The elephant, the lynx, the two wolves, the dragon, the eagle, the griffon vulture and the bull.

[Antonio Ferrari]

The June uprising: the wolf struggle against the two headed black eagle
Despite the various successes of the young Albanian state, the government wasn't stable at all. Albanian governments appeared and disappeared in rapid succession. Between July and December 1921 alone, the premiership changed hands five times.
The Popular Party's head, Xhafer Ypi, formed a government in December 1921 with Fan S. Noli as foreign minister and Ahmed Bey Zogu as internal affairs minister, but Noli resigned soon after Zogu resorted to repression in an attempt to disarm the lowland Albanians despite the fact that bearing arms was a traditional custom. When the government's enemies attacked Tirana in early 1922, Zogu stayed in the capital and, with the support of the Italian ambassador, repulsed the assault. He took over the premiership later in the year and turned his back on the Popular Party by announcing his engagement to the daughter of the Progressive Party leader, Shefqet Verlaci. Zogu's protégés organized themselves into the Government Party. Noli and other Western-oriented leaders formed the Opposition Party of Democrats, which attracted all of Zogu's many personal enemies, ideological opponents, and people left unrewarded by his political machine. Ideologically, the Democrats included a broad sweep of people who advocated everything from conservative Islam to Noli's dreams of rapid modernization.
Opposition to Zogu was formidable. Orthodox peasants in Albania's southern lowlands loathed Zogu because he supported the Muslim landowners' efforts to block land reform; Shkodër's citizens felt shortchanged because their city did not become Albania's capital, and many criticized him for his support by the fascists. As a matter of fact, many believed that Zogu turned Albania in an Italian protectorate. Thanks to the Treaty of Rome, Albania was recognized as an independent country, and all Montenegran, Serbian and Greek areas with Albanian majorities and minorities were integrated into the Greater Albanian State or GAS (Shteti i Madh Shqiptar, or SMS). However, the Treaty also allowed many benefits for the Austro-Hungarians and the Italians, which soon started to implement spheres of influences in the region, similar to the ones present in China and pre-Spanish Deal Siam. The Albanian public opinion was also upset after the Italian seizure of Corfu and several other Greek islands. Because of this, the Italian sphere of influences grew in size. In these zones, Italians had better trade deals with the Albanese, and also hosted troops in the various regions, just like the United States of Greater Austria did. One zone in the middle, including the capital, was left intact in order to avoid conflicts between the USGA and the Kingdom of Italy. Despite the Austrian strong interests in the Nord, the Italians were the true rulers of the young Kingdom, having large armies in cities such as Berat.

The Kingdom of Albania, with the Italian sphere of influence in the South and the USGA sphere in the Nord. In reality, the Italian sphere of influence was present in the entirety of the country de facto, and some nationalists claimed that Albania was merely an Italian puppet state.
Zogu's party handily won elections for a National Assembly in early 1924. Zogu soon stepped aside, however, handing over the premiership to Verlaci in the wake of a financial scandal and an assassination attempt by a young radical that left Zogu wounded. The opposition withdrew from the assembly after the leader of a radical youth organization and popular liberal leftist politician, Avni Rustemi, was murdered in the street outside the parliament building.
Noli's supporters blamed the murder of Avni Rustemi on Zogu's Mati clansmen, who continued to practice blood vengeance. After the walkout, discontent mounted, and in June 1924 a peasant-backed insurgency had won control of Tirana. Noli became prime minister, and Zogu fled to Italy.
Fan Noli, an idealist, rejected demands for new elections on the grounds that Albania needed a "paternal" government. In a manifesto describing his government's program, Noli called for abolishing feudalism, resisting Italian domination, and establishing a Western-style constitutional government. Scaling back the bureaucracy, strengthening local government, assisting peasants, throwing Albania open to foreign investment, freeing the Nord from the Austrian grasps, and improving the country's bleak transportation, public health, and education facilities filled out the Noli government's overly ambitious agenda. Noli encountered resistance to his program from people who had helped him oust Zogu, and he never attracted the foreign aid necessary to carry out his reform plans. On top of that, Italian prime minister Benito Mussolini was resentful of Noli's government, and tensions between the Kingdom of Albania and the Kingdom of Italy after several incidents in the island of Sazan, where an Albanian uprising backed up by the Albanian government killed 30 Italian colonists and injured 10 of them, in what is today known as "the massacre of Sazan(Il massacro di Saseno).

Italian troops, which arrived shortly to suppress the Albanian revolt in Sazan, walk among the bodies of Italian civilians killed by Albanian rebels. These were higly supported by the Albanian government, which was resentful of Italy strong position in the area, and its full controll of islands with an Albanian majority.

Under Fan Noli, the government set up a special tribunal that passed death sentences, in absentia, on Zogu, Verlaci, and others and confiscated their property. After Noli's regime decided to establish diplomatic relations with the Ottoman empire, a bitter economic enemy of the Kingdom of Italy, the Italians started to mobilize. In Italy, Zogu recruited a mercenary army, and Rome furnished the Albanian leader with weapons, about 1,000 Italian Army regulars, and Austrian members to mount an invasion that the Italians hoped would resolve the situation in Albania. The Italians needed Zogu, if they wanted to maintain controll over Albania. The most experienced of these forces was the Italian contingent, which was led by Italian General Ubaldo Soddu, who actually saw combat in Albania in the Albano-Greek war. Its contingent consisted of 102 soldiers, including 15 officers. Zogu was recommended by the Italians to have Armando Diaz, a World War I veteran who commanded the Italian army in the Sicilian campaign(famous its orders in the battle of Locogrande:"Men, I'm not ordering you to attack. I'm ordering you to die.), in leading the contingent. On 13 December 1924, Zogu's Italian-backed army landed into Albanian territory. The Italian army, however, decided to give an additional "push" to support Zogu.

Ahmed Bey Zogu, also better known by many as "Mussolini little dog(Il cagnetto di Mussolini, Mussolini qen i vogel)", because of his affinity to the Italian fascist government
On July 7 Mussolini's troops, led by General Alfredo Guzzoni, invaded Albania, attacking all Albanian ports simultaneously. The Italian naval forces involved in the invasion consisted of the battleships Giulio Cesare and Conte di Cavour, three heavy cruisers, three light cruisers, nine destroyers, fourteen torpedo boats, one minelayer, ten auxiliary ships and nine transport ships. The ships were divided into four groups, that carried out landings in Vlore, Durres, Sarande and Shengjin.
On the other side the regular Albanian army had 15,000 poorly equipped troops who had been trained by Italian officers. Noli's plan was to mount a resistance in the mountains, leaving the ports and main cities undefended; but Italian agents placed in Albania as military instructors sabotaged this plan. The Albanians discovered that artillery pieces had been disabled and there was no ammunition. As a consequence, the main resistance was offered by gendarmes and small groups of patriots.
In Durrës, a force of 500 Albanians, including gendarmes and armed volunteers, led by Major Abaz Kupi (the commander of the gendarmerie in Durrës), and Mujo Ulqinaku, a naval sergeant, tried to halt the Italian advance. Equipped with small arms and three machine guns and supported by a coastal battery, the defenders resisted for a few hours before being overcome with the help of naval gunfire. The Albanian Navy stationed in Durrës consisted of four patrol boats (each armed with a machine gun) and a coastal battery with four 75 mm guns, the latter also being involved in the fighting. Mujo Ulqinaku, the commander of the patrol boat Tiranë, used his machine gun to kill and wound many Italian troops until himself being killed by an artillery shell from an Italian warship.
By 1:30 pm on the first day, all Albanian ports were in Italian hands. That same day Noli fled to Bulgaria, taking with him part of the gold reserves of the Albanian Central Bank. On hearing the news, an angry mob attacked the prisons, liberated the prisoners and sacked the Prime Minister residence At 9:30 am on July 8, Italian troops entered Tirana and quickly captured all government buildings. Italian columns of soldiers then marched to Shkodër, Fier and Elbasan. Shkodër surrendered in the evening after 12 hours of fighting. However, two officers garrisoned at Rozafa castle refused to obey the ceasefire order and continued to fight until they ran out of ammunition. The Italian troops later paid homage to the Albanian troops in Shkodër who had halted their advance for an entire day. During the Italian advance in Shkodër the mob besieged the prison and liberated some 200 prisoners.
On July 12, the Albanian parliament voted to depose Noli, and decided to welcome Zogu back as the ruler of the nation. The parliament elected Albania's largest landowner, Shefqet Vërlaci, as Prime Minister. Peace talks would be written on Tirana. In it:
-Albania recognize the Italian sphere of influence in the South
-Albania recognize the Italian ownship of the Albanian islands
-Zogu becomes the King of Albania, condemning Albania to be De Facto an Italian puppet state
-the Kingdom of Italy occupies the port of Orikum and the Karaburun Peninsula

Map of Albania after the Italian invasion
After Mussolini intervention in the region, it was obvious that the Italian government had aggressive and imperialistic intention, but was still well seen by the German government, who saw the Italians as a powerful ally in the Mediterranean, as relations between the Ottoman empire and the German empire become more and more stagnant.
I hope you guys like this new update! Be sure to like(if you like it), comment(please comment so I can learn what your opinion is) and.....follow I guess.

 

[Antonio Ferrari]

The Warlord era: the Chinese dragon break-out and rebirth
Shortly after the end of the Great war, the Republic of China saw a break-out, which leaded to a brief period of Chinese history called the Warlord Era. The Warlord Era (simplified Chinese: 军阀时代; traditional Chinese: 軍閥時代; pinyin: Jūnfá shídài, 1920–1925) was a period in the history of the Republic of China when the control of the country was divided among former military cliques of the Beiyang Army and other regional factions, disappointed for the result of the Great War, which was spread across in the mainland regions of Sichuan, Shanxi, Qinghai, Ningxia, Gansu and Xinjiang. It begin in 1920, shortly after the Great War, and lasted until 1925 when the Nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) officially unified China through the Western Expedition, marking the beginning of the Nanjing decade. During this time, both the Italian, British, German and Japanese concessions, alongside Siam, Mongolia, Tibet and Russia, expanded on what seemed like the corpse of the once mighty Chinese empire.

China during the Warlord Era
The origins of the armies and leaders which dominated politics in the various self proclaimed Chinese states that were born from the carcass of the defeated Chinese Republic layed long before the Great war even started, in the military reforms of the late Qing dynasty. These reforms did not establish a national army; instead, they mobilized regional armies and militias that had neither standardization nor consistency. During the later phase of the Taiping Rebellion (1850–64), provincial governors were allowed to raise their own armies to fight against the rebels; these forces were not disbanded even after the rebellion was over. The most powerful regional army was the northern-based Beiyang Army under Yuan Shikai, which received the best in training and modern weaponry. Officers were loyal to their superiors and formed cliques based upon their place of origins and background. Units were composed of men from the same province. This policy was meant to reduce dialectal miscommunication, but had the unfortunate side effect of encouraging regionalistic tendencies.
The Xinhai Revolution in 1911 brought widespread mutiny across southern China. The revolution began in October 1911 with the mutiny of troops based in Wuhan. Soldiers once loyal to the Qing government began to defect to the opposition. These revolutionary forces established a provisional government in Nanjing the following year under Dr. Sun Yat-sen, who had returned from his long exile to lead the revolution. Sun negotiated with Beiyang commander Yuan Shikai to bring an end to the Qing and reunify China. In return, Sun would hand over his presidency and recommend Yuan to be the president of the new republic. Yuan refused to move to Nanjing and insisted on maintaining the capital in Beijing, where his power base was secure.
Reacting to Yuan's growing authoritarianism, the southern provinces rebelled in 1913 but were effectively crushed by Beiyang forces. Civil governors were replaced by military ones. As the rebellions started to become more and more present in the Chinese Republic, Yuan believed that a war against the Central Powers would allow to recreate somewhat of a Chinese national unity, avoiding a bloody revolution that the government wasn't sure if it was able to secure. However, China's weak army turned to be unable to resist against Japanese and Siamese forces after the defeat of Russia, and felt into civil unrest, and saw the independence of Mongolia and Tibet, who now were the most stable of the former Chinese provinces, and were triving thanks to their trade deals with Russia, Nepal, Siam and the UBSR.

The Beiyang Army marching for battle against the Japanese in WW1
Warlords, in the words of American political scientist Lucian Pye, were "instinctively suspicious, quick to suspect that their interests might be threatened ... hard-headed, devoted to the short run and impervious to idealistic abstractions". These Chinese warlords usually came from strict military background, and were brutal in their treatment toward both their soldiers and the general population. In 1921, the North China Daily News reported that in the Shaanxi province, prevalence of robbery and violent crimes were serious to the extent that farmers were "afraid" to "venture out of doors". Wu Peifu of the Zhili clique was known for suppressing strikes by railroad workers by terrorizing them with execution. A British diplomat in Sichuan province witnessed two mutineers being publicly hacked to death with their hearts and livers hung out; another two being publicly burned to death; while others had slits cut into their bodies into which were inserted burning candles before they were hacked to pieces.
Warlords placed great stress on personal loyalty, yet subordinate officers often betrayed their commanders in exchange for bribes known as "silver bullets", and warlords often betrayed allies. Promotion had little to do with competence, and instead warlords attempted to create an interlocking network of familial, institutional, regional and master-pupil relationships together with membership in sworn brotherhoods and secret societies. Subordinates who betrayed their commanders could suffer harshly. "Alignment politics" prevented any one warlord from dominating the system. When one warlord started to become too powerful, the rest would ally to stop him, then turn on each other. The level of violence in the first years was restrained, as no leader wanted to engage in too much serious fighting. War brought the risk of damage to one's own forces. Furthermore, none of the warlords had the economic capacity or the logistical strength to inflict a decisive knockout blow; the most they could hope for was to gain some territory. None could conquer all of China. However, as the 1920s went on, the violence became increasingly intense and savage as the object was to damage the enemy and improve one's bargaining power within the "alignment politics".
As the infrastructure in China was still poor at the time, control of the railway lines and rolling stock were crucial in maintaining the sphere of influence. Railroads were the fastest and cheapest way of moving large number of troops, and most battles during this era were fought within a short distance of railways. In 1923, it was estimated that 70% of the locomotives on the railway lines connecting Wuhan and Beijing, and 50% of the locomotives on the lines connecting Beijing and Mukden were being used for mobilizing troops and supplies. Armored trains, full of machine guns and artillery, offered fire support for troops going into battle. The constant fighting around the railroads caused much economic harm. Between 1923 and 1924 fighting in western and northern China caused non-military railroad traffic to decline by 25%, raising the prices of goods and causing inventory to build up at warehouses.
Few of the warlords had any sort of ideology. Yan Xishan, the "Model Governor" of Shanxi, professed a syncretic creed that merged elements of democracy, militarism, individualism, capitalism, socialism, communism, imperialism, universalism, anarchism and Confucian paternalism into one. A friend described Yan as "a dark-skinned, moustached man of medium height who rarely laughed and maintained an attitude of great reserve ... Yan never showed his inner feelings." He kept Shanxi on a different railroad gauge from the rest of China to make it difficult to invade his province, though that tactic also hindered the export of coal and iron, the main source of Shanxi's wealth. Feng Yuxiang, the "Christian General", promoted Methodism together with a vague sort of left-leaning Chinese nationalism, which led the UBSR to support him for a time. He banned alcohol, lived simply and wore the common uniform of an infantryman to show his concern for his men. Wu Peifu, the "Philosopher General", was a mandarin who passed the Imperial Civil Service exam, billing himself as the protector of Confucian values, usually appearing in photographs with the scholar's brush in his hand (the scholar's brush is a symbol of Confucian culture). Doubters noted, however, that the quality of Wu's calligraphy markedly declined when his secretary died. Wu liked to appear in photos taken in his office with a portrait of his hero George Washington in the background to reflect the supposed democratic militarism he was attempting to bring to China. Wu was famous for his capacity to absorb vast quantities of alcohol and still keep drinking. When he sent Feng a bottle of brandy, Feng replied by sending him a bottle of water, a message that Wu failed to take in.
More typical was Marshal Zhang Zuolin, a graduate of the "University of the Green Forest", an illiterate who had a forceful, ambitious personality that allowed him to rise up from the leader of a bandit gang, be hired by the Japanese to attack the Russians during the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-05 and become the warlord of Ningxia by 1921.
Zhang Zongchang, known as the "Dogmeat General" because of his love for the gambling game of that name, was described as having "the physique of an elephant, the brain of a pig and the temperament of a tiger". Writer Lin Yutang called Zhang "the most colorful, legendary, medieval and unashamed ruler of modern China". Former Emperor Puyi remembered Zhang as "a universally detested monster" whose ugly, bloated face was "tinged with the livid hue induced by opium smoking". A brutal man, Zhang was notorious for his hobby of "opening melons", as he called smashing in the heads of prisoners with his sword. He loved to boast about the size of his penis, which become part of his legend. He was widely believed to be the most well endowed man in China, nicknamed "General Eighty-Six" as his penis when erect was said to measure up to a pile of 86 Mexican silver dollars. His harem consisted of Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Russian women together with two Frenchwomen and one who said she was an American. He gave them numbers, as he could not remember their names, then usually forgot the numbers.
The great ideological flexibility of warlords and politicans during this era can be well exemplified in the activities of Bai Lang, an important bandit leader. Even though he initially fought in support of the Qing dynasty with ultraconservative monarchists as well as warlords, Bai Lang later formed an alliance with republicans, declared himself loyal to Dr. Sun Yat-sen and formed a "Citizen's Punitive Army" to rid China of all the warlords. Many of the common soldiers in warlord armies were also bandits who took up service for a campaign and then reverted to banditry when the campaign was over. One politician remarked that when the warlords went to war with each other, the bandits become soldiers and when the war ended, the soldiers became bandits. Warlord armies commonly raped or took many women into sexual slavery. The system of looting was institutionalized, as many warlords lacked the money to pay their troops. Some took to kidnapping, and might send a hostage's severed fingers along with the ransom demand as a way of encouraging prompt payment.
To defend themselves from the attacks of the warlord armies, peasants organized themselves into militant secret societies and village associations which served as self-defense militias as well as vigilante groups. As the peasants usually had neither money for guns nor military training, these secret societies relied on martial arts, self-made weapons such as swords and spears, as well as the belief in protective magic. The latter was especially important, as the conviction of invulnerability was "a powerful weapon for bolstering the resolve of people who possessed few alternative resources with which to defend their meager holdings". Magical rituals practised by the peasants ranged from rather simple ones, such as swallowing charms, to much more elaborate practises. For example, elements of the Red Spear Society performed secret ceremonies to confer invulnerability from bullets to channel the power of Qi and went into battle naked with supposedly bulletproof red clay smeared over their bodies. The Mourning Clothes Society would perform three kowtows and weep loudly before each battle, unnerving their enemies. There were also all-female self-defense groups, such as the Iron Gate Society or the Flower Basket Society. The former would dressed entirely in white (the color of death in China) and waved fans that they believed would deflect gunfire, while the latter went in combat with a sword to kill and a magical basket to catch their opponents' bullets. Disappointed with the failed republic and despairing due to the warlords' deprivations, many peasant secret societies adopted millenarian beliefs, and advocated the restoration of the monarchy, led by the old Ming dynasty. The past was widely romanticized, and many believed that a Ming emperor would bring a "reign of happiness and justice for all".

