Map Thread XIX

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The year is 1924. For years, Russia has been embroiled in the bloody aftermath of the October Revolution, the so-called Russian Civil War. However, new powers rise: the Ukrainians, once a nation under the yoke of the Tsar and his empire, have achieved dominance. The People's Republic based in Kiev was only the first such nation to declare its independence, but with many having migrated and settled across Russia, they would soon become sovereign too. Yellow Ukraine, stretching near the Volga, Grey Ukraine, in the Kazakh steppes, and Green Ukraine in the Far East, have all cooperated as their overlords and neighbors became weaker and weaker, and now seem able to project their power easier than the tired "White", "Red", "Green" and "Black" Armies of the Russian citizens. The emergence of these new regional powers might be on the horizon.
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While working on the MoTF, I decided to make a small, one-off, almost shitpost-worthy scenario that is a Ukraine-wank, based on the IRL zones with a large Ukrainian Population (yes, Grey, Green and Yellow Ukraine exist). The background is vague, but is probably a Manmade Hell-style eternal Civil War that devastates everyone, leading to the independence of these countries.
 
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Spring of Kingdoms (Part of a continuous project .)

POD: 1914; World War One ends in a Draw by a lack of American assistance due to the Lusitania never being sunk caused by a lessened German submarine campaign, an allied failed campaign in Belgium, exhausting both sides but mainly being the Germans, and a weakened Blockade leaving some imports to the Germans. Eupen-Malmedy & Alsace-Lorraine are ceded to Belgium and France rightfully, and the German colonial empire is disemboweled. The Germans still keep their holdings in Eastern Europe, but Austria-Hungary & the Ottomans were effectively in a state of collapse.

After the War ended, the Populace was, at first, happy. They could finally return to seek their loved ones and the British blockade was over. However, this was soon not the case. Drastic amounts of the Spanish flu would arrive, greater than in our timeline. The German economy would increasingly inflate due to its budget being poured to satisfy the Ukrainians and Belorussians against the Soviets. This leads to the German government printing money, and a cycle begins. Germany in a state of terror caused by the Spanish Flu would enter a hyper-inflated economy. In efforts to subdue the Polish rebels in occupied Poland large-scale chemical gassing are made, inspired by the German trench usages. Prussia effectively would annex the majority of Poland due to this, and, Rebellion enters a halt. The German people soon would discover this and outrage would begin against the government. Many dukes and princes begin a plot to overthrow the Prussians and to gain independence. This would be called the Frankfurt Plot.

On September 22nd, 1921, the German Empire dissolved by the Frankfurt Plot's Decisive victory in independence, however, the Hohenzollern family still, very much so, exists. The Rhine, and much of Southern Germany would go back to France and Leithania (Democratic Austria) in seek of economic prosperity and alliances, however, many communist uprisings soon would begin in these lands especially in Bavaria due to a continuous Spartacist insurrection which is soon crushed. Prussia however would fail to subdue their form of revolutionaries, which would effectively take Silesia and would conjoin as the Free State of Silesia.

Moving onto 1978, the once effective Prussian government would take a effective halt, as King Louis Ferdinand would be shot during a rally in Berlin. His son, Georg Friedrich, would only be 2. This would lead to a effective succession crisis, the revolution and gassing of the Poles, Democratic enlightening of Prussia, and, finally, the Spring of Kingdoms.

Inspired by: https://www.deviantart.com/night-alpha/art/Prussia-Human-Rights-Watch-778728762
https://www.reddit.com/r/imaginarymaps/comments/6naqyl/the_1919_offensives_a_longer_ww1/
 
For the past two months, I've been dividing my allotted map-making time equally between three projects/commissions. This was the first map of those three that I've finished.

For this map, I was heavily inspired by the style used in three real world maps made by @Blomma:
Pre-World War One
The Interwar period
The Cold War

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Europe During the Repudiation of Versailles (1933-1942)

"This is not a peace. It is an armistice for twenty years."
-Ferdinand Foch, 28 June 1919
The Treaty of Versailles, signed on 28 June 1919, attempted to create an enduring peace in Europe after the massive loss of life and destruction caused by the First World War. While generally popular among the victorious Allies, the Treaty had its detractors. Some, such as Supreme Allied Commander Ferdinand Foch, argued that the peace was too lenient on Germany. In Germany, many politicians garnered support by attacking the Treaty as unfair to Germany, including the leader of the Nazi Party, Adolf Hitler. Despite these detractors, the geopolitical order established by the Treaty of Versailles avoided a serious challenge for nearly 14 years, until 1933, when Adolf Hitler was elected the Chancellor of Germany.

