The Empire of Friedrich III and the rise of Germany (my first TL)

[bm79]

Wow. An eight-years War with France, Russia, and Japan laid prostrate; with three of the five major Central Powers nuclear-armed; and the US only being able to claim an equal standing at best with Britain and Germany. Whoa...

Here's hoping the CPs don't go all Versailles on the Axis. I think I've already said this, but even if France loses everything else, they should keep Algeria (at least the northern coastal area). It was considered by the French as being as much a part of the Métropole as Alsace, and heavily populated by French settlers. Besides, it'd be better for Germany to let the Frogs get bogged down in the inevitable struggle against the Arab independence movement than to take over and then have to fight both the Arabs and the pieds noirs as well...

 

[Ace Venom]

I've lurked through this whole timeline and I have to say it's well thought out. Like the previous poster, I have to agree that going all Versailles on the Axis is a bad idea. That's too kind of a peace. France should be completely occupied and Russia should end up losing Central Asia and other Republics they never lost historically after the fall of the Soviet Union. It's pretty obvious that Japan is going to be fully occupied and occupation zones would be more realistic in this scenario. I'm sure China wants a piece of this action.

 

[Onkel Willie]

I was planning to be lenient on the Axis powers. The next chapters will also detail about the space race between Germany and the US, the arms race, several supranational organisations and the rise of China.

 

[Ace Venom]

I was planning to be lenient on the Axis powers.

Well that should be an interesting result.

 

[Onkel Willie]

I just don't want to see another Hitler like figure rise to power in any of those countries and neither do the people living ITTL.

Edit: I meant relatively lenient. The Axis will be punished but not to such an extent that resentment can grow. Eventually they will become respected members of the international community like OTL's Germany is today.

 

[Onkel Willie]

Here's another update. This is a shorter one.

Chapter 26​

The war was finally over which meant that Central Powers diplomats had a lot of work to do. Both France and Italy had already surrendered in 1944 which meant that were dealt with immediately. Both Britain and Germany were bent on preventing France from becoming a threat ever again. Its colonies had already been divided among the Germans, British and Ottomans during the conference of Constanca so that matter had already been taken care of. One last change was made by the British who were stuck with millions of unhappy French settlers, Arabs and pied noirs. They returned the Algerian coast to France. They had taken it to prevent both the Germans and Ottomans form becoming too big a force in the Mediterranean. This had the same effect and left the French stuck with the unruly Arabs and pied noirs. Now they would get bogged down in fighting them. France itself was in turmoil. Many cities had been reduced to rubble, society had collapsed and food supplies were dwindling. Only the presence of British, American and German occupational forces and food provided by them kept the country from falling into anarchy. France had surrendered on June 3rd 1944. During the weeks that followed, many opponents of Petain’s regime who had fled France after his rise to power, returned and founded the Fourth Republic. Italy was in a slightly better position to negotiate since it had switched sides during the war and the military junta was able to control Italy on its own. Two peace treaties were made; one for France and another one for Italy.
The French saw the treaty of Geneva imposed on their country. Its contents were the following:

· France must recognize the loss of its colonies except for the coast of Algeria.
· France is to be fully demilitarized.
· France may not manufacture, import or export weapons of mass destruction.
· France will be divided into three occupational zones and one neutral zone.
· These zones will remain under surveillance of the occupational forces. Civilian administration will be handed over to France when a semblance of order is reached.
· Northern France will be put under German control. The French west coast will be under British control and the French south and Algeria will be given to the Americans. Central France and Paris will become a neutral zone under control of the French government. Internal affairs will be left to the French.

The treaty was humiliating but France was crippled and the French were left no other choice but to sign the treaty. Eventually foreign forces would leave and France would make a comeback in some form. In 1955 the French army was reinstituted after some heated debates. The Germans were very much against it as France was right next door for them. It took the Americans and British a lot of effort to convince the Germans to allow this to happen especially since relations between Germany on one side and Britain and America on the other, had deteriorated a lot by then. After months of bickering the Germans together with the Americans and British ratified the treaty of Paris. There were some limitations though. The French navy was limited to one fifth of the tonnage of the Royal Navy and the French were not allowed to posses battleships and aircraft carriers. Secondly, conscription was forbidden. Instead the French army was to remain a force based on volunteers only and it was limited to 225.000 men. This was good for the French in the long term as their army would become highly trained and professional. Despite its small size the French army today is among the best in the world because of its quality. Thirdly, the French air force was not allowed to posses a strategic bomber force. Foreign military bases in France would remain in place for a long time though. The British and Americans pulled back their troops in 1969 and 1965 respectively. The Germans were slightly more paranoid and would maintain their bases in northern France up to 1989.

The Italians were treated more leniently as they had switched sides. Many of their war criminals escaped persecution because of their part in the junta. This is an example of the lenient way they were treated. The treaty of Bolzano was imposed on them. Its contents were the following:

• Italy’s will lose its colonies.
• The current administration must organize free democratic elections within one year.
• Mussolini and other war criminals are to be turned over to Central Powers custody so they can stand trial except for those who have been exempt because of their participation in the coup.
• Italy may not station military forces within 50 kilometres of its border with the Federal Empire of Austria.
• Italy must turn over its existing arsenals of chemical and biological weapons and may not produce, import or export weapons of mass destruction.
• Italy must cede Venice to the Federal Empire of Austria.

Many Italians had heard of how harsh the French had been treated and were amazed about the surprisingly lenient terms the Central Powers granted them. The military junta agreed and signed the treaty.
Elections were organized in 1945 for the first time since 1921 and like those in France these were a huge backlash for any party on the right side of the political spectrum. This was because the overthrown regimes in both countries had staunch rightwing ideologies. Therefore these elections were a dramatic shift from left to right. This would become more balanced in the future. The social democrats got into the parliaments of both countries in landslide victories. In France the Parti Socialiste got 47% of votes and formed a coalition with the social liberals which gave them a comfortable majority. Catholic and other more conservative party hadn’t lost so badly in their entire history. In Italy the Partito Socialista gained 38% of votes and formed a coalition with the communists of the Partito Comunista d’Italia, PCI, and a few smaller parties from the centre of the political spectrum such as the social liberals. This happened on a smaller scale in other European countries as well. The European political arena in the fifties would be dominated by the social democrats who back then laid the foundations for the welfare state from which many Europeans still benefit. In Italy the monarchy was nearly abolished by the Italian government. The army however threatened to stage a coup if a referendum wasn’t organized. A referendum was organized. Army leaders agreed to stage a coup anyway if a majority voted ‘yes’ to the abolishment of the monarchy. Fortunately a slight majority of votes was cast in favour of preservation of the monarchy. After that the Italian government severely cut their defence budget to weaken the army.