Warlord soldiers train with dao swords sometime in the 1920s. Some warlord armies, especially those in the Russian border, were badly armed, paid and supplied, and often lacked even basic necessities, such as guns, ammunition, and food.
Besides bandits, the rank-and-file of the warlord armies tended to be village conscripts. They might take service in one army, get captured, then join the army of their captors before being captured yet again. Warlords usually incorporated their prisoners into their armies; at least 200,000 men who were serving in the army of Gen. Wu were prisoners he had incorporated into his own army. A survey of one warlord garrison in 1924 revealed that 90% of the soldiers were illiterate. In 1925 U.S. Army officer Joseph Stilwell inspected a warlord unit and observed that 20% were less than 4.5 feet tall, the average age was 14 and most walked barefoot. Stilwell wrote that this "scarecrow company" was worthless as a military unit. A British army visitor commented that, provided they had proper leadership, the men of northern China were "the finest Oriental raw material with a physique second to none, and an iron constitution". However, such units were the exception rather than the rule.
In 1920 there were about a half-million soldiers in China. By 1922 the numbers had tripled, then tripled again by 1924, more than the warlords could support. One way of raising funds were taxes called lijin that were often confiscatory and inflicted much economic harm. For example, in Sichuan province there were 27 different taxes on salt, and one shipload of paper that was sent down the Yangtze River to Shanghai was taxed 11 different times by various warlords to the sum total of 160% of its value. One warlord imposed a tax of 100% on railroad freight, including food, even though there was a famine in his province. Taxes owed to the central government in Beijing on stamp and salt were usually taken by regional authorities.
The warlords demanded loans from the banks. The other major revenue source besides taxes, loans and looting was the selling of opium, with the warlords selling the rights to grow and sell opium within their provinces to consortiums of gangsters. Despite his ostensible anti-opium stance, Gen. Feng Yuxiang, "the Christian General", took in some $20 million/per annum from opium sales. Inflation was another means of paying for their soldiers. Some warlords simply ran the printing presses, issuing new Chinese dollars non-stop, and some resorted to duplicating machines to issue new Chinese dollars. The warlord who ruled Hunan province printed 22 million Chinese dollars on a silver reserve worth only one million Chinese dollars in the course of a single year, while Zhang in Shandong province printed 55 million Chinese dollars on a silver reserve of 1.5 million Chinese dollars during the same year.
Despite their constant need for money, the warlords lived in luxury. Marshal Zhang owned the world's biggest pearl, while Gen. Wu owned the world's biggest diamond. Gen. Zhang, the "Dogmeat General", ate his meals off a 40-piece Belgian dinner service, and an American journalist described dinner with him: "He gave a dinner for me where sinful quantities of costly foods were served. There was French champagne and sound brandy".
The warlords bought machine guns and artillery from abroad, but their uneducated soldiers could not operate or service them. A British mercenary complained in 1923 that Wu Peifu had about 45 European artillery pieces that were inoperable because they had not been properly maintained. At the Battle of Urga, the army of Gen. Xu Shuzheng, which had seized Outer Mongolia, was attacked by a Mongolian army under the command of Gen. Baron Roman von Ungern-Sternberg. The Chinese might have stopped Ungern had they been capable of firing their machine guns properly, to adjust for the inevitable upward jerk caused by the firing; they did not, and this caused the bullets to overshoot their targets. The inability to use their machine guns properly proved costly; after taking Urga in February 1921, Ungern had his Cossacks cavalry hunt down the remnants of Xu's troops as they attempted to flee south on the road back to China.
Because their soldiers were not able to use or take proper care of modern weapons, the warlords often hired foreign mercenaries, who were effective but always open to other offers. The Russian mercenaries, according to one reporter, "went through the Chinese troops like a knife through butter". The most highly paid of the Russian units was led by Gen. Konstantin Nechanev, who fought for Zhang Zongchang, the "Dogmeat General". Nechanev and his men were much feared. In 1924 they drove three armored trains through the countryside, gunning down everyone they met and taking everything moveable. The rampage was stopped only when the peasants pulled up the train tracks, which led Nechanev to sack the nearest town.
China situation, however, was even worse. Unlike the various warlords that ruled the East, China had to pay war reparations against the Central Powers. It was around this time that the Nationalist government, officially the National Government of the Republic of China (Chinese: 中華民國國民政府; pinyin: Zhōnghuá Mínguó Guómín Zhèngfǔ; literally: "Chinese People's State Nation-People Government"), leaded by Chiang Kai-shek, a strong nationalist general.

Chiang Kai-shek in a 1930 image
Since the Constitutional Protection Movement ended in 1922, the Kuomintang (KMT, the party who gave birth to the Chinese Nationalist Party and, as such, the Nationalist Chinese Goverment) had been expanding in China to prepare for an expedition against the Eastern warlords and reunifying China. The preparation required improving both the political and military strength of the KMT.
On 9 July 1923, the Kuomintang ceremonially appointed Chiang Kai-shek as the commander of the National Revolutionary Army (NRA), which officially launched the expedition. In a military conference at Changsha on 11 August, the Nationalists decided to bypass Nanchong and attack Xi'an straight away. The warlord defense led by Wu Peifu collapsed on 31 August in which Wu only narrowly fled, and the revolutionary forces reached the heavily fortified Xi'an on 31 August. The city garrison surrendered on 10 October after more than a month of military blockade, and the NRA had secured the Shaanxi province as Wu and his remaining troops fled to Xining. The NRA then diverted their forces toward the territories of Sun Chuanfang, which included both Wuwei and Golmud in Qinghai, capturing the region in the process. In the short span of six months, the Nationalists had expanded to seven provinces, controlling a population of "approximately 170 million". Sun Chuanfang retreated in the aftermath of major setbacks. The Fengtian clique responded to the request for help from Sun by reinforcing the eastern front, while increasing the number of troops in Gansu in support of Wu Peifu. However, after the capture of Xinjiang, the Nationalist Chinese army managed to unify China once again. Final peace talks would be helded in Wuhan. In it
-The Chinese nationalist government would be recognized in China
-The Chinese nationalist government take full controll of the areas controlled by the Warlords
-Wuhan becomes the new capital of China
-The areas captured by Russia, Mongolia, Tibet, Siam, the UBSR, Italy, Germany and Japan would be recognized
-China war debt is reduced

China after the reunification process
Despite the success of the Nationalist government, problems for the Chinese Nationalist Government were not over. However, this does not mean that they would be alone in the future.
I hope you guys like this new update! Be sure to like(if you like it), comment(please comment so I can learn what your opinion is) and.....follow I guess.

 

[Antonio Ferrari]

The Caribbean war and the Central American revolution: the bald eagle hunts down the Hispaniolan Trogan, while the lion converts the two White-tailed deers and the Quetzal
Despite the USA defeat in the Mexican revolution, the country was in good shape. Thanks to the various materials and goods they exported into various ex-entente members, they were gaining a large profit. They were the nation that, after WW1, was the least devastated. However, a particular feeling of resentment was present toward the various hispanic regions just south of them, alongside the Caribbeans. On top of that, in order to compensate for their defeat in Mexico, they believed that opportunistic expansion against weaker nations in Latin America could lead to a success. It was obvious that an attack on Mexico was a suicide: Mexico had close ties with the German government, which by now had fully recovered from the Great War, alongside other members of the Central powers. With little to no intention to get a bloody nose against the Central powers, one would say that, another objective, could be Central America. Just like Morocco in the Spanish-Moroccan war, Central America was an easy spot for opportunistic expansion. If it wasn't for a small detail. A bloody small detail. A bloody socialist small detail.

Map of the Union of the British Socialists Republic, showing the border between the England Socialist Republic(ESR) and the Scottish Socialist Republic(SSR), alongside the "Albania of the British isles", Ireland, which is basically a British puppet.
Thanks to his holdings in the Caribbeans and even in Central America thanks to the Belizean Socialist Republic (BSR), the UBSR was doing an excelent job into manipulating the local governments, and communism in Central America was obtaining a huge success. As a result, the British had little to no intention to let the Americans take controll of the region. Tensions between the two countries were at hight peaks after the American-British skimmerish in the Bahamas, between the Red Navy(the new British navy) and the U.S. Navy, which resulted in a stalemate. A diplomatic solution arrived shortly after between the USA and the UBSR, which leaded to the agreement of the Treaty of Havana, on May 14 1925. In it
-The UBSR signs a non-aggression pact with the USA
-The USA must not iterfere in the Communist conversion of Central America
-The UBSR must not interfere against USA interests in the Caribbeans
-The British-American Caribbean trade deal was signed, heavely inspired by the Bohai economic triangle in China between the Kingdom of Italy, the German Empire and the Japanese Empire
The Treaty of Havana basically signed the end of Caribbean independence. With no one with the streinght, nor the will, to stop the USA, plans for the invasion of the Caribbean islands were planned. Meanwhile, with nothing interfering in Central America, the Central American Secret Communist Organization, or CASCO(Organizacion Segreta Comunista de l'America Central, or OSCAC in Spanish) was obtaining a large ammount of success, even if it was still secret and known only by its members and the UBSR.
The Dominican and Haitian government themselves were on a state of alert, as they saw large ammount of American "immigrants" in the region. Tensions between the two Caribbean countries and the US grew higher and higher, as conflicts between the American "immigrants" and the local population started to become regular. On July 22, the Port-au-Prince massacre occurred by the Americans and the Haitians, where 60 Americans and 30 Haitians were killed in riots. The American government demanded to stop the conflicts, to which Louis Borno, leader of Haiti at the time, reponded: "The only way to stop such massacres is to stop the income of American immigrants into the island. We will be ready to negociate when laws against immigration in our island will be signed". The American, obviously, had little to no intention to negotiate. This was what they were looking for: an excuse to go at war with both Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Strong anti-Haitian protests occurred in the streets of New York, as it would seems like war was the only acceptable solution. As a result, after the agreement of the Parliament, war was declared on July 27 1925. By using Guantanamo as a landing base, the American forces landed on Jean-Rabel, where they met high resistence, but would be ultimately be defeated by the American forces. On 30 July 1925, the Haitian army under the command of General Franck Lavaud collapsed when defeated by the forces of Benjamin Alvord Jr., in what became known in Haiti as the disaster of Arrondissement di Port-de-Paix, some 8,000 soldiers and officers reported killed or disappeared out of some 20,000. The final Haitian death toll, both at Arrondissement di Port-de-Paix and during the subsequent rout that took American forces to the outskirts of Les Gonaïves, was reported to the Haitian government as totaling 13,192. The Haitians were pushed back and during the following days, occasional battles were fought between the two. The American forces advanced to the east and captured over 130 Haitian military posts. By late August 1925, Haiti was basically under American controll. Haitian troops were pushed back to the regions near the Dominican Republic, which too was at war with the USA. By January 1926 the Americans had taken controll of Haiti and were focusing on the Dominican Republic and had occupied the coastal plain as far as San Fernando de Montecristi and Luperón. The American forces had consolidated their hold of the region and stalemate was reached for a short ammount of time, with the Dominican Republic biggest victory in La Caya.

A U.S. invasion force lands at Jean-Rabel
In order to break the "stalemate", the American forces decided to launch an anphibious landing in the South, in Santa Cruz de Barahona, where they met little to no resistence, as the majority of the Dominican Republic forces were busy in the Nord. In the Nord, American forces easily captured Santiago de los Caballeros, and connected with the Southern forces in Jarabacoa. By now, the American forces had full controll over half of the country, and were ready for the final push against the Dominican, and started to march to Santo Domingo. After the successful battle of Santo Domingo, the Dominican forces were basically shattered, unable to counter the American forces. A peace treaty would be signed in Salvaleón de Higüey.
In it:
-Haiti and the Dominican Republic would be integrated in the American East Indies

The Caribbeans after the war
While the Americans were expanding in the Caribbeans, the fire of the revolution burned in Central America.
On 18 August 1925, the Communist laid plans for a general insurrection for 2:00 am 29 August. The insurgents achieved considerable success and formed an Interim Government of Central America. The uprising, which started in Honduras, quickly spread to neighboring areas and countries with the support of the UBSR, and a large portion of Central America out of the local government control. The government forces decided to ally themselves to counter the revolution, and even gained some successes.
The success of the coalition was short-lived, however. Although the insurrection did not went further than the British had anticipated, the reaction of the Communists leaders was prompt. Additional Red Army volunteer troops under the overall command of Sir Arnold Talbot Wilson were promptly sent in and Central America coastline was blockaded to prevent support from the Central Powers. Detachments of the Red Army attacked the first Central American towns in western El Salvador—Guatemala and Nicaragua—as early as 29 August and managed to force the local forces into forests by 30 August. The Red Army forces employed artillery and aviation to fight the now guerrilla forces who still continued to offer resistance, especially in Nicaragua.
Following the setback suffered by the local forces in the Nord of Central America, the epicenter of the resistence transferred into Nicaragua, where, on 29 August, a large Nacaraguan force under Augusto C. Sandino assaulted the Red Army barracks in Chinandega, on southwestern approaches of Choluteca, but was driven back by British troops, who had heavily fortified all strategic positions in and around the border. Reinforcements failed and Sandino forces were left isolated, forcing them to retreat eastward into the Jinotega province. On 3 September Sandino made the last desperate attempt to turn a tide of the local forces and took the town of Ocotal in a surprise attack. However, he could not hold off a Red Army counter-offensive and withdrew into the forests. Despite Sandino protests, a deal with the Communist rebels was reached in the treaty of Managua. In it:
-Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica would unite to form the People's Republic of Central American, or PRCA
-The PRCA cedes some borderland to the BSR, althought they can even have troops in the region
-The PRCA and the UBSR start a serie of trade deals

Map of the region after the revolution
With the birth of a communist state in the Central America, and the US having basically controll over the Caribbeans, it would seems like the old powers are reemeging once again. But it doesn't seem like peace between the US and the UBSR will be reached soon. Will the Non agression pact calm the spirits of the eagle and the lion? Or will they eventually collide?
I hope you guys like this new update! Be sure to like(if you like it), comment(please comment so I can learn what your opinion is) and.....follow I guess.

 

[Antonio Ferrari]

Metaxist Greece: the phoenyx rises from the fire
After the defeat of Greece by the Kingdom of Albania and the Kingdom of Italy (the "Ephirus Catastrophe") of 1923, the defeated army revolted against the royal government. Under Venizelist officers like Nikolaos Plastiras and Stylianos Gonatas, King Constantine I was forced to abdicate, and died in exile in 1924. His eldest son and successor, King George II, was soon after asked by the parliament to leave Greece so the nation could decide what form of government it should adopt. In a 1924 plebiscite, Greeks voted to create a republic. These events marked the culmination of a process that had begun in 1915 between King Constantine and his political nemesis, Eleftherios Venizelos. The Second Republic was proclaimed on 25 March 1924. During its brief existence, the Second Republic proved unstable. Greek society continued to be divided, as it was since the National Schism, between the pro-republican Venizelists and the monarchists represented by the People's Party, who refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of the Republic. The cleavage in society extended to cultural and social issues such as differences over the use of Greek language to architectural styles. To this polarization was added the destabilizing involvement of the military in politics which resulted in several coups and attempted coups. The economy was in ruins following the war and was unable to support the 1.5 million refugees from the various islands conquered by the Italians and the Ottomans.

Greek Refugees from the Cyclades islands, now controlled by Italy, settling in a refugee camp in Athens
One of the greatest treat for the republic, however, weren't the Italians, nor the Ottomans, but rather itself, as the Greeks become more and more aligned with fascist ideals. It was around this period that the Metaxist movement would shine. The ideology developed by Metaxas began with Metaxas' response to the republican revolution of 1923 that put in a pro-republican government, Metaxas formed the Freethinkers' Party, a monarchist party that originally supported the advancement of civil liberties, though this changed with Metaxas' evolving political views. However, as time started to pass by, the Metaxist started to believe that they deserved to be in charge. Their leader, Theodoros Pangalos, was a general who fought against the Italians in the Dodecannese and, later on, the Bulgarians in Macedonia. He had strong nationalist ideals, and believed that, with the right moves, Greece could return to the glorious days of the Byzantine empire, to which he claimed that the Greeks were the descendant of. Many other generals and soldiers agreed with Pangalos ideals, and admired how countries such as Belgium and Russia, destroyed by the war, managed to recover so quickly and gain friendly ties with the Germans. Althought both the Ottomans and the Italians had little to no claims in the area, the Greeks were still afraid of another invasion. Many refugees themselves found interest in the Metaxist movement, and many dreamed of the return of the various Greek islands, such as the Cyclades and the Dodecannese, alongside Crete and others. Plans for a coup were planned on June 25 1925 by Pangalos, to overtrow the republic and seize power. The coup was launched on July 02 1925, and was executed perfectly. All important political centres in the city were captured, and Pangalos was nominated leader of Greece. However, despite having won against the local government, he failed to immetiately subdue the people. On July 10, a large revolt in the Peloponnese quickly turned into a civil war, as other regions of Greece tried to rebel against the new government.

