If we are to be perfectly clear, it was the mark of John Maynard Keynes that allowed this country out of the quagmire. Hell, it was the mark of John Maynard Keynes that allowed this entire world out of the quagmire. Which is why I hereby nominate John Maynard Keynes for the Nobel Peace Prize.
- Eric Blair, Liberal MP for Argyllshire (1)(1935 - 1976), speaking before the House of Commons on the 12th September 1945.
Upon hearing word of the proposal, I hereby second it as well.
- Horace Michael Hynman Allenby (2)(1898 - 1948) on that same day. He was the son of the late Field Marshal Edmund Allenby.
The Second Long Depression would be the longest economic downturn in the 20th century, even beating the First Long Depression of 1873-1879 (or 1873-1896 according to certain metrics)(3). It would last from the 10th November 1927 (When Britain returned to the gold standard) to the start of the Second World War in 1940. However, economists such as Susan Berejiklian, Thomas Jefferson Wilkins and John Beasley argued that it ended with the entry of the US later on. It would contribute to the unemployment of millions of people across the world, with places like Australia having over 30% unemployed before the election of leaders of either the left or the right, socialists or volkists.
It will be here that several nations shall be mentioned.
The first was
Germany. Prior to the Second Long Depression, Germany was undergoing rearmament. Away from the sight of curious eyes, German troops trained, in halls guarded by
Saal-Schutz members. Aspiring pilots trained alongside their Russian compatriots in the Caucasus as well as the Urals, to not arouse the suspicion of French and British diplomats. Factories in the rump Kingdom of Italy were set up and managed with Italian and German engineers alongside one another. Hjalmar Schacht was responsible for the creation of Büro für wissenschaftliche Entwicklung (4)(BWE) - Scientific Development Office, a dummy company designed to finance German rearmament in August 1929. A total of 2 billion Reichsmark were collected by the four German armaments companies responsible for abrogating the Treaty - Krupp, Siemens,
Gutehoffnungshütte, and
Rheinmetall. The money that BWE needed came from BWE Bills, which would be a line of credit issued by the Government.
It would be here that Germany would form its core principles of warfare, based of the writings of the British military officer
J. F. C. Fuller. Fuller put forward the ideas of a future warfare dictated by mechanisation and modernisation. In his 1926 book, The Reformation of War, Fuller and his co-writer B. H. Liddell Hart explained that:
The growth of machines such as tanks in battle as well as automobiles to act in logistics has therefore reduced the necessity of large concentrations of men in strategically important regions on the globe. A tank carrying six men, whilst on its own, can resist small-arms fire from a thousand men while firing back using machine guns or even larger ordnance. A group of a hundred tanks stretched over a mile of open ground can overrun trench lines containing three to five thousand men. In the cities of the future, warfare shall not go by street by street fighting between the invader and the defender. Instead, it shall be the caterpillar track rolling down the street, with gunfire aimed at every building that produced hostility.
(Page 65, On The Concern For The Tank)
Fuller and Hart's work inspired Richthofen, who was introduced to it by Heinz Guderian and Ernst Volckheim. Richthofen, Guderian and Volckheim would discuss the matter as they travelled to the Russian Empire together. As the Great Depression came on, Richthofen soon developed a positive view of the Russians, with the Tsar himself amazed at Richthofen's flying skills even over a decade since the war's end. The Tsar himself had grown distant from the rest of the Allied Powers, as they were focussed on delivering Greece into the fold, as well as solidifying their interests in Anatolia and the Middle East. Having been isolated once again, the 62-year old Tsar Nicholas II would begin to make covert agreements with the Germans. Material resources, such as oil from the Caucasus and minerals from the Ural Mountains would be exchanged for industrial goods made from Germany. Andrey Matveyevich Andreyev, a Russian officer in the 1st Army, would later be a part of a program to train both Russian and German soldiers in tactics relating to armoured warfare. It would come to fruition during the Second Mongolian War (3rd November 1934 - 25th July 1936), which would see General
Roman von Ungern-Sternberg secure the conquest of Outer Mongolia and the annexation of Mongolia into the Russian Empire proper (5).
As for the home front, matters changed indeed. For Germany, the necessity was that the country needed to change to promote self-sufficiency. Factories were established to create most products that Germans needed, with any imports coming from the Russian Empire. In a war, it was hoped that the choking of trade would not allow for the repeat of times of starvation and malnutrition. By 1931, most foodstuffs from Russia (at least 60%), were being exported to Germany and later her allies. In order to maintain stability, Germany ensured that France and Britain were not threatened in such a way that it would trigger rearmament in their respective countries. It would be the case until Germany could operate a war against more than one nation, which was meant to be 1935 if not for the advice from men like Guderian and Schacht, who managed to convince Richthofen to push the date back to 1940.
The Kingdom of Austro-Hungary would undergo a further complication in its political mindset, as communists and socialists and volkists and fascists were openly shooting each other in the streets. Engelbert Dollfuss would attempt to bring the country back in order, as the Army moved against all military wings of political parties. On the 3rd March 1929, 70 Red Vest protesters were shot dead in Salzburg before they were dispersed. Dollfuss would attempt to bring order to the country, but it was in vain. On the 23rd March 1929, a communist sniper would shoot Dollfuss three times whilst he travelled through Hungary. Major General Bernhard Waber would restore order, with 60,000 veterans taking to the streets to push aside rebellious anti-Dollfuss crowds as the news spread across the country and the world. The King, having no Chancellor, had to face a growing chorus for change, as the Second Long Depression took hold. Bernhard Waber was influenced by members of the National People's Party to take charge for himself. Waber, having seen his nation go through Chancellors in the same way that guns go through ammo, met with the King. Disappointed with his record, Weber demanded that the King abdicate.
Having lost the will of the people and having lost Dollfuss, the King abdicated on the 16th April 1929. On the 17th, Major General Weber announced that he would take on the powers as Chancellor "of the Austro-Hungarian Republic, to ensure the preservation of this country, its people and its character". Weber would begin hunting for allies, which he found in the rising success of Führer Manfred von Richthofen and of the Russian Empire, which was seeing greater economic investment from American and German companies compared to British and French investment, which turned more towards Greece and Bulgaria by 1933 thanks to a report by
Fritz Joubert Duquesne, who returned to work for the Germans. Despite retaining their de facto independence, Austro-Hungarian citizens were marching to the drum of German interests. It was all in the name of collective security, as the excuse went, following the Pact of Steel on the 26th September 1933 and the formation of the Matzen oil field within the Vienna Basin two years later.
AUSTRALIA: The 1928 Election swept the ALP into power for the first time in 9 years. Jack T. Lang would be the third person in a row that was from New South Wales, a trend that would not stop until the 1949 Election. Lang would form his cabinet as such:
Prime Minister and Ministry for Industry: Jack Thomas Lang
Treasurer: Ted Theodore
Attorney-General: Frank Brennan
Minister for Defence: Albert Green
Minister for Repatriation: Frank Anstey
Minister for Markets and Transport: James Scullin
Minister for Home Affairs: Arthur Blakeley
Minister for Trade and Customs: Parker Maloney
Minister for Health: William Maloney
Postmaster-General: James Fenton
Minister for Works and Railways: Rowley James
Vice-President of the Executive Council and Leader of the Government in the Senate: John Barnes (Senator for Victoria)
The first matter was the retirement of Douglas Haig from the position of Governor-General, which he occupied for the last five years. Lang was privately inclined to choose an Australian to fill the position, such as John Monash or even a man like Billy Hughes as a political ploy. However, his private advisors suggested that a British person be chosen to reduce any rumours of "radical socialism" that Australians may have of him. Seeing how it could turn out that way, Lang heeded their advice and chose David Richard Beatty, 1st Earl Beatty. Beatty was a Royal Navy Admiral of the Fleet, having served from 1884 until his retirement in 1926, seeing conflict in the Mahdist War, the Boxer Rebellion, The First World War and the Dutch East Indies Rebellion. Beatty would arrive in Australia on the 3rd January 1929 to serve his commission, which would soon be five years as per precedent. Haig would return to Britain, with parting gifts from Australian children and politicians alike (6).
