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The Third Crack In The Dam: The Doctrine of Volkism and Fascism and the Italian Revolution
If anything else cannot be understood, let this be the example. Socialism is to Communism what Volkism is to Fascism.
- Gerald Harrison, founder of the Australian Fatherland Party, addressing the first General Meeting on the 18th June 1951.

To understand the principles of both political ideologies, one must understand their place in a greater context.

In the ancien regime of France prior to the Revolution, the Estates General would be formed in such a way that the traditionalist and conservative representatives sat to the King's right, with the moderates and centrists in the middle and the radicals and revolutionaries to the King's left. In essence, where people stood that time would define the politics for the rest of history. However, many people considered it simplistic, with historians after the Second World War taking an in-depth look at people's beliefs in places such as Australia, Britain, France, the United States and China.

For the sake of time, we will consult with the most popular yet controversial example: The Miliotis Scale devised by Dr Archimedes Miliotis (1) during a series of lectures at Oxford University in 1982 - 1983. Miliotis designed a system where each ideology could be marked down according to several tenants and statements therein:
1. Economic Intervention by the Government - Laissez-faire, Welfare Net, Mixed Economy, State Capitalist, Nationalisation
2. Religion in Society - Atheistic State, Secular State, Religious Tolerance, Separation of Church and State, Pastoral System, National Religion, Theocratic Regime
3. Children In Society - Total Emancipation, Apprentice Boys and Girls, Schools For Learning, Compulsory Education, Compulsory Boarding Schools
4. The Family - No Nuclear Family, Communal rearing of children, the Nuclear Family, The Family is promoted, The Family is Subordinate to the State
5. The Government - No Authority, Night Watchman State, Democratic State, Natural State, Safety Net, Interventionist State, Totalitarian State
6. The Military - Citizen Defence, Militia, Army Serving a State, Military Junta, The People are Subordinate to the Military.
7. The Race - Miscegenation (2), Minority-Racial Preference, Personal Preference, Personal-Racial Preference, Racial Purist
8. The Law - Laws of Nature Apply, Social Contract, Regulatory State, Legalist State, Nanny State, Curfew State, Authoritarian State
9. Morality - To Each Their Own, A Code of Honour, Secular Morals, Inalienable Rights, Religious Morals, Morals of "God", One Man's Morals Over All
10. Nation - No Nation and No Borders, Tribes, A Defined Community With Borders, Expansionist State, Exponential State (3)

Communism is the idea (rooted in philosophy, economics, politics and sociology) that the people must reorient the society around the common ownership of the means of production and the abolition of social classes and hierarchy thereby, money and the state. It is based on the idea of two diametrically opposed groups that have existed in all capitalist societies: The Bourgeoisie, otherwise known as "the Capitalist Class" and the Proletariat or the "Working Class". The bourgeoise are, according to communism, the minority in society that profit off the working class via private ownership of the means of production. The proletariat, according to the theory, work for their wages and are shut out of the system by the bourgeoise. According to communist theory, it must be made clear that the working class (Proletariats) must rise up against the capitalists and take away the means of production for themselves to share among the people.

Socialism, as opposed to the violent revolution marking communism, is rooted in the social ownership of the means of production via democratic means. That is to say, socialism is built upon democratic processes to allow the proletariat to control the means of production. It should be noted, however, that socialism is the primary stage of communism. In other words, socialism leads to communism.

Fascism is the political idea that liberal democracy, conservatism, socialism and capitalism are irrelevant to the state. A one-party state, totalitarian in power and authoritarian in nature would be beneficial to a nation. This nation would not be constrained by any morality that exists in the pre-Fascist society, such as religion, laissez-faire capitalism, liberalism, human rights, et cetera. What would matter to a nation would be demographics. To quote David Robert Jones, a British sociologist and open Volkist:

Fascism is rooted in the idea of Race. Race has always been a part of our understanding of humanity, but Fascism and its creators took it one step further to declare that Races had to be not only superior, but solitary in their existence. Either by assimilation or extermination.

Fascism was developed in Italy by Benito Mussolini, based on the fasci, Italian organisations that were the equivalent of guilds or syndicates. In 1915, Mussolini created the Fasci d'Azione Rivoluzionaria (Fasces of Revolutionary Action), which was socialist yet anti-Marxist. Mussolini, during this time, would take his inspiration from the controversial French socialist Louis Auguste Blanqui. Blanqui would be famous or infamous for the quote "No gods, no masters". Blanquism would be controversial as well, as it declared the ideas of a social movement and the importance of the working class to be irrelevant. What mattered, according to the philosophy, would be the concentration of radical power in a small sector of the community. Thus, the movement could not be perverted or whitewashed before the radicals overthrew the bourgeoisie and established the totalitarian social order. Then and only then could the movement be restored to the people. What separated Fascism from Blanquism would be the necessity of a continuous social order that was restrictive and anti-democratic. At war's end, the Fasci d'Azione Rivoluzionaria began recruiting from pro-war trade unions, as interventionism became a factor of Fascist thinking. So, as the 1920's came along and as the Italians saw the return of the Dutch East Indies to The Netherlands, they began to see a window of opportunity. As colonial powers expanded their influence, their culture and their ideals onto the "Unbuilt World" (4), the fascists believed that Fascism can be given the same chance. If Fascism took hold in a state, it would be necessary to spread the influence to the nation's colonies (if it had any) or to allies. This "Syndicate of Fascist States" would rival the capitalist powers and the "Unbuilt World". Any attempt to resist would be met with a "Racial Army", a mass levy of soldiers that fitted the model of a "racially pure" Nation-State. Women would be subordinate to men, in such a way that women could not obtain employment, that they would be pressured to go into the home and that men were to obtain a status that was superficial and devoid of individuality. All children would be reared by the state, with the family meaning nothing but loyalty to the race, whatever race it happened to be.

But within the principles of Fascism (5), a problem was found. Not from a fellow Fascist, but from a contrarian accosted by the public for being a pornographer despite his attention to the dehumanising effects of industrialisation and modernity within English society.

David Herbert Lawrence (1885 - 1930) (6)
View attachment 578783

A contrarian by nature, he was reviled as a misogynist but at the same time praised as having strong female characters within his works as well as support for women's suffrage at his youth. He was also, according to Bertram Russell, a supporter of converting the British Empire from a monarchy to an absolute dictator and dictatrix to rule over England. This was, of course, when he condemned the Trotsky led-revolts in Russia and in the Dutch East Indies and Marx's theories in general. It was during his time in Italy with Bertram Russell in 1925 when he discovered translated documents given by a fascist sympathiser. Upon reading the whole thing, Lawrence said out of nowhere, "how will you convince people to be a part of the minority when power is never given back to the people?" Of course, it was said in his contrarian nature and not in a way to improve fascist thinking. Yet it did.

What had to occur was a transitionary stage. Something that had to develop to transform the liberal democratic state into the fascist state.


We now turn to Giovanni Gentile.
View attachment 579053

Gentile was an Italian that dabbled in philosophy that was Hegelian and that contained idealism. In the 1919 Election, the ruling Prime Minister Antonio Salandra was defeated by the rising Liberals, Democrats and Radicals (LDR) under Vittorio Emanuele Orlando (7) and the new Italian People's Party under Luigi Sturzo. To gain the initiative of the pro-war public and to combat the rise of the Italian Socialist Party (which won 166 seats instead of OTL's 156), Sturzo managed to negotiate a coalition with the veteran's rights party Combatants' Party (24 seats), the socially conservative Economic Party (12 seats) and the rump remains of the Liberal Union Party of Salandra. With the Italian Socialist Party denied their right as the largest party, talk of revolution began to unfold. But more on that later.

Gentile would form his ideal leadership of the nation from the Philosopher King: A hard-working, thrifty individual that is wise, strong, courageous and just to the people that he rules over. Such a person would not need to be elected and would continue his education as a wise man. He would not be restrained by democracy or by the morality of the mob, or by socialism or liberalism.

Using the system of syndicates, labour and capital would be united in a corporatist system. This would be where businesses, trade unions and workplaces would form "corporate groups" to advocate common interest within a certain sphere such as agriculture, the military, industry, mining, et cetera. Formed in guilds, this would provide harmony among the classes (poor, lower classes, middle and upper class). This system can also be found under the "revolutionary syndicalism" of Georges Sorel.

Having found flaws within democracy, the fascist movement within Italy feared that the next election would see the rise of the Italian Socialists. Anti-democratic sentiments meant that the fascists believed in replacing the parliament of Italy with a "Chamber of Corporations", where the representatives of each sphere of industry would represent itself and its own interests.

The economy was to also be autarkic in nature: Italy was meant to provide all the resources that she could for her population. If she could not, then expansion was necessary. With the acquisition of German Cameroon, it was to be the future post of Italian migrants if Italy were not able to hold "surplus population". It was this part of the fascist policy that took not from Social Darwinism and the imperialism of Britain, France and the other European powers.

"Granted that the XIXth century was the century of socialism, liberalism, democracy, this does not mean that the XXth century must also be the century of socialism, liberalism, democracy. Political doctrines pass; nations remain. We are free to believe that this is the century of authority, a century tending to the "right", a Fascist century. If the XIXth century was the century of the individual (liberalism implies individualism) we are free to believe that this is the “collective” century, and therefore the century of the State."
- OTL Quote from The Doctrine of Fascism

But it was still not answered: How would a state transfer itself from the liberal democratic state to the fascist state. Gentile would write of the need to develop a collective group, a collective race or a collective demographic within a nation. Such interests would be built on collective interests that are outside of the Marxist dichotomy of Bourgeoisie-Proletariat. Instead, theses interests would be according to industry (which would allow a greater motivation towards Corporatism), to race (which would build up the structure for a Racial Army) and to ability (where the physically strong are endorsed to breed as much as possible, while the mentally disabled undergo euthanasia or sterilisation). In order to promote the strong, one-party state, it would first use the power of democracy to take its policies to the people. As the mandate for government is weakened due to partisanship, the party must campaign on longer terms of office and or stronger government powers, which would allow for a greater exploitation of extrajudicial powers. As the powers are granted, the "democratic autocracy" as Gentile stated, would be overtaken by the "True Fascist State that is formed by the body of the Nation".

Searching for a name for such a system of "democratic autocracy", Gentile turned to the "blood and soil" idea of the German Völkisch movement, naming the intermediate period Volkism. Volkism would allow for the transition from a democracy to an anti-democracy, the capitalist nation to a syndicalist one, a conservative nation to an anti-conservative nation and a communism nation to an anti communism nation.

In short, according to the ATL quote, socialism is to communism what volkism is to fascism.

Written between September 1919 and February 1920, The Doctrine of Volkism and Fascism would become the tome of the anti-conservative right, the syndicalists that believed in war and in expansionism. As the tensions between the workers and employers rose, the publication of Gentile's work began to spread among the anti-communist factions within the country. While Russia and the Dutch East Indies would never be able to deal with the revolution, Italy seemed to go the opposite way. In 1919 alone, 1.5 million workers were involved in strikes as the Polish Flu had struck the country.

As the post-war population was demobilising, the fascists and the communists began to ramp up their confrontational styles. The fascists began to bear truncheons and wear black uniforms, while the communists named and shamed non-union workers into compliance. Alberto Meschi, one of the leaders of the Italian Syndicalist Union, began to call for men like Mussolini to back down from anything extreme in March 1920. Given how the previous months had been filled with alleyway stabbings, driveway shootings and rioting on both sides, the threat was considered hollow. Mussolini would then address the Italian Fasces of Combat on the 16th March 1920 in Catanzaro:

The Fascist Century shall be one where the people of Italy shall give everything to the State, everything for the State and allowing nothing to go against the interests of the State. We shall not be burdened by the confines of liberalism. We shall not be held back by the whims of the mob that calls for democracy. We will not be pushed away from power by the communists or the socialists.
The communists shall turn, but the fascist shall not be for turning. And if men like Antonio Gramsci wish for the situation to be otherwise, let me be clear. While you have the hammer and the sickle, we shall have the rifle and the shovel.
We will bury you. (Applause)

(8)


On the 25th of March, Gramsci was walking along the Piazza del Duomo, flanked by a five members of the Italian Syndicalist Union. Seeing the unrest as opportunity, he was planning on addressing a rally of fellow supporters in the wake of the ruling coalition government splitting due to the Combatants' Party members threatening to join the Opposition. This came after veteran's payments were cut and the defence budget being reduced in order to prevent Orlando's LDR from voting with the Socialists. Gramsci hoped, that by the CP doing this, the Italian Socialists would have the mandate to rule if they protested for a fresh election.

Standing in-between the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore and Battistero di San Giovanni, Gramsci began to address the citizens of Florence on the dire straits that their country was focussed on. Despite the posters declaring "PEACE HAS BEEN GAINED" and "TRAVEL TO OUR NEW COLONIES!", there was no sign of victory for the people. As each paragraph of his speech was made, a few more people came in. Then, at 1:12pm, seventeen men approached from the northern side and thirty three from the southern side of the meeting. Taking out a Beretta M1917 (9), one of the blackshirts aimed at Gramsci. Shooting him five times, the man charged forward to shoot at the crowd. Following the lead of the gunman, the forty nine other blackshirts came in to assault both peaceful citizens as well as members of the Italian Syndicalist Union. Shooting and beating one another, the fight broke off at 3:52pm, when the fascists retreated from the wrath of ISU members. Upon looking at the scene, the police declared Gramsci to be dead, having suffered massive trauma to the head, at lest two pints of blood being lost as well as a shattered pelvis. That night, members of the ISU held a candlelight vigil in his memory, as they declared him a martyr for their cause.

Antonio Gramsci (22nd January 1891 - 25th March 1920)
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And with every martyr, there must come an act to avenge him. (10)

On the 21st of April 1920, 60,000 members of the Italian Socialist Party and the Italian Syndicalist Union marched. The 21st of April was special to the Italian people, as it marked the founding of Rome in 753 BC. 60,000 men marched on Rome, armed and angry at the system. Not just for the coalition makeup that denied their party the right to govern, but also the lack of success despite being on the winning side of the First World War. These men demanded the overthrow of the monarch, the restoration of the Italian Socialist Party's right to rule, as well as universal suffrage and wage rises.

Having been caught by surprise, the Prime Minister urged the King to consider the need to retaliate. King Victor Emmanuel III allowed for it to happen. Historians have debated whether it was because of the Prime Minister's plea, the fact that Rome was suffering traffic jams and delays in day-to-day work because of the marchers or because of pressure from businesses, the military and fascists who opposed the marchers. Whatever reason, the King allowed for the protests to be broken up.

On the 22nd April, a counter-protest within the city of 10,000 people clashed with the marchers, who began drawing out pistols and firearms. News of gunshots spread throughout the city. Pope Benedict XV allowed for scared citizens to come inside the Vatican, as every man with a gun barricaded inside buildings. Street by street, the protestors and Romans clashed, with even women and children being caught in the crossfire. Now outside the city, the news of the march alerted the fascists. Mussolini, General Emilio De Bono and 20,000 armed fascists and soldiers marched from the south.

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A small trickle of the many thousands of fascists and soldiers marching against the "Red Protest"

On the 24th April 1920, the leader of the march, Giuseppe Di Vittorio, declared the founding of the First Republic of Italy. At midday three hours later, he urged the men guarding the Vatican to stand down or they would storm the barricades and force their way in. Fearing the possibility of death, the Pope and the Cardinals allowed him inside. Gathering with a dozen unarmed MPs from the Italian Socialist Party and members of the Italian Syndicalist Union, Di Vittorio addressed Pope Benedict XV and the Cardinals. The Pope wished to resolve the Roman Question once and for all. Di Vittorio demanded that Rome would be the capital of the First Republic and that the Papacy shall not receive any other lands than the Vatican itself. After an hour of argument, Pope Benedict XV realised that there would be no possible way around it. Di Vittorio would end the Roman Question, and Pope Benedict feared that Di Vittorio would find someone more agreeable to the terms. Wanting no war to be fought over this matter, the Pope agreed to those terms, in exchange for the Papacy remaining in Italy and Catholicism not being persecuted and that elections are to be held for the rightful governance of Italy. Wanting Di Vittorio to agree to the last point, the Pope did not move on any other matter unless he was willing to concede the result. There was the hope, that if the King called for fresh elections, the Socialists could be defeated and that the order could be restore. That is what he hoped.

At 10pm, the fascists and the soldiers arrived at Rome, clashing through the night with the socialists and communists. Fighting went on even under the cover of darkness, with people on both sides isolated and being beaten up or captured. Several socialists were cornered and shot to pieces in the south of the city, with up to 300 unarmed Socialist Party members being shot and beaten to dead with iron bars, glass bottles and bricks. Meanwhile, fascists were given no mercy, with several of them being shot and then left to hang upside down until sunrise.

Because when sunrise came up, everyone asked the same question. "What the fuck happened?"

The reason why they asked that was because, during the night, Mussolini was cornered and shot alongside his fellow fascists, left to hang upside down with a pool of blood trickling onto the ground.

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Mussolini with a fellow fascist, dead for over eight hours


Having had their leader killed and reaching no objective, the fascists retreated from Rome at 9am on the 25th April 1920. Over 6,560 people died in the fighting, with the socialists under Di Vittorio forcibly ending the Roman Question. Whether Pope Benedict XV felt any better would be up for debate.

King Victor Emmanuel III, having heard of the violence, met the Pope and assisted with the relief of the city. The ruling coalition under the Italian People's Party was more or less broken, with the Socialists having the plurality but no willing partner. With all details at hand, the King declared a snap election for the 1st September 1920.

Campaigning against the March on Rome, the Italian Fasces of Combat (IFC) under Giovanni Gentile (the popular successor and intellectual mind behind Mussolini and the movement) sent thousands of people to speak on behalf of their candidates, moving onto every single one of the 508 seats and making Mussolini a martyr of the cause. The fascists adopted a new motto:
Il Prefetto di Ferro può morire, ma l'Italia continuerà
Iron Prefect may die, but Italy shall go on!

The Combatants' Party, shocked by the March, stood down any candidates and merged with the NFP on the 1st May, as did the pro-business anti-communist Economist Party, the liberal/conservative Italian Liberal Party, nationalist Italian Nationalist Association and the socially liberal Social Democratic Party. Vittorio Emanuele Orlando would take his party, renamed the Democratic Liberal Party (not to be confused with the UK Democratic Liberals), and campaign on a centrist platform, opposing the violence of the fascists and the communists and socialists. The Italian People's Party suffered a crisis, as much of the rank-and-file were split over the opinion of the fascists. Over one-third of the candidates defected to the IFC. The Italian Republican Party managed to regain confidence, as moderates began to be dissuaded by the violence endorsed by the Italian Socialist Party.


Out of 522 seats and 10,852,268 registered voters (11), the 1st September 1920 would be an interesting presentation. And by interesting presentation, I mean the same shit repackaged with more seats and more votes.
Political PartyNumber of Seats (522)Number of Votes (6,884,141 or 63.4% turnout)
Italian Socialist Party189 (36.2%)2,492,059
Democratic Liberal Party164 (31.4%)2,161,620
Italian People's Party31 (5.9%)406,164
Italian Fasces of Combat 121 (23.1%)1,590,236
Italian Republican Party03,534
Liberal Union 17 (3.2%)220,292
Italian Radical Party01,784
Radicals, Republicans and Socialists 01,462
Agrarian Party (allied with the Italian Fasces of Combat)06,990

And when the final result came
THE

SOCIALISTS

WERE

FUCKING

LIVID

Angry at being the largest party and yet commanding no majority, protests rose in Turin, Florence, Rome and Milan as Di Vittorio declared himself President of the First Republic of Italy. King Victor Emmanuel III ordered his arrest, with the fascists attempting to kill him when he attempted to arrive in Rome. Having failed to do so, the fascists retreated as they were met with a counter protest.

Giovanni Gentile, along with General Emilio De Bono, assembled 25,000 fascists in Naples to declare their allegiance to "God, the King and to Italy", where they announced Di Vittorio as a traitor to the state and a wanted man. At the first sight of the results, every party refused to enter into a coalition with the Italian Socialist Party. An attempt to storm armouries succeeded in the Po Valley, where over 150,000 socialists made themselves ready with rifles, machine guns and even grenades. The whole of October was dedicated to open street warfare, with roads blocked off by either fascists or socialists. Tarring and feathering opponents, smashing up houses during the night, ransacking schools and businesses, setting fire to cars and restaurants.

In short, Italy was burning.

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Group of Italian Syndicalist Union members celebrating the Liberation of Turin (9th - 14th October 1920)

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Soldiers for the Italian Fasces of Combat facing an enemy charge outside of Florence. Despite being beaten back, the fascists kill over 12,000 enemy soldiers during the Battle of Florence (12th - 21st October 1920)


After the failure of the German Revolution and the Russian Revolution, over 150,000 "International Combatants" from Russia, Poland, Denmark, the United States, Spain, France, Greece, Austria, Sweden and the United Kingdom arrived to fight alongside the Republican forces. These people would smuggle weapons and supplies overland and into the communist-held territory. Meanwhile, a total of 65,000 "Collaborators" joined the fascists, from almost the exact same places. In fact, one-third of all international volunteers were Russian, whether or not they were fighting alongside the Communists or the Fascists.

The fighting wore on, as the industrial north was given over to production of war materials. Despite some areas beginning to see starvation, the conflict was legitimising the Di Vittorio regime. As there was no longer a chance of peace, businesses withdrew their monies from banks in the north of the country, seeing a flight of capital to the conservative, agrarian south. Angry over this, Di Vittorio issued National Ordinance Number One: the expropriation of wealth from banks in socialist-held territory for the use of the war effort. Over 20 million livre were taken through this method, although five times the amount was said to have escaped their clutches. Noxious poison gases were deployed by both sides, suffocating the innocent and driving the horror of fighting closer and closer onto the doorstep of every one. Flamethrowers were purchased by both sides, with Florence witnessing the execution of 500 "spies" by the Socialist Party, while copies of The Communist Manifesto were torched under Giovanni Gentile's orders. Airplanes began to be used for strategic bombing, with ten times as many planes used by the fascists. Many of the planes, as well as the pilots, came from Germany. Speaking of, a total of 25,000 Germans fought in the Italian Revolution, with only 3,000 fighting for the communists. Many of the Germans on the fascist side would take part in battles as well as using experimental weaponry. One such example was a dozen tanks in the Battle of Ravenna commanded by a man named Erwin Rommel.

With no side willing to back down and no side able to gain the upper hand, the Pope declared a truce on the 25th December 1921. It was declared that the north of the country would declare independence as the First Republic of Italy(12). The south would maintain its legitimacy as the Kingdom of Italy, retaining all of the colonies that were held in place. No reparations were to be paid, however prisoners were to be exchanged. The King, having had enough of war, agreed as well as Di Vittorio. Sickened by the fighting, Errico Malatesta waits to see if there is any chance to challenge Di Vittorio for the leadership of the new country.

As families return to broken homes, mothers begin to bury their husbands and their sons. In no more than sixteen months of fighting, a total of 120,000 Italians died alongside 47,580 international volunteers. A total of 250,000 men, women and children were wounded, with over 100,000 homeless. Many farmlands would be scorched for decades, with repopulation efforts continuing to this day. As for the two nations. It would take a while before unification became a reality.

1. ATL version of George Miller, aka the director of Mad Max
2. The choice of deliberately wanting to be with others outside of "race", has nothing to do with the crime of mixed-race marriages or sex.
3. "Exponential State" fits more with the concept of lebensraum.
4. ATL version of "Third World" or "Developing", but in a more racist context.
5. ATL Fascism takes more of the element from Blanquism.
6. OTL Passport photo
7. OTL Prime Minister of Italy that was part of the "Big Four" at the OTL Treaty of Versailles.
8. ATL speech references the "lady's not for turning" from Thatcher and "We Will Bury You" from Khrushchev.
9. OTL Beretta M1918, looks like this:

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10. ATL March on Rome with Communists instead of Fascists! WHOAAAAAAAAAAH
11. 1919 Election had 508 seats, whereas 1921 election had 535 seats. Given how there is 27 seat difference in two years, I divided by two (13.5) and rounded up to get the ATL 1920 Election result. I used the same method for the estimated voter registration, but I took away 6,000 because of how many adults died during the March on Rome (the rest were children).
12. The First Republic consists of (deep deep breath): Provinces of Viterbo, Grosseto, Siena, Arezzo, Pesaro Urbino, Ancona, Perugia, Terni, Macerata, Fermo, Rimini, Livorno, Pisa, Firenze, Forlì Cesena, Ravenna, Prato, Pistoia, Lucca, Massa and Carrara, La Spezia, Genova, Savona, Imperia, Cuneo, Torino, Aosta, Bologna, Ferrara, Modena, Reggio Emilia, Parma, Piacenza, Pavia, Alessandria, Asti, Vercelli, Biella, Verbano Cusio Ossola, Varese, Novara, Milano, Monza and Brianza, Como, Sondrio, Lecco, Lodi, Cremona, Bergamo, Brescia, Mantova, Rovigo, Venezia, Padova, Verona, Vicenza, Treviso, Trento, Bolzano, Belluno, Udine, Pordenone and Gorizia.

All of the gains from the First World War, including Trieste, remain in the hands of the Kingdom of Italy thanks to crackdowns from the fascists and from the Italian military. So the FIR should look something like this:
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Jesus Christ, it has taken me quite a few days, because things have evolved in my head. I now have stuff flowing on that have not been mentioned before.

I hope that you have enjoyed this update and that you continue to like and comment. All thoughts are welcome, it helps to keep this TL realistic and I will see you all next time.

Bye for now.
 
The Fourth Crack: Baron Richthofen's Flying Circus, the Best Things Come In Threes After All

Having missed out on the 1920 Election, the German Workers' Party (DAP) set out to achieve what it could not. It planned on taking back the country, after the SPD had stabbed them in the back.

Having the number one ace fighter pilot of Germany and of the world was a great benefit for the German Workers' Party with one exception. Dietrich Eckart was aware of Richthofen's fellow pilots being Jews, many of whom were just as disgusted as Eckart was at the "filthy traitors of the SPD". With a total membership of 15,000 in January 1921, with about 1,000 being Jewish, anti-Semites within the party began to argue about Manfried's loyalties. As for the Red Baron himself, he had been taking oratory classes with a struggling writer and PhD from the University of Heidelberg, Paul Joseph Goebbels (1). Goebbels admired the man, who was never shot out of the sky and was not beaten. Eckart confronted Richthofen on his loyalties in front of a meeting of the entire DAP. Meeting his challenge, the Red Baron said "I am loyal to Germany". Over several weeks, arguments went higher and higher, until Alfred Rosenburg and Karl Harrer defected to the Fatherland Party, controlled by Anton Drexler.

With much of the anti-Semitic figureheads removing themselves from the picture, Richthofen began to make speeches to the public. In Munich, he addressed a total of 40,000 men and women. In Nuremberg, 37,500. In Hamburg, 41,600. In Berlin, 60,000. In Dresden, 53,000. A survey was done by the Frankfurter Zeitung asked 10,000 people who should become the President of Germany. 62% preferred Richthofen over Gustav Bauer, the incumbent President.

What made the German Workers' Party successful was several things.

Number one: They were not communists. Despite him being a member of the SPD, Friedrich Ebert's death was used as an example of the German Communist Party being dangerous and unreasonable. Rosa Luxemburg and her fellows were denounced, even by Jews within the German Worker's Party. The fighting in Italy had allowed for thousands of young Germans to train and fighting, with over 20,000 fighting alongside the Fascists. It was there that the paramilitary force, the Saal-Schutz, would receive training on combat in the streets as well as rural areas. Men like Erwin Rommel would meet members of the German Workers' Party and they would join before the fighting ended on Christmas 1921. When they returned from Germany, they returned with a hatred of Marx and all of his followers. The business class, which was torn between the conservative-friendly Ebert/Bauer Government and the Volkist-parties (2). Given the failure of communist revolutions in Germany, Russia, the Dutch East Indies, Mexico and Brazil within the space of 3-4 years, it did not bring much hope for the Communist Party.

