Beedok's Maps Thread

Beedok

Beedok

Most of a year has gone by since the Canadians dragged (most of) the Entente Nuclear Project into Russia at gun point. The Russian almost have it figured out, but are running low on Uranium. Also following an accident were several workers were exposed to (just barely) lethal levels of radiation and slowly wasted away many Russian scientists have begun to wonder if these weapons are worth the horror they would inflict. Maybe a conventional victory is possible?

China is all but liberated. Japan has been bombed with enough conventional bombs that there's debate as to whether anything is worth Atomizing (as the new weapons are being refered to). Indian is liberating itself. . . very messily. The Entente are mostly in full collapse across Africa, only South Africa and their Australian comrades are adding troops as the Europeans pull soldiers back for the defense of the metropoles. The invasion of the Poe Valley is about to begin, and that will hopefully knock Italy out of the war. Sadly the Alps guard France's southern flank, while a massive web of fortifications (many of which were German built and repurposed to face the other way) has resisted Russian bombers.

There are fears about Communism though. Iberia is already rocked by partisans, the poorest of the Entente regions Communism was long quite popular there. The North Atlantic Fleet, fresh off the American assembly lines, just struck a surprising victory against the Royal Navy allowing for the invasions of Newfoundland and Greenland. The Reds might have been good for bleeding the Entente, but Moscow wants to keep them on the other side of the Atlantic(/Pacific, gosh darn Alaska is too close for comfort, and the crushing victory of the Pacific Fleet over the IJN at Hawaii has made that ocean nearly as tense).

Maybe the Nukes are needed. (Or maybe the Entente could be offered conditional surrender? The Germans would be outraged though...)

Brazil is happy. Brazil is strong.

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Beedok

Beedok

This map and the next are pretty close together time wise, but here's the fire one: the world just as tbe French, Argentineans, and Italians signed an unconditional surrender and ordered all forces to stand down.

The surrender was the result of Russia's grand 30 Day Offensive wherein the Russians unleashed 11 nuclear warheads, mostly on Entente military forces (though Rome, Paris, and London were all hit). The shear speed and overwhelming force caused Entente forces to melt like butter as supply lines and morale were shattered.

The offensive was sparked by the USSA landings in Iceland and the Bismarck archipelago, forcing the Russians to make a major show of force hoping to keep Washington style communism on the other side of the ocean. (They figure they can keep a lid on the communists in Eurasia as long as the USSA doesn't get a toe hold too close to them.)

Iberia has effectively collapsed into civil war. Colombia has negotiated a ceasefire with Brazil's little alliance, keeping the communists at bay. South Africa hopes that no one cares about their little corner of Africa enough to punish them very much, Australia is of a similar hope. Japanese and English morale is on the knife's edge, especially in the face of these new nuclear weapons, and are trying to offer the Russians something just short of unconditional surrender, and Moscow is interested. Still to show her naval strength Moscow has launched a naval operation into the Indian Ocean via the Suez, flexing the might of the joint Russian-Ukrainian Navy.

India is a mess still. Russia insists they can fix it and has all sides negotiating in Almaty. The USSA insists the Communists have the moral right to victory and keep shipping supplies over.

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Beedok

Beedok

And before we're gone for a few days I'll leave you all with the results of the Treaty of Istanbul, signed in 1946 finally ends the 9 Years War. 11 nuclear bombs were dropped. 90-100 million dead (including the ongoing Indian civil war). Fighting on every continent but Antarctica. The world needs peace. Sadly fighting continues throughout much of southern Asia.

France was all but dismembered. All overseas holdings have been lost. No French government remains, though technically the nation still exists (and many French citizens are used in administrative assistance). Other Entente powers emerged a bit better (Iberia has mostly been left to sort itself out, no one wants to lose more men down that quagmire). The UK has been left with a few assorted colonies small islands around the world, though most of the larger colonies are on a ten year path to independence. Italy, Japan, and Hungary have been left occupied for the time being, but after 25-50 years (depending on the nation) the occupiers are set to leave. Argentina has taken a haircut and a ten year Brazilian occupation of certain border territories. Bolivia has been treated similarly.

South Africa and Australia have proven their previous beliefs. No one cared about them enough to enact serious punishments and South Africa has seen her relations with Germany improve significantly after letting Afrikaaners participate in the government more equally and teaming up against some African rebel groups. Germany doesn't much care for the whole decolonisation thing, and believes the Russians made a massive mistake trusting Egypt.

