Not too different from the last time we checked in. It's in a very similar position to Poland, the Baltics, et al. Although most nations (but for France of course) have embassies there, and they ostensibly are Westphalian nation-states.... let's just say that Emperor Bao Dai's de facto power starts and stops in the Imperial Palace, except for the room where the Japanese 'adviser to the crown' works.

See where I'm going? ;)
Whats the position of the French government on this nations?
 
Not too different from the last time we checked in. It's in a very similar position to Poland, the Baltics, et al. Although most nations (but for France of course) have embassies there, and they ostensibly are Westphalian nation-states.... let's just say that Emperor Bao Dai's de facto power starts and stops in the Imperial Palace, except for the room where the Japanese 'adviser to the crown' works.

See where I'm going? ;)
Let me guess the Japanese are going to get to cocky and are going to try to pull a treaty of brest litovsk unto the British empire.
 
Whats the position of the French government on this nations?
In one word? Profane.
In all seriousness, they don't recognise them and never will. France briefly declared war on Japan over this, but obviously they couldn't do anything since it was right after getting kicked in the teeth by Germany. The Third Republic continues to fully claim Indochina (as well as the Guangzhouwan concession, also stolen), and as of TTL's January 1918, doesn't have diplomatic relations with Tokyo. But then, with much of the Marine Nationale in German/Italian hands, and the nearest French possessions Fiji and Madagascar, Paris's opinion doesn't really matter in Tokyo.

Georges Sorel and the other Communist revolutionaries have kept their traps shut on Indochina thus far. Some wonder if this might be deliberate, designed to lead to a rapprochement between Red France on the one hand and Japan on the other...
Let me guess the Japanese are going to get to cocky and are going to try to pull a treaty of brest litovsk unto the British empire.
That is possible, but not in the immediate future. As of right now, we're still in the Taisho Democracy period, the Great Kanto Earthquake has yet to bugger up the Japanese economy, and the Great Depression has yet to occur (and it may well be butterflied!). So the militaristic culture which led to OTL's Second Sino-Japanese War and Pacific War has yet to develop. That said, the Great Indian Revolt has seriously weakened Britain's credibility in the region, while the seizure of Indochina has given Japan a little foretaste of Victory Disease. Once the time comes to renew the Anglo-Japanese Alliance (in 1922), we may see some butterflies strike the British Empire...
 
In one word? Profane.
In all seriousness, they don't recognise them and never will. France briefly declared war on Japan over this, but obviously they couldn't do anything since it was right after getting kicked in the teeth by Germany. The Third Republic continues to fully claim Indochina (as well as the Guangzhouwan concession, also stolen), and as of TTL's January 1918, doesn't have diplomatic relations with Tokyo. But then, with much of the Marine Nationale in German/Italian hands, and the nearest French possessions Fiji and Madagascar, Paris's opinion doesn't really matter in Tokyo.

Georges Sorel and the other Communist revolutionaries have kept their traps shut on Indochina thus far. Some wonder if this might be deliberate, designed to lead to a rapprochement between Red France on the one hand and Japan on the other...

That is possible, but not in the immediate future. As of right now, we're still in the Taisho Democracy period, the Great Kanto Earthquake has yet to bugger up the Japanese economy, and the Great Depression has yet to occur (and it may well be butterflied!). So the militaristic culture which led to OTL's Second Sino-Japanese War and Pacific War has yet to develop. That said, the Great Indian Revolt has seriously weakened Britain's credibility in the region, while the seizure of Indochina has given Japan a little foretaste of Victory Disease. Once the time comes to renew the Anglo-Japanese Alliance (in 1922), we may see some butterflies strike the British Empire...
Cool cool.

what ever happens to jazz here? Am I big jazz fan IRL and I hope it survives this timeline too.

Also I think this world will see a more conservative Europe. All the liberalizing effects of the fall of the monarchies Vatican two ect ect seem to be butterflied away.
 
