Post WW1-WJ Bryan Aftermath. (Part II)
Former President Bryan would live only about five years after his presidency--becoming deeply involved the Scopes Trial over the scientific validity of Evolution, and it the stress of the matter, as well as his personal humiliation at the hands of Clarance Darrow, would be his personal end.
The Newly Elected Republican President, Herbert Hoover, was an established businessman whose poltical efforts began in 1914 by feeding a huge number of Starving Belgians. President Bryan named Hoover as his Secretary of Commerce during his second term in office, but Hoover emerged as a strong figure without a great deal of partisan loyalty. His nomination was somewhat of a surprise, but votes seem to click with Hoover--he was chosen over his top rival, Silent Cal Coolidge and was given the large task of reintegrating the United States with a world ravaged by war.
Hoover's calls for still larger loans to France and the United Kingdom would be his own undoing. France and the UK eagerly accepted the loans, but within the space of two years, they had defaulted on their debts. While Hoover led a small push for a reduction in tariffs, Postwar France and UK were in no position to pay, even with Hoover's reforms. Their Default on US debts, and the resultant seizure of their assets in America would be an ugly spat and a humiliation of what had once been a national hero. Herbert Hoover, although successful in economic and domestic consequences in most other situations, was voted out by an electorate that was receiving the first ripples of what would become the Great Depression.
Despite his failings and the challenges of the economy, Hoover ran a hard race and nearly survived the political challenge against Al Smith. The blunder that doomed the Hoover Campaign was a last-minute attack of Smith's Catholicism, a move that Hoover to his dying day claimed no responsibility toward. And so, in 1924, Al Smith becomes the US President. The economic rumbling that gave voters pause during Hoover's election knocked the legs out of Smith's Presidency. The Stock Market Crash of June 1927 would cause half of the United States GDP to disappear. Al Smith would attempt various measures to deal with the crisis, but he didn't enjoy Congress' full support on many issues, and indeed, the Republicans would want to make those moves themselves. Al Smith did kill prohibition, however, bringing an end to bootleg empires. Finally, in 1928, the Republicans would run a new candidate to create a very different fix to the great depression.
His Name was William Edgar Borah. And he was a proponent of a pro-industry resolution to the economic crisis that unfolded. President Borah was a major supporter of free trade and saw the still considerable tariffs around the world as largely responsible for the continued suffering of the world economy. The Hundred Days would see a flurry of new bills and a reduction of taxes to stimulate the economy. Perhaps most provocative of all, Borah called for a global economic conference to address the Depression that had started in 1927.
The Rest of the World was head deep in its own problems. The House of Napoleon was seizing more and more power as the French Government failed to end the crisis. The United Kingdom suffered five prime ministers in the space of twelve months. Even the comparatively well off Central powers were deeply hurt: Germany suffered massive inflation as the government attempted naively to print money to pay for additional government services. The Panic also meant the end of Austria-Hungary-Slavonia. The Three States would part ways. It would be an amiable divorce with members of the Hapsburg Family retained on the thrones of each nation, but besides remaining closely allied the former Trial Monarchy would become seperate countries--Austria would retain Bohemia, Veneto/Fruili, Slovenia and its current territory, while Hungary would recieve Slovakia, Transylvania and its present OTL border. The Rest of the area, a region roughly equal to modern Yugoslavia, would become the new state of Slavonia.
Finally, a resentful, Anti-American Japan struggled to maintain control over its Imperial Army. It would be short years before that control would be lost entirely.
Borah's Conference, chaired in Essen, was a call for a international trading body to lower tariffs and increase global trade--and it was a deal that had a very unexpected outcome. The USA succeeded in greatly increasing its trading ties to Germany and the Hapsburg countries, but Revolutionary Italy and Monarchial France were less interested. The Ottomans refused to budge on Oil but considered smaller measures, but the United Kingdom made few concessions, and Japan flat out stonewalled the entire meeting. Borah could never have known it at the time, but this meeting would, a short decade in the future, lead to a German-American alliance.
Borah would serve his full term, and a second, in office. This Period (1928 to 1936) would see the USA, Germany, the Hapsburg Countries and parts of Scandinavia forming closer trading ties. The United Kingdom keeps its alliance with France (whose time is running out), but its empire has begun to fade. The Increasingly Inward UK government simply lacks the heart to maintain its far-flung colonies. Revolts in Palestine and India are met with UK acceptance of the rebels pulling out of these regions. Ultimately, the UK's slow withdrawal from her colonies and pulling into a smaller, more stable shell would be the final straw that begins the Second World War.
That specter has been on the rise for some time. The Soviet Union, under Lenin, and then after his retirement Leon Trotsky, seeks global revolution. While Ukraine, Finland and the Baltic States are clearly German, the post-war fatigue and general tiredness of the English to keep their colonies has revived a old theme from history--The Great Game between Russia and India. Except that if Trotsky plays his cards correctly, India itself might become communist. Trotsky, however, has considerable enemies at home--Laventi Beria, a prolific abuser of women and girls--is the most dangerous of the bunch, a psychotic Georgian whose quiet acquisition of power means that if Trotsky should fail, the next leader of the Soviet Union would be a terrible monster.
By 1935, the Great Game has already began. The Soviet Union storms into Afghanistan to create a more pliant puppet. Iran is Finlandized--not invaded but intimidated into a friendly relationship with its powerful Red Neighbor. The Afghan Army fights tenaciously. In India, it is a testament to the skill and dedication of Mohandas Gandhi that Muslims and Hindus remain in the same state. But whether Gandhi likes it or not, war is raging in the horizon, and Indian Muslims demand a response.
In China, Generalissimo Chiang-Kai Shek faces Zhou Enlai and his Trostkyite Supporters of the Zet Armiya. Japan has already won a war against at least one faction of China, Zhang Xueling's Fengtain Clique has been crushed. It helps that Chiang cautioned against the War with the IJA and refused to intervene in the conflict, but History will record 1930 and the Mukden Incident as the beginning of another War between China and Japan. Far worse than OTL, Chiang is squaring off against a large number of Communist Volunteers from the Soviet Union, and the Civil War is not going anywhere as favorably--indeed, large sections of rural areas now swear loyalty to the Great Trotsky and Chairman Zhou.
In Europe, an abused Italy and a humilated France look eagerly at Germany and the Former Triple Monarchy. World War II is in the wind...