TL-191: After the End

I'd be interested to see more demographic and economic data on various empires and alliances. It would be very interesting to see, say, how Britain is doing rebuilding or how modernized the Ottomans are.
 
We do now. :D

By the way David, yet another wonderful update, I love the latest developments within Japan, it's truly interesting. I can't wait until June to see what the forthcoming decade holds for us. :)

Here's the world at the very start of 1970.



The world looks odd, but then again, it's TL-191
 
You forgot about Sam Carsten and his arch enemy sunburns. Scipio and the fact he can talk like an upper class white Confederate and switch to the Congaree dialect he grew up with. Potter and the fact everyone looks at him funny because he speaks like a damnyankee.

Oh, god, yeah. :p In fact, that repeated Sam Carsten and damn-doesn't-he-burn-like-crazy thing was on my mind when I picked my handle for this forum. :D
 
Spain...

DBE, you said that something interesting was going to happen to Spain in the 70s, right. Well, could that be perhaps a syndicalist revolution? We never have received demographic and economic data on Spain, and it seems like a good way to make things in Europe more exciting. Just wondering.
 
1970-1979:


January, 1970 onwards—During the course of the 1970s, the pattern of immigration to the United States begins to shift: immigration from Eastern Europe begins to wane, after almost a century of major waves. From the early 1970s onward, most immigration to the United States tends to come either from Latin America or East Asia. By the end of the 1970s, China has replaced Mexico as the number one source of immigrants to the United States.

The German Empire begins a massive investment program, on top of what it has already committed to thus far, to improve the infrastructure of its colonial empire in Africa. Known as the “Bayer Plan,” the projects are intended to prepare most of Germany’s colonial territories for some kind of home rule—the exact shape of which will be determined at a future date.

A growing concern, both for the Germans and the Portuguese in Africa, is the ongoing (and deteriorating) situation in South Africa, where the effective civil war between the government and the various anti-Apartheid groups has led to a huge displacement of refugees. Although some have been evacuated to the United States and Brazil, millions more have moved into German Southwest Africa and Portuguese Mozambique. They bring with them tales of a collapsed economy, of the atrocities committed by roving pro-government death squads (many of which are drawn from the sizable Confederate expatriate community in the country), and of the state terror inflicted by the regular South African army and internal security agencies.

For the government of Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Bayer, a move by the European Community to restore order in the country seems to be a necessary step for ending the carnage and chaos erupting from the collapsing South Africa. Bayer, along with other German politicians and the Portuguese, also dislike the idea even the possibility of a syndicalist takeover of the country—led by Jonas Guiri’s South African People’s Union, one of the largest of the organized anti-Apartheid groups still operating in the country.

During the 1970s, most of the infrastructure projects throughout the Independence Movement, carried out through the Brazilian-Ottoman funded Alliance for Peace and Friendship, are completed. The two largest projects to come out these numerous “Great Rebuildings” are Colombia’s Isthmus Canal [On the site of OTL’s Panama Canal and Egypt’s Qattara Sea industrial zone, both of which are completed in 1972. The urban renewal projects, especially in the Brazilian and Ottoman Empires, are criticized for coming at the expense of rural areas, which are relatively ignored by comparison.

Most of the “Urban Farming” construction projects in the United States, started during the mid-1960s, are completed during this decade.

Throughout the 1970s, the economy of the Japanese Worker’s Republic is structured and molded according the philosophies of People’s Friend Sakamoto and the members of the Rodo Undo’s “Inner Core.” Outside observers in the JWR (of which there are very few) often point out that the massive unions that employ and cater to the needs of ordinary citizens have effectively occupied the same position formally held by the disbanded Zaibatsu.

Under Sakamoto’s policy of expelling anyone from the JWR who cannot “accept” the “joys and necessities” of syndicalism, three large waves of “voluntary” emigrants are forced to leave for Hokkaido during this decade: 700,000 in the 1970 wave, 550,000 in 1972, and 1,100,000 in 1973. Only heavy assistance from the CDS and Russia prevents the island’s meager support services from utterly disintegrating.

Most of Japan’s former colonists in Southeast Asia follow the lead of those once in Indonesia and Malaysia, and accept Brazilian offers of asylum. By 1979, some six million former Japanese civilians, and other civilian collaborators from this vast region, have arrived in Brazil.

Only in the Philippines do a large number of former Japanese colonists remain (over seven million), their equality under the law protected by the new Pilipino constitution, ratified in 1971.

January 1, 1970—Ireland adopts the US dollar as its legal currency.

Even as the fighting in the Philippines continues, the US and Filipino governments sign an agreement in Manila, in which the United States gains a 99-year lease on the former Japanese rocketry base at Tayabas Bay. Wrecked by bombers and missiles early in the Fourth Pacific War, the Tayabas Bay base, given the new name of “Big Liberty” by the Americans, will become an important part of the US-Russo-CDS effort in the upcoming “Space Chase” throughout the 1970s and beyond.

January 3, 1970—Bharat, after intense negotiations with both Burma and Thailand, begins stationing troops along a long Peace Zone between the two recent enemies, similar to the one separating Cambodia and Vietnam.

January 6, 1970 onwards—In a speech given in Beijing, President Zhuang Lin announces that the Municipality of Shanghai will, henceforth, be transformed into a “Economic Liberty Zone.” [1] The ELZ, the first of its kind, will remove all barriers to foreign trade in the city, now reconnected to the world economy after decades of Imperial Japanese mercantilist restrictions.

With the success of the venture—which leads to an explosive boom in manufacturing and export-ventures in Shanghai, other Economic Liberty Zones will be established throughout China’s coastal provinces throughout the 1970s. Coupled with American/CDS reconstruction projects, the ELZs enable China to make a surprisingly rapid economic recovery from decades of war and repression. The help from the CDS, coordinated throughout the 1970s by the State Department and Ambassador Morgan Reynolds, is vital for the repair of basic infrastructure throughout a country marred by over five decades of civil war and foreign invasion.

January 8, 1970 onwards—The Japanese military council in control of the island of Formosa surrenders to a CDS task force dispatched from mainland China. Historians of the Fourth Pacific War will not learn until the 1990s that US commanders, speaking with the authority of President Humphrey, threatened to superbomb their military positions on the island unless they immediately surrendered. The Japanese POWs taken on Formosa are quickly transferred to Hokkaido; the island itself is quickly turned over to the Chinese, who take full control.

January 10, 1970 onwards—Independence Movement forces, spearheaded by Bharati and Bengali troops, land on the island of Borneo. Encountering little resistance from the Japanese (who are now effectively leaderless after the death of their warlord high command in a CDS bombing raid around New Year’s), the IM soldiers are ill prepared to deal with yet another civil war—this one between the Malays and the Bornean “nativists” (mostly Banjar and Dayak militias) on the other. The shattered island is placed under military rule, under the overall command of Bharati Field Marshal Gurjot Saluja. Although the violence finally peters out by the mid-1970s, the island, with its majority Malay areas joining Malaysia via referendum in 1976, the rest of the island will not enter the IM until the end of the decade.

January 16, 1970—CDS forces, commanded by General François Talon, land virtually unopposed on the island of Mindanao.

January 18, 1970 onwards—Fighting comes to an abrupt end in the Philippines, as General Yamazaki’s officers, seeing that their cause, such as it is, is beyond hopeless, act to bring the conflict between themselves and the CDS-Watanabe forces on Mindanao to an end. When General Yamazaki refuses to countenance the idea of negotiating an end to their war, Yamazaki’s officers overpower and kill their superior officer. The leader of mutineers, Colonel Anami Iwao, establishes radio contact with General Talon’s forces that same day, and arranges for a truce. Two days later, in a ceremony in the city of Cagayan de Oro, Colonel Anami surrenders all Japanese forces on Mindanao to General Talon. Anami and his men will subsequently be disarmed and transported to the island of Hokkaido.

January 30, 1970 onwards—In a move that surprises few political observers, Morgan Reynolds is nominated by President Humphrey for the position of America’s first permanent ambassador to the Chinese Republic. He will be confirmed to the position to begin his post in February.