In one word? Profane.
In all seriousness, they don't recognise them and never will. France briefly declared war on Japan over this, but obviously they couldn't do anything since it was right after getting kicked in the teeth by Germany. The Third Republic continues to fully claim Indochina (as well as the Guangzhouwan concession, also stolen), and as of TTL's January 1918, doesn't have diplomatic relations with Tokyo. But then, with much of the Marine Nationale in German/Italian hands, and the nearest French possessions Fiji and Madagascar, Paris's opinion doesn't really matter in Tokyo.

Georges Sorel and the other Communist revolutionaries have kept their traps shut on Indochina thus far. Some wonder if this might be deliberate, designed to lead to a rapprochement between Red France on the one hand and Japan on the other...

That is possible, but not in the immediate future. As of right now, we're still in the Taisho Democracy period, the Great Kanto Earthquake has yet to bugger up the Japanese economy, and the Great Depression has yet to occur (and it may well be butterflied!). So the militaristic culture which led to OTL's Second Sino-Japanese War and Pacific War has yet to develop. That said, the Great Indian Revolt has seriously weakened Britain's credibility in the region, while the seizure of Indochina has given Japan a little foretaste of Victory Disease. Once the time comes to renew the Anglo-Japanese Alliance (in 1922), we may see some butterflies strike the British Empire...
Now this is interesting a Japan without the militarists. I actually find that scenario more interesting than watching them duke it out with the Brits.
 
Let me guess the Japanese are going to get to cocky and are going to try to pull a treaty of brest litovsk unto the British empire.
A lot would depend on what happens in the 1920s. People tend to assume that Japan would inevitably go ultra-militarist before rampaging across Asia, looting and raping as they go, but in reality, that depended as much on external factors as it did on internal ones. In particular, Japan's diplomatic isolation from 1922 onwards - largely thanks to America making a point to sever the Anglo-Japanese Treaty - pushed it to find new allies. Ironically, Japan had expected as much as early as 1916, when they approached the Russians, but the Russian Revolution ended that line of thought. In the end, Japan found new allies among the Great Powers in Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, which greatly-influenced the downward trend for Japanese democracy in the 1930s.

Here, though, Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany will never rise. Assuming America still forces Britain to sever their alliance with Japan, and Japan still aligns with the CPs, well, the influence will nowhere be as bad. If anything, the German Empire's influence might actually stabilize the Taisho Democracy and allow it continue in the Showa Era, given the similarities between them, to say nothing of Japan's tendency to just carbon copy the trends of leading nations in the West. Germany's victory in the Great War will almost certainly cause the IJA to double-down on the German/Prussian model, while Germany's new leading position Europe means constitutional monarchy in Japan's current style - strong executive, with the legislature's control of the purse strings being its primary means of influencing governments, and an influential military (Prussia i.e. an army with a country as Voltaire put it) - remains fashionable in Japanese circles.

And this assumes they don't align with Russia, which they still might even if German influences in terms of political ideology and military doctrine still catches on. Despite the Russo-Japanese War of 1905, by the 1910s Russia and Japan had become comfortable with their arrangement in Manchuria. That is, the north to Russia, and the south to Japan. Japan and Russia in 1916 actually found common ground in China, with both empires agreeing to divide China along similar SOIs as in Manchuria, while blocking other European powers from expanding their existing SOIs and outright keeping the Americans out. Tsar Nicholas II supported Sazanov's move to preemptively bring Japan into the Russian orbit once Britain stopped seeing an alliance with Japan as convenient, and while Michael is Tsar now, despite being a libertarian given his position towards Finnish independence it's likely he still might support Sazanov's push to gain Japan as a partner in China. I wouldn't be surprised either if Michael's constitutional monarchy resembles Germany's more than it does Britain's, as I doubt the Romanovs would give up so much of their power as to be reduced to practical figureheads like Britain's Windsors. Recent events might have forced the Romanovs to accept the need for change, but without a full revolution, they'd at most willingly reduce themselves to the level of the Hohenzollerns, dependent on the Duma for money, but commanding great influence over the executive branch.

In hindsight, I suspect a Cold War in the future won't be between Communism and Capitalism, as much as it would be between American republicanism and European/Eurasian monarchism.
 