Thailand is trying to build a Brazil like power bloc for themselves with various conservative South-East Asian governments. It's going surprisingly well.

China is fuming over Russia keeping Manchuria and allowing various breakaway 'Chinese Provinces' to become recognised states. They're trying to get Egypt, Brazil, and Thailand to form up a 'third way' bloc against the Russian and USSA's super power led blocs. Brazil isn't very interested, they despise the USSA, but that's about the extent of their foreign policy goals, so upsetting Russia doesn't interest them. Egypt is listening, but keeping options open. Thailand doesn't want to play second fiddle to China now that regional power status is in their reach. The Germans might be interested though (just give them a chance to get back on their feet).

Pressured by the USSA's homelands policy the Russians have copied the move, creating various Ethnic Autonomous Zones (and renamed their government the Eurasian Federation). Lots of these zones are 30+% Russian, just to help stave off separatism, but otherwise they're fairly democratic and able to push various language and cultural rights. The previous Social Democratic coalition has fallen though, replaced by the Liberal Eurasians Party, a group interested in a range of more capitalist policies. They're also quite big on cleaning up corruption and lossening controls over various goods for which the previous coalition was slow to de-ration due to the more communist wing of the coalition.

The USSA has suddenly found a number of subsidised Eurasian supplies dry up (mainly machining tools designed to help rebuild the Great Lakes industrial zones or for higher end things like jet engines, though some food goods had been imported due to a later dustbowl and French pillaging). Moscow insists this is due to the need to supply Europe, China, and Japan and aid in rebuilding, but the USSA counter they still need to rebuild too.

A cold war hasn't started yet, but things are sliding that way. The exchange of POWs liberated by the 'wrong' side has ground to a trickle. The Americans are openly supplying Iberian, Indian, Indonesian, and Filipino communists while Eurasia tries to push for mediation.

The Americans have also dug up some of the trashed research labs scattered across Canada attached to some Uranium mines, and combined with a few Entente scientists having been 'retrieved' the Americans are sliding towards a nuclear bomb of their own.

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Beedok

Beedok

1961 - Height of the Irish Crisis. And the Indonesian Policing Action. And the Congo Crisis. And . . . Some context is probably needed.

Well, the war ended, as we covered last time. Unfortunately the good will of the Anti-Entente Alliance fell apart about as soon as someone could point out they'd never come up with a better name for themselves. The Russians tried to forge an era of unity with the Congress of Nations (HQ in Brussels for a relatively neutral position). It didn't work quite as well as they'd hoped. The International Policing Action in India to force acceptance of ceasefire lines kind of worked, but only because all sides thought they could benefit. Then the Islamic Republic of the Indus happened. The IRI turned on the Egyptians for being 'soft' and slid the nation into a pseudo-medieval horror. The rest of the world decided that if Moscow hadn't tried to give the Islamic League a slice of the Indian Pie in the name of multilateralism the whole mess could have been avoided.

Then there was the confusion in Africa. Germany wanted to hold an empire and didn't trust Black run states, as such they bankrolled a number of European Diaspora run states and helped them to ruthlessly purge Communists and other political groups. Manpower shortages usually led to these regimes falling though, only South Africa and Kenya are still standing (with Kenya being part of the larger Great Lakes Confederation which include a number of local monarchies). The idea to spin off puppet regimes in Africa as Germany makes a slow withdrawl has been ruined by American weapons shipments to African Communists. Berlin is sliding into bankruptcy as she tries to hold on to Africa. As well the little 'Kingdom of Burgundy' scheme is proving a bit of a mistake. At least the Dutch managed to worm out of occupation and slid to Germanies side, bitter about lands lost to Belgium.

Moscow is also suffering headaches. The Egyptians keep making noises about closing the Suez. Iberia is demanding they be given Gibraltor. Riots keep breaking out in minority cities due to various ethnic tensions. Barely any other nations have agreed to help out in Indonesia. A new generation for which the hardship of the Tsarist Era are a grandfather's tale have begun to demand living conditions improve faster, angry that a super power like Eurasia only offers living conditions akin to recently war ravaged central and western Europe (not to mention Australia).