13th January 1929. Justice H. B. Higgins passed away in his sleep. A noted friend of the Irish-Australian community, a supporter of the Australian working class as per his 1907
Harvester case which established the minimum wage that workers were entitled to, a principle that stood the test of history. His death would allow for Lang to hold back any erosion of civil liberties or rulings on arbitration that were made by Higgins and other like-minded men on the High Court. On his passing, Lang appointed the 35-year old Herbert Vere Evatt, who was a Doctor of Laws (studied at the University of Sydney) and a current member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly. The second vacancy came from Charles Powers on the 22nd July 1929, when he retired after over 16 years on the bench. Much of his career was dogged by a lack of qualification to be a High Court Justice. With his retirement, it was hoped that Lang could find a more qualified man in his place. Lang chose his own Attorney-General, Frank Brennan, to fill the position which he did on the 23rd July 1929. It was here that Lang secured the liberal majority on the High Court, as opposed to the originalist conservative wing of Irvine, Isaacs and Rich. To fill his position, he would allow for Bill Slater to run for the seat of Batman (Frank Brennan's seat), with Slater obtaining the win on the 15th September 1929 and the position of Attorney-General.
Lang would begin by investing more towards the defences in Micronesia, fulfilling the necessities of the program within
The Leveson Report, as a way of promoting forward defences. The purchasing of extra warships from Britain would allow for the growth of research and development, as Prime Minister Jack Lang, Prime Minister John Clynes and their respective Treasurers would meet in London from the 2nd - 20th January 1930. The construction of Sydney Harbour Bridge would be a part of economic recovery, along with the construction of 30 dams across the country, including Hell's Gate Dam in Queensland, Barton Dam in the Australian Capitol Territory and the Franklin River Dam in Tasmania.
Such programs alienated state governments, who went into an uproar over Lang's plan to form a referendum on income tax (since it was not an exclusive power of the Federal Government). John Bowser, the Premier of Victoria at the time, launched a High Court bid to strike down the proposed referendum. In
South Australia, Victoria and Western Australia v Commonwealth, the High Court decided 4-3 (on liberal-conservative lines of interpretation) that the Commonwealth had not breached the constitution. The referendum, which passed with 51.92% of voters affirming and every state voting in favour except for Victoria and New South Wales, entrenched income tax as a privilege for the federal government to legislate on. Not only would this allow for the concentration of spending to be in the hands of the federal government (reducing the vertical fiscal imbalance), but it would also promote the policy of a unitary state (which would remain Labor policy from Federation to this day). Foreign relations with Japan deteriorated, as the
Immigration Restriction Act 1930 would amend the dictation test to only be put in English, which was the original intention of the law back in 1901. It would be this anger from a volkist Japan that would allow Lang to be re-elected in 1931. As the campaign went on, news of one of Thomas Ley's fellow criminals had escaped and fled the country, but it disappeared from the radar.
The war would come soon enough, but for now, the cold stare between the Land of the Rising Sun and the Land of the Golden Wattle would continue.
High Court after 1929
Justice William Irvine (7th March 1920 - 20th August 1943) - Conservative vote
Justice Thomas Bavin (11th January 1920 - 27th September 1952) - Liberal vote
Chief Justice Isaac Isaacs (12th October 1906 - 11th February 1948) - Conservative vote
Justice H. V. Evatt (16th January 1929 - 27th December 1967) - Liberal vote (Lang appointed)
Justice Frank Gavin Duffy (11th February 1913 - 1st October 1935) - Liberal vote
Justice Frank Brennan (23rd July 1929 - 11th November 1950) - Liberal vote (Lang Appointed)
Justice George Rich (5th April 1913 - 14th May 1956) - Conservative vote
NEW ZEALAND: William Massey would champion the rights of New Zealand in the post-Versailles carving of Pacific territories, farmers as well as anti-communism. Massey would guide New Zealand through the fighting in the Dutch East Indies, which would give New Zealand a total of 15 million pounds for compensation alongside Australia and Britain for their intervention. It would allow for Massey to continue in the job even after a confirmation of cancer in 1924. He would be re-elected in 1925, but he would be muscled out in the 1928 Election by a government coalition of the New Zealand Labour Party and the rump Liberal Party of New Zealand, with the return of Joseph Ward as Prime Minister. Massey would die ten months after the election. The coalition, during the Second Long Depression, would find itself in conflict with Harry Holland and Joseph Ward coming to blows over economic policy to counter the rise of unemployment. With differing views on how to combat the crisis and Massey's recent death in the minds of the people, the Liberal-Labour Coalition was defeated by a Reform Party led by Alexander Young and a campaign managed by Albert Davy (7). Fighting against interventionist policies in the economy, Young would win a 9-seat majority in 1931. The threat of Japan, as well as following Australia's initiative to modernise the military allowed Young to claim all of the remaining seats that belonged to the Liberals in the 1934 Election. The 1934 Election would cement the Reform Party to this day as the small-government, social conservative party and the Labour Party as the party of the unionist, the left-winger and those that favoured government intervention. The Labour Party would not win government until 1946 under
Thomas E. Seddon.
THE NETHERLANDS: Prime Minister Charles Ruijs de Beerenbrouck would win the 1922 and 1925 elections on the basis of the putdown of Trotsky's filibuster in the Dutch East Indies, as well as a strengthening economic confidence in the country. During this time, Marinus Bernardus Rost van Tonningen would pass away. Carrying the epithet "The Saviour of the Dutch East Indies", his funeral would fuel the flames for a volkist movement along the lines of the German Workers' Party.
Meinoud Rost van Tonningen, the son of the late Major General, would be the leader of the National Vanguard Party in 1928, which was designed to be an imperialist, anti-German, anti-Marxist party meant to deter any aggression from its more powerful neighbours. Following the Second Long Depression, The Netherlands runs a deflationary program, cutting wages and reducing government services. The anger from the army and the navy following wage cuts fuels the rise of the NVP, who manages to win 12 seats, which puts them in coalition with the Roman Catholic State Party. Protests rose up against Beerenbrouck and his continued administration, with socialist and volkist groups clashing with one another in the streets. The Roman Catholic State Party, on October 1930, broke the coalition and ruled with the Anti-Revolutionary Party and the Christian Historical Union. The NVP, at this time, took on a anti-conservative, Calvinist perspective unlike that of the Catholic Italian Fasces of Combat or the Protestant-based German Workers' Party or the Shinto-inspired
Kokuritsu Saisei Sensen. It would not be until the 1933 election, where the NVP would crush the Coalition, winning 50 seats out of 100 and install Meinoud Rost van Tonningen as the Prime Minister. It was around this time that, in honour of his father's sacrifice, he would position the party to the British Prime Minister as a safer alternative to the German Workers' Party under Richthofen. Exercising his administration under volkist principles, it would not be until March 1934 that civil liberties would be curtailed for those that were known socialists or those that opposed the interests of the country. As for the Dutch East Indies, there would be "questionable" methods to root out the last outposts of communist and socialist resistance in the country. Tonningen would promote emigration to the Dutch East Indies (8), the end to the gold standard in The Netherlands, as well as conscription to train the Dutch people as he became aware of the reports written by "White Rose". (9) As this occurred, the Führer would look to the nation with the eyes of a hungry beast. He would plan to take on this "moral betrayal", given his belief that volkist nations would collectivise in a "war against the liberal, capitalist, degenerate democracies and the soulless, depraved, decayed communist states".
Not yet, the Führer thought.
