it. Keep up the great work.
That’s awesome to hear! I’m glad to see that you enjoy MMH this much, and I’ll be sure to try and make the next chapters as entertaining as possible! I’m also really starting to get into the slightly over-dramatic and story-esque tone of MMH, so it’s good to see that people seem to like it as well.
 
As always, this somehow continues to become even more awesome with every chapter! I really wonder how the war in Europe will continue. Also, I am guessing the next chapter might involve some events in America hinted at a while ago ;).
 
As always, this somehow continues to become even more awesome with every chapter! I really wonder how the war in Europe will continue. Also, I am guessing the next chapter might involve some events in America hinted at a while ago ;).
Thanks! I plan on making Chapter Nine just about the war on Europe, and some light should be shed on all fronts. And you’re right, Chapter Eight will begin the buildup to the big event I have planned for the United States.
 
I wonder when will the anti-war strikes in the USSR start, given that they basically starve themselves of some goods for the gargantuan war effort.
 
I wonder when will the anti-war strikes in the USSR start, given that they basically starve themselves of some goods for the gargantuan war effort.
The RSR is a totalitarian dictatorship, which is horrible, but from the regime’s perspective it lets the war effort continue smoothly and anything resembling anti-war protests are quickly crushed. The Great War is also relatively popular in the RSR due to a number of factors, such as Germany attacking first, general public support for the RSR’s war goals (among other things, the defeat of the fascists and establishment of a communist Europe), and the fact that the RSR is more or less winning the Great War thus far, even if things are moving slower than hoped.
 
The RSR is a totalitarian dictatorship, which is horrible, but from the regime’s perspective it lets the war effort continue smoothly and anything resembling anti-war protests are quickly crushed. The Great War is also relatively popular in the RSR due to a number of factors, such as Germany attacking first, general public support for the RSR’s war goals (among other things, the defeat of the fascists and establishment of a communist Europe), and the fact that the RSR is more or less winning the Great War thus far, even if things are moving slower than hoped.
By that, I think this is more or less the perfect song for the war effort:


Let us raise boldly our banner,
Even though a storm of hostile elements is howling
Even though sinister forces oppress us today,
Even though everybody's tomorrow is uncertain.
Oh, this is the banner of the whole mankind,
The sacred call, the song of resurrection,
It's the triumph of labor and justice,
It's the dawn of the brotherhood of all peoples!

Forward, Warsaw!
To the bloody fight,
Sacred and righteous!
March, march, Warsaw!

Today when the working people are starving,
To indulge in luxury is a crime,
And shame to those among us, who in our young age,
Are afraid to mount the scaffold!
Oh, we will never forget the deaths of those,
Who gave their life for the cause,
Because our victorious chant will make
Their names honoured by millions of people!

Forward, Warsaw!
To the bloody fight,
Sacred and righteous!
March, march, Warsaw!

Hurra! Let's tear down the crown of the tzars,
While peoples are wearing the one of thorns.
Let's drown the rotten thrones in blood,
Thrones already stained purple with the people's blood!
Ha! Frightful vengeance to today's tormentors,
That suck the life out of millions of people.
Ha! Vengeance to the tzars and plutocrats,
And we'll harvest the crops of the future!

Forward, Warsaw!
To the bloody fight,
Sacred and righteous!
March, march, Warsaw!
 
Great to see another update! Looks like the British empire is down but not out! Though it may be out pretty soon given what's happening in India.

The officers that had let the revolution sweep across Northumbria were ordered to step down and were replaced with new commanders, most notably General Winston Churchill, who had earned notoriety in Hejaz’s fight for independence as the slayer of the Lion of Arabia. General Churchill became the field marshal of all Loyalist forces in Great Britain in the September of 1924 and would successfully hold back the Workers’ Commonwealth in a war of attrition that lasted well throughout the subsequent fall season.
Churchill, eternal enemy of commies. I wonder what more adventures he will get up to?

Veterans of the revolutions in Great Britain and Ireland became foot-soldiers in the trenches of France while British privateers clashed with the Heilsreich in the waters of the North Sea.
What are 'privateers' in this context? Is it just what the Worker's Commonwealth calls their raiding units, or is it in the literal sense of private individuals given state authority to blow up Germans? If the latter, the Commonwealth's international image is going to suffer. A lot.

