It is 1946. The 2nd Great War has ended, or as those outside of the spheres of Germany and Britain refer to it, the Anti-Soviet war. Yet to explain how we arrived at this state, we must roll back ten years to the past. In 1936 the regimes in France and Britain eyed the German nation suspiciously as its charismatic dictator Hitler began to rearm his nation and bluster about claims to this and that part of Europe. However, after initially succeeding in remilitarizing the Rhineland on the western border of Germany, Hitler was faced with humiliation after humiliation. First in that the Anschluss of Austria was bungled and rejected. Austria instead joined the Pact of Rome alongside Horthy's Hungary and Mussolini's Italy. While considered a mere setback at time, months later when Hitler gave an ultimatum to Czechoslovakia to secede the Sudetenland or else that very ultimatum was rejected. The result was the sudden and terrible invasion of the land locked state.
Yet, France emboldened by Hitler's earlier humiliation suddenly invited Czechoslovakia to the allies, the alliance formalized between Britain and France only some months before, and as a show of its sincerity the French immediately declared war on Germany. Before the more cautious British could intervene the French had already crossed the Rhine and were driving the few undermanned divisions in Germany's west back further and further into the country. While Nazi Loyal units attempted to reorganize and disperse forces to reinforce the western front, those units that had become increasingly disgruntled with the Fuhrer and his regime enacted a plot months in the making. They revolted and were lead by a cadre of Monarchist officers and commanders who sought to restore the fallen german monarchy.
In the great confusion of fighting a two front war the rebellion was able to seize much of southern Germany and begin establishing an independent source of supplies. More noteworthy was how quickly the rebels acted to cut off the divisions fighting the French. Confusion and chaos reigned among the units caught between their fellow Germans and French invaders. After several failed attempts to break out of the closing encirclement did the common soldiers of the doomed divisions mutiny and surrender either to the approaching French or their own comrades. The units in the east while avoiding encirclement were being forced to fight both rebel forces and Czechoslovakian soldiers that were now streaming out of their fortifications in the Sudetenland. Worse yet for the Nazi Regime was the arrival of the British via the ports of the newest member of the allies, the Netherlands. Quite suddenly did the regime realize how vulnerable the north was as its navy had very quickly been bottled up in the Baltic.
Under attack on three, then four, then five, and an ever increasing number of 'fronts' as British forces amphibiously invaded the German coast, it was only a matter of time till the Nazi Regime finally fell in late 1939. However, the peace would prove a costly one. Germany had been devastated, over a hundred thousand dead, primarily due to desperate fighting the Nazis employed in urban centers to slow their enemy advances to a crawl. More importantly was the split ideas of what to do with Germany between the British and the French. The British preferred to keep Germany intact and restore the Monarchy in order to gain the German rebels as allies and their cooperation in paying off the rest and newly incurred debts their country owed to the Allies. The French however preferred to dismember the German state and argued it would be better to see the threat of Germany finally put to rest where it belonged. As the occupation continued, the French government was suddenly out of power due to their elections and replaced by a more left leaning regime willing to accept the British proposals in exchange for support against the increasingly provocative regime of Mussolini.
As the deal was struck and Germany once more united under its Kaiser but with a new, modern constitution, another country continued to be wracked by civil strife. The Japanese Empire had seemed poised to strike south from its increasingly strong position in Manchuria and to if not conquer at least subjugate the nationalist, communist, and warlord governments within China. Yet it was not to be as in 1936 a sudden surge of support both public and clandestine for the civilian government came forth. Support that alarmed the militarists, but it was seen as something that should have passed, at first. And it did not. As calls for a democratization of Japanese society grew ever louder, the militarists finding some of their own were beginning to support the cause of the public turned against their fellows.
The firefight began outside of Tokyo between become known as Militarist and Loyalist units, but soon the conflict began raging across the home islands. Both sides began to call on naval elements to move their allies and confidantes back to the mainland to quell the 'rebels'. The Navy which had been seeking support for its own political agenda found the army's sudden fracturing to be a shocking turn and in the confusion delivered thousands of troops and tons of equipment back to the Home Islands. There these same soldiers turned that equipment against one another, sympathizers for their enemies, and the very infrastructure of Japan.
Meanwhile in Mainland China, the puppet government of Manchukuo under far less tight a leash began to stir and soon cast off its Japanese masters, at least to an extent as it began to provide its steel, guns, and even what men it could spare to support the Militarists believing they would be more likely to be accommodating of Puyi's regime. Yet, these efforts were quickly disrupted by the Korean Rebellion that swiftly threw out the few Japanese forces remaining in Korea, and the efforts of the Chinese Nationalists which saw much of Japan's foothold in China lost, even if the Manchurians prevented the Nationalists from entirely retaking the mainland. For all their efforts, the Japanese navy in the confusion and the Manchurians were unable to prevent the sudden seizure of Taiwan by Chinese forces loyal to the increasing successful and powerful Chiang Kai Shek. Yet, the navy soon found itself not free of the civil strife gripping Japan as Admirals, Captains, and other personnel began to take sides resulting in an open battle between opposing elements of the Japanese that nearly destroyed the navy as a factor in the civil war. Yet, those who survive were as a majority in support of the democratic government that had already seized Tokyo and Kyoto as of the beginning of 1938, and was even in possession of the Emperor and his family.