SCANDINAVIA: DENMARK, having survived the scare of the Easter Crisis, managed to retain their constitutional monarchy. King Christian X, having divested much of his power, retained his role as King of Denmark and of Iceland, which remained in personal union with its mother country. Niels Neergaard would guide Iceland away from nationalist sentiments, as South Jutland would return to Denmark. The Danish economy rose once again with the end of the First World War, however the anarchy in Germany and the rise of communism and volkism had alerted the Danes and their way of life. King Christian X became a symbol of hatred by the communists, the socialists, the republicans (as the three of them believed that he was of an older, dishonourable order of things) and the volkists (who believed that he was weak and that he should be replaced by a strongman dictator like Richthofen). The Constitution Act of 1923 would entrench King Christian X as the head of state, which alienated the far-left and far-right elements, who now espoused republican sympathies. The Social Democratic Party under Thorvald Stauning would reject republicanism within its ranks, as 1924 led to the Copenhagen riots. In Copenhagen between the 4th January and the 2nd of February, 15,000 communists and volkists clashed with gunfire and petrol bombs continuing. The 1924 Election would have the slogan "Neergaard or Chaos", pitting the Venstre party against volkism and communism. Neergaard would lead a Venstre-Conservative-Social Liberal coalition that would introduce the land tax, which would issue a annual tax on 700 krone per plot of private land, which would be modelled on the Georgist tax system, hoping to replace all other taxes. The Second Long Depression would hit the coalition in 1927, with Thorvald Stuaning poised to take on the role of Prime Minister. But a car bomb was set off during a procession through Copenhagen on the 11th February 1928, several days before the election. The Social Democratic Party, in a wave of mourning and sadness, uplifted
Karl Kristian Steincke to the role of Prime Minister. His first role was to investigate the death of his former leader. On November 1928, he would be given "Den sorte note" (The Black Note), which confirmed Stauning's death to be at the hands of German agents linked to the Sale-Schutz.
What would begin would be the biggest hunt for his killer not until the culprit's confession in 1962, recorded from a pampered bed in France.
But until that day, Denmark would look southward at the growing, festering fear that was Germany. Steincke had no illusions regarding the principles of volkism, having it explained by German emigres and Danish observers. Quietly, the Danes began to organise resistance, underneath their public works campaigns. Such resistance would co-opt the strength of the communist and volkist movements, with gun ownership allowed for any Danish man over the age of 25 (and for women once they turned 30), provided they were given the same training as soldiers. After the revelation of the documents from "White Rose", the gloves went off and the threats were beginning to heat up.
SWEDEN would have a change of Prime Minister in September 1917, as Hjalmar Branting was elected due to calls for greater democratisation of the Swedish election process. Branting, a reformist Marxist, believed that this would allow for a peaceful transition from capitalism to socialism. The revolutions in Germany, Russia and the Dutch East Indies, as well as the Italian Civil War corrupted Branting's reputation among his supporters. Despite being favoured due to passing universal suffrage, he could not stop the rank-and-file split of the Social Democratic Party over whether to support revolutionary means or peaceful means to transfer capitalism to socialism. The newly formed Communist Front of Sweden would clash with volkists, united under Bror Munck, a Lieutenant General who was an expert of cavalry and of equestrian sport. Branting would bring in the eight-hour day, as well as normalising relations with China and the Arab State. However, street clashes between volkists, communists and Social Democrats (which were inspired by those in Germany) began to wear down the legitimacy of his rule, as he was demonised for his beliefs.
The 1922 Election was called, with the Social Democratic Party winning 64 seats, the Communist Front winning 15 seats and the National Guard (volkists) winning 23 seats, the Farmer's League winning 21 seats, the General Electoral League (liberal conservatives) won 51 seats and Free-minded National Association (classical liberals and prohibitionists) finished with 56 seats. The GEL under Arvid Lindman formed a coalition with the Free-minded National Association and the Farmer's League. Lindman would extend subsidies to farmers, put forward trade agreements between itself and the Third Reich as well as promote warming relations between Sweden and the Russian Empire. Lindman, in vain attempted to put forward laws that would disarm the street gangs linked with the National guard and the Communist Front. On the 28th March 1925, Lindman would be shot dead by a group of volkists in a drive-by shooting. He would be succeeded by Felix Hamrin, who would guide the government to victory in the 1926 Election against the rising National Guard and the Communist Front. In the attempt to regain control of the Riksdag, the Social Democratic Party agreed to join in an "All-Democratic Government", with Hamrin at the head.
It would be until November 1927, where the troubles began. The National Guard and the Communist Front now showed off signs of electability, while the coalition of the democratic parties would fight within itself. It would not be until the revelation of some National Guard members infiltrating the party ranks of the GEL that would let Hamrin's government fall to an election in 1929. In a landslide election, Per Albin Hansson (1885 - 1947) of the Social Democratic Party would win, with a platform of social corporatism. Social Corporatism would allow for the government mediation in disputes between labour and capital, with the interests of the State, Labour and Capital united in a form of class collaboration. With this program, the SDP would win the majority of seats in the 1932 election, before winning a third term in 1935. At the same time, the National Guard and the Communist Front were sidelined by voters as well as the public over their loss of appeal. The introduction of the welfare state would cut at the Communist base, while a strong emphasis on nationalism and the ideal of a "Folkhemmet" (The People's Home) would undermine the volkist message. Revelations over German ties to the National Guard
and the Communist Front would lead to their complete destruction in 1938, not winning a seat between them. Sweden would fight on the side of the Allies for the entire period of the war, facing invasion on both sides but not giving in. Sweden would hark the call of Gustaphus Adolphus, of Carolus Rex and of men like Helmer Södergren (1915 - 1945).
NORWAY, the last of the Scandinavian nations. It would face little conflict in the war, but it would be rewarded for its efforts with some small sum from Germany's reparations. The country would not involve itself much in international affairs, with the exception for aid sent to the Russian Empire from 1920-21. The failures of Trotsky's revolutions did not bode well with the Norwegian Communist Party, which was revolutionary and hoped to see the downfall of the liberal democracy. With the rise of the NCP and the failure of the Italian fascists to win the Italian Revolution, the volkists in Norway would be anti-Marxist but they would not commit to the same revolutionary terms as their counterparts in Germany or elsewhere. The Fatherland League, which was formed in 1923, would build itself on anti-Marxist, anti-communist lines while supporting the democratic process, corporatism and demagoguery. It would win 2 seats to the 7 won by the Communists in the 1924 Election, which was won by the Labour Party under Oscar Torp. Torp would introduce an increase to fund the national healthcare service, as well as a tariff on German-made goods following the rise of Führer Richthofen. As the term went on, the country received news of Germans harassing Norwegian citizens and boycotting Norwegian-made goods. This would cement the Fatherland League as a anti-German volkist party, as was the case in The Netherlands with the National Vanguard Party. The 1927 Election would lead to clashes between Communist and Fatherland League supporters as they presented electoral viability. The Fatherland League would tenfold increase their representation to 20 seats, while the Communist Party would increase to 26 seats. Contact between the German Workers' Party, the National Guard of Sweden and the Fatherland League (on the 7th - 27th December 1927) had attempted to form a "Volkist Internationale" (10), as a way of coordinating the interests of the volkist and fascist states of the world. The Fatherland League would flat out refuse, as the FL's ideology had a clear hatred against the Germans (as the FL saw Norway as the birthplace of the "Nordic Race", not Germany) and against Sweden (the dissolution of the Union of Sweden-Norway was still within living memory). Not only would the hatred of the Germans earn the Fatherland League respect from even left-wing Norwegians, but it would expand their base of support.
From January 1928 to the 1930 Election, the Fatherland League would embark on a pre-election campaign to mobilise anti-Marxist and nationalist voters. By election day, the Fatherland League had 450 branches with 200,000 members, a Youth League and a Women's Division. On the 1930 Election, the Fatherland League under Vidkun Quisling would win 73 seats out of 150, with the Conservative Party in second place with 21 seats. The Quisling Administration would see a large public works program designed to improve the army, navy, air force, roadways, schools, energy and housing. Its anti-German sentiments allowed for his re-election in 1933 and 1936. With the Führer staring at the north, Quisling hoped that by staring back, the Führer would blink first.
FIRST CZECHOSLOVAK REPUBLIC: The independence movement had reaped the rewards thanks to a favourable settlement from the Treaty of Versailles. The first election was to be held on the 14th August 1919, even during the outbreak of Polish Flu. Strong border controls had managed to mitigate some of the worst fears among the newly formed country. The 1919 Election would lead to a victory of the Czechoslovakian Social Democratic Party, winning 76 seats out of 300 in the Chamber of Deputies. In that same year, Pilsen became the centre of the Third Internationale (1919 - 1932). Paul Levi, one of the people responsible for the German Revolution, conducted the meeting. In the meeting was the
Socialist Party of the Czechoslovak Working People, the Norwegian Communist Party, the Communist Front of Sweden, the Communist Party of Britain, the Communist Party of Germany and the Socialist Party of the United States. The discussions turned from revolutionary methods, as ensuing events showed Trotsky's failures, to methods that would subvert, that would slowly work towards the goal of socialism in Europe and the wider world. The connection between the Third Internationale and the Social Democratic Party government under
Vlastimil Tusar grew too large to ignore, with many parties on the right ready to consider the possibility of a pact to counter the growing communist strength.