Number two: They HATED THE GOVERNMENT (3)
Here's the Grinch to explain the hatred for the Treaty of Versailles, the Government, the communists, the socialists and lastly, for Gustav Bauer:
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But in all seriousness, the SPD remained the government in power since 1917, with the blame of the Treaty and the reparations going right onto their heads. The reason why they did not lose in 1920 was due to the fractured right-wing parties (that were either classical liberals, social conservatives, volkist or fascist) as well as the disastrous turnout for the German Communist Party (which took the blame for the German Revolution) and the cooperation with the SPD by the Catholic-based Zentrum as well as the liberal conservative German People's Party and the conservative big tent German National People's Party (3). Bauer was seen as the weak-willed man, despite his efforts to relax the terms of reparations. The war meant everything for Germany, it meant life or death. To see thousands of kilometres of land stripped from their borders meant the collective equivalent of a heart attack.

Number Three: They actively broke the rules of the Treaty and worked to override the Allied powers. Out of the Italian Revolution, referring to the first reason, over 20,000 Germans fought alongside the fascists, the majority of whom were members of the German Workers' Party. Carrying pamphlets and documents with them along with weapons and kit, the party members shared their experiences of seeing the Red Baron himself and hearing the stories of him shooting down planes in the Western Front and in Brazil. By the end of the fighting, all 20,000 were party members, along with a few hundred Germans who defected from the FIR. In the Kingdom of Italy after the fighting, several members stayed behind and started training in the nation's airforce, with several prototypes being smuggled into Germany via Austria. As for tanks, they began such experimentation in the Adriatic and Balkan territories, using them against any Slovakians, Serbs or other ethic minority that dared to rise up.

The Government allowed all political parties to form paramilitary units, with the largest being from the Social Democracy Party's National Guard (27,500 by mid-1922), the German Workers' Party's Saal-Schutz (15,000 by mid-1922), the German Communist Party's Red Army (8,000 by mid-1922) and the German People's Party Guard (7,600 by mid-1922). The police was augmented with surplus weapons, in the event of being drafted as pseudo-soldiers in the event of large scale riots and unrest just like that of the German Revolution on 1917.

Number four: Principles. Under volkist philosophy, it was designed to transform the democratic state into the fascist state with itself being the intermediary stage. As such, the German Workers' Party planned, upon having the means to do so, to absorb the Reichwehr and also take the majority in the Reichstag before overturning the democratic state. However, it was the principle of other parties to do the same thing. The monarchists within the German National People's Party planned on making an absolute monarchy using Prince Wilhelm of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen (4), while the Communist Party planned on using their Ruhr Red Army to swallow the Reichswehr and to form a communist state like that of Italy. The German Workers' Party, so far, had their plans to be subtle, as Goebbels believed that they could stand as a law and order party.

Given how the government itself hatred the treaty, they did not care about the political parties and their abrogation of the treaty.


As they returned from the fighting in Italy, the Saal-Schutz began to take their operations in the streets. On the 14th February 1922, 700 SS members broke up a crowd of 20,000 members of the Communist Party in Munich, leaving 43 dead as they used pistols and truncheons. Halfway that month, they published the details of every major member of the German Communist Party, their addresses and even the schools that their children went to. In March, Richthofen spoke to 200,000 across the country, even showing off his flying skills to the entire city of Munich, being the only plane up in the sky. Much to the protest of Allied authorities, they did not compete with the thousands already enchanted with the Red Baron.

It was also around this time that thousands of men were being trained in the Russian Empire. Despite the war that ended five years previous, the Germans were more or less acting friendly to the Russians, as they attempted to regain civil order following the failed revolution in Russia. It was around this time that a devil's alliance began to grow between the hyper-partisan National German Republic (otherwise known as the Nuremberg Republic) and the autocratic monarchy of Tsarist Russia, made official by the 1921 Treaty of Dresden, which was a non-aggression pact for fifteen years. The foot soldiers of the former Cheka that managed to escape death turned to the Tsarist regime and began to form rank as their Боевые собаки (Attack Dogs), police that were given the order to shoot any demographic of people that would be likely to cause distrust. These men traded techniques and secrets with the Germans who happened to be in Russia. Between 1921 and 1922, there would be between 15,000 to 20,000 Germans training in secret. From 1923 until 1930, over 40,000 Germans would train in the Russian. army, navy and airforce.

With a greater and greater legitimisation of breaking the Treaty, the SPD suffered a shock when a 21-year old Communist by the name of Christian Von Hardenberg stole a Gewehr 98 and shot the President when he was addressing an assembly of SPD supporters in Dresden on the 7th March 1922, a week after the Treaty of Dresden(5). Von Hardenburg was killed along with 7 other Communist Party members in the ongoing riots in Dresden. Freikorps and members of the German Workers' Party restored order as the Red Army (Communist Party's militant wing) and the National Guard (SPD's militant wing).

The second President was the Chancellor Otto Wels (1922 - 1924)

Screen Shot 2020-08-31 at 9.36.40 pm.png


Cracking down on the Communist Party, he managed to offend the German Right (all of the right wing parties collectively) as he attempted to strengthen the control of the National Guard over public meetings and gatherings. This fuelled efforts by the German Workers' Party to reach more and more people via the medium of radio, which was being exploited by Goebbels and by the Red Baron himself. On Fridays, Richthofen would denounce the SPD's incompetence, the Treaty of Versailles, the Communists, France and Britain, Italy and Spain, war merchants, socialists and asocials. On Saturdays, he would tell of every moment of his wartime career. With every new radio station opening up, it was hoped that more and more Germans could hear the news of "Their Hero", in the words of Goebbels. As for the Army, the loyalty to the state was in name only, as it seemed that the officer class received the speeches of the Red Baron warmly.

Jews within Germany were torn, as quite a large number were within the German Communist Party and the SPD. There was the fact of the Fatherland Party, which became the most extreme of the political parties. Drexler, having none of the calm that the Red Baron was taught, urged for the murder of Germany's Jews or their mass deportation. Jews within the German Workers' Party worked overtime to bring over their fellows to their side. Many Jewish veterans of the war chose to align themselves with the Red Baron. Upon being accosted by several Jews in the Communist Party, these veterans would shout "At least the Red Baron hasn't been shot down!"

With the rise of a charismatic war hero who wished for a return to prosperity, President Wels and Chancellor Philipp Scheidemann rushed to cover all bases. On the 16th - 17th November 1922, 16,000 members of the National Guard went across Hamburg to crush the Communist Party Annual Assembly. 70 buildings were burnt and over 700 people were killed, both Communists and National Guardsmen. Kristallnacht or "Night of Broken Glass" was the name of the event, which was shown to Germany. The infighting was published across the nation, as well as France and Britain.

President Wels refused to call for new elections, hoping to last until 1927 (the next election that would be had). But the grip of power was slipping. The hyperinflation was so powerful that by 1923, one US Dollar equalled 5,500,000,000,000 marks (6). The military hated him. The communists hated him. The volkists and the fascists hated him. The monarchists hated him. But the one thing that kept him up was the fact that his enemies hated each other.

From December 1922 to December 1923, the situation was reaching boiling point. According to the British Ambassador Field Marshal Ian Hamilton in his 1951 posthumous autobiography To Rest I Go:

[Date marked the 26th January 1923) I walked through Magdeburg with the honourable [Paul von] Hindenburg where we stopped on the corner of the streets marked "Domplatz" and "Remtergang". Looking to both sides of the streets, they were marked with posters. Despite my longevity in this land, some of the smaller things have escaped my sight. The slogans, for example, I asked him what they said. Having a somewhat small grip on English, I forgave the man's accent. The red posters not torn down happened to belong to the German Communist Party. The slogan that was printed said "Peace, Bread and Land", with a picture of a man named August Thalheimer. The black posters show a highly exaggerated Jew with his hands rubbing one another, with the symbol of a hammer and a sword interlocked. I asked Hindenburg who had those posters. He said "The Fatherland Party of Germany, they talk about expelling or killing the Jews, declaring war on Russia and France and Britain and the other Allied nations". I did not need to ask what the brown posters were. I figured it out for myself.
(Written on the 15th October 1950, in his private notes)
You see, that is where the trouble all began. That deep, dark stare, that military uniform, that calm anger in every speech. That damned stare. It created everything. The Ace Pilot that no man could ever shoot down from the sky. The Veteran that never lost a battle speaking of the Government and the socialists and the Communists "stabbing Germany in the back". The Politician that grew like a flower off the anger of the German people. The Führer that managed to build upon the torment of millions of people. The one man that held Germany's inevitable defeat at bay for eight years!
Yet, why do I feel like it is all my fault?

Murders skyrocketed to over 53 per day during the Wels Administration, with drive-by shootings becoming common place. It was around this time that Richthofen and his inner circle formed. The inner circle was made up of himself, Goebbels, Eckart, Gebhard Himmler, Hugo Gutmann, Philip Bouhler, Erich von Ludendorff and even the filmmaker Fritz Lang. Lang, being one of the great filmmakers of Germany, was convinced to join by his wife's admiration for the Red Baron. Unlike Drexler's Fatherland Party, Lang was convinced by Richthofen himself that the Jews would not be persecuted. In fact, he was told that the British and the French would. (7) It took a while for him to be convinced, but Goebbels came up with an idea. The party would grant Lang a right to be within its executive, in return the Saal-Schutz and the party would help Lang with his films. On the 4th March 1923, production began on an epic that Lang and Goebbels worked on.

Deutschland Erwache or "Germany Awake" remains one of the most controversial films, for its pro-volkist and nationalistic message. It would the equivalent of $17.5 million USD in 1923. To this day, many filmgoers argue over the merits of such a film. 214 minutes long, it was a silent film that would depict the defence of a German town in the middle of the Thirty Years' War, based of the 1910 novel Der Wehrwolf by German journalist Hermann Löns. The title is shouted, as the enemy (depicted as French soldiers) comes in, with the defenders succeeding in holding out and waiving to reinforcements. What made the film stay in the minds of Germans was several elements. The first was the number of actors. A total of 3,000 actors, most of them men and women within the German Workers' Party, took part in the scenes with 1,500 in the battles. This gave the effect of a "large battle", which would be recreated in the 1933 remake of the film. The second was the effects, where several buildings were burnt and explosions were used as well. The third was a story of hope, which is what gives off the controversy. In Poland, Denmark, France, Belgium, Ireland, Spain and Portugal, the film is banned because that "story of hope" is a subtle message of not trusting democracy. The film has been banned and unbanned in Australia, while the film was allowed to be viewed in the United States via Paul v. Americans Against Volkism.

Upon its release, many German families opted to watch the movie, as a way of getting away from the violence. Every cinema that showed the film had Saal-Schutz guards, which gave the public a rather tense but safe environment. Some moviegoers even went as far as to join the German Workers' Party itself. A total of 100,000 people would join by December 1923. It would be one of many films that would come to life under Lang's directorship as well as the work of his apprentice, a woman by the name of Leni Riefenstahl.

Speaking of "December 1923", August Thalheimer began to plan something that was coming for some time. Revenge. Having seen the success of the Italian Revolution, Thalheimer contacted several communists in Italy, hoping to gain weapons. Through contacts, over 27,000 men were armed with semiautomatic rifles, machine guns and pistols. Augmenting this force to the Red Army, a total of 41,000 men and women planned on doing the unthinkable. Thalheimer, in a meeting on the 14th December 1923, stated:

If we win, we shall reign supreme. Under the eyes of our founder and our leader, Karl Marx, we shall go forth with his legacy. We shall smash the chains that the filthy bourgeoisie have set on us and our fathers and their fathers to the thousandth generation! We shall take what we deserve for the decades and centuries of control that they have forced over us. We shall not fail, we shall not fly away. We will not back away from the fight. We will not toil or trouble. We shall sweep away the foul stench of fascism and of its foolish pawns. There will be no negotiation. There will be no chance for a mind to be changed. The truth shall be set free and it shall be seen by everyone.
We either win or we die. There is no middle ground. Either they win or they die. For them, there is no middle ground. There shall be no other reckoning.


On the 21st December 1923, a total of 47,000 members of the German Communist Party, its paramilitary force the Red Army and other left wing groups marched on Nuremberg, to hold the constituent assembly hostage. Its plan was for the nationalisation of industries, the formation of a communist state, the dismantling of all fascist groups, the expropriation of wealth from business owners and capitalists among other things. As it reached the outskirts of the city, they were met with 12,000 members of the German Workers' Party and the Fatherland Party. At 11pm, gunfire began to start between the two "armies". A push by 7,000 men from the Independent Social Democratic Party allowed for the city's borders to be breached. At once, the army was called in to quell the dissent.

The city turned into a war zone, with children forced to hide in alley ways and even caught in the cross fire. Restaurant patrons had to hide under their tables for hours, trying to console one another. Minute by minute, both paramilitary forces used human shields to hide their movements as they barricaded inside houses, hotels and stores.

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Members of the Saal-Schutz receive gifts as they drive away members of the German Communist Party from one district in Nuremberg

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Red Army soldiers marching towards Nuremberg

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Men, ordinary men of Nuremberg standing in formation with their former commanding officer. Many veterans who were living in Nuremberg would take up arms and stand alongside the Reichswehr, the German Workers' Party and the Fatherland Party.


In the space of 20 hours, the uprising was a failure. Over 2,600 deaths and 20,000 arrests. "The Second Nuremberg Trials", to quote Winston Churchill, "was the death knell for freedom in Germany. The Communists were walking into the den of the tiger with rifles and, hoping not to be eaten, decided to run away."

The news was too much. Protests occurred in every city, letters were sent to every member of the Reichstag, with over 100,000 letters sent in January 1924 alone. It was there that President Wels called for a new election for the Reichstag. At that same point, the leaders of the German Worker's Party and the Fatherland Party met at a secluded resort in the Black Forest on the 12th January 1924. Both groups of leaders celebrated for most of the night. It wasn't until 1am when 2,000 members of the Saal-Schutz murdered the leadership of the Fatherland Party as well as 600 other members. Anton Drexler, Alfred Rosenburg, Heinrich Himmler, Rudolf Hess, Gregor and Otto Strasser were some of the names mentioned.

Over the course of several days, the buildings of every Fatherland Party base were ransacked, propaganda destroyed and people killed in gunfights. Many were threatened to join the German Workers' Party, others turned on their fellow members and joined voluntarily. 3,000 refused and those 3,000 would later lose their lives in what would be known as the "Tage von Drexler" or "Days of Drexler", with campaign papers showing Drexler as a demon and the Red Baron as "Germany's salvation".



Political PartyVotesSeats in the Reichstag
German Workers' Party13,744,645 (38.42%)144
German Communist Party7,225,663 (20.19%)105
Catholic Centre Party5,889,234 (16.46%)71
Social Democratic Party3,317,856 (9.27%)47
German National People's Party2,589,020 (7.23%)34
German People's Party579,999 (1.62%)8
German Democratic Party457,888 (1.28%)6
Bavarian People's League388,992 (1.08%)5
Fatherland Party378,889 (1.05%) 5
Independent Social Democratic Party327,636 (0.91%) 4
German-Hanoverian Party299,221 (0.83%)3
German-Austria Movement267,880 (0.74%) 3
Agricultural League219,545 (0.61%)2
Other Minor Parties413,090 (1.15%)0
TotalTotal Votes: 35,771,922Total Seats: 437


On the 5th of March 1924, the people had their say. Despite not claiming the majority, the Red Baron cheered in the streets along with thousands of people across the country. In the space of seven years, the people were happy again.

President Otto Wels declared, on the 7th March 1924, that he would resigned and that his Chancellor Philipp Scheidemann would be President. Manfried von Richthofen, having gained a plurality in the Reichstag, declared that he should be Chancellor. Scheidemann, in his first few hours as the 3rd President of the Nuremberg Republic, made Richthofen the Chancellor. With the party smashed in the elections and likely to be smashed in the Presidential Election three years from now, Scheidemann resigned on the 10th of March, leaving Richthofen as the President of the Nuremberg Republic.

Thus, the man, the myth and the legend would begin to take shake.

The fourth crack appears in the dam.


1. This is prior to Goebbels being the anti-Semite we all know and hate.
2. The term "proto-fascist" and Volkist are basically intertwined, although much of the Anglosphere would mark the former as: free market capitalism, anti-communism, anti-egalitarian and pro imperialism and willing to use violence in the streets. Volkists are anti-conservative, anti-egalitarian, anti-Marxist and anti-democratic. A ATL joke would be that "Volkists are Fascists going at the speed limit".
3. Conservative Big Tent = Alliance of right-leaning classical liberals, free market conservatives, social conservatives, Christian conservatives, right-wing populists, fascists and volkists.
4. Son of Prince Leopold, the man who would have taken on the throne of Spain, also the man that caused the Franco-Prussian War.
5. ATL Treaty of Rapallo, which makes no mention of lands being exchanged, but there will be wiggle room on that matter. Several secret clauses allow for the transfer of materials to Germany, in return the Russians receive machinery as well as crews meant to industrialise the country. It would signal the ending of the Entente and of Franco-Russian relations.
6. Because of East Prussia taken away as well as a lot more industrial land, the hyperinflation is much worse. Germany had its legs and arms broken and its teeth kicked in due to the OTL Treaty. The ATL Treaty gave the Germans a worser fate.
7. OTL Lang escaped Nazi Germany and divorced his wife because she was getting too close to the party.


I hope that this is good and that it is realistic. All comments and thoughts are welcome.

And now for something completely different.

IT'S...............................................



(Foot donated to us by Manfried von Richthofen personally, thank you to the ATL Führer)
 
In Pole Position: What The Hell Happened?
Poland has the ability to be crushed and squeezed and burnt and damaged and torched and still be able to form a nation of people afterwards.
- Winston Churchill, speaking on behalf of the newly formed Polish Guard, 22nd November 1940 (1)

Poland is a pig, ready to have its throat cut and to have itself carved by the butchers. Yet it remains, whether a nation or a people, it remains.
- Joseph Birmingham (1915 - 1984), Ambassador to Germany 1937 - 1940 and 2nd President of the Morgenthau Institute Against Racecide, 1942 - 1984. (2)

Any historian who has a cursory knowledge can pull up the "Partitions of Poland", whether they were from 1772 or 1792 or 1795. The "Fourth Partition" is often cited by those that claim it exists. The question is often asked: When did it occur? The first option, that some go for, is the post-Napoleonic 1815 settlement at the Congress of Vienna. This was where the Duchy of Warsaw (established in 1807 after the Treaty of Tilsit) had some territory taken by Russia and the rest formed into the Russian-dominated "Congress Poland" in personal union with Russia itself. The second is the November Uprising in 1831, where Congress Poland was forcibly merged after the failed insurrection, although disagreement occurs over whether "partition" ought to be used for this example, given that only one power is taking the whole of Poland.

Another example is not a partition per se, which is why it is not considered one, but it is noted nonetheless. In the First World War, both the Second Reich(3) and the Austro-Hungarian Empire conceived of a seperate Polish state, as they believed that resistance was inevitable should Germany attempt to annex huge amounts of their land. It was mean to kickstart a greater resistance to Russian advances in the Eastern Front. That was the hope, until the news came of the Dardanelles Campaign and its attacks through the Ottoman lands. Upon breaching Constantinople, the Allies began to ship weapons and foodstuffs to Russia, giving the Russians a shot in the arm. This shot in the arm turned into a massive resistance, as food supplies no longer became a concern following the Ottoman Empire exiting the war due to a civil war that would not abate until 1922.

With a resurgent Russian offensive thanks to a supply of ammunition, food and more men, the hope for an independent Polish state was gone. With Russia standing on a better position, it crushed the German, Austro-Hungarian and Polish forces before they had a chance to seek vengeance for the loss of their Muslim allies. Following the armistice, the Polish attempted to plea for a part of the Treaty of Versailles reserved for their status. For their actions in fighting alongside the Germans and the Central Powers, they were denied representation in the Treaty and in the actual meeting.

Their lands were made null in the final, binding treaty. They were a people without a home, a race without a nation. Such was the mark of a people that were destined to be forgotten and cast aside, as was the case of the Hittites and the Byzantines and the Aztecs and many other peoples before, during and after.

But in this case, there are times that some peoples rise. The Israelites in the Bible forge their own nation out of the lands of the Canaanites, the displaced Celtic tribes of Britain form the nation of Wales which still retains its culture within Britain and many others. The Polish people became this. Emigrating from Russia, over 5 million Poles from 1918 - 1958 would migrate to the United Kingdom (residing in Northumberland, the Humber and in Ulster), to Australia (settling in Tasmania, Victoria and South Australia), the United States (where in 2015 over 27 million people claim Polish heritage) or even to places like South Africa and Rhodesia. The Poles, despite being separated, formed their national movement on the same lines as the Irish national movement and on Zionism. Instead of appealing to religion, for expatriate Poles ranged from atheist to Catholic to Jewish to Lutheran, the movement based itself on the slogan "I am Poland, my blood is Poland and my home is Poland". The slogan and the wider Polish movement, failed to gain traction in the Anglosphere except for the United States and Britain.

As the 1924 German Election was made known across the world, Polish people began to organise. Protesting in favour of their national independence, they would march in Dublin, in Melbourne, in Chicago and Paris. But as the year went on, they saw the crackdowns in Germany and of the Zwangsverschmelzung der Rechten (4). Prominent Polish people such as Roman Dmowski fought for the continued restrictions on Germany outlined in the Treaty of Versailles. Dmowski argued for a non-violent movement aimed at the restoration of an independent Poland, compared to men like Józef Piłsudski who began to train partisans in neighbouring Romania and Greece. Polish activists even tried to stage a protest at the VIII Olympiad in Barcelona, Kingdom of Spain. Their attempt was overshadowed by riots between crowds belonging to the First Republic of Italy and those belonging to the Kingdom of Italy as well as the decision to award the first Winter Olympics to St. Moritz in Switzerland.

Dmowski's efforts to raise a peaceful movement came to a head on the 27th August 1925, where he met US President Alexander Palmer and Canadian Prime Minister William S. Fielding (5). Palmer would later attempt to warm relations with Russia to the point where the Tsar would be motivated to not persecute minorities. The Polish movement would attempt to organise boycotts of German made goods, to send messages to leaders across the world, to protest any visits of delegates from Germany and Russia.

On the 3rd February 1926, over 2 years into Richthofen's rule, a group of 8 Polish men walked through the crowd with the aim of killing Manfred von Richthofen. Having mistaken a cough in the crowd for the signal to attack, the youngest man took aim and missed his shot, killing a Saal-Schutz guard that was standing in front of a podium that Richthofen used for his speech. Upon the first shot fired, Richthofen ducked behind the podium as his guards shot into the crowd. Screaming and panicking, the crowd (10,000 strong) ran around, trampling the Polish assassins and beating them up upon seeing them try to aim for the podium.

Two hours later, the 8 men were presented to journalists and cameramen, all beaten up and bruised. Having discovered the nationalities of the assailants, Richthofen ordered the monitoring and the surveillance of all Polish people within Germany. As for the rank and file of the German Workers' Party, they took measures in their own hands. Over 2,500 Polish residents in Germany were harassed and beaten in the streets with the message Alle Polen müssen gehen cast on buildings in either posters or red paint. "All Poles must go" was a message that was clear enough. The Polish in Germany, numbering 460,000 in 1926, would either flee or face death as they were brought to a specially made building within the city of Dachau. (6).

It would not be until the defection of the man known as "White Rose" in 1934 that the world would take the Red Baron seriously. But until then, the world would be on simmer and the clock would still tick and the dam had not yet burst.

***********
TheMenInHighCastles.com (7)
Post on the 7th January 2017, 3:14pm

Username: AppomatixHouse91
I have always wondered about the assassination attempt made on the Führer in Berlin on the 3rd February 1926. I mean, this man was a war hero and he had a stranglehold that he did not intend on letting go. My question is, what would happen if he was killed? Would Paul Joseph Goebbels take over? Would Germany be crushed earlier? What would happen?

Username: EMStanton
The Poles in Germany had a total of 800 people killed in Dachau in the 12 months after Richthofen was attacked. My guess is that the Polish are going to be blamed for the failure in the war.

Username: Call0way
A new year, a new Racecide, I suppose.


************


1. Wait and see
2. Fictional character.
3. Whilst in OTL Historiography the titles of "First Reich" to the HRE and "Second Reich" to the German Empire do not pick up, they do in ATL.
4. "Forcible merger of the Right" in German. Make of that what you will.
5. Allow me to explain:
- Because of the surrender of the Ottomans and the re-energised Western and Eastern Fronts, the campaigns for conscription in Australia and Canada did not happen. Robert Border remained Prime Minister until the 17th November 1920, where he was defeated by William S. Fielding. Fielding defeated William L. Mackenzie King thanks to the conscription issue being irrelevant.
6. Take a wild guess.
7. ATL version of this website and of a famous novel.
 
List of Australian Prime Ministers

Prime MinisterPolitical PartyTerm StartedTerm EndedElections Won Electorate
Edmund BartonProtectionist Party1st January 190124th September 19031901Hunter (New South Wales)
1901 - 1903 (Retired)
Alfred Deakin Protectionist Party24th September 190327th April 19041903Ballaarat (Victoria)
1901 - 1913 (Resigned)
Chris WatsonAustralian Labour Party27th April 190418th August 1904- Bland (New South Wales)
1901 - 1906
South Sydney (New South Wales)
1906 - 1910 (Retired)
George ReidFree Trade Party18th August 19045th July 1905-East Sydney (New South Wales)
1901 - 1909 (Resigned)
Alfred Deakin (2nd Term)Protectionist Party5th July 190513th November 19081906 Ballaarat (Victoria)
1901 - 1913 (Resigned)
Andrew Fisher Australian Labour Party13th November 19082nd June 1909 - Wide Bay (Queensland)
1901 -1918 (Died)
Alfred Deakin (3rd Term) Commonwealth Liberal 2nd June 1909 29th April 1910 - Ballaarat (Victoria)
1901 - 1913 (Resigned)
Andrew Fisher (2nd Term) Australian Labor Party29th April 191024th June 19131910 Wide Bay (Queensland)
1901 -1918 (Died)
Joseph Cook Commonwealth Liberal 24th June 191317th September 19141913Paramatta (New South Wales)
1901 - 1921 (Retired)
Andrew Fisher (3rd Term) Australian Labor Party17th September 191417th May 1918 1914Wide Bay (Queensland)
1901 -1918 (Died)
Billy HughesAustralian Labor Party17th May 191830th June 1919- West Sydney (New South Wales)
1901 - 1917
Bendigo (Victoria)
1917 - 1954
Patrick M. GlynnNationalist Party of Australia30th June 191914th August 19221919, 1922Angas (South Australia)
1901 - 1927
Austen ChapmanNationalist Party of Australia14th August 192212th January 1926- Eden-Monaro (New South Wales)
1901 - 1926


That is all.
 
The title "The Bloody Red Baron" is going to apply very well to Richthofen ITTL, methinks...

Can't the Poles catch a break in any TL?
 
A New Pope, The Red and Black Terrors, International Recognition and Another Pope
Your country is split up and it is my intention to make sure that it comes back as one. Now, are you going to follow what I have stated or am I going to go over your head? The choice is yours.

Führer Manfred von Richthofen, stating his intentions along with the plans for "Operation Brunhild" to the Secretary of the Holy Office, on the 11th August 1940 in Rome.




The death of Pope Benedict XV on the 28th January 1922 had shocked the Papacy, at a time where Italy was rocked to a standstill. Not only was the country cut in half, north to south, but the head of the Catholic Church passed from one life to another. It was linked with the war by many anti-socialists and fascists who still mourned the death of their leader Benito Mussolini during the March on Rome. The outpouring was enough to call for the sainthood of the late Pope, which would not be achieved until 2017 under Pope Adrian V (1). Giovanni Gentile, who was elected the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Italy on the 4th February 1922, declared during an assembly of fascists in Sicily one week later:

We cannot rest, as either Italians or as Fascists, until the filthy Di Vittorio is swept away from power and swept away from the Earth. Mussolini shall be avenged, mark my words! We cannot give up because they have industry. We have heart and strength in our blood. This soil is ours and it belongs to the Fascists, those that defend God and King, those that do not desecrate the lands of peasants as they have done in Germany and Russia and the Dutch East Indies.
To all those that follow the words of the devil Di Vittorio, you shall not be forgiven for what you have done. You have undone the work of the Risorgimento and of Giuseppe Garibaldi himself! You have torn apart the dreams of our ancestors, who died on these lands so that you could desecrate their hopes and their glories. They shall know death sooner than they think. They shall know it.