Russia had surrendered about a year after France and Italy on August 1st 1945. Both the Austrians and Ottomans wanted to see the Russians burn since they considered Russia their arch nemesis. Some of the more radical groups in their governments came up with the so called Wasteland Plan. Their plans was to utterly destroy Russia with nuclear weapons and to reduce what was left to a strictly agrarian society of docile peasants. Any emerging industry would systematically be bombed into oblivion. The plan was eventually rejected and cooler heads prevailed. The plan was ultimately thwarted when emperor Wilhelm III announced that he wouldn’t allow Germany’s nuclear arsenal to be abused in such a way. The peace treaty was called the treaty of St Petersburg which Czar Michael II personally signed. Its contents were the following:

· Russia is to recognize the Byelorussian Republic, the Ukrainian National Republic, the kingdom of Georgia and the Republic of Armenia.
· The Russian army is limited to 1.2 million men which includes reservists and paramilitary forces.
· Russian war criminals are to be turned over so that they may stand trial.
· Russia may not produce, import or export weapons of mass destruction.
· Russia must transfer all of its data regarding their atomic bomb program to the Central Powers.
· Russia must recognize Chinese sovereignty over Mongolia.
· Russia must lend its fullest cooperation in finding Roman Ungern von Sternberg.
· Russia must give all Jews in their country an indemnification and they must pay for the move of any Jews who wish to leave Russia.

Michael looked at the treaty and was reluctant to sign it but he was left no other choice. Secondly, the treaty could have been worse. At least Russia didn’t get divided into occupational zones like France had been and like Japan would be. The Central Powers were lenient on purpose as their diplomats and heads of state alike had witnessed the rise of Ungern von Sternberg and fascism and didn’t want to give the Russians a reason to elect another such dictator. Russia and the other Axis powers should be accepted into the international community.

Now, like other countries, Russia started to rebuild under Michael’s leadership. Russia was weak and had been left devastated by the war and three of its cities were erased from the face of the earth by nuclear weapons. Within a few years the full extent of Siberian oilfields was discovered which paved the way for Russia’s emergence as an economic giant which would compete fiercely for markets all over the worlds with the German block, the Americans and the Asian block. Like in the rest of war torn Europe, leftwing parties prevailed in the first free elections in two decades. Unlike in France and Italy, Russian communists didn’t get any seats in parliament as many still remembered what they had done during the civil war. Moreover, the communist party was suspected of having ties with Stalinist terrorist groups who were becoming active again. The Russian communist party as of today is still a marginal party with no seats in the Duma. This forced the social democrats to form a coalition with unusual allies. A government was formed out of social democrats, Christian democrats and liberals which gave the government a comfortable majority in parliament but friction soon arose with the more progressive social democrats and liberals on one side and the more conservative Christian democrats backed by the monarchists on the other. There were also some differences of opinion between the social democrats and liberals. They were mostly allies but they disagreed about what was the best way to rebuild the country. The liberals as always wanted to lower taxes and follow a laissez faire course. They considered economic recovery paramount above all else. There were various degrees of course. Some liberals saw the mess their country was in and at least partially agreed with what the social democrats proposed. The social democrats wanted to raise taxes for the rich to support the poor and to gather money for so called state guided economic recovery plans and for a marginal welfare state which could be expanded upon in the future. Czar Michael did what Julius Caesar had once done in Gaul. He played out the various factions in his government. In the meantime he combined the ideas of these parties for Russia’s recovery and implemented them. It was a sublime example of ‘divide and conquer’. He also made sure that his son Georgy who have at least some power unlike the monarchs of Italy, Japan and Britain for example.

The Empire of Japan was the last country to surrender to the Central Powers. The armistice was signed on April 4th 1946. Japan had fought the hardest of all Axis powers and was punished accordingly with the treaty of Seoul. For the Japanese it was even more a humiliation because the treaty was signed in the capital of their former colony, Korea. The convoy of Japanese diplomats was booed for the entire route to the location were the treaty was signed. Once there, some unfriendly Korean security guards searched them and weren’t very soft in their methods. After that they had to face some very pissed off Chinese diplomats. American, British, and German diplomats were also present. The Japanese could barely look them in the eye. The contents of the peace treaty were the following:

· Japan is to be completely demilitarized.
· Japan will be divided into an American, a German a British and a Chinese occupational zone.
· Japanese war criminals are to be brought to justice.
· Japan may not procure weapons of mass destruction in any way.
· Japan must pay $20 billion worth of indemnities mostly to China.
· Japan must become a constitutional monarchy.
· Japan must cede the Ryukhu Islands to China.
· Japan must recognize that Formosa as territory of the Republic of China.

For the Japanese this was a major setback as they were well on their to becoming a superpower until they started losing the war. On the bright side, the military’s influence was removed from their government and a true democracy was established in Japan and a new constitution was drafted which adhered to pacifism. The new government completely dropped any conservative and militarist elements and went down the progressive path which lead to their come back as an economic superpower. This was hampered by the Chinese who had systematically pillaged their zone of any economic value thereby destroying the economy in that area. They were very unfriendly toward the population as well. In the first years rape was common until Chinese soldiers were forbidden to leave their bases. Many soldiers viewed this as payback for what had been done to their country. Conflicts between the population and the soldiers over this were common during that period as well. Some remnants of the Japanese military were therefore able to fight a low level guerrilla war which wasn’t quelled until the early sixties. Support of the Japanese people made things much easier for them. Western Shikoku and Kyushu which formed the Chinese occupational zone lagged behind economically on the rest of the country well into the eighties because of this and were a drain on the country which impeded economic growth. Japan was too big of a country to remain behind for long though. In spite of this trouble Japan would become a strong economic power.

Like France, Japan would eventually be allowed to form armed forces again. These were formed in 1976. This was quite late which was mainly due to Chinese attempts to stall the process. Like the armed forces of France they were bound to certain rules. It was to be a volunteer force of no more than 225.000 men in total. Because of this the Japanese army would remain small but today is a very professional army. Japan was also not allowed to posses aircraft carriers, battleships and strategic bombers and the Japanese navy was limited to one sixth of the tonnage of the United States Navy. These forces together were called the Japanese Self Defence Forces. Like France, Japan would also see the withdrawal of foreign soldiers eventually. The British, Germans and Americans left in 1979, 1981 and 1986 respectively. The Chinese were not so eager to leave as they still did not trust the Japanese. It was quite the opposite. They resented and even hated them. The last Chinese forces left Japan in 1995 during a détente in Sino-Japanese relations. The future looked bright for the world.

 

[Neroon]

You mention Korea in the update, but it's not mentioned in the peace treaty with Japan. I guess it became independent, but the Chinese would probably try to turn it into a vassal soon. Any provisions against that, that the others insisted on?

 

[bm79]

Almost sounds like you're planning on wrapping things up here pretty soon...

 

[Onkel Willie]

Don't worry. The next chapter is about the fifties and I'm planning on continuing until 2008.

You mention Korea in the update, but it's not mentioned in the peace treaty with Japan. I guess it became independent, but the Chinese would probably try to turn it into a vassal soon. Any provisions against that, that the others insisted on?

Korea indeed became independent. It's mentioned in chapter 25. The Central Powers don't give rat's ass about Korea since the Japanese have been systematically looting it from everything of value for decades. This means it becomes a Chinese vassal. Here's chapter 27.

Chapter 27​

The future would be good although it didn’t seem that way yet in 1946. The economies of Europe were in dire straits after eight years of armed conflict. Many economies were geared to war and had to switch from a war economy to a peace time economy which needless to say was problematic. Also many millions of soldiers came back home and were demobilized. When they arrived home they found that their jobs had been taken by other people. Like one can imagine these soldiers were very dissatisfied and caused a shift in politics. Elections in Germany had been postponed during the war and were held again in 1945. These were won by the social democrat SPD. They formed a coalition with the left-liberal progressives of the German Democratic Party and ousted the former ruling parties, the German Conservative Party and the Centre Party. They had ruled for over three decades. They had been in charge since the ascension to the throne of emperor Wilhelm II in 1914. Those parties mainly used their pre-war successes such as the good economy and Germany’s rise to super power status as election propaganda. This did not work. Their rule had seen little change in Germany. The Germans wanted change, they wanted work, social security and certainty about what to expect. The liberals mainly used their legacy of Friedrich III’s era. Many still remembered these good times. Several steps were taken to improve the situation of the German people such as wealth distribution and higher taxes for the richer members of society and some form of social security for those who were unemployed such as demobilized soldiers.