While the Japanese civil war would continue until early 1941, the Soviet Union had not been idle in Eastern Europe. Officer purges, five year plans, preparations, and consolidation of power. Stalin's regime was secure and believing the west exhausted from its efforts in Germany and busy with fighting against Italy would be unable and unwilling to oppose the Soviet invasion of the Eastern European nations. Those very nations which had spurned the allies to instead form their own defensive bloc centered on an alliance between Poland, Romania, and the Baltic States. The Soviets were right for a time. While, Italy had foolishly started a war with the Allies and Yugoslavia all at once, it managed to fight on for three long years after the war had begun in 1940.
In 1943 with Italy defeated, the tensions among the allies had only grown. France had fallen increasingly under the sway of parties sympathetic to the Soviet Union and had in fact been renamed the French Commune by its increasingly radical government. Meanwhile Britain now lead by Prime Minister Churchill was increasingly anti-communist and was even putting forth a plan to liberate the Eastern European countries conquered by the Soviet Union.
It would be during a Summit at Rome that the break would occur. The provisional government placed in power in Italy was couped by Communist forces with French support leading to the French delegation at the meeting of the allied powers to declare that it was time for the relationship between Britain and France to end. They would not be assisting in any invasion of the USSR, as they would not side with those against their Revolution. The coup and very public break not only made the allies appear weak, but would lead to ongoing civil strife in France and Italy as anti-communist groups would fight against both governments.
Yet, the Soviets seeing this as a moment of weakness proceeded to invade Finland which had been guaranteed by both Germany and Britain. Unwilling to abandon the Finnish as the Hungarians and Austrians had abandoned the Italians, the allies went forth to war. Quickly they recruited all they could from the still recovering government in Japan to open a second front to White Russian exiles and other groups that had been driven out from their homes by the USSR. However, their attempts to entice the American government an its sphere of democratic powers in the Americas would fall only on the ears of isolationists that had come to power after the death of FDR in the midst of the 1940 Election. Even the now firmly established regime of Chiang Kai Shek in China was unwilling, at least initially to answer the call of the Allies for support against the Soviet Juggernaut.
The Soviets appeared to think this would be their victory then with the Allies failing to gather a truly global force with which to defeat them, but the Soviets had underestimated the might of the industrial powers they were faced with and the willingness of those powers not involved in the war directly to sell arms to the Allies. While the Soviets were being pushed back, the war would not seem decisive until the election of Douglas MacArthur to the United States Presidency. The Hawkish President immediately expanded on the lend lease to the allies, and put pressure on the Chinese government to join the war. However, such pressure was little needed as over a hundred Chinese divisions would assemble on the border with Soviet Siberia and its puppet state of Mongolia. The result would be a titanic invasion in the middle of 1944 that would break much of the soviet lines in the east allowing for the Chinese, Japanese, and White Russians to invade as far west as the Ural River. As 1945 began, the seemingly soon to be victorious powers would meet at Cairo to negotiate the coming new world order that would emerge from the end of the war.
The negotiations were tense and eventually sacrificing territory to the Chinese, economic support to the Japanese, and the creation of the new states of Ukraine and Belarus in eastern Europe allowed Britain's negotiators to achieve their goal. The re-establishment of the Romanov Monarchy as a Constitutional Empire ruled from Petrograd. Yet, the negotiations and success were not without cost. While the White Russians and British forces were virulently in favor of executing and punishing all captured Red army forces and especially officers, the Chinese were not. The Republic of China had in the course of the war democratized and while Chiang Kai Shek may have been willing to follow form, the new government under Zhang Lan and the China Democratic League was not. Instead most of the pow's were released and allowed to return to Russia or remain in China. Many of those who wished to return soon found themselves in contact with French agents, armed, and ferried back by various means. The war had ended in 1945, but the insurgency had only just begun.
While peace has come. The world remains poised on the brink. Nuclear arms had by various programs and events fallen into the hands of most of the great powers from Europeans such as Britain, Germany, and France to the United States. Even the Republic of China had managed to secure its own nuclear program even if it lacked a reliable delivery method.
The Fourth, or what the Trotskyites call the Fifth International, lead by France had not been idle during the Anti-Soviet War and had established new regimes in Austria, Iran, the old French colonies of Indochina, Flanders, and the Levant all to prepare itself for what it sees as an inevitable war with the remaining Imperialists powers. Powers that have become divided.