On 23 March 1933, the German Reichstag passed the Ermächtigungsgesetz (Enabling Act), handing Adolf Hitler dictatorial powers. In addition to establishing a totalitarian state, Hitler used these dictatorial powers to begin undoing the terms of the Treaty of Versailles one-by-one. On 13 October 1933, Germany withdrew from the League of Nations. On 13 January 1935, the Saarland Territory, by a 90% margin voted to unite with Germany. In March, Hitler announced that Germany would expand its army to six times the limit allowed by Versailles. In June, the British permitted the Germans to increase tonnage limits of the Germany Navy beyond those stipulated by Versailles. On 7 March 1936, Germany remilitarized the Rhineland. On 12 March 1938, Hitler announced the the Anschluss (Annexation) of Austria. Soon after, Hitler began making demands on Czechoslovakia to cede the region of Sudetenland, populated by ethnic Germans. On 29 September 1938, Adolf Hitler, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, French Prime Minister Édouard Daladier, and Italian Dictator Benito Mussolini, met in Munich to determine the fate of the Sudetenland. Influenced by assurances from Hitler that the Sudetenland was his Germany’s territorial demand, the four-power conference allowed Germany to annex the territory. Upon returning from Munich, Neville Chamberlain confidently announced that he had obtained “peace in our time.” On 15 March 1939, this illusory expectation of peace was shattered when Hitler violated the Munich accord by occupying the rest of Czechoslovakia. When Hitler began making threats against Poland, demanding the return of Danzig and the Polish Corridor, the United Kingdom and France issued a declaration guaranteeing Polish Independence. Within months, Europe would find itself at war again.

Before undertaking his invasion of Poland, Hitler dispatched his foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop to Moscow to conclude a neutrality pact with the Soviets. This pact, the Molotov-Ribbentrop included secret provisions to divide Central Europe between Germany and the Soviet Union. Hitler had hoped that the pact would have forced the United Kingdom and France to accept his impending invasion of Poland as a fait accompli. On 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland, which prompted the United Kingdom and France to declare war on Germany two days later. While Poland fought valiantly, the country was quickly overrun by the Germans and (from 17 September 1939 on) the Soviets. In the Fourth Partition of Poland, the Soviet Union annexed half of the country (incorporated into the Byelorussian and Ukrainian SSRs), Germany a quarter, and scraps by Slovakia and Lithuania. The remainder of the country became an occupation zone under German control known as the “General Government” – Poland had been erased from the map.

For the next half-year, there was minimal combat between the Western Allies and Germany (hence this period of the war is often dubbed the “Phony War”). The Soviet Union nevertheless took advantage of the conflict in the West to force border corrections (though at great cost to the Red army) with Finland in the Winter War. To secure shipments of Iron Ore from Sweden, Germany launched Operation Weserübung, the invasion of neutral Denmark and Norway, on 9 April 1940. Denmark fell to German forces within 6 hours. Norway, buoyed by allied assistance, held out longer – until developments elsewhere forced the United Kingdom and France to abandon their deployments to Norway.

Seeking to score a quick and decisive victory in the West in light of Germany’s perilous strategic position, on 10 May 1940 Hitler ordered Fall Gelb (Case Yellow) – a surprise offensive through the Ardennes. This battle would turn out to be the decisive campaign of the Second World War. The main force of Germany’s Panzer forces advanced through the lightly defended Ardennes forest and broke through the French defensive lines are Sedan. From there, the Panzers turned towards the channel coast, in a “sickle cut” maneuver, to cut off the bulk of the French and British army (which were mostly deployed in Belgium) from the rest of France. By 20 May 1940, advance German units had reached the English Channel, and attempts by the French and British to counterattack the German pincer failed. On 23 May 1940, British General Lord Gort ordered the British Expeditionary Force to retreat towards the Channel coast in an attempt to evacuate his army. However, the following day, the German Army captured the port of Dunkirk, which forced the British to try to make an escape via the Belgian port of Ostend. However, the Germans would capture Ostend before the British Expeditionary Force could arrive – sealing of all avenues of retreat. By the end of May, nearly the entire British Expeditionary Force (the bulk of the United Kingdom’s regular forces in Europe), and the bulk of the French Army (including its best units) were in German POW camps. Clearing pockets of resistance forced Germany to delay Fall Rot (Case Red), the invasion of France, a few days but the offensive got under way by 8 June 1940. France resisted the German invader as well as it could, but with the balance of forces decisively in Germany’s favor (aggravated by Italian entry into the War on the side of Germany), France was forced to sign an armistice with Germany on 24 June 1940. As someone deeply concerned with symbolism, Hitler forced the French delegation to sign the Armistice in Compiègne, in the same rail car and location where the armistice that ended the First World War had been signed. Hitler had planned on conducting a private visit to Paris the subsequent day but was forced to return to Berlin to attend to matters of state in response to the Soviet occupation of the Baltics and Bessarabia.

Hitler (who had always wanted to visit Paris due to his hobby of architecture), returned to the French Capital on 27 June 1940 to attend a Wehrmacht Victory Parade (similar to the one held in Warsaw). Towards the end of the parade, German Officer Fritz-Dietlof von der Schulenburg approached Hitler’s reviewing stand. Pulling out a pistol, Schulenburg shot Hitler 5 times before being gunned down by Hitler’s bodyguard (who had been far more concerned about a potential assassination plot by the French Resistance, and severely discounted the potential of an assassination from within the ranks of the German Army). Adolf Hitler, the man who had destroyed the Versailles Treaty and returned Germany to the status of Great Power – was pronounced dead shortly after. In 1939, Hitler had decreed that Hermann Göring, the President of the Reichstag and Supreme Commander of the Luftwaffe, was to be his successor. While many foreign observers predicted that the Nazi state would devolve into infighting with various factions jostling for power now that Hitler dead, Göring assumed control rather seamlessly (with various factions, from the army, to the party believing that Göring being in charge of Germany was preferable to the risk that another faction besides themselves would seize control). After overseeing Hitler’s funeral in Linz (soon thereafter renamed “Hitlerstadt”), Göring – as someone who always found the risks of launching and undertaking wars to not be worth the risk (due in large part to not do anything that would impact his ability to live off of the largesse of the state) – soon made his first major move as Führer of Germany.

