AHC: Berlin-Addis Ababa-Tokyo Axis

Your challenge is to make the Axis Powers of WW2 consist of Germany, Ethiopia and Japan, rather than Germany, Italy and Japan. No ASBs.
 
Uhmm, that's not easy, but let's say Mussolini and Hitler have a bigger blunder over Austria, the Stresa front remains strong and Mussolini is allowed to have the lands in Hoare-Loval Pact, but then Salassiè is of course not OK with it and he allies with Germany. But why would he? What kind of help would Germany gave? And even then, why would Hitler choose an African country as a junior partner?
Perhaps it's better to think of what kind of help could the Japanese gave?
 

Dolan

Banned
And even then, why would Hitler choose an African country as a junior partner?
Have Halie Selassie started some kind of Afrofascism that aligned with German interests.

Also have the Ethiopians start discriminate against Jews or even outright genocide from the start. Considering Nazis have no qualms working together with Muslims, as long as they share their irrational hatred of Jews, why not having Africans on their side too?

If started Early Enough, ironically, Hitler could have outright praise Jesse Owens as the best Specimen of Afrikan Ubermensch, all while telling everyone about how Jewish Clique was involved in African slave trade or such blatantly false thing, but could be spinned into Pro-African Propaganda by Goebbels.

Have Ethiopian Emperor said the same thing too and call for African Americans to throw the yoke of Jewish Slavemasters.

US end up crippled at the Domestic Front because African Americans starts both demanding Equal Rights, all while making riots directed against Jewish communities in America. US government thus need to thread carefully or they will end up with worse race relations than before.

Basically this does hinge on using African sentiments to cripple the US, which is unlikely but still possible.

I believe Ethiopians won't end up as morally repugnant as the Nazis though, and this scenario is highly unlikely.
 
Germany sent Ethiopia 10.000 rifles via French Djibouti in the lead up to the war iirc.

Problem is Ethiopia by itself is unable to stop italy
 
Your challenge is to make the Axis Powers of WW2 consist of Germany, Ethiopia and Japan, rather than Germany, Italy and Japan. No ASBs.
It could happen if Germany accepts Menelik's overtures in 1905, forging an unofficial alliance that focuses on providing Ethiopia with German assistance in modernization while being given access to more investment opportunities and Ethiopia's natural resources. Ethiopia observes as a neutral nation during the First World War, only joining in when the Allies offer her promises of access to the Red Sea once more and additional territories which leads to an Ethiopian Expeditionary Force fighting either in Egypt or Tanganyika. However, Ethiopia is in for a rude shock as she is unable to acquire the promises made to her in the Paris Peace Conference and angrily walks out - forging closer relationships with Tokyo and Berlin on the way. Throughout the 1920s, Ethiopia receives assistance from both countries as Fascism begins to become more popular in Sub-Saharan Africa, especially amongst Ethiopian intellectuals who begin to pressure the Emperor to reorganize Ethiopia into a Fascist nation - this proves successful as Ethiopia undergoes Fascist radicalization in the early 1930s.

Ties between Nazi Germany, Fascist Ethiopia and Imperial Japan are strengthened even further as the Second Italo-Ethiopian War comes as it did IOTL but Ethiopia manages to fight them to a standstill with the backing of both countries. In order to preserve the bulk of Ethiopia's population and resources, Addis Ababa agrees to concede parts of Tigray and Ogaden to Italy's colonies as Fascist Ethiopia undergoes even more radicalization - with inspiration taken from the doctrine of National Socialism and Japanese Fascism. To facilitate more assistance from the other countries, Ethiopia agrees to join the Axis in order to reclaim the provinces lost to Italy and annex Eritrea while planning to establish a "Greater East Africa Co-Prosperity Sphere". The Second World War begins as it did IOTL and upon Italy joining the war (either on the side of the Allied Powers or Axis), Ethiopia launches her invasion and rapidly reclaims her territories in the early 1940s while occupying French and British Somaliland in the process.

Despite its promises to the Axis Pact, Ethiopia soon enters into negotiations with the Allied Powers to switch sides in exchange for maintaining her wartime gains and soon declares war on the Axis while enjoying a hegemonic position in the Horn of Africa for much of - and after - World War 2.

At least, these are the remotely plausible things I can see happening.

Also, shameless TL plug: https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...and-stride-a-history-of-black-fascism.465040/
 
Maybe have fascism rise in Germany, but more based on the old-school authority of the German Empire rather than the collective bunch of cultists, fanatics, maniacs and opportunists the Third Reich made themselves out to be.

