The Hermit In The Gulf
In 1945 Madrid was falling to the thorough advance of British, Portuguese[1] and American troops alongside Catalonian insurgents, sure to knock the Spanish State out of the Second World War. Many would ponder what would have been had Francisco Franco not come down on the side the Axis Powers, yet that is not the concern of this disquisition[2]. For as Fascist Europe blinkered it's final days in the sun a more subtle escapade was taking place among what little remained of the Spanish Navy and the Army of Africa.
Pragmatic and well aware of their vulnerability, these disheveled remnants found their way to the largely untouched Fernando Pó. With greater conflicts further north and resources stretched thin as the War in the Pacific raged on as frighteningly as ever, the territory had been left alone by the Allies and so the last bedraggles of Spain faced little opposition in occupying it. Lead by the decorated Admiral Francisco Moreno[3], they went about fortifying the island into a veritable bastion. They put out the call for any other Spanish, German or Italian remnants to make their way to the island, and from those hidden coves and edges of the War a few battered cruisers anchored in Santa Isabel, and lonesome pilots made their way to the airstrip at Punta Europa. When the Allies realised that the island was now occupied by what amounted to a small field army they were far too mired in the invasion of Völkisch Germany and Imperial Japan to bother with it and signed a separate ceasefire with the army with a country.
Post-1946, the ensuring Cold War and reconstruction meant that eyes were elsewhere whilst the military clique built up their personal fiefdom. However it was quickly outmatched in arms, telecommunications, naval technology and even mundane areas as arts (they were frozen in their Falangist period) and music. Sanctions as to their totalitarian politics and repressive society aside, the world moved on, unwilling and in some respects incapable of facing the Hermit in the Gulf. During the Cold War they would be a center of espionage and this would flare into a long series of spy novels that would in turn stimulate a bare tourist economy, but this would die in time as the novelty of an 'authoritarian paradise' gave way to a regressive, violent and cruel regime as the junta cracked down on the new ideas and philosophies that were disseminating out into their populace[4].
Today, the people grow restless. The government, lead by Francisco Moreno's son, seems as total and supreme as ever. But in this age of information young people notice that even their neighbours in Cameroon have smartphones whilst they still have to use a telephone exchange in many instances, they notice social media and video streaming abroad when they still adhere to letters and VHS, they notice the critical appraisals of leaders abroad when any opprobrium of their leader and his cult of personality is met with a harsh admonition at the least and labour camps at worse[5]. Whether the last fascist state in the world can last in the 21st Century remains to be seen[6], and wary eyes lay on the Hermit in the Gulf.
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[1] - Because they won't remain neutral if their neighbour is in the Axis, c'mon now.
[2] - "Isaac dodged! it's not very effective."
[3] - I
think he was alive at this point. D'you know how hard it is to find information on Francoist Spain's Admiralty?
[4] - A little bit like Cuba actually, only fascist instead of communist.
[5] - Not sure if there are
any countries today that still use a telephone exchange, so that might be a bit extreme in terms of technological disparity, but it reads well.
[6] - Whilst most of this is convergent with OTL history post-1945, certain aspects like North Korea are different, which arose out of rather particular circumstances. North Korea still exists, but is more like a mini-China herein than the cartoonishly evil dictatorship it is IOTL.