The papal conclave organised in the aftermath of the Pope's death, to see who would be the most capable to succeed. One of the two major candidates was Désiré-Joseph Mercier, who was the Archbishop of Mechelen in Belgium. He was famous for resisting the German occupation of Belgium, having written letters that were spoken out loud by bishops when the Germans cut off telephone lines and placed him under house arrest. Praised by the late Pope, Mercier also assessed whether Thomistic ideals were compatible with incoming developments within the scientific community. He was a progressive, but he was against modernism in its entirety, having made himself famous by recommending Georges Lemaître to study Einstein's theories of relativity (2).

The second nominee was Agostino Richelmy, the Archbishop of Turin. Richelmy was a man who participated in the Garibaldian Volunteers during the War of 1866 (3). Such was his dedication to the cause of Italian reunification that he would wear his red shirt under his cassock for many years afterwards, which he continued to do following the Italian Revolution. His candidacy was mentioned by many socialists following Pope Benedict XV's death as a form of a middle finger to the First Republic. Some cardinals had a fear that there would be a strike against Catholics within the First Republic, given how Richelmy was not a good representation of what Di Vittorio and other syndicalists, socialists and communists and leftist anarchists wanted.

On the 12th February 1922, the choice was made by the cardinals.
Screen Shot 2020-09-08 at 10.09.10 pm.png

Désiré-Joseph Mercier (21st November 1851 - 27th February 1926)

Upon being elected to the Papacy, Mercier would take on the title of Pope Leo XIV, based off Leo XIII and his attempts to address concerns of the working class, unregulated capitalism and socialism in the papal bull Rerum Novarum.

In his short reign, Pope Leo XIV would extend waiting period needed for Cardinals to convene from places like Brazil and the United States to a week after the death or resignation of a Pope. He would also give his support to Georges Lemaître and his scientific works, which would come to a head when Lemaître came up with what seemed to be a revolutionary idea in 1925 (4). The idea would become "Lemaître's Law", having clashed with the orthodox view of a static universe. It would allow for the Catholic Church to later form the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in December 1925 and to then declare that the "Primeval Atom Theory" was compatible with Catholic doctrine under the 1959 papal encyclical De creatione (Of Our Creation).





The Red Terror would occur during the short reign of Pope Leo XIV. As the First Republic of Italy attempted to maintain order, the first order was to establish trade relations with the rest of the world. Pierre Laval, then the 14th French President, would give support to the FRI. It was part of the left-wing victory that occurred during the 1924 legislative election. With French communists emigrating to Italy, tensions arose between the factions of the FRI. The ruling Italian Socialist Party (winning 197 out of 211 seats) faced competition from the Communist Party under Amadeo Bordiga, the Italian Anarchist Union under Errico Malatesta and the big tent (5) People's Union Party under Gino Lucetti. The 1922 FRI Election wasted quite a large amount of Di Vittorio's political capital, as he was granted a lifetime appointment as the head of state in return for factions such as the communists and the anarchists to rise in popularity.

One of the great arguments was surrounding syndicalism. The Italian Syndicalist Union, the largest organisation of trade unions in the First Republic, supported it as it was their impetus for the Italian revolution and their support for Di Vittorio. Di Vittorio and Gino Lucetti supported it. The General Confederation of Labor and its endorsed party the Communist Party did not want it, stating that the inevitable process was towards the dismantling of the state and all of its apparatus. The arguments turned from the chambers at Milan to violence between the different paramilitary groups:
- The Arditi del Popolo (People's Daring Ones), the militant wing of Gino Lucetti and the People's Union Party
- Falce e Martello dell'Avanguardia (Hammer and Sickle of the Vanguard), the militant wing of the Communist Party of Italy
- Battaglioni di combattimento anarchici del popolo or BCAP (People's Anarchist Combat Battalions), militant wing of the Anarchist Union
- Guardia di ferro (Iron Guard), militant wing of the Syndicalist Union and the Italian Socialist Party.

This did not include the Red Army of the Republic (the official military forces of the First Republic) or the police, both of whom were forced to patrol streets and roads to prevent any chaos in the already unsettling environment. Rural regions were forced under rationing, with quotas made on food thanks to Giovanni Gentile's plan to withhold food to the First Republic. Austerity became the norm, as trade with France was coming up less than fruitful and the international community had shown solidarity with Gentile's regime. Industrialists from Britain and France even considered purchasing car brands such as Alfa Romeo for 50 million USD in October 1923 in the hopes of delivering the proceeds to Gentile's regime. Such a plan never came about. However, efforts to industrialise the south were growing steady, thanks to input from Spain, Portugal and Germany, countries that have attempted to curb socialist influence by one way or another. The Kingdom of Italy grew steadily in population, as migrants came from the south. Devout Catholics fled the cities in the Po Valley, with 1/4 of them staying behind by choice. Despite being a republic built upon syndicalist lines, the government of the First Republic could not fathom the idea of getting rid of its Catholic population.

Until someone did it for them.

On the 18th January 1924, the Archbishop of Turin Giuseppe Gamba, was ordered to surrender any gold in Turin Cathedral by a group of 26 men belonging to the Battaglioni di combattimento anarchici del popolo. Gamba refused, clearly stating that he was protected from any inspection by the order of President Di Vittorio (which was granted to Archbishops through the First Republic). The group refused to hear any more protests even when wandering citizens accosted the group. For the next two minutes, the arguments began to come forth from the public, which grew from 14 to over 100 people. Panicking and fearing death, for the group were armed with pistols and batons, the Archbishop fled. Seeing the man turn, a 17 year old Anarchist by the name of Enzo drew out his pistol and shot the Archbishop in the back, sending him onto the ground. Frozen, the boy did not move as over 100 people confronted the group. What turned from a disagreement became a fight. Shooting their way out of the madness, the group were caught in a gunfight with police.

As news came to President Di Vittorio, he gave the order for the crackdown on anarchists. On the 26th of January, every man who was a part of the death of the Archbishop of Turin was arrested in the middle of the night before being sentenced ten hours later. On the 3rd February 1924, a group of 100,000 anarchists marched through the Po Valley, demanding the release of the 26 men. It was not until the 5th that the Red Army would crush the marchers. Unlike the madness of the Italian Revolution, there was a great sense of hopelessness for the anarchist cause, as the two biggest trade unions were against them, the General Confederation of Labor and the Italian Syndicalist Union alongside every other faction within the First Republic. Errico Malatesta, in his attempt to flee to nearby France, was cornered by several communists and shot dead in Sanremo on the 18th February 1924.

Upon hearing that their leader was shot dead, the Battaglioni di combattimento anarchici del popolo attempted to storm the capital of the First Republic on the 3rd March 1924. Unlike the March on Rome, Di Vittorio and the Italian Socialist Party was prepared. A total of 50,000 Red Army soldiers and police were in the city, hunting down anarchists and breaking up squads of men seeking to make Malatesta into a martyr. On the 9th March 1924, the Italian Anarchist Union and the paramilitary wing Battaglioni di combattimento anarchici del popolo were proscribed and outlawed, with membership punishable for 10 years' hard labour (50 hours a week in industry, military escort to a labor camp) or death. A total of 25,000 members of the Anarchist Union and "collaborators" were executed, with four times the number being forced into labour camps.





Seeing the madness occurring in the north, Giovanni Gentile called for a snap election in February 1924, using the full might of the Italian Fasces of Combat to rise to the occasion. Marching in the streets, a total of 100,000 brownshirts would go from door to door, speaking to the public and stating the need to root out any threats to the Kingdom of Italy. By this time, the unity between the King, the army and the fascists was more or less complete. For a man like King Victor Emmanuelle III (1900 - 1947), such support could only occur due to the strength of the paramilitary forces the political parties had. Faced against agitators from the Democratic Liberal Party and the Italian People's Party, the fascists pushed on with their platform of order and strength and of power. It was estimated, by forensic scientists and journalists that 20,000 to 40,000 people died during the "Black Terror" as opposed to the "Red Terror" that was occurring in the north during that time.

At night, those that openly protested against the regime would be dragged out and beaten, stripped naked and left in the cold dark night. Names would be printed in newspapers that aligned with Gentile's views, as it was the case for the left-wing, centrist and conservative groups in the rump Kingdom of Italy. Gentile would campaign on revanchism, a key feature within fascism and volkism, which would push out much of the conservative and illiberal political forces within the country. He would forcibly coerce candidates from the Liberal Union Party (a conservative liberal party) to drop out of vital electorates in the hopes of maintaining a supermajority within their Chamber of Assembly in Rome.

Gentile approached members of the Catholic Church, getting the King involved in the matter. It would be here that Gentile and the King would retake the north as well as grant privilege to the cathedrals that they are not damaged in such an event. Catholic voters were shocked at the murder of the Archbishop of Turin, a Cardinal no less! Such a matter would form a part of the support for Gentile's regime, that the matter of Italian reunification was not just a political issue, but a moral and a ethnic issue as well. News of blackshirts uncovering a socialist uprising in Sicily and Sardinia during March only fuelled the polarisation of the split country.

By the time the election results came out for all to see, the intimidation was there. Ballots were handed out after churchgoers left Sunday Mass, they were handed out by members of the Italian Army as well as by restaurant owners that didn't want any unexpected insurance claims in the foreseeable future. On the 2nd April 1924, the election results came out:

Political PartyNumber of Seats (out of 277)Number of Votes (Out of 2,584,771)
Italian Fasces of Combat1762,454,705
Democratic Liberal Party3124,734
Italian People's Party2622,797
Italian Democratic Republican Party2321,099
Italian Unionist Party819,035
Liberal Union Party718,225
Agrarian Party516,886
Radicals, Democrats and Republican Veterans 15,993
Italian Socialist Party01,299

And no one rioted. No one complained and no one made a fuss. That wasn't to say everything was sunshine and roses. Many people that supported the conservative and liberal parties did it because they abhorred the syndicalist system of the FRI began to waver in support of the fascists, who now obtained a supermajority. Some began to utter the phrase "he who fights monsters..." as Gentile's economic policy began to be unravelled.

At once, every boy between 10 - 14 had to have 20 hours of firearms training per week, while tax incentives would be given to every family to have more children. As for the First Republic, Di Vittorio was open to the suggestion for a tax to be put on single unmarried men over the age of 20 which would increase once a man turns 25. As both nations declared themselves the legitimate ruler of Italy, nations across the world hoped for a lasting peace.

The Nuremberg Republic, the Russian Empire, the United Kingdom, the United States, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Brazil and Japan all recognised the legitimacy of the Kingdom of Italy and of Gentile's regime, with several nations within this group soon being on the same side during the Second World War. As for the First Republic of Italy, they found legitimacy with the Third Republic, Mexico, Paraguay, China, Persia and Ethiopia recognised Di Vittorio's regime.

It would not be until the revelation of "White Rose" that the situation would change.




Suffering a life-long struggle with dyspepsia, Pope Leo XIV would die on the 27th February 1926. He is well remembered for his encyclical Ad rem rei publicae per violentiam (1925), which condemned the violence during the elections in Italy and Germany, urging all Catholics to boycott parties that used such means which was used against the 1931 German Elections and the 1937 and 1940 elections in both the First Republic and the Kingdom of Italy. His short time as the Pope would help reconcile Catholicism with the oncoming scientific developments regarding the "Primeval Atom Theory".

On the 18th March 1926, the cardinals would elect Secretary of Holy Office, Rafael Merry del Val y Zulueta
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(1926 - 1940)







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TheMenInHighCastles.com
Post on the 14th August 2009, 7:07am

Username: YeshuaBenPantera
Hey guys, I wanted to know about Chamberlain's "Accords on the Italian Question" and its effects if Chamberlain chose to support the First Republic of Italy instead of the Kingdom of Italy? What would happen with the Red Terror and Black Terror?

Username: LaFolletefor1924
There was no way that it could happen. Chamberlain, no. Lloyd George? No. The only way that could happen would if private business had something out of it. Like purchasing car brands like Alfa Romeo thirty years earlier than OTL. But other than that, no.

Username: PolkWins1848
Chamberlain would want to have no more wars or struggles with the communists, given how British, ANZAC and Indian troops were sent to the Dutch East Indies. Chamberlain would not have wanted any more confrontations with communists.

Username: LaFolletefor1924
Syndicalists, you mean?

Username: PolkWins1848
Yes, yes, I know. I keep having headaches from trying to figure out the difference between fascism and volkism. But they're just as violent as communists and socialists.

Username: YeshuaBenPantera
Yes, but would Chamberlain, could Chamberlain be able to alter his views.

Username: PolkWins1848
Only way is if Trotsky never left Russia. That he died or got imprisoned or whatever.

*****************************************************

1. Have a guess at who this man is.
2. A man who came up with the "Primeval Atom" aka the "Big Bang Theory" of the universe, as well as the concept of an expanding universe.
3. Another name for it is the Seven Weeks' War or the Austro-Prussian War.
4. With a greater sense of support, he discovers it two years earlier. "Lemaître's Law" is ATL version of "Hubble's Law"
5. Comprised of left-wing republicans, anti clerical thinkers, anarchy-syndicalists, trade unionists, socialists and communists that did not any other party.



I hope that you like this post, please comment and like so that it remains as realistic as possible. I hope you all have a nice time, stay safe and enjoy. God bless.
 
The Fifth Crack in the Dam: The Start of the Second Long Depression, started by some Austrians + 1928 UK and US Elections
There comes a time, in every man's life, that they would have to face the music. There comes a time, in every economy, that they too would have to face the music. Many experts believed that such was the case in the cause of the Second Long Depression.

- Senator Susan Berejiklian of California (Republican) (Born 1956), writing on the 60th anniversary of the start of the Second Long Depression in 1987, prior to winning the US 1992 Presidential Election. (1)


Austria-Hungary was on the rocks, figuratively and literally. The Oesterreichische Nationalbank, the central bank of the Austro-Hungarian Empire since 1816, was compelled to pay the reparations as quick as possible. Unlike Germany, there was no renegotiation of the terms of payments, thanks to the demands from nations like Romania, Greece and Italy. The consequences of such will be addressed later. But for now, the one thing that it shared in common with Germany was the growth of political violence.

Having its armed forces curtailed and its entire naval manpower unemployed, King Charles I of Austria-Hungary convened with the national legislature on emergency powers following the Polish Flu in 1921. A referendum in October 1921 allowed for the creation of "Chancellor of the Empire", who would be given the following powers:
1. Dissolving the legislature, on orders of the King, to allow for national elections and for referendums.
2. Having the power to mobilise police and soldiers to quell any dissent for a period of 6 months (to be classed as a "emergency period", to be renewed by the King.
3. Being appointed by the King and deposed by the King at any times without a reason.

On the 2nd November 1921, Otto Ender was the first Chancellor, ordered to curb left-wing violence in the streets of Vienna and other major cities. With the recovery of the country from the Polish Flu, the ruling Christian Social Party won the January 1922 election based of law and order. Underneath it all, the madness surrounding the forced payments had not gone away. The defeat of the fascists in Italy and the establishment of the First Italian Republic meant that the conservative-liberal Christian Social Party had its work cut out. Upon the emergency period coming to expire on the 1st March, the King declared on the 20th of February 1922 that the emergency was over, to then deliberately backflip and order the emergency to be reinstated on the 1st of March. Meeting with the King, Chancellor Ender declared that he would resign if the emergency was extended. Instead of dealing with a constitutional crisis, King Charles decided to depose the Chancellor, replacing him with fellow member Kurt Schuschnigg on the 26th February 1922.

The restoration of the emergency period began to alienate liberals within the country, as they were taken aback by the near-absolutist powers that the King had formed. On the 26th March 1922, a crowd of 40,000 protested against the King in Budapest was crushed by Hungarian and Austrian soldiers. This turned into a period of riots known as the "Red Vest Protests" (2), which were aimed at the censorship of the press, the autocratic powers of the monarchy, the King forcing businesses to pay into the reparations as well as attempting to put in a inheritance tax. Salzburg and Innsbruck were the scenes of horrific rioting, with cavalrymen charging at full speed into the crowds in order for them to disperse. Pictures of children and women being trampled by horses was more than enough to trigger widespread anger and distrust.

Despite all this, the emergency period remained until the 1st of August. Up until then, the King dismissed Schuschnigg on the 29th March and replaced him with the following people:
- Karl Buresch (29th March - 9th April) (argued with the King to end the heavy-handed approach to the protestors, the King refused and the Chancellor resigned)
- Rudolf Ramek (9th - 23rd April) (Attempted to negotiate with the Allied Powers over a change to the system of reparations, the King was made unaware of this thanks to efforts by Fanny von Starhemberg to control information leading to the King. Ramek was accused of treasonous behaviour and he fled for Switzerland before he could be killed)
- Carl Vaugoin (23rd April - 11th May) (Attempting to make reforms on tax as well as the minimum wage. Not only was he incapable, but a right-wing industrial worker shot him as he surveyed the damage done by rioting in Salzburg)
- Fanny von Starhemberg (11th May - 20th May) (Implicated in the emigration of Ramek, forcing the King to depose her and have her arrested. She committed suicide before then)
- István Friedrich (20th May - 1st June) (Attempted to call in the National Council to vote on minimum wage reforms, was voted down three times by fellow Christian Social Party MPs and Social Democratic Party MPs)
- Dénes Berinkey (1st June - 9th June) (Failed to form a government, could not obtain the majority of MP's needed to pass legislation)
- Pál Teleki (9th June - 5th July) (Deposed after reports came that he planned on passing Anti-Jewish laws)
- Ernst Streeruwitz (Appointed on the 5th July) (3)


Streeruwitz's policies were to undermine the compromises that Vaugoin attempted to follow, arguing that increasing productivity would help alleviate the burden that the people of Austria-Hungary had to deal with. The Red Vest Protests gave way to a big-tent political party known as the National People's Party (NPP), led by Engelbert Dollfuss. The demand for workers' rights began to grow, as well as nationalist sentiment and pro-annexation sentiment. Such was the case in the 1923 Election, where the federal budget was voted down, with half of the Christian Social Party voting against it. The King, attempting to gain as much legitimacy as possible, called for an early election. The result was a landslide victory for the Social Democratic Party of Austria-Hungary and the National People's Party, thanks to the King's expansion of the National Council's seats from 370 to 815 seats.
National People's Party - 407 seats
Social Democratic Party of Austria-Hungary - 233 seats
Christian Social Party - 110 seats
Other - 65 seats

Engelbert Dollfuss was given the ability to form a government on the 25th March 1923, with many of the cabinet members coming from the NPP. What made the Dollfuss administration controversial was that two-thirds of the government favoured annexation with Germany, with Dollfuss being neutral on the issue. It was something that made the Social Democratic Party seethe (given their independent stance) and the Christian Social Party led by Kurt Schuschnigg (who campaigned against annexation).

Dollfuss managed to obtain some sense of stability, as the Red Vest Protests ended. Workers' rights began to be legislated, such as workplace manslaughter laws, laws against unlawful dismissal and raising the minimum wage. Of course, the formation of a big tent party tended to include left-wing and right-wing people, with the NPP including pro and anti annexation politicians, along with free-market supporters, Christian democrats, secular politicians, et cetera.

Dollfuss kept the warring factions at bay, as a breakaway group of Social Democrats formed the Communist Party of Austria-Hungary, based off funds that came from citizens of the FRI and from Germany's Communist Party. As a counter, Dollfuss would shuttle donations from Germany through Swiss bank accounts, before using them in routine barnstorming campaigns between March 1923 and October 1925. It would not be discovered until the 14th November 1925, which would lead to a second round of rioting within the new decade. The Communist Party began to openly battle in the streets with the Christian Social members as well as the reformed Red Vests (now proclaiming pro-annexation and volkist talking points). For the next two years, Dollfuss would cling onto power, pork barrelling here and there and beating up the odd upstart protest. Dollfuss himself would proclaim the necessity of annexation, as a way of currying favour towards the pro-annexation Red Vests and to seperate himself from the Christian Social Party, which in the 1926 Election would lead to the CSP winning only 89 seats out of 871 seats. For context, the Communist Party would win 211 seats, the Social Democratic Party 237 and the National People's Party winning 334 seats. The rise of partisan riots and of communism allowed for Dollfuss to press on with more intrusive laws with the consent of the King. That was the case for Austria-Hungary for the year of 1927

Then it happened.

The Oesterreichische Nationalbank collapsed on the 27th November 1927, otherwise known as Black Sunday. This came at a shocking time, as hyperinflation took hold in Austria-Hungary and there was a run on the banks as citizens got sick of the violence and the political intriguing. As it occurred, the central bank tightened up the money supply, with banks closing down with people's accounts still full. What was a shitshow became a godforsaken clusterfuck by the new year, which was only made worse by British Chancellor of the Exchequer Winston Churchill's decision to bring Britain back onto the gold standard on the 10th of November 1927.

A double whammy would not be good for the European economy and a triple was not going to help when Creditanstalt filed for bankruptcy on the 15th February 1928, which sent the rest of Europe ablaze in terms of political and financial instability. In Britain, Prime Minister Chamberlain dumped Churchill from the place of Chancellor of the Exchequer and did not bring Britain off the gold standard until January 1929. The 1928 General Election (14th - 15th June 1928) would be something to behold, as Labour became the governing party, with a rump Liberal Party in Coalition.

Out of a total of 30,929,232 eligible voters, 82.9% of the electorate turned out to vote or 25,640,333 voters. The number of seats up for grabs was 721 seats, with Ireland having 83 seats in total. Requires a 361 seat majority
Political PartyLeaderCandidates for SeatsSeats HeldVotesSeats WonSeats Gained/Lost% of Vote
% of Seats
Result
Conservative and Unionist PartyAusten Chamberlain5212037,446,313193-10 seats29.04% of Vote
26.76% of Seats
Labour PartyJohn Robert Clynes5072058,929,334313+108 seats34.82% of Vote
43.41% of Seats
Coalition with Liberals
Liberal PartyDavid Lloyd George5011875,963,292135-53 seats23.25% of Vote
18.72% of Vote
Coalition with Labour
Irish Parliamentary PartyJoseph Devlin 82692,105,77250-19 seats8.21% of Vote
6.93% of Seats
Sinn Fein Michael Collins479149,73714 +5 seats0.58% of Vote
1.94% of Seats
Democratic Liberal PartyHerbert Samuel26225,5180-22 (lost leader's seat)0.02% of Vote
Communist Party of BritainAlbert Inkpin383278,9935+21.08% of Vote
0.69% of Seats
National Socialist PartyJohn Joseph Jones493127,5567+40.49% of Vote
0.97% of Seats
Scottish Prohibition PartyEdwin Scrymgeour7142,1102+10.16% of Vote
0.27% of Seats
Independent Socialist PartyHarry Pollitt1209,9170-/+0.03% of Vote
Plaid Cymru Saunders Lewis303,0290-/+0.01% of Vote
National Servicemen's LeagueHenry Page Croft391227,8832-100.10% of Vote
0.27% of Seats
British Volkist PartyArnold Leese18023,6650-/+0.09% of Vote
Scottish National PartyRoland Muirhead608,2060-/+0.03% of Vote
Agricultural PartyHarry German 4020,7720-/+0.08% of Vote
Other- 1,5640498,2360-/+1.94% of Vote

The Conservative and Unionist Party attempted to distance themselves from Chancellor of the Exchequer Winston Churchill, but it made Austen Chamberlain look like a fool. As a result, they were slammed in the new redistributions and they were shuttled to 2nd place, having lost 10 seats. Austen Chamberlain resigned from the conservative leadership, opting to leave it to either Scottish Noel Skelton or Bonar Law. With only younger Conservative MPs opposing him, Bonar Law was made the leader of the Conservative and Unionist Party on the 20th June 1928.

Three months prior to the election, Herbert Kitchener, "the man who delivered Gallipoli into British hands" (The Spectator, 2028, "100th Anniversary of Kitchener), passed away in his sleep at the age of 77 as a result of a stroke. The loss of one of Britain's greatest war heroes and a Liberal MP managed to spare Lloyd George from a great deal of backlash. That being said, it was now the 2nd election that they remained in 3rd place. It came down to negotiations between Lloyd George, Labour MP Ramsay McDonald, new Prime Minister John Robert Clynes and the new Liberal MP, John Maynard Keynes. The Liberal Party would remain in coalition, but Keynes would be chosen for the duty as Chancellor of the Exchequer.

The Labour Party experienced its greatest victory, with the thanks of the mistakes of the Conservative-Liberal Coalition. It is hoped that Clynes and his right hand man, Ramsay McDonald, would lead the country out, as unemployment lines began to grow and grow.

Sinn Fein, despite failing in its efforts of independence, campaigns against the IPP, stating how complacent they were. Hoping to cling onto the coattails of the Labour Party, Michael Collins managed to get the part back into double-digit representation. It would starve Eamon De Valera of any possible case for a leadership spill. The IPP would soon begin to dwindle, as Irish Unionists begin to flock to either Labour or the Conservatives, dissolving as a party in the 1958 General Election after dealing with some of the corruption of Prime Minister Blair's Administration (1949 - 1958).

The Democratic Liberal Party, under Herbert Samuel, failed to keep their seats. Kitchener's last public appearance showed his criticism for the DLP, that also came after Asquith's death and controversies surrounding his inheritance. Many personal supporters of Asquith ditched the party, opting to go back to the Liberal Party proper. Samuel lost his own seat over the controversies over a loss of party funds and manpower.

The Communist Party of Britain began to campaign on the measure of Irish independence, hoping that it would form a "Collective of British Republics", something that alienated Sinn Fein voters and IPP voters as well. As the CPB endorsed the policy, Sinn Fein would slowly withdraw from Home Rule, ditching the policy in the lead-up to the 1971 General Election and the aftermath of the Battle of Jadotville in the Katanga War of Independence.

The National Socialists grew in strength over the disaster of Churchill's disaster of reinstating the gold standard as well as hoping to replicate President Richthofen's policies in Britain. Their campaign was plagued with infighting between themselves and the Communist Party.





The Second Long Depression would hit across the world, as banks in the USA began to fail as the 1928 Presidential Election came around. It would not be until 9th November 1928 that Wall Street would crash, 3 days after the election.

