Sorry for the long delay in updates. I've got exams. Here's chapter 30. One more to go.
Asia wasn’t the only continent to see its colonial masters leave. The Africans weren’t entirely ignorant about what was going on in the world and wanted to be free. Like in their Asian possessions the Germans had introduced something of an educational system. This led to the awakening of a national and social consciousness. The Africans knew that they were not inferior to their German rulers. The Asians had already shown that Imperial Germany wasn’t undefeatable. The Africans started demanding increased autonomy or even independence as early as the late sixties, early seventies. Some of these movements were peaceful and protested without violence. Others who didn’t believe the Germans would listen, started a guerrilla war. The local colonial governors ordered the military to crush the independence movements which they did rather well. The unorganized peasants couldn’t stand up against the German army. Emperor Ludwig I however intervened in the emerging independence struggle before it became worse like it had become in Asia. Independence was granted to these countries after they had made some concessions. The German Imperial Navy would maintain its bases in Africa and the new African nations were to join the CIC and recognize the emperor as their official head of state. Other than that they would be completely independent. The offer seemed to good to be true and it was accepted. These naval bases were mostly refueling stations and a means to check American movement in the region. Some viewed it as neocolonialism as one German aircraft carrier possessed more firepower than the armed forces of these new countries combined which could enable the Germans to blackmail them.
Not all colonies declared their independence. Tanganyika and German Togoland, which also includes former French Benin, remained within the German empire and settled with limited autonomy. They did this purely out of economic motives as Germany was an economic super power and a good benefactor. Under German rule these colonies would progress much faster than their independent neighbors. Togoland would also become the primary launch site for manned space missions. Both countries received more autonomy which meant they mostly controlled their internal affairs such as justice, education, economy and so on. Foreign politics and defense remained under German control and German military forces remained on their soil which enabled the Germans to keep a close eye on their colonial subjects. In 1982 Tanganyika and Togoland ascended from colonies to full constituent states which gave them representation in the German parliament. Some in Germany opposed this move since they didn’t want ‘any of those African savages to soil the German government’ as the nationalists put it. They were about the only one who couldn’t see the inevitability of this move. German Micronesia remained in German hands as well and was granted representation in the German government in 1995. The ones who did become independent were: Congo, Zaire, Cameroon, Chad, The Central African Republic, Morocco, Senegal and Namibia. They were given some support from their German masters in the form of training and equipment for their armed forces and help in setting up a government and administrative system. The last German forces left Africa in 1977. The new governments mostly consisted of members of the former colonial administration so in the beginning things remained the same. Without their German masters looking over their shoulders however, the rulers of these countries quickly fell prey to corruption and greed and quickly started abusing the help of the Germans who quickly ceased their aid. This corruption, greed and mismanagement quickly led to economic decline and the advent of totalitarian regimes who mismanaged their countries even worse.
A prime example of this was Zaire whose unstable democratic government was overthrown in a military coup. Ludwig Kabila was appointed leader of Zaire’s armed forces following that country’s independence in 1975. General Kabila was only 37 years old when he was appointed leader of the Zairian army but he was very experienced as he had fought for the Germans in Asia for three years. He quickly rose to prominence on the political scene as he had comment on everything the weak democratic government did. This government became increasingly unpopular and the government couldn’t stop the rising conflict between the Hutus and the Tutsis. Kabila had his own agenda and would use the military to fulfill his goals and therefore made sure that he was popular. He managed to convince the government to increase the defense budget. This enabled him to raise the soldiers’ wages and increase the army in size. In late 1975 the army consisted of a mere 10 battalions. By 1978 the army consisted of over twelve divisions and several armored battalions. In that year Kabila decided that it was time to make his move. He gathered his forces and marched on Kinshasa were he ousted the democratic government. Tanks rolled through the city and his new government quickly consolidated power. His bid for power had been successful because the army was completely loyal to him. There was no resistance whatsoever, not even by the police forces. They were mostly bribed or cowed into submission. Kabila set out to purge the country from any colonial influences. This caused friction with the Germans who had only just left. From the very start Kabila’s economic policy was a mess. He instituted a policy of autarky and started an industrialization program. In the beginning production increased in many sectors of economy but a planned economy soon proved to be unproductive. It turned into a bureaucratic mess and shortages of just about everything became rule rather than exception. The fact that Kabila stuck with his autarky policy made things worse as food shortages only increased. He however still enjoyed the support of the military. He declared himself emperor in an act of defiance. Because of this Zaire was suspended as a member of the CIC. By the mid eighties he was hated by just about everyone in Zaire.