Throughout the first half of the 1970s, Ambassador Reynolds, with the backing of the State and Defense Departments, helps to coordinate a series of American and CDS reconstruction packages to assist in the rebuilding of China. US and CDS aid will be especially vital in rebuilding China’s shattered transportation and communications networks.

Reynolds will keep himself in the US domestic spotlight throughout most of the 1970s both through his high profile post in Beijing, and through writing several bestselling books on diplomatic and modern Asian history. One of his best-received works is In the Shadow of Two Wars, a biography that describes his life from childhood until his joining the OSS.

Mirroring an early agreement signed by Humphrey with the new Russian Republic in the 1960s, a select number of Chinese candidates are admitted into West Point, with their actual training commencing in 1971.

February, 1970-July 1972 onwards—With the end of the Fourth Pacific War, and the subsequent winding down of the US war effort, the American economy slips into a sharp recession, the worst downturn since the Business Collapse of the 1930s. With a spike in unemployment that doesn’t begin to erode until early 1972, the recession with have deleterious effects on the ruling Socialist Party.

February 10, 1970 onwards—The first elections for the Chinese Republic’s new National Assembly results in an almost unanimous victory for President Zhuang’s new Democratic Party of China. The DPC will hold uninterrupted power in this fashion (barring the occasional admission of a token opposition figure) for almost three decades, until this system of government becomes untenable in the mid-1990s.

February 14, 1970 onwards—With its second third annual concert, the Tucson Battlefield Jamboree gains international recognition for the first time, with the publishing of a series of articles by the Italian journalist and author Alessandro Colombo. He will later use his experiences at the musical event for a quartet of loosely related novels known as the “Mesa Saga”—published as Papa Mesa in 1971, Cousin Mesa in 1973, Little Mesa in 1976, and Uncle Mesa in 1977. The novels are controversial for their favorable portrayal of drug usage, and, as critic Trevor Brooks will admit in the Boston Herald upon finishing the final novel in 1977:”…I can’t tell: is it a western disguised in hallucinations, or hallucinations of a western?”

The United States Environmental Bureau begins a cleanup of the Hudson River, in cooperation with the major communities lining the waterway.

May 1, 1970—Martial Law is ended on the Big Island of the Sandwich Islands.

June 1, 1970 onwards—Held under the auspices of the Independence Movement, most of the disputed Bharati province of Kashmir votes to join Pakistan, although some areas (all Hindu-majority) vote to remain with Bharat.

The results spark a swell of outrage throughout Bharat. Some nationalist politicians call for their country to “reconsider” its relationship with the IM—although the Ottoman ambassador is subsequently expelled for over a year, Bharat does not actually leave the alliance. However, many Bharati politicians, fed up over the Brazilian-Ottoman dominance of the IM’s power structures, are eager to assert their country’s growing economic and military power, albeit within the alliance.

June 15, 1970 onwards—In the Rhodesian capital of Salisbury [OTL Harare, Zimbabwe], residents awaken to the news that the hardline government of Prime Minister George Brock has been forced to resign, with power being transferred to General Peter Locke. Locke, in his address on state television, announces that under his “temporary” rule, the long, bloody Turbulence, which has torn apart their country for five years, will be brought to a “swift and necessary end.”

Sponsored by the OSS, the coup has been in the work for months, and is supported by all branches of the regular Rhodesian military. With South Africa collapsing into civil war, Portugal beginning to limit trade, and the biting US sanctions, Locke has come to believe that only by quickly ending the country’s restrictions on voting can there be any hope for all of Rhodesia’s people, black or white. Locke, like many regular army officers, had also come to despise the Brock regime for its fulsome support for the extremist, paramilitary Rhodesian National Guard, whose atrocities have only fueled the Revolutionary Army’s insurgency.

As one of his first acts, Locke releases Josiah Muzorewa from prison, and invites him to assist the military in preparing elections for a new civilian government. Muzorewa also announces that he will participate in the elections as the leader of a new “Justice Party for Rhodesia’s peoples.”

This turn of events sparks a short, violent confrontation between Rhodesia’s regular army and the National Guard, with the Guard attempting its own (badly planned) coup on June 19. The Guard’s commanding officers find themselves under arrest. On July 30, the OSS is allowed to take custody of the RNG’s former superior officer, Brigadier General Norris Fielding. Fielding, wanted by the Americans for his role in overseeing the deportation of Florida’s black population to Featherston’s death camps during the Second Great War, will be tried from 1971 to 1973, convicted, and executed in 1975.

With Fielding’s arrest, President Humphrey will call for Congress to end the sanctions placed on Rhodesia, which will be repealed on August 25, 1970.

With Muzorewa now appealing for an end to the fighting on Rhodesian radio, promising that now is the time for the country’s African residents to participate in the democratic process, the Revolutionary Army agrees to a truce on August 6, 1970.

July 4, 1970 onwards—Florida and North Carolina are readmitted into the Union. Also admitted on this day are the new states of Antigua, [OTL Antigua and Barbuda], Barbados, Grenada, and Trinidad [OTL Trinidad and Tobago]

In Miami, Florida, during the midst of the celebrations of (regaining) statehood, ground is broken on the highway that will eventually link the mainland of North America with Cuba, via the planned floating tunnel. A similar ceremony is held in Havana, Cuba.

Due to a number of accidents, cost overruns, and safety concerns, the Florida-Cuba Interstate will not be opened until 1992. It will become one of the largest construction projects in human history. [2]

November 1, 1970—As expected by international observers, Josiah Muzorewa’s Justice Party easily wins Rhodesia’s first free elections. Muzorewa takes office of Prime Minister, and promises that his government will work to ensure “reconciliation and prosperity for all of the people of this bounteous land.”

December 26, 1970 onwards—Prime Minister Muzorewa announces that his government will establish a “Truth Commission,” [3] which will aim to establish a truthful record of the atrocities committed in the country during the Rhodesian Turbulence. The Commission will seen later by historians as vital for ensuring the building of a stable civic society in the newly democratic country.

November 3, 1970—In the U.S. congressional midterm elections, the Democratic Party captures full control of Congress, helped by their sweep in readmitted Florida and North Carolina (although the Socialists make significant gains in the Senate from the new Caribbean states). Most political observers are quick to forecast that the 1972 presidential race will end with a landslide for the Democrats, who have not held the Executive Branch since 1961.

January, 1971 onwards—In an announcement held in Shanghai, a spokesman from the International Health Organization declares that outbreaks of disease (left over from Unit 731’s war crimes in the region) in Manchuria have been successfully contained, after over a year of frenzied work. However, the IHO’s work in the region remains incomplete—reports of outbreaks from north China still trickle into Shanghai, necessitating the importation of more medical personnel. By the end of the 1970s, China will have the world’s highest concentration of IHO personnel, along with the Congo.

January 1, 1971 onwards—In a ceremony in Sapporo, the CDS and Russian military administrators of Hokkaido recognize the new Republic of Ezo. [4] The new government will quickly sign a mutual defense agreement with the Russian Republic, and will thereafter be admitted as a member of the PESA.

February 2, 1971—In the Russian presidential election, Viktor Turov wins eighty percent of the popular vote in his reelection. The Socialist Party maintains its dominance in the Duma, with the Communists coming in at a distant second. Domestic and foreign observers alike credit the still rapidly growing economy, along with the remaining joy from their victory in the Fourth Pacific War, with Turov’s landslide win.

February 15, 1971 onwards—In a development that takes international observers by surprise, Rhodesian Prime Minister Josiah Muzorewa announces that his nation has applied to join the Compact of Democratic States. The application will quickly be accepted by the alliance. Rhodesia is the second African nation, after Liberia, to join the CDS.

Contemporary observers and historians will both note that Muzorewa’s motivations for joining the CDS include lingering anger at the Independence Movement, and particularly the Brazilians and Ottomans, for sponsoring Thomas Sithole’s breakaway faction of the old Rhodesian People’s Union, early in the Turbulence.