On 11 July 1940, Hermann Göring made his first speech to the Reichstag. After delivering a powerful eulogy of his predecessor, Göring made a peace overture to the British who he knew were listening. Göring offered very generous terms to the United Kingdom – offering a peace without any sort of financial or territory indemnity, nor military limitations. Referencing his predecessor’s desire to undo the Versailles order, Göring characterized his peace terms as “everything the Treaty of Versailles was not – a fair and equitable peace.”

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, trusting Göring’s word as little as he had trusted Hitler’s word, privately resolved to continue the war against Germany. However, Churchill’s hand was forced by Göring’s peace offer. Many within Churchill’s War Cabinet, such as Lord Halifax had argued for investigating potential peace terms ever since the British Expeditionary Force had been captured in May. Pessimistic reports regarding the United Kingdom’s ability to continue to prosecute the war from General Ironside and Imperial General Staff only served to strengthen the peace-seeking faction. On 14 July 1940, David Lloyd George (a member of the War Cabinet since June, whom Churchill erroneously considered to be a close ally) led a cabinet revolt against the Churchill in an attempt to force him to explore terms with Germany. In response to this lack of confidence, Churchill tendered his resignation, and Lord Halifax replaced him as Prime Minister. Halifax immediately sent a delegation to Germany to discuss terms – and an armistice was concluded shortly thereafter. On 21 October 1940 – a peace between Germany and the United Kingdom was signed. In effect, the British had signed a White Peace with Germany, only being obligated to expel the governments-in-exile hosted in London (most of which would leave for America – with the exception of the Belgians, which returned to join King Leopold III in Belgium to negotiate a settlement with the Germans). The Germans tacitly acquiesced to continued British presence in Iceland and the Faroe Islands, which became independent of Denmark (over the objections of Copenhagen) in 1941. Throughout the remainder of the 1940, peace agreements were concluded with France, Belgium, and Denmark – with resulted in some territorial indemnities to Germany (but less than many had feared). In the Netherlands and Norway, Germany concluded peace with puppet regimes they established. The Second World War was over.

1941 would see Europe’s borders get re-ordered once again, with the Third Balkan War between Yugoslavia and a coalition of Italy, Hungary, and Bulgaria resulting in the dissolution of the former. While relations between Germany and the Soviet Union worsened in 1941 (with the Soviets accusing the Germans of stationing troops in Finland and not properly compensating the Soviet Union for food and raw material shipments), the two powers remained at peace. The Soviet Union, still reeling from Stalin’s purges, was in no position to fight Germany as it rearmed, so Germany’s transgressions were allowed to stand for the moment. In Germany, many Nazis advocated invading the Soviet Union in 1941, contending that the peace with the United Kingdom presented Germany with an unprecedented opportunity to invade the Soviet Union without worrying about fighting on two fronts. Göring was initially receptive to this idea, but as the date of invasion neared wavered on multiple occasions, delaying Operation Dortmund (the planned invasion of the Soviet Union) a number of times in 1941 for a variety of reasons, before postponing it to 1942. As 15 May 1942 approached (the planned invasion date), Göring again wavered, as intelligence reports of Soviet rearmament unnerved Göring and convinced him to delay Dortmund once again. As the strategic balance between Germany and the Soviet Union continued to shift in the latter’s favor, Dortmund was postponed again, and again, until it was shelved indefinitely. By the end of 1942, Stalin (while still unconvinced about the offensive capabilities of the Soviet Army) was sufficiently satisfied with the defensive capabilities of the Soviet military to resist a German invasion. Accordingly, he demanded Germany withdraw from Finland and pay its deferred loan payments to the Soviet Union immediately. Göring flatly refused, prompting Stalin to cancel all ongoing economic and diplomatic agreements with Germany.

The Cold War had begun.

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Some of you may remember the map on the left from an earlier post in this thread when I promised that it was part one of two. Well, several months later, here is part two. The map on the right of this combined work is the political situation in Arda in TA 1500. For those of you who know your Middle Earth lore, you will know that this is roughly 50 years after the Kinstrife that devastated Gondor but approximately 140 years before the Great Plague of 1636 TA. Outside of Gondor, Sauron has returned to Dol Guldur as the Necromancer but remains a shadow of his former self whilst Angmar wages continues their centuries long war on the Dunedain of the north. As before, many relams outside of the usual Middle Earth map are drawn from canon where possible or where not they are taken from, or at least insipired by, non-canonical RPG and other game content.
 
Cross-posting from my MotF entry

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So, this was something that, as I wrote it, turned ever-darker. In the end, I would call the files surrounding this project, and mention it to my friends as 'Cursed Portugal', for just how cursed the whole thing became. What began as an idea for a mild dystopia ended up being a rather dark timeline that, nonetheless, morbidly fascinated me. In fact, it fascinated me to a point that, in writing the detailed backstory, I wrote five pages on a Word document, and even then I cut out a lot of interesting detail. Since I don't expect anyone to have close to as much interest in this small piece as myself, I will provide a tl:dr version

So, essentially, the failed coup of November 25 1975 suceeds, bringing forward a Soviet-aligned dictatorship in Portugal. In the chaos that follows, Spain invades and establishes an occupation zone, the US kicks forward Azorean indepedence and all that. Portugal's regime lasts until the 1989 Revolutions, in which a quiet transfer of power is put forward as Gorbachev pulls out from the East Bloc. Despite that, an armed struggle emerges between the new liberal regime and the loyalists of the two former dictatorships, claiming many lives in attacks throughout the country, a struggle that lasts until 1996, until the national situation is somewhat normalised.