Cool cool.

what ever happens to jazz here? Am I big jazz fan IRL and I hope it survives this timeline too.

Also I think this world will see a more conservative Europe. All the liberalizing effects of the fall of the monarchies Vatican two ect ect seem to be butterflied away.
An excellent question!

While I'm not personally knowledgeable enough about jazz to discuss specific butterflies, I see no reason for the genre to be butterflied, or even for Harlem Renaissance culture to be affected much.

And yes, TTL's world is absolutely much more conservative. I tend- and this is just my personal view, your mileage may vary- to see OTL's 1918 as one of the 'great' turning points of history, ending a period with roots dating back to the Middle Ages. The Habsburgs had been 'things' since before Columbus discovered America in one form or another, the Hohenzollerns had been around since 1526- and one could even make a case that the semi-federalised nature of the German Empire descends from the Holy Roman Empire, and that the Austro-Hungarian Empire was a successor state of the HRE, etc. Wikipedia has a great family tree showing how it all goes back to Charlemagne. Now, Woodrow Wilson ripped all that up in 1918, and introduced republicanism to Germany+Austria... this was then reinforced after WWII with a helping of communism in the East. So, modern OTL Germany is obviously really shaped by its historic past, but the whole monarchical tradition is dead. Germany's national borders are kind of artificial, drawn up to suit the needs of the Allies in '45. If you dropped a German from 1914 into today's Germany, he'd be horrified. "What happened to East Prussia? Half Russian, half Polish? Why does Poland have so much of the ancient Junker lands-- where Prussia began after all!" Pretty much only the Austro-German and Czech-German borders are rooted in pre-World War I history (except for the Low Countries and Schleswig-Holstein, and of course Switzerland). What I'm getting at here is, modern Germany was forcibly disconnected from its past, both in terms of monarchical tradition and borders.

In TTL, none of this is true. TTL never experienced a sharp break with the past and a hard, forcible transition to republicanism. Regardless of what happens to Danubia and the Habsburgs, the Hohenzollerns, Wittelsbachs, etc, won't be going anywhere, nor the Italian Savoyards. Though Germany's eastern border has changed a bit (with the acquisition of the Polish Border Strip), that small change is much more in keeping with the Prussian tradition of controlling much of Poland than what was imposed at Versailles. Germany's borders remain natural, the product of 1000 years of evolution, rather than those imposed by foreign powers. The same goes for monarchism. It's like how 99.99% of Americans view the US Constitution and the system thus created as natural- it's just a matter of 'it's the Constitution, stupid!' Can you imagine a TL where the US loses a war in 1918 and, as punishment, is forced to accept a king and a monarchist constitution? That would seem totally wrong and irrational to the vast majority of Americans. But since that never happened, we view 1776-2021 as part of a historical era- the era of an independent, republican United States. The same goes for TTL's Germany. If you told TTL's Germans that in another world, they were badly defeated in 1918 and forced to abandon the form of government they'd had for centuries, and lands they'd possessed for 350 years in many cases, and then a quarter century later beaten even worse and artificially divided on ideological lines with no relationship to regional identity (and no historic connection to either of those ideologies), said TTL Germans would be horrified! Prussia, ITTL, has been a thing from 1526-2021, and in five years will celebrate its half-millenium. Germany views 1871-2021 as one big historical era.

TL;DR: Conservative monarchist culture is still a 'thing' in this world, kings and queens on TV can trace their roots back to Charlemagne.

And yes, Vatican II is butterflied! TLM all the way.... :)
 
An excellent question!

While I'm not personally knowledgeable enough about jazz to discuss specific butterflies, I see no reason for the genre to be butterflied, or even for Harlem Renaissance culture to be affected much.