March 2, 1971 onwards—Bernard Polgar, the Austro-Hungarian engineer behind the “Combine” theory of computer interaction, begins a new job at Siemens. At the German mega-corporation, Polgar continues to advocate for the building of a new computerized grid, both in Austria-Hungary and Germany, to enhance communication and the wider flow of information. Quietly, Germany’s military has been copying Austria-Hungary’s experiments, as well as the US Department of Defense’s secret “Edison Bureau.”

April 1-December 20, 1971 onwards—The Hong Kong Trial opens. Being judged, by judges from Australia, China, Russia, and the United States are twenty-five former Japanese military men and politicians accused of committing war crimes during the Fourth Pacific War. Among those on trial are the surviving administrators from Unit 731, military doctors accused of committing grisly “experiments” at Unit 731’s bases in Manchuria, and the few remaining wartime flunkies of General Ishii—turned over by the Japanese Worker’s Republic as per the terms agreed in the 1969 Treaty of Sapporo.

On December 20, the judges read the verdicts: out of the twenty-five defendants, all are found guilty. Twenty-two are sentenced to death (included in this group is every defendant associated in any way with Unit 731), while the remaining three are given life sentences. Those spared the death penalty will spend the rest of their lives in a US military prison on the remote uninhabited Baker Island.

January-March, 1971 onwards—Germany’s remaining West African colonies vote to hold referendums on the nature of their future association with Berlin.

Elfenbeinkuste [OTL Côte d'Ivoire] and Sierra Leone, both of which have become very wealthy over the last thirty years (from agricultural exports and mining respectively) follow Togoland in voting to seek full ascension as an equal constituent member of the German Empire.

By contrast, Dahomey [OTL Benin], Goldene Küste [OTL Ghana], Guinea, Senegambia [OTL Senegal and the Gambia, all vote to end direct German rule. Negotiations with Berlin, beginning in March of 1971 and concluding in December of that same year, will lay the groundwork for the establishment of a new association, to be established before the end of the decade.

Like Togoland, Elfenbeinkuste and Sierra Leone both receive massive influxes of monetary to bring their infrastructure fully up to par with Germany itself.

March 10-19, 1971 onwards—The Copenhagen Summit is held between representatives from almost every country on Earth. The Summit, held in the Danish capital under the auspices of the United States, Germany, and Austria-Hungary, results in the Copenhagen Accords on Biological and Chemical Warfare: under the terms of these Accords, these forms of warfare will henceforth be outlawed. Weapons programs in these fields are also outlawed. Signed in reaction to the horrors committed by the Japanese Empire during the Fourth Pacific War, the Copenhagen Accords are the largest show of international unity since the end of the Second Great War.

The Copenhagen Summit is one of the only major world events during the 1970s attended by both representatives from the Republic of Ezo and the Japanese Workers’ Republic.

June 15, 1971 onwards—In Vienna, a spokesman for the European Space Combine announces that the first man has been successfully launched into orbit, from the joint German/Austro-Hungarian rocketry base in German East Africa. The man, Austro-Hungarian “Weltraumsmann” (Space Man) Jonáš Švejk [5], circles the Earth three times before splashing down in the Indian Ocean.

This latest success on the part of the Germans and Austro-Hungarians, in the field of space exploration, sparks an uproar in the United States, where the Democrats attack the Humphrey Administration for failing yet again to overcome the ESC’s space-born lead.

Senator Joshua Blackford is among the strongest critics of the president, and calls for the United States to redouble its efforts on space exploration, “…for our prestige, and for a glorious, limitless new frontier.”

July 1, 1971-December 31, 1979—Operation Kaiser’s Landing begins on July 1 with a massive German-Portuguese-Austro-Hungarian invasion of war-torn South Africa. Long planned and expected by the rest of the world community, the initial invasion is over within a month of its launch, with the beleaguered South African government offering little resistance. A military government is installed in Johannesburg, led by the triumvirate of German General Georg Schultz, Austro-Hungarian Field Marshall Jacenty Piotrowski, and Portuguese General Ulisses Belmiro. Most of the soldiers under the respective direct command of the German and Portuguese leaders are units comprised of (and commanded in the field) by black Africans.

Along with the Austro-Hungarian, German, and Portuguese presence, soldiers are present from multiple nations in the European Community. This is the largest intervention on the part of the old Central Powers since the end of the Second Great War.

Although the initial invasion goes smoothly, the peace proves to be far harder to win. Although the EC military government almost immediately overturns all laws related to the enforcement of apartheid, some radicals in the country are not satisfied. The South African People’s Union is the largest remaining opposition force in the country (with many of the earlier, more conciliatory opposition figures long since killed off by the preceding Apartheid regimes). Led by a strident Jonas Guiri, the SAPU refuses to disarm, and threatens a return to civil war; Guiri desires to build a new state inspired by the example of the Japanese Worker’s Republic; the SAPU is supplied by the Independence Movement, in terms of weapons.

Likewise, many members of the former government-sanctioned death squads also refuse to hand over their weapons, retreating into the countryside to wage a guerilla war against the EC forces. Many former operatives of the former Apartheid regime join them, including Schalk Viljoen, the last Police Minister.

From 1971 to 1975, EC forces find themselves engaged in a guerrilla war both against the SAPU and the equally “dead enders” from the old regime. In the midst of this carnage, the American OSS also gets involved, mostly to hunt down wanted Confederate war criminals—Jimmy Beverage, the agent and assassin who spearheaded similar missions in Rhodesia during the Turbulence, now preforms a similar role in South Africa. The dragging out of the war, and the increasingly stiff casualties in the field causes a fall to the Bayer government in the 1972 German elections, which returns the Conservative Party to power in Berlin. The new Chancellor, Kunibert Mann [6], vows to conclude the South African War “successfully, and with honor.”

In 1975, with the death of Schalk Viljoen (at the hand of Portuguese forces), the situation somewhat stabilizes, long enough for the EC military government in Johannesburg to grant independence to the Zulus, whose new Republic of KwaZulu-Natal is quickly admitted into the Independence Movement.

By 1975, most of the suspects wanted by the OSS are either dead or waiting to stand trial in the United States.

SAPU, however, proves far harder to deal with. Guiri’s forces are slowly forced back into a tighter and tighter cordon, centered in the rural regions of the former provinces of Orange Free State and Transvaal. Running low on ammunition and morale, Guiri himself is captured by Austro-Hungarian forces while trying to flee into Great Zimbabwe in 1977. Guiri will spend the rest of life imprisoned on the German-ruled island of Pemba, where he dies in 1983. With their leader gone, SAPU collapses into numerous armed bands, which are slowly wound up, one by one, by the new South African government with EC assistance.

With the guerrilla war now at an end, power is held by a weak central government in Johannesburg, with a considerable level of devolution granted to the provinces. Most EC troops are withdrawn after the capture of Guiri, though a small force (mostly German, Austro-Hungarian, and Portuguese) remains to complete the training for South Africa’s new military force. The very last of these troops will be withdrawn, with little fanfare, at the end of the decade. This long conflict will be very controversial in Germany and Austria-Hungary for decades to come, with a fierce debate emerging in both societies on whether or not the conflict was worth it.

July 9, 1971-1985 onwards—Sergei Derzhavin’s [7] novel Sunrise is published. A veteran of the Fourth Pacific War, Derzhavin’s novel follows the adventures of a quad of soldiers fighting against the Japanese in both Siberia and Manchuria. Something of a black comedy, the novel is an instant bestseller in Russia, and later becomes popular in both Germany and the United States as well.

Derzhavin’s work, the first of a trilogy of war novels—followed by Sunset in 1977 and Moonrise in 1984, is seen by many observers as the spark of the First Wave of the “Russian Renaissance,” a time of unprecedented artistic, cinematic, and literary output that establishes the Russian Republic as one of the world’s major cultural centers. Lasting, in various waves, well into the twenty-first century, the Russian Renaissance is marked by what the Russian historian Alexander Zarubin calls, in his 1989 book For Our World, “…a time of coming to terms with the past, and a time of celebrating life.”