And now, for the bravest one among you... Beware, for a most cursed of timelines is coming...

For the entirety of the thirteen years, eight months and five days of the Presidency of General Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho, the period more formally known as the Third Portuguese Republic or the Third Republic [1], Portugal would be in a strange position, as being both the westernmost nation in the European continent, but also a fully-devoted member of the Eastern Bloc, even becoming the latest European republic to join the Warsaw Pact in 1980.

Called ‘the halfway station’ between Havana and Moscow, the small Republic would have to endure life surrounded by powers very much hostile to the existence of a socialist state in Western Europe, facing attempted coups, blockades and even invasions from its neighbours while internally dealing with the turmoil of having to take an economy stunted by thirty years of Salazarist agrarianism and have to, somehow, shape it into the industrial workers’ paradise its rulers promised it could be.

It would all begin on April 25, 1974 when, in a bloodless coup, the Carnation Revolution would bring down the fascist regime of the Estado Novo, which had been ruling the nation since 1933. After an entire generation born in the shadow of the reactionary, quasi-theocratic police State of Salazar and Caetano, it had been the unwinnable Colonial Wars, in which Portugal fought a war against the Zeitgeist itself for the sake of retaining its colonies, that had sent the military over the edge and had them depose the regime.

Over the following year and a half, the exiled Portuguese community would return, bringing with them the socialist and communist ideals they had acquired in foreign lands, while the liberal wing of the old regime would reinvent its image in social democracy, attempting to cast away the shadow of its past. Meanwhile, the Armed Forces Movement that had taken down the Estado Novo regime ruled the land, and some of its members were not exactly thrilled with the prospect of the left-turn the country was taking. Led by the new President of the Republic, General Spinola, two attempts at coups were thrown, one in September ’74 and the other in March ’75, the first forcing the General to renounce the Presidency and the second sending him to exile first in Spain and then in Brazil, from where he would lead the more reactionary factions of the Portuguese military through the Hot Summer of ’75.

On that summer, there were multiple confrontations between the more moderate and the more radical factions of the military forces, with rumblings from those still loyal to the fascist regime also making their voices heard. One thing was clear, though – the issue would not be settled without bloodshed.

And so, it was with very little surprise that the nation saw as, on November 25, 1975, General Otelo and his forces of the Continental Command took positions in Lisbon, with the Artillery Command taking over the Airport, the freeway exits and the military supply stores, and the Paratroops and Military Police taking over the broadcast agencies. In the afternoon, leading members of the Socialist Party, including General Secretary Mário Soares, were captured attempting to flee the capital. The Commands of Amadora, allied with the moderate parties, would attempt to break the hold on the capital, but would be pushed back by the occupying forces. During the following day, the Communist Party and the Socialist Party would both officially declare their support for the Revolution and, after another victory over the forces from the north, the besieged President Costa Gomes surrendered to the occupying forces.

A short civil war would follow afterwards, culminating in a battle in Rio Maior, where the Farmer Confederation of Portugal, allied with the Right, had cut the roads linking the North and South of the country. The moderate and Right coalition would fight one last time under Colonel Ramalho Eanes whose efforts of delaying the advancing forces would allow many prominent political leaders to escape to exile, before he himself leaving the country for the United States, with him falling the last remnants of the moderate forces in Portugal.

On the First of December 1975, a date in which Portugal celebrated the 335th anniversary of the Restoration of Independence, the properly-purged Council of Revolution, now heading some names from the November Revolution as well, acclaimed General Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho as the President of Portugal, proclaiming the People’s Republic in the process.

From December 31 to January 1, 1976, both the Socialist and the Communist Party would cease to exist, together with a collection of other left-wing parties, their leaders agreeing to merge them in a single Revolutionary Workers’ Party, while other parties, too right-wing for the tastes of the Council of Revolution, were outlawed, their leaders arrested and mostly executed, unless they could escape to exile under the wing of Ramalho Eanes.

At first, it was somewhat unclear which position the Revolutionary Workers’ Party would take. Its first Secretary-General and Prime-Minister, Mário Tomé, an active participant of the November Revolution, had belonged to the Popular Democratic Union, a party that had flirted with an Albanian-aligned position, Maoism and even Trotskyism. In the end, however, the path taken was chosen not by idealism, but by pragmatism.

In early 1976, Spanish forces invaded the Portuguese borders, wanting to contain the Portuguese Revolution. The Spanish military, still mostly controlled by the Francoist elements, had promptly overthrown the newly-anointed King Juan Carlos, declared a new Regency and erased all traces of the liberalising reforms of the deposed King, placing Antonio Tejero as the new Caudillo and, in fulfilling their promises to their constituents, promptly invaded Portugal, advancing far through the southern regions of Alentejo.

The Spanish Army reached as far as Grândola, before beginning to feel the unexpected effects of guerrilla warfare, launched by the fiercely communard Alentejo farmers who put the Spanish troops through the worst kind of hell as they tried to advance. Scorched Earth strategy was used with little regard to it being their own fields they were burning, and suicide missions abounded among the quickly-organised militias.