And yes, TTL's world is absolutely much more conservative. I tend- and this is just my personal view, your mileage may vary- to see OTL's 1918 as one of the 'great' turning points of history, ending a period with roots dating back to the Middle Ages. The Habsburgs had been 'things' since before Columbus discovered America in one form or another, the Hohenzollerns had been around since 1526- and one could even make a case that the semi-federalised nature of the German Empire descends from the Holy Roman Empire, and that the Austro-Hungarian Empire was a successor state of the HRE, etc. Wikipedia has a great family tree showing how it all goes back to Charlemagne. Now, Woodrow Wilson ripped all that up in 1918, and introduced republicanism to Germany+Austria... this was then reinforced after WWII with a helping of communism in the East. So, modern OTL Germany is obviously really shaped by its historic past, but the whole monarchical tradition is dead. Germany's national borders are kind of artificial, drawn up to suit the needs of the Allies in '45. If you dropped a German from 1914 into today's Germany, he'd be horrified. "What happened to East Prussia? Half Russian, half Polish? Why does Poland have so much of the ancient Junker lands-- where Prussia began after all!" Pretty much only the Austro-German and Czech-German borders are rooted in pre-World War I history (except for the Low Countries and Schleswig-Holstein, and of course Switzerland). What I'm getting at here is, modern Germany was forcibly disconnected from its past, both in terms of monarchical tradition and borders.

In TTL, none of this is true. TTL never experienced a sharp break with the past and a hard, forcible transition to republicanism. Regardless of what happens to Danubia and the Habsburgs, the Hohenzollerns, Wittelsbachs, etc, won't be going anywhere, nor the Italian Savoyards. Though Germany's eastern border has changed a bit (with the acquisition of the Polish Border Strip), that small change is much more in keeping with the Prussian tradition of controlling much of Poland than what was imposed at Versailles. Germany's borders remain natural, the product of 1000 years of evolution, rather than those imposed by foreign powers. The same goes for monarchism. It's like how 99.99% of Americans view the US Constitution and the system thus created as natural- it's just a matter of 'it's the Constitution, stupid!' Can you imagine a TL where the US loses a war in 1918 and, as punishment, is forced to accept a king and a monarchist constitution? That would seem totally wrong and irrational to the vast majority of Americans. But since that never happened, we view 1776-2021 as part of a historical era- the era of an independent, republican United States. The same goes for TTL's Germany. If you told TTL's Germans that in another world, they were badly defeated in 1918 and forced to abandon the form of government they'd had for centuries, and lands they'd possessed for 350 years in many cases, and then a quarter century later beaten even worse and artificially divided on ideological lines with no relationship to regional identity (and no historic connection to either of those ideologies), said TTL Germans would be horrified! Prussia, ITTL, has been a thing from 1526-2021, and in five years will celebrate its half-millenium. Germany views 1871-2021 as one big historical era.

TL;DR: Conservative monarchist culture is still a 'thing' in this world, kings and queens on TV can trace their roots back to Charlemagne.

And yes, Vatican II is butterflied! TLM all the way.... :)
What does TLM mean?
 
So what happens if you take a German from OTL 2021 and drop him ITTL’s 2021.
Most are republicans. They would be horrified to live under a government that isn't a full constitutional monarchy at best with the chancellor not chosen by Reichstag still and by virtue of republicans will hate being under a monarchy. Though they will obviously be proud of winning this TTL ww1.
 
Most are republicans. They would be horrified to live under a government that isn't a full constitutional monarchy at best with the chancellor not chosen by Reichstag still and by virtue of republicans will hate being under a monarchy. Though they will obviously be proud of winning this TTL ww1.
^^^
What would be crazier is dropping a German from TTL 2021 into OTL 2021... that sounds like a winning story over in the ASB Forums...
What does TLM mean?
Traditional Latin Mass, also known as the Tridentine Mass, also known as the way the Catholic Church celebrated Mass between 1570 and the Sixties. No Vatican II means the modern Novus Ordo never comes about, so the Traditional Latin Mass remains the standard Catholic rite.
 
^^^
What would be crazier is dropping a German from TTL 2021 into OTL 2021... that sounds like a winning story over in the ASB Forums...

Traditional Latin Mass, also known as the Tridentine Mass, also known as the way the Catholic Church celebrated Mass between 1570 and the Sixties. No Vatican II means the modern Novus Ordo never comes about, so the Traditional Latin Mass remains the standard Catholic rite.

First that would make a great story and I would watch that movie.