Germany and Britain had come to an agreement in Cairo for the fate of Russia, but the fate of France was far more difficult. While Churchill remained eager and had proposed Operation Improbable to invade France and its entire force of allied states, the rest of Britain's politicians were not so eager. Britain had funded the partial rebuilding of Germany, Japan, much of Eastern Europe, and was still on the hook to help Russia put down the seemingly never-ending insurrections which disrupted the "glorious" return of the Romanovs. The result was Germany had created a new anti-communist bloc made up mostly of various continental European states, especially those that had suffered under the Soviet Union to oppose the French International. Meanwhile: Britain, Russia, the Netherlands, Portugal, and those states that were colonies, dominions, or puppets of theirs were far more interested in rebuilding, recovery, stability, and maintaining their vast empires than in starting what would be the third major industrial war between European great powers in the same decade.
In the northern realm of Scandinavia, the Nordic Council had formed primarily in response to British and Germans efforts to force the formally neutral states to take a side in the Anti-Soviet War. Such efforts had left the Scandinavian states opposed to both Democratic European Blocs and while now united to some extent, they remain relatively lost in terms of foreign policy as neither were they willing to support the French or attempt integrating with the other great Democratic bloc.
The United States under Douglas MacArthur, The 2nd Brazilian Republic or United States of Brazil, and the Republic of China under Zhang Lan had in the aftermath of the Anti-Soviet War found each of themselves with their own if sometimes marginal spheres of influence, a willingness to work together, and especially a shared state of being primarily on the sidelines of the increasing tensions of Europe, while all being opposed at least somewhat to the French International. While not all members of one grand alliance, the various organizations and treaty chains bound the Americas, most of non-colonial Asia, and even Liberia in Africa into one power bloc poised to take advantage of whatever next war was to break out in Europe.
Besides neutral nations such as Mexico, Oman, and Ireland, there remains the Pact or "Little Fascist Club" as others have called it including nations in Europe such as Yugoslavia, Hungary, Spain, and the Neo-Ottoman or Turkish Empire, while also including Latin American nations such as Argentina, Venezuela, and Peru. This loose association known as the "Pact of Steel" has become an economic and political talking club for the remaining authoritarian states in the World, all prepared to assist in defending one another from the possible intrusions of the French International which continues to bluster on about its World Revolution.
Regardless of whichever Bloc fires first, they will not be the last, and only time will tell what will come of such a hot war where the greatest weapons at the hands of those fighting have so far gone untested in war.
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To explain this giant wall of text and map, this here is based on my latest HoI4 game as the Republic of China and the sheer wackiness of it inspired me to write all of this nonsense up and to share it here with you good folk. Now if you'll bare with me, I'm going to do some additional nation profiles to cover more fully those I didn't touch on very well in the above.
The 'New' Entente | AKA:
The Old Empires
The British Empire: Increasingly authoritarian and cracking down on any dissent to keep the slowly crumbling giant lumbering forward. Yet, while concentrating on Russia and the colonies seems to have kept things going if not good at least tolerably, the Dominions are starting to wonder why they need to be supporting the Homeland when it continually ignores them and even acts against their interests.
The Russian Empire: A hodgepodge of the official government in Petrograd with British troops propping it up, semi-autonomous Cossacks, "quiet" provinces, provinces in various states of martial law or military occupation, and then there's the White-Russian "administration" in the eastern reaches of Siberia that due to the current difficulties in communication caused by insurgencies might as well be its own government.
The Dutch Empire: Holding together by a shoestring, a paperclip, and hope. While the East Indies are quiet, for now. They're bound to get riled up again and soon. The Dutch just hope the guns can stay quiet long enough in Europe for them to find some kind of permanent solution to their colonial woes.
The Portuguese Empire: Very much likes to think it's relevant and a big player in this alliance, but its backwards economy, small military, and fraternization with the Pact of Steel has most in the Entente see it as a delusional hanger on.
The Japanese Empire: Has stuck with the British for now in exchange for further subsidies, but those subsidies have been fairly wanting and what little they gained from the Anti-Soviet War even more so. The Empire's ruling coalition of parties has begun to quickly polarize over whether to stay with old Empires or to seek new allies and more importantly how does it square the "anti-imperialism" and "co-prosperity" it has been shouting about with working with powers that are imperialist and self-interested? Not to mention there's the little problem of Japan still having not recovered in full from its long civil war, all the while its once weak and divided neighbor China has become a world power, has influence in: Korea, Siam, and is even making ties with India and parts of the East Indies. In effect, Japan has seen its position taken up by China and isn't sure what niche it might fill instead.
The Kingdom of South Africa, or Edwardian South Africa: Edward may have abdicated, but the new racialized regime in South Africa in hopes of gaining further independence from Britain invited the man to become their King. It was a strange series of events, but Edwardian South Africa appears to be here to stay with its new racialized politics and its ambition to see more of British Africa fall under its wing. Suffice to say talks between George and Edward whenever they reunite have become not pleasant for either party.