One of these parties was the German Workers' Party (DAP). With a strong German demographic within Czechoslovakia (thanks to the Sudetenland being inside the FCR), the DAP managed to score 12 seats in the 1919 Election, more than enough to present their mandate to the public. As the years went on and the fame of Richthofen transferred to politics, the loyalty of the German population began to sway in the Sudetenland towards the DAP. President Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk (1850 - 1939) was alarmed by the rise of left-wing and right-wing extremism, as he and many others hand lobbied for the liberation of the Czech peoples from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. With the 1925 Election, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (made of radical members who broke away from the Social Democrats plus the Socialist Party of Czechoslovakian Workers) would win 32 seats while the "Czechoslovakian League of Defence" (Czech volkists who support the independence of the state) would win 41 seats and the DAP would win 25 seats.
Antonín Švehla would win the office of Prime Minister, hoping and campaigning on a platform to preserve the democratic institutions of the country from the communists and the volkists.
Here's the thing. He didn't check the economy. In December 1927, the country suffered the shocks of the Second Long Depression. Švehla would be killed by an unemployed factory worker, which would trigger three days of rioting in Prague. In the name of preserving the peace, the DAP and the Czechoslovakian League of Defence would vote for Masaryk in the 1927 Presidential Election, fighting off a challenge from the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. This had the consequence of removing much of the volkist motivation to overthrow the democracy, as the Czechoslovakian League of Defence regularly posted anti-Austrian, anti-Russian, anti-German material. For the people, losing territory like the Sudetenland would be inconceivable, nay, unimaginable to the national psyche. After all, there were Czechs and Slovaks and Hungarians and Jews and Austrians and Russians and Poles and all other demographics that would love to try what the Germans would attempt to do. The change of policy meant that the volkist movement within the FCR was shattered, with the DAP and the CLD clashing as much as they would clash with the communists. The rightward shift in the 1925 Parliamentary election would be exacerbated by the 1929 Election, with the Czechoslovakian League of Defence obtaining 58 seats, the Republican Party of Farmers' and Peasants in second with 47, the Social Democratic Party getting 22 and the Communist obtaining 8 seats. Karel Kramář, the leader of the CLD, became Prime Minister. As part of the alliance with the Republican Party of Farmer's and Peasants and with other like-minded conservative parties, the CLD slowly dropped some of the more radical positions it held.
The party propaganda would in time change to call for "Enhanced Democracy", one where the people had an obligation to fight for the democracy that grants them the rights that it enjoys. According to mainstream political historians, such as Duncan Teller, Kathrine Peterson (11) and Angus Harris, this is where volkism no longer existed until the late 1970's. The CLD moved to oppose Germany and Russia, seeking ties with Britain, France, Greece and Bulgaria. The public works campaign modernised the Czechoslovakian Army, allowed for en masse firearms training for teenagers as well as new defences across the country. CLD even used its militarised units to conduct smuggling runs to Polish and Ukrainian partisans from 1934 all the way to the end of the war. The policies that the CLD pushed also expelled the Third Internationale from the country, with the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia winning 0 seats in the 1935 Parliamentary Election. With the revelations of German rearmament, the preservation of democracy and of the country became all the more important.
FIRST REPUBLIC OF ITALY and the KINGDOM OF ITALY: Giuseppe Di Vittorio (First Italian Republic) had to deal with the Second Long Depression as it hit the country in November 1927. The FRI had to pick up the pace in terms of production, even when countries such as the United States, Britain, France and Spain placed large tariffs on FRI-made cars. It seemed to be the case where the country was being isolated. Despite the situation in other countries, the FRI had managed to maintain full employment during this time, as well as a coerced population of anarchists and subversives that would be willing to work for pittance instead of being left to starve on the street as it was the case in other nations. Despite being a syndicalist nation, Di Vittorio looked towards the economic policies of both the Kingdom of Italy and Germany, where they encouraged deficit spending in order to prevent mass unemployment. A trade deal with China allowed the First Republic of Italy to gain access to a new market, gaining silver (the main currency was backed by the silver standard, which did not effect China unlike the nations on the gold standard) which would be either stored in reserve or passed on to purchase foreign goods.
As the 1930's went on, the FRI would begin to form its new identity. It would identify more with the radicalism of Garibaldi as well as the ruthless cunning that Machiavelli endorsed in a measure to promote peace and reunification. But as the dam cracked up, such things seemed to be out of reach.
Giovanni Gentile would brace for the Second Long Depression with the final transfer of power into the hands of the Italian Fasces of Combat. The deficit spending would allow for the industrialisation of the south, which was aided by a constant brain drain coming from the FRI. By the year 1934, the FRI would have a population of 14.3 million compared to 38.2 million living in the Kingdom of Italy and the colonies. The edge over the FRI, upon seeing it, was to be stretched out further. The Italian Army would clamp down on any attempts by natives to rise up in anger, which is what occurred when Camerunese natives were supplied with weapons by smugglers from the FRI. From the 3rd March to the 26th October 1932, the Italian forces (numbering 45,000) would engage in a punitive expedition where several hundred thousand people surrendered and others resisting. such resistance was met with the systematic use of mustard gas, airstrikes and machine guns against any group of natives that fought back. Venustiano Zottola (1915 - 1982) would be raised in such an environment, as he would be trained in the colonies of Camerun, Libya, Somaliland and Togoland. As of 1934, 1 million people had gone to the Italian colonies. The Kingdom of Italy would put forward a secret treaty with the Third Reich, which was signed in November 1934, but not made public until 1937 when generals of both the Kingdom of Italy and the Third Reich planed for the invasion of the FRI.
The FRI was the perfect target. It had a brain drain, it was not a recognised state as tensions in Europe heated up and it was ignored by the other democracies. The FRI was, to quote Angus Harris:
...the red meat that was to satisfy the volkist powers.
It would all come together with the trigger of the Second World War and of "Operation Brunhild".
KINGDOM OF SPAIN: The victory in the Rif War and the gains of Spanish South Africa had boosted King Alfonso XIII's ego in a time where he was suffering complications after contracting the Polish Flu. Eduardo Dato, hoping to claim them as quick as possible, began to offer plots of land to civilians as well as soldiers that fought in the First World War. The migration scheme would re-settle 40,000 people per annum from 1920 to 1934, under Conservative PM Eduardo Dato (1919-1921, 1924-1927) and Liberal PMs
Álvaro de Figueroa (1921-1924) and Manuel García Prieto (1927 - 1930). The system, however, was not so prosperous. Only the Conservative and Liberal parties were granted the right of governance, taking turns with the thanks of party bosses, civil administrations and en masse vote rigging. This would become more and more of a pain for the people once the Second Long Depression hit Spain. A road collision in one of Madrid's busiest streets led to the death of King Alfonso XIII on the 13th January 1928 (12). He was to be succeeded by his son who was crowned King Alfonso XIV.
The corrupt political system angered many on the right, who turned to volkism. One such man was Antonio Maura. Sickened by the dynastic change between the Conservative and Liberal Parties, he would call for "authentic democracy", harkening to the British model of governance as well as using strong-arming methods to get rid of the party bosses, civil servants and the voter fraud. Maura would, during this time, remain the figurehead of the movement. Gabriel Maura, his son, would organise much of the philosophical underpinnings. Both father and son believed that the will of the people was to decide the party to rule in government, not to change between Conservative and Liberal. In the 1920 Election, a total of 49 seats were won by the Maurist Party (losing only 19 seats instead of 44). As the principles grew, so did their support among right-wing voters. With every election, their strength grew. In 1924, the Maurists won 66 seats. In 1927 they won 85, becoming the largest of the right-wing parties of Spain. Passing away, Antonio Maura would not be able to claim the role of Prime Minister, but his son could. Gabriel Maura would put forward a platform of growing Spain's naval strength, increasing the birth rate and reorganising the Spanish Army. Popular sentiments, by the Second Long Depression, had turned to either the Maurists (which consisted of volkists, Carlists, moderate and traditional catholics as well as peasants) or the Socialist Republican Workers' Party (consisting of communists, anarchists, Marxists and syndicalists). The 1931 Election would lead to the Maurists obtaining 237 seats, the SRWP having 98 and the other dozen parties sharing the other 73 seats, with a coalition of conservative parties holding the Senate.