I get that know I know the mass was changed I was unfamiliar with the acronym. Has a outsider looking in Vatican two did a lot of weird stuff.
 
You've done a great job on the recent updates Kaiser and they have only reaffirmed my love for the story. One thing that can be incredibly frustrating about CP Victory TL's is the black and white moralism of the world with the Central Powers along with best friend America becoming the righteous moral club of the world in that while they are flawed, they are inherently good guys while the Entent become completely evil Fascists/Communists. It relies way too much on the notion that everything will work out like World War II and ignores how World War I was one of the grayest conflicts in history. Here while the Central Powers are being presented as being capable of doing good and want to do good, they are still heavily flawed and humanly-influenced to take actions that are wrong and in some great extremes, are evil. While many German leaders are good people who want to do good, Germany is filled with victor's disease and in the height of Nationalism directs its foreign policy to solely be done for its good and supremacy with the benefit of others as a secondary importance. Maximilian wanted to spare Budapest for reconciliation and to take the high road, and while there was a push among the Danube it was not supreme especially with how many Hungarians fought for the Empire, yet Germany with orders from the top went razed Danube just because its soldiers wanted revenge. Not because some grave injury had been done at Germany which needed vengeance or Hungary had inflicted heavy casualties and destruction on Germany, but just because its soldiers were angry and German pride demanded their version of justice be carried out despite the nation they are fighting in the name of being against it. This and other occasions such as the forced conscription of the Polish legions and the mistreatment of French civilians show that while the German Empire can be good, it's not inherently righteous with the disease of Imperialism causing even its friends and allies to suffer and be treated as subjects to ensure German supremacy.

Well done and can't wait for more!
 
Okay I have idea. So I take it in this more conservative European culture Antisemitism would be more prevelent. Maybe we could see a Jewish civil rights movement like a mirror of Otl 1960s America.
AntiSemitism is prevalent, but at worst it's like the anti Irish and Italian sentiments in the 20s. Jim Crw is especially bad. You don't see pogroms happening anymore outside of Russia or the Balkans, while lynch mobs againsts Blacks was a frighteningly real phenomenon. You can see people with Jewish backgrounds becomes German Kanzler by the late 40s ttl, while an African American running for Presidency would be laughed at in the 60s-70s OTL. There wont be a "Civil Rights movement" atleast for Jews where it would evolve naturally. Gypsies/ Roma on the other hand...
 
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A lot would depend on what happens in the 1920s. People tend to assume that Japan would inevitably go ultra-militarist before rampaging across Asia, looting and raping as they go, but in reality, that depended as much on external factors as it did on internal ones. In particular, Japan's diplomatic isolation from 1922 onwards - largely thanks to America making a point to sever the Anglo-Japanese Treaty - pushed it to find new allies. Ironically, Japan had expected as much as early as 1916, when they approached the Russians, but the Russian Revolution ended that line of thought. In the end, Japan found new allies among the Great Powers in Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, which greatly-influenced the downward trend for Japanese democracy in the 1930s.

Here, though, Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany will never rise. Assuming America still forces Britain to sever their alliance with Japan, and Japan still aligns with the CPs, well, the influence will nowhere be as bad. If anything, the German Empire's influence might actually stabilize the Taisho Democracy and allow it continue in the Showa Era, given the similarities between them, to say nothing of Japan's tendency to just carbon copy the trends of leading nations in the West. Germany's victory in the Great War will almost certainly cause the IJA to double-down on the German/Prussian model, while Germany's new leading position Europe means constitutional monarchy in Japan's current style - strong executive, with the legislature's control of the purse strings being its primary means of influencing governments, and an influential military (Prussia i.e. an army with a country as Voltaire put it) - remains fashionable in Japanese circles.

