I presume that KMT China during the worst days of the Second Sino-Japanese War (for the RoC) would be a good analogy as they're technically at war with Germany.
Paralyzed in Darkness: A Very Different Cold War (TL)
- Thread starter TheReformer
- Start date
I think it should be bastordized Nazi version of Catholicism. Their leader Leon Degrelle was excommunicated I believe, for being way too racist.
Interestingly there is a Papal conclave coming up in 1939. Its possible that someone like Pacelli wins. You could have someone who is perfectly happy to sit aside and not really get involved with criticism or Berlin, such as Jean-Marie-Rodrigue Villeneuve. It's possible a more vocal opponent such as Maurillo Fossati, Eugène-Gabriel-Gervais-Laurent Tisserant or Karl Joseph Shute. It's possible that someone like Alois Hudal, assuming he can be butterflied into a Cardinal, can win. Having such a pro-Nazi Pope would have major ramifications for this world.
Mmm, I think the Church would regard it as important to selct someone who would resist Nazism,to be a voice for god and freedom in the darkness of mostlikely state atheist Europe.
Chapter I: The Sun Sets
The Sun Sets
The Empire of Japan had been a key ally to Germany since before the war - not necessarily because they could provide any clear military support for Germany, but instead because they provided an ample distraction for the world while the Reich reclaimed it's territories. Furthermore, Japan was much like Italy in that it was a former Entente power that felt cheated by their former allies - and a far more capable military power than Italy. Japan equally had the same strategic enemies as Germany; Britain, France, the Soviet Union and even the United States. Japan also like Germany however faced a serious set of challenges to achieve their goals of creating their so called 'co-prosperity sphere'; Japan was a nation with little real resources needed to fight a continued war. That is why for centuries they had been picking away at China, attempting to gain territory to ensure Japanese self-sustainability. To do this military planners in Japan had identified the need to seize Malaya, Indo-China and the Dutch East Indies; all of which being under Dutch, British and French rule. The peace between Germany and the Allied powers therefore significantly complicated matters for Japan who, fighting a major war in China, had barely a year of oil remaining in it's stores and now found itself under a global oil embargo from the UK, USA, France, Netherlands and virtually all major western powers. This too was a problem for Germany - however to Germany's advantage they had found friends in the Atlantic in Venezuela to supply them, along with their effective puppets in Romania and their currently limited production capacities from the USSR. Japan's military Government under Hideki Tojo did have a small stroke of luck when the Soviet Union collapsed under German attacks in 1941 however - with their military effort on the verge of collapse in China the Japanese Army finally had reason to pursue Hokushin-Ron, the Northern Road, and invade the Soviet Union.
On September 12th 1941 therefore the Japanese Emperor therefore officially sanctioned a military mission to invade the rump-USSR, declaring war on the fragmented 'Soviet Government' who had overthrown Stalin only a month before, executing him in a military coup and replacing him with Vyacheslav Molotov to deal with the nightmare scenario as the nation unraveled. The Japanese had fought the Soviets before, and in every occasion had lost. This conflict would prove to be little different. Japan's army poured across the Soviet border in September only to be confronted by surprisingly strong Soviet resistance who held the advantage of having a significant tank force compared to Japan's largely infantry based armed forces. Japan did have the advantage of a significant air force however, which helped Japan's advance to get going rather than being halted barely past the border. The capture of Vladivostok on October 30th would prove an important victory for Japan however by successfully cutting off a key supply port from Soviet forces and removing a hub of resistance to Japanese advances before winter set in. The weather however would soon render the Japanese advance almost entirely pointless by December, faced with mounting casualties, little real access to many formerly Soviet resources and nightmarish conditions on the vital infrastructure needed to transport that Infrastructure the Hokushin-Ron plan effectively failed within months of it beginning - all the while leaving Japan with even less oil to fight a drawn out war in China. Meanwhile the Allies had been allowed to prepare for any Japanese advances on their territories, the United Kingdom had guaranteed the security of the Netherlands following the war in the west from any attacks, German or otherwise, and France had by now begun the process of reconstruction. Britain too was significantly better prepared for any conflict, having mobilized it's armed forces and economy under Attlee's Government and dispatched additional naval forces to the east to combat the threat of aggression from Japan's increasingly bold military offensives. Japan was therefore left with two choices; either accept that it's war in China had been relatively unsuccessful and withdraw to defensible positions and seek a conditional peace with the Chinese Bloc, or use the last of it's oil and resources - that to an extent had been propped up by minor expansion of their resource base with the limited Soviet conquests - to fight a short and targeted war with the west for Malaysian and East Indies resources.