Gabriel Maura would lead the country from 1931 until his death in 1958. He would reform voting, crush much of the power of the party bosses, reform the civil service, modernise the army by purchasing British weapons as well as renewing the alliance with France and Britain. Maura would pit himself against the Germans, Russians and the Pact of Steel. This would alienate more of his radical supporters, but it would also put Spain in the good books of Britain and France. In 1933, Führer Manfred von Richthofen would meet Maura in Madrid, discussing a possible alliance where Spain would be entitled to Portugal's colonies, Gibraltar as well as bits of southern France. Maura would decline, but the consequences would reveal themselves soon, soon.
KINGDOM OF PORTUGAL: President Sidónio Pais would, along with Prime Minister António de Oliveira Salazar, set Portugal's finances for good. For decades, Portugal suffered under money creation, fiscal deficits and borrowing from overseas, which did not allow for Portugal's constant stewardship over its colonies. Salazar immediately put balanced budgets forward as well as plans to repay foreign debts. This allowed the National Republican Party and the Catholic Centre Party to win re-election in 1921, 1924 and 1927. By the Second Long Depression, Salazar had managed to get the country onto a fiscal surplus. As countries across the world dealt with the measures one way or another, Portugal maintained a budget surplus and managed to spend in such a way that it never got into severe debt.
Pais would retire before the 1930 Election having had a cardiac arrest the previous year. Salazar was chosen as the candidate for the Catholic Centre Party, which became the largest party at the election (winning 78 seats), faced against the Republican Evolutionist Party (which won 43 seats). Salazar would promote a stronger industrialisation of the colonies, exploiting as much of the resources as possible (13). The old alliance between Portugal and Britain would be maintained and when the time came, it would come into effect.
KINGDOM OF GREECE: After a total of 10 years, 245 days spent in two non-consecutive terms,
Eleftherios Venizelos was swept out of power by a coalition of monarchist, conservative and traditionalist parties formed under the banner of "United Opposition", led by Dimitrios Gounaris in the 1920 Election. Gounaris would begin the integration of Cyprus and Cyrenaica, the latter of which would have 100,000 colonists by 1925 and 200,000 by 1930. Gounaris would face concerns with Bulgaria in the Thrace Crisis of 1923, where Greek soldiers planned on moving forces overland. However, thanks to arbitration from Britain and France, this did not become a military struggle. From the arbitration onwards, Gounaris put forward feelers towards Bulgaria, in such a way that alienated Serbia. The animosity between Greece and Russia did not abate. It intensified as refugees came from Tsarist Russia through the Bosphorus. It was here that the Liberal Party and the "United Opposition" now renamed the Royalist Party began to pivot. Gounaris and the Royalist Party campaigned to deter the ánthropoi me várka (boat people) from entering the country and obtaining citizenship, while hoping other nations would take them in. Being re-elected in 1926, Gounaris suggested that they be resettled in Cyrenaica, which contributes to its modern day demographics: as of 2015, 45% of the population speak Russian or Ukrainian, 98.7% follow the Orthodox Church and 24% are first or second-generation Russians. But for now, the Royalists had the power, until the Second Long Depression.
Eleftherios Venizelos once again returned to power in the 1929 Election, winning 278 seats out of 411 seats (with Cyprus and Cyrenaica integrated into the Kingdom, the seats are added). He would begin decreasing the spending in the military, which had set off one or more nerves. His diplomacy was to delay any sense of growing tensions between Greece, Russia, Bulgaria and Serbia as well as the rump Ottoman Empire. During his term from 1929 to 1936, he would promote Greek industry within the Ottoman Empire, which would become the largest employer of Turkish people and prevent much of the damage hitting the Turkish people. He would strengthen ties with Britain and France as well as the Kingdom of the Arab State, where they planned on protecting the rights of Christians within the country and within Jerusalem (the capital city). Greece was one of the few countries to avoid the ill effects of volkism or communism, as Ioannis Metaxes' Freethinkers' Party crumbled at the 1932 Election and the Socialist Party failed to win a seat in the 1929, 1932, 1936 and 1940 Elections. Venizelos' death in February 1936 led to the rise of Liberal PM
Alexandros Papanastasiou, who dealt with a border skirmish between volkists from Serbia and Greek border troops. The negotiations for compensation allowed for a Royalist Party government led by Konstantinos Georgakopoulos to lead the country through the darkest times of its history, darker than even the First World War.
TSARDOM OF BULGARIA: After serious negotiations between itself and the British and the French, Bulgaria never entered the First World War on either side. Despite misgivings between themselves and the Greeks, Bulgaria was given access to the Bosphorus and to free access through the city of Constantinople. Out of all of the Bulgarians who migrated between 1917 - 1940, 72% emigrated to Greece and its newly claimed lands. The 1916 Election held on the 20th September saw Vasil Radoslavov defeated by the centre-right Democratic Party led by Aleksandar Malinov. Malinov would normalise relations with Greece and with Romania, with much of the animosity turned towards Serbia and its adoption of revanchist talking points set against Bulgaria, Greece and Italy (which they claimed stole most of the land). Both Greece and Serbia, in their propaganda, mentioned the Byzantine Empire and both of them claimed the right to be called "Third Rome". Of course, such propaganda came from the volkist organisations known as
Crypteia and Анђели смрти (Death's Angels in Serbian). Crypteia was formed in Greece in 1927, as a anti-egalitarian, anti-democratic organisation that dedicated itself to terror and political violence, often promoting ethnonationalism and communitarianism. Death's Angels was an anti-Catholic, anti-Marxist, anti-democratic organisation that formed in 1925 by a group of 700 Serbian soldiers who protested at the Treaty of Versailles. Bulgaria formed one in response. Мъже от стомана (Men of Steel) were former soldiers and later unemployed men over the age of 16 who, during the Second Long Depression, would allow for Radko Dimitriev to barnstorm his way into the office of Prime Minister in 1932. Men of Steel would be trained alongside the army in defending the border as well as harassing Russian civilians, as Russo-Bulgarian relations deteriorated. During the 1930's, British and French interest in the country increased, as Serbia began to seek further ties with Russia, Germany and the other volkist nations in Europe and the rest of the world. When Dimitriev passed away in 1934,
Racho Petrov took his place, beginning to join the Allies in the secret Treaty of Alexandria alongside Romania and Greece. At the same time, clashes between Russian and Bulgarian fishing boats led to a naval buildup in the Black Sea, one that would become a flashpoint for the Second World War.
KINGDOM OF CROATS, SLOVENES AND SERBS: Nikola Pašić guided the new country after the armistice, as the KCSS began to welcome several new businesses into the country. The KCSS was of a more liberal mind during the tenure of Pašić, one that brought in investment that managed to raise standards of living. However, struggles were within the country. Montenegro was within this union, forced to depose their royal family, the
House of Petrović-Njegoš. There was also the matter of Prince George, the eldest son of King Peter, who was forced to renounce his right to inherit the throne (despite many times claiming to want it back). With Pašić passing away in mid-1926, the country's sense of unity began to break up. With the splitting of Italy into the syndicalist FRI and the fascist Kingdom of Italy, many wanted to reclaim the region of Dalmatia, which contained tens of thousands of Slovenian peoples. By the time the Second Long Depression hit, volkism had taken a hold on the country. It led to the formation of four volkist groups.
The first was the Montenegro Federalist Party. Built on self-determination and decentralisation, the MFP would argue for a federal union of states instead of a unitary state filled with Montenegrins, Serbs, Slovenes, Albanians (who fled from their Italian controlled homeland) and other groups. The second was the Tricolour Guard, a group of xenophobic Serbians who believed that Prince George remained the rightful heir instead of King Alexander I of the KCSS. The third was the Iron Brigades, veterans who were anti-Catholic, anti-Greek, anti-Marxist and anti-Bulgarian and revanchist. The latter two formed imperialist propaganda, which stated that Britain needed to surrender Egypt, the Sudan and the Arab State (despite the latter being independent) for the Serbs. As unemployment rose, membership in these three groups grew, as well as the Communist Party. Violence was such a regular occurrence in the country, that between 50 to 85 deaths occurred per day for a period
of seven months during the year of 1932. The 1933 Election was seen as rigged, as the MFP got 2 seats, the TG's got 12 and the IB's got 49 seats. Meanwhile, the People's Radical Party maintained its rule over the country. The ensuing riots forced the army to crush all of the extremists on the far-left and far-right.