The Dominions (India, Canada, Australia, & New Zealand): While the last of that list keeps its head down and hopes it can find a path to peacefully and without scandal gaining its independence, the others are nearly up in arms at perceived and real slights. India has had promises made to it time after time. The Indian National Congress even worked during all three major wars to help manage the subcontinent sized state, but still the British hem and haw at giving it anything more than Dominion status and even then...the British don't seem very keen on letting it keep that status. In Canada, increasingly liberal politics have taken hold and seeing the path the Empire is on most are upset, especially when Japan is given economic aid, but the Canadians are given barely an ounce of thought. The Australians think much the same, but they are far more upset that Japan has been allowed to associate with the Empire at all as they still see the Anti-Colonialist attitude of Japan as a threat to it and its interests in the Pacific. Suffice to say the Australians have ambitions.
Dagestan and Azerbaijan: The two little states given freedom and have remained "loyal" to Russia and Britain, specially as the latter has been buying up their oil and pointing guns in their general direction.
Egypt and Ethiopia: The African puppets of the British Empire, increasingly under more and more brutal regimes as the British try to extract whatever they can in profits from both states to help support Britain's ailing economy. Pan-Arab and Pan-African propaganda is gaining traction in both states and in both cases is being disseminated by French agents. The fact that opposition groups in both countries are collecting arms is starting to turn these colonial plantations into powder kegs.
Iraq: An increasingly critical Entente puppet in the Middle East to counter the power of Iran and the Union of the Levant. The British have even invested heavily into their secularized monarchy there in hopes of not only stabilizing the Iraqi regime, but attempting to turn it into a show of what the Post-WW1 mandate system can accomplish. Yet the image of the successful Mesopotamian paradise of modern railroads, radio, and desert mansions is awfully marred by the insurgencies in neighboring Jordan and Palestine where Arabs and Jews alike rebel against the continually slow process of Britain turning over authority to anyone in the region, especially as its begun to use its military to crack down on all dissidents there in equal measure.
Finland: Perhaps the most loyal of all the minor states in this club made of Empires, but most in Finland are happy with their not being conquered and that they can rebuild and live in peace, at least for as long as Russia remains stable in the south. And, nothing could upset that state of affairs, right?
Krakow Security Pact | AKA:
Not-Mitteleuropa
The German "Empire": A constitutional monarchy with a lot of industry, guns, and a bone to pick with its communist neighbor. This pact essentially exists to help finally end Germany's rivalry with France through military force, though the economic advantages the Bloc has provided are not lost on German businesses or the potential for further union on the politicians.
The Polish Republic: Rebuilding, pissed at godless communists, and is here because the British seemed more interested in helping out the people that wrecked Poland recently rather than the Polish. Thus Poland has sided with Germany not for love, but for revenge and practicality. Though many say if Germany demands too much that it might suit Poland to find a different patron.
Czechoslovakia: The best off besides Germany and Switzerland. The United Republic of three, or four peoples if you ask the Moravians, has been doing well in terms of showing what it can do and protecting its people. The fact much of that was made possible through help provided by the French has many feeling that if they were willing to liberate Poland from the Communists, they're doubly so willing to help those who helped them. Not to mention someone has to be a counterweight to Germany in case it gets any ideas about this alliance being anything more than a security pact.
Belarus and Ukraine: The sister nations hoping to make something of their independence and see attaching themselves to the nation that argued for their independence as a decent way to do that. Their governments may be inexperienced and naive, but they've got pluck. Don't bring up what the Soviets did to them while they were under Stalin's power though; tends to cause deep discomfort.
Lithuania and Latvia: Traumatized little states that never stopped resisting the Soviet yoke and are quite willing to give what they can to keep the French from causing a repeat of their troubles. Not to mention the cheap german goods and help they've received with rebuilding has buttered them up.
Switzerland: Neutrality means nothing when your neighbor is very vocally threatening you and has nearly surrounded you with similarly hostile states. Whether Switzerland breaking its neutrality will end well for it, will take who knows how much time to tell. The Clockmakers in Geneva sure don't know.
Romania: When Italy was at its height with Austria and Hungary alongside, Romania was made to give up Transylvania and then got invaded by the Soviets. The Romanians may have been on the winning side of the 1st World War, but they've taken a pounding. Now what they want is to get what is theirs back, and they're hoping once they help Germany with France that Germany will want to put an end to the various fascist states in the Balkans and that Romania regaining Transylvania will be included in such plans.
The Protectorates (Lichtenstein, Monaco, San Marino, Luxembourg) - The little defenseless states that Germany has promised to protect and are all too small to really protect if it really comes down to war. Which is why most of these states are "neutral". For how long that'll last against the French none of them know, but they can hope it'll be forever.