Other famous works stemming from the Russian Renaissance include poet Galina Illyina’s major collections—published in 1974, 1979, 1982, 1984, 1992, 2001, and 2009—the “magic fantasy” operas of Artur Samoylov and Natasha Ivanova [8], and the explosion of science fiction inspired by the continuing global space race throughout the 1970s and beyond. Russian music also gains a new global audience during this period of ferment, especially the “New Classical” compositions of Florentina Kharlamova, Vitaly Petrov, and Antonina Sidorova, among others.

Perhaps the most famous Russian film to emerge from the Russian Renaissance’s First Wave is Vladimir Yurkov’s 1976 science fiction epic Mother Earths—a tale told from multiple points of view, set in the far future on a world colonized both by humans and a race of intelligent bear-like aliens.

August 1, 1971, onwards—In Vienna, the member states of the European Community sign the Treaty of Vienna, which establishes the Continental Zone (CZ)—a travel zone that will allow all carrying a passport from an EC member state to travel across borders without any hindrance from border guards. The CZ will be put into effect on January 1, 1979.

November 1, 1971 onwards—In Mexico’s first post-Fourth Pacific War election, the Liberal Reconstruction Party, which has dominated the country since 1959, loses in a landslide to the Socialist Party of Mexico, in a massive surprise. The new Mexican president, Otoniel Vasquez, pledges to address the yawning divide between Mexico’s rich and poor, and also promises an ambitious series of reforms to address the issues of land reform, educational reform, and urban squalor.

President Humphrey congratulates Vasquez, and pledges to assist his new Mexican counterpart through the institutions built up by the CDS.

1972 onwards—With the publication of Simon Wells’s poem “Gas Mask Summer” in the Los Angeles cultural magazine Rabbit Hole, the so-called “Nihilist” cultural phenomenon explodes into the American mainstream.

The term “Nihilism” is something of a misnomer, as critics throughout the world use the word to describe a plethora of varied movements. In general, Nihilist art, film, and writing can be divided into two broad “schools”:

American Nihilism is generally marked by bleak themes, rooted in the reaction of the US public to the horrors of the Fourth Pacific War. Underlying many of the apocalyptic poems, novels, and short stories that emerge in this branch of Nihilism is a fear and resignation that the history of the modern world has been marked with endless conflict—with horrifying wars having been fought roughly every twenty years since 1914—American Nihilism tends to play on this general fear in U.S. society that somehow, somewhere, their country will be plunged into another war sometime in the 1980s.

The most extreme producers of American Nihilism propagate the idea that all leaders have the real potential to transform into a Featherston or an Ishii at the drop of a hat.

Also lumped in with the dawning of American Nihilism by cultural observers (and later historians) is the explosion of both of survivalist groups and motorcycle gangs, [9] in both the United States and Australia (another center for “American” Nihilist output and thought).

The gas mask becomes an important and recurring motif in American Nihilist output, perhaps most memorably displayed in Felix Krakowski’s 1974 film Whistling Boulevard—later described by critics and historians as one of the most depressing movies in cinematic history.

The Southern Holocaust is another subject that is explored through the grim lens of American Nihilism, with a number of novels and films coming out on the great tragedy. One of the most notable films dealing with the Southern Holocaust is Ivan James’s 1975 Follow the Leader, which is loosely based on the notorious career of the war criminal Jefferson Davis Pinkhard—the film is one of the first of its kind to explore the Southern Holocaust from the perspective of one of the perpetrators.

One piece of cultural output that gets popularized alongside (and for a time, as part of ) American Nihilism is the subgenre of “Speculative History” (better known as “Spec Fics”)—literature that attempts to imagine history-gone differently. The most famous Spec Fic from the 1970s is Greg Bliss’s 1974 novel Doctor Lexington [10], which has, as its bleak setting, a world in which Featherston’s Confederacy won the Second Great War, and went on to dominate the New World.

* * *


European Nihilism, in contrast to its American counterpart, is even more varied and extreme. Lacking the bleak, apocalyptic visions from across the Atlantic, European Nihilist groups promote a philosophy rooted in anarchism and hedonism—of always living in the moment. Especially prominent in Austria-Hungary, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Romania, and the United Kingdom, Nihilist groups, comprised heavily of former college students, often form into gangs—which quickly gain notorious reputations for debauchery and violent mayhem. The largest and most notorious European Nihilist groups are the Italian Squadrismo [11], which consist of independent “squads” of rival motorcycle gangs that move rapidly around the country, fighting pitched battles with the police, and with each other.

Other extremely violent Nihilist gangs emerge in Germany and the United Kingdom during the 1970s, sparking harsh police crackdowns that will end the worst of this hooliganism by the end of the decade.

European Nihilists become notorious for their anarchic styles of dress (with gangs borrowing styles from American cowboys, highwaymen, Japanese syndicalism, musketeers, Napoleonic era soldiery, and pirates). A lot of European Nihilist music consists of redoing classical music with modern instruments and styles.

One art form that emerges in the 1970s from European Nihilism, and ultimately outlasts it, is the Surrealist film genre that emerges in both Britain and France. Surrealist films, as exemplified by the 1975 British black comedy The Man Who Only Ate on Tuesdays, dwell heavily on the questionable nature of reality—perhaps the most radical Surrealist film in this regard is French director Gaubert Yount’s 1977 faux-documentary Authorship, which has its “scientist” narrators earnestly claim that the world is actually a totally fictitious construct—“A dark mirror, a mockery of someone else’s reality.”

Nihilism does not catch on everywhere, however. The two broad Nihilist schools fail to make much of an impact in the Russian Republic, where the output of the ongoing “Russian Renaissance”, combined with the national afterglow of their victory in the Fourth Pacific War, blunts the emergence of something similar to Nihilism there.

In the Japanese Workers’ Republic, culture is sharply defined, beginning in the early 1970s, by the approved genre of “Syndicalist Realism” [12] which is ostensibly meant to celebrate the country’s “all workers’ nation. In state-sanctioned writings and films using Syndicalist Realism as their template, the formula usually portrays a single worker who must be “educated” to the ideal of a good and loyal Syndicalist. Adeela Vivekananda [13], the Bharati journalist writing in the JWR for the Times of Bharat often mocks these works in his dispatches home to Bharat. The head of the Union for the People’s Culture, Mori Tokiwa, blasts Nihilism as, “…bleak expressions of the mercifully ending curtain of international exploitive capital.”

February 3-February 13, 1972 onwards—The 11th Winter Olympic Games are held in Minsk, Belarus.

February 8, 1972 onwards—Construction is completed on Brazil’s Atlantic Star Center. Brazil will launch its first satellite on December 24.

April 21, 1972—The United States Environmental Bureau [14] begins its cleanup of Boston Harbor.

April 28, 1972 onwards—Oil is discovered in Sagavanirktok Bay [OTL Prudhoe Bay], in America’s Alaska Territory. [15] Over time, it proves to be the largest known oil field in North America, surpassing even the massive East Texas Field.

One long-term consequence of the discovery of the Sagavanirktok Field is the “Oil Rush”, which brings a large number of people into the Territory hoping to replicate or even surpass the find.

President Humphrey announces that he supports efforts to “safely explore” the possibility of building a pipeline from the oil fields to the opposite end of Alaska Territory, to quickly bring the petroleum to market.

August 26-September 5, 1972 onwards—The thirty-first Olympiad is held in Rio de Janeiro. This is the first Olympiad held in South America.

The Rio Games is also the first major venue for a new kind of art and architecture, which will later be popularly known worldwide as “Brazil Deco” in the 1980s, when it becomes wildly popular on the world stage, particularly in the United States and the German Empire.

The Japanese Worker’s Republic is notably absent from this event—People’s Friend Sakamoto, in a long, rambling speech made earlier in the summer of 1972, having declared the Olympics to be, “…a vile lie, deviating the attention of the global masses from their true calling.” In the same speech, however, Sakamoto proclaims that the JWR will establish its own “Popular Olympiad,” to be held annually beginning in 1973.