The Republican Party was energised, with a platform of bank regulation and a fiery call from supporter to adopt more progressive stances. Indian citizenship was a platform moved by Kansas Senator Charles Curtis, which many LaFollette supporters backed. California Senator Hiram Johnson, the former Vice-President to President Holmes, gave his backing, along with William E. Borah. After several days of conferencing, it was made clear that Charles Curtis would grab the nomination, as he obtained endorsements and he declared his opposition to Palmer's policies. He chose Nebraskan Senator, George W. Norris, to be his running mate. (4)
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The Democratic Party Convention was in shambles. Having an economic crisis unfold while Palmer was in office was bearing down on every person here. Herbert Hoover and Carter Glass seemed to be the only two major contenders. There was no way that the conservative and the liberal wings of the party would meet on equal terms. The Republicans nominated a wholly progressive ticket just like 1924. A progressive was to head the ticket, with the biggest name being Franklin D. Roosevelt. Roosevelt, having made his name was Navy Secretary and as one of the first politicians to exploit the use of radio, made himself popular in the North. Hoover, wanting to help the public in the crisis, challenged Roosevelt for the Presidency. The third man in the race was the Speaker of the House from Texas, John Nance Garner. A conservative Democrat, it was hoped that it would drain AIP voters away and that it would allow for a continuation of Palmer's policies. For a total of 89 ballots, Roosevelt and Glass battled, with one rising to then fall. Garner would end up becoming the dark horse, chipping away at the support of the bigger candidates. On the 88th ballot, it became inevitable and the last one was unanimous. To balance the ticket, Franklin Roosevelt agreed to be Vice-President, with Hoover placed as Secretary of State (5). Carter Glass would later endorse the ticket, being the second President in a row to be kicked off the ticket, the first being Franklin Pierce.
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The American Independence Party chose, for their candidate, AIP Congressman from Georgia Carl Vinson (since 1920, but Democrat since 1914). Vinson, a strong supporter of growing America's naval strength as well as segregation, the man was chosen and endorsed by Theodore Bilbo and even Thomas Dixon himself. Out of 1012 delegates, over 637 voted for Vinson, where he personally accepted. His Vice-Presidential choice would be AIP Governor of Louisiana since 1924, Huey Long. (6)
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The Socialist Party of America would form their largest convention to date. With the grievance of the Second Long Depression starting, candidates began to appear to the people. The party would select Norman Mattoon Thomas, a radical Presbyterian minister and pacifism, as its presidential candidate. The Vice-President would be Daniel Webster Hoan, Mayor for Milwaukee since 1916. (7)
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The campaign was brutal, as the unemployment numbers were being crunched every single day. Garner called Curtis a "inexperienced dolt who cannot deal with the people of this country", while Curtis called Garner "a do-nothing Democrat, unable to help the people. I reckon Roosevelt could do a better job". This jab from Curtis allowed thousands of Republicans and Democrats angry at Garner's nomination heckled him, calling him a "Do-Nothing Democrat", a jab that would poison their chances at re-election. The fact that Palmer served two-terms meant that the chance for a party to serve 3 terms in a row was limited. Many people blamed President Palmer and Speaker Garner, as well as Roosevelt. Herbert Hoover, seeing the winds blowing against him, stated that he would not want to serve under Garner and Roosevelt.

The Republicans were now united, the most united through the Fourth Party System (1896 - 1928). Curtis was the first American Indian as President (3/8ths American Indian ancestry, 5/8th European American ancestry), speaking to American Indian crowds about citizenship and speaking to African-American crowds, disenfranchised for far long. These two groups were targeted as Republicans realised that there was a great upswell of support. Even Democrat Congressmen were speaking out against Garner, including the 68-year old perennial Democrat Presidential candidate, William Jennings Bryan, who was serving as a Congressman for Nebraska (8). Bryan campaigned in his home state against Garner and Roosevelt, "who betrayed the cause of the working man, the two men are more responsible for pressing this crown of thorns upon on us than President Palmer". His campaigning would deliver Nebraska to the Republicans, despite the fact that he had campaigned against his own party. "The Return of Happy Days", a jingle composed by Tommy Dorsey, would become the de facto Republican Party theme song from 1928 onwards, alongside "The Battle Cry of Freedom". The jingle remains popular to this day, thanks to the 1968 Presidential Election and the efforts of the Republican candidate, Francis A. Sinatra.

Curtis would campaign on the Second Square Deal, matching his own campaign of change with that of the late Theodore Roosevelt. The SSD would be built around controlling the banks, old-age pensions, entrenching a two-term limit to the Presidency, aid to farmers, outlawing lynching, American Indian citizenship among other things.

The American Independence Party became more professionalised, as it had more elected officials in the South to do battle with the Democratic Party. The Solid South was a distant memory, as the one-party atmosphere dissolved into a dick-measuring contest over who wouldn't deliver the White House to the Republicans. Given that they were the party in power, the Democratic Party received all of the bitter hatred. Labour unions hated them. Socialists did not want them. White supremacists did not want them. The Democrats were being chipped away from both sides. They appealed the poor whites, even those that were disenfranchised, as a measure to ensure that only African-Americans were barred from voting in the South. By having the white vote in the South, they could change the shape of elections to come. They were also attracting white union workers in the north, who were competing with African-American workers as a result of the Great Migration.

The Socialist Party took on more of the populism that the late Robert La Follette took to the 1924 Election, appealing to the Rust Belt and to African-Americans who were disenfranchised by unions in the North. Norman Thomas made sure to keep his rhetoric clear and precise, harnessing the anger of many who had now lost jobs and who were directing their blame at the President of the United States.



The results were shocking.

The Democratic Party was blown out of the water, on a scale that was not seen this century. The blowback from the Second Long Depression would kill any chance for it to obtain national office if it did not change. The shift of unions from Democrat to Republican took well over 12 years, as they turned against the party of Wilson and Palmer and towards the party of Lincoln and Curtis. Big business and conservative voters chose to vote Republican over the Democrats and the AIP.

The election of a man with Native American heritage was something of a miracle to men like Calvin Coolidge and Hiram Johnson. But, nevertheless, the job was done. The anger of so many voters meant that the turnip for eligible voters rose from a predicted 55 - 65 percent to 91.2%. This would translate to a total of 58,994,719 voters. The Republican Party and Charles Curtis received 62% of the popular vote, the highest amount for the Party, which translates to 35,576,726 votes. Again, this came from union men in the Rust Belt, white voters in the Upper South and even Democrat strongholds like Massachusetts and Virginia. New York turned away from the Democrats, as well as Massachusetts and even Virginia. In fact, I will let the map speak for itself. Every state in the South voted either AIP or Republican except for Arkansas and Texas.

For the AIP, this was a vindication. Huey Long knew it was such. Campaigning on populist rhetoric, the AIP managed to sneak their way into new voting blocs, such as union workers and middle-class Democrats. Despite the loss, Huey knew that it was possible to fight back. To claim the White House.

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Charles Curtis/George W. Norris (Republican) - 35,576,726 votes (62%)
John Nance Garner/Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Democrat) - 8,849,208 votes (15%)
Carl Vinson/Huey Long (American Independence Party) - 14,568,785 votes (23%)





1. Fictional character, based of the OTL Premier of New South Wales Gladys Berejiklian (2017 - present). Due to a strong US condemnation of the Armenian Racecide, Armenians migrate there in larger numbers and thus form a larger demographic. Armenians settled in the West Coast region, alongside Spanish-Americans and Chinese-Americans. Susan happens to share a lot more of Milton Friedman's ideas as well as OTL neoliberal ideas. She will be a mix of Bill Clinton, Julia Gillard and Tony Blair. Speaking of them, they will have very interesting careers in ATL.
2. Akin to the "Yellow Vest Protests" in France.
3. The OTL number of leaders in Austria being deposed, instead going in days and weeks instead of months and years.
4. Natives Americans have not been enfranchised as citizens, so to have a man of Cherokee descent head up the Party of Lincoln is one of many things the Republican Party will soon stand for.
5. Bit of cheeky allohistory. If it's too much, then I'll take it out.
6. The AIP has taken much of the KKK's OTL influence, so the Klan issue is a lot less unimportant. Long was elected against the Democratic candidate, Henry L. Fuqua, winning only by 2,290 votes.
7. Because of the greater condemnation of Trotsky's misadventures, Norman M. Thomas manages to steer the Socialist Party from guilt-by-association.
8. Elected in 1920 as part of the reunion between the progressive and conservative wings of the party. Thomas Marshall remained rejected until his death in 1925.


More on the Second Long Depression next post, along with Australian Election results and other goodies.

I hope that this is all good. Enjoy if you do and comment if you can. All comments are welcome. Thanks to all of you for getting this over 17,000 Views.

But until next time, all comments and likes are welcome. Thank you all and see you later. God Bless.
 

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The Sixth Crack: The Death of German Democracy and The Rise Of The Big Fella Down Under
1928 would be the year of blown outs. Over 1.8 million people were now unemployed in Britain by Christmas time, with it reaching 3.2 million by mid-1931. That was for the United Kingdom alone. British worldwide trade was cut in half between 1928 and 1932, heavy industry was cut by near a third and employment profits sunk in every form of work. Despite having areas of the country reaching 70% unemployment, Britain was spared from most of the damage, as it did not have the boom like the USA, Germany, Canada or Australia.

Speaking of.

Democracy in Germany, prior to the SLD, was like a person choking as the waters rose all around. When it hit, the waters consumed it all. Richthofen, using the economic disaster as an excuse, called for a new election in January 1929. With the Fatherland Party dissolved and with much of the conservative vote withering in the face of the DVP, Richthofen secured victory as well as a referendum to press on with new "emergency powers". These powers would grant the majority party in the Reichstag to pass laws that contravened the Constitution, vetoed only by the head of state, which was to merge the offices of Chancellor and President into the designation of "Führer of the German State". Another power granted by this referendum would allow this new "Führer" to exercise "measures that would maintain law and order within the German State", according to "White Rose". Hoping to get everyone on side, the Saal-Schutz knocked on people's doors, one, twice and three times to see if people were voting and not abstaining.
Political PartyVotes (out of 44,878,188 or = 82.3% turnout)Seats in Reichstag (out of 557)
German People's Party24,038,174 (53.56%) 298
Communist Party of Germany 9,245,622 (20.60%)115
Social Democratic Party of Germany 3,466,839 (7.72%)43
Catholic Centre Party3,352,802 (7.47%)42
Bavarian People's Party2,998,205 (6.68%)37
German Democratic Alliance (German People's Party, German Democratic Party, Agricultural League + 6 more)1,776,546 (3.95%)22

As for the referendum results:
ChoiceVote (44,878,188)PercentageMotion Result
Yes38,992,14686.88% Motion is Carried
No5,886,04213.12%

The election results formed as the last obstacle to Richthofen's administration of Germany. As a result, the Reichstag was castrated. No power, no control, nothing. As of the 23rd January 1929, the "Führer" could rule by decree. It was here that one of the first measures was the destruction of opposing political parties as well as their paramilitary organisations. All conservative parties in the country vowed to back the regime, as they were afraid of the Communists. The SPD was forced from public view and sent underground, trying as hard as they could to get away from the growing invasive state that the Saal-Schutz was a part of. (3)

For now, Nietzsche's words could be paraphrased for the German people. "Democracy is dead. Democracy remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderer of all murderers?"







Austen Chapman continued the work of his predecessor alongside Treasurer Earle Page. The Royal Commission into the Soldier Settlement Scheme would damage the government, more the Nationalists than the Country Party men. The Commission stated four faults with the program: lack of training for soldiers to become farmers, the size of the plots of land, the prices for agricultural products and a lack of capital for new farmers to use. Page hoped, with the 1923 Inter-State Commission, to form a united front on post-war settlement schemes. He was helped by the Labor Premier of Queensland, John Huxham as well as the re-elected Premier of Victoria, John Bowser of the Country Party. Both men focussed on state-sponsored agricultural training. It was declared that the Federal Government would pay for the states in the event that they could not give grants to soldier settlements. In the meeting, attempts were made to establish uniform railway gauges and electrification. With no success on those metrics, Page and Chapman would continue to drive birthrates up, as the population reached 6 million on the 26th October 1923 (4).

For the next three years, Chapman would focus on two things. The first was maintaining the defences at Micronesia. The first was meant to curb Japan's southward ambitions, as expressed by the volkist/far-right party Kokuritsu Saisei Sensen under Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe following a crushing victory at the February 1924 General Election. Royal Navy Admiral Arthur Cavenagh Leveson was granted the right to inspect the Royal Australian Fleet, as well as all of its facilities during the year 1924, including those in Micronesia. On the 6th November 1924, The Leveson Report would spell out the future formation of the RAN: 2 aircraft carriers, 3 battlecruisers, 9 light cruisers, 2 flotilla leaders, 18 destroyers, 2 destroyer depot ships, 10 submarines, 2 submarine depot ships and 12 dozen auxiliary ships. The price for such a fleet was to be well over 5.5 million pounds. It was to be put to good use, as the Country Party demanded concessions such as lowering tariffs as well as expelling foreigners who endangered the community (who also happened to be communist and later fascist). The Liberal Party under Billy Hughes managed to give support for the expansion to the RAN, but it opposed much of the Country Party's concessions. In 1925, confirmation of Japanese weapons being used by the Anhui Clique against the National Government under Sun Yat-Sen. Yet-Sen's death on the 27th August that year shattered the Republic of China, as well as the conquest of Mongolia by Russian forces under Baron Roman Ungern von Sternberg. Another shock would be the Chinese gas attack on Korean towns twenty-three days later. These things to the north, where Chapman and Minister for Defence Thomas Crawford (Senator for Queensland) was being made aware of growing Russian and Japanese strength in China, would force the federal budget into a deficit and to keep it there for much of the pre-Long Depression period of Australia.

The next matter was industrial relations. In Australia, there were several problems.
1. The system of overlapping industrial courts have evolved since Federation.
2. Courts have, through several decisions since Federation, expanded the potential jurisdiction of federal arbitration.
3. The system in place had both state and federal courts having their own opinions in the same industrial disputes.
4. Said system was exploited by unions and employers, who simply chose courts that felt favourable. If they could not get the result, they would change jurisdictions to get the best unity of state and federal conditions.
5. Long-drawn disputes were because workers and employers chose different tribunals to settle their disputes, unwilling to accept the rulings of the other person's chosen court.

Such problems were a headache to deal with, with Chapman and Attorney-General Littleton Groom trying to negotiate in the 1925 Inter-State Commission over simplifying industrial relations. Austen Chapman granted the right of Treasurer Earle Page to issue grants to the states. One suggestion was to breakup the Northern Territory and divide it among South Australia, Queensland and Western Australia. No such event took place. Having failed to achieve any goals, Austen Chapman decided to take it to the people. On the 6th July 1925, Attorney-General Groom introduced the motion for a referendum, where the federal government was to be given exclusive powers to make laws regarding corporations, trade unions, trusts and employer associations. Newly-elected NSW Premier Jack Lang (Labor Party) criticised the move. The Country Party was divided on the issue, as well as backbencher Nationalist MPs. Page and Chapman could not backdown from this struggle. Thus, it was taken to the election.

The 1925 Federal Election was a uphill struggle. Chapman campaigned on the threat of Japan, as news started to trickle down through the election. Keith Murdoch, as a MP for the Nationalist Party, used his journalistic expertise as the campaign manager. Chapman met crowds in Melbourne, Sydney, Queensland, Tasmania and Western Australia. The Country Party campaigned against the "Yellow Peril", wanting more immigration from Britain and more financial incentives for wives to have more children. The term "SIX MILLION AUSTRALIANS, BORN AND BRED" became a slogan in the election by both the Nationalist Party and the Country Party. Billy Hughes' Liberal Party campaigned on almost the exact same platform, with the referendum becoming a big issue for the party.

Then a shitstorm happened in the Electorate of Barton in New South Wales on the 18th August 1925. The Labor MP, Frederick McDonald, claimed that the Nationalist candidate Thomas Ley had bribed him the year before, urging him to not re-contest. With the revelation coming to the public, Keith Murdoch urged Chapman to drop Ley from the race on the 20th. On the 23rd August, Billy Hughes confirmed that the retired New South Wales MLA for Murrumbidgee Arthur Grimm would contest the electorate for the Liberal Party (5).

Having lost the previous election, Parker Moloney was defeated in a party caucus by Albert Green (MP for Kalgoorlie, Western Australia). Green, having been in Parliament since 1919, campaigned on dumping the referendum and not attacking the industrial courts, as well as introducing a parliamentary pension (6). Green campaigned on behalf of the Labor MP for Barton, hoping to smack Chapman's chances in the electorate. Then the shitstorm grew. On the 2nd of September, McDonald's house was attacked, with masked men dragging him out of his bed and dragging him into a car. The kerfuffle caused by McDonald's screams and by his wife calling for help led to three men confronting the masked men. In the middle of the night, the three men saved the Labor MP from being kidnapped or worse. The next night, McDonald addressed the local papers. Three broken teeth, a bruised eye and discolouring to his chest and face, he declared his retirement from the race. Before he finished, he endorsed Arthur Grimm as the candidate before stating that "I would rather be bruised a thousand times than accept a bribe from Thomas Ley". The statement shattered the campaign of Ley and the damage control by Murdoch. Keith Murdoch disavowed Ley, on the suspicion from the police that Ley had led the attack himself. Upon confronting the man, Keith did not hear a denial of the claim.

The results were in.

Political PartyLeaderVotes Seats, 38 to hold majority
Nationalist Party of AustraliaAusten Chapman (MP for Eden-Monaro)1,108,49220 (-4)
Australian Labor PartyArthur Green (MP for Kalgoorlie)1,426,88037 (+5)
Country PartyEarle Page (MP for Cowper) 298,34510 (-5)
Liberal PartyBilly Hughes (MP for North Sydney) 106,8235 (+1)
Protestant Labor PartyJames Catts (MP for Cook) 18,7721
Independents -50,2562 (+1)
Total 2,919,56875

George Wise regained his seat of Gippsland from Thomas Paterson, a Country Party MP. He would join William Watson, the MP for Fremantle, the man that would form Watson's Supply Stores, which would become one of the largest supermarkets in Australia after the Second World War, alongside the other members of the Big Five.

Facing 30 to 37, Chapman and Page began to negotiate with Hughes and George Wise. Wise and Hughes agreed to give confidence and supply, giving the government 36 to 37. The odd men out were William Watson, a vehement anti-partisan man and the Protestant Labor Party MP James Catts. Catt was on board with ALP policy, but he believed there was a Catholic influence on the ALP that alienated Protestant union workers. Catts could not be trusted. Watson however, tended to vote with the conservative parties. Earle Page spent the whole of the 16th and 17th of November 1925 to convince Watson. Watson, at the time, communicated to his staff in Freemantle hoping to get as much pork barrelling possible in the electorate. On the 18th November 1925, Austen Chapman was given the commission to form a minority government by Governor-General (ret. Field Marshal) Douglas Haig.

Such a narrow margin had its consequences, as newspapers asked Chapman why did the party allow a man like Thomas Ley compete for a seat. Such a matter allowed for the formation of the Electoral Accountability Act 1925, drafted by William Watson. Passed through both houses, the Act would allow the Commonwealth Police Force to investigate candidates for any criminal records. As for Thomas Ley, he was arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment after he confessed to the kidnapping, later committing suicide in 1942. (7). Health Minister Neville Howse would put forward legislation that would form the Commonwealth Institute for Serums, Vaccinations and Medical Research (CISVMR), which would later hold the world's largest radium collections as well as contribute to the eradication of smallpox and polio in 1964 and 1982 respectively.

With a razor-thin margin, Chapman put forward the motion for a referendum on industrial relations. Arthur Green would not budge and he ordered tight ranks. James Catts voted against the motion, killing it in the House. Next, the bill was introduced in the Senate, where a coalition of Nationalist, Country and Liberal Senators passed it. Knowing that the bill could trigger a second election if it was killed in the House, Chapman applauded when it was passed. Having faced defeat, Arthur Green would personally campaign against the referendum. Across the country, both men championed their sides of the issue.

On 12th January 1926, Chapman suffered a sudden heart attack in the middle of addressing supporters of the referendum in Warrnambool, in the electorate of Wannon. Rushing him to the hospital, the doctors would pronounce him dead on arrival. On the 13th January 1926, Earle Page was granted a commission to form government by G-G Haig. As the majority party, the Nationalists argued that their new leader should have the commissioned government. As such, a party room ballot was organised. On the 15th January 1926, Neville Howse would form minority government as the 10th Prime Minister of Australia. There would be no change at all with Chapman's ideas, with Neville campaigning for the referendum.

On the 6th of March 1926, the referendum results came out. 3,213,457 voters turned out, as union workers feared conservatives weakening their awards and their bargaining agreements. 52.8% of the voters supported the change, with the majority of voters in Western Australia and South Australia rejecting it. Only in Queensland, Tasmania, Victoria and New South Wales did the majority of voters agree to the proposal. With a majority in both the count of votes or states, the referendum was passed.

On the 27th March 1926, Billy Hughes would introduce the Federal Arbitration Act 1926, which would place all industrial courts in a hierarchy like this:
Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration (Highest Level, with either one judge presiding or a full bench of three)
Supreme Arbitration Court of the States (the collective name for the SAC for each state, one per state)
District Court for Industrial Arbitration (five per state)

Commission for Industrial Conciliation (twenty per state)

This bill would also include the abolition of several awards and the mergers of others. Upon reading it, journalists and Labor MPs realised that it would benefit employers more over workers.

The bill would be defeated by Labor and James Catts, 38 to 37. It would be the second defeat of a bill in the House for the Chapman-Howse minority government. Like the referendum motion, it was passed in the Senate. Unlike the referendum, Labor and the one Protestant Labor Party voted against it. On the 6th June 1926, it was introduced into the Senate, passing through. The ALP and James Catts voted the bill down. There would be no double-dissolution election, since a bill has to be introduced in the House and rejected by the Senate twice for that to happen under Section 57 of the Australian Constitution. Howse, Page, Hughes and Green met at a round table, which stated that a Constitutional Amendment would come forward, which would allow for the trigger of a double-dissolution election if a bill is rejected twice in the House after the Senate passed it twice. Green would allow it, in the return for amendments to Hughes' bill. Howse agreed to it, much to the deep-seated anger of Hughes and Page. Howse wanted the struggle to end. They won the referendum, a future conservative majority government can strengthen federal arbitration. "Moving forward on this path, however fast or however slow, is better than not moving at all", wrote Howse five years after the fact.

The bill would become law on the 14th August 1926. But it was the only victory in the aftermath of the referendum results. Much of the year and 1927 a bipartisan bill would set out a plan to expand the 7 year old Royal Australian Air Force onto new bases within Micronesia, New Guinea and Northern Australia. This came with news of the Japanese acquisition of Manchuria alerted even the most dovish of the MPs on either side, with over 20,000 Chinese civilians feared dead compared to 6,000 Japanese. The program would allow for an airbase in each state to train 1,000 pilots in peacetime each year or 6,000 peacetime pilots once the program was full, with the chance to expand to ten times the number in wartime. The places based for specialisation for the RAAF were:
- Tamworth, New South Wales (Initial Training)
- Amberley, Queensland (Elementary Flying Training)
- Point Cook, Victoria (Service Flying Training School)
- Geraldton, Western Australia (Air Observer School)
- Mount Gambier, South Australia (Bombing and Gunnery School)
- Hamilton, Victoria (Air Navigation School)
- Launceston, Tasmania (Wireless Air Gunners School)
- Bundaberg, Queensland (General Reconnaissance School)

The debt was ballooning, with some suggestions by MPs such as William Witt that the Treasury should dip into the Collective Fund, which contained no more than 1.5 million Australian Pounds. Upon shooting down the idea, Earle Page and Neville Howse had to put forward cuts to spending in certain areas as well as raising taxes on entertainment. This caused a revolt within the flowering Australian film industry, with both Australasian Films and J. C. Williamson Ltd declaring their opposition to measure. Meanwhile, Samuel Nicholls (Labor MP for Macquarie), was killed in a car crash on the 14th March 1927. A by-election would be held on the 9th April, with three candidates making their mark:
- Nationalist Party candidate Arthur Manning
- Liberal Party candidate John Miller
- And the surprise, Labor Premier of NSW, Jack Lang.

Lang's shock exit out of NSW politics came from several reasons. The first was a disappointing Labor performance for the last two federal elections, the second was the defeat over the referendum, the third being Green's unwillingness to rope James Catts back into the fold. Jack Lang was chosen and endorsed by several MPs from New South Wales, both from the federal and the state Labor Party. Due to several disagreements between Hughes and Page, Hughes campaigned on behalf of John Miller. Not only were conservative voters turned off from Hughes' campaign, but Manning's performance against Lang was not good enough. Union turnout drove Lang to win by 2,329 votes, earning the seat of Macquarie. Jack Marcus Baddeley, the NSW Minister for Labour and Industry and Secretary for Mines, defeated his opponent Jack Fitzpatrick. It did not take long for Lang to rise through the ranks, with Green resigning in favour of the newly elected man.

Then, the date of 10th November 1927 appeared on the calendar. Jack Lang had both federal and state Labor MPs call out his record for the people It would be him, they said, that would deliver the people from the shock of unemployment. Page and Howse's filibustering on the issue in Parliament did not fill people with confidence. Lang drove the vote high in Sydney, Newcastle and the coastal region of Queensland. Meanwhile, Page drifted further to the right by stating that Lang's programs would bring in socialism. The rise of the AVP, Australian Volkist Party, did not make matters better and the Communists turned it all into a goddamn farce. With a candidate from the last election in prison, a series of cuts and taxes in the middle of a worldwide economic depression and his government splitting up, Neville Howse dissolved the writs and announce the election to be on the 5th of July next year.

The election was a damning indictment of the Nationalist-Country Coalition, with Hughes' Liberal Party gaining members at their expense. Lang campaigned across the country, hitting areas that were beginning to see a exponential rise in unemployment. The Country Progressive Party was taking away voters in country Victoria, which tipped several key seats to Labor outside of Melbourne. The rise of Lang also alienated Catts, who was re-elected alongside rising star Walter Skelton, who was a NSW MLA for the Labor Party before challenging the seat of Newcastle and winning. Neville Howse lost his seat to a Liberal Party candidate.

5th July 1928 came: 3,444,769
Political PartyLeaderElectorateVotes - 3,257,865Seats BeforeChanges
Australian Labor PartyJack T. LangMacquarie, NSW1,547,4353741 (+4)
Nationalist Party of AustraliaNeville HowseCalare, NSW1,209,3772014 (-6)
Country Party Earle Page Cooper, NSW102,34697 (-2)
Liberal Party of AustraliaBilly HughesNorth Sydney, NSW274,883511 (+6)
Country Progressive PartyPercy StewartWimmera, Victoria49,77310 (-1)
Protestant Labor PartyJames Catts Cook, NSW38,99812 (+1)
Australian Volkist PartyFrancis de Groot (8)candidate for Warringah, NSW9,20400
Communist PartyJock Garden candidate for Cook, NSW5,39200
Independent--20,4572 0 (-2)

The 11th Prime Minister would be Jack Lang, aka, the Big Fella. His programs would bring Australia from the quagmire and it would contribute to the success during the Second World War. But in the meantime, Labor celebrated, as they had regained power for the first time in 9 years.

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1. Makes sense given his OTL liking for the cold. A thread on this website suggested the constituency of Argyllshire if he were to enter into Parliament.
2. He did not get killed during the fighting. His entry into politics will be explained later on.
3. Many ATL historians would argue that volkism ended here and fascism began in Germany, however the term "Volkist Germany" remains in the public consciousness.
4. Australia in ATL had a greater emphasis on birthrates, as the Dardanelles Campaign emphasised the number of soldiers that died.
5. Thomas Ley did bribe McDonald in OTL.
6. These did not exist at the time.
7. Thomas Ley in OTL has been implicated in the disappearance and the murder of several of his political enemies. I shit you not, the whole story with this man needs to be told.
8. The man that rode on a horse and chopped down the ribbon at the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
 
3,444,769 - OTL number of registered voters at the time of the 1928 General Election

3,257,865 - ATL voters who turned out to vote.

1,547,435 - ATL voters who wanted B I G F E L L A as their Prime Minister
 
The Seventh Crack: The Second Long Depression and its numerous solutions and side-quests (Conquests, fighting and possible war crimes included) Part One
If we are to be perfectly clear, it was the mark of John Maynard Keynes that allowed this country out of the quagmire. Hell, it was the mark of John Maynard Keynes that allowed this entire world out of the quagmire. Which is why I hereby nominate John Maynard Keynes for the Nobel Peace Prize.

- Eric Blair, Liberal MP for Argyllshire (1)(1935 - 1976), speaking before the House of Commons on the 12th September 1945.

Upon hearing word of the proposal, I hereby second it as well.
- Horace Michael Hynman Allenby (2)(1898 - 1948) on that same day. He was the son of the late Field Marshal Edmund Allenby.




The Second Long Depression would be the longest economic downturn in the 20th century, even beating the First Long Depression of 1873-1879 (or 1873-1896 according to certain metrics)(3). It would last from the 10th November 1927 (When Britain returned to the gold standard) to the start of the Second World War in 1940. However, economists such as Susan Berejiklian, Thomas Jefferson Wilkins and John Beasley argued that it ended with the entry of the US later on. It would contribute to the unemployment of millions of people across the world, with places like Australia having over 30% unemployed before the election of leaders of either the left or the right, socialists or volkists.