Meanwhile, international solidarity came, mostly from the East Bloc, but also from the supportive Left communities across the West, that saw the Portuguese Revolution as the shining example of the future to come. In Lisbon, Prime Minister-Mário Tomé announced on May 1 that he would be resigning his position to himself fight alongside his comrades to free his native city from ‘Spanish fascist occupation’. To many, however, this ‘resignation’, followed by the ascension of Álvaro Cunhal, former Communist Secretary-General, to the Premiership, was a thinly-veiled change of the guard to court a truly powerful ally – and so it was. During the May Day celebrations, Leonid Brezhnev would declare his support for the Portuguese Revolution in its struggle against Spanish fascism. At the same time, NATO was somewhat unsure of what to do since, for all it was worth, Spain, a non-member, had attacked Portugal, a member, thereby activating the clauses that demanded their full support.

In the end, after suffering defeats in its advances against Alcácer do Sal, the Spanish Caudillo and the Portuguese President would meet in New York, invited by US President Gerald Ford and, under the eyes of the world, sign a ceasefire that would allow the Spanish to keep an ‘occupation zone’ in southern Alentejo, a treaty hailed as a victory by each side.

Alongside the ceasefire with Spain, President Otelo would also sign a ceasefire with the newly-proclaimed Azorean Federative Republic which, after the November Revolution, had effectively been taken over by the Azorean Liberation Front, a militia that was widely known as being supported by the American forces stationed there, who had been prepared to fight tooth and nail against a Communist takeover of the vital archipelago halfway across the Atlantic. Portugal has still, however, not acknowledged the legitimacy of the Azorean nation.

The Portuguese People’s Republic was, after the peace with Spain and the Azores, a somewhat bipolar State, partly due to the power games between President Otelo and Prime Minister Cunhal. The former was a rather heterodox Communist [2], more populist that purist, while the latter had his entire life survived as the greatest communist in exile by adhering, without question, to the will of the Soviet Union, and defending at all costs, quite all costs, an orthodox view of Marxism-Leninism. This conflict would, despite remaining very civil, put Portugal often in the headlines of the world, wondering what exactly was the policy of its government.

The first, and perhaps most influential of said petit-crisis would occur when, while attending Mao Zedong’s funeral on September 18, 1976, declared in front of a few million people in a packed Tiananmen Square, and apparently without consulting anybody in the Portuguese government beforehand, declare, perhaps as a matter of condolences, immediately pass the jurisdiction of the city of Macao to the People’s Republic of China, a move that angered everyone, from the Prime-Minister, the British, the Soviets, the Americans and perhaps even the Chinese, who had to deal with having a very unruly, capitalist and Eurocentric city in their hands.

In domestic affairs, the situation would be more stable, in particular because Álvaro Cunhal was very stern in preventing President Otelo from getting his hands into the country. A favourite son of the Soviet Motherland, Portugal received around two billion dollars of investment to build and remodel the Portuguese factories, while each year it would receive around one billion in military help, which would be more than enough to ensure no further Spanish attacks.

Another form of control that provided stability were the Revolutionary Security Forces, the secret police force that was led by Mário Lino with a particular liking for surveillance systems. During the two decades following the fall of the regime, several new stories would pop out on how more microphones from the Lino era had been uncovered, in the least likely of locations.

The Cunhal Government was, if anything, an efficient, well-cogged machine, which knew its place in the world and knew the turf in which it was operating. Based on rural support from the farmers of Alentejo, the local government networks were the true source of power for the regime, allowing them eyes, ears and working hands on every corner of the country. This focus on local power and influence was, among other things, responsible to prevent the rise of any Solidarity-inspired movements and, according to many, it was what gave strength to the Popular Force through much of the 90s.

Despite this, however, the Portuguese People’s Republic could not hope to withstand the tide that was changing – through the early 80s, the East Bloc was falling to a deep crisis, with Polish Solidarity sending the country to a standstill and, as economies stagnated, calls for reform strengthened throughout the Soviet world. In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev would rise to power, and would soon start talking about perestroika and glasnost – everything his predecessors, and by definition Cunhal, had fought against.

The rise of Gorbachev went badly to the Portuguese People’s Republic – in his attempts to restore the Soviet economy, he would withdraw much of the economic and military support to the East Bloc, Portugal included, essentially making the Portuguese economy collapse and bringing its armed forces to unrest. The scale of activities by the Revolutionary Security Forces would increase greatly throughout this period. At the same time, Gorbachev renounced the Brezhnev Doctrine of interfering with other Marxist-Leninist States, while introducing reforms in the Soviet Union which, to Cunhal, were intolerable.

Then, in 1989, the cracks would start showing in the walls Gorbachev had left unrepaired. The first was Poland. After nine years of struggles with Solidarity, the government finally relented to partly-free elections that saw Solidarity attain the vast majority of popular support and, through the summer of 1989, with approval of the Parliament and the silence of the Soviet Union, the first non-Communist Prime Minister of the East Bloc was installed in power. Following the Polish lead, East Germany, Hungary and Czechoslovakia began negotiating with non-Communist parties, changing their constitutions and opening the Berlin Wall.

