Chiang Kai-Shek goes to Germany: An Axis China Timeline

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SPOILER: The Spanish Civil War
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    • CCA

    Back again!

    The Vulture - thanks The Vulture. YOu might say on steroirds!

    danderson - Or you might ask - how might he help China...

    Wyragen-TXRG4P - Exile to China leads to drug binge = hearing voices in his head that tell him to side with the Republic

    trekchu - It's a global publication I believe... much more prominent in this TL..

    Nivek - Thanks Nivek. More butterflies to come as a result of this...

    demonkangaroo - Bump receivediditoo

    _____________________________________________________-
    MEGA-SPOILERS AHEAD

    The Spanish Civil War
    (36-45)

    The Spanish Civil War was one of the most drawn out, confused and chaotic civil wars in the history of manking. What was initially a military coup which resulted in two sides fighting eventually resulted in what most political science professors call a "clusterfuck." The end of the war was a reflection of the mutual exhaustion of all parties and the 'victor' was really the last man standing.

    The Civil War had four distinct phases:

    Spanish_Civil_War_Blank_August_1936.png

    The situation on August. By the end of the year the Republicans would hold all of the south except Moroco.

    Phase 1: Brother Against Brother (1936)
    The first phase of the civil war began with a failed military coup attempt. Tensions were already running high in the fragile Republic and the Coup Attempt on 1 July 1936 set the scene for an explosion of tension. Military officers under the overall leadership of Marshall Senjuro attempted to take over key centers of communication and government. However, the Azana government responded decisively arming many of the 'popular front groups.' However what would be now known as the "Militarists" or "Nationalists" successfully gained control of large areas of the country. By the end of December - key front lines had been drawn. It looked as if the conflict would settle into a sort of "stalemate"


    december1937.png

    Red line = Revolutionary Spain
    BLue line = Militarist Spain
    Green line = Republican Spain

    Phase 2: Outside Intervention (1937-38)
    The key factor that would move the conflict out of it's stalemate situation was international intervention. Although foreign aid was dribbling in at the beginning of the conflict - the realization that Spain would play a crucial role in what many saw as an inevitable conflict spurred the powers to keep their allies supplied. Militarist Spain was equipped lavishly by her Italian and German backers who saw Spain as a 'testing ground' for new equipment. Republican Spain was less fortunate, Soviet Aid was forthcoming - but the year would make clear that this came at a price. Soviet cadres began a "popular insurrection" against the Azana Madrid Government, althought they failed to seize control of the apparatus of state they were able to tear a chunk of Spain away from the Republic. The "Revolutionary Spain" was a curious mix of Basque conservatives, Valladoid Anarchists and Moscow-line Communists. Republican Spain was less fortunate in receiving aid...although the Chinese Republic had permitted General Francisco Franco to return to Spain at the head of a "volunteer Army" of 5000 Chinese China was less able to suppy the Republicans due to the sheer geographical distance. That being said, Francisco Franco was able to pursue key military reforms and strategies that allowed the outnumbered and squeezed Republican Army to hold the line. However as the end of year approached many doubted the Republic's ability to survive, squeezed in between two hostile powers...

    In the end, France and England choose to side with the Republic - which was purged of it's radical element. The two alternatives to the Republic were bleak - a Soviet-controlled and hostile Communist Spain or a Axis-controlled and hostile Fascist Spain. A "Moderate" Democratic Spain was far preferrable to the alternatives. This is not to say that France and Spain lavished the Republicans with a flood of aid - however the previously closed faucet began to drip - providing the Republic the lifeline it needed. However - France and England could have done more if they were not distracted by a wider conflict. At the end of the 1938 - the borders were the same as it had been at the start of the year.

    Phase Four: Great War (1938-44)
    The outbreak of the Second Great War was supposed to change things and it did initially. The outbreak of the war led to an outpouring of military aid from all sides in an attempt to end the war as quickly as possible. In reality the military aid just led to greater mortaility rates as men and material were spent on futile attacks. The rest of the Great War went by and the Civil War rolled on in the trenches, the cities and the barrios. Ultimately stalemate was the only realistic option as the sides were evenly matched.