It will be here that several nations shall be mentioned.

The first was Germany. Prior to the Second Long Depression, Germany was undergoing rearmament. Away from the sight of curious eyes, German troops trained, in halls guarded by Saal-Schutz members. Aspiring pilots trained alongside their Russian compatriots in the Caucasus as well as the Urals, to not arouse the suspicion of French and British diplomats. Factories in the rump Kingdom of Italy were set up and managed with Italian and German engineers alongside one another. Hjalmar Schacht was responsible for the creation of Büro für wissenschaftliche Entwicklung (4)(BWE) - Scientific Development Office, a dummy company designed to finance German rearmament in August 1929. A total of 2 billion Reichsmark were collected by the four German armaments companies responsible for abrogating the Treaty - Krupp, Siemens, Gutehoffnungshütte, and Rheinmetall. The money that BWE needed came from BWE Bills, which would be a line of credit issued by the Government.

It would be here that Germany would form its core principles of warfare, based of the writings of the British military officer J. F. C. Fuller. Fuller put forward the ideas of a future warfare dictated by mechanisation and modernisation. In his 1926 book, The Reformation of War, Fuller and his co-writer B. H. Liddell Hart explained that:

The growth of machines such as tanks in battle as well as automobiles to act in logistics has therefore reduced the necessity of large concentrations of men in strategically important regions on the globe. A tank carrying six men, whilst on its own, can resist small-arms fire from a thousand men while firing back using machine guns or even larger ordnance. A group of a hundred tanks stretched over a mile of open ground can overrun trench lines containing three to five thousand men. In the cities of the future, warfare shall not go by street by street fighting between the invader and the defender. Instead, it shall be the caterpillar track rolling down the street, with gunfire aimed at every building that produced hostility.
(Page 65, On The Concern For The Tank)​

Fuller and Hart's work inspired Richthofen, who was introduced to it by Heinz Guderian and Ernst Volckheim. Richthofen, Guderian and Volckheim would discuss the matter as they travelled to the Russian Empire together. As the Great Depression came on, Richthofen soon developed a positive view of the Russians, with the Tsar himself amazed at Richthofen's flying skills even over a decade since the war's end. The Tsar himself had grown distant from the rest of the Allied Powers, as they were focussed on delivering Greece into the fold, as well as solidifying their interests in Anatolia and the Middle East. Having been isolated once again, the 62-year old Tsar Nicholas II would begin to make covert agreements with the Germans. Material resources, such as oil from the Caucasus and minerals from the Ural Mountains would be exchanged for industrial goods made from Germany. Andrey Matveyevich Andreyev, a Russian officer in the 1st Army, would later be a part of a program to train both Russian and German soldiers in tactics relating to armoured warfare. It would come to fruition during the Second Mongolian War (3rd November 1934 - 25th July 1936), which would see General Roman von Ungern-Sternberg secure the conquest of Outer Mongolia and the annexation of Mongolia into the Russian Empire proper (5).

As for the home front, matters changed indeed. For Germany, the necessity was that the country needed to change to promote self-sufficiency. Factories were established to create most products that Germans needed, with any imports coming from the Russian Empire. In a war, it was hoped that the choking of trade would not allow for the repeat of times of starvation and malnutrition. By 1931, most foodstuffs from Russia (at least 60%), were being exported to Germany and later her allies. In order to maintain stability, Germany ensured that France and Britain were not threatened in such a way that it would trigger rearmament in their respective countries. It would be the case until Germany could operate a war against more than one nation, which was meant to be 1935 if not for the advice from men like Guderian and Schacht, who managed to convince Richthofen to push the date back to 1940.




The Kingdom of Austro-Hungary would undergo a further complication in its political mindset, as communists and socialists and volkists and fascists were openly shooting each other in the streets. Engelbert Dollfuss would attempt to bring the country back in order, as the Army moved against all military wings of political parties. On the 3rd March 1929, 70 Red Vest protesters were shot dead in Salzburg before they were dispersed. Dollfuss would attempt to bring order to the country, but it was in vain. On the 23rd March 1929, a communist sniper would shoot Dollfuss three times whilst he travelled through Hungary. Major General Bernhard Waber would restore order, with 60,000 veterans taking to the streets to push aside rebellious anti-Dollfuss crowds as the news spread across the country and the world. The King, having no Chancellor, had to face a growing chorus for change, as the Second Long Depression took hold. Bernhard Waber was influenced by members of the National People's Party to take charge for himself. Waber, having seen his nation go through Chancellors in the same way that guns go through ammo, met with the King. Disappointed with his record, Weber demanded that the King abdicate.

Having lost the will of the people and having lost Dollfuss, the King abdicated on the 16th April 1929. On the 17th, Major General Weber announced that he would take on the powers as Chancellor "of the Austro-Hungarian Republic, to ensure the preservation of this country, its people and its character". Weber would begin hunting for allies, which he found in the rising success of Führer Manfred von Richthofen and of the Russian Empire, which was seeing greater economic investment from American and German companies compared to British and French investment, which turned more towards Greece and Bulgaria by 1933 thanks to a report by Fritz Joubert Duquesne, who returned to work for the Germans. Despite retaining their de facto independence, Austro-Hungarian citizens were marching to the drum of German interests. It was all in the name of collective security, as the excuse went, following the Pact of Steel on the 26th September 1933 and the formation of the Matzen oil field within the Vienna Basin two years later.





AUSTRALIA: The 1928 Election swept the ALP into power for the first time in 9 years. Jack T. Lang would be the third person in a row that was from New South Wales, a trend that would not stop until the 1949 Election. Lang would form his cabinet as such:

Prime Minister and Ministry for Industry: Jack Thomas Lang
Treasurer: Ted Theodore
Attorney-General: Frank Brennan
Minister for Defence: Albert Green
Minister for Repatriation: Frank Anstey
Minister for Markets and Transport: James Scullin
Minister for Home Affairs: Arthur Blakeley
Minister for Trade and Customs: Parker Maloney
Minister for Health: William Maloney
Postmaster-General: James Fenton
Minister for Works and Railways: Rowley James
Vice-President of the Executive Council and Leader of the Government in the Senate: John Barnes (Senator for Victoria)

The first matter was the retirement of Douglas Haig from the position of Governor-General, which he occupied for the last five years. Lang was privately inclined to choose an Australian to fill the position, such as John Monash or even a man like Billy Hughes as a political ploy. However, his private advisors suggested that a British person be chosen to reduce any rumours of "radical socialism" that Australians may have of him. Seeing how it could turn out that way, Lang heeded their advice and chose David Richard Beatty, 1st Earl Beatty. Beatty was a Royal Navy Admiral of the Fleet, having served from 1884 until his retirement in 1926, seeing conflict in the Mahdist War, the Boxer Rebellion, The First World War and the Dutch East Indies Rebellion. Beatty would arrive in Australia on the 3rd January 1929 to serve his commission, which would soon be five years as per precedent. Haig would return to Britain, with parting gifts from Australian children and politicians alike (6).

13th January 1929. Justice H. B. Higgins passed away in his sleep. A noted friend of the Irish-Australian community, a supporter of the Australian working class as per his 1907 Harvester case which established the minimum wage that workers were entitled to, a principle that stood the test of history. His death would allow for Lang to hold back any erosion of civil liberties or rulings on arbitration that were made by Higgins and other like-minded men on the High Court. On his passing, Lang appointed the 35-year old Herbert Vere Evatt, who was a Doctor of Laws (studied at the University of Sydney) and a current member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly. The second vacancy came from Charles Powers on the 22nd July 1929, when he retired after over 16 years on the bench. Much of his career was dogged by a lack of qualification to be a High Court Justice. With his retirement, it was hoped that Lang could find a more qualified man in his place. Lang chose his own Attorney-General, Frank Brennan, to fill the position which he did on the 23rd July 1929. It was here that Lang secured the liberal majority on the High Court, as opposed to the originalist conservative wing of Irvine, Isaacs and Rich. To fill his position, he would allow for Bill Slater to run for the seat of Batman (Frank Brennan's seat), with Slater obtaining the win on the 15th September 1929 and the position of Attorney-General.

Lang would begin by investing more towards the defences in Micronesia, fulfilling the necessities of the program within The Leveson Report, as a way of promoting forward defences. The purchasing of extra warships from Britain would allow for the growth of research and development, as Prime Minister Jack Lang, Prime Minister John Clynes and their respective Treasurers would meet in London from the 2nd - 20th January 1930. The construction of Sydney Harbour Bridge would be a part of economic recovery, along with the construction of 30 dams across the country, including Hell's Gate Dam in Queensland, Barton Dam in the Australian Capitol Territory and the Franklin River Dam in Tasmania.

Such programs alienated state governments, who went into an uproar over Lang's plan to form a referendum on income tax (since it was not an exclusive power of the Federal Government). John Bowser, the Premier of Victoria at the time, launched a High Court bid to strike down the proposed referendum. In South Australia, Victoria and Western Australia v Commonwealth, the High Court decided 4-3 (on liberal-conservative lines of interpretation) that the Commonwealth had not breached the constitution. The referendum, which passed with 51.92% of voters affirming and every state voting in favour except for Victoria and New South Wales, entrenched income tax as a privilege for the federal government to legislate on. Not only would this allow for the concentration of spending to be in the hands of the federal government (reducing the vertical fiscal imbalance), but it would also promote the policy of a unitary state (which would remain Labor policy from Federation to this day). Foreign relations with Japan deteriorated, as the Immigration Restriction Act 1930 would amend the dictation test to only be put in English, which was the original intention of the law back in 1901. It would be this anger from a volkist Japan that would allow Lang to be re-elected in 1931. As the campaign went on, news of one of Thomas Ley's fellow criminals had escaped and fled the country, but it disappeared from the radar.

The war would come soon enough, but for now, the cold stare between the Land of the Rising Sun and the Land of the Golden Wattle would continue.

High Court after 1929
Justice William Irvine (7th March 1920 - 20th August 1943) - Conservative vote
Justice Thomas Bavin (11th January 1920 - 27th September 1952) - Liberal vote
Chief Justice Isaac Isaacs (12th October 1906 - 11th February 1948) - Conservative vote
Justice H. V. Evatt (16th January 1929 - 27th December 1967) - Liberal vote (Lang appointed)
Justice Frank Gavin Duffy (11th February 1913 - 1st October 1935) - Liberal vote
Justice Frank Brennan (23rd July 1929 - 11th November 1950) - Liberal vote (Lang Appointed)
Justice George Rich (5th April 1913 - 14th May 1956) - Conservative vote



NEW ZEALAND: William Massey would champion the rights of New Zealand in the post-Versailles carving of Pacific territories, farmers as well as anti-communism. Massey would guide New Zealand through the fighting in the Dutch East Indies, which would give New Zealand a total of 15 million pounds for compensation alongside Australia and Britain for their intervention. It would allow for Massey to continue in the job even after a confirmation of cancer in 1924. He would be re-elected in 1925, but he would be muscled out in the 1928 Election by a government coalition of the New Zealand Labour Party and the rump Liberal Party of New Zealand, with the return of Joseph Ward as Prime Minister. Massey would die ten months after the election. The coalition, during the Second Long Depression, would find itself in conflict with Harry Holland and Joseph Ward coming to blows over economic policy to counter the rise of unemployment. With differing views on how to combat the crisis and Massey's recent death in the minds of the people, the Liberal-Labour Coalition was defeated by a Reform Party led by Alexander Young and a campaign managed by Albert Davy (7). Fighting against interventionist policies in the economy, Young would win a 9-seat majority in 1931. The threat of Japan, as well as following Australia's initiative to modernise the military allowed Young to claim all of the remaining seats that belonged to the Liberals in the 1934 Election. The 1934 Election would cement the Reform Party to this day as the small-government, social conservative party and the Labour Party as the party of the unionist, the left-winger and those that favoured government intervention. The Labour Party would not win government until 1946 under Thomas E. Seddon.

THE NETHERLANDS: Prime Minister Charles Ruijs de Beerenbrouck would win the 1922 and 1925 elections on the basis of the putdown of Trotsky's filibuster in the Dutch East Indies, as well as a strengthening economic confidence in the country. During this time, Marinus Bernardus Rost van Tonningen would pass away. Carrying the epithet "The Saviour of the Dutch East Indies", his funeral would fuel the flames for a volkist movement along the lines of the German Workers' Party. Meinoud Rost van Tonningen, the son of the late Major General, would be the leader of the National Vanguard Party in 1928, which was designed to be an imperialist, anti-German, anti-Marxist party meant to deter any aggression from its more powerful neighbours. Following the Second Long Depression, The Netherlands runs a deflationary program, cutting wages and reducing government services. The anger from the army and the navy following wage cuts fuels the rise of the NVP, who manages to win 12 seats, which puts them in coalition with the Roman Catholic State Party. Protests rose up against Beerenbrouck and his continued administration, with socialist and volkist groups clashing with one another in the streets. The Roman Catholic State Party, on October 1930, broke the coalition and ruled with the Anti-Revolutionary Party and the Christian Historical Union. The NVP, at this time, took on a anti-conservative, Calvinist perspective unlike that of the Catholic Italian Fasces of Combat or the Protestant-based German Workers' Party or the Shinto-inspired Kokuritsu Saisei Sensen. It would not be until the 1933 election, where the NVP would crush the Coalition, winning 50 seats out of 100 and install Meinoud Rost van Tonningen as the Prime Minister. It was around this time that, in honour of his father's sacrifice, he would position the party to the British Prime Minister as a safer alternative to the German Workers' Party under Richthofen. Exercising his administration under volkist principles, it would not be until March 1934 that civil liberties would be curtailed for those that were known socialists or those that opposed the interests of the country. As for the Dutch East Indies, there would be "questionable" methods to root out the last outposts of communist and socialist resistance in the country. Tonningen would promote emigration to the Dutch East Indies (8), the end to the gold standard in The Netherlands, as well as conscription to train the Dutch people as he became aware of the reports written by "White Rose". (9) As this occurred, the Führer would look to the nation with the eyes of a hungry beast. He would plan to take on this "moral betrayal", given his belief that volkist nations would collectivise in a "war against the liberal, capitalist, degenerate democracies and the soulless, depraved, decayed communist states".

Not yet, the Führer thought.

SCANDINAVIA: DENMARK, having survived the scare of the Easter Crisis, managed to retain their constitutional monarchy. King Christian X, having divested much of his power, retained his role as King of Denmark and of Iceland, which remained in personal union with its mother country. Niels Neergaard would guide Iceland away from nationalist sentiments, as South Jutland would return to Denmark. The Danish economy rose once again with the end of the First World War, however the anarchy in Germany and the rise of communism and volkism had alerted the Danes and their way of life. King Christian X became a symbol of hatred by the communists, the socialists, the republicans (as the three of them believed that he was of an older, dishonourable order of things) and the volkists (who believed that he was weak and that he should be replaced by a strongman dictator like Richthofen). The Constitution Act of 1923 would entrench King Christian X as the head of state, which alienated the far-left and far-right elements, who now espoused republican sympathies. The Social Democratic Party under Thorvald Stauning would reject republicanism within its ranks, as 1924 led to the Copenhagen riots. In Copenhagen between the 4th January and the 2nd of February, 15,000 communists and volkists clashed with gunfire and petrol bombs continuing. The 1924 Election would have the slogan "Neergaard or Chaos", pitting the Venstre party against volkism and communism. Neergaard would lead a Venstre-Conservative-Social Liberal coalition that would introduce the land tax, which would issue a annual tax on 700 krone per plot of private land, which would be modelled on the Georgist tax system, hoping to replace all other taxes. The Second Long Depression would hit the coalition in 1927, with Thorvald Stuaning poised to take on the role of Prime Minister. But a car bomb was set off during a procession through Copenhagen on the 11th February 1928, several days before the election. The Social Democratic Party, in a wave of mourning and sadness, uplifted Karl Kristian Steincke to the role of Prime Minister. His first role was to investigate the death of his former leader. On November 1928, he would be given "Den sorte note" (The Black Note), which confirmed Stauning's death to be at the hands of German agents linked to the Sale-Schutz.

What would begin would be the biggest hunt for his killer not until the culprit's confession in 1962, recorded from a pampered bed in France.

But until that day, Denmark would look southward at the growing, festering fear that was Germany. Steincke had no illusions regarding the principles of volkism, having it explained by German emigres and Danish observers. Quietly, the Danes began to organise resistance, underneath their public works campaigns. Such resistance would co-opt the strength of the communist and volkist movements, with gun ownership allowed for any Danish man over the age of 25 (and for women once they turned 30), provided they were given the same training as soldiers. After the revelation of the documents from "White Rose", the gloves went off and the threats were beginning to heat up.


SWEDEN would have a change of Prime Minister in September 1917, as Hjalmar Branting was elected due to calls for greater democratisation of the Swedish election process. Branting, a reformist Marxist, believed that this would allow for a peaceful transition from capitalism to socialism. The revolutions in Germany, Russia and the Dutch East Indies, as well as the Italian Civil War corrupted Branting's reputation among his supporters. Despite being favoured due to passing universal suffrage, he could not stop the rank-and-file split of the Social Democratic Party over whether to support revolutionary means or peaceful means to transfer capitalism to socialism. The newly formed Communist Front of Sweden would clash with volkists, united under Bror Munck, a Lieutenant General who was an expert of cavalry and of equestrian sport. Branting would bring in the eight-hour day, as well as normalising relations with China and the Arab State. However, street clashes between volkists, communists and Social Democrats (which were inspired by those in Germany) began to wear down the legitimacy of his rule, as he was demonised for his beliefs.
The 1922 Election was called, with the Social Democratic Party winning 64 seats, the Communist Front winning 15 seats and the National Guard (volkists) winning 23 seats, the Farmer's League winning 21 seats, the General Electoral League (liberal conservatives) won 51 seats and Free-minded National Association (classical liberals and prohibitionists) finished with 56 seats. The GEL under Arvid Lindman formed a coalition with the Free-minded National Association and the Farmer's League. Lindman would extend subsidies to farmers, put forward trade agreements between itself and the Third Reich as well as promote warming relations between Sweden and the Russian Empire. Lindman, in vain attempted to put forward laws that would disarm the street gangs linked with the National guard and the Communist Front. On the 28th March 1925, Lindman would be shot dead by a group of volkists in a drive-by shooting. He would be succeeded by Felix Hamrin, who would guide the government to victory in the 1926 Election against the rising National Guard and the Communist Front. In the attempt to regain control of the Riksdag, the Social Democratic Party agreed to join in an "All-Democratic Government", with Hamrin at the head.

It would be until November 1927, where the troubles began. The National Guard and the Communist Front now showed off signs of electability, while the coalition of the democratic parties would fight within itself. It would not be until the revelation of some National Guard members infiltrating the party ranks of the GEL that would let Hamrin's government fall to an election in 1929. In a landslide election, Per Albin Hansson (1885 - 1947) of the Social Democratic Party would win, with a platform of social corporatism. Social Corporatism would allow for the government mediation in disputes between labour and capital, with the interests of the State, Labour and Capital united in a form of class collaboration. With this program, the SDP would win the majority of seats in the 1932 election, before winning a third term in 1935. At the same time, the National Guard and the Communist Front were sidelined by voters as well as the public over their loss of appeal. The introduction of the welfare state would cut at the Communist base, while a strong emphasis on nationalism and the ideal of a "Folkhemmet" (The People's Home) would undermine the volkist message. Revelations over German ties to the National Guard and the Communist Front would lead to their complete destruction in 1938, not winning a seat between them. Sweden would fight on the side of the Allies for the entire period of the war, facing invasion on both sides but not giving in. Sweden would hark the call of Gustaphus Adolphus, of Carolus Rex and of men like Helmer Södergren (1915 - 1945).


NORWAY, the last of the Scandinavian nations. It would face little conflict in the war, but it would be rewarded for its efforts with some small sum from Germany's reparations. The country would not involve itself much in international affairs, with the exception for aid sent to the Russian Empire from 1920-21. The failures of Trotsky's revolutions did not bode well with the Norwegian Communist Party, which was revolutionary and hoped to see the downfall of the liberal democracy. With the rise of the NCP and the failure of the Italian fascists to win the Italian Revolution, the volkists in Norway would be anti-Marxist but they would not commit to the same revolutionary terms as their counterparts in Germany or elsewhere. The Fatherland League, which was formed in 1923, would build itself on anti-Marxist, anti-communist lines while supporting the democratic process, corporatism and demagoguery. It would win 2 seats to the 7 won by the Communists in the 1924 Election, which was won by the Labour Party under Oscar Torp. Torp would introduce an increase to fund the national healthcare service, as well as a tariff on German-made goods following the rise of Führer Richthofen. As the term went on, the country received news of Germans harassing Norwegian citizens and boycotting Norwegian-made goods. This would cement the Fatherland League as a anti-German volkist party, as was the case in The Netherlands with the National Vanguard Party. The 1927 Election would lead to clashes between Communist and Fatherland League supporters as they presented electoral viability. The Fatherland League would tenfold increase their representation to 20 seats, while the Communist Party would increase to 26 seats. Contact between the German Workers' Party, the National Guard of Sweden and the Fatherland League (on the 7th - 27th December 1927) had attempted to form a "Volkist Internationale" (10), as a way of coordinating the interests of the volkist and fascist states of the world. The Fatherland League would flat out refuse, as the FL's ideology had a clear hatred against the Germans (as the FL saw Norway as the birthplace of the "Nordic Race", not Germany) and against Sweden (the dissolution of the Union of Sweden-Norway was still within living memory). Not only would the hatred of the Germans earn the Fatherland League respect from even left-wing Norwegians, but it would expand their base of support.

From January 1928 to the 1930 Election, the Fatherland League would embark on a pre-election campaign to mobilise anti-Marxist and nationalist voters. By election day, the Fatherland League had 450 branches with 200,000 members, a Youth League and a Women's Division. On the 1930 Election, the Fatherland League under Vidkun Quisling would win 73 seats out of 150, with the Conservative Party in second place with 21 seats. The Quisling Administration would see a large public works program designed to improve the army, navy, air force, roadways, schools, energy and housing. Its anti-German sentiments allowed for his re-election in 1933 and 1936. With the Führer staring at the north, Quisling hoped that by staring back, the Führer would blink first.


FIRST CZECHOSLOVAK REPUBLIC: The independence movement had reaped the rewards thanks to a favourable settlement from the Treaty of Versailles. The first election was to be held on the 14th August 1919, even during the outbreak of Polish Flu. Strong border controls had managed to mitigate some of the worst fears among the newly formed country. The 1919 Election would lead to a victory of the Czechoslovakian Social Democratic Party, winning 76 seats out of 300 in the Chamber of Deputies. In that same year, Pilsen became the centre of the Third Internationale (1919 - 1932). Paul Levi, one of the people responsible for the German Revolution, conducted the meeting. In the meeting was the Socialist Party of the Czechoslovak Working People, the Norwegian Communist Party, the Communist Front of Sweden, the Communist Party of Britain, the Communist Party of Germany and the Socialist Party of the United States. The discussions turned from revolutionary methods, as ensuing events showed Trotsky's failures, to methods that would subvert, that would slowly work towards the goal of socialism in Europe and the wider world. The connection between the Third Internationale and the Social Democratic Party government under Vlastimil Tusar grew too large to ignore, with many parties on the right ready to consider the possibility of a pact to counter the growing communist strength.

One of these parties was the German Workers' Party (DAP). With a strong German demographic within Czechoslovakia (thanks to the Sudetenland being inside the FCR), the DAP managed to score 12 seats in the 1919 Election, more than enough to present their mandate to the public. As the years went on and the fame of Richthofen transferred to politics, the loyalty of the German population began to sway in the Sudetenland towards the DAP. President Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk (1850 - 1939) was alarmed by the rise of left-wing and right-wing extremism, as he and many others hand lobbied for the liberation of the Czech peoples from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. With the 1925 Election, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (made of radical members who broke away from the Social Democrats plus the Socialist Party of Czechoslovakian Workers) would win 32 seats while the "Czechoslovakian League of Defence" (Czech volkists who support the independence of the state) would win 41 seats and the DAP would win 25 seats. Antonín Švehla would win the office of Prime Minister, hoping and campaigning on a platform to preserve the democratic institutions of the country from the communists and the volkists.

Here's the thing. He didn't check the economy. In December 1927, the country suffered the shocks of the Second Long Depression. Švehla would be killed by an unemployed factory worker, which would trigger three days of rioting in Prague. In the name of preserving the peace, the DAP and the Czechoslovakian League of Defence would vote for Masaryk in the 1927 Presidential Election, fighting off a challenge from the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. This had the consequence of removing much of the volkist motivation to overthrow the democracy, as the Czechoslovakian League of Defence regularly posted anti-Austrian, anti-Russian, anti-German material. For the people, losing territory like the Sudetenland would be inconceivable, nay, unimaginable to the national psyche. After all, there were Czechs and Slovaks and Hungarians and Jews and Austrians and Russians and Poles and all other demographics that would love to try what the Germans would attempt to do. The change of policy meant that the volkist movement within the FCR was shattered, with the DAP and the CLD clashing as much as they would clash with the communists. The rightward shift in the 1925 Parliamentary election would be exacerbated by the 1929 Election, with the Czechoslovakian League of Defence obtaining 58 seats, the Republican Party of Farmers' and Peasants in second with 47, the Social Democratic Party getting 22 and the Communist obtaining 8 seats. Karel Kramář, the leader of the CLD, became Prime Minister. As part of the alliance with the Republican Party of Farmer's and Peasants and with other like-minded conservative parties, the CLD slowly dropped some of the more radical positions it held.

The party propaganda would in time change to call for "Enhanced Democracy", one where the people had an obligation to fight for the democracy that grants them the rights that it enjoys. According to mainstream political historians, such as Duncan Teller, Kathrine Peterson (11) and Angus Harris, this is where volkism no longer existed until the late 1970's. The CLD moved to oppose Germany and Russia, seeking ties with Britain, France, Greece and Bulgaria. The public works campaign modernised the Czechoslovakian Army, allowed for en masse firearms training for teenagers as well as new defences across the country. CLD even used its militarised units to conduct smuggling runs to Polish and Ukrainian partisans from 1934 all the way to the end of the war. The policies that the CLD pushed also expelled the Third Internationale from the country, with the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia winning 0 seats in the 1935 Parliamentary Election. With the revelations of German rearmament, the preservation of democracy and of the country became all the more important.


FIRST REPUBLIC OF ITALY and the KINGDOM OF ITALY: Giuseppe Di Vittorio (First Italian Republic) had to deal with the Second Long Depression as it hit the country in November 1927. The FRI had to pick up the pace in terms of production, even when countries such as the United States, Britain, France and Spain placed large tariffs on FRI-made cars. It seemed to be the case where the country was being isolated. Despite the situation in other countries, the FRI had managed to maintain full employment during this time, as well as a coerced population of anarchists and subversives that would be willing to work for pittance instead of being left to starve on the street as it was the case in other nations. Despite being a syndicalist nation, Di Vittorio looked towards the economic policies of both the Kingdom of Italy and Germany, where they encouraged deficit spending in order to prevent mass unemployment. A trade deal with China allowed the First Republic of Italy to gain access to a new market, gaining silver (the main currency was backed by the silver standard, which did not effect China unlike the nations on the gold standard) which would be either stored in reserve or passed on to purchase foreign goods.

As the 1930's went on, the FRI would begin to form its new identity. It would identify more with the radicalism of Garibaldi as well as the ruthless cunning that Machiavelli endorsed in a measure to promote peace and reunification. But as the dam cracked up, such things seemed to be out of reach.