In Portugal, angry over the decadence of economic conditions since the withdrawal of Soviet support, over the increase of the terror of the police forces over the year and overall enjoying the opportunity to strike while weak, there were many protests over 1989, each of them stronger and angrier. To Cunhal in particular, this marked the beginning of the end. It was so that, in the shadows, he would begin his work salvaging what he could, of both himself, his cause and his work for the country. For, in any case, if Soviet Socialism was to be on Gorbachev’s terms, then it was not worthy having it at all.

And so it was that, on October 5 1989, during the celebrations of the 79th anniversary of the Portuguese Republic, shortly after raising the flag, as is tradition, in the City Assembly of Lisbon, President Otelo would announce that he would be, effective immediate, be stepping down from the Presidency of the Republic, so that the Council of Revolution could choose an interim President, to transition to a new constitutional era. Prime-Minister Cunhal would also take the opportunity to present his resignation, although he would continue heading the Government until a new President were to appoint a new one. A few days later, Otelo would be departing for Cuba.

The New Republic, acclaimed with much joy by many Portuguese citizens, and saluted by most of the Western democracies as a lost brother already, would begin that day. Five days later, the Council of Revolution would appoint General Costa Gomes as Interim President, returning the man who had been deposed by the November Revolution to power. By now an avowed pacifist, he would refuse to appoint a new government, but would work quickly to have free democratic elections for both the Assembly and the Presidency, not wanting to hold this obviously poisoned chalice more than strictly necessary.

December 1st was chosen as the Day to Restore Democracy. Through the months after the resignation of Otelo, many of the exile community, vibrant from the liberal ideas that now dominated Europe, returned to lead the political life of the country, led by their own Messiah, Colonel Ramalho Eanes, the man whose efforts had allowed the escape of so many targets of the regime. As the people looked at him, the living symbol of hope, to lead them, Eanes announced the founding of his new political party – the Democratic Renewal Party, a big tent party of mostly social-liberal tendencies with some social democratic elements, with the scales of Justice as its symbol. In the end of the day, the Democratic Renewal Party would win the overwhelming majority of 235/250 seats, with the newly-reformed (but mostly just renamed) Communist Party winning 9 of the remaining seats, the rest going to small, local lists.

Cunhal would immediately resign his position, returning to his Parisian exile not much later, dedicating the rest of his life to the arts. President Costa Gomes would appoint Ramalho Eanes for Prime-Minister, but this was not a position he held for long, as the Presidential elections were soon after called, with General Costa Gomes refusing to take part on them.

Ramalho Eanes enters the race, supported by a very enthusiastic crowd, while the remnants of the old Revolutionary Workers’ Party gather around Mário Soares, an old Socialist leader whom they hope could bring an image of moderation to the party. That failed miserably, however, with Mário Soares actually coming third against a surprisingly and worrying popular run by Duarte Pio de Bragança, the monarchist claimant to the Portuguese Crown. None of them, however, were even close of competing to the 72% majority gained by the Colonel.

As his replacement as Prime-Minister, President Eanes appointed Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo, a Democratic Renewal politician who had been in government during the short period between the April and November Revolutions, having been in Paris as Ambassador to UNESCO during the latter, in a position that had made her a spokesperson for the Portuguese exile community. These two individuals would, for the next years, lead the Fourth Portuguese Republic, as they coined it, through the turbulent times ahead.

Despite all the efforts, true-hearted or not, of allowing for a peaceful transition towards democracy in Portugal, as tensions rose, between the old ruling classes (both of the fascist and the communist regimes) and the new liberal-minded one, but also between the popular supporters of the fascist regime, the communist one and the new liberalism, especially as the former two resented their fall from grace and blamed each other for it. As days passed, the police forces were sent increasingly rushed to the streets, as disagreements boiled into pre-fights, and whispers talked of ever more vicious things.

In the shadows, various armed groups began assembling, made of small circles with shared beliefs, mostly extreme. As the months progressed, many of those small circles joined together, forming two large confederacies in each side - the 25th April People Fronts, the largest group of supporters of the Otelo regime, a fiercely antifascist and anticapitalistic group with a mixture of both orthodox Marxist-Leninists, Maoists and Trotskyists, barely coordinating among each other at times, but joined in their hatred of their enemies – and the Alliance of Restorers of National Honour, an also somewhat ill-managed coalition with both older Salazarist supporters, led by agents of PIDE, the former political police of the Estado Novo, meaning piously Catholic, nationalistic and isolationist, and a younger and more fervent youth wing of skin-headed neo-Nazi metalheads, influenced by a very particularly dark subculture of the West, which didn’t particularly liked each other either, but found some use in cooperation. Some particular stubborn groups also remained outside those confederacies, although cooperating at times, forming what the Portuguese media formed as the Revolutionary Brigades on the left.

Who exactly was leading or sponsoring those groups, if indeed anyone was, is still debated fiercely by historians. A common view today is that there weren’t really any leaders, and that both the People Fronts and the Restorers formed from grassroot movements, at a community level. Others, however, liked to blame General Otelo, who seems to have been in Cuba throughout the entirety of the Democratic Restoration Era, casting doubts to that particular accusation.

Finally, after various months of boiling, things blew up, as most predicted, and the first incident, in Cacém, on the peripheries of Lisbon, when a military officer was killed in an attempted bank robbery by the People Fronts. This would be followed by a wave of attacks, from both the People Fronts and the Restorers, throughout the country, but also in the Azorean Republic and in the disputed city of Olivenza under Spanish control, as various cities, institutions and individuals were targeted.