Situation of the Greek civil war at his start. In red, the areas controlled by the Republicans
The situation looked horrifying for the Metaxist, but an old enemy decided to take an opportunity, and decided to help Pangalos in his struggle.
The Ottoman empire, since the end of the war, was basically in a regional politica tension with the Kingdom of Italy for dominance over the Eastern Mediterranen and the Red Sea. In particular, Greece was a point of contestance, not because they wanted to conquer it, but because they wanted to ally it or allowing for military passage. As a result, the Ottoman empire was an excelent opportunity to gain a new ally against the Italians. On July 20 1925, Mustafa Kemal, prime minister of the Ottoman Empire, ordered for the creation of volunteer troops that would support the Pangalos government against the republicans.

Ottoman volunteer corps
The first conflicts between the Greek repubblicans and the Ottoman volunteers was in Athens itself, as the city was besieged. After a successfull battle against the unexperienced Greek repubblicans, the Ottoman-Greek forces started to regain ground in the South. In one of the bigger engagements, in the night of 6–7 August, the forces of Konstantinos Davakis laid siege to the city of Kineta with 5,000-10,000 men. The Greeks attacked the city at all four gates simultaneously. All of their attacks were repelled by the numerically inferior Greek-Turkish garrison, with the use of machine gun fire and mortar grenades. When the rebels retreated the next morning, the area around the city was full of dead bodies. When a second wave of attacks failed, the siege was finally lifted on 11 August. By the end of August, most of the major battles of the Pelopponese were over. The rebels were unable to penetrate beyond Megara, this was one of the two major areas where the Republicans were well known and he enjoyed considerable influence there. This failure excluded the possibility of extending the campaign.
The main part of the civil war in the Pelopponese was over by the end of March, as the Greek authorities and Ottoman volunteers, according to Martin van Bruinessen, crushed the rebellion with continual aerial bombardments and a massive concentration of forces.
During this rebellion, the Greek government used its airplanes for bombing raids in the Pelopponese area. In the course of this operation, the airfield near Spata road was used.
At the beginning of the Civil war the Ottomans had one squadron consisting of 7 airplanes. Of these only 2 were serviceable. Later four more arrived. The Ottoman Air Force deployed a total of 11 airplanes against the rebellion, however, only 6 were serviceable. After the successfull battle of Corinth, the Ottoman forces finally managed to break throught. After that battle, the Republicans would limit themselves on Guerrilla warfare.

Republican Greek guerrilla fighters in the Peloponnese
On September 11, 1925, armed responses to the other Republican Greeks controlled areas were initiated by the Ottoman military.
By the end of September the Ottoman Air Force was bombing Republican positions around Karpenisi from all directions. According to General İsmet İnönü, the military superiority of the Ottoman Air Force demoralized the Greeks and led to their capitulation.
During the Civil War, the Ottoman Air Force bombed several Albanian villages in the border. For instance, Kanali was bombed on October 18. Republican villages were continually bombed from October 2–29. From September 10–12 Republican positions were extensively bombed, and this forced the Greeks to retreat to the rural areas. On October 9 the newspaper Cumhuriyet reported that the Ottoman air force was "raining down" the area with bombs. The Greeks, who escaped the bombings, were captured alive. On October 13, the Ottomans advanced in Ano Chora. Squadrons of 10-15 aircraft were used in crushing the Republicans. On October 16, two Ottoman planes were downed. Aerial bombardment continued for several days and forced the Republicans to withdraw. By October 21, bombardment had destroyed many Republican forts. During these operations, the Ottoman military mobilized 66,000 volunteers and 100 aircraft. The campaign against the Republicans was over by December 17, 1925.
The Civil War was over in 1926, and the Metaxist government resumed control over Greece. A treaty was signed on January 28 1926 between the Ottoman Empire and the Hellenic state, as the new Greek state was called, in Athens. In it:
-There would be no territorial changes
-The Pangalos government is recognized
-Greece allows Ottoman ships to dock in Greek ports
-The Ottomans can move troops in Greek territory
-Equal trade deals are signed between the Ottoman Empire and the Hellenic State
-Greece shall not be under Ottoman sphere of influence, but it will be allied with them for protection.
Greece alliance with the Ottomans was not well seen by the Italians, with Mussolini furious about the news. In a speech in Venice against the Ottomans, he claimed that the Greeks were nothing but hypoctrites, willing to sell their souls to their old enemy for power. Relations between the Ottoman empire and the Kingdom of Italy stagnated even more, and it would seem like at least a proxy war between the two was inevitable. The question is: when? Will Germany and the other Central Powers be able to maintain peace? And if war between the Italians and the Ottomans break out, would it be a second Italo-Turkish was as a matter of result, or an Ottoman revenge against the Italians?
I hope you guys like this new update! Be sure to like(if you like it), comment(please comment so I can learn what your opinion is) and.....follow I guess.

 

[Antonio Ferrari]

The Ashanti-Akan rebellion: the lynx faces the problems of colonialism
After the success of Romania in WW1, the once small kingdom had become a regional power in the Balkans, only behind the United States of Greater Austria, and it was the real ruler of the Black sea. In order to keep the Romanian people loyal to the Central powers, Kaiser Wilhelm proposed to give the Romanians the African regions of Ghana and the Ivory-Coast, in order to not bring the Transylvanian question. By this point, Transylvanian claims were very similar to Italian claims in Dalmatia: non-existing. However, it was true that many Romanians in the region decided to immigrate in the new Romanian colony, now called by the Romanians Vestulcii, a combination of "Vestul", meaning West, and "Africii", meaning Africa, however internationally the colony was called "Romanian West Africa".

Map showing West Africa in 1925. In brown is Romanian West Africa
The areas aquired by the Romanians were rich in minerals and iron ores, such as gold and diamonds. They soon become some of the largest exporter of gold in Africa. Industrial minerals and exports from the colony were gold, silver, timber, diamonds, bauxite, and manganese. The South Ghana province also has great deposits of barite, basalt, clay, dolomite, feldspar, granite, gravel, gypsum, iron ore, kaolin, laterite, limestone, magnesite, marble, mica, phosphates, phosphorus, rocks, salts, sand, sandstone, silver, slate, talc, and uranium, but they were yet to be fully exploited, as controll over the region was still limited. The Romanians were new in the colonization game, and soon started to see problems with the local population, mostly the Akan and the Ashanti. The region had to be captured by force by the Romanians, as the locals had decided to recreate the Kingdom of Ashanti, taking advance of the French defeat in the Great War. Prempeh I gain controll of an area that expanded from the Liberian border to Nigeria, and in the interior. Shortly after the treaty of Rome, an ultimatum was sent to Prempeh I, in which he had to submit to the Kingdom of Romania or face a war against them. The young nation had managed to secure several colonial equipment from the French, but they were mostly equipped by primitive weapons such as Akrafena, and were no match against the Romanians. Still, Prempeh had no intention to go down without a fight, also believing that, thanks to German neutrality, the Romanian would have an hard time getting all the way from the Black sea to Africa. But he was wrong. The Romanian reinforcements quickly arrived in the region and subdued the local kingdom with earse. The only significantly big battle in the Ashanti-Romanian war was the battle of Yamoussoukro, where the Ashanti actually gained a small victory, but they would be still defeated by the Romanians.

Romanian colonial troops against the Ashanti
After that, however, things seemed to be looking good for the Romanians. The locals were calm, and the Romanian costitution saw modification in favour of the locals. The Romanians started to take advance of the Iron Ores and Minerals in the region, but also builted schools, hospitals and other structures to help the locals. By August 1920, about 10% of the local Ashanti and Akans knew how to speak Romanian. But in 1925, things started to go badly for the Romanians.
In the Ghana region, the most profitful region of Romanian West Africa, the Romanians assumed that the Akans were incapable of practicing self-government, and so instituted a system which ostensibly served to train Akans in that responsibility. Romanian administrators were assigned to all levels of government, and their role was, officially, to train Akan counterparts in that particular function.
The reality of the situation was very different. Instead of teaching, the advisors performed the functions of that office.
Outside of cities, the Romanians were not entirely successful in winning over other tribes.
In Ghana, the process of industrialization was swift; roads were quickly built, cars and buses became commonplace.
To pacify, or at least control, the tribes, the Romanians instituted several restrictive measures; for example, tribes could not carry arms in settled areas, and had to pay lump taxes on livestock. Additionally, the Romanians attempted to bribe tribal leaders; but while this worked in some cases, it caused resentment in others.
On top of that, Ashanti nationalism was fostered in Prempeh I short-lived kingdom, but after its dissolution many nationalists affiliated with his government fled the country to avoid death sentences, arrest and harassment by the Romanians. Some went to French West Africa, where they found other nationalists sympathetic to their cause.
In 1925, in preparation for upcoming elections, high commissioner General Constantin Tobescu allowed the organization of political parties. The Akan-Ashanti Congress had proved itself an ineffectual body, and its Ashanti factions returned to Romanian West Africa. They founded the People’s Party in Yamoussoukro, which was characterized by an intelligentsia leadership antagonistic toward local elites, with no social or economic programs, with support organized around individuals. Though unprepared for and not expecting an uprising, the nationalist elements in Yamoussoukro were eager to participate when one arose.

Various images showing Ashanti warriors that participated the Akan-Ashanti rebellion
On August 23, 1925 Prempeh II officially declared revolution against Romania. Calling upon Ghana and Ivory Coast various ethnic and religious communities to oppose the foreign domination of their land, Prempeh II managed to enlist the aid of large sections of the population in a revolt that now spread throughout Romania West Africa.
Fighting began with the Battle of Wa on July 22, 1925, the Battle of Tamale on August 2–3, 1925, and the subsequent battles of Yendi, Bawku and Mole. After initial rebel victories against the Romanians, Romania sent thousands of troops to Ghana and Ivory Coast, equipped with modern weapons, compared to the meager supplies of the rebels. This dramatically altered the results and allowed the Romanians to regain many cities.

Prempeh II with several of his warriors in Wa
Initially, the Romanians were ill-equipped to respond to the outbreak of violence. In 1925, the number of Romanian troops in Romanian West Africa was at its lowest ever, numbering only 14,397 men and officers, with an additional 5,902 Akan auxiliaries, down from 70,000 in 1920.
Instead of engaging the Ashanti, the Romanians decided to temporarily withdraw, a decision noted by the new high commissioner, Octavian Goga, to be a tactical error, as it underrepresented Romanian military strength and encouraged a regional rebellion to achieve national dimensions. Indeed, the weak immediate response of the Romanians invited the intervention of disaffected local elite, tribesmen, and loosely connected nationalists based in Yamoussoukro.
First to seize upon the opportunity presented by the revolt were the nomadic tribes, who used the absence of Romanian authority – troops had been drawn away to concentrate on the rebelling region – to prey upon farmers and merchants.
The nationalists seized upon the Akan revolt in relatively short order, forging an alliance with Prempeh II within six weeks of the uprising’s commencement, and establishing a National Provisional Government in Yamoussoukro with Prempeh II as king and Kwame Nkrumah as president.
In response to the outbreak of violence, Prempeh II declared free and popular elections for every area that had not been affected by the rebellion in the beginning of 1926. Most elections were held peacefully. However, in two cities, Bouna and Sakpa, the local elites refused to allow elections to be held, but would submit 3 days later.
The lessons the rebels learned were many, and that sustained the rebellion for a further year and a half. However, as the Romanians arrived, the situation started to become grave for the Ashanti. Bouaké and Abengourou were lost because the rebels concentrated their forces in the face of overwhelming Romanian firepower, because they fortified their position and waited for the Romanians to arrive, and because they made no attempt to sever Romanian lines of communication.
Despite the breadth of the rebellion and the initial rebel successes, the persistence of the Romanians made its defeat inevitable. By early 1926, they had increased their troop numbers to 50,000, roughly the size of the total Ashanti rebels. By spring, much of the Ashanti fortifications had been destroyed by artillery fire, and the nationalist leadership had been forced into exile. Shortly after, the Ashanti were decisively defeated, and Prempeh II went into exile to escape the death penalty.

Romanian Marchall inspecting its troops
The Great Ashanti Revolt, while a loss for the rebels, did result in changes in the Romanian, and even other colonial powers, attitude toward imperialism in Africa. Direct rule was believed to be too costly, and in Romanian West Africa, the threat of military intervention was replaced with diplomatic negotiation. A softer approach to Ashantti rule was taken, and in March 1927, just a year after the rebellion was put down, a general amnesty was announced for Ashanti rebels. A small addendum was attached, decreeing that the rebellion’s leadership, including Prempeh II would not be allowed to return.
The impact on Ghana and the Ivory Coast itself was profoundly negative. At least 6,000 rebels were killed, and over 100,000 people were left homeless, a fifth of whom made their way to Yamoussoukro. After two years of war, the city was ill-equipped to deal with the influx of displaced Ashanti, and other cities were similarly devastated. Across Romanian West Africa, towns and farms had suffered significant damage, and agriculture and commerce temporarily ceased. However, thanks to German support, the Romanian colony managed to regain streinght. In the Romanian constitution, it was imposed that the Ashanti people, alongside other Ghanian and Ivoryan tribes, would be considered as Romanians in the colony. They would have the same rights as Romanian colonists, and could eve attend respectable jobs such as doctors and other practices that other african populations in other regions couldn't. It would seem like, despite Romanian imperialism, the Ashanti will be a little better off than with the French or the British. And hey! At the very least, now the Romanians know the problem of colonialism!
I hope you guys like this new update! Be sure to like(if you like it), comment(please comment so I can learn what your opinion is) and.....follow I guess.

 

[Antonio Ferrari]

The Sul uprising and the Latin American wars: the rufous-bellied thrush faces rebels
The South American state of Brazil was one of the largest countries in Latin America. It soon become one of the wealthiest, thanks to the support of the Central powers, who had excelent relations with this giant. However, after the successfull American Cuban War, and the Central America Communist Uprising, the State of Brazil was afraid that he was going to be next on the target list, either with a communist uprising, or a direct American intervention. The Brazilian government, as such, decided to approach a more industrialized path, in order to somewhat compete against the Americans and the British. However, when the Sul uprising appeared in the South of the country, they would find an unexpected ally. But before that, a bit of history:
during the Empire of Brazil, several separatist movements existed in the southern regions. Among the main reasons for secession, the groups complained about high taxation of dry meat, the main export product of the region during the time. Armed conflict broke out in the Ragamuffin War, when independence was proclaimed. During the transition to the republic, federalist groups formed in the region, culminating in the Federalist Revolution. However, the desire of independence was still big in the regions. The UBSR, as such, decided to try its luck once again, seeing that Central America was such a big success. Humberto Vargas Carbonell sent emissaries to the Sul communists to notify them of the strength of his nation thanks to the UBSR, request that the rebels maintain the pressure against Brazil troops in Paranà, and to establish oral communication between their forces via a trusted connection. Humberto membership in the Brazilian army allowed for him to keep track of the routines and activities of the Brazilian command in the Sul region. His party also had the support of large segments of Paranà inhabitants, many of whom were members, while the Brazilians lacked any local sympathy. In the months preceding the uprising in the Sul regions, Humberto had been fostering close ties with Paranà communists leaders, local farmers, the merchants and the police, encouraging them to join in a war against the Brazilians and promising them to divide the riches of the government's offices and banks, which he claimed had been stolen from the Sul people. The city's landlords also lent their support to Humberto due to their opposition to planned Brazilians land reforms. Despite Humberto apparently wide scale campaign promoting rebellion, Brazilian intelligence was unaware of an impending uprising.

Brazilian workers in Curitiba, many which were sympathizer to the Sul Communist Rebels in the regions(its likely that many in this pictures are actually members of the rebellion)
On 4 October, at 7:00 pm, Tiburcio Carías Andino commanded the mutiny of entire cavalry units in Paranà and together with irregulars from the local populations, his forces numbered in the hundreds. According to the Brazilianz, Tiburcio had the local "Sul Legion, several hundred farmers and the entire population of Paranà behind him." The rebels proceeded to occupy the region, cutting off its telephone lines, blocking its main thoroughfares and assaulting the various cities. In their attack, the rebels captured several Brazilians officers who had not fled and released prisoners being held in the compound. Curitiba had fallen to Tiburcio forces by 11:30 pm. Brazil realized the seriousness of the situation, but before they could ask help to the Central Powers, the USA decided to intervene in the conflict on the side of the official Government.
Brazilian forces commenced a heavy aerial bombardment with American planes. The bulk of Brazilian ground forces had been concentrated in San Paolo at the time. Meanwhile, two companies of Brazilian reinforcements from Pres. Prudente were rushed to dislodge the rebels. Brazil authorities had also mobilized the support of the rural landlords against Tiburcio urban and tribal nationalist leaders. Curitiba major landowning families, who had initially supported Tiburcio plans for revolt, feared further destruction to their property. As such, they broke rebel ranks and met with José Pessoa, the commander of the forces in the region, and negotiated an end to the bombardment. In return, the city's notables agreed to convince the rebels to withdraw from the region. By the end of the day, the landlords persuaded Tiburcio to depart with his men.
The uprising and the subsequent bombardment ended with the deaths 344 Brazilians, mostly civilians. The authorities countered that only 76 people were killed, all of them rebels. However, Brazilians intelligence documented more than 100 Sul deaths. After the Central American People Republic failure in the region, the UBSR decided to not intervene and gaining a bloody nose in a conflict that had no certain of victory. In the meantime, the American government decided to have an alliance with Brazil, and even encouraged them to expand in the region. American propaganda showed the Brazilians as the equivalent of the USA in the early days, with their role as ruling South America, while the Americans would rule the Nord.