To further improve the economies of Europe, the Germans tried to promote international cooperation. They had created a very large sphere influence in eastern Europe. In fact Germany dominated the European mainland. France, Italy and Russia could possibly have been counterweight if they had worked together. They had been defeated however and were in no position to spread their influence anywhere. A customs union was founded in 1947. This union was a free trade area with a common external trade policy and a common external tariff. This block was a counterweight against the United States which were becoming stronger and stronger. The American economy was still strong and American investments in Europe were increasing which threatened local businesses. Many larger companies in Europe were also in trouble. This customs union was also protectionist. Import quotas were created which inhibited imports from outside the union and diminished consumer choice. This stimulated the industries of the members of the customs union. Slowly but surely the economies of Germany and its vassals were growing. In 1949 this customs union became a military alliance as well with the signing of the treaty of Berlin. This treaty was the foundation for the newly founded Central European Defence and Economic Pact also known as CEDEP or simply as the German block. As a side effect the Germany also got more control over its vassals who became economically dependent on Germany which was the strongest of them all especially after the German mark became the sole currency of this union in 1953. Fortunately the liberal-social democrat German government treated them well. Militarily these countries became more dependent on Germany as well since Germany became the sole arms supplier to these nations and because all of them were under Germany’s nuclear umbrella. The founding members of the pact were: Germany, the Federal Empire of Austria, Poland, Finland, Belarus, Ukraine, Lithuania and the Baltic Archduchy. In years to come many more countries would join this organization. It was more beneficial to be in this organization than to remain out of it. Germany was the undisputed master of Europe.

Britain was now faced with a Europe mostly unified under German hegemony. There worst nightmare had come true. They had fought with the Germans to prevent a fascist hegemony. This wasn’t much better in the opinion of Britain’s government. They had tried to prevent one single power from becoming all powerful on the mainland for centuries. They had fought the Dutch, the Spanish, Napoleonic France, Russia during the Crimean War and now the fascists. Now Germany recreated Napoleon’s old Continental System. Relations between Germany and Britain cooled down until they were chilly at best. In the British government two major factions arose. There were those who preferred Splendid Isolation. Another faction advocated increased cooperation with the Americans and the foundation of a counter block. Ultimately the latter faction prevailed. They signed the Anglo-American cooperation treaty in 1950 thereby formalizing what already was in existence between the two, an economic and military alliance. As trade barriers were created on mainland Europe, Britain set out to find new trade partners and found one in the United States.

America provided the British with help for economic recovery. Britain in turn provided a market for American products and American companies and a forward base close to Germany. In a secret protocol in the treaty the British agreed to allow the Americans to establish military bases and a strategic nuclear armed bomber force on British soil. The British also established a European block of their own. It was called the European Trade and Defence Cooperation Organization more commonly known as the ETDCO. It was founded in 1952 and its founding members were Britain, Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain, Portugal, Italy, France and Iceland. As Germany was the new enemy, old enemies became new friends. Later it would expand to include non-European members such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand and some of Britain’s former colonies as well. This was out of sheer necessity because the CEDEP had a huge numerical advantage. Germany alone has over 100 million inhabitants by today. The CEDEP also was much more powerful economically than the ETDCO. Both France and Italy were weakened because of the war and needed a lot of work to regain their economic power. Spain which was still under the fascist rule of De Rivera and his Falange party on the other hand was a rising star. De Rivera used the same methods Ungern von Sternberg had used to make pre-war Russia strong again. Both Portugal and Spain were getting more and more tourists as time passed which further fuelled their economies. The Americans in the meantime proceeded with turning South America into their backyard thereby creating yet another new power block. It would be closely aligned to the ETDCO.

An arms race also started between the super powers. Germany had detonated the world’s first atomic bomb in 1945 and Britain had detonated its first bomb a few days later. America’s first test, Trinity, had been a failure. In January 1946 the Americans managed to detonate a successful implosion type weapon called Unity. It had a blast yield of roughly 25 kilotons which made it slightly stronger than the first tests of Germany and Britain. The Americans, British and Germans started to produce more and more nuclear weapons and stronger ones too. A build up of conventional military forces also took place. Most countries in Europe had conscription. Millions were drafted and more tanks, jets, aircraft carriers and strategic bombers were built. Though formally friends, Britain and Germany were enemies in reality. Emperor Wilhelm III was one of the most powerful men in the world. The armies of Germany’s vassal states also increased in size rapidly. Very soon the CEDEP was one of the most militarized power blocks in the world.

And then something happened which would make Germany more powerful than all others. It would set Germany apart from the other super powers. Leo Szilard and his team were double checking all equipment. When the emperor had been told about a new even more powerful weapon, he ordered it to be constructed immediately. This would make Germany a hyper power. Germany, boosted by the economic power of its vassals, could easily afford this new super weapon. The scientists were in a bunker located somewhere in the desert of German Southeast Africa. This was to become Germany’s primary test site for the next decade or three. Today it is still uninhabitable because of the intense radiation. It isn’t very pretty there either since the landscape looks like a lunar landscape because of all of the craters. Nature on the other hand has flourished there since testing there stopped in the late eighties. Scientists are still struggling to find an explanation for this. Some have carefully suggested that radiation may have positive effects on the long term. Wildlife is abundant and for short periods of time scientists can go in for research. On February 17th 1951 this test site saw the detonation of the world’s first boosted fusion weapon more commonly known as the hydrogen bomb or H-bomb. The device was not suitable for use as a thermonuclear weapon because it was too large. This was mainly due to its fuel which consisted of cryogenic liquid deuterium-tritium. Germany’s first true thermonuclear weapon would be tested about two years later. It was a staged fusion bomb of the Teller-Ulam design. It was named after its two primary designers. Once again the scientists were astonished. The blast was huge and could be seen hundreds of kilometres away. Everyone who saw it was filled with awe. Many of the scientists had a sense of fear for their own creation. Ulam reportedly said ‘I am the destroyer of worlds.’ It had an estimated yield of 15 megatons and was the most powerful weapon in the world. The surface was stripped clean of vegetation for miles away. A blast crater of two kilometres wide and sixty metres deep was the result. The mushroom cloud reached an altitude of 40 kilometres in a matter of minutes. The top of the mushroom cloud eventually spread out to about 180 kilometres in width and the stem was about 40 kilometres wide. Irradiated debris fell as far as 50 kilometres away. There was a lot of radiation as 70% of the bomb’s power came from fast fission of the uranium tamper instead of fusion. Germany could now wield destructive power beyond anyone’s imagination. Teller who was in Berlin at the time could measure the blast’s force with a seismograph. It was a boy.

