Man-Made Hell: The History of the Great War and Beyond

[generalurist]

It's back! ...And Y I K E S. We predicted Poland would suffer, and now it has finally died under German chemical bombardment. Though I'm not sure how successful it really could be, given the USA couldn't defoliate all Vietnam in OTL.

And sweden's also toast, treated as an agricultural colony. Though this won't be as useful as the Germans hoped for suppressing resistance- guerilla movements don't make much use of heavy industry anyway, and guns can be run in from the Internationale.

It's shaping up to be an arms race between the Internationale industrializing and Germany finding new allies/plunder. And speaking of airborne terror, given that the Soviets just acquired a bomber force however limited... those Soviet oil fields are awfully close to the front lines e he he he he he

Wait that map- what happened, I know Brazil took over a large chunk of the Entente's empire, but how and when did they get Madagascar and even Egypt?

Also I quite wonder what the Netherlands is up to- the other colonial empires of the world are in a lot of flux to say the least and it may well spread to the East Indies.

That being said, I will say that the victors in Europe will ultimately still be in a position to project power globally, not necessarily because they'll have strong economies or anything, but more because the entire continent's been spending over a quarter of a century waging constant warfare against each other and whoever comes out on top will have an incredibly capable military and society that has lived under an extreme version of total war for decades and will be able to exert that military power outwards, even if actually living in Europe will be pretty miserable for obvious reasons.

That would make sense if the victors of the Great War are in any remotely functional state- as opposed to Phase 4 being a borderline broken-backed war where the victor hobbles over the finish line with their society falling apart, barely capable of returning to civilian functioning under the pressure of demographic and economic collapse. Plus, right now both Germany and the Internationale seem focused on the continent, without any buildup of capabilities for expeditionary warfare. France is closest since they could take Algeria, but they'll also at biggest risk of demographic crippling.

 

[TimTurner]

an Italo-Brazilian Catholic world order

Alternate history sure can get weird!

 

[TimTurner]

That would make sense if the victors of the Great War are in any remotely functional state- as opposed to Phase 4 being a borderline broken-backed war where the victor hobbles over the finish line with their society falling apart, barely capable of returning to civilian functioning under the pressure of demographic and economic collapse. Plus, right now both Germany and the Internationale seem focused on the continent, without any buildup of capabilities for expeditionary warfare. France is closest since they could take Algeria, but they'll also at biggest risk of demographic crippling.

When it's bad to be the winners...and even worse to be the losers...

 

[skarosianlifeform]

It's back! ...And Y I K E S. We predicted Poland would suffer, and now it has finally died under German chemical bombardment. Though I'm not sure how successful it really could be, given the USA couldn't defoliate all Vietnam in OTL.

And sweden's also toast, treated as an agricultural colony. Though this won't be as useful as the Germans hoped for suppressing resistance- guerilla movements don't make much use of heavy industry anyway, and guns can be run in from the Internationale.

It's shaping up to be an arms race between the Internationale industrializing and Germany finding new allies/plunder. And speaking of airborne terror, given that the Soviets just acquired a bomber force however limited... those Soviet oil fields are awfully close to the front lines e he he he he he

Wait that map- what happened, I know Brazil took over a large chunk of the Entente's empire, but how and when did they get Madagascar and even Egypt?

Also I quite wonder what the Netherlands is up to- the other colonial empires of the world are in a lot of flux to say the least and it may well spread to the East Indies.


That would make sense if the victors of the Great War are in any remotely functional state- as opposed to Phase 4 being a borderline broken-backed war where the victor hobbles over the finish line with their society falling apart, barely capable of returning to civilian functioning under the pressure of demographic and economic collapse. Plus, right now both Germany and the Internationale seem focused on the continent, without any buildup of capabilities for expeditionary warfare. France is closest since they could take Algeria, but they'll also at biggest risk of demographic crippling.

Didn't France already take Algeria ?

 

[Koushikb8768]

What are the names of the Phases of the Great War? Were all them ever named or is that spoilers

 

[Trixy]

Okay, here's my prediction : the Socialist camp will win the Great War.

Germany might be in a better position than they ever were in OTL, but they still have crippling weaknesses :
They're surrounded and fighting on multiple fronts.
Their leader is a crazy psycho who will probably commit stupid mistakes due to being a crazy psycho.
Phase 3 is a war for resources, and let's be fair, the Third Internationale as a whole has far more resources and sheer population than the Heilreich ever will. Germany has food shortages and has to invade Sweden to stabilize their situation. They are on a countdown.
We also know from the Glimpse into the Future chapter that the US will have a civil war in the 1940s. While we are still in 1931, loosing american imports will probably be a huge problems for Germany. Actually, if the Great War end around 1945 like OTL WWII, this might even be one of the final nails in the coffin.
There's also the fact that Germany seem fully focused on the East right now. If the Western front is in a sort of phony war, even for just a few years, it'll give France, England and Ireland (if Ireland is part of the war) time to recover a bit and prepare, wich will just make things harder for Germany in the future.

Wait that map- what happened, I know Brazil took over a large chunk of the Entente's empire, but how and when did they get Madagascar and even Egypt?

