A Federal World, or; The Global Situation

In this exercise of imagination, there are many differences. The Germans still lost GWI, and the Beer Putsch Hall succeeded, bringing a more unstable Hitler into power. Instead of being embraced, he was seen as a madman, and after a frantic year in power, a coup installed Kaiser Wilhelm III, IRL's Crown Prince Wilhelm, into power in the role of a more constitutional monarchy (although not totally), and led to a federal state in German once more. Due to Hitler's brief time in power, the nation reacts badly to communist and fascist extremism, which it sees as just another path to devastation. The coup takes place after a two-and-a-half-year-long Civil War, exacerbated by the Crash of 1926, ending in 1927. Wilhelm III appoints a government bent on reform and moderation, hoping to advance Germany without causing another senseless war. He allies with the Brits, who hope to guide the young Kaiser away from the destructive ways of his father and shepherd him towards a more internationalist policy, which he quickly accepts. Albert Einstein flees to the United States during this time, called "The Awakening", and makes a home for himself in the country, defecting to the US and applying for tri-citizenship with the US, UK, and Germany.

The Brits, seeing that they could either create an Imperial Federation or risk fading into second-class nation status, federalized their Empire. This resulted in the "Commonwealth Parliament", centered in Westminster, with seats allocated around the Empire by population, although certain nations *cough*India*cough* were given less as to make sure no one dominated all others. The resulting structure allowed for each part of the Empire to govern semi-autonomously, while the CP created wide-reaching laws and reforms. The Prime Minister role is filled by the "Commonwealth Governor", with the most notable early Governor being Winston Churchill, elected in the early 30s by the "Unionist Coalition" of several center-right parties from the Imperial Nations.

The man IRL known as Joshua Abraham Norton has a son in 1879, whom he creates as the next "Emperor". This child, Jacob Joshua "Jay" Norton, is elected Governor of California in the 1920s as a progressive Republican after making a fortune in shipping and works to provide early reforms in the state including an early universal healthcare system, a massively successful literacy and education campaign, and the expansion of the California National Guard. He is later appointed the first "Secretary of Welfare" under Thomas Dewey in the 1940s and dies in office in 1947. The resulting "Norton Dynasty" sees J.A. Norton II elected to succeed Richard Nixon as Senator in the 50s, and his son, Abe Norton, is elected Governor of California in the 90s. The United States is a major superpower, one of the "Big Four", alongside Germany, the Imperial Federation, and France (we'll get to France). The United States is more progressive compared to OTL, with, by 2010, a universal healthcare system ("National Health Agency", called "Nortoncare", established by Jay Norton in his time as Secretary of Welfare), established gay marriage (legalized in the 1990s), and legalized pot (by the 1970s, although that's more because of "Big Pot", the weed industry lobbying). However, they still maintain hardcore gun rights and normalized military training.

The Second Great War is key to the development of this world. France, ITTL, sees the German Awakening as a threat to their sovereignty. Mussolini sends several agents to foment revolution in France after Britain announces a pact with Germany to help stabilize the nation. Philippe Petain is drafted as the leader of the "National Remembrance Movement", a fascist organization that forces elections and wins in a landslide in 1930. They quickly ally with Italy and break their alliance with the Imperial Federation. Winston Churchill, the Commonwealth Governor, formalizes the alliance with Germany and strengthens ties with the US, and President Herbert Hoover. The so-called "United Allies" challenged the "Paris-Rome Summit" on many fronts. This culminated in 1933 when French agents were found in London attempting to sabotage the automobiles of several MCPs (Members of the Commonwealth Parliament) during a CP session. Around the same time, a message on it's way to Russia was intercepted by a German officer. The letter was from Italian diplomats, offering the Soviets a deal, that a non-aggression pact be signed between the Paris-Rome Summit and Moscow. The deal went on to say that in the event of war if the Soviets could attack the Germans, they could keep Eastern Europe. These two events are used to justify war, and the Allies declare war on the Paris-Rome Summit, who reciprocate the action.
 
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GWII was a rowdy affair, a bloody conflict lasting until 1940 when the French fascist forces fled into exile on the remote island of Tristan de Cunha, seized during the war. During the conflict, the Soviets declared war on the Allies (although they did not explicitly ally with the fascists, as to not go against their principles), and nearly capitulated the Germans, only to be beaten back when the Brazilians joined the Allied Forces, and Japanese mainland possessions were seized by the United States and Imperial Federation. The Soviet government would be toppled when Joseph Stalin and his Politburo were killed by a missile strike upon the Kremlin by Germany. The ensuing power vacuum and struggle led to the Soviet surrender and the Eastern European Civil Wars, fought between the so-called "orthodoxy", somewhat capitalist authoritarians who refused to discourage the use of extreme power grabs, the "monarchists", who supported the return of a Tsardom under a duma (although the duma itself would become a contentious issue within the faction), and the "nationalists", those who hoped to continue a socialist government in the vein of Marx-Leninism.

