A Crack at Draka: ME's Attempt at a Better TL

Admiral Matt

Gone Fishin'
Well, I have been away a long time!

It's interesting to see where you've taken things. Certainly no one can argue that it isn't a better TL.

That said, it does seem to beg some of the same sort of questions as the original. Specifically I mean in logistics and economics. Japan was able (and willing) to take parts of Inner Mongolia off Russia, for example, but not Vladivostok. And Gran Colombia was able to resupply through Brazil (!) after losing its ports.

I particularly would recommend a retcon for Central Asia. Russia and Britain went to war, yet nothing happened in the whole field of the Great Game from Anatolia to Afghanistan. It seems very out of character for both Powers.
 

Municipal Engines

All the Shattered Glass: Aftermath of the Great War​

The war had been extremely costly for all sides, both in terms of physical damages and economic. A combined spending for the belligerent powers surpassed £100 billion and the death toll came to around 40 million, both civilian and military. And still pensions had to be paid, as well as interest for loans...

During the Great War, labour unions had increased their power—the government had great need for goods and services, and with so many young men in the military, there was a tight labour market. Following the war, however, there was a period of turmoil for labour unions, as they lost their bargaining power with the influx of returning soldiers freeing up the labour pool.

The switch from a war economy to a peacetime one came as a shock for the world. While economists had expected a downfall (and perhaps in doing so helped contribute), the economic woes compounded on an already miserable world, especially with the outbreak of the Italian Flu brought home by returning soldiers[1].

The economic crisis that followed was compounded by union strikes in multiple countries, especially the United States, where the internationalist, Pro-Concord incumbent Unionist President Paul Dawes refused to do the popular move and raise tariffs and generally reacted slowly to the recession. This brought about his defeat in the 1916 presidential elections, whereupon the America First Alliance (a coalition of isolationist, pro-tariff Union Party defectors and the Redemption Party) placed the first Redemption Party candidate in the White House, Calvin Bennet. He also became the first Southerner to become president since the Civil War.

The election saw the Socialist Party of America gained some seats in the House of Representatives from the industrial areas of the Old North (though this is less than ten). Tensions between the Unionists and their defectors have heightened to personal and petty levels whilst the revived Coalition Party gained a couple of states (Deseret in particular) in the inland Western United States. Fistfights became common in Congress.

With the America First Alliance victorious in the Senate, Congress and the White House, their pro-tariff, pro-business and isolationist ideals became US policy. The attempt by the British to reform the Concord into a diplomatic, economic and military tool for world peace failed when the United States, which had been one of the founding members of the First Concord, refused to join. Germany and the nations of the EDEL also refused to join, with Germany rather not having its influence in Central and Eastern Europe be undermined. Japan also refused to join such an organisation after the British rejected its racial equality clause on the grounds of dissent from its Australian kingdoms and the Dominion of Draka.

From all nations, there was a general distrust of military alliances, as the Concord and Entente had pulled the world into war just from a war between Serbia and Hungary. As Japan turned its focus towards Asia and the US turned in on itself, the world entered a period of relative diplomatic isolation.

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[1]: IOTL, the neutrality of Spain allowed it to freely report on things without fear of damaging the war effort. Thus, over-coverage of the pandemic's Spanish infections led it to being dubbed the Spanish Flu. Here, since Spain is fighting a war, the Italians are the ones to report on it and have it named after them.
 

Perfidious Albion

What has happened with naval restrictions? With naval arms races being less apparent as a cause of TTL's *WW1, there might be no equivalent to the Washington Naval Treaty, which angered Japan and made it believe that the USA and the UK were its enemies.

I do realise that the kingdoms in Australia and New Zealand are annoyed because of the 'White Australia' policy rather than because of pro-slavery sentiment, but seeing signs of them sympathising with the Draka is not at all a pleasant sign.

Oh, and worldwide isolationism will be very helpful to the Draka while they're consolidating power over their new possessions, since it means that other powers won't threaten them with the aid of internal rebellions against Drakan rule. That's… not good. :(

I'm still immensely curious what will happen to Russia.
 

Mark-ITSOT

Am I right in thinking there's no Drakan North Africa/Middle East in this timeline?

Unless it's something that happens between the Wars.
 

KN1

Redeemers in the White House, Ozzies and Drakans torpedoing racial equality, and who the hell knows whats going on in Russia? I don't think this a nice place to be a minority.

(And I had hoped the *USA was going to be better than that....)
 

teg

Municipal Engines said:
When I finish up the 60s, I think. I'm gonna be using this version to test the waters of plausibility and see how much I'll be able to get away with.
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Oh okay. I was worried we weren't going to see much past the end of the First Great War. Which I really liked BTW, very different to the OTL First World War in terms of who was fighting it. (I could imagine that ITTL, an alternate name for the war might be the War of the Margins (because most of the fighting was on the margins of Europe, around the great powers of Germany and Italy)

teg
 
highwayhoss

highwayhoss

Just got caught up on the latest entries.....damn and I thought the Great War IOTL was bad. Millions dead, nations bankrupt, flu epidemics and nations dissatisfied with the outcome; no wonder everyone's saying "screw alliances".
 

Perfidious Albion

highwayhoss said:
Just got caught up on the latest entries.....damn and I thought the Great War IOTL was bad.
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I don't think it strikes me as any worse than OTL's First World War, except of course for what the Draka are doing in Africa.

highwayhoss said:
Millions dead
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Happened IOTL. There will probably actually be fewer dead ITTL, since the Western Front didn't last as long and Russia wasn't so incredibly incompetent losing a hundred-thousand men each battle.

highwayhoss said:
nations bankrupt
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Happened (mostly) to Britain and France and Germany IOTL.

highwayhoss said:
flu epidemics
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OTL.

highwayhoss said:
nations dissatisfied with the outcome
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OTL.

highwayhoss said:
no wonder everyone's saying "screw alliances".
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It leads me to the opposite conclusion; why is everyone saying "screw alliances" at this point ITTL when they endured things at least as bad IOTL and didn't do so then? Perhaps because the Concord (analogous to OTL's Triple Entente because they won) went to war over a far-off dispute in Eastern Europe and can't mask it with the façade that they went to war to save a neutral country (Belgium) from the other side's evil tyrannical aggression…
 
highwayhoss

highwayhoss

Perfidious Albion said:
It leads me to the opposite conclusion; why is everyone saying "screw alliances" at this point ITTL when they endured things at least as bad IOTL and didn't do so then? Perhaps because the Concord (analogous to OTL's Triple Entente because they won) went to war over a far-off dispute in Eastern Europe and can't mask it with the façade that they went to war to save a neutral country (Belgium) from the other side's evil tyrannical aggression…
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Yeah. IOTL, people in the TE could justify the bloodshed by saying they were standing up for Belgium against unprovoked aggression; also the founding of the League of Nations can be seen as something positive by the winners. ITTL there is no such justification.
 
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