November 7, 1972—As expected, the Senator Joshua Blackford of New York and Senator James Rhodes of Ohio win an easy victory in the United States presidential elections, over Socialist Governor Terrance Hobson of California, and Republican congressman Philip Ioannidis of Nevada. The Democrats also cement their hold over Congress, although the Republicans also make solid gains in that body (mostly against the Socialists in the Canadian states).

Blackford is the first son of a president since John Quincy Adams to become commander-in-chief. He is also the first Jew to be elected to the office of the presidency.

Observers and historians generally agree that the post-Pacific War recession, along with a general public fatigue with the Socialists after President Humphrey’s three terms in office, is responsible for the Democrats’ solid win. Some observers compare Blackford’s victory with that of Tom Dewey’s landslide after the end of the Second Great War, in 1944.

November 9, 1972 onwards—In one of his first public addresses after his victory, President-elect Blackford announces his choice for Secretary of State: the chairwoman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Mildred Morrell-Quigley of Kansas.

The daughter of the late Second Great War hero General Irving Morrell, Senator Morrell-Quigley has a hawkish reputation when it comes for foreign policy, having written several books, and many articles on the need to “aggressively contain” any regime that threatens the United States. In spite of her many political differences with the Humphrey Administration, Morrell-Quigley was a strong supporter of that president’s hardline policies toward General Ishii’s Japanese Empire; she also sat on the revived Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War during the duration of the conflict.

The first woman to be nominated as Secretary of State, Morrell-Quigley will be quickly confirmed to her post by the Senate after a fairly placid debate, in January 1973.

December 1, 1972 onwards—In the Bharati city of Chennai, representatives from Bharat, Bengal, Burma, Cambodia, Hyderabad, Nepal, Laos, Sri Lanka, and Thailand sign a treaty establishing the Indian Ocean Security Pact (IOSP), a military alliance that promises to, the words of Bharati Prime Minister Ardhendu Kocchar, to be, “…a pact to enhance mutual security and respect in our turbulent part of the world.” Known both in Bharat and abroad colloquially as the “Chennai Pact,” the IOSP is seen by international observers as an alliance directed primarily against China and the CDS in Southeast Asia.

Others remark that the IOSP is also meant to primarily serve as a vehicle to enhance Bharat’s status in the Independence Movement. Historians will also see the IOSP as part of a continued backlash in Bharat against the Ottoman Empire, on whom many politicians lay the ultimate blame for the loss of most of Kashmir to Pakistan.

December 2, 1972—In Australia’s first post-Fourth Pacific War elections, the Liberal Nationalist Party emerges triumphant, the first time since before the Second Great War that a conservative party has held power in the country. Sir Christopher Jade, recently retired from his military position and new leader of the Liberal Nationalists, becomes Prime Minister.

In his victory address, Jade promises to continue Australia’s close alliance in the CDS, and also that Australia will, “…not back down from a confrontation with any future enemy.” This is taken by reporters to be a thinly veiled swipe against the recently founded Chennai Pact.

December 14, 1972 onwards—Construction is completed on the Ottoman Empire’s Crescent Base. With Brazilian assistance, the Ottomans will launch their first satellite into orbit on January 18, 1973.

January 1-March 22, 1973 onwards—In Madrid, a student protest against overcrowding at the Complutense University of Madrid quickly swells into huge protest marches against the military regime that has ruled the country since before the Second Great War. People from all walks of life join the students, and additional protests soon spread to other Spanish cities—with the largest one in the country occurring in Barcelona.

At first, the military regime, headed by General Ximeno Domínguez, refuses to make any concessions; the general threatens to declare martial law unless the protests are immediately halted.

However, the soldiers facing the protesters, for the most part, refuse to treat them with the brutality ordered by their officers. The Spanish junta, never liked by Berlin or Vienna, is ordered by the ambassadors from both nations to refrain from “lawless violence.” Fearing that the Germans and Austro-Hungarians will intervene otherwise, the rest of the junta forces General Domínguez to resign on March 22. Promises are made on national television that there will be an “orderly transitition” to face the “new circumstances” of Spain’s situation.

January 20, 1973 onwards—In his short inaugural address, President Blackford promises to hasten the re-integration of the former Confederacy into the Union, and to continue Humphrey’s policies to rebuild China and the CDS’s East Asian member states. Blackford also promises that under administration, the United States will achieve global primacy in scientific and technological development, which is interpreted by most observers as laying down the gauntlet towards the Germans and Austro-Hungarians in the emerging “Space Chase.” Blackford links the Space Chase and the need for technological superiority with sparking a new economic upswing, after the years of postwar recession. Blackford also promises to reduce barriers to trade with the member states of the CDS, and also to reform and reorient the US military, now that Japan is no longer a threat.

January 30, 1973 onwards—The Republican Party, to the surprise of many political observers, selects former Iowa Congresswoman Karen Driver as its new chair. Driver, the first woman to head the arm of a major American political party, promises to revamp the Republicans’ long moribund electoral fortunes. While promising to continue the party’s “Northern Strategy” in the Canadian states and the industrial Midwest, Driver also announces plans to augment the party’s strength at the local and state levels. She refers to this plan as one of “Permanent Offense”—a phrase that quickly catches on in the press.

February 21, 1973 onwards—After much debate, the US Congress approves the establishment of a new Department of Technology. Meant by the Blackford Administration as tool to surpass the German and Austro-Hungarian lead in space-related technologies, the Department (in tandem with the Defense Department’s secret “Edison Bureau”) primarily operates by granting financial incentives to inventors, as well as entrepreneurs attempting to start up “big tech” companies. [16]

March 20, 1973—In a press conference at the White House, President Blackford confirms that the United States, in cooperation with the government of Vietnam, will establish a massive new air and naval base near the city of Saigon. Although Blackford does not say so directly, most international observers agree that the new facility—planned to be one of the largest of its kind in the entire CDS—is directed against the Chennai Pact.

May 1, 1973 onwards—The first “Popular Olympiad” is held in the Japanese Worker’s Republic, in the city of Kobe. Most foreigners will only know the event through the acerbic lens of the Bharati journalist Adeela Vivekananda, who notes in several dispatches to the Times of Bharat that Sakamoto and the other members of the Rodo Undo’s Inner Core have visibly gained quite a bit of weight since their rise to power.

In Ottoman-ruled Georgia, a new nationalist movement, the New Georgians, makes its first public demonstrations in Tbilisi. Demanding autonomy, and legislation to preserve the Georgian language, the demonstrations are rapidly broken up by the local authorities.

The Russians take note of the emergence of the New Georgians, and will begin actively supporting the movement’s activists financially throughout the rest of the decade and into the 1980s, until the outbreak of the Russo-Kazakh War in 1985.

May 8, 1973—The Russian Republic launches its first satellite from the La Follette Space Center in Cuba. The launch is attended both by Russia’s President Turov and President Blackford.

June 4, 1973—US Air Force Colonel Robert DeFrancis becomes the first American (and the second man) to orbit the Earth, after being launched from the La Follette Space Center in Cuba. President Blackford is among those who watch the takeoff in person, having returned less than a month after visiting the facility with his Russian counterpart.

July 4, 1973—In a speech at San Francisco’s Bull Palace, President Blackford gives what journalists quickly come to call his “Pacific Speech.” In his address, the president lays out what historians will later refer to as the “Blackford Doctrine”—that the United States will reorient its military might primarily to the CDS’s new “frontlines” in the Philippines, Singapore, and Vietnam, while continuing to maintain a large presence in Australia. To maintain military dominance in the Pacific and Southeast Asia, Blackford states that his administration will increase investment in the Navy and the Air Force.

Alabama and Mississippi are readmitted into the Union. Also joining the Union on this date are the new states of St. Lucia, St. Kitts [OTL St. Kitts and Nevis], and St. Vincent [OTL St. Vincent and the Grenadines][/I].

October 15, 1973 onwards—The Vietnamese government announces the establishment of its own Economic Liberty Zones in its coastal cities, starting with Haiphong and Saigon. This proves to be the beginning of what becomes known in Vietnam as the “Doi Moi” (“Revolution”) [17] a series of policies by the nationalist government to open the economy to foreign trade and investment. Unsurprisingly, the United States is granted “Most Favored Nation” status as a trading partner.