The Hue accord and Leage of Latin Democracies are both doing reasonably well. There's only been a couple coups in minor powers, and the communist partisans in certain member states aren't that bad really... honest. China and Brazil are trying to bring both alliances closer with the Macau accord, but as neither side trusts Cairo very much the efforts to create a functional third way are still faltering. (Plus a lot of young Chinese citizens wonder why the older generations are so upset about Manchuria, didn't Moscow turn a blind eye when they annexed Taiwan? Is a bit of half frozen farmland really worth glaring down a super power over? The area is roughly 20% Russian these days anyway.)

The USSA seems on the assent to the Free World and many expect Communism to triumph in this great Word War between Moscow and Washington. The USSA is working very hard to maintain that illusion. The occupation and integration of Canada due to 'pseudo-capitalist tendencies' (read pro-democratic reforms) was a bit messy and saw thousands shipped off to various work camps around the country. Delhi and Madrid were both rather angered about the whole affair too (not out of any love for democracy, but more the USSA ignoring the independence of others, even if the Canadians were sort of part of the USSA). Iberia keeps nudging towards Moscow and getting thrown the occasional bone whenever the Social Democrats are in charge. India has slid into what they see as 'purer Marxism', and through a few botched reform initiatives millions have starved (though not as bad as the PRC saw OTL). Still, India's neighbours aren't much better at running things (efforts to keep up a cash crop dependent export business led to similar famines in the Alliance of Hindustan), and the Indus is . . . frankly terrifying. Delhi has received hints that the world would turn a blind eye to a liberation of the Indus.

Still, what has the world panicking right now is the Americans setting up nuclear weapons in Ireland (and Brittany). The USSA insists it is to protect the nascent states from Europe's imperialistic tendencies and point to (actually surprisingly fair) plebiscites where the locals voted for independence from the occupied Entente States they'd officially been part of. The real reason is outrage over Eurasian aid to the Brazilian nuclear programme and an effort to distract Moscow from Indonesia. The world watches fearfully as things slide towards a possible nuclear exchange (especially with Germany having just tested a nuclear weapon in the Kenyan desert with what was possibly the worst timing in history).

The only folks not terrified are the Australians who wouldn't mind seeing the nations that so humiliated them in the 9 Years War blow each other to bits, but that's about par the course for the Hermit Continent.

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Beedok

Beedok

1968: Liberal President Rostik Nikolaev visits China and Red India. The Word War's balance shifts massively in the months surrounding both visits. Despite this success in foreign affairs the Nikolaev presidency is still rocked by controversies surrounding the 'Great Migration'. As young Russian families grow rich enough to buy a home in the suburbs (usually rowhousing, but single family homes are present too, bungalows and ranch houses not so much) poorer minorities move out of the often corrupt ethnic homelands into the now emptying and cheaper inner cities of the big cities. To counter this outflow of population many of the warmer southern homelands start sending out feelers to Russian retirees and young families looking for cheap housing (and companies looking for regions without strong labour unions, and often also weaker regulations). Some of the smaller homelands quickly become majority Russian by the end of the 1960s. Unfair policing towards minorities also becomes an issue (especially in Moscow), however Russian minorities are somewhat placated when news leaks out of the USSA.

The sudden death of President Irons under somewhat shady circumstances (he was 67, but in good health) and the speed at which certain members of the Party move to secure the succession causes a lot of raised eyebrows for those in the know. Many inner party members who had not been informed of this pseudo-coup attempt to launch a counter coup and a number of back alley purges occur in the upper and middle ranks of the party. It's nothing too odd, similar events have occured in other dictatorships, but what sets it apart is the racial undertone that gets noticed. The plotters who removed Irons weren't that racist, but had excluded a number of blacks in the upper party and the ensuing power struggle effectively removes most of the blacks and hispanics from the upper party. Protests over the issue brake out in Atlanta, Savanna, and a number of southern cities. The army was sent into both the New Africa Republic and the New Mexico Republic, using primarely forces from outside the two protesting republics. Most protesters retreated at the sight of tanks, but after a deaf man was shot when he couldn't hear warning shouts Birmingham explodes into a full rebellion. The international community loudly codemned the use of chemical weapons during the pacification of the city, but the USSA effectively sneared at the world. A number of African nations were put off by the event, however most shrug and see it as just how a state is run (who hasn't burnt down the occasional village afterall? The USSA just has better weapons than AR-52s* and machetes).