This didn’t go unnoticed as seismographs in the capitals of the world’s great powers, Beijing, Washington, London, Constantinople and so on sensed this blast. President Macarthur ordered his scientists to immediately step up their efforts to create an American hydrogen bomb. The Americans tested their first hydrogen bomb on December 9th 1952. It was named Ivy Mike and had a yield of roughly 10 to 12 megatons which made it weaker than Germany’s bomb. The British in the meantime started to do research into hydrogen bombs as well but would become an increasingly less important country in the cold war between the United States and Germany. Britain detonated its first hydrogen bomb in 1957. It was a 3.3 megaton device, which was deployable unlike the first hydrogen bombs of the US and Germany. When the Ottoman sultan Shehzade I who had succeeded his father Abdülmecid II in 1944 heard, he ordered the development of the Ottoman Empire’s own atomic bomb program. In Beijing Chiang Kai-Shek ordered his scientists to speed up their efforts to build an atomic bomb as well. The program had started in 1949 but not a lot of progress had been made as China had limited funds and resources. Most of the work that had been done consisted of purely theoretical stuff such as calculations which were based on Russian data which had fallen into Chinese hands during the war. This was because China was still in the process of rebuilding. Prior to the war a large industrial base and a decent infrastructure had been built with German help. The war however had destroyed a lot of that and caused the deaths of over 20 million. This had to be rebuilt. The Chinese people, inspired by nationalist propaganda, had already rebuilt a lot but they weren’t finished yet. An area three times the size of France had to be rebuilt. It would be at least another decade before China would detonate its first atomic bomb. China was doing other things though which it did have the funding for.

Germany tested its first deployable thermonuclear device two years later in 1953. Its was designed a 4 megaton weapon but was scaled down to 2.2 megatons for the live test. This weapon combined with Germany’s strategic bomber force enabled the Germans to inflict unseen devastation anywhere they wanted to. America and Britain quickly caught up of course as they couldn’t afford to let Germany have the monopoly on these weapons. The Americans started experimenting with boosted fission devices as development of their first deployable hydrogen bomb was underway. Throughout 1951, 1952, 1953 and 1954 they built increasingly stronger fission bombs ranging from 100 to an amazing 550 kilotons. In 1954 the Americans tested their first deployable hydrogen bomb which had a yield of 3.3 megatons. Britain got hydrogen bombs in 1957.

China was supporting independence movements in Asia. After the war the British and Germans had returned to their colonies expecting that they could just barge in and that things would continue like before the war and that the natives would accept this. They were gravely mistaken. Japan might have lost but they had proven that Asians were equal to Europeans. The Japanese had defeated the colonial powers on numerous occasions. The first of these independence movements sprang up in India. The Indian National Congress and other political organizations with Gandhi and Nehru as their figureheads organized massive campaigns of civil disobedience and peaceful mass protests. They also tried to undermine Britain’s economic hegemony in India. They wore home made clothes to weaken the textile industry and got their salt from the sea in protest against the British monopoly for example. Pressure on the British increased and they left in 1947. India remained together mainly because of the Chinese. They’d rather not see fragmentation and so the Indian Confederation was founded. The Muslim minority gained a great deal of autonomy which kept them satisfied. The British economy had been crippled by the war and Britain was in no position to get embroiled in a long colonial war. They left Burma a year later in 1948 after which the Republic of Burma was established. Both nations joined the British Commonwealth or Commonwealth of Nations as it would become known in the future. In German-Indochina and the Philippines things went less smoothly as the Germans didn’t tolerate disobedience in any form. Zero tolerance was the norm. Germany at the time had the best colonial educational system of the world. The Dutch, French, Portuguese and British hadn’t bothered to educate their colonial subjects. In Germany’s colonies on average 70% of the population was more or less literate. This had upsides and downsides. In Germany’s colonies an intellectual an economic elite had formed under the German bureaucracy which consisted of tribe heads, members of important families and others who had managed to get higher education and important posts in the German colonial administration. They were very much aware of their social position and didn’t want to be second rate citizens anymore. They were less prone to revolts which was the upside. Peaceful protest marches were organized in which they demanded more autonomy or even full independence. Some rioting broke out and the local authorities used this as an excuse to break up the protesters with harsh measures. They wouldn’t gain independence just yet.

A few months after the detonation of Germany’s first thermonuclear device, emperor Wilhelm III passed away. He died on July 20th 1951 of a heart attack at the age of 69. He died at a young age when compared to his predecessors. His father Wilhelm II had lived to the age of 81 and his grand father Friedrich III had reached the age of 83. The most astonishing was his great grandfather Wilhelm I who had died shortly before turning 91. An elaborate funeral was held in Potsdam in which all the crowned heads of Europe were present. Many people held speeches in honour of the deceased emperor. Among them were queen Wilhelmina of Holland, king Karol III of Poland and emperor Maximilian IV of Austria. It was a very touching ceremony and the first of its kind to be broadcast on radio and a new medium called television. He was the one who had guided the German people through the war and was considered a genuine hero in Germany. He was succeeded by his eldest son Wilhelm who was crowned emperor Wilhelm IV. When he married he had threatened his right to the throne because his marriage was morganatic. In 1937 his marriage was recognized and his wife and daughters were styled princess. He had his work cut out for him as he found himself in charge of one of the leading nations in the world. His father had left him a super power empire armed with nuclear weapons which was the dominant power in Europe. His rule was short lived however. In 1957 he and some of his friends went on a hunting trip in southern Germany and it was there that his reign ended. He was involved in a tragic accident which ended his rule. He didn’t die during the hunt but after it. He was one his way to his nearby castle when his chauffeur lost control of the car and crashed into a tree. The emperor lived for one more day before succumbing to his injuries. His last words were: ‘Wish my brother good luck.’ Emperor Wilhelm IV was no more and his rule which had started so promising ended after only six years. He had been a young emperor because of his father’s early death unlike his predecessors. He had many great plans which he would never get to implement. He was the shortest ruling emperor since Germany’s foundation in 1871. This led to quite some dynastic troubles as Wilhelm’s eldest daughter also claimed the throne since she viewed the old succession laws as ridiculous. These laws meant that the throne would go to next male heir in line for the throne unless no male heirs were available or if they were incapable of ruling. Secondly, she was half Italian which made her totally unacceptable. Since Wilhelm IV had left no male heirs, the throne passed to his brother, the second son of Wilhelm III, Ludwig. He was crowned emperor Ludwig I. He would rule until his death in 1994 which made him the longest ruling emperor of Germany with a rule spanning 37 years, almost four decades. He would be succeeded by his son Michael who would be crowned Michael I. He became heir presumptive after his older brother Friedrich Wilhelm renounced his right to the throne in 1967 so he could marry a commoner. He would otherwise have been emperor Friedrich Wilhelm V.

 

[bm79]

Very interesting...

Oh, that quote you move from Oppenheimer to Ulam should read: "I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." It's a line from the Bhagavad Gita

 

[JJohnson]

I have to ask, how do you define 'rightwing ideologies'? In the US, the so-called 'right-wing' tends to be defined as low-tax, low-regulation, less government intervention, strong defense, and pro-family, according to the right-wing here, while the left wing does seek higher taxes, more regulation by government, more unions, and less spending on national defense.

I looked at the ideologies of the fascists in Europe, and their difference with communists is a matter of degree, but both look to be on the left of the political spectrum to me, and to a number of commentators in the US.

I'm only looking for a clarification for this timeline's 'left-right'.

I've enjoyed reading the timeline so far. Please keep up the good work!

