Good day! I will thank you in advance for your patience for I have quite a lot to say. So thank you!
I’ve been meaning to write a Central Powers victory TL for some years now but have never been able to do it for some reason. I’ve done other timelines about other subjects but this CP Victory TL has always been so elusive to me. But now I feel compelled to finally write it because of rast’s “A Shift in Priorities” timeline, this work for some reason keeps churning out the elements of my planned timeline.
I’m in no way accusing rast of stealing my ideas unless he can telepathically read minds or something. His is a fine timeline and he deserves all the praise for it. In fact it is I who owe him and some other board members credit because several aspects of my timeline were influenced by their contributions to the
collaborative CP-Victory timeline I started awhile back (of which rast was a great contributor) and I will be sure to give them credit where it is due. I originally promised myself not to take away any ideas from that timeline but some of the ideas posted there just grew on me until I decided to add them to my TL, but again I will be sure to give credit to those members whose ideas I've used.
Anyway, for some reason, "A Shift in Priorities" keeps churning out elements of my future timeline: the Action Francaise coming to power in France, India being lost to the British much, much earlier, Airships as a major mode of transport, "Black Germans". Although all of these elements could be expected in any CP-Victory timeline, it was rast’s recent addition to his TL that really drove me nuts; It was that of Leon Trotsky acquiring a senior position in the Mexican government. As I’ve said in this post
here, I was planning for that to happen in my timeline
(look here) and seriously didn't expect anyone else to come up with it especially in the context of another CP-Victory TL!
Maybe it was fate's way of punishing me for my complacency and inaction, I don't know. But in order to avoid this happening further, I've decided to just write down a very quick, rough summary of my planned timeline. There will be plenty of blanks as I have never been able to figure everything out. I've started a similar
thread before, asking for help, which mentions a few of the POD's but plenty has changed in my plans for the TL since then. I've also started this
thread which gives a very rough sketch of the world I intend to create for the TL, which hasn't changed much.
Where I need help is in filling in the blanks and getting the facts right if I have anything wrong.
So here goes;
My timeline features an alternate Great War which is pretty similar to our own but with some very big differences in the alliance systems. The Central Powers in this timeline are known as "the Bund" so it is the Bund vs. the Entente. The Bund is composed of Germany, Austro-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, Italy and Sweden while the Entente is composed of France, Britain, Russia accompanied by the "Little Entente" of Belgium, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania and Montenegro as well as Japan in the Far East while China remains neutral. Belgium is occupied by Germany and also Montenegro and Albania are quickly occupied by Austro-Hungary and Italy at one point in the war.
Italy chooses to enter the war on the side of its "Triple Alliance" allies in 1915 or '16 while Sweden (thanks to a POD introduced to me by General Zod) enters the war around the same time after a naval skirmish with the Russians. America keeps its neutrality throughout the war. German agents are successful in carrying out the
Hindu-German Conspiracy and it succeeds in splitting the Indian subcontinent in half between the
Ghadarite Republic to the north and the British Raj to the south.
Events in Russia and Eastern Europe transpire in much the same way as in OTL ending with Bolshevik Russia seeking peace with the Germans at Brest-Litovsk. The Western Front ends when offensives similar to the OTL Spring Offensives and Operation Michael, break the stalemate and the German Army enters Paris and the Italians manage to breakthrough to Menton. Events in the Middle East and East Asia end in the same way except that the Ottomans manage to regain all their lost territories in the peace settlement, plus some more territories in the Caucasus. Afganistan joined the Bund after the Indian revolt and so does Persia after a civil war between the pro-Bund Colonel Pesian and the pro-Entente Reza Khan. (Thanks to Germaniac for introducing me to Col. Pesian)
The peace settlement imposed upon France is extremely harsh, much like Germany in OTL. Belgium is occupied while Britain is left with a much less harsher settlement but London is forced to recognize the new independent Indian state and give up its gains in the Middle East. Germany experiences a revolution (similar to the OTL November Revolution but much more mainstream), that takes back power from the Hindenburg-Ludendorf dictatorship and which ends with Germany transforming into a fully liberal democratic, parliamentary, constitutional monarchy overnight. (thanks to rast for introducing to me the possibility of quick constitutional reform in Germany, I originally envisioned Germany to become a full democracy only by the 1950's). Austro-Hungary experiences a civil war, mainly against its Hungarian constituents, when it attempts to reform and federalize. With German help, the Hapsburgs eventually defeat the rebels and secure their dominion and a new order incorporating wartime gains in the Balkans, is established, known as "Greater Austria". German investments in Ottoman petroleum fund an age of prosperity and liberalization in the Empire under Grand Vizier Kemal Pasha.