Japanese leadership weighed up their options, but in their mindset they had no reason to question their own ability to defeat the west. They had one of the world's biggest navies, a reasonable amount of fuel to fight a quick and decisive war, an experienced armed forces and they were in their own proximate waters whereas the west was fighting far from home. Furthermore the United States was still only just recovering from their economic crisis and had suffered a change of leadership in the 1940 Presidential election when President Roosevelt - facing no immediate military or economic crisis requiring him to stay on - had bowed out as per tradition and instead allowed his chosen successor Corden Hull to take the mantle of the Democratic Party nomination with Scott Lucas. Facing a charismatic and prepared Republican party however the United States Presidency had been won by businessman and dark horse candidate Wendell Willkie who ran alongside Charles McNary and successfully swept the mood of the nation, defeating Hull in a very close campaign. Willkie's Presidency as it turned out would be dominated not by the social issues he had campaigned on, but instead by the war that would soon come to head half war through his presidency when on February 7th 1942 Japan - after long consideration - launched a massive war effort against the perceived allies against it in the United Kingdom, United States, France and the Netherlands. The attack was brilliantly executed, becoming known as 'the day of infamy' by President Willkie following a massive air based attack on the US Naval base at Pearl Harbour that resulted in the death of over two thousand US Servicemen, the destruction of nearly 200 aircraft and the Sinking of four battleships and numerous other US Naval vessels. Failing to sink any US aircraft carierrs however Japan failed to achieve a vital strategic goal of putting one of the US' most vital Pacific assets out of use after American Military Intelligence cracked Japanese codes allowing them some warning that an attack was going to happen within the time frame of several days - just not telling them where. The attack was followed by attacks across the Asian colonies of the west including Singapore, Hong Kong, the Philippines and the Dutch East Indies landing decisive blows to the allied forces across the region. Not expecting such decisive and violent attacks so early into the conflict the allies reeled over how best to respond to the attacks with only Britain being fully prepared to fight back while countries like the Netherlands and France had little to no means of halting Japanese advances.
Japan's campaign was effective at the beginning, launching sea based invasions across the coast of French Indo-China, Naval invasions of the Dutch East Indies - successfully capturing significant amounts of vital resources including Oil - both of which fell within a month of the conflict, along with a significant attack on the Philippines which themselves fell in their entirity to Japanese occupation in July of 1942. The campaign in fact went so successfully that by July 1942 Singapore had even fallen to Japanese occupation after a bloody battle between British forces in the area and the Japanese, the British however successfully evacuating the city's garrison due to an increased Royal Navy presence in the area which ow re-based to India. Britain however, no longer distracted by Germany who had decided to decisively rule themselves out of any involvement in the conflict between Britain and Japan, quickly responded to the Military campaign leading to a decisive victory over the Japanese at the battle of Java Sea on April 27th 1942 when the Royal Navy, in conjunction with the Dutch and elements of the French and Australian fleets, successfully defeated the Japanese through greater combined firepower leading to the death of Japanese Admiral Takeo Takagi. The defeat was crushing for Japanese forces who until now had successfully defeated the allies in every battle and skirmish they had fought causing them somewhat of a dip in morale, but furthermore it was a disaster for the Japanese Government who were hoping to sue for a conditional peace with the Allies much like Germany had after they had dug into the vital positions in Malaya and the Dutch East Indies so as to be in the best possible position to call for a ceasefire. The defeat however encouraged instead a spirit of optimism in the UK and United States who despite the loss of Singapore and much of South East Asia now felt optimistic they would be capable of recapturing the territory.
The conflict entered it's second stage now as the United States mobilized it's economy, meanwhile Japan found itself in control of a vast area of the Pacific with little real resources to defend or maintain it. Japanese Naval planners found themselves incapable of even following their own strategic goals through the 'barrier defence' they hoped to use to achieve eventual peace as their naval doctrine meant their forces operated in large task forces as opposed to smaller groupings capable of fighting over a wide area - essentially they had created a plan but had no idea how to actually execute it when it mattered. This was only more evident when the tide turned against them at the Battle of the Coral Sea and the subsequent Battle of Midway during July and August of 1942, both of which resulting in decisive American victories in the United States' first major involvement in the lasting global conflicts - and inflicting damage on the Japanese fleet from which they could not recover. This then began the fight back by the United States and United Kingdom as the two enemies turned allies in the face of a mutual foe in the east began to slowly dismantle Japan's sprawling and poorly equipped empire.