James

 

[Onkel Willie]

I know Fascism is more left but they define themselves as right. Fascism has got left and right ideas. Right: very nationalistic, agressive and pro strong defense. Left: very collective. The fascists generally persecute social democrats and communists which explains why people sympathize with them now.

Left = social democrat. generally pro-worker. High taxes for rich people and champions of social security , more unions, more regulation.

Right = conservative, generally very religious, pro family, nationalist

 

[Onkel Willie]

Here's the next chapter. Its about the space race and the ascendancy of a new power in the east...

Chapter 28​

Next to the arms race there was another race taking place. It was the race for space or the space race as it is usually referred to. Its beginnings could be traces back to centuries ago when rockets were first developed. Rockets were mainly propelled by gunpowder before the twenties and some of them, known as fireworks, were used for display. They saw some limited use in battle. They were already used in the era of Genghis Khan and later on even saw some use during the battle of Waterloo. During the twenties a bunch of fanatics started experimenting with primitive rockets in Europe and Germany and thereby laid the foundation for space travel. In 1903 the eminent scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky published a book about space travel by means of rockets fuelled with liquid hydrogen and oxygen. In 1912 Robert Esnault-Pelterie published a lecture on rocket theory and interplanetary travel. He independently derived Tsiolkovsky's rocket equation, did basic calculations about the energy required to make round trips to the Moon and planets, and he proposed the use of atomic power (i.e. Radium) to power a jet drive. Robert Goddard in the meantime began a serious analysis of rockets in 1912, concluding that conventional solid-fuel rockets needed to be improved in three ways. First, fuel should be burned in a small combustion chamber, instead of building the entire propellant container to withstand the high pressures. Second, rockets should be arranged in stages. And third, the exhaust speed should be greatly increased to beyond the speed of sound. Modern rockets were born when Goddard attached a supersonic nozzle to a liquid fuelled rocket engine's combustion chamber. These nozzles turn the hot gas from the combustion chamber into a cooler, hypersonic, highly directed jet of gas, more than doubling the thrust and raising the engine efficiency from 2% to 64%. Early rockets had been grossly inefficient because of the thermal energy that was wasted in the exhaust gases. In 1926, Robert Goddard launched the world's first liquid-fueled rocket in Auburn, Massachusetts. During the 1920s, a number of rocket research organizations appeared in the United States, Austria, Britain, France, Italy, Germany, and Russia. In the mid-1920s, German scientists had begun experimenting with rockets which used liquid propellants and which were capable of reaching relatively high altitudes and traveling long distances.

The rocket program had difficulty finding sponsors however. Many weren’t interested in rockets. In the end some industrial who happened to be a rocket fanatic decided to support them with money. The first missile they successfully launched was the Aggregate 2 or A2 as it was usually referred to. Two were launched in 1934 which reached an altitude of 2.2 and 3.5 kilometers respectively. The scientists immediately went on to the next level and produced the A3 rocket. It had all kinds of problems from the very start which were mostly caused by the rocket’s experimental inertial guidance system. Several of them crashed due to engine failure caused by this guidance system. In some cases the rocket was lost because it’s parachute didn’t open. After Germany’s defense minister, general Von Kesselring, viewed a successful A3 test in 1936 he was sufficiently impressed to grant funding to the rocket program which was put under state supervision from that point onward. There were conditions to this agreement however. The German military insisted that Von Braun created a military application as that was the reason he received funding. After the last unsuccessful A3 launch, Werner von Braun and his team went back to the drawing board to figure out what went wrong. Their next design was the A3b which was less prone to failure. The apparent flaws in the guidance system were corrected and the rocket flew like a dream. It was first launched in early 1938. They reached an average altitude of about 20 kilometers which was an improvement as the original A3 could reach an altitude of barely 12 kilometers assuming that its engine didn’t fail which it often did. The program continued and designs for the A4 ballistic missile were drawn up. This would be a risky step and a leap forward if it worked. The A4 was designed with a theoretical range of almost 200 kilometers, a maximum altitude of 90 kilometers and a one ton payload.

But in 1938 the war broke out and this would have major consequences for the rocket program. The German government decided to cut the funding for the rocket program in favor of the atomic bomb program as it seemed to be more of a war winner. The funding of the rocket program was gutted. It was cut in half in 1938 and again in 1940 and 1941. In spite of this Von Braun and his team managed to build an A4 and test it in 1946. The first one crashed into the sea after flying 2 kilometers or so. The second one reached an altitude of about 22 kilometers before exploding. The third was tested successfully and flew for 200 kilometers and reached an altitude of over 85 kilometers before falling back and burning up in the atmosphere. Germany had brought the first object into space. This woke the interest of the military once more and funding was increased ten fold. The project was shrouded in secrecy after the war and the test site was moved from Borkum Island to Peenemünde which provided more space for testing and construction facilities and was more difficult to spy on from the air as it was deeper in German territory. In 1948 the Germans successfully launched the A5 which had a range of over 350 kilometers. By now Germany had a substantial nuclear arsenal and some in the German armed forced thought of putting nuclear warheads on them. Nuclear weapons at the time were crude and big devices weighing in at 4 to 5 tons. The A5 had a payload of about 2.5 tons. Nuclear warheads would be miniaturized over the years and missiles would be improved. This was necessary as they were still inaccurate. They usually fell within about half a mile of the programmed target at best.

These development were followed with increasing unease by the British and Americans because they realized that these rockets could be used as weapons against them. The Americans gained as much information from espionage as they could and built their own missile. It was somewhere in between the A4 and A5 but was slightly inferior. The American team had problems with the guidance system like the Germans had had with the A3. This was because they had to design it themselves as American spies couldn’t get their hands on it. The first five subsequently crashed but in the end the Americans were successful and launched a missile in 1951 which reached space like the German A4 had done in 1946. The United States government tripled the budget to get better missiles than the Germans and to get to space first. The American budget might be bigger but the Germans had the brainpower which included the brilliant Von Braun. This development continued and the year of 1957 would prove that Germany was still the leader in the field of rocket science. The Germans used the A12 missile which was originally designed as an ICBM to bring the first man made satellite into space. It had been modified and was fueled by kerosene and liquid oxygen instead of alcohol and liquid oxygen like previous models. It was able to put an object weighing ten metric tons into low earth orbit. Germany launched its first satellite on March 7th 1957 and thereby put the first man made object into space. Again America was behind on the Germans. This was a tremendous shock in America as most believed that their country had caught up with the Germans and was now in fact leading in the field of rocket science. Shortly thereafter the ‘Deutsche Raumfahrt-Agentur’, DRA for short, which translates as German Space Travel Agency, was founded. Germany first satellite, Galileo, remained in orbit for three months before falling down and burning up in the atmosphere after its battery went dead. In the meantime it collected valuable data about what space was like and transmitted all kinds of information concerning radiation, temperature, light and so on to the control centre in Peenemünde.