November 1, 1973—Madagascar gains an Advisory Council.

November 22, 1973 onwards—In one of his biggest diplomatic triumphs, President Blackford negotiates a moratorium on testing additional superbombs or sunbombs with Chancellor Mann. Agreed to in a summit held in Frankfurt am Main, the moratorium will be confirmed both by the US Congress and by the Reichstag in 1974.

January, 1974 onwards—A new amendment to the US to the constitution is ratified, limiting the a president to two terms in office. This is widely seen by political analysts as something of a backlash against another commander-in-chief winning a third term.

January 1, 1974 onwards—In an announcement in Berlin, a spokesman for the supersonic Eagle Airways announces that service will be expanded to Chicago, Munich, Prague, Rome, and Sofia. Over the next five years, infrastructure in all of these cities will be adjusted accordingly to handle this new kind of traffic.

April 2, 1974—Persia joins the Chennai Pact, to the alarm of both the Ottoman Empire and Pakistan.

April 4, 1974 onwards—Spaniards go to the polls to elect their first civilian government since before the Spanish Civil War, almost forty years prior. Forced by the Germans and Austro-Hungarians to adhere to the demands of the student-led “Madrid Movement,” the election is split between Spain’s long underground liberals and socialists, with the socialists receiving a plurality of the vote.

The new Spanish president, the Spanish Socialist Party’s Ramiro Martínez—a former exile—promises an end to, “…all lies and abuses from your government.” Martínez promises to call a constitutional convention—in the same spirit as Russia’s post-revolutionary meeting, to create a new document to ensure the continuity of Spain’s new democracy.

June 5, 1974 onwards—A series of clashes occur between Chinese and Tibetan forces on their disputed border. From Beijing, President Zhuang warns that further violence will lead to a “massive, inevitable” punishment. From New Delhi, Prime Minister Kocchar warns Zhuang that any attempt to occupy Tibet on the part of China will lead to an “instant” Bharati intervention.

Sandwiched between the two Asian great powers, Tibet, long isolated, is now, in the word of one OSS analyst summarizing for the president, “Utterly trapped.” Long invited to join both the Independence Movement and now the Chennai Pact, the Chinese have in turn warned that joining either alliance will mean immediate war. Tibet, effectively coveted both by Bharat and China, is seen by most intelligence agencies as the most likely spark for another major war.

July, 1974 onwards—Copying China and Vietnam, the governments of Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, and Thailand announce the establishment of their own national Economic Liberty Zones—Bharat, Brazil, and the Ottoman Empire are all granted the status of “Most Favored Nation” for the purposes of trading in all of these countries.

August 19, 1974—After years of repair work, Borneo’s massive Balikpapan oil refinery is brought back to full strength.

November 5, 1974—In the US midterm elections, the Socialists make gains against the Democrats, regaining a large number of lost seats from the 1972 elections, especially in the Canadian and Mid-Atlantic states.

The Republicans, once again, pick up a large number of seats, especially in California and the Midwest (although losing some in the Canadian states), giving credit to Chairwoman Driver’s electoral strategies. After this election, the Republican Party now possesses a sizable caucus in both the House of Representatives and the Senate: political observers note that even as America’s “third party,” the Republicans possess two wings—a liberal wing that tends to vote with the Socialists, and a pro-business wing that tends to support the Democrats.

January 1, 1975—In accordance with a national referendum passed during the parliamentary elections of November 1974, Rhodesia’s is officially renamed as the Republic of Great Zimbabwe, after the ancient African civilization behind the ruins of the same name.

February 8, 1975—Kenya joins the Chennai Pact.

May 1, 1975 onwards—In the new Brazilian capital of Salvação, Doctor Lucas Braga, the founder of the International Habitat Protection Agency, declares the establishment of a new political party: the Partido ecológico [Ecological Party. Braga’s new movement, as part of its basic platform, calls for the preservation of endangered animal and plant habitat, and for the, “…full integration of world civilization with the natural [world].” [18]

Although Braga’s party starts off as a comparatively minor party, it begins to catch on in the Empire of Brazil, as an alternative to the established political factions in the country. Braga, charismatic in his speeches full of grand promises, also promises that the Partido ecológico will be free of corruption and administrative incompetence, and will dramatically improve Brazil’s governing system. On his national speaking tours during the rest of the decade, Braga makes his party part of the national counter-culture.

Historians will see the founding of the Partido ecológico as the spark for the new political ideology of “Ecoism,” which will expand across the world stage over the next few decades, more successful in some countries over others.

May 31, 1975 onwards—Malaysia joins the Chennai Pact. Subsequently, the CDS (primarily Australia, New Zealand, and the United States) will boost its number of troops in Singapore.

September 4, 1975 onwards—At his laboratory in Wilhelmsville, in the German Congo, Doctor Michael Fleischer and his staff receives a horrifying report of an outbreak that has occurred near the Ebola River, in the north of the colony, in the village of Yambuku.

Three doctors from the International Health Organization are sent to investigate the mysterious outbreak. What they discover is the most horrifying discovery of a new virus since Doctor Fleischer’s discovery of the syndrome that bears his name in the last decade. Some two hundred people in the area have died from a disease that kills its victims through massive hemorrhaging. This disease becomes known as Ebola Congo. [19]

The area around the village is immediately quarantined, on orders both from the German administration and the Congo Advisory Council. Throughout the remainder of the decade, the IHO redoubles its presence in the Congo, as the region reemerges as the global hotspot for dangerous potential new diseases. Over the next few years, variants of Ebola Congo will be diagnosed by the IHO in Sudan and Gabon.

One long-term result of these latest outbreaks is an international agreement, signed in 1978, that severely restricts the export of monkeys for experimentation. Scientists in the Wilhelmsville Institute theorize that monkeys or apes are the species responsible for initially transmitting both Fleischer’s Syndrome and the Ebola viruses to humans.

February 4-February 15, 1976—The 12th Winter Olympics are held in Quebec City, Quebec.

January 18-February 28, 1976 onwards—Meeting in the city of Seville, the Spanish Constitutional Convention is opened by President Martínez. After over a month of vigorous debate, the new constitution is ratified and signed by the Convention. The new Spanish constitution includes:

• Freedom of thought, freedom of speech, freedom of expression, and freedom of religion.

• The separation of church and state.

• The outlawing of torture and the abolition of the death penalty.

• The outlawing of “military participation in civilian affairs.” The military will be subject to full civilian control.

• The Spanish President will be limited to one five year term, while those elected to the newly democratized Cortes Generales will be limited to two terms of four years.

The convention also debates the issue of minority rights in the new Spanish Republic. Although the constitution does enshrine minority languages as having legal status next to Spanish, it is agreed to debate the issue of granting further minority rights through the Cortes Generales.

July 4, 1976—The United States celebrates its bicentennial with massive celebrations across the country. The celebratory events in the former Confederate states tend to have a fairly subdued tone, with local speakers stressing the need for a full reconciliation as “fellow Americans,” as the mayor of Atlanta puts it in his speech.

South Carolina is also readmitted into the Union, bringing the military occupation of the former Confederacy to a conclusion (although many military bases across the South will remain for over a decade in various locales). A significant number of US troops, however, are rotated out of the South for the first time since the end of the Second Great War after 1976, to new bases in Australia, West Papua, and the new Pacific island territories in accordance with the Blackford Doctrine.

Also joining the Union on this date are the new states of Dominica, Guadeloupe, and Martinique.

In the Philippines, the first satellite is launched from the rebuilt and expanded rocketry base at Tayabas Bay—now known as the Humphrey Space Center.

West Papua is granted its independence by the CDS, in a ceremony in the new capital of Jayapura. The new country is also admitted into the CDS on the same date.

July 17-August 1, 1976—The thirty-second Olympiad is held in Moscow, Russia.

July 28, 1976 onwards—A massive earthquake destroys the Chinese city of Tangshan, killing over 100,000 people. A massive amount of aid is dispatched to the stricken region by the United States, the Russian Republic, and by the other nations of the CDS.