Brazilian leader Arthur Bernardes in America to sign the USA-Brazilian alliance treaty in San Diego
One of the first Brazilian objective was the conquest of Uruguay and Bolivia. After receiving American approval(alongside the one of the Central Powers, even if they did not ask), the Brazilian government declared war on both nations on October 19. The Brazilian forces stormed in Uruguay, easily conquering the region in barely one week. The USA participated the was, giving active support to the Brazilians. As a matter of fact, Treinta y Tres was fully captured by American forces, which suffered 15 casualities.

American-Brazilian forces marching in the newly captured Montevideo. The most fighting they'll see will be in Guerrilla fighters, but even then, the fights will be small and harmless to both the Brazilians and the Americans.
After the conquest of Uruguay, the Brazilians attacked in mass Bolivia.
On October 29, Arthur Bernardes began his military campaign against Bolivia by advancing towards Riberalta, which surrendered without a major struggle. Following the fall of Riberalta, the Brazilian forces and the allied American troops moved on La Paz. Felipe Segundo Guzmán request for other South American nation assistance was denied to him. The city of La Paz fell without struggle on November 13, 1925. However, as Brazil grew in size and power, several South American nations started to form a coalixion, mostly composed by Paraguay, Perù and Venezuela. As such, the three nations declared war on the Brazilian state. The Brazilians, with the help of the Americans, conquered Paraguay, but met difficulties against the Perùvians. The stalemate would end, however, after Equador entered the fight alongside the Brazilians, joining the American-Brazilian alliance in exchange of splitting Perù with Brazil. The Equadorian army captured Piura and the majority of the contexted land from Perù, while the Brazilians reached the capital on Dicember 21. After that, the last remaining country was Venezuela, which lost its islands to the Americans after their naval invasion on November 30 1925. They would surrender on December 30, and would sign the treaty of Coro. In it:
-Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia are integrated into Brazil
-Venezuela must cede some borderland to Brazil
-Perù must cede the disputed land with Equador, the rest is annexed by Brazil
-Venezuela cedes its islands to America
-Venezuela doesn't pay war reparations
-The Brazilian-Equadorian-American alliance is recognized internationally and it shall be called "American Pact"
-Brazil turns into the "United States of South America"(USSA), but would drop claims for other South American countries such as Argentina Chile, Colombia etc. etc.

South America after the Latin American War
Under the support of the USA, Brazil become the strongest, most stable and rich nation in South America. It was obvious that what the US did was similar to Germany support of Siam in the 1890's, but Brazil had yet to achieve such a great victory. However, as tensions between the Central Powers and the US started to cool down, it seemed like Brazil new enemy would take the form of communism. The question is: will this new giant be prepared?
I hope you guys like this new update! Be sure to like(if you like it), comment(please comment so I can learn what your opinion is) and.....follow I guess.

 

[Antonio Ferrari]

The Arabian revolution: the bull faces the berber lion once again
After the Great War, the Kingdom of Iberia had taken controll of a big chunk of Africa Atlantic coast, raging from Ceuta to Quebo. The Iberian government wasn't as open as the Kingdom of Romania, but in order to calm the spirits, they decided to modify the constitution in order to avoiding rebellions. Under Alfonso XIII, named "The African(El Africano)" for his focus on the African continent, created an efficent railroad system, took advantage of Morocco resources while at the same time allowing the locals to gain out of the trades and, in general, modernized the region, so much that Casablanca was called the "Madrid of Africa( La Madrid Africana). However, despite Alfonso efforts towards the locals, problems with the Sahrawi and the Berbers where many.

Berber rebels in the Arabian revolution in Africa
On January, 28 1926, Abd el-Krim launched an attack in Morocco when his Moroccan soldiers seized Marrakech. He was a strong supporter for an independent Morocco, and had the support of the locals, contrary to the Spanish. Despite the attack, the Iberian government did not even realize the fact only on May 2, 1926, when the Moroccans advanced further into Iberian African land.
Soon, the east coast of Spanish Sahara was ablaze with rebellion. The primary commander of the Moroccans on this coast was Abdel-Salam Mohammed Abdel-Karim, who fought to make Spanish Sahara part of an independent Morocco. Another Moroccan general was Mhamadi Bojabbar Mohamed, who led an army in the southwestern part of Spanish Sahara. Iberian soldiers were sent to reoccupy the region. The Iberian govenment was deeply concerned with matters in Morocco, since the French were supplying the rebels with arms.

Spanish troops firing at Rebel positions once the reinforcements arrived in Safi
As a result of the successes of the rebels, Prime Minister Miguel Primo de Rivera sent 22,000 additional Iberian colonial troops in preparation for an offensive. All the Iberian forces involved were conscripts, but were previosly trained and as such were professionals.
The next day, the Iberian troops were shot at Echemmaia and skirmishes occurred near Youssoufia. General Manuel Fernández Silvestre decided to post six companies at Ras El Ain, under its command.
On 26 June, the Iberians suffered a defeat near Marrakech, when the government sent another force under Dámaso Berenguer. In this ambush, the Moroccans killed 153 men, and wounded some 600 others.

Iberian forces counter-attack in Youssoufia after their defeat in Marrakech
To try to put an end to the French Moroccan support, the German empire arranged a meeting and had John von Berenberg-Gossler oversee Iberian and French representatives meeting in Bordeaux on October 1, 1926. Nothing came out of the conference and fighting resumed shortly afterwards. Moroccan forces began marching Nord towards Casablanca, defeating Iberian forces along the way, at big prices however. Meanwhile, Iberians led by José Millán Astray struck at the city of Agadir, causing one of the most destructive battles of the war. The battle raged from February 6 to 9, 1927, and saw 500 Moroccan defenders face off against between 600 and 2,000 Iberian attackers, with "hundreds killed on each side." During the fighting, much of the city was destroyed by fire. The blaze was "probably" caused by Moroccan soldiers or "civilian looters". Eventually, the Moroccans were driven from the city after some bitter house-to-house fighting.
With the Moroccans advancing on Casablanca however, with the French still supporting them, the Iberians found itself on the verge of war. It couldn't afford to let a French-backed regime rise to power in the region. Tensions finally escalated when a French ship, sent to reinforce the Moroccans, was destroyed by Iberian artillery fire. On March 1927, the French government entered at war with the Iberian kingdom, which received support from the USSA, the USA, the Kingdom of Italy and Rexist Belgium. The French, unprepared for such intervention, tried their best to hold the line against Belgium and Italy, while focusing on Iberia, they did not even bother with the American Pact, knowing that they had no way to get there. Meanwhile, with the majority of the eqipment needed in the homeland, the Moroccans quickly found themselves inadequated againsts the Iberians, which quickly recaptured Marrakech, and soon they would retake controll of Morocco.

Belgian troops near Lilla
The Iberians were halted by the French, but advanced in Africa. Meanwhile, the Italians took controll of Marseille, and advanced in Africa, where they met Iberian troops in Béjaïa. After that battle, and Germany treat of intervention, the French government was forced to surrender. A Treaty would be signed in Paris. In it:
-Spain takes controll of more African inland territory
-Italy takes controll of Chad
-Italy integrates the areas occupied by them
-Belgium takes some land in France
-The USSA takes controll of French Guyana
-The USA takes controll of the French Carribeans

Map of Europe after the conflict

South America after the conflict

Carribeans after the conflict

Africa after the conflict
This was, by far, the lowest blow for the French republic, a blow that they will not recover until the 30's, but the passage from chaos to stability will not be a peaceful one.
I hope you guys like this new update! Be sure to like(if you like it), comment(please comment so I can learn what your opinion is) and.....follow I guess.

 

[Antonio Ferrari]

The Bloody Palestine War: the desert wolf against the mountain wolf (Not really)
The Ottoman empire and the Kingdom of Italy only point friendship was the fact that both nations belonged to the Central Powers, but that was about it. The Ottomans had claims in the Italian Sudanese coast, Eritrea, Lybia and Tunisia. On top of that, both nations aspired to become the rulers of the trade notes in the Eastern Mediterranean and in the Red Sea. The situation was very similar to the one in which Italy and Austria were prior to the meeting of Milan, with them competing over Balkan dominance. Both nations were extremely powerful, with the Italians holding the advantage in the Sea, while the Ottomans could count on a better land army, but both nations were on a race to reach the opponent similar status. Both sides, at the same time, searched for any rebellion that they could exploit in order to weaken the other. By many historians, the Ottomans and the Italians were on a constant conflict, however they did not openly declared war on the other. It is considered, by many, the very first "Cold War", with two superpowers being at war with each other, althought not openly.

The Italian and Ottoman empire by comparation. Greece is an ottoman ally, while Albania is basically an Italian puppet state.
One of the very first opportunity was not caught by the Italians, but things would change overtime. On 22 August 1926 an event called Bloody Sunday occurred in Arad. On that day the Palestinian Communist Party and the Arad section of the Popular Union had organized a joint protest meeting at the city center. The theme of the meeting was to denounce measures by the Ottoman state against the signatories of the Palestinian autonomist Arabian manifesto.
However, a large group of Ottoman nationalists had assembled at the meeting point of the rally. They included the Young Turk movement. The Ottoman nationalists sought to blockade the Arabian autonomists from holding their meeting. As Jamal al-Husayni, an autonomist and one of the main speakers of the event, and Raghib al-Nashashibi, reached the Arad newly builted train station, they were attacked by the Ottoman nationalists. At the site of the meeting, violent clashes erupted again. Police, partly mounted, slowly intervened. Around 60 people were injured. Amongst the injured was Raghib. However, the autonomist rally was conducted despite the violence.
The Bloody Sunday rally was significant in breaking up the taboo of cooperation between communists and other autonomists. It also marked the starting point of a split between a section of Palestine communists and the Arabian Communist Party. Bloody Sunday furthered cooperation between Palestinian communists with right-wing sectors sharing common autonomist goals, which would eventually lead to the expulsion of a sector of Palestinian communists from the Arabian Communist Party in 1929. The expellees founded the Opposition Communist Party of Palestine and Jordan.

An image showing the late police intervention in Bloody Sunday
But, back to the present.
In response to the later measurements created by the Ottomans to reduce the possibilities of an Arab revolt, various Arabian organizations began to intensify their pacific resistance movements. The most important of these groups was the National League of Brotherhood and Purity, founded in 1924. This was joined by the Jordanian Association of Islamic Youth and the Popular Union, an Islamic political party founded in 1925.
On September 11, 1926, Islamic priests voted to suspend all public worship in response to the Ottomans measurements, with the suspension taking effect on October 1. On Setember 14 they endorsed plans for an economic boycott against the government, which was particularly effective in the regions of the Mediterranean coast. Arabians in these areas stopped attending movies and plays and using public transportation, and Arabian teachers stopped teaching in secular schools.
The Islamic priests worked to have the offending articles of the Constitution amended. The Kemal government considered the Arab activism sedition and had many more mosques closed. In November 1926 the Arabians submitted a proposal for the amendment of the constitution, but the Congress rejected it on November 22.

Arab peaceful protestants in al-Karak
On October 3, in al-Karak, Jordan, some 400 armed Arabians entrenched themselves in the al-Karak castle. They exchanged gunfire with Ottoman troops and surrendered when they ran out of ammunition. According to German consular sources, this battle resulted in 18 dead and 40 wounded. The following day, in Gerusalem, 240 government soldiers stormed the city. The various manifestants were killed in the ensuing violence.
On October 14 government agents staged a purge of Arab rebels and executed many of their leaders. This execution caused a band of farmers, led by Pasha al-Atrash, to seize the local treasury and declare themselves in rebellion. At the height of their rebellion they held a region including the entire northern part of Jordan and the South of Syria. Subhi Bey Barakat, the governator of Syria, led another uprising on November 28. His men were defeated by Ottoman troops in the open land around the town but retreated into the mountains, where they continued as guerrillas.
This was followed by a November 29 uprising in Beirut led by Ahmad Nami and an Dicember 4 rebellion in Palestine. All rebel leaders adopted guerrilla tactics, as their forces were no match for Ottoman troops. Meanwhile, rebels in Jordan—particularly the region northeast of al-Karak—quietly began assembling forces. Led by Fawzi al-Qawuqji, this region would become the main focal point of the rebellion, particulary because of Italian support.
The formal rebellion began on February 1, 1927, with a manifesto sent by Fawzi titled "lil'uma" (To the Nation). This declared that "the hour of battle has sounded" and "the hour of victory belongs to Allah". With the declaration the state of Jordan exploded. Bands of rebels moving in the region northeast of al-Karak began seizing villages, often armed with only ancient muskets and clubs. The rebels had scarce logistical supplies and relied heavily on raids on towns, trains and farms in order to supply themselves with money, horses, ammunition and food, but later on received support and even volunteers from Italy. In at least one battle, Italian pilots provided air support for the rebel army against the Ottoman forces.
The Ottoman government did not take the threat seriously at first. The rebels did well against the police, various conscript forces and the Social Defense forces (local militia), but initially were always defeated by regular federal troops who guarded the important cities. At this time the Ottoman army in the region numbered 79,759 men. When Ottoman commander Fahrettin Altay moved on the rebels, he matter-of-factly wired to army headquarters that "it will be less a campaign than a hunt." It was a sentiment that Kemal also held.

Ottoman troops marching
However, the rebels, also thanks to the Italians, planned their battles fairly well, considering the fact that they had little to no previous military experience. The most successful rebel leaders were Hasan al-Kharrat; Pasha al-Atrash, Fawzi al-Qawuqji and Said al-As.
On March 23, 1927, the Arab rebels defeated Ottoman troops for the first time at Yabrud, followed by another victory at Al-Qaryatayn. However, they quickly began to lose in the face of superior Ottoman forces, and retreated into remote areas, constantly fleeing Ottoman soldiers.
In May 1927 the leader of the civilian wing of the Arab rebellion was captured, tortured and killed. The media and government declared victory and plans were made for a re-education campaign in the areas that had rebelled. As if to prove that the rebellion was not extinguished, and to avenge the death of various Arab commanders, Pasha al-Atrash led a raid against a train carrying a shipment of money for the Bank of Instabul on May 19, 1927. The raid was a success, but many were killed in the fighting.
The "concentration" policy, rather than suppressing the revolt, gave it new life, as thousands of men began to aid and join the rebels in resentment of the treatment of the Government. When the rains came the peasants were allowed to return to the harvest, and there was now more support than ever for the Arabs. By October 1927 they had consolidated their movement and were constantly attacking federal troops garrisoned in their towns. Soon they would be joined by zz al-Din al-Halabi.
On August 21, 1927, the first Women's Brigade was formed in Homs. The brigade began with 16 women and one man, but after a few days grew to 135 members and soon after, they came to number 17,000. Its mission was to obtain money, weapons, provisions and information for the combatant men while also caring for the wounded. By May 1928 some 10,000 women were involved in the struggle, with many smuggling weapons into combat zones by carrying them in carts filled with grain or cement. By the end of the war they numbered some 25,000.
The Italian support however was one of the biggest factor in the revolt: Italian volunteer troops leaded by Mario Roatta would be legendary in the fields, and with the support of the Aviazione Legionaria managed to obtain victories in the South of Syria.

Italian volunteers in trenches near Homs
However, the Ottoman government decided to send an ultimatum to the Italians, in which they must recall all their volunteer forces from the front. Tensions were at its top after the Italians responded with a no and after they captured the city of Sollum, while the Ottomans bombed the Island of Rhodes and occupied the Yob area. However, this time aroud peace as assured by Germany and the USGA, but it was likely that neither the Ottomans nor the Italians would have declared war and would leave the occupied regions. The Ottomans and the Italians wirdraw, but at the same time cut democratic relations between one another. Meanwhile, without the Italian supporting the rebels and by actually playing seriusly, the Ottoman army managed to recaptured land from the Arab rebels, until they surrendered after the battle of Damascus, the Arab last significant holding. The Ottoman empire was heavly damaged by the revolt, but managed to recover quickly, too quickly for the Italians. Good old Mussolini did not take in consideration the fact that the Ottomans are no longer the Sick man of Europe. They now are a power-house capable to compete against the Italians. It had the second strongest fleet in the Mediterranean, and an army perfectly adapted for the desert, and with plans to rule the Mediterranean once again. A nation to fear, just like the old days.
I hope you guys like this new update! Be sure to like(if you like it), comment(please comment so I can learn what your opinion is) and.....follow I guess.

 

[Antonio Ferrari]

10 Pages celebration: Questions and Answers
In order to celebrate the 10 pages we've reached, I've decided to open a Q and A. Here, on the site, you can ask all kind of actions, such as:
1)your favourite movies, cartoons, videogames and books, how would they look in this timeline? Say one hystorical game, cartoon, movie or book and I'll try to show its alternative in this timeline. It can also be other works of fictions that are not necessarely about WW1. It can also be Manga's and Anime's.
2)general question about the timeline
So go ahead! Make your questions! I'll try to answer them!