Giovanni Gentile would brace for the Second Long Depression with the final transfer of power into the hands of the Italian Fasces of Combat. The deficit spending would allow for the industrialisation of the south, which was aided by a constant brain drain coming from the FRI. By the year 1934, the FRI would have a population of 14.3 million compared to 38.2 million living in the Kingdom of Italy and the colonies. The edge over the FRI, upon seeing it, was to be stretched out further. The Italian Army would clamp down on any attempts by natives to rise up in anger, which is what occurred when Camerunese natives were supplied with weapons by smugglers from the FRI. From the 3rd March to the 26th October 1932, the Italian forces (numbering 45,000) would engage in a punitive expedition where several hundred thousand people surrendered and others resisting. such resistance was met with the systematic use of mustard gas, airstrikes and machine guns against any group of natives that fought back. Venustiano Zottola (1915 - 1982) would be raised in such an environment, as he would be trained in the colonies of Camerun, Libya, Somaliland and Togoland. As of 1934, 1 million people had gone to the Italian colonies. The Kingdom of Italy would put forward a secret treaty with the Third Reich, which was signed in November 1934, but not made public until 1937 when generals of both the Kingdom of Italy and the Third Reich planed for the invasion of the FRI.

The FRI was the perfect target. It had a brain drain, it was not a recognised state as tensions in Europe heated up and it was ignored by the other democracies. The FRI was, to quote Angus Harris:
...the red meat that was to satisfy the volkist powers.
It would all come together with the trigger of the Second World War and of "Operation Brunhild".


KINGDOM OF SPAIN: The victory in the Rif War and the gains of Spanish South Africa had boosted King Alfonso XIII's ego in a time where he was suffering complications after contracting the Polish Flu. Eduardo Dato, hoping to claim them as quick as possible, began to offer plots of land to civilians as well as soldiers that fought in the First World War. The migration scheme would re-settle 40,000 people per annum from 1920 to 1934, under Conservative PM Eduardo Dato (1919-1921, 1924-1927) and Liberal PMs Álvaro de Figueroa (1921-1924) and Manuel García Prieto (1927 - 1930). The system, however, was not so prosperous. Only the Conservative and Liberal parties were granted the right of governance, taking turns with the thanks of party bosses, civil administrations and en masse vote rigging. This would become more and more of a pain for the people once the Second Long Depression hit Spain. A road collision in one of Madrid's busiest streets led to the death of King Alfonso XIII on the 13th January 1928 (12). He was to be succeeded by his son who was crowned King Alfonso XIV.

The corrupt political system angered many on the right, who turned to volkism. One such man was Antonio Maura. Sickened by the dynastic change between the Conservative and Liberal Parties, he would call for "authentic democracy", harkening to the British model of governance as well as using strong-arming methods to get rid of the party bosses, civil servants and the voter fraud. Maura would, during this time, remain the figurehead of the movement. Gabriel Maura, his son, would organise much of the philosophical underpinnings. Both father and son believed that the will of the people was to decide the party to rule in government, not to change between Conservative and Liberal. In the 1920 Election, a total of 49 seats were won by the Maurist Party (losing only 19 seats instead of 44). As the principles grew, so did their support among right-wing voters. With every election, their strength grew. In 1924, the Maurists won 66 seats. In 1927 they won 85, becoming the largest of the right-wing parties of Spain. Passing away, Antonio Maura would not be able to claim the role of Prime Minister, but his son could. Gabriel Maura would put forward a platform of growing Spain's naval strength, increasing the birth rate and reorganising the Spanish Army. Popular sentiments, by the Second Long Depression, had turned to either the Maurists (which consisted of volkists, Carlists, moderate and traditional catholics as well as peasants) or the Socialist Republican Workers' Party (consisting of communists, anarchists, Marxists and syndicalists). The 1931 Election would lead to the Maurists obtaining 237 seats, the SRWP having 98 and the other dozen parties sharing the other 73 seats, with a coalition of conservative parties holding the Senate.

Gabriel Maura would lead the country from 1931 until his death in 1958. He would reform voting, crush much of the power of the party bosses, reform the civil service, modernise the army by purchasing British weapons as well as renewing the alliance with France and Britain. Maura would pit himself against the Germans, Russians and the Pact of Steel. This would alienate more of his radical supporters, but it would also put Spain in the good books of Britain and France. In 1933, Führer Manfred von Richthofen would meet Maura in Madrid, discussing a possible alliance where Spain would be entitled to Portugal's colonies, Gibraltar as well as bits of southern France. Maura would decline, but the consequences would reveal themselves soon, soon.


KINGDOM OF PORTUGAL: President Sidónio Pais would, along with Prime Minister António de Oliveira Salazar, set Portugal's finances for good. For decades, Portugal suffered under money creation, fiscal deficits and borrowing from overseas, which did not allow for Portugal's constant stewardship over its colonies. Salazar immediately put balanced budgets forward as well as plans to repay foreign debts. This allowed the National Republican Party and the Catholic Centre Party to win re-election in 1921, 1924 and 1927. By the Second Long Depression, Salazar had managed to get the country onto a fiscal surplus. As countries across the world dealt with the measures one way or another, Portugal maintained a budget surplus and managed to spend in such a way that it never got into severe debt.

Pais would retire before the 1930 Election having had a cardiac arrest the previous year. Salazar was chosen as the candidate for the Catholic Centre Party, which became the largest party at the election (winning 78 seats), faced against the Republican Evolutionist Party (which won 43 seats). Salazar would promote a stronger industrialisation of the colonies, exploiting as much of the resources as possible (13). The old alliance between Portugal and Britain would be maintained and when the time came, it would come into effect.


KINGDOM OF GREECE: After a total of 10 years, 245 days spent in two non-consecutive terms, Eleftherios Venizelos was swept out of power by a coalition of monarchist, conservative and traditionalist parties formed under the banner of "United Opposition", led by Dimitrios Gounaris in the 1920 Election. Gounaris would begin the integration of Cyprus and Cyrenaica, the latter of which would have 100,000 colonists by 1925 and 200,000 by 1930. Gounaris would face concerns with Bulgaria in the Thrace Crisis of 1923, where Greek soldiers planned on moving forces overland. However, thanks to arbitration from Britain and France, this did not become a military struggle. From the arbitration onwards, Gounaris put forward feelers towards Bulgaria, in such a way that alienated Serbia. The animosity between Greece and Russia did not abate. It intensified as refugees came from Tsarist Russia through the Bosphorus. It was here that the Liberal Party and the "United Opposition" now renamed the Royalist Party began to pivot. Gounaris and the Royalist Party campaigned to deter the ánthropoi me várka (boat people) from entering the country and obtaining citizenship, while hoping other nations would take them in. Being re-elected in 1926, Gounaris suggested that they be resettled in Cyrenaica, which contributes to its modern day demographics: as of 2015, 45% of the population speak Russian or Ukrainian, 98.7% follow the Orthodox Church and 24% are first or second-generation Russians. But for now, the Royalists had the power, until the Second Long Depression.

Eleftherios Venizelos once again returned to power in the 1929 Election, winning 278 seats out of 411 seats (with Cyprus and Cyrenaica integrated into the Kingdom, the seats are added). He would begin decreasing the spending in the military, which had set off one or more nerves. His diplomacy was to delay any sense of growing tensions between Greece, Russia, Bulgaria and Serbia as well as the rump Ottoman Empire. During his term from 1929 to 1936, he would promote Greek industry within the Ottoman Empire, which would become the largest employer of Turkish people and prevent much of the damage hitting the Turkish people. He would strengthen ties with Britain and France as well as the Kingdom of the Arab State, where they planned on protecting the rights of Christians within the country and within Jerusalem (the capital city). Greece was one of the few countries to avoid the ill effects of volkism or communism, as Ioannis Metaxes' Freethinkers' Party crumbled at the 1932 Election and the Socialist Party failed to win a seat in the 1929, 1932, 1936 and 1940 Elections. Venizelos' death in February 1936 led to the rise of Liberal PM Alexandros Papanastasiou, who dealt with a border skirmish between volkists from Serbia and Greek border troops. The negotiations for compensation allowed for a Royalist Party government led by Konstantinos Georgakopoulos to lead the country through the darkest times of its history, darker than even the First World War.


TSARDOM OF BULGARIA: After serious negotiations between itself and the British and the French, Bulgaria never entered the First World War on either side. Despite misgivings between themselves and the Greeks, Bulgaria was given access to the Bosphorus and to free access through the city of Constantinople. Out of all of the Bulgarians who migrated between 1917 - 1940, 72% emigrated to Greece and its newly claimed lands. The 1916 Election held on the 20th September saw Vasil Radoslavov defeated by the centre-right Democratic Party led by Aleksandar Malinov. Malinov would normalise relations with Greece and with Romania, with much of the animosity turned towards Serbia and its adoption of revanchist talking points set against Bulgaria, Greece and Italy (which they claimed stole most of the land). Both Greece and Serbia, in their propaganda, mentioned the Byzantine Empire and both of them claimed the right to be called "Third Rome". Of course, such propaganda came from the volkist organisations known as Crypteia and Анђели смрти (Death's Angels in Serbian). Crypteia was formed in Greece in 1927, as a anti-egalitarian, anti-democratic organisation that dedicated itself to terror and political violence, often promoting ethnonationalism and communitarianism. Death's Angels was an anti-Catholic, anti-Marxist, anti-democratic organisation that formed in 1925 by a group of 700 Serbian soldiers who protested at the Treaty of Versailles. Bulgaria formed one in response. Мъже от стомана (Men of Steel) were former soldiers and later unemployed men over the age of 16 who, during the Second Long Depression, would allow for Radko Dimitriev to barnstorm his way into the office of Prime Minister in 1932. Men of Steel would be trained alongside the army in defending the border as well as harassing Russian civilians, as Russo-Bulgarian relations deteriorated. During the 1930's, British and French interest in the country increased, as Serbia began to seek further ties with Russia, Germany and the other volkist nations in Europe and the rest of the world. When Dimitriev passed away in 1934, Racho Petrov took his place, beginning to join the Allies in the secret Treaty of Alexandria alongside Romania and Greece. At the same time, clashes between Russian and Bulgarian fishing boats led to a naval buildup in the Black Sea, one that would become a flashpoint for the Second World War.


KINGDOM OF CROATS, SLOVENES AND SERBS: Nikola Pašić guided the new country after the armistice, as the KCSS began to welcome several new businesses into the country. The KCSS was of a more liberal mind during the tenure of Pašić, one that brought in investment that managed to raise standards of living. However, struggles were within the country. Montenegro was within this union, forced to depose their royal family, the House of Petrović-Njegoš. There was also the matter of Prince George, the eldest son of King Peter, who was forced to renounce his right to inherit the throne (despite many times claiming to want it back). With Pašić passing away in mid-1926, the country's sense of unity began to break up. With the splitting of Italy into the syndicalist FRI and the fascist Kingdom of Italy, many wanted to reclaim the region of Dalmatia, which contained tens of thousands of Slovenian peoples. By the time the Second Long Depression hit, volkism had taken a hold on the country. It led to the formation of four volkist groups.

The first was the Montenegro Federalist Party. Built on self-determination and decentralisation, the MFP would argue for a federal union of states instead of a unitary state filled with Montenegrins, Serbs, Slovenes, Albanians (who fled from their Italian controlled homeland) and other groups. The second was the Tricolour Guard, a group of xenophobic Serbians who believed that Prince George remained the rightful heir instead of King Alexander I of the KCSS. The third was the Iron Brigades, veterans who were anti-Catholic, anti-Greek, anti-Marxist and anti-Bulgarian and revanchist. The latter two formed imperialist propaganda, which stated that Britain needed to surrender Egypt, the Sudan and the Arab State (despite the latter being independent) for the Serbs. As unemployment rose, membership in these three groups grew, as well as the Communist Party. Violence was such a regular occurrence in the country, that between 50 to 85 deaths occurred per day for a period of seven months during the year of 1932. The 1933 Election was seen as rigged, as the MFP got 2 seats, the TG's got 12 and the IB's got 49 seats. Meanwhile, the People's Radical Party maintained its rule over the country. The ensuing riots forced the army to crush all of the extremists on the far-left and far-right.

This led to a coup d'état by the Black Hand, who reformed as the fourth volkist group. Marching into the palace, 400 officers and veterans took the palace where King Alexander I and his family were in on the 28th June 1934. They pledged their allegiance to him and they stated that only an autocratic, authoritarian and absolutist monarch would be able to sway the hearts and minds of the people of the KCSS. Alexander, seeing how they barged in, politely asked what would happen if he refused. Their leader, a young man by the name of Grigorije Borisavljević, would state that "there are more than enough relatives of the late King or of the other family [House of Obrenović] who would consider this. Choose wisely." King Alexander I, hoping that he was bluffing, would refuse. Pulling out a bayonet blade, Grigorije Borisavljević and five Black Hand members would stab the King ninety three times before storming the rest of the palace to murder the rest of the family. Princess Maria (daughter of the late Ferdinand I of Romania, brother to the current King Carol II) and their issue: Prince Paul, Prince Tomislav and Princess Alexandria. All of them were either shot or stabbed to death, with the murders declared to be done by "communist agitators". The real reason was due to Alexander I's overtures to Britain and France, in the hopes of not being attacked by an alliance of Greece, Bulgaria and Romania as well as Tsar Nicholas II's growing senility, desire to dominate the Orthodox community within Europe as well as take back Constantinople. King Alexander, having discovered the alliance between Russia and Germany, planned on revealing it to the Army and the intelligence community of the KCSS (both of which were infiltrated by Black Hand members). The Black Hand was rewarded with the equivalent of $5 million USD each for their involvement in the crime. It was used to purchase German made weapons, which

Despite such flimsy evidence, the Black Hand worked around the clock to produce evidence and testimonies from the staff of the palace that, yes, it was communists that killed the King and his family. Using flimsy evidence, Prince George was crowned King George I of the Croats, Slovenes and Serbs. The declaration occurred as the Tricolour Guard, the largest yet the least violent, was absorbed by the Black Hand to allow it to reform as a secret police/espionage service/paramilitary force. After this, the Black Hand's public front "The National Government of Salvation", moved to seek greater ties with Russia, Germany and Austro-Hungary. Even Italy was contacted, as many within the Black Hand hoped to claim Dalmatia. It would not be until the Pact of Steel Conference in Warsaw (14th November 1938 to 2nd February 1939) where all of the representatives would discuss their aims and their terms.


KINGDOM OF ROMANIA: King Ferdinand I of Romania would, in his last years, reign over a country that was prosperous. The oil industry was booming, with the capacity to export to the rest of the world. This revenue, which was collected by the federal government, was saved by the ruling National Liberal Party until it was used in the Second Long Depression. Tensions between Romania and the Russian Empire increased over the Bukovina Incident. In March 1926, armed insurgents attempted to secede from the Russian Empire, which brought the attention of Romania's Prime Minister Ion I. C. Brătianu. Brătianu planned on supplying the rebels, in the hope of merging the disputed area with Romania. Armed with machine guns and grenades, the Bukovina insurgents attacked the local Russian forces. The plan went undetected, as Bukovina began to fight back against the Russian forces and rebellions began to spring up once more in the Ukraine. As the situation went on, King Ferdinand I died from cancer in December 1926. He was succeeded by King Carol II and his wife, Helen of Greece and Denmark.

When the crash happened, the Russian Ambassador discovered the plot. On January of 1928, the Russian Empire put an embargo against Romanian goods, with a 85% tariff on all petrochemical goods from Romania. In return, Romania placed a 90% tariff on Russian goods. This may have contributed to a higher unemployment numbers in both countries compared to their fellow nations in Europe, with the Russian Empire dealing with a 40% unemployment in the manufacturing sector, compared to Romania's 37.8%. The surplus revenue that was obtained during the oil boom allowed for Romania to recover from the Second Long Depression as early as November 1930. However, things had to change. King Carol II was made aware of the Russian discovery and of the implications of the Bukovina Incident. Migrants that came from Tsarist Russia reported of a strengthening bond between Germany and Russia, something that alerted the new PM Iuliu Maniu.

Maniu put forward a plan of defence, known as the Dacian Line. Taking a survey of the border region of Romania, it would form itself along the design of the Maginot Line. Czech hedgehogs and Dragon's Teeth (types of metal spikes used to halt tanks) were used, along with landmines and deep trenches. Thin gaps would be plugged by concrete bunkers armed with several machine guns, all connected by underground trenches stretching 40 kms. Every family either purchased or received firearms courtesy of the Romanian Army. Speaking of, it would increase its peacetime numbers from 200,000 in 1930 to 400,000 by 1935, reaching a total of 800,000 by the time the Second World War started. Maniu also signed the Compact of Constantinople, which placed Bulgaria, Greece and Romania in a anti-Russian, anti-German alliance. This compact would not be activated until the Second World War.


ARMENIA AND THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE: Andranik Ozanian became the first elected President of the Armenian Republic in April 1918, a role that he would maintain until his death on the 6th June 1930. Ozanian would rule the country, which underwent a massive infrastructure campaign as well as a campaign to bring in as many ethnic Armenians as possible. It was around this time that he would work with the Morgenthau Institute Against Racecide (MIAR), as it started the worldwide campaign "to end the systematic killing of persons based on their racial heritage, their religious convictions or their political or apolitical opinions".

However, not everything was rosy.

Ozanian would grow to have a tainted legacy. On the one hand, he managed to make the country stable, the heritage of Armenians was maintained and he even kept unemployment low during the madness of the Second Long Depression. On the other, he was accused of endorsing the killing of 10,000 Turkish women and children that lived within the country, as well as ordering the Muslims in the country to congregate in ghettos, electoral fraud and colluding with the Tsarists. Ozanian would grow a cult of personality around him, one that was meant to preserve the country at all costs. During the Second Long Depression and prior to his death, he would form the P’yuniki vordiner (Sons of the Phoenix). This group was an anti-Islamic, volkist, pro-Tsarist organisation that claimed that Armenia is the rightful heir to the Ottoman Empire, with propaganda maps stating their claims over the entire Middle East including Persia, Afghanistan and Egypt. Despite reaching 1 million people only in 1929, the Sons of the Phoenix believed in this message.

A campaign of natalist policies went ahead, with every family expected to have more than six children and the age of majority lowered to 15. Training alongside Russians and Germans, the Armenian Army was complemented on their duty, which was drilled into them since they could enter school. The Armenians who were trained by the Sons of the Phoenix would become the very monsters they tried to avoid. The Pact of Steel Conference would show their true colours. Soon enough.

If only Clarence Douglas Ussher read more of Nietzsche. If only.


As for the Ottoman Empire, Sultan Mehmed VI (Mehmed V's son) ruled over a broken country. Constantinople is no longer theirs and forced to pay reparations, the Ottoman Empire seemed to be on the cusp of breaking up. It was up to Prime Minister Musa Kâzım Karabekir to keep the peace. The Ottoman Civil War ended with the storming of Ankara on the 3rd January 1923, which ended all republican sentiment in Anatolia. It was only after the war that the country could hope for some peace.

The Ottoman Empire would undergo moderate reforms. The Turkic alphabet would follow the Latin-script, with a total of 29 characters for an accurate pronunciation of the Turkish language. Voting rights were granted for women who were over the age of 30 and married, while all men over the age of 21 were guaranteed the franchise (whether married or unmarried). The Surname Law was adopted, where all Turkish people were to adopt a surname. The harem was reduced to the Sultan's wife and five mistresses at most, instead of the count of dozens or hundreds that Sultans would have had centuries ago. But the reforms ended there, with the Caliphate maintained as well as sharia courts. This was done at the behest of Britain, who wished to not alienate the already defeated Turks.

As the Second Long Depression occurred, the Ottomans managed to ride out the wave of volkist sentiments, given much of the Islamic influence of the country remained and that the reparations were paid off in full by 1931. The rise of the Sons of the Phoenix in Armenia triggered some sense of fear. Musa Kâzım Karabekir hoped to play both sides off when exporting minerals such as boron salts (the Ottoman Empire has 70% of the worlds supply, a de facto monopoly), chromium, gold, coal, uranium among others.

The Progressive Republican Party replaced the CUP as the one-party rulers of Turkey, given the shocking actions of CUP members. The PRP would rule the Ottoman Empire's Parliamentary system from 1918 to the present, winning elections in 1918, 1922, 1926, 1930, 1934, 1938, 1942, 1948, 1953, 1957, 1961, 1965, 1969, 1974, 1979, 1983, 1989, 1994, 1998, 2003, 2009 and winning the election of 2014.

It won't be until the year 1941 when the Ottoman Empire would decide where it would stand.

THE KINGDOM OF THE ARAB STATE: Hussein bin Ali Al-Hashimi or Hussein I of the Arab State, would rule from 1917 to his death in 1932. It was around this time that he invited "Lawrence of Arabia" to help unite the new nation, as he contributed to the Arab State's forces during the Ottoman Civil War. He was chosen as a compromise candidate, despite being born in Wales and having been in the Middle East since 1915. The Arab State would crush the last of the Ottoman holdouts in Damascus, the area surrounding the Golan Heights as well as the Mesopotamia region. Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild, a prominent Zionist, would meet with Sultan Hussein I as well as his Prime Minister, T. E. Lawrence. Lawrence would assure Rothschild of the safety of the Jews in Palestine, however he would not commit to a Jewish state of their own (as it violated the terms of the Treaty of Versailles). Lawrence would be elected on the 2nd November 1917 in the General Assembly, presiding over a cabinet that comprised of Jews, Sunni and Shia Muslims, Orthodox Christians, Coptic Christians, Roman Catholics and Anglicans.

The Treaty of Cairo in 1922 would end the Ottoman Civil War, as it legitimised the nations of the Arab State, the Republic of Armenia and the new borders of the Ottoman Empire.

The longevity of both Lawrence and Hussein I would guarantee stability. Laws surrounding religious tolerance were put forward, followed by a reform of the Arabic language. Zaki al-Arsuzi was the first of many Arab thinkers who established the necessity of Arab peoples to link themselves to the nation by the one thing that remains of their past - Language. Advising Lawrence and the Cabinet, Zaki al-Arsuzi and fellow thinker Sati' al-Husri set to work on language reform. The language, Classical Arabic, could be understood in writing but dialects altered to a point where no two speakers from different parts of the Arab State could understand one another (like an American from Texas trying to understand the accent of a Ulsterman speaking English or vice versa). As such, Classical Arabic became simplified, in a way that different dialects could be intelligible with the written language. To push that unity forward, the Arab State began spending on compulsory schooling for all children between the age of 4 and 16. Education spending tripled that of defence from the 1920-21 fiscal year to the 1933-34 fiscal year as a result of the reforms.

Like the Ottoman Empire, the country was somewhat neutral. However, tensions began to rise with the Second Long Depression. In Persia, volkists under the command of Colonel Reza Shah Pahlavi (who was the Minister of War and commander of the Persian Cossack Brigade) stormed Tehran on the 14th December 1927 with the thanks of Russian weapons and aid (which pissed off the British). Upon seizing the throne for himself and signing a treaty with Russia two months later, British diplomats under General Edmund Ironside offered a treaty in return to the Arab State. After much dialogue, Sultan Hussein I signed a secret treaty with Britain on the 25th April 1928. As a nation with one of the largest oil deposits, the Arab State did not suffer in unemployment. The British, the French, the Spanish, the Portuguese and the Greeks were happy customers willing to pay thanks to the distribution of the Anglo-Arab Petroleum Company, a company that was formed after Russia and Persia expropriated the property of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company in 1934.

Upon the death of Hussein I, his son Ali bin Hussein replaced him as Ali I. Ali would honour the alliance with Britain, signing a treaty with France as well as Greece and sending a delegation to the Second Entente (Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and Czechoslovakia) in 1937. At the signing of the secret clauses that guaranteed the protection of the Arab State, it would bring the Middle East into war. It would also bring them closer towards the eye of the Russian Empire.


CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND: In the 1920 Election on the 17th November, William S. Fielding's Liberal Party won a 18-seat majority against Robert Borden's Conservative Party. The first matter that was decided was the necessity of veterans' affairs, which was helped by his Minister of Finance William L. Mackenzie King. Fielding would introduce National Security: a pension that was to be paid to every Canadian citizen who was 65 years or older. An exemption was to be given to veterans who suffered injuries (and later mental health concerns thanks to an amendment in 1964). Fielding would welcome Major General Archibald Montgomery-Massingberd as the Governor General of Canada in November 1921, remaining in the role until the 11th August 1926.

Fielding would also lower tariffs as a part of his plan to win voters in the western regions, as well as reinstating the Crowsnest Pass Agreement. Fielding would also meet with Austen Chamberlain on the matter of fishing in the North Pacific. The Pacific halibut population was declining as fishermen returned to their professions. Despite the misgivings of his Minister of Finance, Fielding would wait until the new British Ambassador William Henry Clark would arrive to sign the treaty on behalf of Britain. The Pacific Halibut Agreement placed quotas on how many fish could be caught every year, with numbers being examined every 15 years to determine sustainability.

The 1925 Canadian Election had Fielding fend off attacks from the Conservatives under William Thomas White due to fiscal policy as well as the rise of Germany and Japan, which White stated would not be good for Canada, quote:

The peculiar ideal of volkism, of a nation being formed by race, is one that is capable of being used in the wrong hands. In the case of the Empire [of Japan], the Prime Minister openly denounces the British, French, Dutch, Australian, American and Chinese "interference" with their own country. As of now, there are calls within that country to forcibly take Hong Kong and the Philippines! These matters, which ought to have been resolved before, have now shown up unsolved at the desk of the Prime Minister.

In the 1920 Election, they won a total of 51 seats in the Canadian House of Commons, off the back of the Conservatives' refusal to lower the tariff for farmers and their ties to big business. The Progressive Party was formed by the United Farmers of Canada (which had governance in a few provinces), farmers and their co-ops as well as social democrats, left-wing populists and those who had worked in the US Populist Party of the 1890's.

What caused the fractures of the Progressive Party of Canada were many. The decentralisation of the party, owing allegiance to the constituents rather than a central party being able to sway voters' minds. The lack of financial stability. The refusal to form a system of parliamentary Whips and a national party organisation. Another matter was that the Progressive Party caucus contained MPs who were from the Labour Party (all 3 of them), United Farmers, "Independent Progressives" and non-partisan politicians, further contributing to their lack of a strong front for voters.

The Labour Party of Canada, led by the Reverend James Shaver Woodsworth, campaigned harder on social issues for the downtrodden such as public housing, welfare and unemployment benefits. Unlike that of the Progressive Party, Woodsworth managed to form a stronger bond within the party as he believed that the Liberal Party did not allow for a removal of Robert Border's policies.

In the 1925 Election, out of 245 seats and 3,152,525 votes, W.S Fielding managed to slip in.
Political PartyLeaderVotesSeats
Liberal PartyW. S. Fielding 1,434,452106
Conservative PartyWilliam T. White 1,125,66383
Labour PartyJ. S. Woodsworth 408,99334
Progressive PartyRobert Forke 156,7788
Independents - 14,0272
United Farmers of Alberta George Gibson Coote9,0452
Other - 3,5670

The shattering of the Progressive Party allowed for the Labour Party of Canada to swoop in. Despite not having enough on his own, W. S. Fielding managed to form a coalition with the Labour Party and the remnants of the Progressive Party.

The Second Fielding Ministry led to the creation of the National Radio Corporation of Canada (NRCC), the Canadian Wheat Board, an amendment to National Security that would allow for payments for unemployed citizens of Canada. It would be this piece that would shatter the alliance, as backbencher Liberals began to rebel against the more interventionist plans that Fielding, Mackenzie King and Woodsworth were planning.

On the 7th October 1927, W. S. Fielding suffered a stroke that killed him. A ballot among the Liberal caucus elected William L. Mackenzie King over Charles Wilson Cross. The architect for the more progressive, interventionist policies of the government, King would attempt to work with the Labour Party over the plan for national insurance. On the 10th of November 1927, the markets started to tumble. By the end of the week, it was beginning to appear like hell was breaking loose. The Progressive Party, torn over its support for more interventionist policies, broke up with only Robert Forke defecting to the Liberals while the other 7 MPs went into the Labour Party. Failing to mitigate concerns from moderate and right-wing Liberals, King went to the Governor-General and called for an election.