That’d make things easier me thinks
 
Which results in Ethiopia getting slaughter quickly. Unless Ethiopia is feeling suicidal, not happening.
I don't think it's as forgone of a conclusion as you note here, especially if Ethiopia quickly switches sides after reclaiming the provinces she lost (plus Eritrea) in exchange for supporting the Allies in North Africa and the Middle East. Then again, I could be wrong and Ethiopia ends up getting torn apart in this scenario.
 
I don't think it's as forgone of a conclusion as you note here, especially if Ethiopia quickly switches sides after reclaiming the provinces she lost (including a few colonies here and there) in exchange for supporting the Allies.
Expect that require Ethiopia to actually take the colonies first and the Allies can either way just blockade them into submission and quickly retake the colonies.
 
Expect that require Ethiopia to actually take the colonies first and the Allies can either way just blockade them into submission and quickly retake the colonies.
What's also to prevent Ethiopia from successfully overwhelming the colonies and then negotiate for either a pull-out from the war and/or joining the Allies?
 
What's also to prevent Ethiopia from successfully overwhelming the colonies and then negotiate for either a pull-out from the war and/or joining the Allies?
Army equipped with obsolete weapons and not to mention a cutting off Ethiopia from supplies wouldn't require much if any ships only need to stop shipping from the Suez Canal and wait.
 
I don't think it's as forgone of a conclusion as you note here, especially if Ethiopia quickly switches sides after reclaiming the provinces she lost (plus Eritrea) in exchange for supporting the Allies in North Africa and the Middle East. Then again, I could be wrong and Ethiopia ends up getting torn apart in this scenario.

Pissing off Italy, France and GB seems a bit too much.
 
Army equipped with obsolete weapons and not to mention a cutting off Ethiopia from supplies wouldn't require much if any ships only need to stop shipping from the Suez Canal and wait.
With the scenario I outlined above, it's not implausible to think that TTL's Ethiopian Army would be much better than IOTL and even able to rapidly overwhelm the Allies, if not just through sheer numbers by then.
 
With the scenario I outlined above, it's not implausible to think that TTL's Ethiopian Army would be much better than IOTL and even able to rapidly overwhelm the Allies, if not just through sheer numbers by then.
Resupply doesn't matter how modern your guns are or how well trained your troops if they can't shoot anything.
 
Mussolini isn't really a hardcore fascist, more like a Salazar. He is somewhat of an evangelist, pandering to a largely catholic base with a number of social wedge issues.

Religious intolerance towards Muslims causes Italy's relations with Albania to sour, and as a result Albania seeks greater autonomy from Italy. The search for a new ally, along with the increased sense of religious identity/awareness, results in Turkey being this ally.

Turkey is similarly unfriendly with Italy due to the latter's attempts to carve up Turkish land in the Treaty of Sevres. If the opportunity comes up, Turkey would love to take back the Dodecanese Islands, and possibly even Libya, which was taken from them by Italy in 1912.

After anschluss, Germany thinks of demanding the ethnically German province of South Tyrol from Italy.

In 1937, Italy invades Ethiopia. They use poison gas and commit other war crimes as they did in OTL.

Germany publicly demands South Tyrol once Mussolini's troops have been mobilized to Ethiopia, and as per a secret treaty, Albania, Yugoslavia, and Turkey simultaneously propose a measure at the League of Nations conference announcing a coalition to enforce Article X of the League Covenant, with Ethiopia's permission. Ethiopia agrees and the motion carries, as nobody condones Italy's actions.

The Coalition declares a punitive war on Italy in defense of Ethiopia, and accepts Germany's request to join them. All of these countries has agreed in a secret Treaty how the territories will be divided.
  • Eritrea and Somalia go to Ethiopia
  • South Tyrol goes to Germany
  • Fiume and other areas go to Yugoslavia
  • Dodecanese and Libya returned to Turkey
  • Sardinia is released as a Class A League Mandate

As a result, Ethiopia becomes more nationalistic, becoming a hero of blacks around the world.
Also, the League of nations has a much greater reputation than in OTL.
Germany declares the Ethiopians "Honorary Aryans"
This is a huge victory for the anti-colonial movement, emboldening leaders like Chandra Bose.
Ethiopia, with the support of Germany, sponsors all sorts of rebellions in French/British colonies in East Africa.
Turkey, with the support of Germany, sponsors similar movements in Egypt and the Levant.

Once WW2 starts, the Allies are completely spread thin, having to abandon much of their colonial possessions. They will likely have to settle for a negotiated peace of some sort.
 
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