There was one thing the Americans got before the Germans got it. The Germans considered themselves to be the leaders in the field of nuclear physics and were therefore quite surprised when America launched the world’s first nuclear powered submarine in 1954 which completed the first submerged transit across the North Pole. It was called Nautilus and was assigned hull number SSN-571. This was a wake up call which let the Germans know that the Americans were still in the race. The Germans were still using diesel-electric powered submarines. These weren’t exactly the primitive, hot, humid and cramped boats from the 1910s. The Type XXIb could recharge its batteries within four hours and could do so while submerged because of its snorkel. It was the first submarine designed to remain fully under water all the time instead of submerging when threatened like older subs. It therefore lacked the deck gun which featured prominently on older submarines. It would only decrease the vessel’s sleekness and would therefore slow it down. It was first introduced in 1948 and was a modified version of the Type XXI which had been introduced in 1945. Several hundreds of them had been made. It also featured several novelties such as a shower, a wash basin and a freezer for food. The latter enabled the vessel to remain out at sea longer since it was less limited by its food supply. It also had a hydraulic loading system which enabled it to reload all six tubes faster than a type VIIc could reload one tube. Their general hydrodynamic sleek shape also made these vessels very fast. It could easily outrun many surface ships. Its shape also made it very quiet and hard to detect. It was in fact quieter than early nuclear submarines. Even in the nuclear age these ships were daunting opponents and would remain service until the late sixties. The Germans also had the Type XXII which ran on hydro peroxide and could remain submerged all the time. Only two dozen or so were ever made as the Germans needed hydro peroxide for rocket fuel. Germany would eventually launch a nuclear submarine of its own in 1956. It was called the Nuklearen U-boot 1, or NU-1 for short, which translates as Nuclear Submarine 1.

In the meantime a new power was about to stir in the east. By the mid-fifties China, under the leadership of Chiang Kai-Shek, China had rebuilt its industrial base and infrastructure mostly on its own. China had mainly invested in heavy industry, mining, steel industry and power generation. China had a large man power pool and lots of resources such as coal, iron ore, zinc, uranium, natural gas and copper. Many of the major industries had been nationalized to regulate production and to speed up the process of rebuilding the nation. Private enterprise was allowed by the Nationalists though as they didn’t want to turn everybody against them. If they had done that, they would have become what they detested the most and had fought against for so long: communists. A great deal of China’s electricity came from hydroelectric power plants and coal powered power plants. China was mountainous which explains the large number of dams. Today China gets over 29% of its electricity from hydroelectric power plants. The other, coal, was used because coal supplies China’s coal supplies seemed limitless. Under Nationalist guidance China was rebuilt and industrial production slowly increased. The system was plagued by corruption however which Chiang was desperately trying to combat. It severely inhibited economic growth. It would never completely go away but eventually Chiang managed to diminish it to acceptable levels. In spite of this production increased in many sectors of industry with rates varying from 40% to 150% between 1946 and 1956. In that same year China also became the third largest steel producer as well, behind the US and the CEDEP. By 1956 China was the second largest electricity consumer in Asia, second only to Japan. Chiang had been busy electrifying the country but had only managed to electrify the major cities. Most people living in the country side still mostly lacked electricity. China had progressed a lot. They had roads, railroads, electricity, modern communications and factories.

The military and navy became stronger as well. In 1959 China commissioned two brand new carriers of the Chiang Kai-Shek-class which replaced China’s only carrier, Sun Yat Sen. The ship had been designed in the thirties and the war had delayed its commissioning until 1945. It was already obsolete when it came into service and was only kept in service for the sake of prestige. It was China’s only carrier after all. It was sold to India a few months after the commissioning of its successors. The army in the meantime was equipped with the new Type-49 tanks. It was more crude and less modern than western designs but could be produced in large numbers. By 1955 already 12.000 of them had been made and they would remain in production until 1972 by which time 55.000 had come off the assembly line. They would replace the large number of pre-war tanks that the Chinese were still using by the late fifties, early sixties. Many of them still serve in African armies and in lesser numbers in some Asian armies as well. In China it was taken out of frontline service in 1978 although the armored reserve would keep some as late as 1987. The air force in the meantime saw the introduction of the J-11 which was China’s first indigenous jet fighter. China’s previous designs were always heavily influenced by American and German designs and borrowed heavily from them which resulted in inferior jets due to bad copying which could be produced in high numbers. Some designs were even outright copies. Only a few of those were made because China at the time didn’t have the money for such expensive jets. Progress was made in other areas as well, namely education. In the thirties, large segments of the population was illiterate. By 1960 the illiteracy rate had slipped below 10%. Education would keep improving over the years. Today China has one of the best educational systems in the worlds. Still China wasn’t a very pleasant place to live. Hundreds of millions living in the country side hadn’t noticed much of this progress and this would remain so for at least the another decade or two. Secondly, China was an oppressive quasi-fascist totalitarian regime. It kept its inhabitants quiet with fear, bread and circuses and of course propaganda.

In 1962 China would claim its rightful place as a great power. On the early morning of May 7th 1962 a bright flash lit up the sky over the Lop Nur test site. It was given the suitable name of ‘Morning Light’ or 早晨輕in traditional Chinese. The Chinese had used the implosion design as well even though it was much more complicated. The same had been done by the Germans and British as well during the war. The design was more efficient which explains the choice the Chinese made. Unlike the Germans and British however, the Chinese had used weapons grade plutonium, Pu-239, for their bomb instead of enriched uranium or U-235 as it is more commonly known among scientists. It was a spectacular sight and a great leap forward for China. It had a yield of roughly 22 kilotons which made it about as strong as the first atomic bombs of Britain, Germany and America. This bolstered the confidence of those wanting independence in Germany’s colonies as it was now definitively proven that Asians were not inferior. China was the first country in Asia to detonate an atomic bomb and the fourth in the world after Germany, Britain and the United States. This was quite a shock as almost everybody in Germany, Britain and the US thought that China was backward and behind on them and that a Chinese nuclear weapon was years away. In 1965 China claimed to have detonated a hydrogen bomb. It only had a 550 kiloton yield which made it weak for a fusion weapon. According to experts it was most likely a boosted fission weapon. China’s first true hydrogen bomb was detonated on December 27th 1966. The weapon had a yield of roughly 1.8 megatons. Now China would not be underestimated or disrespected again as it was quite clear by now that China was able to do anything the western powers could do. China was the strongest nation in Asia and its ascendancy to super power status would continue. China wouldn’t be the last country to detonate atomic weapons though.

 

[Arch-Angel]

Nice, but where did Czechoslovakia come from?

 

[Onkel Willie]

Oops. My bad.

 

[pieman3141]

今天上午 doesn't really translate into Morning. It means "this morning" in a more casual manner.

早晨, or 天亮, or even 日生 are a bit more meaningful. Unless the point of it was so that people would be awfully confused and wondering just what in hell could have such an awful name.

 

[marcus]

Great TL, but the man is called Wernher von Braun and not Werner...
Can you tell us about the german Reichskanzlers?

 

[Onkel Willie]

今天上午 doesn't really translate into Morning. It means "this morning" in a more casual manner.

早晨, or 天亮, or even 日生 are a bit more meaningful. Unless the point of it was so that people would be awfully confused and wondering just what in hell could have such an awful name.

Sorry. I used google/translate which is quite crappy. Anyway here's chapter 29.