Speaking of the North Sea, at which point did Germany get the naval upper hand over the Entente forces? For that matter, sounds like they are continuing a naval build up while the ground war still rages. How quickly has naval technology advanced compared to OTL? On that note, there is abso-fuckin-lutely not going to be any Washington Naval Treaty in TTL, and aircraft carriers remain too immature to pose a decisive threat. Which must mean that all powers are building some REALLY big battleships. I imagine there will be great proliferation of 18-inch guns, perhaps even 20 inchers.

he war for the Atlantic would become more and more of a challenge as the Workers’ Commonwealth built up its own naval power, thus turning Great Britain into the guardian of socialism at the sea,
This is quite interesting. The Great War has effectively gone transatlantic at this point. The 'battle of the atlantic' poses its own unique strategic and tactical challenges, and I'm curious how it will develop. I expect wolfpacks.

oll taxes would be used by the majority of Imperial provinces to disenfranchise the lower class, not only to secure power, but to suppress any movement by the working class to push Imperial politics to the left,
Yup, the new empire is very reactionary. I suspect that if they keep this up for too long internal dissent will begin to mount.

Knowing that the death of the Treaty of Kabul could very well be the death of Afghanistan, the Emir would accept Lytton’s ultimatum and declared war on the Indian Union on February 22nd, 1925.
Given the size and state of the Afghan army, they probably would have suffered badly just dealing with the revolution alone. With the soviets on the border, they are super-doomed.

As Tukhachevsky began the invasion of northern Afghanistan, the general would employ his staunchly offensive tactics of quick and heavily armed pushes that would exhaust the enemy. Years later, these tactics would become the basis for the deep operation tactics of Phase Three and Phase Four,
Sounds like Tukhachevsky is going to be a persistent and stand-out figure throughout this war. On the other hand, if Russia is going to be fighting in four consecutive phases of this war, their demographics will be utterly devastated. (also, I like how TTL historians consider this war to have discrete phases like OTL's first 30 years war)

Tukha must be at the utter end of his logistics string though. Against a stable Raj, he probably would not have much of a chance. But In these unique circumstances he can still be effective: Even if the Red Army itself cannot advance past the Indus River, they've still 'liberated' a vast amount of territory from which the native Indian revolutionaries can operate- not to mention terrorize the British.

Given OTL's trends I expect resistance in the Afghan countryside, but at this to the Russians Afghanistan is a throughfare, and as long as they keep the major roads open the revolution can continue to expand.

The reign of Brazil over the New Western Civilization was on the horizon.
Brazil has domestic potential alright. But there is in general no obvious way for the country to expand it's influence. Sounds like something nasty is about to go down this side of the Atlantic, something that will require Brazil to get their asses in gear.
 

BigBlueBox

Banned
What are 'privateers' in this context? Is it just what the Worker's Commonwealth calls their raiding units, or is it in the literal sense of private individuals given state authority to blow up Germans?
It’s time for FULLY PRIVATIZED SAILOR-OWNED SOCIALIST NAVIES. /anarcho-market-Socialist gang/
 
By that, I think this is more or less the perfect song for the war effort:


Let us raise boldly our banner,
Even though a storm of hostile elements is howling
Even though sinister forces oppress us today,
Even though everybody's tomorrow is uncertain.
Oh, this is the banner of the whole mankind,
The sacred call, the song of resurrection,
It's the triumph of labor and justice,
It's the dawn of the brotherhood of all peoples!

Forward, Warsaw!
To the bloody fight,
Sacred and righteous!
March, march, Warsaw!

Today when the working people are starving,
To indulge in luxury is a crime,
And shame to those among us, who in our young age,
Are afraid to mount the scaffold!
Oh, we will never forget the deaths of those,
Who gave their life for the cause,
Because our victorious chant will make
Their names honoured by millions of people!

Forward, Warsaw!
To the bloody fight,
Sacred and righteous!
March, march, Warsaw!