 

[Antonio Ferrari]

WW1 Special number 5°:All quiet on the Western front
All Quiet on the Western Front (German: Im Westen nichts Neues, lit. 'In the West Nothing New') is a novel by Erich Maria Remarque, a German veteran of World War I. The book describes the German soldiers' extreme physical and mental stress during the war, and the detachment from civilian life felt by many of these soldiers upon returning home from the front. The novel was first published in November and December 1928 in the German newspaper Vossische Zeitung and in book form in late January 1929. All Quiet on the Western Front sold 2.5 million copies in 22 languages in its first 18 months in print.
In 1930, the book was adapted as an Academy-Award-winning film of the same name, directed by Lewis Milestone. It was adapted again in 1979 by Delbert Mann, this time as a television film starring Richard Thomas and Ernest Borgnine.

Title and Translation:
The English translation by Arthur Wesley Wheen gives the title as All Quiet on the Western Front. The literal translation of "Im Westen nichts Neues" is "In the West Nothing New," with "West" being the Western Front; the phrase refers to the content of an official communiqué at the end of the novel.
Brian Murdoch's 1993 translation would render the phrase as "there was nothing new to report on the Western Front" within the narrative. Explaining his retention of the original book-title, he says: "Although it does not match the German exactly, Wheen's title has justly become part of the English language and is retained here with gratitude."
The phrase "all quiet on the Western Front" has become a colloquial expression meaning stagnation, or lack of visible change, in any context.

Plot:
The book tells the story of Paul Bäumer, a German soldier who—urged on by his school teacher—joins the German army shortly after the start of World War I. His class was "scattered over the platoons amongst Frisian fishermen, peasants, and labourers." Bäumer arrives at the Western Front with his friends and schoolmates (Leer, Müller, Kropp and a number of other characters). There they meet Stanislaus Katczinsky, an older soldier, nicknamed Kat, who becomes Paul's mentor. While fighting at the front, Bäumer and his comrades have to engage in frequent battles and endure the treacherous and filthy conditions of trench warfare.
At the very beginning of the book, Erich Maria Remarque says "This book is to be neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it. It will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped (its) shells, were destroyed by the war." The book does not focus on heroic stories of bravery, but rather gives a view of the conditions in which the soldiers find themselves. The monotony between battles, the constant threat of artillery fire and bombardments, the struggle to find food, the lack of training of young recruits (meaning lower chances of survival), and the overarching role of random chance in the lives and deaths of the soldiers are described in detail. They had been forced into the army.
The battles fought here have no names and seem to have little overall significance, except for the impending possibility of injury or death for Bäumer and his comrades. Only pitifully small pieces of land are gained, about the size of a football field, which are often lost again later. Remarque often refers to the living soldiers as old and dead, emotionally drained and shaken. "We are not youth any longer. We don't want to take the world by storm. We are fleeing from ourselves, from our life. We were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had to shoot it to pieces."
Paul's visit on leave to his home highlight the cost of the war on his psyche. The town has not changed since he went off to war; however, he finds that he does "not belong here anymore, it is a foreign world." He feels disconnected from most of the townspeople. His father asks him "stupid and distressing" questions about his war experiences, not understanding "that a man cannot talk of such things." An old schoolmaster lectures him about strategy and advancing to Paris while insisting that Paul and his friends know only their "own little sector" of the war but nothing of the big picture.
Indeed, the only person he remains connected to is his dying mother, with whom he shares a tender, yet restrained relationship. The night before he is to return from leave, he stays up with her, exchanging small expressions of love and concern for each other. He thinks to himself, "Ah! Mother, Mother! How can it be that I must part from you? Here I sit and there you are lying; we have so much to say, and we shall never say it." In the end, he concludes that he "ought never to have come [home] on leave."
Paul feels glad to be reunited with his comrades. Soon after, he volunteers to go on a patrol and kills a man for the first time in hand-to-hand combat. He watches the man die, in pain for hours. He feels remorse and asks forgiveness from the man's corpse. He is devastated and later confesses to Kat and Albert, who try to comfort him and reassure him that it is only part of the war. They are then sent on what Paul calls a "good job." They must guard a supply depot in a village that was evacuated due to being shelled too heavily. During this time, the men are able to adequately feed themselves, unlike the near-starvation conditions in the German trenches. In addition, the men enjoy themselves while living off the spoils from the village and officers' luxuries from the supply depot (such as fine cigars). While evacuating the villagers (enemy civilians), Paul and Albert are taken by surprise by artillery fired at the civilian convoy and wounded by a shell. On the train back home, Albert takes a turn for the worse and cannot complete the journey, instead being sent off the train to recuperate in a Catholic hospital. Paul uses a combination of bartering and manipulation to stay by Albert's side. Albert eventually has his leg amputated, while Paul is deemed fit for service and returned to the front.
By now, the war is nearing its end and the German Army is advancing near Paris. In the final chapter, he comments that peace is coming soon, but he does not see the future as bright and shining with hope. Paul feels that he has no aims or goals left in life and that their generation will be different and misunderstood.
In October 1918, Paul is finally killed on a remarkably peaceful day. The situation report from the frontline states a simple phrase: "All quiet on the Western Front." Paul's corpse displays a calm expression on its face, "as though almost glad the end had come."

Themes:
One of the major themes of the novel is the difficulty of soldiers to revert to civilian life after having experienced extreme combat situations. Remarque comments in the preface that "[This book] will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped its shells, were destroyed by the war." This internal destruction can be found as early as the first chapter as Paul comments that, although all the boys are young, their youth has left them. In addition, the massive loss of life and negligible gains from the fighting are constantly emphasized. Soldiers' lives are thrown away by their commanding officers who are stationed comfortably away from the front, ignorant of the daily terrors of the front line.

Main characters:
Albert Kropp
Kropp was in Paul's class at school and is described as the clearest thinker of the group as well as the smallest. Kropp is wounded towards the end of the novel and undergoes a leg amputation. Both he and Bäumer end up spending time in a Catholic hospital together, Bäumer suffering from shrapnel wounds to the leg and arm. Though Kropp initially plans to commit suicide if he requires an amputation, the book suggests he postponed suicide because of the strength of military camaraderie. Kropp and Bäumer part ways when Bäumer is recalled to his regiment after recovering. Paul comments that saying farewell was "very hard, but it is something a soldier learns to deal with."

Haie Westhus
Haie is described as being tall and strong, and a peat-digger by profession. Overall, his size and behavior make him seem older than Paul, yet he is the same age as Paul and his school-friends (roughly 19 at the start of the book). Haie, in addition, has a good sense of humor. During combat, he is injured in his back, fatally (Chapter 6)—the resulting wound is large enough for Paul to see Haie's breathing lung when Himmelstoß (Himmelstoss) carries him to safety.

Fredrich Müller
Müller is about 18 and a half years of age, one of Bäumer's classmates, when he also joins the German army as a volunteer to go to the war. Carrying his old school books with him to the battlefield, he constantly reminds himself of the importance of learning and education. Even while under enemy fire, he "mutters propositions in physics". He became interested in Kemmerich's boots and inherits them when Kemmerich dies early in the novel. He is killed later in the book after being shot point-blank in the stomach with a "light pistol" (flare gun). As he was dying "quite conscious and in terrible pain", he gave his boots which he inherited from Kemmerich to Paul.

Stanislaus "Kat" Katczinsky
Kat has the most positive influence on Paul and his comrades on the battlefield. Katczinsky was a cobbler (shoemaker) in civilian life; he is older than Paul Bäumer and his comrades, about 40 years old, and serves as their leadership figure. He also represents a literary model highlighting the differences between the younger and older soldiers. While the older men have already had a life of professional and personal experience before the war, Bäumer and the men of his age have had little life experience or time for personal growth. Kat is also well known for his ability to scavenge nearly any item needed, especially food. At one point he secures four boxes of lobster. Bäumer describes Kat as possessing a sixth sense. One night, Bäumer along with a group of other soldiers are holed up in a factory with neither rations nor comfortable bedding. Katczinsky leaves for a short while, returning with straw to put over the bare wires of the beds. Later, to feed the hungry men, Kat brings bread, a bag of horse flesh, a lump of fat, a pinch of salt and a pan in which to cook the food. Kat is hit by shrapnel at the end of the story, leaving him with a smashed shin. Paul carries him back to camp on his back, only to discover upon their arrival that a stray splinter had hit Kat in the back of the head and killed him on the way. He is thus the last of Paul's close friends to die in battle. It is Kat's death that eventually makes Bäumer indifferent as to whether he survives the war or not, yet certain that he can face the rest of his life without fear. "Let the months and the years come, they can take nothing from me, they can take nothing more. I am so alone, and so without hope that I can confront them without fear."

Tjaden
One of Bäumer's non-schoolmate friends. Before the war, Tjaden was a locksmith. A big eater with a grudge against the former postman-turned corporal Himmelstoß (thanks to his strict "disciplinary actions"), he manages to forgive Himmelstoß later in the book. Throughout the book, Paul frequently remarks on how much of an eater he is, yet somehow manages to stay as "thin as a rake". He appears in the sequel, The Road Back.

Cover of first English language edition. The design is based upon a German war bonds poster by Fritz Erler.

Minor characters:
Kantorek
Kantorek was the schoolmaster of Paul and his friends, including Kropp, Leer, Müller, and Behm. Behaving "in a way that cost [him] nothing," Kantorek is a strong supporter of the war and encourages Bäumer and other students in his class to join the war effort. Among twenty enlistees was Joseph Behm, the first of the class to die in battle. In an example of tragic irony, Behm was the only one who did not want to enter the war. Kantorek is a hypocrite, urging the young men he teaches to fight in the name of patriotism, while not voluntarily enlisting himself. In a twist of fate, Kantorek is later called up as a soldier as well. He very reluctantly joins the ranks of his former students, only to be drilled and taunted by Mittelstädt, one of the students he had earlier persuaded to enlist.

Peter Leer
Leer is an intelligent soldier in Bäumer's company, and one of his classmates. He is very popular with women; when he and his comrades meet three French women, he is the first to seduce one of them. Bäumer describes Leer's ability to attract women by saying "Leer is an old hand at the game". In chapter 11, Leer is hit by a shell fragment, which also hits Bertinck. The shrapnel tears open Leer's hip, causing him to bleed to death quickly. His death causes Paul to ask himself, "What use is it to him now that he was such a good mathematician in school?"

Bertinck
Lieutenant Bertinck is the leader of Bäumer's company. His men have a great respect for him, and Bertinck has great respect for his men. He permits them to eat the rations of the men that had been killed in action, standing up to the chef Ginger who would only allow them their allotted share. Bertinck is genuinely despondent when he learns that few of his men had survived an engagement. When he and the other characters are trapped in a trench under heavy attack, Bertinck, who has been injured in the firefight, spots a flamethrower team advancing on them. He gets out of cover and takes aim on the flamethrower but misses, and gets hit by enemy fire. With his next shot he kills the flamethrower, and immediately afterwards an enemy shell explodes on his position blowing off his chin. The same explosion also fatally wounds Leer.

Himmelstoss
Corporal Himmelstoss (spelled Himmelstoß in some editions) was a postman before enlisting in the war. He is a power-hungry corporal with special contempt for Paul and his friends, taking sadistic pleasure in punishing the minor infractions of his trainees during their basic training in preparation for their deployment. Paul later figures that the training taught by Himmelstoss made them "hard, suspicious, pitiless, and tough" but most importantly it taught them comradeship. However, Bäumer and his comrades have a chance to get back at Himmelstoss because of his punishments, mercilessly whipping him on the night before they board trains to go to the front. Himmelstoss later joins them at the front, revealing himself as a coward who shirks his duties for fear of getting hurt or killed, and pretends to be wounded because of a scratch on his face. Paul Bäumer beats him because of it and when a lieutenant comes along looking for men for a trench charge, Himmelstoss joins and leads the charge. He carries Haie Westhus's body to Bäumer after he is fatally wounded. Matured and repentant through his experiences Himmelstoß later asks for forgiveness from his previous charges. As he becomes the new staff cook, to prove his friendship he secures two pounds of sugar for Bäumer and half a pound of butter for Tjaden.

Detering
Detering is a farmer who constantly longs to return to his wife and farm. He is also fond of horses and is angered when he sees them used in combat. He says, "It is of the vilest baseness to use horses in the war," when the group hears several wounded horses writhe and scream for a long time before dying during a bombardment. He tries to shoot them to put them out of their misery, but is stopped by Kat to keep their current position hidden. He is driven to desert when he sees a cherry tree in blossom, which reminds him of home too much and inspires him to leave. He is found by military police and court-martialed, and is never heard from again.

Josef Hamacher
Hamacher is a patient at the Catholic hospital where Paul and Albert Kropp are temporarily stationed. He has an intimate knowledge of the workings of the hospital. He also has a "Special Permit," certifying him as sporadically not responsible for his actions due to a head wound, though he is clearly quite sane and exploiting his permit so he can stay in the hospital and away from the war as long as possible.

Franz Kemmerich
A young boy of only 19 years. Franz Kemmerich had enlisted in the army for World War I along with his best friend and classmate, Bäumer. Kemmerich is shot in the leg early in the story; his injured leg has to be amputated, and he dies shortly after. In anticipation of Kemmerich's imminent death, Müller was eager to get his boots. While in the hospital, someone steals Kemmerich's watch that he intended to give to his mother, causing him great distress and prompting him to ask about his watch every time his friends visit him in the hospital. Paul later finds the watch and hands it over to Kemmerich's mother, only to lie and say Franz died instantly and painlessly when questioned.

Joseph Behm
A student in Paul's class who is described as youthful and overweight. Behm was the only student that was not quickly influenced by Kantorek's patriotism to join the war, but eventually, due to pressure from friends and Kantorek, he joins the war. He is the first of Paul's friends to die. He is blinded in no man's land and believed to be dead by his friends. The next day, when he is seen walking blindly around no-man's-land, it is discovered that he was only unconscious. However, he is killed before he can be rescued.

 

[Antonio Ferrari]

We're proceding with the Story, but the Question and Answers is not over! Feel free to ask for any other questions. In the maintime:
The Argentinian coup: the rufous hornero difficult decision
Argentina was, alongside Chile and Brazil, one of the strongest South American countries, however with the birth of the USSA, Argentina and Chile position started to dicrease. Afraid of becoming a dependency of the USSA, Argentina president Marcelo Torcuato de Alvear decided to fortify its border, create better trade deals with the Central Powers and at the same time trying to maintain a position of supremacy over Chile, its new competetor. This actions were not particurally well seen by the farmers who saw an increase on taxations, and Marcelo "paranoia" would ultimately lead to a coup d'etat on 17 December 1926.
Other than Marcelo paranoia, the reasons for the coup remain the subject of debate. The domestic situation was definitely troubled; historians have pointed to specific European precedents in the 1920s that may have had an influence, including the 1922 March on Rome by Benito Mussolini in Italy. Other historians have cited more general trends in Europe that resulted in more or less undemocratic governments in the Eastern Mediterranean by the end of the 1930s, but others blame Brazil expansionism. Democratic immaturity was displayed by an unwillingness to compromise, and the frequent shifts of government created a chronic perception of crisis. Historians have also discussed an exaggerated fear of communism as a factor, along with the lack of a stable center that could reach out to parties on the left and right; these parties accused each other of Bolshevism and fascism.
After several protests in the rural areas, the Marcelo government lifted martial law, restored democratic freedoms, and granted broad amnesty to political prisoners. He also applied for complete modernization, and even planned to invade Chile in order to compete with the USSA. However, the change did not meet with universal approval. Many of the released prisoners were communists who quickly used the new freedoms of speech to organize a protest attended by approximately 400 people in San Miguel de Tucumán on 13 June. The protest was dispersed. The new government's opposition used this protest as the platform for a public attack on the government, alleging that it was allowing illegal organizations to continue their activities freely. Despite its local nature, the incident was presented as a major threat to Argentina and its military; the government was said to be incapable of dealing with this threat.
Further allegations of "Communizations" were made after Argentina signed the British–Argentinian Non-Aggression Treaty of 28 September 1926. The treaty was conceived by the previous government, which had been dominated by the Radical Civic Union. However, they voted against the treaty, while Hipólito Yrigoyen strongly supported it. On 21 November, a student demonstration against "Communistzation" was forcibly dispersed by the police. About 600 Argentinian students gathered near a communist-led workers' union. The police, fearing armed clashes between the two groups, intervened and attempted to stop the demonstration. Seven police officers were injured and thirteen students were arrested.
Another public outcry arose when the government, seeking the support of ethnic minorities, allowed the opening of over 80 Italian schools in Argentina. The coalition government directly confronted the Radicalists when it proposed a 1927 budget that reduced salaries to the clergy and subsidies to Catholic schools. Further controversies were created when the government's military reform program was revealed as a careless downsizing. Some 200 conservative military officers were fired. The military began planning the coup.

Anti-British demostrators arrested by the police
On 20 September 1926, five military officers, led by Juan Perón, organized a committee. Generals Elbio Anaya and Héctor Benigno Varela were among its members. About a month later, another group, the so-called Revolutionary General Headquarters, was formed. The two groups closely coordinated their efforts. By 12 December, the military had already planned detailed actions, investigated the areas where the action was to take place, and informed the leaders of the Argentinain National Union and the Radicalists. Rumors of the plan reached the Social Democrats, but they took no action. Just before the coup, disinformation about movements of the Brazilians army in the Nord was disseminated; its purpose was to induce troops in Gualeguaychú that would potentially have opposed the coup to move towards Buenos Aires.