Also of note is the 1966-1968 Red Indian** invasion of Pakistan gets actual approval from global society. Pakistan was a disaster no one else wanted to invest in the cost of cleaning up. Delhi was willing to bleed the half a million soldiers it took to end the nightmare. Unfortunately many radicals who shouted so loudly about the glory of dying for their ideals scattered in the wind as Reds secured the Indus. Bangladesh and the Malay peninsuela received the bulk of them, and Bangladesh had enough issues to collapse into civil war as 1968 drew to an end. Others went to Africa, where they found a fertile audience of anti-White locals who saw Egyptians (and other Arabs) as a shade or two too light for their liking (never mind that the Pakistani preachers were usually just as pale or paler).

In good news England was freed of occupation after selling off a few of their scattered holdings. Italy and Hungary have both returned to the global fold more peacefully and totally. A coup attempt in Iran by Communist hardliners failed comically (and would later be turned into a movie by Turkish filmmakers for just how embarassing it was), quickly shifting that nation to a democracy in response. They're nominally pro-Russian, but mostly just want to be left alone. Moscow has also announced a plan to land a man on the Moon by 1975, the Americans stating they'll match every moon landing.

*This world's 'AK-47'. Like the AK-47 a good 80% of weapons refered to as such are later models.
**I just realised this would confuse some comparing with Amerindian people. Oh well, it's not like Belarus stopped the non-communists in Russia from calling themselves Whites...

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ST15RM

ST15RM

Banned
I think a communist Sweden would be a good reverse Cuba. I would imagine someone like Frank Baude would overthrow the monarchy and install a USSA-friendly government. There could be an alternate nuclear crisis of sorts.
 
Beedok

Beedok

By the mid 1970s Moscow-Beijing relations have improved significantly (mostly due to a new generation taking control). As a sign of improving relations the world saw the 'E10' group formed, consisting of the 9 largest 'free' economies and India: Eurasia, Germany, Brazil, China, the Ottomans, Ukraine, Arab Confederation, Italy, and Thailand. Hoping to work together to ensure prosperity for people across the world the first E10 meeting was held in Vienna. The meetings drew protests over human rights issues in China, India, and Arab Confederation, but was mostly seen as a success (though German and Indian officials failed to reach any agreements over the South Africa-Mozambique relations).

The USSA has been left with a feeling of increasing isolation. As such they've begun more interventionist in their allied nations, with increasing numbers of advisors arriving in various communist nations, especially in the new Democratic Republic of Nigeria where ongoing fighting against various Islamic rebel groups has made the nation dependent upon aid from Washington. Negotiations also opened with a curious England, but haven't yet gone anywhere as the English remain isolationist leaning.

Tied to USSA intervention and the expulsion of Niger from the Arab Confederation (primarely due to corruption and dissatisfaction amongst Niger's populace over Cairo's influence and ensuing protests) is a rise in international terrorism. Both African nationalists and Islamic extremists have risen as an issue, though both remain limited to geographic zones (Subsaharan African and Muslim nations respectively).

France has finally been given the start of independence, with certain regions in the South West being freed of occupation and Istanbul agreeing to end the occupation within the decade. Japanese citizens held a number of peaceful protests in Chinese and Russian occupied regions, however attempts to protest in the USSA occupied region were broken quickly with mass arrests. Living standards variations between the occupation zones have also grown more visible as time goes on, and while the Chinese regions have recently seen investment and improvements the USSA occupied regions have stagnated.

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Beedok

Beedok

1981
Moscow has a new plan on how to win the Word War. Space!

While Moscow alone can't easily outspend Washington (Eurasia is still pretty well even with the USSA despite stagnation and corruption in the latter it's not like Russia is free of corruption either and has an electorate to keep happy), but with improved relations through the E10 the newly minted 'Unified Space Cooperative' primarely backed by Russia, Brazil, and China has begun a series of impressive and expensive space missions. The current aim to a permanent space station by 1990 and a permanent lunar base by 1999. The USSA, facing humiliation over just barely missing the race to the moon, has focused heavily on competing. Unfortunately for the USSA space isn't the only front on the spending war.

The Nigerian War was spiralled out of control for the USSA. Cairo has decided funding extremists in Nigeria (as well as islamic moderates) is a way to bring them back under Cairo's control. The rest of the world is deeply shocked by the brutality of the fighting which has already seen 2 million refugees flee to Cameroon alone, and brutal suppression of partisan activities. With an increased focus on Africa the USSA has also made a number of non-Communist allies on the continent, having come to see loyalty as more useful that shared ideology after India and Iberia broke away. Still, some in the USSA's Black Homeland Republic have begun to paint these efforts as a new colonialism and an abandonment of the ideals of Communism, a move whice has led to anger from many White Americans.