August-September, 1976 onwards—On August 14, 1976, as millions of people around the world watch in wonder via television, German Weltraumsmann Conrad Reck-Malleczewen [20] becomes the first human being to step foot on the surface of the Moon. His first words are, “I come here as a torchbearer for all mankind. May billions follow in my footsteps.” The European Space Combine expedition remains for five days, returning to Earth to a hero’s welcome.

On September 2, 1976, the US expedition arrives, led by Captain Terry DeFrancis II—the younger brother of now Major General Robert DeFrancis, the first American in space. Landing not terribly far away from the ESC site, DeFrancis declares, upon exiting the module, “We have come for all, and will keep returning for all.” The Americans spend four days at their landing site, before returning to Earth. The American Space Men are given a massive ticker-tape parade in New York, and honored by President Blackford at the White House.

In a speech given after the successful American landing, President Blackford promises that the Space Chase is far from over—“…after all, Mars awaits.”

September 30, 1976—Nyasaland [OTL Malawi] gains an Advisory Council.

October 12, 1976—Indonesia joins the Chennai Pact.

November 2, 1976—President Blackford emerges victorious over the Socialist ticket of Governor Dwight O’Hare of New York, and Congressman Carl Martin of California. The Socialists do manage to recapture a significant number of seats in both the House and the Senate, although the Democrats still maintain overall control.

The Republicans hold steady in Congress, and manage to win additional Canadian and Midwestern states (compared with their 1968 and 1972 showings) with their candidate, Governor George Sidney of Iowa. To the frustration of the Republican Party faithful, the ultimate prize of the White House still seems far away. Chairwoman Driver privately vows to find the perfect candidate for the 1980 elections.

January 20, 1977—In his second inaugural address, President Blackford promises to continue a path of, “stability, prosperity, and normality.” Blackford also talks at length about further improving US space-borne capabilities, promising that America will, “….spearhead the world towards a future of unknowable wonders and boundless technological advancement.”

February, 1977 onwards—Chairwoman Karen Driver begins a long correspondence with Ambassador Reynolds. Long an admirer of the famous diplomat, Driver has begun to ponder sounding out Reynolds as the Republican nominee for the 1980 campaign. Reynolds, although already pondering a run for the highest office in the land, has been undecided up until now at which nomination to seek. Driver’s letters lead him, through 1977 and 1978, to see the Republicans in a new light—their nomination, for one, would be the easiest to secure.

February 2, 1977—Russians go to the polls to elect a successor to Viktor Turov—due in large part to President Turov’s vast popularity, a majority of the vote goes to the outgoing incumbent’s handpicked successor, Foreign Minister Sergei Perov. Perov wins sixty percent against a vigorous challenge from Duma member Vasily Rebikov, who ran an independent campaign. The Communists, decimated by continuing defections to the Socialists over the years, are reduced to irrelevancy in this campaign. Rebikov, although his loses the election, now emerges as the primary opposition figure in the Duma, as the leader of the new Justice and Prosperity Party.

March 8, 1977—In Italy, the Socialist Party wins the latest elections, ushering in as Prime Minister Edmondo Simoni. Simoni, during the campaign, pushed for reforming the Italian Empire in the direction of the Portuguese and German examples. He also argues that it will be the best way to extract Italy from a long running guerrilla war in Italian Somaliland, that has been waging, off and on, for almost a decade.

April 10, 1977—Singapore is granted independence by the CDS; the new nation is also admitted into the military alliance the same day.

April 15, 1977—The Spanish Cortes votes to allow to allow “devolution” for Andalusia and Catalonia. Under these terms, both provinces will now elect their own parliaments, and will be guaranteed full funding at the national level for their local language schools.

May 25, 1977 onwards—In an address to a joint session of Congress, President Blackford calls for a major “upgrade” to America’s space program: under his new proposal, the US national effort will now be carried out through a brand new Department of Space and Exploration (DSE); infrastructure from the old USAIA will be transformed into a pan-CDS organization: the Liberty Space Agency (LSA). “Competition, especially friendly competition, is vital for this great endeavor,” argues Blackford.

Although a number of politicians, in light of Germany landing the first man on the Moon, question increasing investment in space exploration, their criticism is fairly muted: due to the previous year’s Moon landings, the public fascination with Outer Space has never been higher.

June 3, 1977-October 22, 1977 onwards—The tensions between Bharat and China over the status of Tibet explodes into war, as President Zhuang, after a series of clashes on the Chinese-Tibetan frontier, orders an invasion of the country.

In retaliation to this move by China, Bharati forces cross into Tibet a few days later, following contingency plans drawn up by New Delhi for such an event.

The subsequent Tibetan War is a logistical nightmare for both Bharat and China, as both nations struggle to keep their armies fully supplied in the harsh frontier region. Although allied with the Bharatis, the Tibetans quickly find themselves sidelined in the fighting between the two Asian great powers. None of Bharat’s southeast Asian allies in the Chennai Pact elect to join the conflict, beyond tolerating a higher than usual number of border skirmishes with the Chinese.

The United States remains neutral, with President Blackford calling for negotiations to end the fighting. In the meantime, Washington continues to supply Beijing with all of the supplies requested by President Zhuang.

In the end, due mostly to better logistics, the Chinese are able to make the Bharati position in Tibet untenable, forcing a withdrawal by early October. 400,000 Tibetan refugees follow the retreating Bharati forces. The refugees mostly congregate around the northern town of Dharamshala (including the Dali Lama and his entourage). Ultimately negotiated under German auspices in Potsdam, Bharati and Chinese representatives agree to a formal truce on October 22, 1977. The conflict, although costing relatively few lives next to the carnage of the Fourth Pacific War, sparks fear in American, Brazilian, and Ottoman circles that there will be a wider war waged by the two powers in the coming years and decades.

Another outcome of the conflict is the resignation of Bharati Prime Minister Kocchar, who leaves office after a tearful national address on state television. His successor, longtime deputy Sikandar Ramanujam, promises to continue his predecessor’s economic policies, but makes no mention of foreign policy in his address.

August 1, 1977—The Republic of Celebes gains its independence, ending the long period of American and Australian military rule. Like West Papua, Celebes is quickly admitted into the CDS.

December 19, 1977 onwards—The Italian parliament ratifies a new law granting citizenship too all subjects in the colony of Libya, regardless of race or religion. Long considered an integral part of Italy, the new law now allows the Arab and Berber population of the colony civil rights.

This law sparks brutal rioting throughout Italy from those opposed to such actions, often spearheaded by Squadrismo gangs. Ultimately, most Italians come to accept the “Simoni Law,” as necessary for the maintenance of Italian control over the oil rich colony.

January 1, 1978—The United States ratifies free trade accords with Australia, Korea, New Zealand, and Singapore.

February 21, 1978 onwards—President Blackford, after failing to persuade him otherwise, accepts the resignation of Ambassador Reynolds from his post in Beijing.

Although he is sorry to leave the Chinese capital, Reynolds now has bigger plans. After intense discussions with his wife, the former diplomat has decided to run for president.

Reynolds’s sudden departure from his post causes a stir in the US media. Rampant speculation begins about his future plans, although Reynolds himself remains mum on the subject to inquiring reporters who visit his home in Vancouver.

March 11, 1978—The Republic of Borneo simultaneously joins the Independence Movement and Chennai Pact.

May 1, 1978—A law passed by the Italian parliament, again spearheaded by Prime Minister Simoni, grants full political equality to all citizens in the colony of Eritrea, sparking massive celebrations in Asmara.

July 20, 1978 onwards—Gershom Kafka, author of the bestselling Gladiator saga, publishes a new novel—Metal Men. The story details an invasion of Earth by a race of malicious robots, who desire nothing less than the destruction of all “organic” life in the universe. Borrowing heavily from the actual carnage of the Fourth Pacific and the two Great Wars (as well as the Southern Holocaust), the novel is considered by many to be a kind of spiritual sequel to the dystopian turn of the century works by HG Wells. [21]

Due to the technical challenges involved, a film will not be successfully made of Metal Men until 2006, when an adaption is produced and directed by American filmmaker Zachary C. Webster.