An image showing Juan Perón
Late in the evening of 16 December, the British consul informed Marcelo about a possible coup the following night, but Marcelo did not pay much attention to this warning. The coup began on the night of 17 December 1926. The 1927 budget, with its cuts to military and church spending, had not yet been passed. During the night, military forces occupied central military and government offices and arrested officials. General Alberto Guglielmone tried to rally troops against the coup, but was soon overpowered and arrested, and President Marcelo was placed under house arrest. General Juan was proclamed "dictator" of Argentina. His government was recognized by the USA, and some believe that they contribuited for the coup.
The Argentinian National Union invited the Radicalists to join them in forming a new government that would restore some degree of constitutional legitimacy. The party agreed reluctantly; they were worried about their prestige. Looking toward the near future, the Radicalists reasoned that they could easily win any upcoming elections, regaining power by constitutional means and avoiding direct association with the coup. In keeping with this strategy, they allowed members of the Argentinian National Union to take over the most prominent posts.
Agreements between the USA and Argentina quickly arrived, in which Argentina was assured that Brazil would not attack them, and would also have protections against the UBSR, both if they invaded and if they tried to convert Argentina. Similar agreements would occur in Chile, much to Argentina annoyance, but they were granted controll over the entirety of the Tierra del Fuego region. In exchange, the USSA ceded some land to the Chileans in Bolivia and Perù. At the same time, both Argentina and Chile joined the American pact.

South America after Chile and Argentina entrance in the American Pact
With disputes in the continent finally over, it seemed like South America can finally prosper, but not only thanks to the USA, but also thanks to the Central Powers.
I hope you guys like this new update! Be sure to like(if you like it), comment(please comment so I can learn what your opinion is) and.....follow I guess.

 

[Antonio Ferrari]

The Hog Island Incident: the Venezuelan troupial battles the Lion
Despite the various successes in South America by the UBSR, many of its former colonies, now "Socialists Republic", desired independence after so long. Many in fact were even fed up by the new government, which was in full controll over the various republics economies. In the Guiana Socialist Republic, the economy was based on agriculture, however the British government had several times performed requisition, which ultimately ended in a famine in 1927, which would ultimately lead to a revolt.

Starving children in the Guiana Socialist Republic
The revolt quickly spreaded in Kumaka, and shortly after a big chunck of the interior of the region was occupied by the rebels. On 23 March 1927, with the rapidly approaching Guianan Rebel Forces (GRF) about to reach Hog island, Guiana leader Cecil Hunter-Rodwell gave orders for his defeated troops to withdraw from the island. Some of his soldiers, who were unable to retreat in time and were probably sympathetic natives, deserted and began to loot properties and attacked two British who were in their way.
In the early morning of 24 March, the GRF began to enter Hog Island without any resistance from Guiana colonial army. In response, the British navy immediately sent the heavy cruiser HMS Vindictive, the light cruisers HMS Carlisle and Emerald, the minesweeper HMS Petersfield, and the destroyers HMS Witherington, Wolsey, Wishart, Gnat, Veteran, Caradoc, Verity and Wild Swan toward Guiana. The gunboat HMS Aphis arrived toward the end of the engagement, and Cricket was also involved in the naval operations at the time. In the meantime, the Venezuelan government decided to take advance of the situation by supporting the rebels. And that's where the Hog Island incident occurred. On 03:00 A.M., a Venezuelan gunboat fired upon a British gunboat on the tip of Hog Island. The gunboat managed to enter there thanks to the rebellion, and Venezuelan forces even occupied Tiger Island, and the British remained unaware of the action. When the British discovered the action, they ordered the naval bombardment of Puerto La Cruz, while also focusing on the rebellion.
By the end of March 24, many cities in Guiana were burning and littered with bomb craters and casualties from the battle. Three hours later the bombing of New Ansterdam the Venezuelan attacked again. This time, two ships were in between Wakenaam Island and Leguan island, both of which were occupied by Venezuelan marines. Rifle fire was first heard, and Reginald Tyrwhitt's crew were preparing their machine gun when 3-inch (76 mm) guns at Leguan island suddenly engaged them. Several shots missed the ships, but one eventually hit Reginal's fire control platform, causing no casualties. A 4-inch (100 mm) gun was then aimed at the fort, and after a few rounds the Venezuelan guns were silenced. Meanwhile another British ship was harassed by snipers, but machine gun fire quickly forced the Venezuelan to retreat. Later on the Central Americans sent gunboats to give assistence
British skimmerish with the Venezuelan occurred in Sierra Imataca, but thanks to Britain better equipment rebel intervention, the battle ended up as a stalemate. However, the British were capable of seizing San José de Amacuro and advanced in the interior, however neither side managed to advance. The British government applied a naval blockade of Venezuela, but the Venezuelans still received support from the USSA and the US, as the British were terrified to have the Americans against them and as such did not attack any American ships.

Venezuelan forces in Leguan island
More fierce combat occurred in El Dorado, where the British advanced. However they were stop before they could advance further. Shortly after, the Venezuelan commenced an advance in the Nord, conquering Mabaruma. After another naval battle in Margarita island, which was integrated in the US, the American pact threatened to enter at war with the UBSR if peace was not reached. The British and the Venezuelans, tired of a conflict which seemed pointless, accepted. A treaty was signed in Caracas. In it:
-The UK can occupy San José de Amacuro as a naval base
-The areas conquered by the British are recognized and integrated
-The areas conquered by the Venezuelans are recognized and integrated
-Venezuela joins the American pact
-Britain pays war reparations
-Venezuela must wirdraw from the Guiana river islands

Map of the region after the Hog island incident
After the conflict with Venezuela was over, the British reaquired controll over the region in less than a week. Despite being "defeated", the British were not humiliated that much, and even managed to gain some ground. It was obvious that South America was becoming the playground of the US and the UBSR, and that even with the non agression pact, peace did not seem like to remain for that long.
I hope you guys like this new update! Be sure to like(if you like it), comment(please comment so I can learn what your opinion is) and.....follow I guess.

 

[Antonio Ferrari]

The Cambodian massacre: the elephant dark path
After their victory in WW1 and in the third Anglo-Afghan war, Siam had become the strongest nation in South East Asia, and quite possibly a world power. Its new empire raged from India to China, and multiple nationalities lived there in peace. Under King Prajadhipok, better known in the world as Rama VII, was a whise man that decided to treat the new regions not as colonies, but as part of the Kingdom. As such, the inhabitants of the conquered regions had the same rights, and althought Siamese was the main language, secondary languages were respected and kept, even being a big part of Siamese culture. The Siamese often teached in schools both languages, and as a result it was common seying a Siamese from Bangkok speaking fluently Vietnamese or Indian. Religion was not an issue, as long as you obeyed the laws of the country, which were fair, but were not well seen by anarchists and communists, who were considered enemies by the Siameses. Most of the time punishment wasn't severe, some years in prison were believed to be more than enought. However, in Cambodia, one of the bloodiest period of Siam history occurred. In Siamese historiography, the event is occasionally referred to as "April 12 Purge" (12 Mes̄ʹāyn l̂āng k̄ĥxmūl), while the Communist historiography refers to the event in the form of "April 12 Tragedy" (12 Mes̄ʹāyn ṣ̄oknāt̩krrm). Today, it is known as the Cambodian massacre.

Victims of the Cambodian massacre. The massacre, despite horrible anyway, should not be considered a genocide, as not all Cambodians were killed
The roots of the April 12 Incident go back to the Siamese's alliance ratification with the German empire in January 1923. Since the 1890's, the Siamese-German alliance included both financial and military aid and a small but important group of German political and military advisors. However, in the ratification, it was also included that the Siamese must eliminate any sort of Communist feeling in the country. The Siamese agreed, as they did not like the idea of communism taking over, and decided to prohibite the practice of Communism in politics. In Cambodia, a region were Communism was well seen, the decision was quite unpopular.
Plans for a Communist revolution originated with Tou Ngoc Minh. After his expulsion from politics, by 1920 he had made a military comeback, gaining control of some parts of Cambodia. His goal was to extend his control over all of Cambodia and Southern Vietnam, particularly Phnom Penh. After Tou's death from cancer in March 1927, Cambodian Secret Communist Militia(CSCM) or Puok Kommouynist Kommouynist Samngeat (PKKS) leaders continued to push the plan, and--after convincing a few Cambodian people to rebel(Not many were sypathizer with the communists)--finally launched the Revolution. Initial successes of the Revolution soon saw the CSCM taking controll of Cambodia.
However, as Siamese reinforcements in the region arrived, a massive counter revolution occurred in the region: the Cambodian people rised up, performing guerrilla fights, performing revolts and even openly attacking the Communists with everything they had. They welcomed the Siamese army as liberators, and many were rewarded with money and land for their contribution in the conflict.

Siamese monument in honor to the Cambodian rebels who fought off the communists. The ones who lived were celebrated as heroes in the monument, inculding the ones contributing to the massacre
On March 21–22 the Siamese launched an offensive in Cambodia, defeating the Communist forces. After the revolution, the Siamese and western powers became alarmed by the growth of Communist influence. With Siam army firmly in control of Cambodia, on April 2 King Rama VII declared the Communists as an enemy of the Siamese, and allowed to purge the Communists.

Siamese troops rounding up Communist prisoners for execution, 1927. Not a single Cambodian batted an eye that day
On April 5 Rama VII arrived in Phnom Penh and met with the Communists leader who surrendered. They would be spared, and could even return to serve in the Siamese military. At the same time, he addressed a speech to the Cambodians, welcoming them to participate the elimination of the Communist forces in exchange of money, land and glory. Many were willing to participate, as they were strong supporters of the King.
On April 9 Rama VII declared martial law in Cambodia, as many members of the CSCM were still active and causing damages in the regions with terrorist attacks in the centres of power, and were still trying to influence the people, but with limitated success.
Before dawn on April 12, gang members began to attack areas with strong Communist presence, including Sihanoukville, Kampong Cham and Kampot. Massive massacres in the regions occurred, with the government more often collaborating with the gangs rather than stopping them, To be fair, the government gave them locations of Communist strong points, with several Gangs becoming particurally famous, such as the "Angry Kouprey" (Kamhoeng Khuo Pisei), which claimed the deaths of 200 communists in their purges. They were composed mainly by farmers, and soon all 100 members become rich land owners with siezable farms all over Cambodia, Southern Vietnam and Thailand.

Siamese troops marching to help Anti Communists Gangs
Siamese efforts to stop communism was welcomed by many, especially by the Kingdom of Italy, which despized Communism. On April 22, Italian senator Ettore Conti was sent as an ambassador and adviser for the King regarding the Communist question. Many members of the Blackshirts, a volunteer corp born in Italy to deal with the communists, were sent and helped the Cambodian gangs to clean the area. Despite both of them having similar point of view, the Gangs absolutely hated the Blackshits, often denouncing them to be too violent and attacking innocent civilians rather than the real target. They often raped Cambodian girls and stealed proprietes, with the latter sometimes being practiced by the gangs, but they were not allowed to rape women, nor they did if possible. In fact, many blackshirts were actually arrested, even if the longest period of prison was around 10 days. As a result, King Rama VII requested that the blackshirts returned home before they could start to become unpopular with the Cambodians.

Italian senator Ettore Conti
In less than a month, the communist threat in Cambodia was defeated once for all, but the price was high: 5300 death communists, and 420 farmers during the counter revolution, not to count the soldiers of the CSCM and the innocents civilians killed by the Blackshirts, ammounted for a total of at least 10.000 deaths in Cambodia. It would seem like, despite having the best intentions, not all countries are innocent.
I hope you guys like this new update! Be sure to like(if you like it), comment(please comment so I can learn what your opinion is) and.....follow I guess.

 

[Antonio Ferrari]

The Samoan rebellion: the Eagle faces the Brown Booby
The Samoan arcipelago was occupied by the Germans 14 years before the Great War, and was composed by the islands of Upolu, Savai'i, Apolima and Manono. After the Great War, the Germans expanded in the Pacific alongside the Japanese, who obtained French Polinesya, which would be renamed to Makoto Arcipelago or Makoto Islands, however it was only after the final phase of the Mexican revolution that the Germans obtained full controll of the Samoan arcipelago after their conquest of the American Samoan. However, problems with the local population started since the beginning of the colonization process. A key event occurred in 1908, in a dispute between the German colonial administration and the Malo o Samoa, or Samoan Council of Chiefs, over the establishment of a copra business owned and controlled by native Samoans. The dispute led to the eventual formation of a resistance movement called Mau a Pule on Savai'i by Lauaki Namulau'ulu Mamoe, one of the Samoan leaders from Safotulafai who was deposed by the German Governor of Samoa, Wilhelm Solf. As well as deposing members of the Malo o Samoa, Solf called in two German warships as a show of strength. Lauaki returned with his warriors from Savai'i for battle. The German governor convinced Mata'afa to set up a "peace talk meeting" with Lauaki but that Lauaki had to disperse his army before the meeting. Unbeknown to Mata'afa was the intent of the German governor to rid of Lauaki. Lauaki, a man of honor, returned with his warriors to Savai'i as they were reluctant to leave Upolu without him. After ensuring his warriors' arrival to their villages, Lauaki returned to Upolu. As it took Lauaki several days to disperse his army, the German governor set up his trap. Days later upon their return to Upolu, Lauaki and some of the Chiefs were betrayed at this "peace talk", held aboard the German ship. Problems with the locals were particurally strong in the post war period, after the New Zealandese brief occupation of the Arcipelago. On top of that, several rebellions occurred after the conquest of the American Samoan. Peaceful manifestations were brutally repressed, leading to a massive rebellion.

Exile Lauaki Namulau'ulu Mamoe
Rebel forces received the support from the Americans, who had resentments toward German and Japanese expansion in the Pacific. Despite the Americans being interested in the Caribbeans, they had interests in the Pacific too. First clashes between the rebels began when German Colonial troops heard gunshots coming from the town of Salimu at nearly 1:00 in the morning and decided to investigate. The German platoon that entered the town was led by Eugen Brandeis. Three blocks into Salimu, the German's left flank, led by Erich Schultz-Ewerth came under fire from a crowd of about seventy-five armed Samoans, forcing the former to take cover "under a protruding wooden sidewalk and behind a pile of railroad ties along the town’s main street." They were soon joined by Eugen main force.
Eugen was fatally wounded by fire coming from a local saloon while crossing Main Street. Erich and two privates cleared out the enemy-occupied saloon, "killing seven of the enemy." The Germans' four casualties were brought into the recently cleared building, with Eugen dying at 2:30. Private Reiner Rühl was also mortally wounded. "That was one boy that didn’t want to die. His brains were sticking out of that bullet hole, and he didn’t want to die" said Corporal Fabian Bronner. The hostile Samoans began withdrawing at 3:00. Another battle occurred in Vaiola. The German Colonial Troops did not have to wait long for a battle. On July 15, Captain Alexander Nottebohm doubled his watch and that same night, Samoan's rebels began entering the town, two or three men at a time. At 1:15 am on July 6, a lone soldier patrolling the town spotted a suspicious man walking through a street so he fired what became the first shot of the engagement. With the element of surprise lost, Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III immediately ordered his men to charge the colonial troops. Around 4 AM, three charges were made on city hall, resulting in the death of Mata'afa Faumuina Fiame Mulinu'u I, the second charge lasting more than four hours. At daybreak heavy fighting commenced again until 8:00 am when Tupua demanded Alexander surrender. Captain Alexander refused to concede, apparently believing that his fortified positions were strong enough to repel any further attack.
Daylight also brought two aircraft into the battle. At around 10:00 am, one of the planes, piloted by Lieutenant Eckard Heinz, landed near Vaiola to inquire about the seriousness of the situation while the other plane, piloted by Gunner Ägid Schuerer, strafed the enemy's positions. A little later, Lieutenant Exkard reboarded his plane, made a few more strafing runs and then flew back to Salelologa where he informed Major Sandro Krauser of the battle. Major Krauser responded by forming a squadron of five Gotha G.V biplanes armed with machine guns and four twenty-five pound bombs each. At 2 PM, Krauser's squadron arrived at Vaiola and began dropping bombs on the rebels at 300 to 1,000 feet for about forty-five minutes. Tupua's men, who had never been attacked by aircraft before, began a panic retreat in what was history's first dive bombing attack in tactical support of ground troops.

German airbase at Salelolonga
Fifty-six dead rebels were collected and over 100 more were wounded, while the German colonial troops suffered only light casualties. While this action was by no means the end of the insurgency , it was the last time that the rebels attempted to concentrate for a massed attack of this kind, forcing the insurgents to change their tactics. Alex Schreck expedition soon arrived in Vaiola, and on 25 July, marched for Mauga. The Battle of Mauga took place on July 25, 1927. Shortly after the Battle of Ocotal, an expedition of 155 Colonial troops led by Alex Schreck were sent hunting for rebel leader Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III. One of their destinations was the town of Mauga, where Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III had about forty men waiting for the Germans. He placed a sentry outside the village to alert his men of the Germans, but the watchman abandoned his post to be alone with an Indian girl in a nearby shack. The German Colonial troops marched into Mauga at 3:00, finding it largely deserted. While galloping across the town's "open, grassy plaza" in order to question an old man, Captain Laurens Wertheim and German Private Jochen Fink received fire from the waiting Samoans, with Fink being mortally wounded. Eventually, the Samoans were driven back, leaving eleven of their dead behind. Fighting was over by 3:45. In addition to German and Samoan losses, one woman was wounded in the legs by fire from an automatic weapon.
On July 27, two German airplanes spotted forty Samoans waiting in ambush. The aircraft received fire from an enemy machine gun and a dive bombing raid ensued, with three bombs being dropped on the Samoan rebels. The German aviators reported seeing six Samoans "dead or seriously wounded."
Major Alex's Colonial troops expedition eventually reached the area one mile southeast of Fagamalo, where they were attacked by a force of between 60 and 120 (possibly up to 150) Samoans insurgents who were armed with two machine guns. One of the machine guns was confirmed to be a Lewis gun and the other one was suspected of being one as well. The battle raged from 2:30 to 4:00, with the Samoans being eventually driven back. The German government forces didn't suffer any casualties, while five dead rebels were found on the battlefield. However, Tupua would later admit to losing up to 60 men killed and wounded during the action (although this number may include the casualties from the air raid prior to the battle). Tupua had a tendency to greatly exaggerate numbers related to the battles during his rebellion, so this number of 60 is probably inaccurate. One young Samoan, who was pretending to be dead, was captured, but later released. In addition to human losses, twelve of Samoan's animals were killed and eight were captured.
The clash at Fagamalo, along with the previous battles at Mauga and Salimu(both of which also took place in July 1927) convinced Tupua to alter his tactics. According to author Neill Macaulay, "he would attack only when the odds were heavily in his favor-when he clearly had the advantages of surprise, cover, and superior firepower. Never again would he foolishly 'stand his ground,' nor would he try to redeem an attack that had hopelessly bogged down. Major Alex might wage a 'blood and thunder campaign,' but Tupua would adopt the hit-and-run tactics of guerrilla warfare." After the Battle of Fagamalo, the Samoans fell back to the jungles, which were "ideal country for guerrilla warfare."