Explosives were often used, making great damages to infrastructure. The Popular Fronts applied methods such as shooting for the legs of targets, in particular business owners who mistreated their workers, a practice that left them in agony and damaged, rather than dead. The Restorers would often attack the emission towers to block the television networks in the country. Both sides would attack embassies and consulates of nations they considered as enemies, most prominently the United States and the Soviet Union. And, of course, they tried to burn down the meeting points of their enemies, in the process causing many collateral victims.

The Presidency of Ramalho Eanes would be committed to the combat against these groups, as their wave of chaos and destruction peaked during the early 90s, only to slowly, perhaps by effect of the combat by the law enforcement agencies, headed by the President himself, perhaps due to sheer loss of interest and motivation by its actors, which saw their petty acts of terror do little in terms of weakening the Fourth Republic, but rather strengthen its resolve, begin faltering, with both the Popular Fronts and the Restorers, despite never officially surrendering and dissolving, virtually ceasing operations by 1996, after which most attacks claimed by such groups were considered as mere acts of vandalism by copycats.

In those years, of the Democratic Restoration or, as the most pessimist liked to call it, The Troubles, dozens of major attacks were performed, coupled with hundreds of smaller group assaults and a few thousand attacks on individuals, resulting in the deaths of thousands from the militias, the police and military, and of course from the civilian population, caught in the middle of an undeclared civil war. Through those years, many Portuguese citizens would emigrate to the newly-opened West, joining their diaspora brothers in France, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and Brazil, increasing the population of the Portuguese Diaspora in those countries while reducing the population of the Motherland itself.

Ramalho Eanes would serve the full pair of six-year terms the new Constitution of 1990, that he supervised, allowed him, finally retiring from his long presidency after the elections of 2002, which saw his also veteran Prime-Minister, Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo, replace him with a strong advantage herself. Through the Eanes Presidency, the Democratic Renewal Party would, despite rising tensions, remain intact and dominant in all sectors of Portuguese society, effectively as the dominant party in Portuguese politics. With the retirement of Eanes, however, and the ascension of Pintasilgo to the Presidency, the centrifugal forces within the Party kicked in, prompting it to an era of confusion until 2004 when, mourning the death of President Pintasilgo, and a faction disliking the ascension of Prime Minister Pedro Santana Lopes to the Interim Presidency, as the Constitution of 1990 called for, led to the Democratic Renewal Party being amicably dissolved in that year, with its deputies flocking mostly to the new Civic Democratic Party, representing the more social-liberal and internationalist position, and the Portuguese Nationalist Party, representing the more conservative wing.

In the early 2000s, Portuguese politics would somewhat settle, between the ever-changing rule of either the CDP or the PNP, and also the quite small April Front, led by Miguel Portas, the only left-wing party represented in the Assembly. The CDP would be led, until his 2014 death, by José Medeiros Ferreira, a diplomat very close to Ramalho Eanes whose work at the Premiership would finish their decades-long effort to ascend Portugal to NATO and to the Council of Europe, while the PNP would be led by Hermínio Martinho, another close friend of Eanes.

After enduring sixty-three years of dictatorships and repression, an entire generation of infighting as dictators rose and fall, and went from fascism to socialism, and keeping the country closed and isolated, in its own little corner of the world they fought fiercely over, Portugal seemed to, at last, joining the rest of the nations in striking forward in liberal democracy. The Terror had passed, slowly, from memory to history and, as the new millennium dawned, so did a new era for the tiny European nation and all remaining from it.

But, of course, as pessimistic as always, should you ask a random Portuguese citizen on the street if he believed that this stability was meant to last, you’d very probably get the very laconic answer of ‘no’. No it won’t.


[1] Some historians, among them CDP leader Rui Tavares, prefer to claim the title of Third Republic for the short-lived and turbulent period between the April Revolution and the November Revolution, but those are a clear minority, with the People’s Republic, Democratic Restoration governments claiming the title of Third and Fourth Republics respectively

[2] According to Vasco Pulido Valente, Social Communication Minister under Cunhal and infamous author of My Grandfather’s Dream, the rather sardonic-toned memoirs of his times during the Otelo Presidency, the President would ‘drift between Mao and Trotsky, whenever his whim told him Guevara, whose spectre he had worship since 74, always muttering nonsense on international solidarity and the dictatorship of the proletariat’

I've become morbidly fascinated with this timeline, I may do more around this very dark universe. If you have any questions feel free to ask, I'd like to see if there's interest in expanding this.
 
In the Netherlands and Norway, Germany concluded peace with puppet regimes they established.

So Queen Wilhelmina reigns in the Dutch East Indies? Why would Denmark and Belgium settle for peace but the Dutch and Norwegians not?

Great map btw!
 
Cross-posting from my MotF entry



I've become morbidly fascinated with this timeline, I may do more around this very dark universe. If you have any questions feel free to ask, I'd like to see if there's interest in expanding this.


Oh well, i actually wanted to make a map with a different Portuguese transition to democracy (although the map and narrative itself focusing on a MPLA Cabinda), but i guess i'll pass for this MOTF since i have no hope of doing anything as good as this.

And yes, i would be very interested in more
 
So Queen Wilhelmina reigns in the Dutch East Indies?
I figure she'd probably just reside in the United States, or Curaçao, but the Dutch Government-in-exile still controls the DEI. For now.

Why would Denmark and Belgium settle for peace but the Dutch and Norwegians not?

