13. The End of VCR wars
Tuesday, 3 January 1984, Oulu
The dividing line between the First and the Third world will reach Europe itself, which will have untold consequences both good and bad.
Finland: Virtually unscathed
Sweden: Badly hit but not destroyed
Norway: Badly hit
Denmark: Badly hit in places, what about the Jutland?
Germany: Nuclear battlefield, some regions in the south and west of the country might be in a better shape.
Netherlands: Badly hit, possible collapse of some dykes with untold consequences (millions of deads).
Belgium: Badly hit, but possible reconstruction from spared centres like Liège, Bruges and St Nikklas?
France: Airbases in the northeast hit, is Paris still standing?
United Kingdom: Much better off than in P&S, Midlands and North badly hit, southern England unscathed, is London still standing?
Italy: Hits in the north, the south is ok.
Spain: Some damage
Portugal: Unscathed?
Eastern Europe: Hungary and Poland likely badly hit, Romania might be better off, surviving Ceauscecu regime who annex Moldavia from the ashes of the USSR?
Americas:USA: Bady hit but probably less than in P&S, making federal wide coordination and communications possible in some form. Canada: Have the main population centres been hit?
Africa:
Hits in some places, but overall Africa should be unscathed. Having said that, the end of food aid will have horrible consequences on the continent. South Africa has a golden opportunity to reinforce itself with millions of white refugees from Europe who only want safety and a home.
Asia:
China: Yangtze and Hai rivers poisonned with radioactivity, huge destructions on the borders. Famine possible?
India: Possible war with Pakistan to "finish it" with nasty consequences.
Korea: Hits alongside the DMZ?
Japan: Badly damanged, the dependency on food imports will hurt.
Elsewhere some destruction and in any case the new trade flows wil have severe consequences.
Middle East:
Possible war between Israel and its neighbours and concomittant implementation of the Samson option just in case.
Oceania:
Has the region been hit at all?
You mentionned in an earlier update a Kola development region. I guess this means that Finland will push its borders to the white sea and effectively create a Greater Finland of sort?
Populating the areas could be difficult though.
16. Sailing into twilight zone
13 January 1983, Helsinki
Yrjö Kaukiainen, an Assistant Professor of Economic History at University of Helsinki....
My only concern is agriculture since while I am sure that Finland is self sufficient in a few things, there is bound to be some kind of adjustment period at least during the first year or so.
I guess that Valmet is now on course to become a Fortune 100 company during the next few decades.
My only concern is agriculture since while I am sure that Finland is self sufficient in a few things, there is bound to be some kind of adjustment period at least during the first year or so.
Since France is in far better shape than in P&S (not that it is actually in such a bad shape in P&S). There won't be an ouright famine in western Europe during the coming months and years, starvation perhaps but not famine. The huge surpluses of French agriculture will find ready mouths in damaged nations and will be an ideal material for barter trade as well.
The flipside of this is that when the Ethiopian and Sahelian famines of 1984 will hit. We will likely see dozens of millions of Africans dying if not even more than that because of the disruptions in trade flows. The eighties were a very dark decade for Africa and the exchange has only made their bad position worse.
If a Greater Finland comes a result of this TL, I think that this is only fair. But if this happens, Finland should then try to aim to have a population of at least 10 or even 15 millions inhabitants to nicely populate this bigger territory. Opening the borders to "kindred" refugees could be a big help in that respect.
Raw materials for fertilizers are readily available from Siilinjärvi ja Sokli deposits: http://www.yara.com/about/production_sites/production_process_story/index.aspx - and I this time egoistic self-righteous politicians like Häkämies won't sell national property abroad on the cheapest bidder
18. Tours
Paris - numerous large warheads
Bordeaux
Toulon
Brest
Cherbourg
Marseille
Lyon
Strasbourg
Le Havre
Toulouse
4. Despite destruction of Paris the President Mitterrand has been very visible in national radio and television on France being damaged but not destroyed.
5. The French Goverment stresses that it still has functioning major military units, nuclear weapons under it's control and is a nation which will recover. As a show of force France has taken part in Operation Judgement, something Britain has not been able to do as we were mentioned in not too subtle manner.
6. In my view France will be the most dominant power in Europe for years, if not centuries, to come. Thus relations with France will be of prime importance and it is important for us to show how we can co-operate in a manner beneficial for both of our nations. France will be a major market to our goods and will be able to export goods not widely available in the Northern Hemisphere for a long time.
think that you might be overestimating the scale of destruction in Britain Jukra, since large parts of the south won't be hit at all. Overall I would say that while Britain will be more damaged than France it won't be that much more damaged.
Compared to what I expected, France has taken quite a battering to be fair. A lot of refining capacity may have been lost depending on where exactly the bombs fell.
I am somewhat surprised that the Lille agglomeration seems to still be standing, alongside Dunkerque and Calais as well. If this is indeed the case, there will be a lot of facilities there to drive reconstruction forward. The coal mines will provide a source of energy as well, and I guess that the bombs gave them a huge reprieve considering that they were closed in 1991 OTL.
By the way, do NOT hesitate to PM me for anything France or Britain related or to do with technological stuff and nuclear stuff .
Really loving this so far. Please do continue. I do wonder if the Finns will make all of the "nordic area" their protectorate or just straight out annex them?