German Colonial troops in a Samoan village
At about 1:00 am on September 19, a force of around 200 rebel troops, loyal to Tupua attacked the small garrison of Sili under the command of Marine First Lieutenant Uwe Fröhlich. Uwe's garrison included twenty men of the 5th Colonial Army and a force of twenty-five Samoan natives. The first sound of the fight occurred when a rebel soldier tossed an improvised explosive at the German barracks but it exploded without hurting anyone and only served to alert the sleeping garrison. Not long after the bombing the rebels opened up with rifle fire while the garrison was still dressing themselves. The rebels then charged the barracks under cover of fog but were beaten back by accurate fire. At that point the battle was a skirmish in which both sides engaged at a further range until about 2:30 am when the fog began to lift. The rebels then began collecting their dead and wounded and within another half-hour the fighting had ceased. Uwe estimated the loss of the enemy to be twenty-five killed and twice as many wounded while sustaining one German killed in action, a second who died of wounds and one Samoan who was seriously wounded. Tupua lost one of his "generals" with the death of Iosefa Autagavaia, and this latest defeat in a string of defeats, forced Tupua to adopt a guerrilla war. On October 8, 1927, Second Lieutenant Engelbrecht Wächter and his observer-gunner Sergeant Achim Gessler, flying a Arado Ar 196, had to crash-land on a Samoan controlled region. After destroying the plane and its machine guns, the two Germans airmen started to head for Sili on foot, using a map dropped by their wingman, Karsten Simmel. On their journey, the two aviators managed to fight off a group of fifteen Saomoans with their pistols, killing five. After being surrounded by forty guerrillas and running out of ammunition, Achim and Engelbrecht were finally captured. The two Germans were put on trial by the Samoans and executed. Lieutenant Norbert Schneiderman, not knowing the fates of the two airmen, organized an expedition of 20 Colonial soldiers to rescue them. The patrol headed out at 12:45 p.m. on October 8, 1927. Early the following day, the group neared the crash site, only to be only ambushed by "about 200" Saomoans rebels. Rather than seize the guerrilla-occupied hill in front them, Norbert's men turned back the way they had come and proceeded to attack the rebels blocking their way. Notably employing rifle grenades and hand grenades, the German troops began shooting and blasting their way back to Gataivai. Initially, Norbert led the way, hurling grenades as he advanced. One member of the Samoan Colonial soldier continued firing "his rifle after half of the barrel had been blown off." At one point during the intense running battle, a Samoan machine gun pinned down its enemies, who eventually killed the machine gunner with a very well-placed rifle grenade. Norbert's troops could hear guerrillas closing in "from all sides in the dense jungle." An MP 18 submachine gun and rifle grenades were used quite effectively by the Germans, "demonstrating the high value of these two weapons in close-range bush warfare." The firefight lasted about two and a half hours. Although their native guides had abandoned them during the fight and Norbert had lost his compass, the exhausted patrol arrived back in Gataivai "just before midnight" on October 10. Norbert guessed that the total number of Saomoans engaged in the battle was about 400, although he said this was a "very conservative estimate." Of these, at least 40 were killed or mortally wounded, but this number could actually be as high as 55 or 60. One rebel was captured during the fighting, and his captors were prepared to shoot him, but decided not to, as it might give away their position. Of Norbert's men, four Samoan colonial troops were killed. Fights would ensure until the end of October, as the Americans even started to give weapons such as the Thompson submachine guns. However, pressures from the Japanese empire, who had started a serie of espionage movements against the Americans and had realized the landlease programme. The Americans refused at first and engaged the Japanese in the battle of the Bering Sea. The Japanese, in response, bombed the island of San Miguel, and even briefly occupied it until Germany intervened. The Americans stopped landleasing the Samoans, and hostilities between the Japanese and the Americans ended, with the Japanese wirdrawing from San Miguel. Without the American support, the Germans took controll of the Arcipelago once again. However, tensions between the USA and the Central Powers rised up once again, in particurally Japan. The Japanese had interests in the islands of Hawaii, Midway, the Johnston Atoll and Leeward island in order to connect them with their Pacific possesions. However, they were willing to not go all the way out in Germany did not want to. The Dragon wanted to be loyal to the Eagle, and as such it would seems like war was avoided once more.

A drawing showing Japanese troops in San Miguel
I hope you guys like this new update! Be sure to like(if you like it), comment(please comment so I can learn what your opinion is) and.....follow I guess.

 

[Antonio Ferrari]

The Riyad uprising: the camel faces the desert wolf
After the Ottoman interests started to shift toward the Caucasus and Egypt, the region of Arabia was manly left untouched, with only a teoretical controll over the region. However, after the accidental discovery of oil in Al Jubayl show a quick change in interests in the region. As such, a real colonization of Arabia finally begun in order to take advantage of the large oil quantities in there. However, this also meant problems with the locals, who had little to no intention to become slaves of the Ottomans. As a peaceful manifestation turned out to be unsuccesfull for the other ethiticies in Ottoman territory, it was obvious for the Arabians that only an armed conflict could have leaded to freedom.
Saudi rebel forces at their peak during the Riyad Uprising totaled over 20,000, though some of them did not join the battle until a day later. The entire Arabian rebel force was organized into the 2nd Rebel Army, and over half of it was under Bajad Al-Otaibi command. He was also named Commander-in-Chief of the 2nd Rebel Army, and Hussein bin Ali as deputy Commander-in-Chief and acting front-line Commander-in-Chief. Arabian representative was Ibn Saud, chief of staff was Eqab bin Mohaya and Director of the Political Directorate of the 2nd Front Army was Faisal al-Duwaish. The following is the order of battle for the Arabian forces:
9th Army commanded by Ibn Saud, with Ali bin Hussein as the deputy commander and Muhammad bin Abdul-Rahman as the Arabian representative.
11th Army commanded by Hussein bin Ali, with Faisal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud as the deputy commander and Saud bin Abdulaziz Al Saud as the party representative.
10th Division commanded by Saud bin Abdulaziz
24th Division commanded by Abd al-Aziz ibn Mutib/Ali bin Hussein
25th Division commanded by Hussein bin Ali, and after taking Riyad by Ibn Saud
20th Army commanded by Bajad Al-Otaibi and Liao Qianwu as the Arabian representative
1st Division commanded by Saud bin Abdulaziz Al Saud
2nd Division commanded by Faisal al-Duwaish
3rd Division commanded by Khaled bin Luai

A colorized image showing us Ibn Saud
The rebellion was initially planned to take place during the night of July 30, but due to complications with Ali bin Hussein it was postponed until the next day. On the morning of 1 August 1927, at exactly 2:00 a.m., Ibn Saud, Khaled bin Luai, Faisal al-Duwaish, Saud bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Bajad Al-Otaibi, Ali bin Hussein and the other rebel generals led their troops and attacked the city of Riyad from different directions. Four hours later they took the city, capturing 5,000 small arms and around 1,000,000 rounds of ammunition. Around noon the State of Saudi Arabia (Dawlat Almamlakat Alearabiat Alsaeudia) was formed, with Ibn Saud as a provisorial leader. However, the success of the new state, despite sparking the fire of revoltion in Arabia, it wasn't as much succesfull as other Arab revolts against the Ottomans.

Soldiers in the Arab Rebel Army during the Riyad uprising, carrying the Arab Flag of the Arab Revolt and pictured in the Arabian Desert
Facing a counterattack from the Ottomans, the Arab rebels decided to retreat south towards Mecca. Once there they would try to take over the city of Mecca while spreading their influence to the local Arab population in that area, while also hoping to reveive the support from the Italians, who found difficulties supporting them in the mainland as the Ottoman had streighted their border patroll defence.

Once supplied they would attempt a return to Riyad and thence a new and proper dissemination of Arab influence throughout the province from which most of the insurrection's soldiery had come. Ibn Saud strongly opposed this idea: he pointed out that marching such a great distance and over such terrain in the heat of summer would put a severe strain on the troops. He also pointed out that the popular support for the Arabians in Mecca was merely a fraction of what they enjoyed among the peasantry in Riyad. Resupply and local enlistment were assured.
Ibn Saud suggestion was vetoed—Mecca was the target set by the Arabians. Accordingly, on August 5 the 25,000 Arabian troops began the march to the Arabian Red Sea Coast. The Arabians would pay a hefty price for their obeisance two months later in the rout known as the Battle of New Muwayh.
By the 8th, only three days out, a third of the Uprising troops had deserted. On the 19th, the column entered Afif. Reconnaissance had found Ottoman troops at Ar Ruwaidhah, where shortly after a battle occurred. Hussein bin Ali 11th Army arrived late and Bajad Al-Otaibi 20th bore the brunt. The Arab rebels took nearly a thousand casualties, half of them dead. They evaquated the town under cover of night.
In the aftermath of battle, many Arabs swore allegiance to the Arab rebels during the travel to Mecca.

Arab rebel forces marching to Mecca
Having rested at the oasis of Ar Rayn, the Arab rebel troops, with new recruits from the town alongside other members who joined their cause in the travel, filed over into Suhailah. The best combat troops formed the vanguard, they were soon 20 miles and two days' march ahead of the rear. Most of the leaders of the revolutionary committee and Arab sympathisers were in the main section. The rearguard, 200 troops under Saud bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, had the wounded and the baggage and Abdullah I bin al-Hussein; it is said that 1000 women of the area, some widowed, perhaps by war, joined them as carriers.
At the City centre in early September, Abdulaziz commandeered 100 camels each with her crew of four to take the wounded and weak to Afif, which was still controlled by the Arabs.
In the meantime, other Arabians had convened at Ar Rass ostensibly for a similar uprising. And so it was that by the end of September, with their Riyad troops poised in Mahd Al Thahab, the Arabians knew that their uprisings had yet to take and keep one city from the Ottomans. The Ottomanss were even now moving in to trap the Arabians with the sea at their backs. The Mecca station sent word that they should avoid further battles, forgo Mecca port (where in any event Italian arms would not be forthcoming) and take cover like the Ar Rassians troops. There was now, however, no avoiding the Ottomans: Ibn and Ali lost two-fifths of their troop strength in battle at Ranyah.

Arabian prisoners captured by the Ottomans
Only an hadful of the Rebel forces and leader survived the March to the Mecca by escaping the Ottomans and landing in Massaua, Italian Eritrea, where they were welcomed as heroes by the Italians. Despite not being able to support them, the Italian fascist government had started a pro-Arab campaign in order to justify their support. They claimed that the Arabians were the ones destined to destroy the Ottomans, the old terror who dominated the Mediterranean centuries ago, and the ones who would save the West from the Ottoman menance. As a matter of fact, Benito Mussolini invited Ibn Saud to become one of his generals. Despite many rumors, il Duce, under German pressure, did not choose generals over their loyalty to fascism, but rather to competence. And, as such, Ibn Saud would be recognized as one of the best "Italian" generals that the fascist era could ever afford. By many Italians he was called "Ibbio Saudino", but by many others, he was remembered as "Il Lupo dell'Arabia"(The Arabian Wolf).

Benito Mussolini alongside some of the few Arabian soldiers who made it to the Mecca march. Several Arabian rebels even started to like the idea of Fascism, and many even become Blackshirts
I hope you guys like this new update! Be sure to like(if you like it), comment(please comment so I can learn what your opinion is) and.....follow I guess.

 

[Antonio Ferrari]

The Kiev riots: the Nightingale riots against the griffon vulture
Despite the situation being calmer in the Austrian puppet state of Ukraine, Austria stubborness was causing problems in the country. In particular, the Austrian government was even starting a serie of treaties with the Ukranians, which allowed for the colonization of the country by the Austrians. This was not well seen by the locals, who wanted independence, or at least not to be dominated by the Austrians.
The mutual trust between Ukranians and Austrian communities had reached a low in the 1920s, and riots were seen frequently across many cities of Ukraine. In 1923, Ukraine witnessed eleven riots, in 1924 there were eighteen riots, in 1925 there were sixteen riots, and in 1926 there were thirty five riots. In the twelve months from May 1926 to April 1926, 40 more riots occurred across various cities. They mostly occurred in Donetsk, Mariupol' and Berdiansk. Nova Kachovka riots of August 1927 were the most deadly recorded riots in this series.
The earlier riot of 1923 was caused when the members of Tsentralna Rada took out a procession and passed in front of an Austrian settlement, playing loud nationalist music. The Austrian community objected, starting a skirmish between the two parties. These riots had a profound impact on Mykhailo Hrushevsky, prompting him to form, in 1925, the Natsionalʹna Patriotychna Orhanizatsiya (NPA), an Ukranian nationalist organization and one of the largest Ukranian organizations in the world. Adam Fagan in his book The Ukranian Nationalist Movement and Eastern Europe Politics records a testimony saying that Mykhailo led the Orthodox procession in 1927 and practicing other activities that were defined incorrect by the Austrians, but acceptable by the Ukranians. All these events acted as a catalyst building up the tensions between two communities.

An image showing Mykhaylo Hrushevskyy
On the morning of 4 September, the Ukranians took out a nationalist procession like every year, and passed in front of an Austrian settlement in the Obolonskyi District of Kiev. However, the Austrians, with the support of the local government forces, stopped the procession this time around and did not allow it to pass through the area. In the afternoon, when the Ukranians were resting after the morning procession, Austrian youths took out a procession shouting "Zum Ruhm des Kaisers", armed with weapons like daggers and knives.
Austrian colonists threw stones at the house of Mykhaylo, who was then away from Kiev. NPA cadres, sensing the mood of the procession, came out in the narrow lanes of the Obolonskyi District and reciprocated with lathis, further intensifying the riots. The Washington Post reported 22 had been killed and more than 100 injured in riots that continued for two days. The Ukranian government met difficulties in dealing with the riots, but made the fatal mistake to manly attacking Austrian manifestants. This decision, even if justified, was not welcomed by the Austrian government, which decided to threat the Ukranian puppet government to release all Austrian prisoners. In order to keep the peace, maintain order and keeping the locals calm, the puppet government decided to not accept Austrian demands. As a result, the Austrian government decided to send a punitive expedition in Ukraine to show who was in charge.

Ukranians in Kiev during the Kiev riots
Just like the first Ukranian uprising, the Romanian government decided to help the Austrians in their cause. Skimmerish between the Romanians and Ukranians occurred in Cherson, while the Austrians were busy in the Nord. While the Austrians and Romanians were busy fighting the Ukranians once again, the Russians decided to support the latter, not only in order to support their slavic brothers, but because Nasist Russia Lider Joseph Stalin had intention to test a new kind of warfare. But, in order to understand it, lets go back to WW1. During the Great War, a new kind of machinery was created. A shocking metallic beast who would become a big part of the following World conflict: the tank. The British were the first to create such creature, with the creation of the Mark I. It was basically an armoured trucktor with machine guns and some heavy guns. Today the concept would be considered a joke, but at the time this tank was one of the most feared machine in the Trenches, particurally at the Somme. However these tanks were never mass produced, and were only occasionally used. Stalin was fascinated with the concept, and he believed in the idea of mass wave attacks. However, he was not a moron: he knew that a wave attack, without good armaments, was a suicide. He himself commented: "I was always fascinated by wave attacks, but if I sent millions of soldiers armed only with sharpen sticks who can shoot from 100 m against machine guns, I might as well surrender". However, if the wave was bullet proof, then things started to change. As such, under the Nasist commando, a new kind of warfare was experimented: the Molniyenosnaya Voyna, or lightning war. The lightning war was a military tactic based on the combination of mechanization and telecommunications, aimed at developing rapid and overwhelming maneuvers designed to break down enemy lines at their weakest points and then proceed to the encirclement and destruction of isolated units, without giving them the chance to react, given the constant state of movement of the attacking units. The Russian high command proposed the idea to Stalin in 1925, to which he approved, and even desired to see how effective it could be. The Russians did not enter officially the conflict, but supported the Ukranians with equipment, funds and, most importantly, volunteer corps with the support of Russian tanks. The Tanks used in the conflict were the T-18 tank: a russian light tank armed with 6-16 mm armor, 37mm Model 28 guns with the support of 2 Fedorov Avtomat machine guns and a speed of 27 km/h, operating for 100 km first tested and mass produced in December 1926.