Faced with a Japanese advance into Burma after the fall of the Kingdom of Thailand, Britain's focus throughout the eastern conflict was defending India and attempting to push back the Japanese from the Dutch East Indies and Malaya. This would be a challenging task as it forced Attlee's Government to divert a significant number of divisions and resources towards the east despite the possible threat of German aggression, however with Barbarossa having ended and reports of constant German military struggles in the east of their new sprawling empire Attlee felt confident that he could gamble by sending forces to combat Japan. Hitler's Government by contrast did have designs on attacking France for a second time, however with the alignment of the United States into the sphere of the Allies German military command encouraged the Fuhrer to focus instead on the development of the German sphere of influence in Europe and expanding German influence in Scandinavia as well as the middle east where Germany had been relentlessly pursuing better relations with the Turks in exchange for territorial concession from formerly Turkic parts of the USSR. Britain therefore was in a strong position in the east to launch bold military operations, launching an invasion of Sumatra following the Battle of Midway in January of 1943, landing south of Palembang and fighting an aggressive campaign to capture the vital oil city with little supply other than that shipped into minor southern ports on Sumatra and what could be air-dropped into the Island. The United States by contrast unlike Britain had only just awoken it's military industry and as such spent much of 1943 doing little in terms of aggressive actions otheer than to occasionally challenge Japanese advances and invade islands that the Japanese were suggested to be using for aggressive purposes. This included launching their own marine landings on Guadalcanal to halt the construction of Japanese air assets on the island as the first of many 'island hopping' operations throughout 1942 to 1944.
The United States' first major aggressive actions began in mid 1944 with the battle of Saipan which would be invaded following the battle of the Philippine Sea in June of 1944. The American victory in such a vital battle was the beginning of the end for Japan's hopes of a conditional victory in Asia allowing the US to recapture Guam and Tinian, instead meaning that their operations in China such as Ichi-Go yielding success merely meant wasting resources needed to oppose the Americans where the war would be won or lost; at sea. The Combination of the now sizable US Naval apparatus which had been bolstered in the Pacific by the Atlantic fleet due to a lack of combatants in the Atlantic, along with the expansion of US military capacity over 1943, with the fleet of the United Kingdom which had now almost solely focused on the destruction of Japanese forces in the east had proven too much. Britain alone had begun a process of "elimination and extraction" as they began an aggressive campaign using Indian and British forces to push Japanese forces from India, all the while learning from the Invasion of Sumatra in 1943 to launch further naval based invasions of Borneo, Java and Malaya throughout 1943 and 1944. Each invasion proving more and more successful as time progressed and the Royal Marines became more experienced in their new found role in the east - while cutting Japan off from vital resources it needed to maintain a combat ready fleet. The Japanese Government, fearing defeat even by mid 1943, reached out to the German Government to attempt to open a second front against the allies to distract Britain and the US from the Pacific Theater, but to the dismay of the Japanese Hitler refused - focusing instead on the fact that Germany had succeeded in it's goals and now intended to dig into and secure their new lands, while also secretly being aware that Germany;s ability to fight in France may by 1944 be limited due to ongoing conflict in Russia and occupied European territories that the Wehrmacht had to devote significant resources to maintain control over.
The end for the Empire of the Rising Sun seemed near for many observing nations, the US Government after a string of victories now prepared for the eventual invasion of the Japanese Home Islands, while Nazi Germany actively sought to disassociate themselves with the Honorary Aryans in the Pacific and the United Kingdom began to work out what it wanted for it's ever increasing role in the eastern conflict. Even in China things began to look bleak with the Japanese unable to advance and their Southern front beginning to collapse following the British invasion of Kuala Lumpur - cutting off Singapore and the Japanese forces in Malaya and soon after threatening to open Indo-China up to British naval invasion following the liberation of Singapore in July of 1944. The battle of Leyte Gulf would be the final killing blow for Japan's imperial empire in South East Asia; with the largest naval battle in history resulting in an American victory that opened up the Philippines to invasion by the United States in October of 1944. The capture of Iwo Jima in February and Okinawa in June 1945 marked the final isolation of Japanese forces on their home islands too, launching desperate Kamikaze attacks against American and British forces in a bid to dissuade American forces from landing on the Japanese home islands instead in a bid for peace.