For the Conservatives, they ran with Brigadier-General Frederick Fisher. Fisher was the first Canadian to receive the Victoria Cross, having served in the Western Front from 1914 - 1917 being promoted a Corporal. Fisher worked with veterans and maintained an interest in events in Germany and Japan following the rise of volkism in both countries. Fisher would, contrary to much of the opinion at the time, speak out against German and Japanese interests, as he viewed the losses of the First World War too great to throw away. Campaigning with the Conservatives, he spoke to as many people as he could on radio, which was dominated by stations that were friendly to the Conservative Party. Fisher believed that Canada had to participate in the peace of the world as a part of the British Empire. Fisher believed that defence had to be a concern of the British Empire and for Canada.

The Liberals were stuck with King, who was not as photogenic as Fisher nor was he as charismatic as Fisher or Woodsworth. The prosperity of post-war Canada was on their shoulders and, whether they liked it or not, the blame as well.

Out of 245 seats and 3,898,722 votes, Frederick Fisher and the Conservative Party won 141 seats and 1,692,342 votes in the 1928 Election. King was reduced from 107 to 32 and 392,634, with him losing his own seat. The Labour Party under J. S. Woodsworth won 72 seats and 1,489,556 votes, with the United Farmers of Alberta uniting with the Labour Party prior to the election. The Communist Party of Canada won 0 seats and 215,662 votes. The Volkist Front of Canada, a more anti-Semitic strain of the volkist movement, won 28,536 votes with 79,992 votes going to different candidates.

Fisher would begin by putting support for intervention to combat unemployment, using the examples of the Communist Party and the Volkist Front to justify it. Grants to farmers, healthcare insurance, a minimum wage and public works were enacted as part of Fisher's plan to take voters away from the Liberal Party. Business interests were concerned over the intrusion that government was making, but Fisher and his Minister of Finance R. B. Bennett worked overtime to ensure the collaboration of business with the plans of government. Bennett himself would try and contribute to charity, spending over two-thirds of his wealth while the Cabinet and later all of Parliament would divest from any shares they had on the stock market.

Fisher would present the necessity of clashing against the Communist Party under Maurice Spector and the Volkist Front under Adrien Arcand. The Communist Party was beginning to win more support in the west with former Progressive voters while Quebec became the hotspot for Volkist sentiments in Canada.

The 1934 Election, 4,503,185 voters and 245 seats:
Political PartyLeaderVotesSeats
Conservative PartyFrederick Fisher 2,117,288126 (-15 seats)
Liberal PartyWilliam Lyon Mackenzie King 1,176,55458 (+26 seats)
Labour PartyJames Shaver Woodsworth 949,97352 (-20 seats)
Volkist Front Adrian Arcand 147,8879 (+9)
Communist PartyMaurice Spector 59,9760 (-/+)
Liberal-Progressive Labour Robert Forke 10,2810 (-1)
Other Minor Parties/Independents -41,2260 (-/+)

The weakened majority came out of the idea that the Conservatives were inactive against stopping the Second Long Depression. What stopped Fisher from losing was the threat of volkism and communism, thanks to the slogan "Fisher and his men on the seats or bloody fighting in the streets? Your Choice" which included a picture on the left of Fisher's Cabinet and a picture on the right which was taken from several meetings of the Communist Party and Volkist Front that ended in clashes with each other or the police.

Fisher's second term would include increased defence spending as well as a progressive income tax. The PIT would be 5% for wages over 9,999 - 19,999 pounds, 10% for 20,000 to 49,999 pounds, 15% for 50,000 to 199,999 pounds, 25% for 200,000 to 999,999 pounds and 30% for all annual incomes over 1 million pounds. It would be followed up by the formation of the National Bank of Canada (1935) and the Canadian Wheat Board (1937). Fisher would be wary of Japanese and Russian expansion, following the partition of Inner
Mongolia and the Chinese defeat in the war against the Russo-Japanese alliance. He would begin his work soon after.


END OF PART ONE



1. Makes sense given his OTL liking for the cold. A thread on this website suggested the constituency of Argyllshire if he were to enter into Parliament.
2. He did not get killed during the fighting.

I was meant to get rid of those in the last post, because I wanted them to be a surprise. Oh well.

3. Historians and economists would forever determine that the 1927-1940/1944 depression as the Second Long Depression, linking it up with the First Long Depression. It sort of forms a reference to how historians (rightly or wrongly) express the Holy Roman Empire as the "First Reich" and the German Empire under the Hohenzollerns as the "Second Reich" given the title for Nazi Germany being the "Third Reich".

4. ATL name for MEFO, they work along the exact same lines.

5. Russia AND GERMANY ON THE SAME SIDE, HOLY SHIT MAN reads and sees Roman von Ungern-Sternburg OH FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

6. Haig will have a much better reputation than OTL. As for the Governor-General stuff, Australia won't have Australian-born Governor-General's. Lang did it out of necessity, whilst later on, they will choose to have it. Lang will, without intending it, maintain the status quo.

7. Albert Davy's role in the New Zealand Democratic Party may have contributed to the Labour victory in 1935. Because Massey remains PM until 1928, the Reform Party gets hurt by the initial shock of the Second Long Depression. But due to the infighting between Prime Minister Joseph Ward (and the Liberal Party) versus their Labour MP partners in Coalition, the Reform Party comes back with a small-government, deflationary spending model on how to deal with the Second Long Depression, the sort of model that Australia's government put through between 1931 - 1939 under Joseph Lyons. IN FACT, Australia's OTL unemployment rate was LOWER than that of the USA (11% at the start of WW2 compared to 17.2%). New Zealand will have a lower ATL unemployment rate compared to its sister nations within the British Empire. This will, however, butterfly New Zealand's welfare state and it will make it more business friendly in ATL. That will also mean that New Zealand will get a lot more R&D that will blossom post-war.

8. From 1935 to 1965, a total of 300,000 Dutch citizens would emigrate to the Dutch East Indies. From 1965 to 2000, it would average 40,000 per year. By ATL 2015, the Dutch East Indies is more or less linked to The Netherlands, despite the fact that a Second East Indies Emergency occurs between 1963 - 1971 (Dutch historians will refer to the Trotsky-Inspired uprising as the "First East Indies Emergency").

9. Tonningen will have a conflicting interpretation of his life in ATL: On the one hand, he will be praised by nationalists and liberals for resisting Germany and Japan through the war and for his promotion of national identity and of the colonial empire in the Dutch East Indies as well as alerting Britain and France to the German rearmament program. On the other, he will be criticised for restricting freedom of speech, association, the press and for modelling himself on the nations that he would swear to fight against. There will be many books written by both sides of the isle, with politics essentially going into a pro-Tonningen and anti-Tonningen view from the 1960's onwards, especially with what happens with France at that time.

10. Imagine an ATL discussion in TheMenInHighCastles.com where some poster makes a TL based off the Fatherland League accepting the deal? Holy Shit, I know right.

11. ATL Jordan Peterson if he was born as a girl instead of a boy.

12. Posters with triskaidekaphobia will be cringing on the inside.

13. In ATL, he will be criticised for his programs in the colonies, which would harm natives during the period of 1930 prior to the Second World War.

It took so long because of all of those butterflies. Gotta see what they were saying, you know. Anyway, I hope that everyone is safe, all comments and thoughts and likes are welcome and appreciated.

PART TWO OF THE BUTTERFLIES COMING
 
Jeez, TTL's World War II will make ours look tame, with Russia and Germany on the same side...

The title "The Bloody Red Baron" will be appropriate for both Richthofen and Ungern-Sternberg, methinks...
 
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(PART TWO OF THE BUTTERFLIES) Twice Kicked Out: The Story of South America
SOUTH AMERICA: Quite a number of things occur. Argentina: Hipólito Yrigoyen would be the first President of Argentina elected following universal male suffrage and secret voting was introduced. Despite his neutrality in the First World War, he managed to covertly support the radical Tenetist movement in Brazil following the Treaty of Versailles. He would also campaign strong for reform of the provinces, as he believed those that were elected prior to the electoral reform of 1916 were illegitimate (fourteen states had voter fraud still in place). From 1918, he would step up by using intervention with federal powers to overcome this fraud, to promote fair and open elections and to accept the victor as the new governor regardless of radicalism or conservatism.

It would not be until the 1918 and 1920 Legislative Elections where the UCI (Yrigoyen's party) would obtain the majority in the Chamber of Deputies but it would not until the 1922 General Election where the UCI would make the clean sweep: Yrigoyen re-elected, the majority in the Chamber of Deputies retained as well as control of the Senate. It was prior to the election that he managed to succeed in altering the constitution to allow for unlimited 6-year terms. From there, he pressed on with further reforms. He would begin to promote exports to war-torn Europe with refrigerated meat and corn being two of the biggest products as industries grew to fill the void of international imports coming into the country. Between 1916 and 1928, the economy grew annually by 8.1% with exports tripling between 1914 and 1919. Commerce grew with Europe, and it would continue to grow between Argentina and Italy (as it went through the Revolution) and the Russian Empire (as it dealt with Trotsky's BSSR). The maintaining of a gold standard meant that the peso had a 80% gold standard by the end of the first Yrigoyan government, with fifteen million pesos in gold came into Argentina between 1914 and 1919 from Paris and London and later Rome and Petrograd (which was changed back to St. Petersburg in 1931). The Bank of the Republic was chartered in 1923, with the duty of regulating the economy and national finances to the protest of some conservative and volkist elements in the country.

But all things that are good will eventually give way for the shit to hit the fan. Since 1914, prices on the international market were slow in their decline. Slow, but it was a decline. The only thing that wasn't declining was the price of manufactured products that had to be imported versus the declining value of Argentinian grains. The postwar recession hit Argentina like a car hitting a pedestrian, cutting away at the wartime gains made by domestic industry.

The Second Long Depression in November 1927 hit Argentina with the force of a Formula One racecar. It obtained all of its resources from custom duties and it had a negative balance in the budget. In short, Argentina was hit with the full works. Mass unemployment, runs on the banks, riots to be quelled by the police and army and the government trying to figure out what the hell was going to happen next.

But Standard Oil of New Jersey knew what was going to happen next. Standard Oil of New Jersey had been conducting a smuggling run of oil from Salta Province in Argentina to Bolivia during the Chaco War. Standard Oil of New Jersey also opposed the creation of the YPF, a vertically integrated gas and petroleum company that was state-owned.

There was also the bubbling discontent within the army and conservative and volkist movements in the country.

When the two mixed together thanks to a $2.5 million USD payment to certain individuals, all hell broke loose.

On the 5th December 1927, a total of 20,000 Argentinian soldiers and volkist volunteers marched in the streets of Buenos Aires under the command of Lieutenant General José Félix Uriburu. Armed with rifles and pistols, they stormed the capitol and they held Yrigoyen hostage. Politician and member of the volkist/fascist organisation "Sons of Argentina" Juan Emiliano Carulla would be replacing Yrigoyen. Carulla became "Chancellor of the Argentine State" thanks to his own fiat, which would become as solid as iron given the backing of the Argentine Army and the conservative/volkist/fascist groups in the country.

Carulla began his program to get the country out of the shit of the Second Long Depression. Public works were enacted, with the intention of reviving economic growth that occurred during WW2. Labour unions were slowly suppressed, with foreign investment coming in with YPF privatised by Standard Oil of New Jersey. Communists were quietly purged from society, with compulsory education enforced within Catholic parochial schools. A treaty of friendship was established between Argentina and the Kingdom of Italy in 1930, along with Germany, Russia and Japan one year later.

The Senate and the Chamber of Deputies were replaced with the Chamber of Corporations: The representatives of certain fields (business, banking, agriculture, industry, army, etc) would collectivise their interests in the name of class collaboration. Taxes would be paid by foreign corporations alongside the people, in return for Argentina's contribution to Paraguay claiming all of its interests in the Gran Chaco. Conscription would be enforced for all men who turned 16, with 10 year olds being formed into militias based on where they lived. Universal suffrage was wound back with a total of 5% of the male electorate being disenfranchised. Carulla overruled his radical advisors, stating that he needed to earn the trust of the people. "If you can smile and laugh and get them to smile and laugh, then you can rob the man's pockets", was the response he gave.

As the Chaco War occurred, Carulla gave the order for militarised units of SoA members to intervene on Paraguay's side on the 2nd January 1928, sabotaging efforts for peace by the Pan American Congress and continuing what private citizens of Argentina had been doing since 1925. With several surprise attacks, the Paraguayans managed to capture caches of modern weapons that the Bolivians had been using. The knife was then twisted in Bolivia's wound when Brazilians started coming in on Paraguay's side. Both Brazil and Argentina managed to maintain their neutrality, holding mock trials for those that tried to smuggle weapons (despite the fact that both sides had a combined 75,000 fighters on Paraguay's side). With the entirety of the Chaco held by Paraguay including the oil fields, Bolivian President Daniel Salamanca committed suicide on the 3rd March 1928 before his Vice-President signed an armistice. Paraguay took control of the Chaco Boreal including the oil fields.

On the 27th August 1935, a compact was achieved between Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay which tied it to the volkist powers worldwide.


Brazil: With the economy integrated, President Isidoro Dias Lopes managed to increase the growth to war-torn Europe. Unlike Argentina, Brazil managed to continue the growth that was required. Under John Maynard Keynes, the economy managed to press forward with industrialisation and with integration until he left for Britain. Lopes continued with the work, which included reforming the navy thanks to men like João Cândido Felisberto aka "The Black Admiral". In fact, economic growth allowed for more migrants to come in from Italy, Russia, Spain, Germany and Jews from the Middle East, who would contribute more towards the standards pf living for the middle class of Brazil.

In August 1926, the election allowed for Lopes to campaign on the economy and on the greater standards of living, as the eight-hour day, unemployment benefits, the nationalisation of energy and the six-day week was entrenched. The National Labour, Commoners and Democratic Front (NLCDF) had reformed as the Democratic Labour Front, which continued with nationalisations, welfare for the poor and strong borders. The Socialist Party fought harder against foreign investment and against the power of the Army and the Navy. The Republican Salvation Party dissolved with much of its support going to the DLF, with more right-wing members going towards the Liberal National Front. As for the National Front itself, Salgado was still bitter at how Lopes lost the popular vote but was two-seats short at a majority in the 1920 Election.

Electors: 29,122,773 out of a population of 38,993,446
House Seats: 1,301 seats
Peers: 200
Results:
Presidential CandidatePolitical PartyVotes Seats in the House of RepresentativesSeats in the House of PeersSeats Changed
Ret. Brigadier General Isidoro Dias LopesDemocratic Labour Front10,882,339 (37.36%)48675-12 House Seats
-25 Peers Lost
Peer Plínio SalgadoNational Front10,006,774 (34.36%)44769+293 House Seats
+38 Peers
Rep. Fernando de LacerdaSocialist Party of the Second Republic of Brazil4,224,634 (14.50%)18929+148 House Seats
+21 Peers Gained
Peer Antônio de Siqueira CamposRepublican Salvation Party1,563,662 (5.36%)7011-190 House Seats
-41 Peers
Artur da Silva BernardesLiberal National Front1,237,884 (4.25%)559+8 House Seats Gained
-/+ Peers
Rep. João Cândido FelisbertoIntegration Party667,823 (2.29%)305+30 House Seats
+5 Peers Gained
Astrojildo PereiraCommunist Party539,657 (1.85%)242+24 House Seats Gained
+2 Peers Gained

Lopes, despite being the winner, was forced to deal with a coalition government of the National Front, Intergration Front and the Republican Salvation Front, a total of 547 seats in total. Salgado forced through bills to restrict much go the progress that liberalised the country. The country's Catholic parochial schools and state schools were merged together. Every man aged 18 would undergo 6-months of military training for two years. Labour unions began to chafe under the new laws proposed, with strikes and marches from August 1926 to August 1927.

Then came November 1927. The strikes and marches turned into full-blown riots. Lopes ordered the Army to mobilise to crush the rebellious socialist elements in the country. Members of the Integrationist Front moved in to beat up socialist gatherings where the Army was absent. In six weeks, their intervention became more of a threat to the socialists and the communists than the Army itself!

At once, the President directed several programs: The first was the slashing of wages for public servants and a rollback of unemployment benefits, which had triggered more marches in the streets. The fear of a socialist uprising had taken hold, with the National Front and the Integrationist Front merging to form the Constitutional Party. The Second Long Depression would see unemployment reach 22% in the country. Riots were held by both sides, with the Constitutionalists holding the western and northern regions and the socialists having the southern coastline. While civil war was not a reality, both sides prepared. There would be no peace. No respite. One side would win and damn the consequences.

On the 6th March 1928, a total of 7,000 members of the Socialist Party of the Second Republic including 12 MPs were murdered. The bodies would then be dumped in the middle of the Amazon, in the Brazilian state of Para. They would be the first bodies of the A guerra suja (The Dirty War) from 1929 - 1947.

As the political violence occurred, President Lopes was powerless except in one aspect. To the south, conflict had emerged between Bolivia and Paraguay over control of the Gran Chaco. The Argentinian Ambassador confessed that since January 1928, Argentina had been unofficially supplying the Paraguayans with Argentine citizens fighting since March 1925. Lopes, in order to divert from the internal anarchy, secretly ordered the Army to supply the Paraguayans on the 14th February 1928. The process went as such: members of the Constitutional Party were to be armed and supplied by Army depots on the Paraguayan/Brazilian border. By April, the process moved like clockwork. While the Argentinians sent 5,000 men to fight, Brazil sent 70,000 or fourteen times the number of men. Plain clothed, they were not determined to be foreign fighters. Hardened by the conflict and trained in the experimental tactics of the Paraguayans, the Constitutional Party members would conduct brilliant fighting over the course of the war from the capture of Santa Cruz de la Sierra (14th August 1931) all the way to the seizure of Cochabamba (7th January 1932).

The victory would allow for Brazil to maintain some stability, but it would spell its future doom. 458 Brazilians died in the fighting with 1,000 wounded. The rest were all battle hardened as they transferred their fighting skills to the streets and to the polls. One of these men was João Cândido Felisberto, a Afro-Brazilian, who was best known for leading the 1910 "Revolt of the Lash". Having converted to volkist views, he took charge of the Constitutionalist Party and pressed forward with the ideas of a centralised state, weakening unionism, ultranationalism and anti-liberalism. Having no more chances to run, Lopes opted to step out of the way of the campaign.

Felisberto had the support of Afro-Brazilians, lower and middle class Italian citizens, white Brazilians, Catholics, fascists and volkists. It was there that he won 673 seats in the House of Representatives and 129 seats in the House of Peers. Signing the compact with Argentina and Paraguay, he would later sign on their behalf in the Pact of Steel in 1933. Lopes would pledge his support to the new president, which would taint both his reputation and the reputation of his successor.



Bolivia, Paraguay and the Chaco War: Despite being a veteran of the War of the Pacific and the Acre War, President Ismael Montes kept his country in isolation compared to the Brazil that contributed to the Allied cause. Montes already suffered from a "0% Approval Rating" so to speak. He extended his first term in office because he didn't like the incoming Vice-President (the presidential candidate had died) and thus ruled for another year until a suitable puppet came in 1909. This was before his second term, which was controversial given all other presidents ruled once.

During the First World War, Bolivia suffered from a recession. The workers who demanded more rights were shot at by soldiers and police or imprisoned, with the growing number of dissident politicians joining the Conservative Party or the Republican Party. The demand for food for the Allied campaigns in Lorraine and in Anatolia led to widespread anarchy in the country. It took six months, from the 7th December 1916 to the 11th June 1917 to quell the violence. Bautista Saavedra would be elected by 31,000 votes, crushing Montes' handpicked man José Gutiérrez Guerra. What was meant to be the great reformist instead became the greatest liar since St. Benedict, otherwise known as Ralph the Liar (1). Saavedra would exercise the same attitude a caudillo would have, that of a anti-democratic, authoritarian strongman that used any and all methods to achieve what he wanted. He ignored much of the worker's concerns. Bolivia was dominated by a tin-mining oligarchy, which funded and supported the Liberal Party from 1899 to 1917 when Saavedra's Republican Party swept into power. Despite there being more of a chance to reform the country, Saavedra metaphorically and somewhat literally sat on his hands in those regards. For two years, the people were given no chance of hope, as token infrastructure plans were made with plans finished years, not months or weeks. His Vice-President, Daniel Salamanca, was confronted on his absence from addressing the concerns of the public. With the threat of Polish Flu coming in to hit the country after the end of the First World War and Saavedra's haphazard action, Salamanca had enough.

On the 7th August 1919, Salamanca and Saavedra were invited to the house of a middle-class family, one that was rich enough to help influence the 1921 Election. Saavedra, guided by Salamanca, was receptive to the idea of using the family's funds. This may or may not have been after one too many drinks. With every new guest in the house, they always wanted to have a drink with Saavedra, with the President become less and less resistant. By midnight, the President was hyperactive, moving around the room and talking faster than usual. As it turns out, every drink that the President had was spiked with a few pinches of cocaine, which built up in his system into an erratic heartbeat and later cardiac arrest at 9am on the 8th August 1919. Not one person helped as the President overdosed and not one person gave remorse. Daniel Salamanca became the 31st President of Bolivia. At the start of his work, he would begin to spend on infrastructure as well as defence, with new weapons purchased via Peru and Chile. These would include Renault FTs as well as 2,000 Thompson submachine guns. His re-election in 1921 would help motivate him towards the next goal. Paraguay and the Chaco War.

Since 1885, the Gran Chaco was the prize to be sought by Paraguay and Bolivia. Year after year, Bolivia would continue its encroachment on Paraguayan territory, ignoring the protests (official or by private citizens) and facing the consequences whether it was in dead bodies or captured men. After the election of Eduardo Schaerer, Paraguay would undergo a fast rate of industrialisation compared to Bolivia. Paraguay would have a higher GDP growth in the period of 1917 - 1927 compared to Bolivia, which only improved its conditions in 1920 - 1922 before spending increased towards defence. What then shifted the attention back to the Gran Chaco was the discovery of oil in Bolivia's section of the Gran Chaco. The news lit up border patrols on both sides, with skirmishes occurring with no confirmation of who fired on who. Then it occurred. On the 25th March 1924, a dog crossed the border, to be pursued by two children from a Mennonite colony who had the dog as a pet. In the dead of the night, Bolivian guards were disturbed by rustling in bushes and opened fire at the things that came out.

With open eyes and a sense of panic, the 7 border guards that opened fire attempted to bury the dog and the two boys before being caught by a crowd of Mennonites. On the 26th March 1924, the news was revealed to the public. President-Elect Eusebio Ayala demanded compensation for the deaths of the dog and the two boys, as well as recompense for the previous incursions. As for Bolivia, President Salamanca demanded a resolution to the "Gran Chaco Question" once and for all. On the 4th April 1924, 2,000 Bolivian soldiers advanced over the border to Mayor Infante Rivarola. On the 7th, they were confronted by citizens and their rifles at Estancia la Esmeralda, fighting for 10 hours before the Paraguayans were pushed back. To the north, Renault FTs were used to push through south to San Jorge by the end of May 1924. The quick attack would shock the Paraguayans into action, with men and boys flocking to the defence of the nation. On the 15th July 1924, Bolivian forces advanced near Tezén, where they were attacked by a barrage of artillery shells. Under fire and unaware of where the enemy was, the soldiers were then faced with a pincer movement, unable to coordinate with the rest of the front line. On the 18th, a total of 2,700 Bolivians were captured along with several hundred Thompson submachine guns and 12 tanks.

What caused the tide to turn against Bolivia from August 1924 was several things. Bolivia's military, whilst using modern weaponry and more men, was corrupted by political appointees who were in charge and trying to meddle with military affairs. Ismael Montes, the President who oversaw riots during the First World War, would try to demand for a further advance inland, hoping to use the concentration of tanks to split Paraguay in half. President Salamanca also drove up propaganda by insisting on a quick and swift victory from the Bolivian forces. Those were in Bolivia, which still had a large portion of the population in poverty, with the majority of recruits into the army were poorly-trained.

As for Paraguay, there were many things going for them. Number one, they were on the defensive. Number two, many of their major generals and officers fought in the French Army during the First World War in the Lorraine section of the Western Front, with quite a large number of them aware of the use of tanks. Another was the total-war mentality of the country, where it exploited the 1,000km of railways and buses and vehicles to transfer resources to the front. Another was the tactics used, where the Paraguayans emphasised rapid movements as well as flanking manoeuvres to cut off fronts from their supplies and from reinforcements.

The elements combined into the Battle of Zona Rieder from the 6th October 1924 to the 7th February 1925. Pushing hard with Renault FT tanks, the Bolivians faced little resistance until it was too late. Artillery shelling and captured anti-tank rifles would cripple the advance, which would become nothing as seven infantry assaults were beaten back. From the new year onwards, the Bolivians were conceding ground. 4,637 Bolivians would die compared to 892 Paraguayans. It was at this time that volkists began to appear on the front. Coming from Argentina, these men were a part of the Sons of Argentina, a volkist organisation wanting to combat communism, democracy and liberalism. But at this point in time, they gave a greater regard to Paraguay. At first, it was 20 or so. By war's end, a total of 20,000 Argentines would have fought (unofficially) on the side of Paraguay. They would work in artillery and logistics divisions of the army, far from the front so that they could not be caught and implicated in an international incident.

San Jorge was reclaimed on the 28th March 1925, with the Bolivians destroying everything in their path. Slaughtered cattle and burnt out farms were the common staple of the war, as both sides wanted to bleed each other out. Argentine intervention (unofficially in 1925 and then giving formal yet underground support in 1928) would be the equivalent of a IV. With Brazil's unofficial assistance in 1928, the writing was on the wall for Bolivia. In August 1925, the Paraguayans began to tread on Bolivian lands. By July 1926, San José de Chiquitos and much of the land to the east was claimed by the Paraguayans. The Bolivians faced riot after riot, with over 20,000 defectors fleeing for Chile, crossing to Paraguay or even Peru (Bolivia's only true ally). Poison gas was used only once, as Salamanca's "Hail Mary" so to speak, during the Battle of El Torno (4th December 1926 - 3rd January 1927) where 7,000 Bolivians died to 2,340 Paraguayans. After the hit of the Second Long Depression and the sight of failure after failure after failure, Daniel Salamanca committed suicide on the 3rd March 1928. His Vice-President, Carlos Blanco Galindo, would sign the Treaty of Buenos Aires. Bolivia would be torn apart once again, with the entirety of the Gran Chaco territory shared between Argentina and Paraguay (with Paraguay obtaining revenge from all of Bolivia's encroachments), as well as paying a $20 million USD reparation to Paraguay.

Galindo would face a coup d'état from Enrique Peñaranda, who would succeed on the 19th April 1928. Peñaranda would remain as an un-elected strongman, reforming the country in order to get over the worst of the Chaco War, which cost 121,320 lives and displaced well over quarter of a million people. Bolivia would see further ties with Peru, which won its fight in the Putumayo War and Chile, which returned Arturo Alessandri for another tenure as President. Peñaranda would also seek further ties with Britain and France. Ties that would pull towards war.

(FLASH FORWARD TO 7TH JUNE 1939)

'I must say thank you for your cooperation in this matter,' said Peñaranda, 'it has been a chaotic time for my people, to say the least.' The British Foreign Secretary would pour himself another glass of claret.

'It is the opinion of His Majesty King Edward VIII and Prime Minister Leo Amery that the events of South America should be, observed and corrected, so to speak,' said the Foreign Secretary, taking a drink. (2)

'Will the British Government agree to our conditions?' The Foreign Secretary took another drink and looked to the President to answer his question.

'The British Government will agree to the conditions that you set once we win - '

' - So you doubt - '

' - No, I do not,' said the Foreign Secretary. 'There are 300,000 French, British and Dutch troops on the continent, not counting the native soldiers. If war were to happen, I am more than confident of at least 450,000 men before the Germans, the Brazilians or anyone else have anything to say about it.

'All well and good then. I will make the preparations Mr Churchill,' said the President, before he showed the Foreign Secretary back to his ride to the airport.

(END FLASHBACK)

As for Paraguay, the re-election of Ayala would be followed by closer ties between himself, Carulla of Argentina and Lopes of Brazil. While there was a cordial relationship with the outgoing Brazilian President, Carulla and Brazil's new President would go further.