Chapter 29​

In 1961 the 1961-1962 Ottoman-Persian war broke out. Reza Shah who had managed to prevent getting caught up in the great war, had used his time to build up his country and military forces and was confident that he could challenge Ottoman hegemony in the middle east. He had wisely remained neutral after Britain and the Ottoman Empire had threatened to declare war if Persia wouldn’t cease its support for Russia. After the war the Russian army was limited in size which meant that there was a lot of surplus equipment. A lot of this had been purchased by Persia for bottom prices. In this war Russian tanks would prove to be very tough nuts to crack even after over fifteen years after the end of the war. They were decent and strong tank designs. By 1961 Persia was becoming stronger and stronger and the Shah felt confident that his country could take on the Ottomans. The Ottomans and Persians had clashed numerous times in the past few centuries but this war would in some way be different from the others. The overconfidence of the Persian Shah would eventually lead to his downfall. In 1961 he started demanding concessions from the Ottomans for no reason at all. He claimed that the Ottomans were suppressing their Shi’a minority in Iraq and that they should be liberated. This was an overstatement. The Ottoman Empire was largely Sunny Muslim and there was indeed some friction between the Sunny Muslims and the Shiites who dominated Iraq. Outright suppression had ended years ago. This was necessary because the empire’s Shi’ite population only increased especially after the Ottomans were granted Azerbaijan after the 1909-1911 war in which it had fought against Russia. Finally in 1938 they united for a common goal, the defeat of Russia. The Ottomans politely told the Persians to shut up and back off and ignored them afterwards. The Ottomans initially underestimated the Persians which lead to quite some trouble during the war.

This underestimation of Persia’s capabilities became evident when Ottoman generals told sultan Shehzade I of a Persian military build up along the border. The sultan dismissed this as a bluff even after the Persian Shah gave the order for partial mobilization. Over a thousand tanks had been gathered along with most of the Persian air force for this war. On June 4th 1961 Persian forces crossed the border and started their so called liberation war which would decide who would be the dominant power in the middle east. The initial Persian advance was quick as the Ottoman forces in the area were outnumbered and unprepared mostly due to the slow response from Constantinople. Persian forces reached Baghdad within a week and occupied the famous city. The invading troops noticed that the Shi’a population was remarkably unresponsive to their ‘liberators’. No massive gatherings to welcome them, no flowers thrown to them. Some Shi’ites supported the Persians. The most however just remained passive and waited to see who would win. Further to the north there was more support. The Persians promised the Kurds a state of their own if they cooperated with them. This was of course a lie since the Persians were suppressing their own Kurdish minority and didn’t have any intention of creating an independent Kurdistan. The dream of an independent Kurdish state would remain though. This would kindle a years long Kurdish struggle for freedom. Further to the south the Persians overran Basra and Kuwait within twelve days thereby cutting the Ottomans off from the Persian gulf and forcing their navy to retreat. By now it was evident what was going on for the sultan in distant Constantinople. He had recovered from the initial shock about the insolence of the Persians and ordered his generals to stop the Persians and put them in their rightful place. By now two fifths of Iraq had already been overrun.

The first Ottoman advance was aimed at Mosul and Kirkuk in the north of Iraq to strangle the threat of an independent Kurdish state in its cradle. As a side effect the northern oilfields would come back in Ottoman hands again. Some tens of thousands of Jews also fought in the Ottoman army. After the defeat of Russia, many Russian Jews left their country and headed for America, Germany and Palestine which was Ottoman territory. Some anti-Semitism was present but pity for the Jews who had suffered from systematic extermination was the prevailing mood in Constantinople and eventually the Muslim and Judaic populations of Palestine would accommodate. The war would create a bond between many Jewish and Muslim soldiers and was the beginning of their coexistence. The Ottoman population was twice the size of the Persian population and therefore the Ottoman army was bigger and, as the Persians found out, numbers matter in battles. Northern Iraq was retaken within three weeks of heavy fighting. The Ottoman juggernaut had finally awoken. This was something of a proxy war as well with the Chinese backing the Persians and the Germans backing the Ottomans. This was clearly a Chinese attempt to gain more influence in the middle east. This was however unknown at the time. Chiang Kai-Shek didn’t want to strike a high profile. This was a way to safely test how Chinese equipment would perform in combat and if the Persians won, China would have an ally in the middle east. If not, then nobody would know about China’s involvement. The experienced Ottoman army continued its advance and liberated Baghdad on August 1st and pressed on. The Persians had underestimated how vigorous the Ottomans would respond. The Shah was starting to worry and ordered his forces to dig in, sit tight and hold their ground. Vicious trench warfare ensued which was very similar to what had occurred in China during the war. Instead of a quick victory, this would become a drawn out conflict for both sides. Several bloody offensives took place in eastern Iraq between August and December which didn’t really lead to anything except for large numbers of casualties. The frontline hardly moved and breakthrough attempts proved futile. During most of January fighting came to a stop due to sand storms. After that the offensives continued from both sides with unrelenting determination. Over time the war became more vicious and dirty. The use of tabun, sarin, mustard gas and chlorine by both the Persians and Ottomans was proof of this. Victims who survived the nerve gas, would suffer from the consequences for the rest of their lives.

The Ottomans however had a trump card which would hand them victory. Somewhere in the Libyan desert the Ottomans tested their secret weapon. On the morning of June 21st 1962 the Ottoman Empire tested its first atomic bomb. Unlike the first atomic bombs of Germany, Britain and China, this bomb was of the gunshot type design which was easier and quicker to build. Any speculation by western intelligence agencies that the project had been a Sino-Ottoman effort were proven to be false after it became apparent that the Chinese had supported the Persians. It was a twelve kiloton device. It was weaker than first tests of other countries but nevertheless the Ottoman Empire had joined the nuclear club and it was about time. The Ottoman atomic bomb program had started eleven years before in 1951 and had encountered some set backs along the way. With this test the Ottoman Empire became the fifth nuclear power. The program was mostly funded with the oil revenue which had also founded other modernizations in the empire. With the fissile material that was left the Ottomans immediately made some more bombs so that they had a small stockpile. On July 25th 1962 the Ottomans used an atomic bomb against the Persians. A small Persian border town was selected for devastation as a warning. It was to be signal. The Ottoman Empire was not to be messed with and was in charge in the middle east. In the early morning of July 25th a 16 kiloton blast incinerated the unsuspecting and mostly still sleeping inhabitants of the town. In total under three thousand people, one hundred of which were soldiers who were garrisoned in the town, perished. The Ottoman government sent an ultimatum in which they demanded the immediate surrender of Persia. The Shah knew what had happened to Russia and Japan in the war and didn’t want his country to suffer a similar fate. Persia surrendered unconditionally on July 26th 1962. The peace treaty was rather mild. The sultan was happy as the Persians had been shown their rightful place. The Persians were forced to pay 500 million Ottoman dinars in war indemnities and Persia was not allowed to produce or procure atomic, biological and chemical weapons. In the aftermath the monarchy was abolished and a weak democracy was established which was overthrown in a military coup in 1963.

Russia in the meantime had been growing. Czar Michael II had successfully turned the country around with his economic reforms. He had also enacted democratic reforms. He was the last absolute monarch in the world and he would make sure that that would remain so. Incompetence by previous Czars had often led to stagnation and decline. It wasn’t complete democracy yet. Russia was more of a semi-autocratic country much like Germany and the Ottoman Empire. Democracy in Russia was still in its infantile stage and needed guidance. Michael died in 1954 at the age of 76 and left an economically increasingly strong and also more democratic Russia to his son Georgy who was crowned Czar Georgy I of Russia. He followed his father’s policy. It was now that Russia’s vast mineral wealth was fully uncovered. Mines, power plants, factories and so on popped up all over Siberia. Russia’s economy was growing and the world would know. Russia would became a supplier of almost every mineral resource known to man and a large industrial power. Now Russia’s attention was focused on gaining more markets and was competing heavily with the Chinese who were also becoming stronger. The other defeated power, Japan, was also rebuilding. The Japanese had by now mostly recovered from the war and now was full constitutional monarchy and a peaceful nation. The real economic boom would have to wait until the seventies when Japan’s electronics industry emerged. Japan however would not be the dominant economic power in Asia. China had already overtaken Japan by the early sixties.