The United States President Thomas Dewey was however determined that peace would be nothing but unconditional, Dewey having been elected to the position to succeed sitting President Allen Dulles who himself had 'inherited' the position after the death of President Willkie in April of 1944 from a heart attack - the Vice President Charles McNary having also died several months before Willkie due to a brain tumour and never been replaced putting Secretary of State Dulles next in the line of succession. Dewey, who had defeated Richard Russell Jnr - the moderate progressive Democrat from Georgia, had run on a campaign of bringing Japan to Democracy, establishing the US as a major player in global geopolitics out of isolation and winning the war whatever the cost. He was in luck therefore when the Manhattan project was completed on July 16th 1945, creating a method to defeat the Japanese that did not require landing on the home islands. Dewey immediately authorized the use of the weapon, with the bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima following a month later on August 6th and 9th respectively after the Japanese Government refused to unconditionally surrender to the Allies. It was at this point that the sun officially set and Japan after a thousand years of development and expansion from a nation of fragmented warlords to a global superpower in the east officially gave in, surrendering to the United States and United Kingdom and submitting themselves to joint occupation by the two nations. The UK having contributed a vast amount to the war effort in Asia, including the bulk of the Royal Navy and several successful invasions of Japanese held territories, would become the administrator of Shikoku and Kyushu while the United States would administer the larger island of Honshu and Hokkaido.
The surrender of Japan to the Allies would mark the effective end of the period of separate conflicts that would come to be identified as the Second world war. While many of the conflicts failed to overlap, the sheer proximity and ferocity of the conflict involved justified the identification of the war and would be how the war was referred to by all western powers excluding the German Reich who would denote their own wars as the "Great War of Unification". The United States and United Kingdom would emerge from the conflict as two of the world's most powerful nations, the UK having barely been touched by the damage caused by either conflict with Germany or Japan and having used the threat of war to revitalize their economy and Military. The United States having established themselves as a dominant world power - overtaking even the United Kingdom - and building a vast economy of scale that even industrialized Germany could not compete against. It was now down to the Western Allies who now labelled themselves as the "United Nations", who only a few years before had nearly come to war, to define the fate of Japan, Asia and to an extent the geopolitical nature of the world for the rest of the 20th Century...
Im wondering what will be the effect on the UKs role in decolinization will be, maybe a focus on making sure that Facism dosen't rise up when they leave. Also an Idea which would be cool would be to have a Nazi aligned india. their was support for Facism in India, with Hindu Nationalists and Bose runnig around it be awesome to see them take over. Maybe even paralles to China with the USA and Britan talking about who lost india,be pretty intersting.
I don't know how decolonization will go, but I seriously doubt Libya will be decolonized.
Without a long war in Europe and Africa as in OTL, Italian colonization policy will turn it to a majority Italian region pretty quickly, allowing for integration in the state, also given the close proximity, instead of decolonization.
Italy should also be in a better economical situation than OTL and could try to buy Tunisia from France, which is probably in more need of economic help compared to a slightly longer african colony.
Without a long war in Europe and Africa as in OTL, Italian colonization policy will turn it to a majority Italian region pretty quickly, allowing for integration in the state, also given the close proximity, instead of decolonization.
Italy should also be in a better economical situation than OTL and could try to buy Tunisia from France, which is probably in more need of economic help compared to a slightly longer african colony.
It’s nice to see this TL back!
I find TTL’s United Kingdom quite refreshing - most Nazi Cold War TLs tend to have a weak or bankrupted Britain, so to see a Britain apparently stronger after the war is interesting indeed! It will be interesting to see if they can maintain this strength, in light of decolonisation.
Just a few questions if you don’t mind:
1. Can I ask what the Australian/New Zealand perspective of the Japanese conflict was? In OTL the Fall of Singapore marked the end of paramount British influence in both countries and the beginning of their close strategic relationship with the Americans (especially Australia). I notice that Singapore still fell, so how did these countries react? Did they grow closer to the US at the expense of the UK still? Did the Australians still view it as a near-betrayal?