The Nordic Council | AKA:
We're Cold, Lonely, and Lost
Denmark: The unofficial leader of this group at least it likes to think so with something of an "empire" and thus prestige. It also used to rule two of its three brethren, so by rights it should lead? And since it should and will it wants peace and only peace, and things better stay peaceful god damn it.
Sweden: Sees itself as the rightful leader and while it can agree to the whole wanting peace thing. It thinks the Nordic Council should be supporting the Germans if only to keep them from breathing down their necks like last time, plus the markets of Central and Eastern Europe seem pretty robust and Sweden would like to grow its economy selling to those who need to rebuild.
Norway: Sitting high in the north it supports Denmark's commitment to neutrality, peace, and not getting involved in European conflict, but mostly because Norway has had some lucrative trade dealings with France recently and it wouldn't want to ruin that relationship by antagonizing them.
Estonia: Not quite a democracy at the moment and like Finland avoided complete occupation by the Soviets. Yet unlike Finland or its southern brothers the state of Estonia has decided to follow the Nordics into blissful neutrality. In fact the only reason it was invited was the Nordics proper wanting to pressure Finland to join to increase the power of the bloc, but even if that failed they're willing to let Estonia tag along even if its government seems a little fascist and weirdly interested in all this talk about nuclear weapons. After all Estonia would very much like something to deter whatever chaos might come out of Russia gunning for it.
The Pacific Treaty Organization & Others | AKA:
America and Friends
The United States of America: The Boss of the Americas. Most of the American states are friendly or not-quite puppets of the increasingly radical regime in Washington. With MacArthur in charge there's been quite a purge domestically of leftist elements with help from a man named McCarthy. Besides that the US of A has geared up for war and is inching for a target. The Anti-Soviet War has awakened the Eagle and now it circles waiting for prey. Meanwhile, the rest of its allies have really only bought into this whole thing for the economic benefits, not that the American Eagle has noticed soaring so high in the sky that some believe its begun missing some rather important alarm sounds, such as the increasing need it's hand to call the national guard and army to put down labor riots, riots over racism in the south, and all kinds of other civil disturbances.
The Republic of China: Some might say that the success of China is due to Alien Space Bats. Some Chinese might even say they're right. China has gone in a decade from being a divided land ruled by Warlords, a Generalissimo, and a Peasant-Obsessed Communist to being ruled by a mostly Social Democrat regime that has lead China to having an economy nearly the size of the United States! Its military is well trained, organized, and fairly equipped. Even if China's not state of the art it's making up for that with grit and determination as it pushes its new found power and resources to their limits on domestic projects from linking up its most remote regions to the core to projects like that of the building of its 1st aircraft carrier. However, China hasn't just bought into the American alliance for money. It sees the French control of Indochina, the refusal of the Empires to return the treaty ports, and it wants a way to deal with those peacefully. So China has hooked itself to the American wagon hoping the growing soft power of itself and America will allow it the Anti-Colonialist Paradise it so desires.
The United States of Brazil: Some call it America's mini-me. What with its not puppets in Bolivia and Uruguay and multi-ethnic post-colonial democracy, but the truth is Brazil is the least on board with America's particular kind of repression, but neither does it want to work with the other blocs who don't really have influence in South America. Not to mention the Fascists in Argentina, Peru, and Venezuela have all been eyeing Brazil and its closely aligned states. Brazil is hoping that with the Americans at their back that these opportunistic dictatorships will keep their guns lowered and allow Brazil, with newly arrived Chinese assistance, to continue its economic miracle of the past decade.
Colombia and Ecuador: The twin Gran-Colombian states both worried about their fascist neighbors, both relatively independent, and both hoping that backing America will get their protection backed in turn. Either way for now they keep their heads down and muddle through their changing economies and negotiating with increasingly restive labor movements. Many believing that these new labor concerns are backed by the French.
Chile: Unlike its fellow South American states, Chile is committed to being a part of the American sphere and investing heavily in its industries and businesses that service the American economy. Sure it might be becoming a bit reliant on American business interests, but as long as the money and guns keep rolling in the mildly authoritarian regime in Chile is happy to call itself a Republic and be in America's good graces.
The United Arab Republic: The House of Saud has been thrown out! What had at first seemed like a doomed to collapse republic based on throwing out a reactionary dynastic regime has become a living and oil breathing Republic reliant on its sale of the black gold to stay a float s it invests heavily into integrating its various minorities and keeping the inland tribes from rebelling against the rule of a bunch of secularists. The Republic has become heavily indebted to American and Chinese investors and as such remains loyal to them, and in opposition to all the nay saying about the state it seems substantially stable and only getting better. Even if its current buyers were to collapse the Republic is sure the British would be overjoyed to have a more secure supply of petroleum than their current route to Azerbaijan.