Brazil doesn't control them, it's not the same color.
However, I think it would be interesting to know whats happening in the Middle East a bit. One the maps of Europe we got showed that Egypt is still controlled by Britain, wich I found surpising considering the general collapse of the Empire. There was a Egyptian revolution in OTL 1919, did it also happened there ? Is Fascist Turkey planning to reconquer their "rightful territories" (Armenia, Kurdistan, Syria) ?

 

[Twiggierjet]

I dont imagine that this will end with anyone being able to call themselves a winner tbh.

 

[TimTurner]

I dont imagine that this will end with anyone being able to call themselves a winner tbh.

Winner? More like least-loser.

 

[Mr Anggur]

I'm going to start praying for the Third International to succeed in their cause of eliminating the fascist fuck from the face of Europe.

 

[Mr.Doctor]

Crazy to think somebody that was 1-2 when this all started could be now getting drafted to fight in the war that killed their father.

 

[Blyatnik]

What is the status of the Soviet population? Of course, there was a civil war and general red terror, but the OTL population had long recovered from those by the mid-1930s. Of course, there is the massive industrial warfare going on, but there would not be a large scale genocide, because the Germans are not occupying 100 million Soviet citizens that they find to be inferior (yet, at least). So the Soviets should still have a large population advantage over Germany, unless there was a line about population shortages that I missed somewhere. That means that they should have the ability to industrialize and mobilize more than Germany, especially since there is no way that Germany can catch up in population within the war's timeframe, even if every man was rotated home 9 months and each woman had three male triplets everytime. The demographics are simply not there, and that is assuming that the German population does not succumb to mass usage of WMDs by some very angry Soviets and polish. I hope Georgy Flyorov is on speed dial for Mr. Leon Davidovich.

 

[oliverR]

Just finished reading this timeline, and I would say that it is one of the best on alternatehistory.com! I am extremely impressed you’ve kept this timeline up for the last five years. Amazing job!

 

[Mayukh]

One weird idea I had early into creating MMH was having Austria-Hungary get taken over by a fascist regime led by Adolf Hitler. The basic premise behind this was that Hitler would've been accepted into the Austro-Hungarian army and would subsequently rise through the ranks of the armed forces before seizing away power from the empire's historical constitutional monarchy (I never got all that far into how exactly he'd seize power; IIRC I was going to have him stage a coup and install a fascist military junta). Hitler's regime was supposed to be built around German ethnonationalism, and would thus persecute the Hungarians and other non-German groups throughout Austria-Hungary in an attempt to create a "pure Austrian Empire" of some kind. This regime was supposed to eventually become too crazy for even Germany and Italy and would therefore be invaded and partitioned by its aforementioned allies at some point. I gradually lost interest in this idea, so it was scrapped in favor of Austria-Hungary collapsing into Transleithania, Illyria, and territories annexed by the Heilsreich, which I personally think makes for a more interesting scenario.

Will Hitler come up in future? What is he doing?
What is going on in Persia and Indonesia?

 

[oliverR]

What’s happening in Finland? They’re caught between the USSR and the Heilsreich in Sweden- is there pressure to move troops through there from both sides?

 

[Simeon]

I just realised something:

Can the Indian soldiers who fought for France be granted French citizenship for their service in this front?

 

[generalurist]

I just realised something:

Can the Indian soldiers who fought for France be granted French citizenship for their service in this front?

Interesting concept, but given India is already its own nation I doubt that'll happen. But I bet the government and population will be very friendly to Indian veterans, if they survive this war.

 

[Simeon]

Interesting concept, but given India is already its own nation I doubt that'll happen. But I bet the government and population will be very friendly to Indian veterans, if they survive this war.

They have precedent with the French Foreign Legion already, and it's not as if that France is not ruined enough by war already; they could like every people that they can get even if they're the English themselves.

 

[ETGalaxy]

Hello everyone, it's been a while, and that is partially because I've been working on a new project over the past year which I'm really excited to finally announce. Man-Made Hell: The Modern Tragedy has just been published by Sea Lion Press as the first volume of this timeline, which will include the first twelve chapters (Phase One and Phase Two of the Great War), as well as three interludes! Beyond being a professionally formatted version of Man-Made Hell that looks fantastic from what I've seen (SLP did an awesome job!), The Modern Tragedy will include more detailed and accurate Q-Bam maps to replace the old WorldAs, some updated (and hopefully improved) images to visualize the TL, and an exclusive interlude that offers a first-person perspective of a German soldier fighting in the Battle of Berlin, which I hope will justify a purchase for those who have read through MMH on AH.com for all these years.

For now, The Modern Tragedy is available as a Kindle ebook, however, as far as I know, the plan is for a paperback copy to be released after New Year's Eve, so if you're waiting for a physical copy, I will be sure to let you all know when that is available.

Also, I do want to sincerely thank everyone who has read and supported Man-Made Hell over the years for making this a reality. Your kind words have always encouraged me to work my hardest on and be excited this passion project, and your constructive criticism has helped me make the first volume of Man-Made Hell as strong of a novel as possible. So even if you don't ultimately purchase a copy of The Modern Tragedy for yourself, publishing a book has always been an aspiration of mine, so thanks for making it a reality.

Man-Made Hell: The Modern Tragedy can be purchased here!​

 

[Fratsup]

It's nice to know that you got published. Will you continue the timeline?

 

[TimTurner]

Congratulations!