2. Was Vladivostok returned to the rump Soviet Union after the Japanese surrender? Is the USSR closely aligned/allied with the ‘Western Allies’?
Thanks,
I find TTL’s United Kingdom quite refreshing - most Nazi Cold War TLs tend to have a weak or bankrupted Britain, so to see a Britain apparently stronger after the war is interesting indeed! It will be interesting to see if they can maintain this strength, in light of decolonisation.
Just a few questions if you don’t mind:
1. Can I ask what the Australian/New Zealand perspective of the Japanese conflict was? In OTL the Fall of Singapore marked the end of paramount British influence in both countries and the beginning of their close strategic relationship with the Americans (especially Australia). I notice that Singapore still fell, so how did these countries react? Did they grow closer to the US at the expense of the UK still? Did the Australians still view it as a near-betrayal?
2. Was Vladivostok returned to the rump Soviet Union after the Japanese surrender? Is the USSR closely aligned/allied with the ‘Western Allies’?
Thanks,
It's good to get it going again!
1. They would certainly feel let down by the fact Britain ultimately was pushed back and lost vital positions like Singapore and Hong Kong - this would mean the US would become a more strategic ally in the eyes of some, however in both nations there equally would be somewhat of a recognition that actually Britain's role in the conflict would be greater than it was in OTL. For example the Japanese defeat at the Battle of the Java sea by largely Britain alone would be marked as a sign that even despite losing Singapore, Britain was still unquestionably a power in the east. As such the Australians and Kiwis would find themselves recognizing the need to stay close to America - but equally a reminder that Britain is still their mother country. So basically, the impact is markedly less than in OTL, but there is still an impact.
2. The next update deals with what happens in the east in regards to borders and the division of the Japanese Empire, as well as what happened to Russia post-invasion and other places such as Madagascar, Italy and the geopolitics involved there. So stay tuned and you'll find out today hopefully!
Wow I wonder What got into the IJN high command facing off against a US weakened by depression and a Britain embroiled in Europe is one thing facing a Britain a France and a US who devote everything against them is another the RN and MN can afford to commit everything to the fareast minus a few heavy fleet assets to keep an eye on the Italians and Germans
How? The Singapore campaign In OTL was hampered by the real lack of 1st rate troops defending it due to the fact the Western Desert was drawing in everything with no campaign in Egypt and Libya ANZAC units and the British army can actually deploy quality troops to the peninsula and the Japanese attack which was close enough as it is fails Singapore holds and the Japanese campaign still grinds to a crushing halt. Also was the Java sea supposed to be before or after the fall of Singapore in the timeline?
Chapter I: To Make the World Anew Again
To Make The World Anew Again
The world had changed dramatically since 1938; the ancient state of Russia had been pushed out of it's own homelands, the Empire of the Rising Sun in Asia had been destroyed, China had been largely unified by conflict and the map of western Europe defiled by the re-establishment of the ancient state of Burgundy. The world map itself was unrecognizable, and yet still in 1945 following the surrender of Japan the United Nations had a chance to change and define it even further by deciding the fate of the east. The immediate question the allies faced was this; what should the fates of the colonies Japan had taken be and how should they deal with the future of Japan?
For the Allies the answer for both was becoming increasingly clearer; all nations that had been under Japanese occupation would see their territory returned to them; this included French, British and Dutch colonial possessions in Asia and South East Asia. Furthermore the Republic of China would reclaim all the lost territories the Japanese had occupied from it - including the lands of the puppet Government under Puyi in Manchuria and Mengjiang previously ruled by various warlords. Furthermore, the island of Formosa would be annexed by the Republic of China to reduce Japanese influence in the South China sea. The nation of Korea would be liberated under the protection of the United States as a Presidential Republic, and the United States would furthermore annex all the island territories occupied by the Japanese throughout the pacific, excluding Okinawa where the US would keep a permanent military presence on the Island but not annex it. The real question for the United States however was what to do with the formerly soviet territory occupied by Japanese forces. While on the one hand the US could return the territory to the rump Government of the Soviet Union now based in Novosibirsk, that Government had next to no influence in the former Soviet Territories and much of the nation was essentially falling apart. Rebellions had erupted nationwide with ethnic groupings such as the Kazakhs, Uzbeks and even tiny groups like the Siberian Chuckchul and Yakut establishing their own 'de facto' states governed by tribal rule or local militias able to establish local rule due to the inability of Soviet forces to maintain order after mass desertion and an effective civil war erupting across ethnically Russian Siberia between various warring factions. President Dewey therefore came to the conclusion that if the Russian Government - a communist one to add - could no longer maintain order over the Russian Eastern Seaboard then the United States would have to establish a Government that could. Thankfully there was precedent to do so; the United States and Japanese having established the 'Far Eastern Republic' in April of 1920 during the last civil war - something that the United States would now repeat.