September 18, 1978—As per the results of referendums held earlier in the decade, Dahomey, Goldene Küste, Guinea, and Senegambia are admitted into the newly inaugurated German Economic Association (“Deutsche Wirtschaftliche Vereinigung”) [22], with the Treaty of Bonn. The DWV is intended by Berlin to eventually replace direct colonial rule over their African empire, while continuing the free movement of goods and services between all nations involved.

Under the terms of the arrangement, the newly independent West African members of the DWV will now have full control over their domestic affairs, although under the terms of the Treaty of Bonn, the new nations are not allowed to join any other alliances while remaining a member of the DWV—a thinly veiled reference to the Independence Movement. The Kaiser remains as a symbolic head of state for all of the members of the DWV.

November 7, 1978—In the US congressional midterm elections, the Socialists gain more seats at the expense of the Democrats, especially in California and traditional Socialist-leaning states in the Midwest, and win full control of the Senate. The Republicans, under the leadership of Chairman Driver, have one of their best nights in almost a century, winning a large number of House seats in the Mid-Atlantic states, as well as in California and New York. Political analysts credit this Republican surge to Chairman Driver’s great political savvy, as well as an usually high number of open congressional seats (due to retirements).

However, almost no one seriously considers the idea that a Republican will have a serious chance in the upcoming 1980 presidential elections.

December 25, 1978 onwards—Italian forces, having begun their withdrawal in the fall of 1978, finish departing from the vast majority of their former colony of Somaliland. Remaining in the quiet regions of Djibouti and Puntland [18], the Italians finally bring their long war in the region to a close.

A new government in Mogadishu, led by Asad Muhammad Othman, promptly requests admission into the Independence Movement, which is granted. The new Somali Republic quickly signs an agreement with the Ottoman Empire to train a new national military, as well as to collaborate on civilian projects.

However, the Somali Republic’s ascent into the IM is marred by the rapid emergence of a dispute with neighboring Ethiopia over the Ogaden, a region of eastern Ethiopia that is predominantly Somali. The Ethiopians react angrily to Othman’s demands for a “referendum” on the territory’s future status. The Ottomans, fearing the outbreak of a war between two members of the IM, quickly dispatch a large armed force on the (Somali) side of the border, to keep the two sides separated.

January 1, 1979—The Portuguese Federation is inaugurated with ceremonies and celebrations throughout the former empire. The new entity, whose capital remains Lisbon (the location of the new Portuguese Congress), is a federal union between Portugal and its former colonies.

February 12, 1979 onwards—Former ambassador Morgan Reynolds announces his candidacy for president at a rally in his hometown of Vancouver, British Columbia as a Republican. His entrance into the race promises to turn the 1980 election into an eventful one. Even after this announcement, however, most political observers do not expect his candidacy to go very far: after all, as they remind their readers, no Republican has won a US presidential election since the ill-fated James G. Blaine in 1880.

Reynolds is the first Canadian-American to run for the nomination of a major American political party.

In his announcement, Reynolds claims to stand for “bold, new ideas” for the United States to “move beyond the shadows and horrors of the past.” Even at this first speech, political commentators note that the former diplomat, although charismatic, never goes into particulars. One commenter, Thomas Harry Johnson of The Denver Post, does remark, somewhat sarcastically, that, “…perhaps most voters will want generalities this time around.”

April 30, 1979 onwards—The People’s Friendly Veil is published in New Delhi. Written (secretly) by Bharati journalist Adeela Vivekananda during his nine-year stay in the Japanese Worker’s Republic, the book is the first major publication to shed any kind of light on Sakamoto’s isolated nation. Vivekananda paints a picture of a government that enforces its will through a secretive, labyrinthine, and sometimes comically incompetent bureaucracy, although the regime is not afraid to use violence to enforce its legitimacy.

The book itself becomes famous as a classic piece of travel writing, and becomes an important source for diplomats and historians seeking to understand Sakamoto’s secretive regime.

June 30, 1979—Former Secretary of State Mildred Morrell-Quigley, having resigned from her position the previous November, announces that she will run for the Democratic nomination for president, now that it has been confirmed that Vice President Rhodes will not run.

July 4, 1979—Alaska is admitted into the Union.

August 14, 1979 onwards—After years of pressure from Washington, the government of Liberia formally abolishes all restrictions on voting in the country—namely the discriminatory laws that limited the right to vote to the descendants of former American slaves.

October 30, 1979 onwards—After years of quiet negotiations, President Blackford and Chancellor Mann, in their summit in Chicago, announce that they have agreed on a new accord related to the superbomb and sunbomb arsenals of their respective nations. Under the terms agreed at the Chicago Summit, the United States and Germany will, over the course of the next five years, dismantle all “outdated” atomic weapons. Both leaders reiterate, however, that the two countries will continue to work together to prevent nuclear proliferation from any nation.

December 31, 1979—The last European Community forces depart from the South African Confederation, ending almost a decade of conflict.

* * *

[1] [Similar in purpose and scope to the Special Economic Zones established by the People’s Republic of China IOTL.]

[2] [This was inspired by the excellent “"Key West-Havana Tunnel" ATL, by Amerigo Vespucci.]

[3] [Similar, in its scope and intent, to our world’s South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission.]

[4] [Named for the Republic of Ezo, a secessionist state established by former loyalists to the Tokugawa Shogunate in 1869. Thanks to Fenrir Angerboda for the suggested name.]

[5] [With apologies to Jaroslav Hašek.]

[6] [An ATL descendant of the famous German novelist Thomas Mann.]

[7] [An ATL descendant of the 18th century Russian poet Gavrila Derzhavin.]

[8] [In TTL, the works of this song-writing team are often compared to W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan.]

[9] [Many of these motorcycle gangs are founded by Fourth Pacific War veterans, not unlike the Hells Angels, which was founded IOTL by World War II veterans in San Bernardino, California, in 1948.]

[10] [For the plot of Doctor Lexington, imagine something of a combination of the basic ideas behind Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen and Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle.]

[11] In our world, the early fascist squads who helped Benito Mussolini in his bid for power after World War I were known as the “Squadrismo.”]

[12] Analogous to the Soviet-sanctioned genre of Socialist Realism in our world.]

[13] [An ATL descendant of our world’s Hindu revivalist Swami Vivekananda, who, among other things, brought Hinduism to the United States in 1893, IOTL.]

[14] [A retcon from a previous post describing the establishment of an “American Environmental Bureau.” My apologies.]

[15] [In our world, oil was discovered in Prudhoe Bay in 1968.]

[16] [Similar to the policies enacted by the government of Israel in our world to encourage the growth of high tech entrepreneurial growth.

[17] [Somewhat analogous to the Doi Moi economic reforms currently underway in our world’s Vietnam.]

[18] [Somewhat analogous to the assorted Green Parties IOTL. In TTL, however, the Ecological Party, while generally aligned with the ideals of social democracy, is not pacifist, or opposed to nuclear power.]

[19] [This is roughly the same as the disease known as Ebola Zaire, the first outbreak of which occurred, IOTL, in August of 1976.]

[20] [An ATL descendant the anti-Nazi author and diarist Fritz Reck-Malleczewen.]

[21] [In TTL, the novels of Hebert George Wells were rather more dystopian than his OTL works, especially those which anticipated the immediate future.]

[22] [The German Economic Union of TTL is analogous to our world’s Commonwealth of Nations, although much more closely tied together diplomatically, economically, and militarily.]

~~~~~

Comments?
 
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Awesome as always. :cool: Looking forward to the September update. :)

To make this TL more accessible to newcomer readers, I'm going to make a chapter guide on the TL's official page, listing all the updates so far.
 
Another great update! Now I'm tempted to work on a Doctor Lexington map. :D

which has its “scientist” narrators earnestly claim that the world is actually a totally fictitious construct—“A dark mirror, a mockery of someone else’s reality.”

Haha, I love this. TL-191 is so implausible that even its inhabitants are calling it out.
 
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Please do, a Doctor Lexington ATL map would be very interesting.



By the way, anyone have a map for the current situation?
 
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