CHILE: Arturo Alessandri would be elected by a majority of the popular vote (86,562 vs 79,302) and the Electoral College (180-174), where he would press forward with his reforms. An income tax would be pressed forward, despite the matter being stonewalled by a conservative Congress. In 1923, Alessandri would make a deal with the opposition, that income tax would be passed alongside an increase to the salaries for those that served in the military. The deal was accepted and it would allow for Alessandri to push forward with greater reforms. Alessandri would move with stronger labor codes, which was met with opposition from the owners of saltpetre companies (who were foreigners).

The 1925 Election would be vindication of Alessandri's rhetoric, beating the Social-Republican Union of the Wage Earners of Chile's candidate José Santos Salas and also defeating the Conservative Party/Liberal Democratic Party nominee Emiliano Figueroa. Alessandri would move with the reformation of labour laws, which won great plaudits from the working class and from the military, who were more supportive of Alessandri over other candidates. The savage fighting of the Chaco War and the Putumayo War would be condemned by Alessandri, as he believed it was a sick waste of life given how the First World War wasn't even ten years finished. Then came the Second Long Depression in November 1927. Chile would be the hardest hit nation in the world, with foreign investors pulling out and saltpetre workers being found unemployed and on the streets. Fights between volkists and communists became rife before the 1930 Election.

Alessandri would not want to give up, with violence and protests growing, he put up a campaign which stated "Alessandri or Chaos" (3). He would have the support of the Chilean military, who were threatened by the confirmed alliance between Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina as well. The conservative side of politics did not field a candidate, with Alessandri willing to resolve the issue with his power, as the Conservative Party would aim at Congress seats. The results were as follows:
Presidential CandidatePolitical PartyPopular Vote (498,244)Electoral Vote (368)Results
Arturo AlessandriLiberal Alliance277,651190Winner
Juan Esteban MonteroRadical Party213,026178
Manuel HidalgoCommunist Left2,1130
Luis Emilio RecabarrenCommunist Party3,8870
Marmaduke GroveSocialist Party1,5670

The victory was a close one, with less than 65,000 votes the difference. Alessandri would put in a greater effort to raise taxes and paying external debt, as well as negotiations over the sale of saltpetre to Britain and France alongside the private companies. He would, by 1933, achieve a budget surplus to then spend on public works and rearmament. By 1935, Alessandri won a fourth term, using the funds to spend on more housing, roads, the military and warships. British engineers were invited into the country to help experiment gun calibers and armouring on the new destroyers that Chile would build from 1934 onwards.

Alessandri would be filled with zeal and hope, as the light began to dim around him and the world. He hoped that there would be no war, but it would be in vain.


Peru-Colombian War as well as Ecuador: José Pardo y Barreda would steer Peru through the rough period of the First World War by staying neutral and only focussing on domestic affairs. Examples would be the introduction of an eight-hour day and voting for women. Barreda, however, would not be able to face the Polish Flu and the post-FWW recession. In the 1919 Election, Augusto B. Leguía would win a second term in office. The first matter would be the dispute over the Putumayo River, which would be between Peru and Colombia. Colombia, under President Jorge Holguín, would begin to consider a conciliation towards the matter. That was, until the 9th December 1921, where Peruvian soldiers attacked the town of Puerto Córdoba.

Colombians were seething and enraged over the event. El Siglo, a conservative/volkist newspaper that criticised the Liberal Party, led the charge for war. The clamour for vengeance was so powerful that the Salomón–Lozano Treaty, which would have resolved the Putumayo River dispute, was torn up by both sides unable to react a settlement for the murder of a total of 12 Colombian civilians. Mobilisation began, with both sides having their peaceful demonstrations with politicians ramping up the rhetoric. The Putumayo River was crossed by the Peruvian army, with Tarapacá being shelled on the 12th March 1922, triggering the start of fighting.

Peruvian soldiers had the advantage, as they took Puerto Caiman, Santa Rosa Menaje and Jidina during March and April. A counterattack was staged at Los Patricio by 7,000 Colombian soldiers on the 19th April, all as a cover for civilians and soldiers to retreat north of the Caquetá River. By the 6th of May, all Colombians were to the north of the river, with the land south conceded to the Peruvians. As the Peruvians made their plans, dogfights in the sky were made between the numerically superior Peruvian pilots and the French-trained Colombian pilots. Over 60 planes would be shot down between the 8th May to the 17th June.

On the 25th June 1922, the Peruvians would launch their assault. Shelling positions 10km east of Puerto Caiman, the Peruvians would take their positions and assault La Tagua, far away from the artillery shelling. The Colombians would be drawn further inland, giving the attacking Peruvian forces enough room to punch a front towards Solano. The quick advance captured 47,000 Colombian civilians and 6,000 soldiers, in what was a bloodless scoop-up of more Colombian territory which finished on the 1st September 1922. El Siglo and the public demanded action, as more men were mobilised to the front. On the 18th September, a total of 32,500 Colombian troops assaulted the front from Aracuara to the border with Brazil. The small columns made sense in the dense jungle regions far from the Pacific or Atlantic coastline, which pierced the encamped lines of the Peruvians with ease. With a large number of soldiers to fighting against, the Peruvians attempted to push back, cut them into sections then defeat in detail, but the momentum was too much. The Colombians swung westward to Jidina, threatening to bisect the gains made from Colombian land. It wasn't until the 4th November that the Colombians retreated in good order, leaving the Peruvians with 20,000 casualties and burnt forest compared to the 312 Colombians dead and 4,000 wounded.

President Leguía demanded action and called for a more, assertive method of striking at the Colombians. On the 15th January 1923, 12 planes would fly from Peru over the captured territories before steering over the coast of Colombia. Dropping below the cities of Pasto, Mocoa, Florencia and Pitalito would be bombs made in France. These bombs worked along the same lines as the artillery shells used to deliver phosgene. These bombs would drop onto the ground and release mustard gas over highly populated areas, with seven planes crashing and burning due to the vapours killing the pilots. The gas was effective as it was scary and surprising. On that single day, the gas was responsible for the deaths of 4,700 men and women and children, with tens of thousands of animals in the area being killed or injured from the gas.

On the 20th January 1923, 75,000 Colombian soldiers crossed in three prongs across the Caquetá River, pushing through the lines of Peruvians that had been established. Flame-throwers, grenades and modern machine guns such as the MG 11 machine gun, ZB vz. 26 Czech light machine gun and the MP 18 were used by both sides in the assault. The plan to retake the territory on the 20th January had nothing to do with the gas attack, but the news of the attack made the Colombians bold. Converging on one point, the Colombians advance as far south as Rosa Panduro, the first time that the Colombians would claim Peruvian land. Due to the distance, the attack lost energy by the 5th March.

The attack forced the Peruvians on the defensive, with orders to retreat to Peru proper. From the 9th to the 27th March, the gains that the Peruvians made in the previous year whittled away to nothing as they rushed back home to prevent an encirclement. As they went back, landmines were planted in the forests, cattle were shot or burned and sections of the forests were bombed or burnt to clear a way back home. The Battle of Rosa Panduro (18th April - 3rd September) would be static, as the Peruvians would try to attack Colombians from the east, west and south in a series of small skirmishes which led to Peru winning by outlasting the enemy. The fighting died down after the 15th September, as both countries tried to gather their forces for the "final blow". In the meantime, the Peruvian navy blockaded the Pacific coastline for Colombia.

With desperation, Ecuador was contacted by both Peruvian and Colombian agents, hoping to buy the country's favour. President José Luis Tamayo would end up squeezing as much money out of the deals that he made with both sides, with the country selling weapons, foodstuffs and other products. It would compensate for the failed enforcement of regulations on the oil companies and it would help fund efforts to clear away STDs in Quito. Tamayo would win re-election in 1924, thanks to the Constitution of 1923, which would allow him and his successors to run for an unlimited number of terms.

Fighting would resume on 2nd January 1924, with the Peruvians using a coastal invasion under the cover of darkness at the mouth of the Rio Rosario. 15,000 soldiers would land, before another 40,000 arrived through the week. It took until the 21st for Colombians to begin their counterattack, but it stopped six days later after realising how entrenched the enemy happened to be. The amphibious invasion led to the Peruvians taking San Isidro, Escuela De Chilvi, Gualajo, Candelillas and Llorente from the 3rd February to the 19th March 1924. Food was taken from the civilians, with even the poorest of the poor not being given a chance to eat. Riots occurred, which led to a disproportionate retribution by the occupiers. For the 15 Peruvians that were killed, a total of 1,000 suspects (mostly boys between 14 - 17) were killed with their bodies dumped on the side of roads and back streets on the 7th May. Peruvians to the south-east would advance once against to the Caquetá River, facing a stiffer resistance than the first advance. With the land south of the river claimed, the Peruvians changed tack and continued all efforts to push on the coast. In August, a further 27,500 soldiers landed on the coast at Buenaventura after several gunboats shelled half of the city to burning rubble.

With all fronts collapsed, President Jorge Holguín ordered the surrender of all soldiers, which was made official on the 28th November 1924. The Treaty of Panama City would state the following:
- Peru would pay reparations for the deaths of any civilians and livestock killed by Peruvian soldiers.
- Peru would be awarded all Colombian land south of the Caquetá River and east of the Andes Mountain.
- Colombia would pay an indemnity of $5 million USD, with it being paid off annually until the year 1970.

Peru would remain under the rule of President Leguía, who would centralise the power in the country under his thumb from 1924 to his death in 1932. His handpicked successor, Manuel María Ponce Brousset, would remain in control of Peru thanks to British and French patronage. WW2 would ensure no change of leader.

As for Colombia, things got worse. El Siglo's co-owner Laureano Gómez declared that he would contest the Presidency of Colombia on a platform to rebuild the country and to oppose paying the reparations. Gómez would win by 17,000 votes, beating the Conservative Party candidate Miguel Abadía Méndez. He would begin to seek out allies such as Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina. The attempt to re-elect him was rife with rumours and evidence of electoral fraud, but it was not confirmed until 1998, 68 years after Gómez's re-election. He would continue in his role, being the man to show Colombia a new path. He was also the same man that showed the country the path to eventual ruin.

Ecuador would manage to cruise through the fighting with Alberto Guerrero Martínez being elected in 1924. His chosen successor would be defeated by José María Velasco Ibarra, a populist that would utter rhetoric of communist and volkist speakers whilst at the same time denouncing them. Using the funds from the war, Ibarra would engage in a massive public works campaign from his election in 1928. He would be re-elected in 1932, 1936, 1940, 1944, 1948, 1952, 1956, 1960, 1964, 1968, 1972 and 1976 before dying of old age in 1979. (4). His works would include new roads, compulsory education, state of the art hospitals, research and development in energy, women's suffrage, paternal and maternal leave, the abolition of conscription, lowering the vote to 18, the death penalty for rapists and paedophiles, forced sterilisation for prostitutes and a tax on single men enacted in 1948 before its repeal in 1971. Ibarra would begin to secretly cooperate with Britain and France before making the pledge to fight in the Second World War.


Venezuela: Juan Vicente Gómez was the real power of the country, make no mistake about it. Despite not being the President since 1913, he ruled through Victorino Márquez Bustillos the so-called "Provisional President of the Republic", a person elected by the Congress but wielding no power at all. Gómez would put forward an extensive public works campaign, using funds from oil companies after the discovery of oil in the country in 1917. Gómez was also authoritarian, having control of the army and using it to snuff out any opposition from the Congress. The Brazilian Revolution, the Chaco War and the Putumayo River War all made Venezuela more viable as a trading partner and as a oil-rich nation. Democratic protests were quelled in 1919 and 1921, with over 6,000 people arrested and 36 dead. This led to a underground movement to overthrow Gómez. This movement was based on teenagers and school students as well as those that were in their 20's (5). In 1922, Gómez would take on power for himself, with no illusions about crushing the opposition. The underground movement, called "The Salvation of a Democratic Venezuela" or the Bolivarians, would face police raids as they attempted to mainstream the movement. As the fighting occurred across the continent, the economy was suffering a dent, which became a split on November 1927.

It was this, this moment that would trigger the strike. On the 16th November 1927, a total of 100,000 students, trade unionists, middle glassworkers and politicians marched through the country. Despite the presence of the military and the police, the protestors continued to have their demonstrations. Gómez ordered the breakup of the movement, but the fury of the democratic forces was too much. The government response was too little too late. On the 4th December, Gómez was cornered by three dozen protestors and pulled into the Congress building to renounce his position. For five hours, in front of over 4,000 people, he attempted to defend himself. It was then declared that Gómez's rule was null and void. In the meantime, the Congress was quickly convened and voted on Victorino Márquez Bustillos to rule. The Constitution would be amended, to allow for a single seven-year term with no re-election possible and only those that actually served in the government house were allowed to be legitimate (as Gómez ruled from his home far away). A referendum was put to the public on March 1928, with a 81.2% vote in favour for the affirmative. A new election would be done on 20th August 1928.

A journalist and author of the popular novel Doña Bárbara Rómulo Gallegos was elected in 1928. He would begin renegotiating with the oil companies, making sure that the tax on oil profits would increase with oil production. This would reap the rewards for the Second World War, but in the meantime Venezuela would undergo much of the same ideas that Ecaudor, Chile and the other Latin American countries would follow after the SWW, which would form the concept of "Strongman Democracy". This would be an authoritarian leader, elected and following democratic progress, who would preserve the country whilst raising the living standards and the conditions of the people. Gallegos would rule from 1928 to 1935, which he would maintain democracy where it would be eroded elsewhere.

In 1935, Venezuela would elect Andrés Eloy Blanco, a man who participated in the demonstrations against Gómez. He would see the erasing of peace continue elsewhere and he would have no choice but to take a side. He would be damned before the Colombians or the Brazilians could overrun the country.


Suriname, British Guyana and French Guiana: From 1934 onwards, British, French and Dutch soldiers would arrive in these three places to defend them from the rise of volkist powers in South America as well as side with the oil-rich Colombia. By the time the Second World War came out, a total of 300,000 soldiers were sent in to reinforce a total of 150,000 natives who would fight.



1. Blackadder reference. "The Foretelling", first ever episode of Blackadder.
2. King Edward VIII does not marry Wallis Simpson in TTL. Instead, he marries Diana Mitford aka the OTL wife of Oswald Mosley.
3. Much like the OTL Thorvald Stauning campaign in Denmark.
4. ATL Ecuador would be like Singapore under Lee Kuan Yew. ATL Ecuador's population would be 29,567,800 by 2015.
5. The ATL demographic cohorts will be such:

The Fallen Generation: 1885 - 1900 (Known as Fallers in slang terms)
The Rising Generation: 1900 - 1927 (Known as Risers)
The Dreaming Generation: 1927 - 1948 (Known as "Screamy Dreamy's" after the 1944 children's book Susan O'Hara O'Mare Has A Very Bad Nightmare by Dr. Seuss).
Baby Generation/Generation Baby: 1949 - 1968 (Ok Babe will be the ATL "OK BOOMER")

The Chaotic Generation/Generation C: 1969 - 1983
The Damned Generation/Generation D: 1983 - 1995 (ATL doomer)
The Engineering Generation/Generation E: 1995 - 2015 (haha, drill go brr, wire go zap)

My computer kicked me out of my account twice, wiping my progress twice (hence the title name). I am hopped up on coca-cola and water trying to get everything I know back into the post. But here it is. All comments and thoughts are welcome.

PART THREE ON MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA


Thank you all for reading. God bless.
 
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This TL's World War II will deserve the title of a global war...

Jeez, TTL's World War II will make ours look tame, with Russia and Germany on the same side...

The title "The Bloody Red Baron" will be appropriate for both Richthofen and Ungern-Sternberg, methinks...


That was what I was going for, when I finished writing the section on the Second World War. I will make sure to put up the butterflies for Central America and Asia and Africa soon.
 
Mexico and Central America (PART FOUR OF THE BUTTERFLIES)
Venustiano Carranza would rule as the legitimate authority in the country from 1917 onwards. For those people that wished to revel in the reforms of the 1917 Constitution, their real-life experiences would see otherwise. Much like Boliva and Saavedra, the people saw no action to reform the lives of the poor and the downtrodden. As the Polish Flu wreaked havoc, the response by Carranza and the authorities was lacklustre, with the Mexican Army enforcing quarantine when Carranza was focussed on other matters. Lands that were meant to be given out to lucky citizens and supporters of Carranza’s rule were instead returned to their original owners. Álvaro Obregón, the commanding officer of the Mexican Army, would be motivated to contest the election against Carranza.

This was not unnoticed by Carranza or his supporters. First, Carranza attempted to purchase Obregón’s loyalty by stating that the Constitution would be altered again to allow him to be Carranza’s Vice-President. When that failed, talks of raising military salaries for high-ranking military officers annually by 3.5% began. When Obregón attempted to call for rank and file soldiers’ payments to be raised as well, President Carranza called it off. A near-miss assassination attempt in Mexico City on the 6th February 1919 only bolstered Obregón’s resolve, despite Carranza quickly denying any connection with the sniper. It was only twelve days later when the sniper revealed himself to be a support of the late Pancho Villa, hoping to avenge his death by killing Obregón (the man he felt responsible).

The 1920 Election became heated, as Carranza employed as much muscle over journalists to present his case to the people. Despite the supermajority of newspapers delivering Carranza-friendly coverage, Obregón had a grassroots movement through the Mexican Laborist Party (similar to the Australian Labor Party or the British Labour Party). The election would require the army to break up any possible riots or attempts to stuff the ballots.

The Results were as such:
1603514888631.png


Obregón’s victory would be backed up by the loyal military, who went ahead to enforce the result. Of course, Obregón would ensure his first days as President to preserve democracy in the country. The new President would bring José Vasconcelos back from exile to make him the Secretary of Public Education. Both Vasconcelos and Obregón were committed to developing artistic talent that created a narrative of Mexico’s history via “Mexican Muralism”, where artists were encouraged to paint historical events on public buildings. Education would be bolstered by the creation of 4,000 rural schools and 6,000 public libraries across the country during Obregón’s tenure. In 1921, Obregón would begin the transformation of Mexican identity as it was the 100th anniversary of Mexico’s independence from Spain.

The newly formed Department of Labor would issue a new labour code for the country, which would prevent industrial manslaughter on the workplace as well as a maximum of 48 hours per week per worker. Obregón was trying to fine-tune his reforms and his connections with the radical Regional Confederation of Mexican Workers (CROM) led by Luis Napoleón Morones. Morones demanded a greater emphasis on property expropriation, which would target American oil companies Morones would soon be the most power trade union in the country, forcibly merging with the General Confederation of Workers in October 1923.

The 1924 Election:
1603514921845.png


Obregón would continue the reforms that the country would see. Mexico would have warming relations with the Catholic Church as well as normalised relations with the United States in March of 1926. However, that as well as the time of November 1927 would appear to be his downfall.

The Regional Confederation of Mexican Workers (CROM) and its leader, Luis Napoleón Morones, would campaign against Obregón’s term, stating that he had not done enough for the people. Tens of thousands of people would become unemployed in the weeks after the Great Crash (the event which triggered the Second Long Depression). Obregón attempted to walk a fine line, hoping to obtain foreign relief and continue exports whilst at the same time trying to prevent the worst of the Second Great Depression which plagued nations like Chile or Germany or Austria-Hungary.

Obregón would start by funding new projects, with negotiations with trade unions in order to get the project up and running. Morones and CROM would attempt to intimidate non-CROM unionists to avoid negotiations with government projects, hijack the projects themselves or block entrance for non-CROM unionists.

On the 6th January 1928, CROM and non-CROM unionists clashed in thirty places across northern Mexico as they stalled infrastructure projects and as Morones announced his candidacy for the Presidency. Obregón would call in the Mexican Army to clash with CROM unionists. The fighting turned to the streets, where whole blocks of people would be controlled by CROM. Morones would control much of the metropolitan areas of the country by the end of March. Civil war would not be it, given how Morones simply wanted Obregón to be in the palm of his hand. “Civil Disturbance” was the euphemism of the day or “Disturbio civil” in Spanish.

On the 26th June 1928, Obregón and Morones would meet in Mexico City, hoping to end the confrontations between CROM and non-CROM unionists. Morones would agree to this, but only if 85% of all future projects use CROM unionist labor. Obregón could not fathom the idea of accepting. Reports came in from the country, of how CROM unionists, how little or large in number in each construction project, would only reap the profits of their labor for themselves, with standover tactics used against non-CROM unionists and non-union labor.

On the 1st July 1928, the results were this:
1603514958507.png


The endorsement of Obregón by Carranza allowed for the division of the anti-Morones vote, with many people believing that the incumbent President had “sold out”, although the term was not invented yet. Others believed that Carranza had sold his soul and voted for Morones out of spite. Others believed that Carranza and Morones were together on a plot to delegitimise Obregón.

In fact, all those things were untrue. Instead, Carranza was independent in his endorsement of Obregón. He wanted to support him. Carranza believed that Obregón could be the moderate choice, given how he had been humiliated twice in the Presidential Elections and that the Mexican Laborist Party became a big-tent reformist party.

Thus, the forgiveness of Carranza became the damnation of the country, as Morones began to wield the powers of the Presidency.



EL SALVADOR AND CENTRAL AMERICA: The country was in the midst of a political dynasty, so to speak. In Salvadorian politics at the time, the President could nominate a successor during the final days of the incumbent’s term (with the constitution barring immediate re-election). Carlos Meléndez Ramirez would rule the country after the death of his predecessor (which became the subject of a conspiracy theory involving Ramirez and Alfonso Quiñónez Molina for reasons that I will explain).

Ramirez, under the system’s rules, could nominate a successor, where he nominated Molina for the job on the 29th August 1914 until the 1st March 1915. Then, Molina happened to nominate Ramirez, who then won the 1915 Presidential Election without any other opposition. Ramirez would rule the country from the election win until the 10th January 1919, where the Presidential Election was won by Molina.

The back and forth did nothing but maintain the power of the elites, who were plantation owners growing coffee. The Presidents, especially Molina, would act in a fashion that would soon fit the mould of the socialist/communist and volkist/fascist regimes. Anti-Government newspapers were either purchased through their shares and hostile takeovers or they were raided. Protestors were named and shamed, with anonymous letters sent to them, stating the names of all of their relations and their addresses. Demonstrations were met with punitive campaigns to track down every person.

In 1922, one year before the Presidential Election, Molina declared that he would put forward a referendum which would allow the President to be elected an unlimited amount of four-year terms. In other words, shit went from 100 to 100,000 pretty fucking fast. The already persecuted opposition began to rage and rage and rage. The dictatorial powers Molina exercised began to grow, as the army was deployed. The Army itself was torn, with many believing in Molina and other believing in the status quo (even though the difference would be like comparing the colours burgundy and red).

On the 7th August 1922, Brigadier-General Maximiliano Hernández Martínez led a total of 25,000 soldiers and protestors against the capitol city of San Salvador and captured it. Loyalists fought on into the night, but were repelled as Martínez received greater popular support from soldiers and citizens coming into the city. The Loyalists surrendered after Molina was found dead with third degree burns and grievous trauma to his flesh on the street, having crept from the burning wreckage of a car.

Martínez would assume the office of Provisional President as the country demanded reforms. In the rest of Central America, there was one way for it to occur.

The region of Central America, following its independence from Spain in 1821, went through a period of unification and dissolution. The Federal Republic of Central America (1821-1841) was the first of many unions, aborted due to the differences in politics between conservative and liberal factions. After so many attempts, the leaders of the Central American nations began to consider the idea once more. Having undertaken an insurrection against the late President Molina and inspired by the Brazilian Revolution of 1920, the following leaders met at Guatemala City:
  • Brigadier-General Maximiliano Hernández Martínez (EL SALVADOR)
  • President José María Orellana (GUATEMALA)
  • President López Gutiérrez (HONDURAS)
  • President Julio Acosta García (COSTA RICA)
The four men and legalists of all four countries convened to hammer out a compact that would be agreeable to all sides: The Federation of Central America would be a unitary state, with a bicameral Congress (House of Representatives to have 1 MP = 20,000 people, with 4 Senators for each of the former nations). The President was to be 30 years old, a citizen born in the FCA, a person with no criminal background and a someone who was from one of the four countries before unification. Female suffrage was allowed, for those over 25 and male suffrage over 20. Presidential terms were unlimited 5 year terms, which was more than enough for all sides

Unification would occur on the 14th December 1922 (Unification Day would be celebrated), with the vote for the President and the Congress on the 4th February 1923 (every four years). Pío Romero Bosque, the former Vice-President to President Molina, would win the election.

Bosque worked vigorously to defend the newly minted country from secessionists and naysayers of all sides. He would work with all former leaders of the countries that formed the FCA, working out a balance between them, the rich and the poor. The treasury would begin by putting work into the roads (which would later become the Bosque American Highway), to start compulsory education (which was the responsibility of Catholic parochial schools or government schools) and to expand the exports of coffee and other plantations via trade deals with Germany and Colombia and Bolivia, the latter two were going to suffer defeats in their wars later on.

4th February 1928 would be the election to rock the country, as it was being hard hit by the lack of exports. The Conservative Party believed in restricting government spending in order for private capitol to pick up the slack whereas the Liberal Party believed that Keynesian ideas should be put forward. Bosque, having made himself an independent candidate, lost a lot of key support as he stuck to his principals of compromise. But as the election heated up, Tiburcio Carías Andino began to campaign on the necessities of strength. Uttering the failures of the past, Andino stated that there were far worse things, such as Morones gaining strength in Mexico (he would be right in thinking that once Morones got elected) and the rise of communism and volkism. Disliking both ideas but wanting to make himself a strongman, Andino campaigned on traits and tropes not far removed from Ibarra.

Andino captured the Presidency from a packed crowd of seven other candidates, he himself claiming 31% of the vote. Bosque immediately conceded to Andino when people believed otherwise. Andino, having seen this measure, asked that Bosque remain as his advisor. Andino would begin by uniting all of the militaries of the four former countries, expanding firearm usage and making deals with other countries. After Mexico elected Morones, Andino feared an invasion of the country (As Morones praised the former First Mexican Empire, which included the territory of the FCA). For the first year of his term, soldiers were sent near the border to ward of any suspicions that Morones may have of the FCA’s weakness. Andino made speeches stating the greatness of the new country. Political scientists would state that Andino’s rhetoric was focussed on “Palingenesis” otherwise known as the concept of rebirth, which can be used in a philosophical, theological, biological or a political sense (where Andino exploited it in the latter sense).

Coming across the northern border came several political refugees, including former members of the Mexican Laborist Party on the 4th January 1933. Along with their possessions, they happened to carry a large trunk. With much regret, they opened it in front of the border guards. Upon further inspection and confession, it was revealed that the body inside was that of Álvaro Obregón, who was killed three days earlier by unknown assailants. Meeting President Andino, the refugees state that Morones has wiped out all political opposition and is planning to reunite all Latin American nations under a “Reborn Mexican Empire”.

4th February 1933: The election was overshadowed by the rumours of Mexico joining the Pact of Steel, an unconfirmed alliance of the volkist/fascist nations across the globe. Andino, believing that he had a job to do, campaigning against the aggression of Mexico and of the rising tensions worldwide. He would meet with British and French representatives, hoping to have soldiers defend British Honduras, which was beginning to see some reforms such as legalised unions and a minimum wage. Andino won with 56% of the vote.

Andino would also meet with the US Secretary of State, as Panamanian President Harmodio Arias Madrid was threatened by Colombia’s turn to volkism. The Treaty of Panama City stated that the FCA would be given the right to defend the Panama Canal alongside US troops, who numbered 35,000 soldiers days prior to the Second World War.

Andino would win a third term of office, but it would be third time lucky for him or for the world.




I hope that the post is good.

So I'll do my next post on my new TL: The Lion Lives On: A Different Thirty Years War And Beyond then I will do another post here, rinse and repeat.

All comments are welcome and likes are appreciated. Thank you.
 
As I've said before, this will be a true world war--I half-expect it to end with a slew of mushroom clouds similar to Stuart Slade's The Big One TL...
 
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