The Japanese joined the fascists and openly proclaimed themselves to be following a monarchical version of the fascist ideology. They opposed European and America expansionism into Asia, and were promised French colonies in Vietnam once the war was over, in exchange for provoking the United States and supplying the fascist powers with weaponry. In 1934, as the US put an oil embargo on the newly "neo-autocratic" Japan, the Japanese declared war on the Allies after deeming the United States an "aggressor on a mass scale" that "threatens world peace by the minute". They were joined by the Paris-Rome Summit (who have been and will continue to be called "the Fascist powers") and continued to expand aggressively, even sending out distant parties to raid the shores of New Zealand. The Japanese would fall, however, in November 1938, when they attempted to overplay their hand in regards to the new Chinese Civil War. After invading China, they came to the border of several IF holdings and attempted to invade through there, creating a meat grinder on the so-called "Sino-Imperial Pathway", one that took down much of the eligible Japanese military forces in the area, causing the Japanese to call back other soldiers, allowing for an American breakthrough that caused an eventual Japanese surrender, although not until the American forces literally landed in southern Japan.

The Italians, although aggressive in their attempts to gain mass holdings in Africa and the Balkans, quickly fell into a quagmire: the Balkan ethnic trap. As they attempted to govern over the territories while still warring abroad, they faced the ethnic divisions and sectarian violence in the region, requiring the constant presence of military personnel. The needs of the French weighed heavily upon the Italians, and the spreading of resources they barely had led to a revolution in the country that deposed Mussolini and would result in his imprisonment in Rome.

The French would ultimately be brought down by their own ambition. Philippe Petain, while an excellent leader and strategist, would become too demanding of his allies and too focused on France alone. His initial military success (nearly capitulating the Germans and holding 2/3rds of the African continent at one point) would cloud his later judgment, as inevitable defeat would feed an urge to micromanage. French morale would reach an all-time high as the nation fought back their arch-rivals, the Germans and British, only to drop once more when the Allies bounced back. The results of an economy entirely driven by war, other than mass starvation in the streets and large scale death, was a bubble that burst once one of their allies, in this case, the Japanese, fell, causing a recession that severely hurt the war effort. French holdings abroad, already being lost consistently to the Imperial machine, dwindled further as natives surrendered to Allied forces. Petain, promising to "battle to the very last man", refuses to surrender the French nation despite invasions from the east, as Germany pushes in, and from both the north and south as the Brits and Americans push forward. Petain and his top officials flee, playing it off as a temporary exile, akin to that of Napoleon, forced there by circumstance but planning a comeback.

The Allies would charge remaining fascist and Soviet leaders with several crimes under the umbrella of "Crimes Against Humanity", due to the usage of tactics breaking the Geneva convention and various attempts at the extermination of whole ethnic, political, or social groups, like the Germans, capitalists, and socialists in France and Italy, which saw over 10 million people killed and many more detained, and the so-called "Great Purge" in the Soviet Union, which saw over a million killed just in the upper-echelons of Soviet society. Also on trial were those who were thought to be involved in the "Red Famine", a so-called "controlled genocide" in Ukraine and the Caucuses during the period of 1932-1934, that killed between 3.2 million to as high as 7 million people. Joseph Stalin, the former leader of the Soviet Union, was caught attempting to flee to Siberia and ordered his train stopped when it was intercepted. He then faced the soldiers there to arrest him, commanded that they cease their resistance, and when they refused, pulled out a small handgun, and shot himself.
 
Petain's arrival to Tristan de Cunha, while not in victory, did carry an air of dignity about it. His cabinet, guards, and their families came to the island as well, in order to escape any attempts of Allied punishment that they might otherwise have incurred, and they created a French colony on the island, beneath the watchful eye of the Allies, who furiously search for them, unable to realize that the small, otherwise uninhabited island that they left unguarded was really where the place from which the French schemed. French efforts are all in the name of victory, but the more pressing task is continued survival. Rallying an army of natives and guards is easy, but rallying one that could defeat a nation would be much more difficult, especially when you have barely any men at all. Mock updates were given to the families and guards about the constant planning of their invasion of St. Helena and then the deployment of an island-hopping strategy to gain more men, when in reality, the meetings were about how they were finding their next meal, making new clothes, and how they could divert the Allies. The use of their one plane and several small ships, which were unmarked and for which they brought a glut of oil, was planned, but there was an agreement that only when they could guarantee total success would they invade, lest they risk all of their lives.