Meanwhile France continues to inch towards returned independence which has led to many up and coming French politicians to make indignant noises over Brittany and Swiss territorial annexations. Efforts to improve relations with Germany are a primary objective, though bitterness over harsh rule during the 9 Years War lingers in western Germany. The Japanese meanwhile have seen a series of 'minor' attacks against USSA power (arson of empty buildings, political vandalism, etc.).

The insurrection in South Africa has blown into a fully fledge uprising, an issue which has the entire world nervous and trying to talk down Germany and India (the latter have recently acquired nuclear weapons, leading to fears of a potential nuclear exchange). Luckily for all Russian press covering the racism rampant in South Africa has turned much of the German public against continued support for the (pseudo)fascist state, with primarily German South West Africa's white population and the settler population in St. Johannes (previous Fort Sao Joao and the surrounding community of Ouidah) supporting the continued alliance with South Africa.

Lastly the health of Australia's aging Governor General (aka Dictator) William White, has come into question. White has run the country since 1954 after a slightly shakey post-war transition, and the Australian National Party's succession following White is a bit questionable. Many are hoping for democratic reform, especially as violence has broken out with communist partisans in the jungles of New Guinea.
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Beedok

Beedok

1986: Things are getting a bit ugly in Africa.
The USSA intervention in Nigeria is becoming a more difficult issue to deal with. Considered by many the greatest humanitarian crisis facing the world as millions have been displaced in viscious asymmetric warfare between the USSA forces and various islamic militants. To make matters worse USSA soldiers have begun getting sick with a previously barely documented new STI, and many returning on leave have inadvertantly spread the slow acting but deadly disease into the USSA populat (yes, AIDS is showing up). Many in the USSA public are convinced this is some sort of biological weapon that either the Arabs concocted to fight the USSA or their own government used but somehow fumbled. The paranoia the government had been stoking in regards to outsiders has begun to be turned on them.

Nigeria is not the only troubled spot. Fed fresh Indian support the South African People's Liberation Army (SAPLA) has broken the nation into full civil war against the racist white dominated regime. Germany had initially continued to send support to South Africa until news broke out of a number of massacres by the South African government. Cut off from the 'free world' South Africa has begun trying to sign a deal with the devil and is asking the USSA for aid (misjudging recent ethnic based riots in a scattering of USSA cities for a racially focused domestic policy rather than a state suffering from stagnation and mismanagement).

Australia is sliding haphazardly towards democracy though. The Governor General's death left a power vacuum in the party and after hardliners attempt a coup the nation is stumbling towards more open policies with the outside world and their own people. It will be a slow process though.

Elsewhere the Space Race continues. Cairo has escaped the economic slump that was threatening their stability in the late 70s when oil prices collapsed as a result of improved Russian production now that China and India's modernisation and industrialisation efforts have increased global oil demand (and the violence in Nigeria is a serious blow to their oil production).

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Beedok

Beedok

1993, the Treaty of Casablanca ends the Nigerian War. The USSA is left with a rump puppet in the South-West while most of the nation falls into Islamist hands and the oil rich south east is given a democratic government. Meanwhile the South African Civil War rages on once more after a five year ceasefire falls apart. Officially the fighting is sparked by Government troops straying across a ceasefire line, but in reality the issue centres around the loss of German support (a scandal involving arms smuggling by German officials via Switzerland tarred every major Germany political party and a naive minor leftist party stumbled into power in the next election, relations with various white colonist regimes in Africa quickly fell apart as did those with Switzerland).

Suffering from humiliation the ruling Junta in the USSA is pushed from power and Herman Godwin edges his way into power. Unfortunately for everyone Godwin is a ruthless and paranoid hardliner who launches a crackdown on civil liberties. There is also a push for a manned mission to Mars, something the Russians have not yet begun to plan (they've had bad luck with Mars rovers), and promises Americans will set foot on Mars before the Millenium is out.

Meanwhile fears over a French collapse put everyone on bated breath when Germany pulls out of her occupation sector. Luckily the French factions are able to retain unity over calling for Switzerland to return annexed lands and a push to invest in rural portions of the country. Russian forces remain in case the USSA tries anything from Brittany.