    Phase Five: End Game (1944-45)
    The Spanish Civil War ended as part of the American-mediated Armistice which finished the Second Great War. The Treaty of Madrid created a decentralized Spain where the Central government lost much of it's teeth. The decentralization was an affirmation that during the course of the Civil War and the Great War Spain had become effectively three Spains. The ensuing Cold War would see whether or not the tenous peace would be kept...

    Next Update: 1938 - For want of a shoelace
     
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    • ComradeTovarich

    It's alive, it's alive!!

    A three-way Spanish Civil War eh? It is indeed a clusterfuck. Imagine the amount of havoc a Spain divided into three would have on Cold War politics. Would we have the Communist part of Spain turning into TTL's version of North Korea? I mean, that's seeing that it would most likely be isolated from the Soviet bloc and surrounded by fascist/capitalist neighbours.
     
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    CCA

    OKH_1946 said:
    It's alive, it's alive!!

    A three-way Spanish Civil War eh? It is indeed a clusterfuck. Imagine the amount of havoc a Spain divided into three would have on Cold War politics. Would we have the Communist part of Spain turning into TTL's version of North Korea? I mean, that's seeing that it would most likely be isolated from the Soviet bloc and surrounded by fascist/capitalist neighbours.
    Click to expand...

    You've got to keep in mind that the "communist" part of spain includes anarchists and Basque conservative politicians.

    Civil War II isn't entirely unfeasible...
     

    Wyragen-TXRG4P

    Banned
    Great war start in 1938, doubtfull it is over Czechoslovakia, event between China and Japan? Sino-Japanese war might have more attention in europe and north america TTL.

    The question is, wíll Germany (then, Italy) declare war to Japan? I would rather think yes, even if the Germans can´t send much assistance yet. They probably could send subs, supllied en route by ships then are sent to the Chinese-controled coast past Japanese blockade. Then, there may be some long-range warships hunting Japanese merchant ships in the Pacific. More work is done TTL in torpedo technology and anti-shipping bombing technics, primarily to assist the Chinese war effort against Japanese naval superiority.
    That in turn could also mean German submarine force is in better shape when war with the rest of the allies starts.
    Are there going to be German volunteers fighting on Chinese side and perhapse even an "advisor" Prussian general commanding armies on the field? Then, US and UK medias describing the Japanese as the valiant defenders of Freedoom in asia. :D
     

    Nivek

    Its alive ITS ALIVE

    Wyragen-TXRG4P said:
    Great war start in 1938, doubtfull it is over Czechoslovakia, event between China and Japan? Sino-Japanese war might have more attention in europe and north america TTL.

    The question is, wíll Germany (then, Italy) declare war to Japan? I would rather think yes, even if the Germans can´t send much assistance yet. They probably could send subs, supllied en route by ships then are sent to the Chinese-controled coast past Japanese blockade. Then, there may be some long-range warships hunting Japanese merchant ships in the Pacific. More work is done TTL in torpedo technology and anti-shipping bombing technics, primarily to assist the Chinese war effort against Japanese naval superiority.
    That in turn could also mean German submarine force is in better shape when war with the rest of the allies starts.
    Are there going to be German volunteers fighting on Chinese side and perhapse even an "advisor" Prussian general commanding armies on the field? Then, US and UK medias describing the Japanese as the valiant defenders of Freedoom in asia. :D
    Click to expand...

    You beat me with that ideas( i think too both about the Munich Crisis and the Marco polo one..), in general that was my thought when i saw the date of the war and all.

    But how now the War will be unfold in Europe... if the USA broker(obvilous in a very anglophile fashion) an armistice, maybe France fall as historical... and maybe even barbarossa was a sucess here:eek:

    In general the spanish civil war have only loser.. Spain and the spanish in general... here those one will be more sectarizade and more poor than ever:)D, ah the irony), interesting how all will unfold... this update make us with the waiting of ... MOAR

    In general great update, Excellent as always.