The new Republic was therefore established as the Transbaikal Republic in 1945 - translating directly as "Republic beyond Baikal" - and adopting a constitution wherein a President would be elected as the head of state and Government by Parliament - or the Duma - which would itself be elected directly by the people in General elections every four years. This model of Government the US and Russian authorities working alongside the US felt would be the best model to ensure stability in the new country through a relatively centralized leadership, but equally would slowly act as a means of reintroducing the Russian people to democracy. The country would hold it's first elections in June 1946 where several parties would be formed to campaign for the 100 seats semi-proportionally assigned in the State Duma; the Trudoviks under Ivan Yumashev - the former Admiral of the Soviet Pacific Fleet that had now been largely taken over by Transbaikal - winning a landslide victory over the new 'Svoboda' (Freedom) and 'Cadet' (Constitutional Democratic) parties headed by Ivan Ilyin and Vladimir Nabokov respectively; both former Emigres. The Republic of China too began restoring order in it's war torn country through the military leadership of Chiang Kai-shek who - after the United States ordered all Japanese forces in China to surrender to the Kuomintang and not the Communists - ordered all Japanese forces in Manchuria to remain in their posts rather than surrender to communist forces closer to the region. This caused a crisis of confidence among the Japanese Kwantung army in Manchuria who were attacked relentlessly by Communist militias attempting to take advantage of the absence of any Kuomintang forces or were in many cases convinced to surrender to Communists pretending to be members of the Kuomintang. The result was a level of organised chaos in the north of Manchuria which now became divided between the Communists and Kuomintang, both of whom quickly descended back into the civil war they had put on hold following the Japanese invasion of the country in 1937. Most of the major industrial centres and military equipment held by the Japanese in Manchuria however was captured by Kuomintang forces, forcing the conflict to quickly drag into a stalemate in the north with the Communists unable to gain much ground and the Kuomintang unable to push them out of it.
The establishment of the Republic of Korea however was somewhat more complex than the Transbaikal Republic which had a constitutional base to work with from the old Far Eastern Republic - Korea had never constitutionally governed itself in the region's entire history and as such required significant stabilization and the establishment of many Government agencies. Korea would remain under the governance of the United States as a result for three years while a civil service and various basic infrastructures of the state were established before the United Nations permitted free and democratic elections. The first Korean elections would take place in May of 1948 for a Constitutional assembly to decide the new Constitution of the nation which were won heavily by the National Association for the Rapid Realization of Korean Independence. These would be followed a month after by the indirect election of the first Korean President Syngman Rhee by the assembly, establishing the country as largely independent officially. Japan too was undergoing a transformation towards a democratic state, General Douglas MacArthur having commanded forces in the Pacific and now managing the occupation of the Islands alongside the British. While many in the United States urged for the removal of the Emperor from power the British, with their longer standing and deeper relationship with the Japanese, and a segment of the US Military rejected the notion; urging MacArthur instead to focus on empowering the Japanese Parliament and reforming the Emperor's role into one of a ceremonial head of state much like many Scandinavian and European Monarchies. MacArthur, who was focusing just as much on his career as the future of Japan, accepted the idea - demanding that he meet the Emperor to judge his character which led to the legendary photograph of the General towering over the Emperor, diminishing his authority and helping the transition away from the Emperor's 'God' Status in Japan. Elections too were held later in 1946 leading to the victory of the Liberal Party under Ichiro Hatoyama in a very hung Parliament that resulted in the appointment of Shigeru Yoshida as Prime Minister and elections barely a year later in 1947 that would be won by Tetsu Katayama's Socialist Party.