Sadly Australia's stumbling steps towards democracy and openess are reversed following outrage that they have supplied South Africa with nuclear weapons, though the South African government has been unable to find a use for such weapons when battling against primarily guerilla campaign.
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Beedok

Beedok

2000: Godwin's government was rather unpopular. A decline in civil liberties and increasing paranoia about not just 'closet capitalists' but 'closet fascists' merely increased the divide between already self segregating ethnic groups. Increased quota demands led to strikes which were often put down violently. Not only that, but when workers in Mexico launched a general strike in several cities due to declining saftey conditions and increasing scarcity of resources the USSA military moved in with the Mexican military to brutally crush dissent. Other USSA aligned powers began to question if Washington recognised their sovreignt.

The rest of the world grew frightened of the USSA in a way not seen since the Red Scare of the 1930s. Madrid and New Delhi quickly declared that for all his shouting against the rest of the world being crypto-fascist it was in fact Godwin that had abandoned Communism for Fascism. Moscow and the rest of the E11 (expanded to include Korea) launched a number of sactions against the USSA in response.

Still, Godwin maintained some popular support due to increasing success in the Space Race, as a number of probes were sent to work out landing sites on Mars. In November of 1998 the manned mission to Mars was launched, with a diverse crew of 6 astronauts from every corner of the USSA. Live television broadcasts were made to the entire world throughout much of 1999, however by early August (with a few months still left in the trip) the frequency of these broadcasts dropped significantly. The USSSA (United Socialist States Space Agency) declared it a combination of the astronauts having to put more effort into excercise to combat microgravity and it taking more energy to broadcast such long distance signals. Still, the few broadcasts that did occur seemed to show the astronauts looking frailer and frailer. The truth (which many scientists in the Democratic world guessed at) was that the ship's radiation shielding had proven insufficient. Still, President Godwin refused to abort the mission, refusing to accept failure no matter how evident.

When the landing crew touched down on Mars in early December of 1999 only two crew members felt strong enough to attempt the official (televised live) first steps on Mars after a rough atmospheric entry. Unfortunately the first one out the door, Thomas Washington (of the New Africa Socialist District), had overestimated his leg strength and while carrying the flag down the landing craft's ladded tripped, and fell, smashing open his helmet onto a nearby rock. The second astronaut who'd been feeling strong enough (Camille Drapeau of Quebec) managed to climb down the ladder and attempted to drag Washington back in to safety, but in her exhausted state did not save him in time. The first man on Mars had died, and the people demanded Godwin's head. (It is worth noting that after some time to recover from the landing roughly half of the crew was able to get to work collecting samples and other important work, but the landing had taken some time to recover from.)

With mass protests in the streets Godwin was quickly arrest by members of the military and placed on trial for crimes against the nation. He was given a quick show trial before an execution. Unfortunately for all the Military and the Communist Party did not see completely eye to eye on how to advance. In the military's eyes the Party had gone from bad to worse between Irons, the Junta, and Godwin, and as such declared a military government in place (some less ideological elements of the Party supported this). The Party meanwhile (with support from some of the more ideological elements of the military) declared an emergency government based in Chicago and declared the Washington based Military Council traitors. Many of the ethnic homelands chose to side with neither, Quebec seceding mere hours after the Chicago government was declared, and soon many followed.

The rest of the world waits holding their breath and hoping a nuclear exchange does not occur. At least South Africa's civil war ended without nukes being used, so there's some hope?

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Beedok

Beedok

2004: After the better part of a year of fighting, and nearly 400 000 dead (plus large numbers injured and displaced) the Concert of Nations was able to push through a transitional agreement between the Communist and Military governments of the US(S)A (along with various breakaway states). Break away nations were recognised, while the two 'American' governments were to work together as a transitional authority to set up an election. And what an election it was. The Communists proved complacent and surprisingly bad at campaigning, while the American Liberal Party managed to rally the people around the idea of a large change and wide spread freedoms. In the end the ALP surprised the world by pulling in nearly 40% of the vote, while the Communists squeezed in at just under 30%. The rest was divided between the Social Democrats (who were caught in the middle and seen as a wishy washy choice of insufficient change/not real socialists), West Coast and Texan regionalists, some old school Conservatives, and Fascists. The Radical ALP began tearing apart various chunks of the social order, removing various programmes deemed wasteful and corrupt (most of which were indeed corrupt), reopening the field of Medicine to private clinics, and generally embrassing the idea of a Free Market to an extent that made even Colombia a little nervous (Colombia was always a little radical as they sat on the edge of the Communist world).