An ultra-revolutonary "Second Paris Commune" is founded and Soviets are set up in Glasgow and Edinburgh. The Scottish soviets are mostly peaceful affairs, put down without any violence but the "Second Commune" is a bloody episode in French history and is put down by government troops after six brutal months, with significant help from the "Camelots du Roi" which became the most popular veterans group in France. The heroic deeds of the Camelots and the popular disenfranchisement led to the election of the extreme reactionary Action Francaise to power in 1924 and the subsequent dissolution of the Third Republic and the establishment of the Kingdom. (Thanks to Bmao and Zocane for developing the idea of a Second Paris Commune.) India adopts a policy of rapid industrialization and modernization while Sun Yat-Sen asks the Germans instead of the Soviets for help in reforming his organization.
The Action Francaise takes power in 1924 and with some covert aid from the British and in cooperation with the Soviet Union, begin a grand rearmament program. As the German Army spends the 20's and 30's crushing Bolshevik, Promethean and Anarchist partisans in the forests of Poland and Belorussia, their army develops into an infantry based counterinsurgency force where tanks are mainly used in support of infantry (also because of this helicopters are developed much earlier) while the French begin to invest and develop heavily in their tanks. Soon the idea of "guerre ecclair" or lightning war is conceived and used with brilliant efficiency by Charles de Gaulle in suppressing the Algerian revolt. Meanwhile, French society is radically transformed by the AF as rival political parties are banned, civil rights are curtailed and Maurrasist reactionary principles begin to dominate every aspect of life as they are imposed upon the French. But the worst to suffer are the "four confederates" of what Maurras calls "Anti-France", Jews, Freemasons, Protestants and the "Meteques", who are persecuted mercilessly by the state. This culminates in the early 30's when large numbers of Jews, Protestants, other religious minorities, political dissidents and peoples classified as "undesirable" are forcibly deported to settlements in North Africa.
In German Africa, effective
German colonial policy, which includes free education and health care for native subjects, begins to dramatically raise the continent, physically, economically and socially from the squalor and suffering that had characterized oppressive Entente colonial rule. By 1940, statistics will reveal that a great majority of African children in German colonies will be literate, healthy and fully fluent in German. The universities set up in Kaiser Wilhelmstadt (Kinshasa) and Lettow-Vorbeckstadt (Dar-es-Salaam) would grow to be the greatest educational institutions in the African continent.
The United States is drawn out of its isolation when it's forced to face Japan in a war that lasts from 1937-1942. The Pacific War ends with complete American dominance over East Asia. However Americans and Japanese will have to shed some more blood as a stubborn Japanese resistance makes occupation of the Home Islands a difficult and bloody affair. Meanwhile, exiled Bolshevik leader Leon Trotsky is swept back into power as senior adviser to the revolutionary regime of Gilldardo Magaña. Eventually, he becomes the de facto leader of the regime and while America is busy fighting the Japanese and the rest of the world on the verge of a second Great War, in 1938, with the same brutal efficiency he possessed as Lenin's War Commissar, Leon Trotsky leads the Mexican army south into Central and South America spreading world revolution. By 1945, Trotsky had won himself a new Soviet Union from Baja to Bogota. While in India, the Nizam of Hyderabad declares independence from the British in order to spare his realm from possible Ghadarite invasion as the shadow of a another Great War grows ever taller over the subcontinent (Hyderabad will play a big role in the future of this TL).
The Second Great War in Europe breaks out in 1941 when France, Britain and Russia gang up on Germany and her allies. French tanks roll through Iberia, Italy, the Low Countries and the Rhine frontier, dominating Western Europe in a few months. Britain invades Denmark to get to Germany and Scandinavia to take out German ally Sweden. The Soviets invade Eastern Europe and attempts with some initial success to break apart the Hapsburg Empire by supporting Tito's partisan campaign. The Soviets also invade the Ottoman Empire threatening the Bund's precious oil supplies. De Gaulle meets Rommel in the sands of North Africa and a new generation of Askaris rises to serve and defend German Africa. Also in India, the Ghadarite Republic goes to war with the Dominon of India with each side fighting for complete dominance over the subcontinent.