This led to a coup d'état by the Black Hand, who reformed as the fourth volkist group. Marching into the palace, 400 officers and veterans took the palace where King Alexander I and his family were in on the 28th June 1934. They pledged their allegiance to him and they stated that only an autocratic, authoritarian and absolutist monarch would be able to sway the hearts and minds of the people of the KCSS. Alexander, seeing how they barged in, politely asked what would happen if he refused. Their leader, a young man by the name of Grigorije Borisavljević, would state that "
there are more than enough relatives of the late King or of the other family [
House of Obrenović] who would consider this. Choose wisely." King Alexander I, hoping that he was bluffing, would refuse. Pulling out a bayonet blade, Grigorije Borisavljević and five Black Hand members would stab the King ninety three times before storming the rest of the palace to murder the rest of the family. Princess Maria (daughter of the late Ferdinand I of Romania, brother to the current King Carol II) and their issue: Prince Paul, Prince Tomislav and Princess Alexandria. All of them were either shot or stabbed to death, with the murders declared to be done by "communist agitators". The real reason was due to Alexander I's overtures to Britain and France, in the hopes of not being attacked by an alliance of Greece, Bulgaria and Romania as well as Tsar Nicholas II's growing senility, desire to dominate the Orthodox community within Europe as well as take back Constantinople. King Alexander, having discovered the alliance between Russia and Germany, planned on revealing it to the Army and the intelligence community of the KCSS (both of which were infiltrated by Black Hand members). The Black Hand was rewarded with the equivalent of $5 million USD each for their involvement in the crime. It was used to purchase German made weapons, which
Despite such flimsy evidence, the Black Hand worked around the clock to produce evidence and testimonies from the staff of the palace that, yes, it was communists that killed the King and his family. Using flimsy evidence, Prince George was crowned King George I of the Croats, Slovenes and Serbs. The declaration occurred as the Tricolour Guard, the largest yet the least violent, was absorbed by the Black Hand to allow it to reform as a secret police/espionage service/paramilitary force. After this, the Black Hand's public front "The National Government of Salvation", moved to seek greater ties with Russia, Germany and Austro-Hungary. Even Italy was contacted, as many within the Black Hand hoped to claim Dalmatia. It would not be until the Pact of Steel Conference in Warsaw (14th November 1938 to 2nd February 1939) where all of the representatives would discuss their aims and their terms.
KINGDOM OF ROMANIA: King Ferdinand I of Romania would, in his last years, reign over a country that was prosperous. The oil industry was booming, with the capacity to export to the rest of the world. This revenue, which was collected by the federal government, was saved by the ruling National Liberal Party until it was used in the Second Long Depression. Tensions between Romania and the Russian Empire increased over the Bukovina Incident. In March 1926, armed insurgents attempted to secede from the Russian Empire, which brought the attention of Romania's Prime Minister Ion I. C. Brătianu. Brătianu planned on supplying the rebels, in the hope of merging the disputed area with Romania. Armed with machine guns and grenades, the Bukovina insurgents attacked the local Russian forces. The plan went undetected, as Bukovina began to fight back against the Russian forces and rebellions began to spring up once more in the Ukraine. As the situation went on, King Ferdinand I died from cancer in December 1926. He was succeeded by King Carol II and his wife, Helen of Greece and Denmark.
When the crash happened, the Russian Ambassador discovered the plot. On January of 1928, the Russian Empire put an embargo against Romanian goods, with a 85% tariff on all petrochemical goods from Romania. In return, Romania placed a 90% tariff on Russian goods. This may have contributed to a higher unemployment numbers in both countries compared to their fellow nations in Europe, with the Russian Empire dealing with a 40% unemployment in the manufacturing sector, compared to Romania's 37.8%. The surplus revenue that was obtained during the oil boom allowed for Romania to recover from the Second Long Depression as early as November 1930. However, things had to change. King Carol II was made aware of the Russian discovery and of the implications of the Bukovina Incident. Migrants that came from Tsarist Russia reported of a strengthening bond between Germany and Russia, something that alerted the new PM Iuliu Maniu.
Maniu put forward a plan of defence, known as the Dacian Line. Taking a survey of the border region of Romania, it would form itself along the design of the Maginot Line. Czech hedgehogs and Dragon's Teeth (types of metal spikes used to halt tanks) were used, along with landmines and deep trenches. Thin gaps would be plugged by concrete bunkers armed with several machine guns, all connected by underground trenches stretching 40 kms. Every family either purchased or received firearms courtesy of the Romanian Army. Speaking of, it would increase its peacetime numbers from 200,000 in 1930 to 400,000 by 1935, reaching a total of 800,000 by the time the Second World War started. Maniu also signed the Compact of Constantinople, which placed Bulgaria, Greece and Romania in a anti-Russian, anti-German alliance. This compact would not be activated until the Second World War.
ARMENIA AND THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE: Andranik Ozanian became the first elected President of the Armenian Republic in April 1918, a role that he would maintain until his death on the 6th June 1930. Ozanian would rule the country, which underwent a massive infrastructure campaign as well as a campaign to bring in as many ethnic Armenians as possible. It was around this time that he would work with the Morgenthau Institute Against Racecide (MIAR), as it started the worldwide campaign "to end the systematic killing of persons based on their racial heritage, their religious convictions or their political or apolitical opinions".
However, not everything was rosy.
Ozanian would grow to have a tainted legacy. On the one hand, he managed to make the country stable, the heritage of Armenians was maintained and he even kept unemployment low during the madness of the Second Long Depression. On the other, he was accused of endorsing the killing of 10,000 Turkish women and children that lived within the country, as well as ordering the Muslims in the country to congregate in ghettos, electoral fraud and colluding with the Tsarists. Ozanian would grow a cult of personality around him, one that was meant to preserve the country at all costs. During the Second Long Depression and prior to his death, he would form the P’yuniki vordiner (Sons of the Phoenix). This group was an anti-Islamic, volkist, pro-Tsarist organisation that claimed that
Armenia is the rightful heir to the Ottoman Empire, with propaganda maps stating their claims over the entire Middle East including Persia, Afghanistan and Egypt. Despite reaching 1 million people only in 1929, the Sons of the Phoenix believed in this message.
A campaign of natalist policies went ahead, with every family expected to have more than six children and the age of majority lowered to 15. Training alongside Russians and Germans, the Armenian Army was complemented on their duty, which was drilled into them since they could enter school. The Armenians who were trained by the Sons of the Phoenix would become the very monsters they tried to avoid. The Pact of Steel Conference would show their true colours. Soon enough.
If only Clarence Douglas Ussher read more of Nietzsche. If only.
As for the Ottoman Empire, Sultan Mehmed VI (Mehmed V's son) ruled over a broken country. Constantinople is no longer theirs and forced to pay reparations, the Ottoman Empire seemed to be on the cusp of breaking up. It was up to Prime Minister Musa Kâzım Karabekir to keep the peace. The Ottoman Civil War ended with the storming of Ankara on the 3rd January 1923, which ended all republican sentiment in Anatolia. It was only after the war that the country could hope for some peace.
The Ottoman Empire would undergo moderate reforms. The Turkic alphabet would follow the Latin-script, with a total of 29 characters for an accurate pronunciation of the Turkish language. Voting rights were granted for women who were over the age of 30 and married, while all men over the age of 21 were guaranteed the franchise (whether married or unmarried). The Surname Law was adopted, where all Turkish people were to adopt a surname. The harem was reduced to the Sultan's wife and five mistresses at most, instead of the count of dozens or hundreds that Sultans would have had centuries ago. But the reforms ended there, with the Caliphate maintained as well as sharia courts. This was done at the behest of Britain, who wished to not alienate the already defeated Turks.