Great map btw!

In large part because the Danish government couldn't flee (and so remained in place during the German occupation), and because the Belgian King also remained in Europe.
 
Cross-posting from my MotF entry
I've become morbidly fascinated with this timeline, I may do more around this very dark universe. If you have any questions feel free to ask, I'd like to see if there's interest in expanding this.

It's beautifully dark, and the details of the wild regime are not only believable but really entertaining
 
Oh well, i actually wanted to make a map with a different Portuguese transition to democracy (although the map and narrative itself focusing on a MPLA Cabinda), but i guess i'll pass for this MOTF since i have no hope of doing anything as good as this.

And yes, i would be very interested in more

Uhh I actually thought about doing something with Cabinda but really couldn't fit it in. I can only imagine the wonders you could do with it. Your African maps are just amazing

I'm thinking of doing some wikiboxes for this, with the lists of presidents and whatnot

It's beautifully dark, and the details of the wild regime are not only believable but really entertaining

Thanks, yeah I had a lot of fun just picturing the combinations of those people in those settings. Seeing as I personally know a few of them, it was quite entertaining to imagine this.
 
A world where Russia unites all Slavic and post-Soviet nations, Finland, Hungary, Romania, Mongolia, Manchuria, Sinkiang, and parts of Germany, Austria, Greece, Iran, and Afghanistan.
Union of Slavic Republics.png

Autonomous Republics:
Sapmi, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Romania, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Karakalpakstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uyghurstan, Mongolia, Manchuria, and the Jewish Amur.

Puppet States:
Austria, Greece, Turkey, Kurdistan, Iran, and Afghanistan

Allies:
France, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Padania, Italy, Greater Lebanon, al-Jazira, Iraq, Greater Korea, Republic of China, Greater Bengal, Kashmir, and Japan
 
2tieroutline752pxlab.png

This map depicts Western Asia in 2000, with a focus on the Islamic Republican Alliance (IRA). The IRA is a political, economic, and military alliance. It was formed in 1979 by Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan to defend themselves against aggression from India, the USSR, and China. On the political front, each member of the alliance has a constitution that reflects Islamic principles. These include monotheism, divine revelation expressed in law, the justice of God, and the dignity and inherent freedom of man. Members of the alliance differ on the exact role Islam should play in governance. On the military front, the IRA has a shared Supreme Military Command, designed to coordinate the militaries of member states in the event of a foreign attack. The founding document of the IRA, the Tehran Accords, expresses that an attack on one IRA member state is an attack on them all. Two member states, Iran and Pakistan, possess WMDs. On the economic front, the IRA is an economic community that consists of a common market and customs union. As of 2000, there is discussion of further integrating the IRA economies with a currency union and prototype West Asian Rial notes have been minted in Tehran and Kabul.

The main problems that the IRA faces in 2000 are drug trafficking, corruption, human rights abuses, and the Iraqi Civil War. The Supreme Military Command's intelligence directorate is working with local and national security forces in Afghanistan and Pakistan to destroy illegal opium plantations and suppress drug trafficking in Western and Central Asia. Corruption is also a significant problem in the IRA countries, with electoral fraud and political patronage being the primary forms of corruption. The main human rights issue in the IRA is the activities of the Mujahideen in Afghanistan, who perpetrate sectarian violence and promote intimidation techniques to ensure that people vote the "right" way. It is tied to the corruption issue, since Mujahideen groups are sometimes funded by wealthy Afghan and Pakistani conservatives, and Afghan governors sometimes shield the Mujahideen from Afghan and IRA security forces. Deficient women's rights is also a major human rights issue in the IRA countries, despite the equality of men and women before the law. The problem is especially pronounced in rural areas, and the IRA governments are working to address the de facto inequality with education programs and affirmative action. The Iraqi Civil War has also proven to be a challenge for the IRA. The Baathist government in Iraq, supported by Russian advisors and a Syrian expeditionary force, is fighting IRA-backed Special Groups and Saudi-backed militants. The Iraqi regime's forces are presently winning the conflict, despite IRA material support.

The IRA's global allies are China and NATO. China moved from opposing the IRA to supporting it because it serves as a counter to Indian and Soviet influence in the region, and it serves as a major export market for Chinese products. NATO and the IRA are also natural allies, but their relations are hampered by the Turco-Persian border dispute and the IRA's opposition to the gulf states, who are generally American allies. The IRA's adversaries are the USSR, India, the Arab gulf states, and the Baathist regimes in Iraq and Syria.
 
Dorne_Map.png


This is a map for an AU I'm working on with Rex Romae, basically, Nymeria ends up in the Riverlands and it's House Dayne who ends up unifying Dorne.

Would there be a "Garrin's Hall" in Dorne when the Rhoynar invade the Riverlands since Garrin is a Rhoynar name? And also shouldn't Sunspear be called Sandship? That was the name of the castle before Nymeria.
 
Would there be a "Garrin's Hall" in Dorne when the Rhoynar invade the Riverlands since Garrin is a Rhoynar name? And also shouldn't Sunspear be called Sandship? That was the name of the castle before Nymeria.

I forgot Garrin was a Rhoynar name, need to fix that part of the map and story behind "Garrin's Hall" - thanks for the catch as Garrin is an important guy on the backstory! - wasn't aware of the Sandship-Sunspear name change, my mistake on that, I am going to fix it asap. Thanks for catching these two mistakes!
 
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