By 1944, the tide has turned with much of Western Europe liberated, de Gaulle defeated in North Africa, the Soviets pushed back into Russia and the British driven off the continent and off of India for good. German armies have stalled on the Russian border and have entered France. It is the beginning of the end for the Entente. However, the worst atrocity is saved for last as Jacques Doriot, chief of the Camelots in Africa opens the extermination camps and sends millions of Jews, Protestants, dissidents and POW's, West Africans and Algerians into their deaths in the form of gas chambers. By the time German and Ottoman armies liberate West and North Africa, it was too late for the four million dead. By the end of the year Paris is taken and atom bombs are dropped over Moscow and Leningrad. The USSR collapses. Charles Maurras, Maurice Pujo, King Jean III, Charles de Gaulle, Admiral Darlan and other French leaders are tried for warcrimes at the infamous Nantes Trials.
From the ashes of the Second Great War and the Pacific War a new world order emerges, in the form of the German-led European Union, the Ottoman-led Pan-Islamic Ummah and the American-led Pacific Commonwealth. The three spheres of power converge in Constantinople as the Chancellor, the President and the Grand Vizier declare a new era of "Pax Mundi". However, this new age of global peace is not entirely guaranteed as new threats appear to take the place of old ones. India turns on its former allies and starts supporting Ghadarite revolutionary cells in Africa and East Asia. A resurgent Russia initiates a nationwide campaign of violent pogroms against its Jews. Trotsky's great South American revolution has caused an equally great counterrevolution throughout the continent as extreme right-wing, Fascist regimes start springing up in Brazil, Argentina, Chile and on every other inch of South America that is not under Communist rule, setting the stage for another massive war. But the great powers of the world are determined to preserve "Pax Mundi" at whatever cost...
Again this is a very rough, quick and I would say "barebones" summary of the timeline with many details left out (such as cultural trends and scientific and technological advancement) and the actual TL will of course contain far, far more depth and detail than this. Also, this is just about the first half of the timeline, it would be too long to post the whole thing. Now a few questions;
1. Who could lead this TL's 1918 German Revolution? And the government that follows it? In terms of personalities and political factions?
Like I said, it is not unlike the November Revolution or the Spartacist Uprising but it is not Communist and much more mainstream than these OTL revolutions. Communist elements only form a minority in this revolutionary movement. Largely, it is made up of mainstream socialist, reformist and liberal elements as well as disgruntled, mutineering elements of the Army and Navy. They do not wish to overthrow the Kaiser or turn Germany into a Republic. Quoting Wikipedia these revolutionaries "did not have in mind to completely strip the old imperial elites of their power. Instead they sought to reconcile them with the new democratic conditions." The immediate objective of this Revolution is to wrestle back power as the war ends, from the Ludendorf-Hindenburg Dictatorship and its foremost goal is to bring about constitutional reform in Germany, to turn Germany into a "fully liberal democratic, parliamentary, constitutional monarchy". It was also born out of anti-war sentiments, popular unrest and deteriorating economic conditions.
Now in a matter of weeks, through protests, strikes and political actions rather than armed struggle, the Revolution succeeds and Germany is turned into a full democratic, parliamentary, constitutional monarchy with universal suffrage and proportional representation. What exactly would be the course of these events, I am not sure. Does anyone have any ideas?
Also, all I have are names like Frederich Ebert, Rosa Luxembourg, Max von Baden, Philipp Scheiderman, Hugo Hasse, etc. but I have no idea how they fit in in my scenario. Does anyone have any ideas? This part of the TL is really where I need the most help and probably one of the reasons why I haven't been able to write the TL.
And what would be the new German government after this revolution? Some of the important reforms achieved was that the Chancellor would no longer be appointed by or responsible to the Kaiser but to the Reichstag and this Reichstag would now be able to initiate legislation.
2. Can anyone describe what the British political scene would be like in such a scenario? Also in terms of names and political factions as this is another part of the TL I have some problems with.
3. Any other comments about the scenario? Constructive criticism and suggestions are welcome. Thanks!