    Att
    Nivek von beldo
     
    1936 - Year of the Olympics
  • Index

    • CCA

    Shadow Knight - Thanks :)

    brokenman - Thanks as well

    Geekhis Khan - Haha - You need to update your TL GK :p

    Fenrir_Angerboda - It is back!

    Wyragen-TXRG4P - We shall see :cool: I think the NRA is well-trained enough to take to the field without the aid of "Advisor" generals - although old Falky is still in China of course. And you are assuming of course that Germany does declare war and it is a global struggle

    Nivek - Yep - the only losers of the civil war is where it happens. The Chinese, French, Italians, Germans, British and Soviets all get a chance to practice all their fancy new equipment.

    ____________________________________________________________

    Anyway - I need to backtrack on the promised update - I've realized I haven't actually talked about the year 1936 and 1937 at all :p

    So without further ado:


    Berlin36-2.jpg

    The massive Olympic stadium in Berlin

    1936 - Year of the Olympics

    The 1936 Berlin Olympics would be one of the most politicized affairs in Olympic History. It was essentially set up to be a 'puff piece' to showcase the vigours of the New Germany that the National Socialists were creating. It began with much fanfare and triumph as representatives from all over the world (with the exception of Spain and the USSR) sent delegations to compete in a highly prestigeous event.

    jesse-owens.jpg


    Jesse Owens looking mildly sad that he didn't get the Gold Medal.

    ... An example of the degree of controversy which would murk the Olympics was the cirucmstances surrounding the victory of Poh Kimseng who's amazing victory in the 100M finals over Jesse Owens would lead him to be dubbed "The Flying Horse." Poh and Jesse finished the race at seemingly the same time - however the committee decided to award the gold medal to Poh. Some claim to this day that Hitler personally browbeat the committee into giving Poh the medal. Nontheless the Chinese olympic contingent did very well in the games - sweeping the Shooting events (3 gold medals) - the fact that the Olympic Shooting contingent consisted of NRA or ex-NRA men did not escape the notice or attention of the World's press. The Chinese contingent also took the Freestyle Bantamweight Gold medal. All in all the Chinese contingent came away with 6 Gold medals, 5 silver medals and 9 bronze medals placing a respectable 8th in the total table. This was not a bad performance considering that the 1932 Olympic team did not even manage to win a single bronze medal.

    ...It was perhaps a symptom of the sexism of the times that Li Sen's uncontroversial and resounding victory in the Women's 100 Meters was almost completely ignored in favour of Poh's contested 'triumph'....

    China's victory was all the more important in that they managed to 'beat' Japan's total of 6 Gold, 4 Silver and 8 Bronze - a fact that Chinese media screamed for a few months - worsening already fragile Sino-Japanese relations. In fact, Dutch-Kiwi historian Van Veen has launched what is known as the "Olympic Thesis" and stated that the Second Great War was the result of Chinese hubris leading to the Second Sino-Japanese War which would flare up into the general conflagration that was the Second Great War. But that was neither here nor there. Apart from a few minor incidents and the storm of controversy surrounding Poh's "victory." The Berlin Olympics was a huge propaganda coup for National Socialist German.

    Little would they know the storm clouds that were looming over the horizon in 1937...

    Next update: 1937 -
     
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    • Nivek

    Vince said:
    Since the 1938 update is called for want of a shoelace I'm hoping this alt-WWII is caused by an aglet. :p
    Click to expand...

    And for a Football Game.. because kids.. Sport is a Serious Business:D;)

    And another good and very close update(finnaly you revived this timeline... that make me.. happy,:cool:;)) and in general was pretty good using the Olympics as a calm before strom event... because the strom is pretty close, and IOTL, i think except some skirmish in Asia, in 1937 was a calmful year.. whic butterfly gonna jump here.