As the Second Long Depression occurred, the Ottomans managed to ride out the wave of volkist sentiments, given much of the Islamic influence of the country remained and that the reparations were paid off in full by 1931. The rise of the Sons of the Phoenix in Armenia triggered some sense of fear. Musa Kâzım Karabekir hoped to play both sides off when exporting minerals such as boron salts (the Ottoman Empire has 70% of the worlds supply, a de facto monopoly), chromium, gold, coal, uranium among others.
The Progressive Republican Party replaced the CUP as the one-party rulers of Turkey, given the shocking actions of CUP members. The PRP would rule the Ottoman Empire's Parliamentary system from 1918 to the present, winning elections in 1918, 1922, 1926, 1930, 1934, 1938, 1942, 1948, 1953, 1957, 1961, 1965, 1969, 1974, 1979, 1983, 1989, 1994, 1998, 2003, 2009 and winning the election of 2014.
It won't be until the year 1941 when the Ottoman Empire would decide where it would stand.
THE KINGDOM OF THE ARAB STATE: Hussein bin Ali Al-Hashimi or Hussein I of the Arab State, would rule from 1917 to his death in 1932. It was around this time that he invited "Lawrence of Arabia" to help unite the new nation, as he contributed to the Arab State's forces during the Ottoman Civil War. He was chosen as a compromise candidate, despite being born in Wales and having been in the Middle East since 1915. The Arab State would crush the last of the Ottoman holdouts in Damascus, the area surrounding the Golan Heights as well as the Mesopotamia region. Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild, a prominent Zionist, would meet with Sultan Hussein I as well as his Prime Minister, T. E. Lawrence. Lawrence would assure Rothschild of the safety of the Jews in Palestine, however he would not commit to a Jewish state of their own (as it violated the terms of the Treaty of Versailles). Lawrence would be elected on the 2nd November 1917 in the General Assembly, presiding over a cabinet that comprised of Jews, Sunni and Shia Muslims, Orthodox Christians, Coptic Christians, Roman Catholics and Anglicans.
The Treaty of Cairo in 1922 would end the Ottoman Civil War, as it legitimised the nations of the Arab State, the Republic of Armenia and the new borders of the Ottoman Empire.
The longevity of both Lawrence and Hussein I would guarantee stability. Laws surrounding religious tolerance were put forward, followed by a reform of the Arabic language.
Zaki al-Arsuzi was the first of many Arab thinkers who established the necessity of Arab peoples to link themselves to the nation by the one thing that remains of their past - Language. Advising Lawrence and the Cabinet, Zaki al-Arsuzi and fellow thinker Sati' al-Husri set to work on language reform. The language, Classical Arabic, could be understood in writing but dialects altered to a point where no two speakers from different parts of the Arab State could understand one another (like an American from Texas trying to understand the accent of a Ulsterman speaking English or vice versa). As such, Classical Arabic became simplified, in a way that different dialects could be intelligible with the written language. To push that unity forward, the Arab State began spending on compulsory schooling for all children between the age of 4 and 16. Education spending tripled that of defence from the 1920-21 fiscal year to the 1933-34 fiscal year as a result of the reforms.
Like the Ottoman Empire, the country was somewhat neutral. However, tensions began to rise with the Second Long Depression. In Persia, volkists under the command of Colonel Reza Shah Pahlavi (who was the Minister of War and commander of the Persian Cossack Brigade) stormed Tehran on the 14th December 1927 with the thanks of Russian weapons and aid (which pissed off the British). Upon seizing the throne for himself and signing a treaty with Russia two months later, British diplomats under General Edmund Ironside offered a treaty in return to the Arab State. After much dialogue, Sultan Hussein I signed a secret treaty with Britain on the 25th April 1928. As a nation with one of the largest oil deposits, the Arab State did not suffer in unemployment. The British, the French, the Spanish, the Portuguese and the Greeks were happy customers willing to pay thanks to the distribution of the Anglo-Arab Petroleum Company, a company that was formed after Russia and Persia expropriated the property of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company in 1934.
Upon the death of Hussein I, his son Ali bin Hussein replaced him as Ali I. Ali would honour the alliance with Britain, signing a treaty with France as well as Greece and sending a delegation to the Second Entente (Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and Czechoslovakia) in 1937. At the signing of the secret clauses that guaranteed the protection of the Arab State, it would bring the Middle East into war. It would also bring them closer towards the eye of the Russian Empire.
CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND: In the 1920 Election on the 17th November, William S. Fielding's Liberal Party won a 18-seat majority against Robert Borden's Conservative Party. The first matter that was decided was the necessity of veterans' affairs, which was helped by his Minister of Finance William L. Mackenzie King. Fielding would introduce National Security: a pension that was to be paid to every Canadian citizen who was 65 years or older. An exemption was to be given to veterans who suffered injuries (and later mental health concerns thanks to an amendment in 1964). Fielding would welcome Major General
Archibald Montgomery-Massingberd as the Governor General of Canada in November 1921, remaining in the role until the 11th August 1926.
Fielding would also lower tariffs as a part of his plan to win voters in the western regions, as well as reinstating the Crowsnest Pass Agreement. Fielding would also meet with Austen Chamberlain on the matter of fishing in the North Pacific. The Pacific halibut population was declining as fishermen returned to their professions. Despite the misgivings of his Minister of Finance, Fielding would wait until the new British Ambassador William Henry Clark would arrive to sign the treaty on behalf of Britain. The Pacific Halibut Agreement placed quotas on how many fish could be caught every year, with numbers being examined every 15 years to determine sustainability.
The 1925 Canadian Election had Fielding fend off attacks from the Conservatives under
William Thomas White due to fiscal policy as well as the rise of Germany and Japan, which White stated would not be good for Canada, quote:
The peculiar ideal of volkism, of a nation being formed by race, is one that is capable of being used in the wrong hands. In the case of the Empire [of Japan], the Prime Minister openly denounces the British, French, Dutch, Australian, American and Chinese "interference" with their own country. As of now, there are calls within that country to forcibly take Hong Kong and the Philippines! These matters, which ought to have been resolved before, have now shown up unsolved at the desk of the Prime Minister.
In the 1920 Election, they won a total of 51 seats in the Canadian House of Commons, off the back of the Conservatives' refusal to lower the tariff for farmers and their ties to big business. The Progressive Party was formed by the United Farmers of Canada (which had governance in a few provinces), farmers and their co-ops as well as social democrats, left-wing populists and those who had worked in the US Populist Party of the 1890's.
What caused the fractures of the Progressive Party of Canada were many. The decentralisation of the party, owing allegiance to the constituents rather than a central party being able to sway voters' minds. The lack of financial stability. The refusal to form a system of parliamentary Whips and a national party organisation. Another matter was that the Progressive Party caucus contained MPs who were from the Labour Party (all 3 of them), United Farmers, "Independent Progressives" and non-partisan politicians, further contributing to their lack of a strong front for voters.
The Labour Party of Canada, led by the Reverend James Shaver Woodsworth, campaigned harder on social issues for the downtrodden such as public housing, welfare and unemployment benefits. Unlike that of the Progressive Party, Woodsworth managed to form a stronger bond within the party as he believed that the Liberal Party did not allow for a removal of Robert Border's policies.
In the 1925 Election, out of 245 seats and 3,152,525 votes, W.S Fielding managed to slip in.
| Political Party | Leader | Votes | Seats |
| Liberal Party | W. S. Fielding | 1,434,452 | 106 |
| Conservative Party | William T. White | 1,125,663 | 83 |
| Labour Party | J. S. Woodsworth | 408,993 | 34 |
| Progressive Party | Robert Forke | 156,778 | 8 |
| Independents | - | 14,027 | 2 |
| United Farmers of Alberta | George Gibson Coote | 9,045 | 2 |
| Other | - | 3,567 | 0 |
The shattering of the Progressive Party allowed for the Labour Party of Canada to swoop in. Despite not having enough on his own, W. S. Fielding managed to form a coalition with the Labour Party and the remnants of the Progressive Party.
The Second Fielding Ministry led to the creation of the National Radio Corporation of Canada (NRCC), the Canadian Wheat Board, an amendment to National Security that would allow for payments for unemployed citizens of Canada. It would be this piece that would shatter the alliance, as backbencher Liberals began to rebel against the more interventionist plans that Fielding, Mackenzie King and Woodsworth were planning.