In Russia however, unlike the increasingly more stable east, the situation began to rapidly unravel. Facing a vast humanitarian crisis on their western border as millions of malnourished, exhausted and injured ethnic Russians, Poles, Lithuanians, Czechs, Estonians and Latvians poured across the border at gunpoint as Generalplan Ost began to be implemented in full. The Soviet Government - already facing revolts within their diminished Military and the emergence of numerous ethnic states such as Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan - had effectively collapsed with Soviet Premier Molotov facing unsolvable challenges he could not even begin to start to fix. The result - as with many times of questioning national survival - was the Military stepping in, or at least trying to. Georgy Zhukov, one of the most renowned and popular Generals in the Soviet Union for his various valiant defences against the Germans, staged a military uprising based from the city of Irkutsk against the Soviet Government and sought to ally his faction with the United States. Zhukov's plan however was one of desperation and if anything personal survival, himself having too few troops to actually overthrow the Government, instead leading to a long battle over the wastes of Siberia down the Trans-Siberian Railway. This would be the beginning of what the New York Times would famously label the "Balkanization of Russia" as various Military units began to take control of various areas of the country much akin to that of China after the fall of the Qing Dynasty. Furthermore, with no support from the crumbling Soviet Government many of the millions of refugees began to take matters into their own hands, many of them simply using their numbers to forcibly take over weapons caches in Soviet towns and villages and then occupying territories that they could then call home. The first of these rebellions taking place outside 'Das Balk' - the southern German border fortress where tens of thousands were expelled each day - when Polish and Baltic civilians seized various Soviet villages and towns, establishing a 'safe haven' state ruled by a council of various ethnic 'tribes' of peoples expelled from their homelands. Much of the world however had no real knowledge of the crisis being faced on the western Russian border - and no means of helping those who were suffering.
Europe by contrast was beginning to settle into the new realities of German domination on the continent. Three years after the war had come to a close conflict had not erupted again and the Germans had focused mainly on their own problems rather than interfering in the affairs of other states - with the exception of the Balkans and Scandinavia where they continued to control and manipulate the Governments of various states. This was especially notable in Yugoslavia which remained the sole Balkan country to resist German authority following the treaty of Stockholm. With Romania having quickly fallen into line with economic incentives and the assumption of power by Ion Antonescu's 'Iron Guard' Government under the new King Michael - who took power in a bloodless coup against King Carol who's popularity had heavily waned in September of 1940 - and Bulgaria having joined with the Axis following the fall of Greece. Yugoslavia by contrast had refused to fall in line with the Axis and remained a strong ally of the United Nations of the United Kingdom, France and the United States. Hitler - still in the mindset of conquering Europe - set his sights on how best to break the Yugoslavian state in order to legitimize a military intervention in the region by Italy, and turned to Mussolini's Croat ally to see through the process. Ante Pavelic - leader of the Croatian nationalist Ustaše movement - had long retained good relations with the Italian Duce, a fact that encouraged Germany to finance and arm the Ustaše forces that had been trained by Italy for the past few years to begin an insurgency in Northern Yugoslavia. While the Ustaše was actually very small, once their rebellion began in full with the occupation of Zagreb in May of 1944 by only a few thousand militiamen support soon began to build. This would only be further helped when during a visit to Germany to meet the Fuhrer, Vladko Maček - leader of the Croatian Peasants Party - was forced into making a public radio broadcast in support of the rebellion under Pavelic, calling Pavelic the "liberator of the croats". The rebellion soon occupied significant sections of Northern ethnic Croatia and briefly the city of Split where intense fighting rose up between the Ustaše and Yugoslavian forces. Several border crossings with the third Reich were soon established by Ustaše forces however allowing Germany to pour in equipment to support the movement without western observation or knowledge - along with small numbers of soldiers and advisors for the rebel forces which soon occupied the entire northern border of the country despite the often brutal fighting between the Ustaše and Yugoslav forces in the region. Yugoslavian King Peter II decried the conflict as an illegal pretext to invasion by Germany and Italy - correctly assessing the situation - to the UN, arguing that such an invasion would be a breach of the treaty of Stockholm and a pretext for war with Germany. This came to the United States and United Kingdom at the worst possible time - both being focused on the defeat of Japan - and thus was largely ignored, instead the allies opting to provide security guarentees to the Yugoslav Government and provide weapons and training instead; thus establshing the first real proxy conflict between the Reich and the Allies.