    Pretty excellent Olympics for China. several Gold Medal(and the Atletics one) and beat the japanese in the general position, and that Dutch-kiwi(maybe an author avatar,;)) maybe have some of reason.. again the Japanese are a bull and that is a very big Red cape in front of them... but that means that the Sino-japanese war is the spark for the Zwei Weltkrieg?.

    Excelent update as always CCA

    Att
    Nivek von Beldo
     

    CCA

    Adam - Yup pretty much :)

    LeoXiao - Thank you for your feedback

    Vince - hahha yeah. More like "for lack of a gold medal :p"

    Nivek - Thanks heaps as alwats Nivek.Your comments are valued. Is it a spark or a prelude though - Find out in the next episode of CKSGTGAAXT

    1937 - Fuel to the Fire.

    The Olympic torch of the previous year had lit the fuse of Asian Nationalism. Japan and China, both participants at the last olympics frantically competed with each other in the events. Nationalist demonstrations on both sides competed with each other in the size, scale and fanaticism of their slogans and banners.

    "China is win. Japan is fail"
    - Badly translated Chinese slogan

    "All Japan is Superior to all China"
    - Badly translated Japanese slogan.

    China's narrow 'victory' over Japan in the medal 'race' caused marked reactions in both China and Japan. In China there were wide demonstrations across all of China. Chiang's government declared that there would be a "week of holidays to commemorate China's victory" - his wife's propaganda machine organized demonstrations all over China in a burst of Chinese nationalism. In Japan, the militarists used this result to inflame public opinion and to push the Japanese government inexorably towards war to punish the 'Prideful' Chinese.

    The reaction was...interesting in Manchuria. Denied participation in the Olympics - Manchuria instead sent a delegation to the People's Olympiad which was cancelled due to the Civil War. The people's loyalties were torn between cheering for China and being afraid to do so because of their awakening Manchu nationalism... Perhaps more concerning to the Zhang dynasty was the increasingly loud calls for "reunification now."

    Smale scale clashes began in the Manchu-Chinese border. Previously peaceful border regions begin seeing smale scale skirmishing which gave way to minor-battles. It seems to only be a matter of time "When" war would break out and not "if." It was during this time that the Zhang made a fateful decision to ask Japan to 'reinforce' Manchuria's status as an independent nation. Japanese troops began to arive by the trainloads to reinforce Manchuria's defences.

    The discovery of oil in what is now known as the "Daqing Oilfields" put fuel to the fire of Chinese and Manchurian tensions. On April 1 1937, two months after the discovery of the oil foreign Minister Wang Jingwei released an ultimatum to the "Bandit Warlord Zhang Zoulin" which he demanded the "surrender" and "end of the occupation of legitemate Chinese territory" under threat of war. He would give one month for the Manchurian Empire to reply.

    There was no reply. On May 1 1937 the guns of war roared into life as pre-dawn bombardment began the Second Reunification War. They would not fall silent again for another 8 years.

    Next update: 1937 Continued - The Offensives
     

    lothaw

    And it begins.... awesome update. The rest of the world's reaction to Imperial Japan vs Fascist China will be interesting to see too. Japan stands a good chance at forcing China to capitulate with the power of their blockade and air power, if the West doesn't end up embargoing them.

    Regardless, it seems like it's going to be a Great War style fight for awhile too. As much modernizing as they've done, I don't think China can field a fully modern army yet, though I suppose this war will make evident the weakness on both sides armies.
     

    ComradeTovarich

    And the gloves are off... So who's on who's side? Germany will most likely get on China's side, Braitan and France will have the ear of Japan, America may give China the disapproving frown because it struck first and I'm terribly unsure about the Soviets.

    Just to ask. Is the Anglo-Japan treaty still in effect or has it been scrapped in 1923 as IOTL?

    CCA said:
    "China is win. Japan is fail"
    - Badly translated Chinese slogan

    "All Japan is Superior to all China"
    - Badly translated Japanese slogan.
    Click to expand...

    Dude, have you been visiting 4chan prior to doing this update? It sure as hell look like you did. May as well say "All China/Japan are belong to us"
     
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