And this assumes they don't align with Russia, which they still might even if German influences in terms of political ideology and military doctrine still catches on. Despite the Russo-Japanese War of 1905, by the 1910s Russia and Japan had become comfortable with their arrangement in Manchuria. That is, the north to Russia, and the south to Japan. Japan and Russia in 1916 actually found common ground in China, with both empires agreeing to divide China along similar SOIs as in Manchuria, while blocking other European powers from expanding their existing SOIs and outright keeping the Americans out. Tsar Nicholas II supported Sazanov's move to preemptively bring Japan into the Russian orbit once Britain stopped seeing an alliance with Japan as convenient, and while Michael is Tsar now, despite being a libertarian given his position towards Finnish independence it's likely he still might support Sazanov's push to gain Japan as a partner in China. I wouldn't be surprised either if Michael's constitutional monarchy resembles Germany's more than it does Britain's, as I doubt the Romanovs would give up so much of their power as to be reduced to practical figureheads like Britain's Windsors. Recent events might have forced the Romanovs to accept the need for change, but without a full revolution, they'd at most willingly reduce themselves to the level of the Hohenzollerns, dependent on the Duma for money, but commanding great influence over the executive branch.

In hindsight, I suspect a Cold War in the future won't be between Communism and Capitalism, as much as it would be between American republicanism and European/Eurasian monarchism.
Very perceptive as usual, Jaenera.

We already see how Japan is taking a different path from 'ultra-militarist-rampage': it's nibbling around the edges, seeking relatively small ways to expand its power (viz, by taking Indochina). This is still the era of colonialism, after all; there is absolutely no contradiction between being a democracy and being an aggressive imperialist, especially in the Third World, and Japan is an honourary member of the Western club.

Japan, as of right now, has not got especially good relations with Germany and Italy- they were just at war, after all. That said, they're in Europe, Japan's in Asia, and they have no real conflicting interests beyond the Anglo-Japanese Alliance (which isn't exactly a binding blood pact). No Nazis/Italian Fascists removes that particular ideological influence on Japan, which will further hamper the growth of militarised culture. The Prussian model (as distinct from the Nazi model), is still perfectly normal. Civilians have their sphere, the army theirs, and while the relationship isn't free of conflict, the two aren't chomping at the bit to fight for influence.

Events in Russia... we'll have to see. Depends on how well the Bolsheviks do ITTL. But I agree that Tsar Michael (who yes, does retain real power- the only difference between him and Nicholas is that he rules competently by the grace of God) would be more pro-Japanese. An Anglo-Russo-Japanese alliance would certainly be a force to be reckoned with (and a nightmare for China). Speaking of which, the 21 Demands went full steam ahead ITTL.

I'm afraid it's too early for me to say anything about the Cold War, but a monarchist/republican split seems eminently reasonable.

i have a idea. Without ww2 and t

But why change it though. I cannot see the purpose of doing that in the first place.
Wish fulfillment on my part? ;)
In all seriousness, it's likely that a more conservative Europe would not seek to amend one of the most conservative institutions in the world, the Church. No need to "open the windows to the modern world" when the 'modern world' looks a lot like it did 50 years ago.
Okay I have idea. So I take it in this more conservative European culture Antisemitism would be more prevelent. Maybe we could see a Jewish civil rights movement like a mirror of Otl 1960s America.
I suppose. I'm not too keen on parallelism for its own sake-- but you are right in that, since TTL lacks a Holocaust, Antisemitism would sadly be more prevalent.
You've done a great job on the recent updates Kaiser and they have only reaffirmed my love for the story. One thing that can be incredibly frustrating about CP Victory TL's is the black and white moralism of the world with the Central Powers along with best friend America becoming the righteous moral club of the world in that while they are flawed, they are inherently good guys while the Entent become completely evil Fascists/Communists. It relies way too much on the notion that everything will work out like World War II and ignores how World War I was one of the grayest conflicts in history. Here while the Central Powers are being presented as being capable of doing good and want to do good, they are still heavily flawed and humanly-influenced to take actions that are wrong and in some great extremes, are evil. While many German leaders are good people who want to do good, Germany is filled with victor's disease and in the height of Nationalism directs its foreign policy to solely be done for its good and supremacy with the benefit of others as a secondary importance. Maximilian wanted to spare Budapest for reconciliation and to take the high road, and while there was a push among the Danube it was not supreme especially with how many Hungarians fought for the Empire, yet Germany with orders from the top went razed Danube just because its soldiers wanted revenge. Not because some grave injury had been done at Germany which needed vengeance or Hungary had inflicted heavy casualties and destruction on Germany, but just because its soldiers were angry and German pride demanded their version of justice be carried out despite the nation they are fighting in the name of being against it. This and other occasions such as the forced conscription of the Polish legions and the mistreatment of French civilians show that while the German Empire can be good, it's not inherently righteous with the disease of Imperialism causing even its friends and allies to suffer and be treated as subjects to ensure German supremacy.