Hurra! Let's tear down the crown of the tzars,
While peoples are wearing the one of thorns.
Let's drown the rotten thrones in blood,
Thrones already stained purple with the people's blood!
Ha! Frightful vengeance to today's tormentors,
That suck the life out of millions of people.
Ha! Vengeance to the tzars and plutocrats,
And we'll harvest the crops of the future!

Forward, Warsaw!
To the bloody fight,
Sacred and righteous!
March, march, Warsaw!
This is awesome! Thank you so much for showing this song! You’re right, it ties perfectly into the RSR’s war goals and this would make for great MMH trailer music (not that I’m planning on making a trailer :p)!

Churchill, eternal enemy of commies. I wonder what more adventures he will get up to?
I do kinda like the idea of Churchill showing up every now and then ITTL, so who knows, I guess. IIRC, he started out as an official of the Royal Navy, so as of now he’s participating in the Atlantic Front on behalf of the Empire of America.

What are 'privateers' in this context? Is it just what the Worker's Commonwealth calls their raiding units, or is it in the literal sense of private individuals given state authority to blow up Germans? If the latter, the Commonwealth's international image is going to suffer. A lot.
The privateers mentioned are basically just naval militias regulated by the naval branch of the Workers’ Commonwealth armed forces. They’re typically formed by unions/private individuals who got their hands on boats during the Second Glorious Revolution, but the privateers still operate within the very decentralized and general framework of the naval war effort. Imagine the WMA but at sea. It should also be noted that the privateers are extensively more regulated on the Atlantic Front due to the scale and risks of the war against the Empire of America.

Speaking of the North Sea, at which point did Germany get the naval upper hand over the Entente forces? For that matter, sounds like they are continuing a naval build up while the ground war still rages. How quickly has naval technology advanced compared to OTL? On that note, there is abso-fuckin-lutely not going to be any Washington Naval Treaty in TTL, and aircraft carriers remain too immature to pose a decisive threat. Which must mean that all powers are building some REALLY big battleships. I imagine there will be great proliferation of 18-inch guns, perhaps even 20 inchers.
The Heilsreich beat out the Royal Navy around the end of the British Civil War due to the depletion of resources the Loyalists could get their hands on. Germany also has access to a wide array of resources thanks to puppet regimes and has more of an incentive to build up its navy due to the war against the Soviet Republic. You’re right, you’ll definitely be seeing much larger ships, but because the war at sea isn’t as big as the war on land, the strategy by most nations (especially Germany) is to outnumber, not out-advance. That should be happening soon though, especially thanks to the Atlantic Front.


This is quite interesting. The Great War has effectively gone transatlantic at this point. The 'battle of the atlantic' poses its own unique strategic and tactical challenges, and I'm curious how it will develop. I expect wolfpacks.
It’s definitely a big mess. The Atlantic Ocean is a lot smaller than the Pacific, which means that both factions can basically just send their ships straight to the battlefield in the middle. There also aren’t a lot of islands to seize in the northern Atlantic, so there’s no island hopping strategy. The United States is definitely not happy about the war in the middle of a pretty big trading route. A lot of 1920s American economic power ITTL is derived from dealings with the factions of the Great War, which leads to Wall Street ITTL analyzing the war effort the same way Wall Street in OTL analyzed stocks. It should lead to a pretty morbid, but also hopefully interesting, American economic dynamic.


Sounds like Tukhachevsky is going to be a persistent and stand-out figure throughout this war. On the other hand, if Russia is going to be fighting in four consecutive phases of this war, their demographics will be utterly devastated.
Yeah, the RSR is basically completely building its economy around spreading the revolution. War Communism never ended ITTL and Russian society is completely dedicated to this insane meat grinder.

(also, I like how TTL historians consider this war to have discrete phases like OTL's first 30 years war)
Thanks! I thought that doing the “phase” gimmick was a neat little way to give the timeline a bit more of a dystopian feel. It comes off as more mechanical and less colorful, if that makes sense.

Also, speaking of historians ITTL, has anyone noticed that the “narrator” of MMH isn’t really a historian? They’re from TTL, but they know stuff that a historian wouldn’t be able to (the conversation between August and his butler at the end of Chapter Four is the biggest example of this). Furthermore, the narrator doesn’t really talk like a historian. They’re more dramatic, and the dramatic tone of MMH is intended to resemble that of an epic story more than a history textbook. With that being said, I don’t really have an idea of who the “narrator” is. I’m thinking they’re an observer of sorts watching events ITTL unfold from an “exterior” perspective, if that makes sense.