After three months of the Allies searching, the French planning, fishing, sowing, and deceiving, and quite a bit of general tension, the French sensed an opportunity. They intercepted a radio signal from the Allies that said that Saint Helena was known not to be the place where the French were hiding, and thus the small force of Imperial, American, and German marines stationed there moved out and began searching the larger Carribean islands for the French, particularly Haiti. The French waited another two weeks, mobilizing and making sure that there were no marines left. Then, in the early morning of May 29, 1940, Operation Jeanne (named after St. Joan of Arc, who led the French in a victory against the English, and whose feast day coincided with the official invasion date) began, as all but two boats left the island to invade Saint Helena, and they were soon joined by the plane, on May 30, which bombarded the defenses of the island and left it open for invasion. The French took the island rather easily, pushing their claim on the natives, and establishing a secondary location.

Within days, the natives rise up and attempt to revolt against French rule and the policy of conscription, unsuccessfully, and the French troops instead massacre most natives on the island. Once they realize their hopelessness, the soldiers begin praying and decorating the mausoleum of Napoleon, who they begin to worship as a saint. Some soldiers even attempted to flee the island through the boats, with one ship disembarking in the direction of Africa, hoping to surrender to the Imperial Federation and then say that they were forced into service. The boat was, instead, sunken halfway to the continent, killing all of it's starving, sunburnt passengers. Others set sail back to Tristan de Cunha, with one ship making it back, and another sinking after it capsized. Those who sailed back tell of the horrible situation on Saint Helena and Petain calls for a retreat of all those who are on the other island, along with all of the supplies they can plunder from it. He also orders they bring him portraits of Napoleon hanging in the island, to be used as motivation for the soldiers. As they retreated, with the help of the plane, the last ship in the group was spotted by an Allied recon plane, and information was passed along about unmarked, previously unseen ships moving quickly south of the recently invaded island of St. Helena.

The French were regrouping and hoping to just survive when the Allies began scouting around the island from afar, and they decided on June 15, 1940, as the day they would attack the French. As they planned their attack, the opposing French began strengthening their "People's Guard", under the "Cult of Napoleon the Warrior", in hopes that one day, they may be able to actually fight once more. They soon found out, however, that they would need to fight again, very soon. They once again intercepted radio signals from the Allies, this time about their invasion of the island, and prepared for a fight. The families would hide in the basement of the official headquarters, where they would hopefully be safe, and, if worst comes to worst, they stay until they surrender. The cabinet would coordinate the attack from several small shacks upon the land, overlooking the beach. If they needed to retreat, they would take refuge in a nearby house with a small system of tunnels dug under it, that would hopefully lead them to the mountainous jungle, where they could reach small boats that they could ride to the uninhabited island near Tristan.

Then, the sun rose on June 13. Marines began to set sail towards the island from South Africa and the Falklands. On June 15, several aircraft flew over the island and let loose bombs, destroying little huts and bombarding the beach defenses. Marines soon landed and were met with passionate, hardened French soldiers, who let loose great fury onto those who fought them, using hand-to-hand combat as well as guns, as bullets became more scarce. Soon, the French plane flew overhead and attacked the others, shooting down one, and it began bombarding the invading Marines. Soon, it took severe damage, and once he knew he was done, the pilot crashed into an Allied beach lander, killing several and injuring many others. The French soldiers were told to fall back, and the French commanders took up the house, not yet using the tunnel system, as they hoped they could still win, using the invading dead's guns as their tools. Soon after, a bomb was dropped on the main headquarters, where their families were stationed, after a miscommunication between pilots and the ground led to the air believing French commanders were headquartered in the building. It was bombarded severely, several times over until there was nothing more than wreckage and corpses. The commanders witnessed this, and it was a stab in the gut for many of them. The tunnel system was used, and they began retreating. While they left, the leaderless French soldiers ended up being massacred, with nearly no survivors outside of twenty POWs. There is a legend that says that several lived in the jungle of the island, believing that unless they are explicitly told by Marshal Petain to surrender, they must continue to prepare for a fight. The commanders, at the end of the tunnels, found their boats. The issue for them was that along with those boats, they found several Marines stationed around there after the spot was found, fully stocked, by a recon mission just days before the invasion. The commanders were captured and transported back to France, where their war crimes trials began, at Lyon.

Finally, after 132 days on the island, the French government was defeated, and the Allies had won the war.
 
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