I was interested in reviving this timeline anyway - and, through an idea which came spontaneously, I'll most likely make the Caucasus nations and Crimea independent. What do you think?
Important events of the Reverse Cold War 2.0 Timeline
outlined:
Before 1900:
Robert Brazier is born in Mouscron, Belgium on September 9, 1881 and survives his childhood.
Workers' movenments are even less successful, leading to an even more extreme Gilded Age in the US and UK.
The passenger pigeon becomes rare, but survives in some parts of the Appalachians.
The thylacine is not hunted as extensively either.
1910s:
World War I starts after an international crisis caused by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary by Bosnian terrorists, which Austria-Hungary accuses to be supported by and under cover of Serbia.
During World War I, in early summer of 1917, France sees mutinies turning into a communist revolution. The revolutionaries succeed and turn France into a form of government never seen before on the European continent as the Workers' State of France is proclaimed.
However, to the dismay of most French people, the new regime allies with Washington D.C. instead of suing for peace.
Russia also sees a revolution - but only one. The February Revolution of 1917 succeeds to its full extent and Georgy Yevgenyevich Lvov, after a successful constitutional convention assembly in early 1918, is democratically elected as President of the Russian Duma.
In autumn 1917, the October Revolution, still attempted by the Bolsheviki, was an abject failure - however, this was due to a (from the point of view of the February Revolutionaries) furtunate coincidence, namely that Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
Russia however can no longer reverse Ukraine and Crimea declaring independence, the latter under a Hetmanate.
On May 4, 1919, the Central Powers - Austria-Hungary, Germany, Italy, Greece and Romania - unconditionally surrender to the Entente powers. Most of them, however, had already been in civil war for at least several months. The unconditional surrender was signed because communist revolutionaries, the Spartacists, were close to toppling the Kaiser in Berlin.
Austria-Hungary collapsed into its constituent states - and more. Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro Slovenia and Macedonia form the United States of Yugoslavia. Czechoslovakia is formed including Zakarpattia while the Polish parts of Galicia, via treaties, join Poland which gains independence for the first time in over 120 years.
1920s:
On October 19, 1924, in the Workers' Syndical Union of Italy (thus the official name of Red Italy), Benito Mussolini is fired at and lies dead in the streets of Pescara. Somse suspect French, Austrian or German involvement, but officially, a far-left radical by the name of Alessio Maldini is convicted and sentenced to death.
A far more radically far-left current of the SGI ("General Syndicate of Italy") takes power in Red Italy. As Pope Clement XV. dies on April 8, 1925, the new President of the General Syndicate, Emiliano D'Avella (and his lesser-known, but no less powerful and influential Secretary of Integrity and Security Guglielmo Ventriccio), orders hithertho neutral Rome/Vatican City to be invaded and does not allow a conclave to take place. The Holy See will thus remain vacant for over thirteen years (April 8, 1925 to August 7, 1938) - by far the longest it has been in history.
From June 4 to July 16, 1926, bishops convened in Buenos Aires. But their intention was not to elect a pope or antipope, but to devise a system how the Catholic Church could be ruled in the absence of a pope in the modern day. Thus, they devise a new form of government, Episcopalism, whereby a council consisting of all bishops in a nation rules the nations's Catholic Church.
After an extensive warlord period and the loss of Manchuria to communist Japan, Kuomintang right-wing radical Dai Li reunites Cina. He turns the nation into his own dictatorship and aligns it with the ultranationalist powers of Europe, at that time meaning with Paris and London as well as Warsaw.
1930s
Scott Mason, strongly authoritarian Secretary General of the Central Commission of the IWW-A, carves out the Jewish Autonomous State out of very sparsely populated western Nebraska.
After increasing Catholic- and far-right resistance, especially in more rural southern Italy and the resistance movement managing to take control of Gargano peninsula, Italy falls into civil war. The National Union of Britain, National Collectivist France and
On France's national holiday, July 14, 1939, Robert Brazier as dictator of France orders the Force Armée Nationale (FAN) to invade Catalonia under a poorly-disguised false-flag operation.
1940s
As Paris is occupied by German, Spanish, American, Ottoman and British forces, the remaining Łańcut Republic is occupied by Russia with the help of other allies, National Collectivist-held Rome has fallen and the regime of Kurt Schuschnigg in Vienna is on its last legs, the unconditional surrender of the Force Armée Nationale marks V-E day (Day of Victory in Europe) and ends World War II in Europe.
Almost immediately after, Spain's border is moved north to the Garonne-Lot line and an independent Workers' Union of Brittany is carved out of France.
Corsica and Sardinia are united under the aegis of Emiliano D'Avella. On the Italian mainland, the Republic of Venice is granted independence by Germany and Yugoslavia. The same applies to the Free State (=Free City) of Fiume. Southern Italy is also made independent, but a lot closer to Greece, Yugoslavia and Russia.
1950s
World War II ends on May 17, 1951 with the fall of China and some of its allies in Southeast Asia. On May 2 and May 8, 1951, nuclear weapons were used for the first and to this day only time in warfare. The Chinese cities of Xi'an and Jinan were destroyed, killing over 200,000 people instantly and over 380,000 people including later deaths from fallout and other consequences of the use of nuclear weapons.
After the death of Scott Mason, long-time authoritarian Secretary General of the Central Committee of the IWW-A (International Workers of the World - America), feared and commonly hated Chief of Staff of the National Agency of Internal Security (NAIS), J. Edgar Hoover, takes power.
1960s
1970s
1980s
One of the most brutal and most cryptic regimes ever to have existed, the Red Ghana (or sometimes Red Soninke) under Mahamadou Konaté is toppled on June 11, 1983 in a brief invasion from Senegal, Casamance and Mali. Some of the worst atrocities ever committed are revealed in the years after. However, remnants of the Red Ghana are still suspected in rural areas of northern Liberia.
With the death of David Hernandez Ocelotl, the communist Zapatist President of Mexico, in 1982, several ill-fated successors fail to restabilise the country before it falls to a Christian Revolution on May 13, 1984.
In the course of this revolution, the Yucatan and Oaxaca Socialist Republics secede. Both socialist governments fall soon after and are replaced by authoritarian nationalist Christian fundamentalist ones soon after.
As the Cold War is winding down, after decades of protests and nationalist parties winning elections in Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, the Federal State of Russia allows independence referendums in Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan on August 11, 1989. These referendums succeed by significant majorities and thus, effective on January 1, 1990, all three nations attain their long-desired independence.
1990s
On July 4, 1993, 210 years after the constitution became effective, the superpower that was the Union of American Syndical Workers' Republics (UASWR) is dissolved and succeeded by many independent successor states. The legal successor to the UASWR becomes the American Federation.
2000s-2020s:
On March 20, 2014, after bloody, but successful protests, mainly centred on the Norfolk/Portsmouth/Hampton/Newport News/Virginia Beach metropolitan area and on Richmond, authoritarian-leaning President of Virginia, Joseph Branson, resigns and flees - presumably into the American Federation or Kentucky.
Just a week later, the American Federation - contrary to international law - recognises the secession of the Republic of Delmarva and annexes it after a rigged referendum confirming 94,7 % of the population in agreement.
Again, just a month later, the American Federation assists the non-recognised secession of the Socialist Republic of Kanawha and the Socialist Republic of the Potomac.