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1951 was a tense year. The Americans tested their first warhead, prompting a rapid arms race with Canada (and to a lesser extent the Worker's Federation). Canada's arsenal grew from 70 to 140 warheads. The Americans built close to 80. The Worker's Federation's arsenal crossed the 100 Warhead mark. The world began to worry about the risk of nuclear annihilation. To ready themselves the French used the information they'd acquired from working with Canada to test a warhead of their own by early November.
The Indians (with quiet support by Canada) manage to push for a global dialogue, and the Mumbai Conference begins in January of 1952. The world's nuclear powers were all invited: the US, the Worker's Federation, Canada, France; the same is true of the potential nuclear powers: Britain, Australia, China, India (obviously), Japan, and Brazil. After months of argument the world agrees to a comprehensive nuclear ban. Canada, China (those two had bad memories), and India (they knew building their own was a long way off) had all pushed strongly for the movement. The Americans were willing to accept the idea to make them less threatened to the north. Japan and Brazil were easily swayed. Britain, Australia, and France proved harder to sway. The Worker's Federation refused to budge until the remaining Entente powers would. Things might well have broken down, but then the French were distracted.
The citizenship laws of the new French Imperial Federation placed certain literacy requirements in French which were (honestly) rather intense. Many Algerians felt the laws were meant to make gaining citizenship nearly impossible and riots broke out. French settler populations in Algeria over responded (without Paris' orders or support) and the region descended into ethnic violence. When rumours reached Paris that some of the Algerian rebels' arms seemed rather Russian looking the French realised they needed to cooperate with the Mumbai Conference to avoid Pariah status. With that the world agreed to a comprehensive nuclear ban.
The French effort to pacify Algeria with citizenship reform laws failed due to the sectarian nature the conflict had developed. Chad was able to break off (to a degree). Mauritiana, inner Algeria (which is pretty empty), and Cote D'Ivoir were however able to sneak in (partially through rather successful recruitment drives for soldiers to send into the Algerian quagmire). Still, the toll the conflict took on the French economy was significant.
The Germans, Czechs, Austrians, Swiss, and Slovenians grew wary of their neighbours. Finally free of Entente and Communist occupation the various nations decided to take up armed neutrality as the Entente and Worker's Federation seemed to continue to stare one another down. This shift resulted in more Entente military bases to be placed in the Balklans.
The Americans meanwhile would have their own problems. Not only did insurrection continue in Central America, but the populace of Washington (the last state to keep a non Naco state government due to a highly urbanised population and strong ties to Canada) began mass protests. Tired over declining civil liberties, a stagnation of trade, and general distain for DC ignoring them. When the governor refused to call in the state guard the very pro-Naco state of Columbia (the state just to the east) saw their governor decide to deploy their own state guard to secure border towns. The panicky Columbian state guard (most raised in the Naco's highly politicised Ranger Cubs[1]) doesn't handle the angry independent minded Washingtonians, and a series of fights broke out in border towns. Fighting would spread to the level of Columbian state guard fighting Washingtonian local police. The violence soon spread out of control from there, with any known (or suspected) members of the Naco party and secret police being arrested, chased from the state, or often killed.
The Washingtonians hoped that others would rise up with them agains the Naco government. It didn't really happen. The aging president declared martial law in a number of major cities (especially around New York), which saw mass arrests. Washington itself saw the military move in. Seattle would be shelled extensively. A large number would flee to Canada (some by land, but many forced to flee by boat to Vancouver Island). The RCN and USN had a nervous stand off as the USN attempted to capture fleeing fishing boats (and even canoes or kayaks) while Canada attempted to protect anyone who crossed the maritime border.
Cambodia had some bad luck. One of many border skirmishes with Vietnam spiralled out of control in 1957 and a war broke out. It didn't go well for Cambodia when Thailand joined in.
The big news of the 1950s though is the Chinese War. The Chinese State had nothing on it's side but fear. The League of Chinese Dignity had held the glory of ancient China as a propaganda. The Chinese State had abandoned that in the name of simple authoritarianism. As such they could only control the masses as long as they were the greater threat. The drought of 1958 changed that. Suddenly hunger was a greater threat for many. The Worker's Federation offered food aid in exchange for certain economic concessions, which Xi'an refused. News of that spiralled out of control and soon riots broke out across China. The socialist rebels near the border were given mostly food aid from Moscow (and weapons from Turkistan). The rebellion grew like wildfire, though remained a confused affair. Tibet fell into anarchy as socialist rebels took the main roads into Tibet. Officially as a humanitarian intervention the Indians moved back into Tibet. With matters growing worse each passing month by October 1959 the Chinese have asked the Bogata Compact aid, and the first American troops arrived by March of 1960.
[1] Basically Boy Scouts initially, but slowly warped into a youth wing of the Naco.