To distract the people from the mess he had created, Kabila launched a war against neighboring Rwanda in 1988. he invaded the country hoping for a quick victory. As a response the other members of CIC instituted an embargo and German aircraft carrier SMS Wilhelm II and battleship SMS Wilhelm der Grosse established a blockade. When Kabila started to exterminate the Tutsis, Germany intervened. Kabila had authorized the use of mustard gas and tabun against the Tutsis. Now he had gone to far. His anti-German rhetoric, his openly fascist rule, his general hostility towards his neighboring countries, his self declaration of emperor and his latest act, this genocide, were too much and Germany declared war as did the other African members of the CIC. German forces invaded from Tanganyika on April 17th by which time the war had been going on for two months. German fighters and fighter bombers stationed on the Wilhelm II and quickly eliminated the Zairian air force. Within three days total air supremacy was established. Forces from Congo and the Central African Republic also participated in the invasion. The Zairian army was mostly equipped with aging Chinese Type 49 tanks and pre-war German tanks. Chinese tanks from 1949 were no match for advanced German Leopard III tanks. Within a week the Zairian army was shattered and the country was once again in German hands. A new government was elected a year later in 1989 and Zaire once again became a loyal German ally and member of the CIC.
Some in Africa and in the US as well accused the Germans of neocolonialism. They were in fact right as Germany could still boss its former colonies around. The colonies were mostly economically dependent on Germany as well since German companies had a monopoly on just about everything. This big share in the economies of the former African colonies enabled the Germans to control their actions to a certain degree. If one of these countries did something the Germans didn’t want, they would be embargoed and German companies would withdraw their assets thereby effectively crippling that country’s economy. This would be devastating for any African country especially since they were already poverty stricken. Kabila’s autarky had been attempt to undermine German economic dominance in his country. The Asian members were less susceptible to this kind of German blackmail as they were supported by China. The EACO by this time was an economic power to be reckoned with and Germany and by extension the CIC couldn’t afford to be embargoed by the EACO. This meant that Germany couldn’t boss around Indochina and the Philippines and had to be content with just screwing around in Africa.
Other countries tried to maintain their influence in their colonies in other ways. The French, Portuguese and Spanish fought vicious and prolonged guerrilla wars to keep their colonial empires. In the end this only helped to bring about an economic malaise in their home countries as the military expenditure was increased to fund this war instead of using the money for other more important things. The French fought for seven years in a desperate attempt to keep the last shred of what had once been the second largest colonial empire in the world. They eventually granted independence to the Algerian coast which promptly reunited with the rest of Algeria which had been under British rule until 1965. The reunification took place in 1970. The Portuguese and Spanish fought on well into the seventies and even the eighties which put a strain on their economies. The Portuguese left Angola in 1974 and after over ten years of war. They left Mozambique in 1975. This showed that fighting paid off as this independence struggle had driven out Portugal. The Portuguese left these countries devastated though. Both Angola and Mozambique are among the poorest countries in the world and are currently both dictatorships. The colonial wars in the Spanish colonies only ended after the death of De Rivera who had ruled the country with an iron fist for almost four decades. He died in 1985 at the age of 82. After his death Spain started to democratize and one of the first things the democratic government did was granting independence to Spain’s colonies. Spanish New Guinea and Spanish Morocco became independent. The latter joined with the rest of Morocco. Today the Canary Islands are all that remain of Spain’s colonial empire.
The arms race in the meantime also continued. After the launch of the Nautilus and the NU-1 in the fifties many more nuclear submarines were built and in the sixties the first submarines with submarine launched ballistic missiles, SLBMs, were introduced which gave the great powers the ability to park several dozen nuclear warheads right on the other’s doorstep. After the introduction of MIRVs in both armed forces each country could increase this to a at least a hundred warheads. American Trident II missiles have the ability to carry up to six 200 kiloton bombs. One Ohio-class submarine can carry up to twenty-four of these missiles. The German Type XXX submarine can carry even more of these missiles and is even more destructive than all the bombs used in the great war which had raged for eight years. The Type XXX weighed in at over 32.000 tons which roughly equals an early dreadnought type battleship. The Type XXX submarine however is a much more destructive weapon even though it doesn’t look like it at first sight. The first one to be introduced was the NU-2928 which was launched in 1980. It was capable of carrying 28 nuclear missiles, each carrying six 250 kiloton nuclear warheads. By now eight of these behemoths have been made. The build up of nuclear arsenals had continued for decades and by now nuclear arsenals numbered in the hundreds or even thousands which ensured Mutually Assured Destruction, or MAD as it was called, in case of war. The Americans by 1985 had at least 25.000 nuclear weapons and the Germans had about 2200 nuclear weapons. This seems little when compared to the American arsenal but Germany makes use of the so called weak-strong deterrent. I can be summarized with something emperor Ludwig I once said. He said that America had the power to kill 1 billion Germans. There aren’t one billion Germans however. Germany, he said, had the power to kill 250 million Americans which was more than sufficient. This build up of nuclear weapons would continue into the nineties. During that period a détente between Germany and America occurred in the light of China’s rise to power and the two powers agreed to stop building nuclear weapons and to decrease their stockpiles. America currently possesses around 10.000 nuclear weapons whereas Germany possesses around 1750 of them.
