alternatehistory.com

The Great War was fought as historically and resulted in the defeat of the Central Powers. The victors acted differently however from real history, due to some different reasons.

- The Versailles Treaty was signed in 1919 as historically, with the historic rules and lines included.
- The League of Nations was formed as historically, with the smae nations as historically signing to become member and the smae excluded by choice or force.
- Economies of the British and French Empires were less affected by the war, than historically, due to the strict payment of especially Germany, following Versailles and a slightly faster recovery of the international trade.
- The USA returned to its Isolationalist Political thinking, after Wilson had resigned, following his defeat in the next Presidential elections. The USA decided to withdraw from the Philippines in 1920, as it was strictly opposed to any form of Colonialism. The Philippines became an independant state, with a weak economy and almost no form of military power, due to this forced up independence.
- Japan got the former German Colonies in the Pacific, but was officially forced to demiliterise these. It did not get the Chinese colonies, but was furthermore gruanted as the third military power in the world. (actually second, as the USA abstained from international organisations and responsibilities.)
- The potential major powers USSR, Germany and to a lesser sence Turkey too, were not allowed to become members of the League of Nations.

After this became the reality of the post Great War history, the Washington Naval Treaty became something different. Since the USA would not have accept responsibilities over the Philippines, it became more or less a coastal force only, except for the Hawaii station. Although both coastlines were very long, the USN concentrated more on a strong defensive, rather than offensive force.
Japan was ambitious as historically and wanted at least parity with the USA in the Navalaffairs, as it wanted to dominate East Asia, without the need to keep an eye on the USA.
The UK continued to police the world and needed its worldwide operational capable fleet. Other European nations focussed on more local assets.

The Washington Treaty allowed the British to remain the largest Navalpower afloat, followed by the USA, wether or not, she would take this place. Japan became third, to the frustration of the Japanese. France and Italy followed as fourth, allowed parity on eachother. In numbers, the UK was allowed 20 battleships, the USA 15, Japan 14 and both France and Italy 6. In other categories a simmilar numbersystem was used.


History followed on, with the Great Tokyo Earthquake in 1923, the very large eruption of the Yellowstone Park Supervolcano in 1924 and the Economic Depression starting in 1929. These events greatly influenced both industrial and economic affairs worldwide, as well as the climate.
Hitler came to power in 1933. Japan started a war of conquest in China in the same period, and withdrew from the League of Nations, followed by Germany in 1936. Italy became Fascist in the early 20's and also was kicked out of the League.

With war brewing in the late 30's the new struggle for power and worldsuppremacy unfolded, primarily between the democracies and the totalitarian powers (incl. the USSR). With the differences between the Democratic powers in mainly Europe and the Totalitarian states there was to be a conflict, although the totalitarian states too were sometimes opposed to eachother.

The administrator of the new war was as historically Hitler's Germany, who made no intention to hide its feelings for revenge, following the Versailles Treaty. In a masterplan of diception, the Germans tried to lure in the West European nations into a war against the USSR of arch rival Stalin. Cleverly using the various treaties in devided Europe, the Germans signed the pact of Molotv - Von Ribbentrop, where both USSR and Germany agreed to accept a pact of Non-Agression, with a hidden clausule including the dividing of Poland.

When activated, the Pact included the mobilisation of armed forces around the Polish borders, which was far easier for the highly mobile Germans, but difficult for the much less mobile and organised Russians. Both Germany and USSR had agreed to simultaniously attack Poland on the 23th of September 1939, which inevitably was done so by the stiffly and inflexible organised Rusians. The Germans cleverly remained were they were, encriminating the USSR for the rest of the world as agressor, simmilar to what happened earlier against Finland. As a result both the UK and France declared war on the USSR, due to violation of the Polish souvereignity. Germany had won its first victory, without a fight.

To offer the Allies assistance, Germany offered the Allies its forces to repell the Russians, by declaring the Molotov - Von Ribbentrop Pact broken by the Russians. Within days, the Wehrmacht roled into Poland and easily crushed both Polish defenders and Russians alike, with the first, officially called accidents and the second by choice. Then the march thundered on into Russia, where in early november the city of Leningrad fell in the Blitz and the Germans reached as far as Minsk and Kiev, before winter fell in.

The Russians were completely unprepared and could not recover so quickly, as Stalin actually had predicted 1942 as its earliest to be able to fight the Germans. 1940 caught the Russians completely unprepared, so shortly after the period of Terror in the USSR, where most armyofficers were executed. In teh spring the German advance continued, with the fall of Minsk, Kiev and so on in march, while the siege on Moscow started in early june, resulting in large civil unrest in the Soviet Capital, and a revolt against Stalins Regime, where the dicator was captured by an angry mob and exchanged with the Germans for their savety. The Germans did take Stalin to Berlin for a showtrial and finally executed him in front of the Reichstag in the German Capital. Moscow was loothed, burned and sacked and milions died, as the Germans had no intention to save lives of people, who were inferior in their eyes.

After Stalin was gone, the British and French pulled out of the war, as there was no USSR left. They demanded the Germans to retreat too, but Hitler wanted his "Lebensraum" in the plains of the western Russian lands. He denied to retreat, resulting in other demands and fimaly a decleration of war, as Hitler did not return Poland to its own people. As all Russian resistance of any name was destroyed, a two fron war was prevented, so the battleexperienced German troops could fight in force against the West, with only a policeforce remaining in the occupied territories in the East.

In Asia, Japan took advantage of the Russian defeat and the complete collapse of the Soviet Union. It invaded the rich far East Oil rich Sakhalin Pininsula, capturing the large port of Vladivostok as well, removing the Russians from their only port in the Far East. Afer this, the Japanes could invade China with full force, rather than holding back substantial forces in Manchuko Province against the Russians. It helped only a little, as the Chinese still continued to fight back, with their vast numbers of soldiers available then.

As historcially the Japanese did attack Pearl Harbor and this resulted in the historical Pacific War, fought more or less as historically, except for a few details. As it was purely an USA vs Japan War mainly, after the Dutch and French colonial defeats here, only the USA and for a while Great Britain and the Commonwealth remained.
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