Kaiphranos
Donor
Six entries this round, with a good variety of maps featuring militaristic states! Check them out here, then vote for your favorite to win this round of Map of the Fortnight!
MotF 220: Army With A Nation - Voting Thread
- Thread starter Kaiphranos
- Start date
Thanks! Here's my sketch of WWII and after:
WWII begins more or less as in OTL. At that time in the Civil War, the Luso-Republican alliance has driven the FAI out of Portugal, Galicia, and Andalusia, and is pressing its advantage in the east. Spain and Portugal don't declare war on Germany, and the embattled and internally divided anarchists can only manage a token denouncement. Spanish involvement begins with the Fall of France, with FAI-backed uprisings in the southwest. Toulouse and Montpelier are in anarchist hands for just short of two weeks before the Germans sweep through, crushing the rebels and immediately pushing on into Catalonia, the heart of revolutionary Spain.
This throws everything into confusion. The then-retreating Spanish Republican Army and Portuguese Viriatos suddenly have Aragon open before them as the FAI troops rush to defend Barcelona. They split apart: many of the officers, especially the pardoned ex-Nationalists, are eager to pursue the enemy, while others follow the government's orders to find and fortify and defensive line against the Germans. Salazar recalls the Portuguese army, but some desert to join one or the other faction of the Spanish. The Nationalist leader Emilio Mola, who has been living in Lisbon since his surrender in 1938, appears in Zaragoza reasserting his command and announcing allegiance to the Axis. His connection to the split in the army is uncertain. Meanwhile, the Basque ELA (long uneasy with dominance of the more radical CNT) breaks from the FAI, intending to realign with the Republic, but many of their volunteers are turned away by suspicious Republicans. By the time Madrid makes it clear that field officers should accept ELA contributions, the point is mostly moot--Bilbao and most of the rest of Basque Country are already in Nazi hands. Portuguese troops move through Galicia to occupy the naval base at Ferrol. The Republican government requests Britain to occupy Spanish Morocco, while the Army of Africa there calls for Vichy French support (followed by Italian after the French barely show up). The Italians bomb Barcelona, Cartagena, and Gibraltar, and launch on amphibious assault on Valencia. After prolonged street fighting, they manage to hold the city until the Germans arrive, pushing south from defeated Catalonia.
Madrid falls in late October 1940, and the government accepts terms outwardly similar to those in France: there will be a German occupation zone on the north coast and in Catalonia and an Italian one stretching from Valencia to Gibraltar. Portugal, now a member of the Axis, annexes Galicia and occupies Seville. The Spanish protectorate in Morocco is transferred to Germany, and the Canaries will be leased to them for 50 years. The new government, the Spanish State, is a dictatorship under Emilio Mola.
The real situation in Spain, however, is not like that in France. Gibraltar still flies the Union Jack, and British troops hold the Canaries, most of Spanish Morocco, and even several mainland ports. Meanwhile, the remnants of the FAI militias and Republican Army keep up the fight, and with their long war experience make much more trouble for the occupying powers than the French Resistance IOTL. The Germans never really establish control of Asturias, for example, where a re-formed FAI dominates from secret mountain bases. Less radical resistance fighters are equally effective in some areas under Mola's government, especially in the south. As the Eastern Front demands more and more manpower, Germany never quite has the resources to finish off its enemies in Spain. The task is left to Italy and Portugal, who bungle it. During 1942, Andalusia becomes an extension of the North African theater, and in April 1943 the British and Americans invade Portugal while simultaneously striking north from Granada. The Spanish Resistance gains momentum from Allied success. A second May Day uprising in the capital, like the one in 1938, overwhelms the army and police. Mola is hanged in Madrid on May 3, 1943, and one week later the city is handed over to the advancing British.
The German defenses in Basque Country and along the Ebro prove to be a serious impediment. It is during the autumn of '43, while the great powers' armies concentrated against that front, that the country is able to determine its future. Portugal is under a British occupation government, but the political rebuilding of Spain is largely left to the Spanish. At first there is virtually a resumption of the Civil War in some regions, with still more numerous divisions. Galician Integrationists want to continue their union with Portugal, while communists, anarchists, and republicans all establish local governments (or lacks thereof) on their own models. But the fascist regime still has many supporters, and just as in '36 the left responds to the need to unite against them, making complete the liberation in most of Spain. In German-held territories, Catalan and Basque nationalists rebel, hoping to unite their causes to the Allies'. They do in fact prove instrumental in breaking through to the Pyrenees, and so they too must have a voice in the new order. Ultimately, a compromise is worked out, with something for everyone but the communists: the Federation of Spanish Republics. The pre-war territory of Spain is kept intact, but the central government is weak and the regions are close to possessing full sovereignty, something like a miniature EU. There is a common currency and certain universal laws, but for most purposes the republics are self-governing. Even the army, though under a central command, is divided into regionally-recruited and -funded contingents. In Catalonia, laws are favorable to some forms of collective living, and the FAI continues its existence as a forum for the numerous anarchist communes and trade unions that are founded there, as well as a few elsewhere in Spain. However, they exist in a more-or-less capitalist economy (though strongly influenced by syndicalism), and are politically marginal even within the left.
With peace finally established and Western aid coming in, Spain prospers. The Federal model is deemed a success, and is adopted by Italy after American occupation ends and in the late 50s by the Rhine Union (comprising the Benelux countries and the part of Germany not under Soviet influence, which is significantly smaller than IOTL--the primary Western offensive into France was from the south, giving the Soviets more time to advance west). Spain and Portugal remain in the Western bloc throughout the Cold War, though Portugal relapses into dictatorship after violently contested elections in 1950, and reaches the end of the century democratic again but poorer than IOTL. It petitions to join the Federation of Spanish (thereafter "Iberian") Republics in 2004, and is accepted in 2010 after economic improvements. A broader European Federation is much discussed, but not realized as of 2020.
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