Siam: The Kingdom has been rather quiet never really having had the chance it would have liked to regain lost territory and in the face of such a lacking opportunity the militaristic aspects of its government have lost out. Particularly lost out to democratic groups funded by the Chinese. Thus Siam has become a constitutional monarchy, and like China has some eyes on French Indochina and is hoping to gain something if there ever is a war with the International, yet for now it is content to build and wait with a steady influx of Chinese patronage.
Korea: After winning its independence from Japan, the state of Korea was courted by the British and French, but it remained disinterested and preferred to stick close to home. Only a year ago did China offer to invest in revolutionizing Korea's rail system and thus the somewhat isolated hermit republic has come out of its shell and while a client of China has retained its independence and to some extent has become a true mini-me to the Republic of China as it remains loyal and aligned with no reason for change in sight.
America's Friends (The Central American and Caribbean States): From Guatemala to Cuba to Panama these countries are all under a rough or soft thumb of America, and are all functionally puppets. While there have been some rumblings of revolt, the lack of true dictatorships has allowed many of these states to reform and calm tensions, however the increasingly hardline stance demanded by Washington may upset this carefully balanced status quo in America's backyard.
Liberia: America's toehold in Africa, and due its possible importance in a war with France has suddenly found itself glutted with American wealth and technical expertise all to turn the small state into a fortress and staging ground from which America might plunge into French Africa in a war of liberation. Liberia is happy for the attention but there's no telling for how long the sudden wealth can drown out the cries of the still poor natives and of those concerned with possibly being America's frontline in a global war.
Yemen: Overthrew its monarchy like its northern neighbor, but unlike its northern neighbor did not suddenly find black gold to save it from its state as an economic backwater. However, the relative homogeneity of the state has allowed it to remain stable. And with the seeming benefits that come from being a minority in the United Arab Republic, there have been talks of unification. What will come of them is something that only shrewd diplomats might to try and predict.
Bolivia and Uruguay: The clients of Brazil have prospered to some extent from their relationship with their patron, but as of now they enjoy far more the protection provided by their patron's connection to the US and are glad for the assurance of peace which allows them to remain stable and focused on their domestic problems, and they are quite grateful for America not intervening directly in their affairs. Brazil may be a less rich master, but it is a light one and these two appreciate that.
Nepal, Bhutan, and Afghanistan: Constitutional Monarchies, with infrastructure needs, flushed with Chinese cash, and are all doing quite well thank you. Afghanistan in particular has enjoyed Chinese patronage and providing for the formation of rural vocational schools that will help meet China's demand for skilled labor to assist in the mining operations opening up all across the mineral wealthy wastes of Afghanistan's deserts and mountains. Meanwhile Nepal and Bhutan both remain quite minor, but with India's hands tied by Britain they are becoming at great expense more integrated with China than either country had imagined only a decade ago.
The International | AKA:
The French Internationale
The French Commune: The father and mother of revolution is this newly modern and post-soviet age. As such the Commune sees itself as the seed from which socialism, communism, and global revolution shall arise. While the communist strains of thought that have merged in France are varied from classic marxists to refugee Leninists and the rare Trotskyist the Commune has done its best to unite them all into a coherent and active ideology with flexible doctrines that will allow it to infiltrate and overturn the capitalist systems. For you see France's grand plan not to overturn the old Empires and its European rivals with force of arms, at least not only with force of arms. It also plans to play the diplomatic and espionage game. Games that it appears to be doing quite well at much to the consternation of old and newborn giants from Britain to the United States.
Flemish Cooperative: What remains of Belgium after the French sponsored a revolution that would see Wallonia integrated into the Commune. The still independent Flemish see their responsibility to the revolutionary cause that their central government preaches is to educate and integrate the colonized peoples of the world into the revolution. As such the Congo has become the experimental testing ground for all manners of communist programs seeking to end superstition, introduce western education, civilized custom, and true ideology to the uneducated and needy peoples of Africa. Suffice to say they believe the many shortcomings they've encountered to be entirely to blame on the British influence in the territory via smuggling and other covert operations.
Italian Union: The 2nd fiddle in this international when compared to the French Commune and perhaps the most a puppet of the French even if it is a middle tier nation and used to be a potential major player in European politics. The gross mismanagement of Italy primarily caused by the Union's decentralized government using Italy more as an ideological playground than a real country is in part a great reason for Italy's present woes, but with French support the trains actually run on time and the economy grows if slowly. However, while France is busy with its grand plan it is unwilling to fix the mess its prime ally is and has thus left any further improvement to be at the hands of the clumsy demagogues of Italy.
Austrian Workers' Republic: The most "Bolshevik" of the states in part due to the influence of Bolshevik refugees from the Soviet Union, the Workers' Republic of Austria has quickly began to industrialize and fortify. It nows it will be on the frontline of any war with Democratic Europe, and even though the French see the Austrians as paranoid the Communist government here with Soviet advice sees itself as the only truly sane man in a camp filled with incompetents and idealists and thus it will strive to make the best of such unfortunate circumstances through the same kind of mettle and grit that nearly allowed the Soviets to fight the near whole of the world. Austria figures it might be able to fight Europe with some help if it follows suit.