Meanwhile Moscow has begun dismantling the old 'Ethnic Homelands' concept, in part because it just wasn't working, in part because they didn't like the way the USSA fell apart. They've also enjoyed an economic boom as military spending has dropped significantly without the 'Word War' ongoing. Moscow, Washington, and other nuclear powers have also signed a number of treaties to help decrease global nuclear stockpiles.

Mexico tried to join the Latin Union economic bloc, but Brazil didn't much care to add a new rival over 'their' group (Italy already causes enough noise, and they're all the way over there in Europe). The Mexicans were angered to be rebuffed and after an initial slide into American style hyper-liberalisation have slid back towards a Socialist style, though still more open than before, and brought in a few neighbours to start the Latin Coalition. They're negotiating with Chile (which remains communist, and kind of in collective shock) and Iberia (doing quite nicely thank you) which is basically a Social Democratic state, but for the whole 'one party state' thing (though polls by internationally recognised pollsters show they've got strong popular support).

So yes, the world is doing nicely, even if the Americans are a little too big on the whole 'let's try capitalism' thing and are making everyone nervous.

Well everyong but Cairo which is fast realising the Radicalist elements are snowballing out of control. A recent string of mass protests by supporters of Radical Clerics are seriously troubling.

Oh, and Australia, which is busy with a little thing called the Indo-Australian war. Those two powers massively outnumber Australia on paper, but Indonesia is basically bankrupt, taking loans from India to try to pay their armies, and India really doesn't care that much about the war, but wants to show that Communism isn't beaten, just American Communism failed, and they can still take on Fascists.

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Beedok

Beedok

2006: It's happened in Cairo. In a (mostly) bloodless coup the Radicals gained control and have declared a new Caliphate. The underlying tensions had been brought to a boiling point by the old order's efforts to shore up India as an oil export market. The process proved slower than hoped and the Radicals were able to rally people around India's harsh treatment of Muslims (good communists are Atheist... Hindus can technically be Atheist so they're off the hook) and built up discontent. Filled with a more militant ideology the Caliphate has launched an invasion of Yemen to 'reunite Islam' while also funding radicals across the globe. Sudan proved rather reluctant to join up, but sitting on Egypt's doorstep had no choice. Sumatra was luckier (and feared the results of India's wrath if they sided with the new regime). Yemen has been gaining heavy Indian support and many worry a regional war could break out. Moscow and Berlin fret about what to do with their allies in the region.

The Indo-Australian war ended without nukes being used, so that's some solace. (Australia is hard at work trying to pretend the rest of the world is a conspiracy of cartographers or something similarly extreme.)

Argentina joined Brazil's economic community, but has been a serious annoyance ever since joining, not wanting to accept any increased unity.

The Maritime Confederation has joined up with Russia's 'inner alliance', hoping the economic angle will let them be a trading hub for the Americas. Russia hoped it would show North America they're open to friendship. Washington is convinced it's an attempt to mirror Ireland and Brittany as a staging ground for any future wars and has grown very suspicious of Moscow's activities in the Americas. The Americans have also slid further to what they call a 'New Era of Liberalism', the lack of regulations spurring rapid economic growth that's so far helping the majority of Americans, though the impoverished segment of the population is seeing a decline in quality of life.

Swiss-French relations fell apart. Pro-French protestors were shot in Savoie prompting sanctions from France, Germany, and Italy. The Swiss decided the answer was to stand strong and began military operations as a display of force near the French border. Unfortunately (as OTL shows with the frequent Swiss 'invasions' of Liechenstein) the Swiss are a bit prone to getting lost and a unit strayed into France after taking a wrong turn. French border officials opened fire, nearby Swiss forces heard the gunfire and moved to support their countrymen, and wound up occupying a few French villages. A Parisian government primarely united over anger at the Swiss was happy to let this explode into a full war and sent their own forces to counter attack. Before Moscow or Berlin knew what was happening the French were laying seige to Geneva. Germany decided to secure their border regions while Moscow just shook it's head annoyed that winning the Word War didn't seem to make life any easier.

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