A Russian T-18 model 1927 tank
Austrian and Romanian forces did not operate tanks, and the few in ther possesion were old models used in the great war such as the Burstyn Motorgeschütz(there were some variants, but they were not enought nor strong enought to compete with Russian tanks). As such, the Austro-Romanian forces were quite surprised in the battle of Žytomyr, where a wall of 1000 tanks charged at them, decimating a 12.000 strong Austro-Romanian army and destroying 50 armoured vehicles, 10 of them being Burstyn Motorgeschütz tanks. The Austrian-Romanian high commando did not believe this: large losses in battles were not something the Austrians and the Romanians were unaware of, but in just one battle? Something was fishy. The truth was revealed in the battle of Romaniv: the Russians were supporting the Ukranians, but in a way that the Austrians were not used to. The Russians sent the tanks first, then the soldiers arrived later to give support. In the entire Žytomyr outblast campaign, similar tecniques were practiced by the Russians: a wave attack that the Austrians could not defeat and the destruction of a big chunck of the army. The Russian had managed to launch a kind of warfare that the Austrians and the Romanians were not ready to counter. However, a wave of T-18 tanks could not stop politics however: after the Austrians were completely kicked out of the Žytomyr outblast in a matter of days, the Germans intervened, threatening to enter at war if the Russians did not stop supporting the Ukranians. Joseph Stalin was more than willing to accept, in exchange of some advantages. The Austrians, Germans and Romanians decided to accept them in the treaty of Kiev. In it:
-Russia takes some Ukranian lands
-Austria takes some Ukranian lands
-Romania takes some Ukranian lands
-Ukraine is recognized completely independent
-Russia war debt is reduced

Easter Europe after the Ukraine uprising
The Ukraine uprising was a perfect event for the Nasist Russian regime. A sparkle of nationalism had started to evolve, and the Russians decided to develop themselves completely in the tank industry. They knew that such machine could become useful in the future. A new shining future as they saw it. The return of the Russian empire was in their grasp, the only thing they need to do was no play it carefully. In the meantime, Joseph Stalin decided, in order to further fortify a sense of nationalism, to rename Russia to Vtoraya imperiya, or Second empire, as a reference to the first Russian empire. This name in the future would be feared, hated, venerated and respected. Up to now, however, is already quite feared.
I hope you guys like this new update! Be sure to like(if you like it), comment(please comment so I can learn what your opinion is) and.....follow I guess.

 

[Antonio Ferrari]

The Tigrayans revolt: the Arabian camel rebels from the Mountain wolf
Despite the Italians strong influences in the various Arabian rebellions in the Ottoman empire, this did not mean that the Ottomans were not trying to give them a taste of their own medicine. Italy controll of Africa was way stronger than its beginning days, not only because their holdings were larger, but also because Italy focused more on colonization. Under the fascist period, in particular, it was heavely supported the concept of immigration in the various colonies, so much that the Italian colony of Nord Africa, composed by Tunisia, Tripolitania, Fezzan and Cyrenaica, become an integrated part of the Kingdom of Italy. However, resentment toward the Italians were still large. In Eritrea, Italy first colony, a wave of Italian immigration hit the region, to which the local population wasn't particurally happy. These people were the Tigrayans, the local population which inhabited the Horn of Africa, especially Ethiopia. The Ethiopians were the only African nations that were never colonized: thanks to the Russian support, they managed to maintain independence from the Italians. However, now that Russia seemed to be gone as a supporter, the Ethiopians were terrified by them. The only region that the Ethiopians did not have a border with the Italians was Kenya, which was owned by the Belgians, who were friendly toward the Italians. As such, the Ethiopians hoped to create rebellions in Eritrea, in order to weaken the Italians, with the help of the Ottomans. Mussolini knew of the possibility of a revolt in the regio and, as such, decided to fortify the region.
The natives had already tried to gain independence in the Massaua rebellion in 1920, but they suffered heavy casualties. Defying Italian rule, elements of the Tigrayans started a rebellion on southern Barentù on 5 November 1927, clashing with Italian troops near Alegada, resulting in some 20 casualties on both sides. Elements of the Tigrayans also raided Asmara in January 1928. On both occasions they looted camels and sheep. Though they raided brutally, they suffered heavy retaliations from the Regia Aeronautica (RA) and the colonial troops.
In January 1928, a second raid on Asmara resulted in the killing of an American missionary, Dr. Bilkert, who was traveling by car with another American, the philanthropist Charles Crane.

Eritrean rebels in Barentù
After the various attacks, Benito Mussolini ordered to send more troops in the region in order to counter the rebellion. One of the first major confrontation was the Battle of Cheren. It was the last major battle in which one side rode camels, as the Tigrayans emphasized radical conservatism and shunned technological modernization. The rebellious, but technologically mediocre, Tigrayans were decisively defeated by the Italian forces, which included machine-guns, artillery and cavalry. Woldeab Woldemariam, one of the three leaders of the rebellious Tigrayans, was wounded in the battle. According to Giovanni Messe Information Resource, his injury was "serious".

Italian artillery in Cheren
Despite the support of the Ethiopians, the Italians were just stronger. As a matter of fact, Italian general Giovanni Messe overestimated the rebels several times, believing that the rebels would receive strong Ottoman support. And that support came in the battle of Nacfa, where an Ottoman voluteer garrison, Artillery and equipment were deployed. However they were neither enough nor strong enough to stop the Italian army, which was victorious. A second major offensive occurred in Agordat. According to Giovanni Messe Information Resource, the battle, fought between Tigrayans raiders under command of Abdulkadir Kebire and the loyal Eritrean forces of the Tigre peoples, under the leadership of Ibrahim Sultan Ali, was "furious" and "many fell". Both party leaders, Abdulkadir of the Tigrayans and Ali of the Tigre fell in the battle. After this last battle, the rebel forces were ultimately defeated, but would still perform hit and run tatics against the Italians, with more support from the Ethiopians. One last desperate attempt occurred in Keru, but would only lead to disaster. In the battle, Ethiopian volunteer General Kassa Haile Darge was killed by an Italian artillery shell. The Italians were triumphant, and the colony was secured.

Italian colonial troops marching in rebel occupied territory
The Eritrean uprising was one of the greatest disaster in Ethiopia military history: unable to collaborate well with the local forces, they would face an Italian army that they never saw before. Ethiopian propaganda showed them as cowards and weak, and this was once proved by the Italo-Ethiopian war, where the Italians were defeated by the Ethiopians. But these days were long gone. Italy was now a world power: its army was comparable to the ones of Germany and America, putting them in a spot of dominance. The mountain wolf is done playing around, and he's ready to get serious, as plans for revenge seemed to slowly unfold against the Ethiopians.
I hope you guys like this new update! Be sure to like(if you like it), comment(please comment so I can learn what your opinion is) and.....follow I guess.

 

[Antonio Ferrari]

The March 15 Iberian incident: the wyvern versus the bull
While the Kingdom of Iberia was having issues in Africa, several problems were also present in Portugal. The name "Kingdom of Iberia" was purely formal, as the Spanish government was the one truly controlling the nation, with little to no regard to the Portughese local population. This caused problems with the Portugheses, that, despite having seats in the Spanish parliament, they still holded limited power. Nationalist organizations, such as the Portughese Nationalist Party, started to appear and become particurally popular in regions with a Portughese majority, causing problems with the Spanish government, which started to send more men in the regions in order to maintain order.

Spanish forces(alongside two WW1 veterans) marching in Coimbra to inspect an alley, in which members of the PNP(Partido Nacionalista Português or Portuguese Nationalist Party) seemed to reside
Although the Portuguese Nationalist Party had been outlawed and forced underground immediately after its foundation in 1922, it continued to gather strength and membership in the volatile social and economic climate of Spanish controlled Portugal in the 1920s. During the February 1928 General Election, the Portuguese Nationalist Party was very visible in its support of the legal socialist and labor-oriented political parties. Alarmed by gains these parties made in the areas controlled by Portugal prior to the Great War, the conservative government of Prime Minister Miguel Primo de Rivera (which had retained its majority by only one seat) evoked the provisions of the 1925 Peace Preservation Laws and ordered the mass arrest of known communists, suspected communist sympathizers and, most importantly, members of the Portuguese Nationalist Party. The arrests occurred throughout the regions of Portugal, and a total of 1652 people were apprehended. Tensions between the Spanish government and Portuguese nationalist grew bigger and bigger, and the Portuguese were even planning for revolution. One of these "revolutionaries" was António de Oliveira Salazar, a fervent nationalist.

Image showing revolutionary Antonio Oliveira de Salazar
About 500 of those arrested were eventually prosecuted, in a series of open trials held by the Tribunal Supremo starting from 15 June 1928, with sentencing on 2 July 1928. These public trials were carefully staged to publicize the inner workings of the secretive Portuguese Nationalist Party, and with its connections with labor movement and other left-wing political parties revealed, the government was able to order the dissolution of the Partido Trabalhista Português (Labor Portuguese Party), the Liga da Juventude Proletária de Todos os Portugueses (All Portuguese Proletarian Youth League) and the Conselho dos sindicatos portugueses (Council of Portuguese Unions). The defendants in the trials were all found guilty and sentenced to stiff jail terms; however, those who recanted their nationalist and communist ideology were then pardoned or given much reduced terms. This was the beginning of the new Iberian policy designed to reintegrate former leftists into mainstream society. Perhaps more importantly, as a consequence of these trials, Prime Minister Rivera was able to pass legislation which added the provision for the death penalty to the already presented Peace Preservation Laws. Writer Jean Giono later wrote March 15, 1928 based on this incident.

A sad image showing Portuguese wives visiting members of the Portuguese Nationalist Party in prison. Don't worry loves, half of them will be released shortly after
A small revolution occurred shortly after the members of the PNP were arrested in Lisboa, but was quickly crushed before it could expand further in the region. However, after that, the Spanish government decided to take action and allowed for the creation of a true dual parliament between Spain and Portugal. The first leader of the Portuguese parliament was none other than Antonio Oliveira de Salazar, which decided to leave behind the possibility of a Portuguese revolution in exchange of a somewhat of independence. While he was considered a traitor by some in the first weeks of rule, he then would be forgiven for his efforts to give autonomy to Portugal. He would be well remembered also by the Spanish, because thanks to him, revolution was avoided and peace was reached. Truly, something to be happy for, as the Iberians had little to no intention to go in another war for a while. What matters now is that there is peace. Independence can be gained another day. Or can it?
I hope you guys like this new update! Be sure to like(if you like it), comment(please comment so I can learn what your opinion is) and.....follow I guess.

 

[Antonio Ferrari]

The Bissau incident: the African elephant uprising against the bull
After the creation of a true functioning Portuguese parliament in the Iberian kingdom, problems with mainland Portugal were quickly over, as the locals accepted the government decision. As a matter of fact, Portugal was even granted high autonomy, similar to the one of Hungary in the Austro-Hungarian empire, which benefitted both the Portuguese and the Spanish. However, problems in Africa weren't over yet. In the region of Guinea-Bissau, the balanta people were planning a massive revolt to obtain independence from the Iberians. However, in order to start the plans, they were willing to collaborate with Portuguese rebels. While in the continent the Spanish decision was well known and celebrated in Lisboa, in the ex-portuguese colony, many rebels who went in exile did not know of the government decision, and still had plans for waging a revolt against the Spanish. A revolt occurred in the interior of the colony which quicly reached the coast.

A Balanta warrior
During the Balanta rebellion, troops of the Balantan Rebel Army and the Portuguese Rebel Army attacked several Portuguese consulates and settlements alongside the Spanish ones. All of them were unaware of the fact that now Portugal had a seat in the Iberian councill, and Portugal rappresentator Salazar even sent a radio broadcast communicating the fact to the Portuguese rebels in order to have their support against the Balantan rebels. However the Portuguese considered the words of Salazar as nothing but pro Iberian propaganda, and kept fighting. That however quickly changed as Iberian army leaded by José Vicente de Freitas captured a Portuguese rebel group and informed them of the events of July. After that, he sought to have a meeting with the Portuguese rebel army leader, Tomás António Garcia Rosado, who went in exile after the Great War but returned in Guinea Bissau in order to give support to the Portuguese rebel army. He was also invited to have talks with the Iberian king Alfonso, who comunicated and confirmed the Spanish decision of granting autonomy to Portugal. He even met Salazar, and some voices even said that they even become close friends. As a result, when he returned in Africa, he communicated to the members of the Portuguese rebel army that the Spanish were no longer the true enemy of Portugual. As a matter of fact, the members of the Portuguese rebel army were invited to participate against the Balantan rebellion, to which they accepted(clashes between the Portuguese and the Balantan occured some time before).

General Tomás António Garcia Rosado
When the Portuguese swiched side on April 27, Balantan commander Constantino Teixeira moved troops from Buba into Bissau. Portuguese troops under Paulo Bénard Guedes withdrew from the city on April 30, and the ex rebel troops—also acting contrary to Tomás António Garcia Rosado orders and unaware of the fact that the Balantan were now the enemy—moved in. Matters remained tense as the Balantan took up positions, but the situation remained reasonably quiet and amicable until a minor clash occurred near the home of a Portuguese colonist family on May 3, resulting in the deaths of 12 Portuguese civilians. Gen. Constantino and his fellow generals, perhaps motivated by the desire for action, felt that they needed to take action and take the city.
On May 7 Gen. Constantino issued a five-point set of demands so onerous that the Portuguese would have no choice but to refuse, with a 12-hour deadline. He refused to release the negotiators, including Paolo and 16 others in his team. When General Paolo protested in Balantanese, his nose, ears, and tongue were cut off, and his eyes were gouged out before he was executed. Sixteen other members of his negotiation team were also stripped naked, whipped, dragged to the back lawn and slaughtered by stolen machine guns on the same day. This become known as the Bissau tragedy. After that, the Balantan opened an offense in order to take the city, which was protected by the Portuguese rebels. They fought fiercely, and would be later saved by Iberian colonial troops, which arrived to relieve the situation.

Portuguese colonial troops inspecting dead ex Portuguese rebel soldiers killed by the Balantan in the Bissau siege
After the Bissau siege, the rest of the Portuguese rebel army swiched side in favour of the Iberians to counter the Balantans, and managed to obtain victory over them. The 20's were problematic years for the Iberians: they caused large economic difficulties, but the Iberians always managed to recover from them. However, it was obvious that the Iberians need to change some politics in order to create some sort of stability in Africa, the bloodiest Iberian holding.
I hope you guys like this new update! Be sure to like(if you like it), comment(please comment so I can learn what your opinion is) and.....follow I guess.

 

[Antonio Ferrari]

The Phnom Penh incident: the lion attempt on the elphant life
After the Cambodian massacre and Siamese strong anti-communist laws, relations between the UBSR, most specifically the IPSR(Indo-Pakistanian Socialist Republic) and the Kingdom of Siam started to deteriorate. Economic competition between the two were strong, similar in level to the ones of the Ottoman empire and the Kingdom of Italy. Border conflicts between the Indian Red Army and the Siamese royal army were common and, althought not serious, they were not well seen by King Rama VII, who hoped to find a peaceful solution rather than another war. However, before that could happen, he needed to visit Cambodia once again, as a communist small uprising occurred. Althought not large, the Siamese feared that such revolt could receive the support from the UBSR, which still had interests in South East Asia. Before that, he tried to improve relations with the United States and the Netherlands, allowing both countries open access to the trade, investment and economic opportunities in Siam, althought remaining independent from them and still being aligned to the Central Powers. These decisions were not well seen by the UBSR, who would see an even stronger Siam on their border. As such, they decided it was time to get rid of Rama VII, hoping to create a favourable envrionment for a Communist revolution.

King Prajadhipok of Siam Royal Portait
Rama VII left Poipet to go to Phnom Penh by train on the night of June 3, 1928. The train traveled along the with Phnom Penh Railway, a route that was heavily patrolled by his own troops. The only location along the railway that was not under Rama full control was near on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, in order to meet with the army in Cambodia.
Col. Francis Ingall, a junior officer in the Indian Red Army, believed that the assassination of Rama VII would be the most expeditious way of installing a new leader more amenable to British demands, and planned an operation without direct orders from London. His subordinate, Hira Lal Atal, was in charge of executing the plan. The bomb itself was planted on the bridge by Ghulam Rasul Raja. When Rama train passed the bridge at 5:23 a.m. on June 4, the bomb exploded. Several of Rama's officials died immediately. Rama VII, who wasn't as near as the explosion as many other commanders, managed to survive, althought heavely injured in a leg and with a piece of metal stuck in the abdomen. He was rushed to an hospital in Phnom Penh, where he was quickly stabilize. It seemed like the king would be able to see another day alive.

Phnom Penh Railway shortly after the explosion
At the time of the assasination attempt the British were hoping to instaurate a Communist regime under the command of Wu Wei Sai. However, the actual assassination attempt apparently took even the Indian Red Army leadership off guard, as troops were not mobilized and the Communists did not know how to repond the assasination attempt. Instead, the incident was soundly condemned by the international community and by both military and civilian authorities in London itself. Many leaders of the Central Powers, such as Emperor Hirohito, Kaiser Wilhelm and Benito Mussolini sent telegrams to the Siamese, questioning about the King's health, which was confirmed as stable at the moment, but would need time to recover completely. Arthur Horner, leader of the UBRS, condemned the action, and said that the British were not involved in such actions. However the International community had an harsh time believing it, and althought they did not enter at war with the British, preparations were made. Conflict was avoided 1 week after Rama recovery, as he was now able to walk partially, but needed a pair of crutches in order to walk. Emperor Hirohito offered the creation of a special Japanese unit, called the Asiatic International Corp(Ajiaintānashonarukōporēshon), which would operate in the majority of Asia and the Pacific in order to protect Central Powers interests in the region. The very first Ajiaintānashonarukōporēshon was sent in Cambodia, which was suspected as an area of British interventions. They would quickly spread in Italian China, the Shaodong Peninsula and in the various Germans possessions in the Pacific. The various Central Powers accepted, as they saw that the Japanese were keen to keep their holding in Asia, as they were good starting grounds for Japanese economic expansion. Althought a big chunck of the Pacific and Asia was under foreign controll, Japan dream basically came true: an Asia under the defence of the Japanese.

Members of the Ajiaintānashonarukōporēshon marching in Phnom Penh. This was not a Japanese military occupation, as the majority of the armed forces was made by the local Siamese Royal Army
I hope you guys like this new update! Be sure to like(if you like it), comment(please comment so I can learn what your opinion is) and.....follow I guess.