Levant and Indochina: Both French productions that they swear have forgone any kind of colonial past and are entirely self-ruling with only a select few French advisors. The fact they've banned any kind of nationalist parties from these states, including figures like a certain potential Father Ho, has many raising eyebrows in global leftist circles, but for now these two states seem like almost worthy models for future post-colonial states to follow with how they've "integrated" massive multi-ethnic populations of various different faiths and economic lifestyles into single "cohesive" states. The French do their best to hide the tears of sedition and rebellion for the sake of their propaganda campaign, but for how long such efforts will succeed seems dependent on how much more hypocrisy the people of these states will accept.
Georgia and Armenia: These Caucuses states provided with freedom out of the pragmatic desire of the British to have less land to manage in the new Russian Empire do not possess the oil or lay on the path to it that has made Dagestan and Azerbaijan so valuable to the Entente cause. Left with the belligerent Neo-Ottoman state as their primary neighbor with power to project they sought out an external protector and patron. Germany's initial disinterest, British slothfulness, and the lack of easy American access eventually lead to the French stepping in for these young states and providing them with minimal economic aid, but more importantly political guarantees. Once Iran feel to revolution French access to its two most remote allies in the old world has only increased and as such the two Republics find themselves increasingly drawn in the directions made by their respective Communist parties. Much to the worry of British and Russian commanders to the north and east.
Paraguay: Isolated and landlocked this country is no true ally of the French Internationale, but worried over the surge in democracy and fascism on its continent the country has seen that even some meaningless association with the world's preeminent Communist power might have some utility. Thus Paraguay finds itself associated with a power an ocean away and little choice but to remain so, at least for its present government which stands on ever destabilizing ground.
Democratic Republic of Iran: The greatest diplomatic coup of the Anti-Soviet period for the French. With the soviets unable to take control of their concessions in Iran and the British busy with the Western front, Iran had an opportunity. While Britain was eager to use Iran to open a southern front and were putting immense pressure on the state to allow British armies through to invade the USSR, Iran refused as they were beginning to receive covert backing from France. The pressure would even end with the entry of China into the war and its immense success in the east. Yet, French support had not come without a price for the increasingly independent Iran, the French expected Revolution and without the proper backing of Britain or any other Democratic, Capitalist state it did not take long for the Shah to fall to revolutionaries who quickly, with French assistance, nationalized the oil and gas production of the nation. Yet, they needed a market for their resources and suddenly the new Democratic Socialist state found itself cut off from nearly all markets besides that of France. The freedom they had hoped to gain has been replaced by what critics call an illusion. Yet the government in Tehran has made its bed and must now sleep in it for good or ill. At the very least the French have been using their access to Iran to support not only the Caucuses but to provide much needed support to the Soviet Insurrectionists. The latter who for now remain the primary attention holder of the British and Russian Empires, but slowly the Red Russians are being ground down and many have already seen that it is only a matter of time until Iran becomes a point of contention between the Entente and International. Not to mention the US has its own designs on Iran and ready access if need be through China's growing presence in Afghanistan. Iran may have overthrown a corrupt regime puppet to Imperial powers, but now it finds itself a pawn in an increasingly high stakes game of global politics.
The Pact of Steel | AKA:
The Gentleman's Fascist Club
Greater-Hungary: The architect and de-jure leader of this collection of Authoritarian states all united by mutual treaties of friendship and various diplomatic institutions that mostly amount to talking clubs of Fascist powers and exiled Fascist parties. With the fall of Italy and then Austria to Communism, Hungary had felt very alone and sought a replacement for the Pact of Rome, thus it began to court the increasingly authoritarian governments in Europe and eventually even further abroad as Hungary hopes to build an association for the truly nationalist governments of the world to unite behind in order to protect their powerful states from Communist or Democratic funded civil strife and perhaps even invasion. While still a regency in name, domestically Hungary is increasingly looking to be a military dictatorship with dynastic pretensions under the Horthy's.
Greater-Yugoslavia: The somewhat more powerful neighbor to Hungary, but far less interested in political cooperation and simply seeks to ensure that at least some of its borders remain quiet as it consolidates its gains from the war against Italy and it's preemptive invasion of Bulgaria as part of it quelling dissent among its population. Thus the Yugoslavian state is so far happy with the Pact of Steel and sees the next priority of the Pact to be preparing for what it sees as the inevitable round two against Italy, as part of a larger war with the International.
"Neo-Ottoman" Turkish Empire: The Ottomans have been restored to power, but real power lays in the hands of the ruling Military Junta which continues to flex the growing industrial might of Turkey at its various neighbors all while reasserting claims to the Caucuses, the Levant, and the Aegean Isles. Blustering that is met with condemnation and requests for them to "tone it down a little" from their allies. The Empire has no intent to tone it down however and sees its claims as righteous and even believes that eventually by force of arms they will be fulfilled and so the state militarizes and ignores its domestic economy all for the sake of preparing for what it has called in propaganda, "The Coming War of Restoration".