The build up of conventional forces also continued. Germany’s military bases in France were increased in size and were only disestablished in 1989 whereas American and British bases had already been disestablished in the sixties. Hundreds of thousands were drafted each year and German and American subs were always prowling beneath the waves were they danced their deadly dance. On the surface aircraft carriers dominated and they became increasingly bigger. This trend of bigger and bigger aircraft carriers culminated in the construction of the super carriers the first of which was the USS Nimitz. It was commissioned in 1975 and was truly gigantic. It weighed in at over 101.000 tons when fully loaded and could carry over 90 aircraft which is bigger than the air forces of some small countries. When the Germans found out what the Americans were building, they responded with their own class of super carriers. They launched the SMS Wilhelm II in 1980. Today the Americans posses eleven Nimitz-class carriers versus eight Wilhelm II-class carriers. Electronic warfare also became more and more important. Tanks, vehicles and soldiers were given more and more gizmos to perform better on the battlefield. By the nineties onboard computers were standard equipment for tanks and a decade later all soldiers would be equipped with at least a GPS system. Both countries’ air forces also saw major changes. The Messerschmitt Me-562 and the F-18 would dominate the skies. Technology advanced quickly and by now both these planes are already being phased out. The Germans introduced the Messerschmitt Me-662 in 2007. This is Germany’s first stealth fighter. The Americans already had stealth in the 1980s with the introduction of the F-117 and B2 bomber. Soon the F-117’s and the F-18’s role will be fulfilled by the new F-23 Viper. Germany at the moment doesn’t have any stealth bombers like the B2 and still relies on strategic bombers such as the huge Junkers Ju-788.
The peace between America and Germany was shaky but would remain in place. It was somewhere else that a war would break out. Somewhere in 1984 a Chinese army patrol was chasing a band of Tibetan rebels. They crossed the border into India and the Chinese patrol chased them into Indian territory. There the Chinese encountered Indian forces. A bloody skirmish ensued. Today it’s still unclear who started the shooting. Both the Chinese and Indians accuse the other of starting hostilities. Both sides quickly called in reinforcements and Chinese tanks rolled across the border and Chinese and Indian planes clashed in the skies. This would become known as the Sino-Indian war. Fortunately the war didn’t escalate as in both Beijing and New Delhi cooler heads prevailed. Nevertheless several hundreds perished. When the Chinese government found out what happened they recalled their forces immediately and sent a telegram to the Indian government proposing the cessation of hostilities. The Indian government wisely agreed. Both powers had nuclear stockpiles numbering in the hundreds. If this war had escalated, it would have become a nuclear war. The stockpiles of India and China are relatively small when compared to the stockpiles of America and Germany but even a small nuclear exchange of only a few dozen nuclear weapons could have devastating on earth’s climate not to mention the humanitarian crisis it could cause. China and India remain in a state of cold war until this day.
The economies of both countries grew amazingly fast. China also became more democratic. After the death of Chiang Kai-Shek in 1975 the Chinese populace started demanding more democracy and after enough pressure was applied the Kuomintang acquiesced and ended martial law which had been in place since the start of the Sino-Japanese war in 1936 and organized the first democratic elections in China’s history in 1979. The Chinese people had become more self aware and didn’t really see why a dictatorship was still necessary. China was stable and safe. In fact it was one of the most powerful countries in the world. Several parties emerged but two became prominent and still dominate the political arena. The first one is the KMT itself which can rightfully claim to be responsible for China’s greatness. The other was the more leftist Democratic Progressive Party or DPP for short which was the party for the people according to its propaganda. Other parties are the Chinese Solidarity Union, the greens and the liberals. These parties combined never got more than 20% of votes in national election. They did have success in regional elections. The mayor of Nanjing for instance is a member of the greens and the mayor of Beijing is a liberal. After this democratization the Nationalists had to watch how the DPP ruled the country ten consecutive years. They won the 1979 and 1984 elections with a comfortable majority and the KMT was forced into the opposition. In the 1989 elections the KMT made its comeback. In spite of this democratization China still is quite authoritarian. Elections are held once every five years and the winning party comes up with presidential candidates. The president is then elected by an electoral committee comprised of the provincial governors. The president himself still has quite a lot of power. He has the right to veto any decisions made by the parliament. Such a veto can only be overcome by a two thirds majority in both houses of parliament which is hardly obtainable. The president is also the leader of China’s armed forces. This was deliberately done by the KMT to maintain as much power as possible. There have been attempts at reforms but so far all of these haven’t even gotten past the Chinese parliament.