Tukha must be at the utter end of his logistics string though. Against a stable Raj, he probably would not have much of a chance. But In these unique circumstances he can still be effective: Even if the Red Army itself cannot advance past the Indus River, they've still 'liberated' a vast amount of territory from which the native Indian revolutionaries can operate- not to mention terrorize the British.
Do keep in mind that the British Raj is an absolute mess right now. Tukhachevsky will reach the point where he basically has to occupy whatever rebels don’t.

Brazil has domestic potential alright. But there is in general no obvious way for the country to expand it's influence. Sounds like something nasty is about to go down this side of the Atlantic, something that will require Brazil to get their asses in gear.
Research for Brazil should be... fun. o_O

In all honesty, Brazil’s role ITTL and the buildup to it could warrant a chapter of its own, but this train is moving slow enough as it is.
 
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Yeah, the RSR is basically completely building its economy around spreading the revolution. War Communism never ended ITTL and Russian society is completely dedicated to this insane meat grinder.
If that's the case, does that mean rebellions like Kronstadt and Tambov never happened? Those occured primarily due to War Communism and the stress it was putting on the populace, and since War Communism is still going way after it was originally scrapped in OTL, does that mean these revolts never occured or were they put down in such a brutal fashion that nobody was willing to oppose War Communism out of fear of death?
 
If that's the case, does that mean rebellions like Kronstadt and Tambov never happened? Those occured primarily due to War Communism and the stress it was putting on the populace, and since War Communism is still going way after it was originally scrapped in OTL, does that mean these revolts never occured or were they put down in such a brutal fashion that nobody was willing to oppose War Communism out of fear of death?
Yeah, revolts like Kronstadt and Tambov never happened just due to the Russian Civil War being so different ITTL that they were butterflied away. War Communism is also pretty popular amongst the general populous ITTL considering that a militarized regime makes perfect sense given the circumstances the Soviet Republic finds itself within ITTL, but yeah, dissent is brutally crushed. Trotskyist Russia, while still very different from the USSR in OTL, does share some pretty obvious similarities with Stalinism.
 
A lot of 1920s American economic power ITTL is derived from dealings with the factions of the Great War, which leads to Wall Street ITTL analyzing the war effort the same way Wall Street in OTL analyzed stocks.
Morbid but interesting alright. A new civil war was foreshadowed though, I suspect that might be karma for, and perhaps partially provoked by, the government treating the Great War so callously.
 
I just wanted to say as a new comer to the site that you an amazing timeline writer and I have one question will a ww2 even be feasible or will the world just avoid it at all costs like a mega appeasement?
 
I just wanted to say as a new comer to the site that you an amazing timeline writer and I have one question will a ww2 even be feasible or will the world just avoid it at all costs like a mega appeasement?
For starters, welcome to AlternateHistory.com! Secondly, thank you very much for the writing compliment, it really does mean a lot to me and I’m flattered that a newcomer decided to stop by my silly TL.

As for your question, it depends on what you mean by “WWII.” If you mean a second war on the scale of the Great War, that’s definitely not happening for a number of reasons. As for a war about the size of OTL’s WWII, without getting into spoiler territory the most I can say is that the post-war world won’t be world peace at all costs. I mentioned a Cold War in Chapter One and that’s still planned.
 
For starters, welcome to AlternateHistory.com! Secondly, thank you very much for the writing compliment, it really does mean a lot to me and I’m flattered that a newcomer decided to stop by my silly TL.

As for your question, it depends on what you mean by “WWII.” If you mean a second war on the scale of the Great War, that’s definitely not happening for a number of reasons. As for a war about the size of OTL’s WWII, without getting into spoiler territory the most I can say is that the post-war world won’t be world peace at all costs. I mentioned a Cold War in Chapter One and that’s still planned.

Great to hear of a cold war and to answer your question of what I mean by ww2 I mean irl to a degree maybe smaller or a little bigger but I doubt that as people will remember the first for generations
 
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