Nationalist Spain: Franco's regime is perhaps the most rational of those European members of the Pact of Steel. It is not quite as awfully repressive and anti-minority, but it remains a dictatorship at least for now. It has ties to the Entente, but has so far left them to sit as a way out if the war with the French were ever to come. As Spain has no interest in throwing itself on the Pyrenees or attempting to hold out in those high mountains bleeding for allies that have provided nothing but risk to Spain so far. However, the economic and political boon from re-establishing ties with the Latin states has been something Spain has enjoyed, but it knows well that it needs not the Pact any longer for those ties to remain intact.
The Latin American States: Including such minor nations as the Dominican Republic and El Salvador, but also potential titans such as Venezuela and Argentina this collection of authoritarian states found themselves outside of the American sphere and often opposed to such and thus in need of organization and mutual support. The Pact of Steel has offered a convenient framework for such without making it too obvious that the Latin States have designs on their many neighbors, though most of their neighbors are far too clever to be taken in by the Latin members of the Pact insisting that it is merely an organization for truly sovereign nations to work together to oppose interference from Imperialist or Communist powers. The Latin members realize this, and know that the new ties between Brazil, China, and the USA have ruined their plans for the moment, but they figure they can be far more patient and merely wait for their neighbors less willing to crush internal dissent to collapse into the chaos that always plagues Democracies and then they will be able to move forward whenever the US or Brazil may be forced to look away. It's all a waiting game to the Latin American Dictatorships or so these regimes think while other generals threaten to remove them from power, domestic dissent grows, and their economies begin to stagnate.
The Neutrals | AKA:
The Trio of Neutrality
Ireland: A free republic with a chip on its shoulder about the northern quarter of its island remaining in British hands. The IRA supported by domestic elements remain a constant headache for the British, but with the British busy with more pressing concerns it has yet to blow up in Ireland's face. Ireland itself is developing slowly with few of the powers in the world seeing Ireland as a high priority. Thus a smattering of German and American businesses and half-hearted diplomatic overtures is all Ireland can show for the last few years of its existence in terms of international success. But, this has yet to destabilize Ireland's ruling coalition which continues to preach peace, neutrality, and steady growth. As long as such ideals can hold it appears that Ireland will remain stable bar the IRA causing a more serious incident.
Mexico: Cardenas succeeded as he did in our own time. Thus Mexico is under the firm control of the PNR and his successors. Mexico continues its process of nation-building and constructing for itself its "revolutionary" identity. Yet, America has begun to loom large with its direct application of force to ensure the stability of puppet regimes elsewhere, and the continued existence of Mexico independent from such forces has begun to draw the attention of MacArthur's regime. However, Mexico has found for itself a collection of unexpected allies the Entente which is looking to find some foothold to strengthen its position in the Americas and bring America into negotiating with it and the Chinese who see economic opportunities in Mexico that may not be possible for their investors in the United States or Canada. Thus for now Mexico has found in these competing political pressures a balancing act that it is attempting to carefully follow so that it may not end up falling into the sphere of those who court it. A tight balance indeed, but so far Mexico continues to pull it off remarkably well.
Oman: A state ruled by a military Dictator who rose to power in the course of the Anti-Soviet period and managed to wriggle out from under the British thumb that had been atop the state of Oman up until the Dictator's coup. Yet, Oman finds itself without allies, influence, or even investors remotely interested in the state. But it remains stalwartly uncolonized or westernized and has begun very weak attempts to support Islamic Fundamentalism internally and abroad to shore up its regime and build ties with possible organizations beyond its borders. Whether they will succeed with what little funds the regime can spare remains to be seen.
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Well, that was a long as hell write up likely lacking in flair, and probably as much a slog to read as it was to write. Anyways this is going to be a series, I hope, with the next map being set in 1950. Four years on with power shifting and the many lines of fate collapsing into one as some nations rise higher and others fall. I hope I managed to leave it rather ambiguous which nations are going to be which. The game itself lasted until 1950, so the maps that come after it are likely to be the more interesting, especially as we go along and history continues to diverge. If anyone has advice or comments they'd be appreciated.
TL;DR - A Divergent history and political world in 1946 based on a Hearts of Iron 4 game as the Republic of China. This will be a series of maps with the next one being in 1950.
Thanks: You for reading, NextGEN OTL Series for maps that I used as sources for borders and the overall basemap, the OTL Database which provided me with the borders for National China's internal divisions, Reepicheep for the map which gave me the restored Imperial Russian internal divisions, other writeups and maps of HoI4 games which inspired me to try my hand at it, especially those by BMN.