While Yugoslavia erupted into organised chaos, Britain too had to deal with the aftermath of the effective destruction of the homelands of Belgium and Denmark, and more importantly the consequences for their colonies and possessions. Iceland would be the first to gain total independence, being established as a nationstate in mid 1943 after holding their first elections - the Danish Government in exile having given the authority of the future of the country to the British following their nation's annexation by Germany. Greenland would however be occupied by British forces as a protected region of the British Commonwealth, as would the Congo which King Leopold of Belgium had surrendered to British control following Belgium's partition in the Treaty of Stockholm to be protected as the French were incapable of doing so with the future of the colony being either french control after a five year period or eventual independence. King Leopold III of the Belgians himself would become a King in exile in the United Kingdom, remaining in the country for as long as deemed neccessary before the liberation of his people should that day come with a pension provided for him on the behalf of the British crown. King Christian X of Denmark by contrast would become the honorary head of state of the new Icelandic nation in line with the nation's already existing monarchy as part of Denmark, and would reign from the island for the rest of his life.
France too by 1946 had adapted to it's new found situation through the proclamation of the Fourth Republic by now President Petain who through the backing of the Armed Forces and the political right established himself as the head of state by decree. This new 'fourth Republic' would be considerably more authoritarian than the last, electing a President every seven years with the power to effectively run the country via the executive in consultation with a Prime Minister that the President would appoint at his or her choosing - Petain choosing Georges Bidault. A President too could serve as many terms as they wished, allowing the theoretical possibility of a 14 or even 21 year or more administration. This gave Petain the powers he needed to restore stability to France after the turmultuous events of the early 1940's, which he deployed quickly by establishing a vast national works program to expand housing construction and industrial development to create jobs and provide basic conditions for the four and a half million Frenchmen and women who fled from the new Fascist state of Burgundy on France's eastern border. This program, labelled the 'Projet de Salut', would become a pivotal driver to Frabce's economic recovery and national awakening to their new weakened position in the face of the significantly more powerful German Reich. Even Hitler - despite disliking Petain and the French in general - was surprised and taken aback by the success of Petain's reforms and centralisation of authority behind the state, labelling the French as "Surprisingly resilient cowards". Their development too was outshining that of the Order State of Burgundy which remained a problem for German leaders throughout the war on the eastern front due to insurgent actions and administrative problems. It's economy, built on a pre-war French and Belgian industry not designed to face such a vast geopolitical change as the nation had seen, forced Germany spent significant amounts of money purchasing Burgundian goods and produce in order to prop up the local economy in the region. However despite significant problems the nation was on the track to eventual stability with the employmet of propaganda tatics and erection of monuments towards the historical rulers of Burgundy, along with various programs to encourage French-German and German-Belgian cultural mixing. The military too was re-organised into segregated division structures to maintain order by establishing seperate French, Belgian and German battalions within each division to lessen cultural and ethnic strain with language courses in German becoming mandatory with the aim to make it the sole language of the Burgundian military and eventually state as a whole.
The world had been rocked by changes of a vast magnitude, the political regimes of whole continents affected and changed forever with the rise of European Fascism, the fall of Asian Absolutism, the emergence of American Geopolitical dominance through the Manhattan project and the reform and recovery of the French State. The questions the world now faced were simple though; where would be the next battleground? what would be the future of the ideological divide facing Europe? What was the future of a now divided Russia and China? But most importantly, how would the German Reich and it's allies build it's relationship with the rest of the world in an age of conflict, neo-imperialism and most importantly; the atom. As Winston Churchill would remark; "an Iron Curtain has been drawn around Europe" and an uncertain world emerged from six years of global conflict once more.
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@Gonzo kindly made me these infoboxes for you all to enjoy on the Presidential elections - he also has been making them for my various other elections including the British election and the Transbaikal one above so much credit to him! I hope you have enjoyed the first chapter, we now move onto Chapter 2!1940 Presidential Election
1944 Presidential Election
Wait,Taft is Dewys running mate,how in hell did that happen. Dewy and Taft HATED each other's guts and we're different on a good deal of the major issues. They would never of even considered making the other their running mate.
They did indeed hate each other OTL, however it is important to note that the OTL conditions in 1944 and 1948 do not exist in this TL, meaning their relations do not further deteriorate beyond its 1940 levels. Plus there's the added benefit of Taft being taken out of the Senate loop for the most part, so the OTL neo-Irreconcilables (so to speak) are going to be smaller than OTL.