The Germans and Americans in the meantime continued their quest for dominance. President Adlai Stevenson was enraged after Germany launched the world’s first satellite in 1957. The Americans launched their first satellite a year later. He demanded that his scientists did something about it. He wanted America to be first with something. Their budget was tripled again in 1958. In 1959 he claimed that America would bring a man in space before 1965. Little did he know that the Germans were already very busy to make this a reality. After the launch of Galileo the Germans had launched three more satellites, each one more advanced than its predecessor, and successfully tested the A13 rocket which they would use to bring the first man in space which they did on October 7th 1960. It was launched from Togo which was closer to the equator which made this a lot easier. The German capsule made three orbits around earth and landed safely landed in the Atlantic bringing its passenger back alive and well. This was another triumph of Germany and a smack in the face for the Americans. Adlai Stevenson subsequently lost the 1960 election to Richard Nixon who promised he would put a man on the moon before the end of the decade. In 1961 the Americans put a man in space as well. Nixon kept to his word. A huge effort was made to make an American the first man on the moon. NASA’s budget was once again increased and more resources were poured in to make it work. The Americans made great progress. In 1969 the Americans launched a Neptune V missile which brought the Mercury 11 and its crew to the moon. A man first set foot on the moon on July 20th 1969. This man’s name was Buzz Aldrin. This quite a shock for the Germans who thought they were ahead on the Americans. The Germans had grown conceited and had taken it slow. The Germans had invested in space stations to research the effect of long exposure to conditions in space and had become very proficient in building these stations. In 1968 the Germans had already made the first space walk. Both Germany and America had already launched probes to Mars and Venus and had both decided that they would put a man on Mars. Now the race for Mars was on.

The struggle for independence in the meantime had grown more grim. More and more peaceful protests took place in German-Indochina and the Philippines throughout the early fifties. The Germans ignored the demands of their colonial subjects for more autonomy and as a result these people turned to more radical means. Resistance movements began to pop up all over Germany’s Asian possessions. The Germans had had some experience with guerrilla warfare from the war in Russia. Fanatical Russian fascists behind enemy lines had employed guerrilla tactics against the Germans but eventually the Germans developed good counter tactics. They would use those again in Asia. In Germany protest movements against the colonial wars in Asia were formed. They mainly consisted of younger people of the hippie movement who detested violence. Parents whose sons were garrisoned in these colonies also joined the antiwar movement. The German government ignored the protests and fought on to keep its colonies causing a horrific death toll in the process. The Germans used very harsh measures against anyone who was suspected of supporting the insurgents. The Germans even used chemical weapons and nerve agents to flush out rebels and burned down villages who were suspected of harboring them. The colonial war in Indochina started out as a small insurgency but spread across the country and became a very brutal war. The Indochinese population, secretly backed by Nationalist China, fought on. Germany’s man power and industrial power was more than enough to crush the insurgents which were armed with obsolete Chinese equipment and had to live off the land though. The Germans still controlled the cities, roads and important industrial centers which mattered to them. In the end public opinion was what mattered the most though. Due to protests by the German population, the war ended. Emperor Ludwig I granted independence to Indochina in 1960 and to the Philippines in 1961. There were some conditions though. Germany would retain its naval bases and some military and air force bases in both countries, they would not allow China to establish military bases on their soil and both were to recognize the German emperor as their official head of state thereby forming the Commonwealth of Independent Countries or CIC for short.

The Republic of Indochina and the Philippines, in spite of German efforts to prevent this, quickly ended up in the Chinese sphere of influence. China was slowly but surely growing and by 1960 already was the dominant power in Asia. Chiang Kai-Shek immediately took steps to make sure that both countries would become Chinese vassals. The first thing he did was to make them dependent on China. China became the primary arms supplier for these countries and largely trained their armies. The equipment they received was mostly surplus equipment that the Chinese army didn’t need anymore. He also made them economically dependent by founding the East Asian Cooperation Organization. The EACO’s founding members were China, Korea, Indochina and the Philippines. In the early years of their independence, these countries received a lot of aid from the Chinese government to build up their economies and Chinese companies invested heavily in these countries. This overwhelming Chinese share in their economies made these countries dependent on China. Given time these countries would develop into economic powers in their own right thereby turning the EACO into an organization of peers with China as the first among these equals of course. The organization would become an economic power block to be reckoned with. The buildup was slow as the Asian countries were plagued by all kinds of issues such as corruption, mismanagement and the import quotas the Europeans and Americans created against their cheap but often low quality products.

In the meantime another Asian power was rising as well. The Indian Confederation had been founded in 1947 and for a time remained in China’s sphere of influence. India however is too large a country to remain a vassal for long. The Indians now ruled over themselves but they were inexperienced and didn’t know how to run a country. The result was widespread corruption and mismanagement which severely inhibited economic growth. As a result India remained a rather insignificant player in world politics and the world economy. Eventually the Indian government managed to combat these problems and started to address many important issues such as widespread illiteracy, poverty and the huge economic inequalities within India. They did so with moderate success. Even today there is a lot of poverty in India especially in the country side causing a big gap between the rural and city population. As a result many moved and still move towards the cities. The situation has improved in the last few years though. Like China, India also supported independence movements with weapons and money and vied for dominance in Asia with the Chinese. India was deliberately set up as a confederation because it had a huge and very diverse population. This way friction between the Hindus and Muslims was mostly avoided as they effectively decided over their own internal affairs. The Islamic and Hindu parts of India were bound together by a common foreign policy, one currency and a common military. In time India became strong and created a sphere of influence of its own. India quickly turned Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Bhutan into satellite states in India’s orbit. Over time the two Asian great powers grew apart as their interests clashed. India for instance started funding the independence struggle in Tibet and strengthened its ties with China’s northern neighbor and long time enemy, Russia. The two great powers signed a cooperation treaty in 1964. The Chinese in the meantime unsuccessfully tried to make the Muslim parts of India secede from the confederation and also expanded their influence in South East Asia.

In 1973 India tested its first nuclear weapon making it the sixth and last nuclear power. With a blast yield of over 40 kilotons, this test was the most powerful first test ever. Two years later, in 1975, India tested its first thermonuclear weapon as well which had a yield of roughly 1.1 megatons. Because of the disparity between the Indian and Chinese nuclear arsenals, the Indians would also test the strongest bomb ever made to show the Chinese that India was not to be messed with and to impress the world with India’s strength. In 1986 the Indians detonated a 60 megaton strong hydrogen bomb. These developments greatly concerned and angered many countries who had donated nuclear technology to India such as Canada and Australia. The Indian government had told these countries that the technology would be used for peaceful and power generating purposes. The program was created as a deterrent mainly against China and as an attempt to project India as a regional power. Now India was almost equal to China. India’s economy was slowly growing and India was developing militarily as well and was competing heavily with the Chinese. By 2000 the difference in power between India and China would be practically nonexistent.

 

[Will Lucky]

Liking the updates so far, but seriously a man on Mars.

 

[Onkel Willie]

Can be done. We could have had a man on Mars in the 1980s if we really wanted to.