On the 7th October 1927, W. S. Fielding suffered a stroke that killed him. A ballot among the Liberal caucus elected William L. Mackenzie King over Charles Wilson Cross. The architect for the more progressive, interventionist policies of the government, King would attempt to work with the Labour Party over the plan for national insurance. On the 10th of November 1927, the markets started to tumble. By the end of the week, it was beginning to appear like hell was breaking loose. The Progressive Party, torn over its support for more interventionist policies, broke up with only Robert Forke defecting to the Liberals while the other 7 MPs went into the Labour Party. Failing to mitigate concerns from moderate and right-wing Liberals, King went to the Governor-General and called for an election.
For the Conservatives, they ran with Brigadier-General Frederick Fisher. Fisher was the first Canadian to receive the Victoria Cross, having served in the Western Front from 1914 - 1917 being promoted a Corporal. Fisher worked with veterans and maintained an interest in events in Germany and Japan following the rise of volkism in both countries. Fisher would, contrary to much of the opinion at the time, speak out against German and Japanese interests, as he viewed the losses of the First World War too great to throw away. Campaigning with the Conservatives, he spoke to as many people as he could on radio, which was dominated by stations that were friendly to the Conservative Party. Fisher believed that Canada had to participate in the peace of the world as a part of the British Empire. Fisher believed that defence had to be a concern of the British Empire and for Canada.
The Liberals were stuck with King, who was not as photogenic as Fisher nor was he as charismatic as Fisher or Woodsworth. The prosperity of post-war Canada was on their shoulders and, whether they liked it or not, the blame as well.
Out of 245 seats and 3,898,722 votes, Frederick Fisher and the Conservative Party won 141 seats and 1,692,342 votes in the 1928 Election. King was reduced from 107 to 32 and 392,634, with him losing his own seat. The Labour Party under J. S. Woodsworth won 72 seats and 1,489,556 votes, with the United Farmers of Alberta uniting with the Labour Party prior to the election. The Communist Party of Canada won 0 seats and 215,662 votes. The Volkist Front of Canada, a more anti-Semitic strain of the volkist movement, won 28,536 votes with 79,992 votes going to different candidates.
Fisher would begin by putting support for intervention to combat unemployment, using the examples of the Communist Party and the Volkist Front to justify it. Grants to farmers, healthcare insurance, a minimum wage and public works were enacted as part of Fisher's plan to take voters away from the Liberal Party. Business interests were concerned over the intrusion that government was making, but Fisher and his Minister of Finance R. B. Bennett worked overtime to ensure the collaboration of business with the plans of government. Bennett himself would try and contribute to charity, spending over two-thirds of his wealth while the Cabinet and later all of Parliament would divest from any shares they had on the stock market.
Fisher would present the necessity of clashing against the Communist Party under Maurice Spector and the Volkist Front under Adrien Arcand. The Communist Party was beginning to win more support in the west with former Progressive voters while Quebec became the hotspot for Volkist sentiments in Canada.
The 1934 Election, 4,503,185 voters and 245 seats:
| Political Party | Leader | Votes | Seats |
| Conservative Party | Frederick Fisher | 2,117,288 | 126 (-15 seats) |
| Liberal Party | William Lyon Mackenzie King | 1,176,554 | 58 (+26 seats) |
| Labour Party | James Shaver Woodsworth | 949,973 | 52 (-20 seats) |
| Volkist Front | Adrian Arcand | 147,887 | 9 (+9) |
| Communist Party | Maurice Spector | 59,976 | 0 (-/+) |
| Liberal-Progressive Labour | Robert Forke | 10,281 | 0 (-1) |
| Other Minor Parties/Independents | - | 41,226 | 0 (-/+) |
The weakened majority came out of the idea that the Conservatives were inactive against stopping the Second Long Depression. What stopped Fisher from losing was the threat of volkism and communism, thanks to the slogan "Fisher and his men on the seats or bloody fighting in the streets? Your Choice" which included a picture on the left of Fisher's Cabinet and a picture on the right which was taken from several meetings of the Communist Party and Volkist Front that ended in clashes with each other or the police.
Fisher's second term would include increased defence spending as well as a progressive income tax. The PIT would be 5% for wages over 9,999 - 19,999 pounds, 10% for 20,000 to 49,999 pounds, 15% for 50,000 to 199,999 pounds, 25% for 200,000 to 999,999 pounds and 30% for all annual incomes over 1 million pounds. It would be followed up by the formation of the National Bank of Canada (1935) and the Canadian Wheat Board (1937). Fisher would be wary of Japanese and Russian expansion, following the partition of Inner
Mongolia and the Chinese defeat in the war against the Russo-Japanese alliance. He would begin his work soon after.
END OF PART ONE
1. Makes sense given his OTL liking for the cold. A thread on this website suggested the constituency of Argyllshire if he were to enter into Parliament.
2. He did not get killed during the fighting.
I was meant to get rid of those in the last post, because I wanted them to be a surprise. Oh well.
3. Historians and economists would forever determine that the 1927-1940/1944 depression as the Second Long Depression, linking it up with the First Long Depression. It sort of forms a reference to how historians (rightly or wrongly) express the Holy Roman Empire as the "First Reich" and the German Empire under the Hohenzollerns as the "Second Reich" given the title for Nazi Germany being the "Third Reich".
4. ATL name for MEFO, they work along the exact same lines.
5. Russia AND GERMANY ON THE SAME SIDE, HOLY SHIT MAN
reads and sees Roman von Ungern-Sternburg OH FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
6. Haig will have a much better reputation than OTL. As for the Governor-General stuff, Australia won't have Australian-born Governor-General's. Lang did it out of necessity, whilst later on, they will choose to have it. Lang will, without intending it, maintain the status quo.
7. Albert Davy's role in the New Zealand Democratic Party may have contributed to the Labour victory in 1935. Because Massey remains PM until 1928, the Reform Party gets hurt by the initial shock of the Second Long Depression. But due to the infighting between Prime Minister Joseph Ward (and the Liberal Party) versus their Labour MP partners in Coalition, the Reform Party comes back with a small-government, deflationary spending model on how to deal with the Second Long Depression, the sort of model that Australia's government put through between 1931 - 1939 under Joseph Lyons. IN FACT, Australia's OTL unemployment rate was LOWER than that of the USA (11% at the start of WW2 compared to 17.2%). New Zealand will have a lower ATL unemployment rate compared to its sister nations within the British Empire. This will, however, butterfly New Zealand's welfare state and it will make it more business friendly in ATL. That will also mean that New Zealand will get a lot more R&D that will blossom post-war.
8. From 1935 to 1965, a total of 300,000 Dutch citizens would emigrate to the Dutch East Indies. From 1965 to 2000, it would average 40,000 per year. By ATL 2015, the Dutch East Indies is more or less linked to The Netherlands, despite the fact that a Second East Indies Emergency occurs between 1963 - 1971 (Dutch historians will refer to the Trotsky-Inspired uprising as the "First East Indies Emergency").
9. Tonningen will have a conflicting interpretation of his life in ATL: On the one hand, he will be praised by nationalists and liberals for resisting Germany and Japan through the war and for his promotion of national identity and of the colonial empire in the Dutch East Indies as well as alerting Britain and France to the German rearmament program. On the other, he will be criticised for restricting freedom of speech, association, the press and for modelling himself on the nations that he would swear to fight against. There will be many books written by both sides of the isle, with politics essentially going into a pro-Tonningen and anti-Tonningen view from the 1960's onwards, especially with what happens with France at that time.
10. Imagine an ATL discussion in
TheMenInHighCastles.com where some poster makes a TL based off the Fatherland League accepting the deal? Holy Shit, I know right.
11. ATL Jordan Peterson if he was born as a girl instead of a boy.
12. Posters with triskaidekaphobia will be cringing on the inside.
13. In ATL, he will be criticised for his programs in the colonies, which would harm natives during the period of 1930 prior to the Second World War.
It took so long because of all of those butterflies. Gotta see what they were saying, you know. Anyway, I hope that everyone is safe, all comments and thoughts and likes are welcome and appreciated.
PART TWO OF THE BUTTERFLIES COMING