Well done and can't wait for more!
Thank you very much indeed! This is the sort of comment that makes a writer's day. I'm glad you've enjoyed the TL thus far.
Yes, I really wanted to convey the moral equivalency between the CPs and the rest of the world ITTL (as indeed in OTL). Not much else needs to be said, really; you phrased it better than I could.

Thank you all for reading and commenting.
 
Very perceptive as usual, Jaenera.

We already see how Japan is taking a different path from 'ultra-militarist-rampage': it's nibbling around the edges, seeking relatively small ways to expand its power (viz, by taking Indochina). This is still the era of colonialism, after all; there is absolutely no contradiction between being a democracy and being an aggressive imperialist, especially in the Third World, and Japan is an honourary member of the Western club.

Japan, as of right now, has not got especially good relations with Germany and Italy- they were just at war, after all. That said, they're in Europe, Japan's in Asia, and they have no real conflicting interests beyond the Anglo-Japanese Alliance (which isn't exactly a binding blood pact). No Nazis/Italian Fascists removes that particular ideological influence on Japan, which will further hamper the growth of militarised culture. The Prussian model (as distinct from the Nazi model), is still perfectly normal. Civilians have their sphere, the army theirs, and while the relationship isn't free of conflict, the two aren't chomping at the bit to fight for influence.

Events in Russia... we'll have to see. Depends on how well the Bolsheviks do ITTL. But I agree that Tsar Michael (who yes, does retain real power- the only difference between him and Nicholas is that he rules competently by the grace of God) would be more pro-Japanese. An Anglo-Russo-Japanese alliance would certainly be a force to be reckoned with (and a nightmare for China). Speaking of which, the 21 Demands went full steam ahead ITTL.

I'm afraid it's too early for me to say anything about the Cold War, but a monarchist/republican split seems eminently reasonable.


Wish fulfillment on my part? ;)
In all seriousness, it's likely that a more conservative Europe would not seek to amend one of the most conservative institutions in the world, the Church. No need to "open the windows to the modern world" when the 'modern world' looks a lot like it did 50 years ago.

I suppose. I'm not too keen on parallelism for its own sake-- but you are right in that, since TTL lacks a Holocaust, Antisemitism would sadly be more prevalent.

Thank you very much indeed! This is the sort of comment that makes a writer's day. I'm glad you've enjoyed the TL thus far.
Yes, I really wanted to convey the moral equivalency between the CPs and the rest of the world ITTL (as indeed in OTL). Not much else needs to be said, really; you phrased it better than I could.

Thank you all for reading and commenting.
Hows the War in Mexico going? And the Russian civil war? Is the USSR still going to be a thing? I want to see it interact with Imperial Germany and Danubia just due to the sheer strangeness of that situation.


Also I think having a cold war is unneeded. It seems unlikey that the monarchies have the world and are going to band together just because they all have the same form of government. And vise versa for the republics. Also a multi-polar world seems far more interesting then a two way split.
 
Hows the War in Mexico going? And the Russian civil war? Is the USSR still going to be a thing? I want to see it interact with Imperial Germany and Danubia just due to the sheer strangeness of that situation.


Also I think having a cold war is unneeded. It seems unlikey that the monarchies have the world and are going to band together just because they all have the same form of government. And vise versa for the republics. Also a multi-polar world seems far more interesting then a two way split.
Mexico will be wrapped up next week.
I will get to Russia in due time..... it'll be interesting to see if we get a USSR, and if not, what would take its place.
A multipolar world is just as likely as a Cold War; we'll have to see when the time comes.
 
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