During this period of democratization the economy also started booming. By now the EACO had swallowed just about all countries in southeast Asia. It had been founded in 1961 with China, Korea, the Philippines and Indochina as its founding members. Burma, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and Indonesia joined in later which led to the creation of the world’s largest economic block. The EACO’s population exceeds over two billion by today. Asian products are commonplace in western shops by now and the EACO is a very important player in politics as well. Militarily China was becoming stronger as well. In 1990 the Chinese launched the 110.000 ton super carrier Sun Yat Sen. Eleven more would follow within two decades. The Indians responded with the Nehru-class carriers. By the late seventies the Chinese and Indians both had SLBMs which gave them a second strike capability. A new space race was also born when in 1980 the Chinese brought a man into space. The Indians did the same in 1985. Both started to invest heavily in their space programs and started to build space stations to research the effects of long time exposure to conditions in space. Germany was still ahead of both and put a man on Mars in 2006 to show German dominance. The Americans in the meantime started planning a lunar base for 2020 and a manned mission to Mars of their own. The Asian powers would catch up though. China and India have both signed the treaty that bans militarization of space and have kept to their word as far as western intelligence agencies know. Both countries have announced plans to put a man on the moon by 2010. In the light of this new rising super power America and Germany grew closer. In 1995 emperor Michael I who had succeeded his father a year before visited America, India and Russia to strengthen Germany’s ties with these countries. He was the first German emperor to visit America and India and also the first to visit Russia since Friedrich III. He signed a treaty of mutual friendship with both India and America. Together with the heads of state of the members of the CEDEP he also signed a partnership treaty with Russia which led to the formation of the Russia-CEDEP council and the Russia-CEDEP summit which is held every four years.
The first of these Russia-CEDEP summits led to clear agreements about combating climate change. This had become a more and more important issue over the years. Already as early as the seventies the Club of Prague announced that unlimited industrial growth couldn’t continue and that the world was being destroyed. During the nineties this became visible to the normal people as snowfall in winter decreased and summers became longer and more moist. Certain species of animals started to move north or started decreasing in number. Polar bears are among them. All the greenhouse gasses that the industrial powers sent up into the atmosphere were changing the world’s climate for the worse. Russia and CEDEP signed the so called Helsinki Protocol in 1995. The TDCO and the United States signed as well. Several Asian countries have signed too. The effects are noticeable. The hole in the ozone layer for instance has shrunk for the first since its discovery in 1979 and the rate at which the ice sheet on the north pole and the glaciers are melting, is decreasing. The Polar bears’ numbers have stabilized for the first time in a decade. This however is slowing it down, not stopping it. The two fastest growing economic powers in the world, China and India, have refused to sign as the Helsinki Protocol would inhibit their economic growth. Those two also happen to be the two largest producers of greenhouse gasses in the world. They also pollute the environment in other ways for example by dumping waste into their rivers. In China this has only stopped a year ago after fierce protests by environmental groups. This brought several species of fish and dolphin back from the brink of extinction.
Czar Nicholas III who had succeeded his father Georgy in 1989 signed the partnership treaty with the Germans as he was growing more and more concerned about China instead of Germany. Enmity between Russia and Germany had ended years ago as it was obvious to both that the other wasn’t a threat. Right now China’s economic power overshadows the economies of Germany, America and even that of resource rich Russia. The world had evolved from bipolar after the war, to tripolar with the rise of China, quadrupolar after the rise of India and now back to bipolar with the Russian-German-American-Indian block on one side and the EACO on the other. The Americans also founded the American Union, AU, as a counter block of their own. This made official what already was. South and Central America had effectively been America’s backyard since the end of the war. By 2008 the cold war between America and Germany was over out of sheer necessity as a new power had overtaken both. The era of German domination has ended. The 21st century would be China’s. The time of China has come.
Chapter 30
Asia wasn’t the only continent to see its colonial masters leave. The Africans weren’t entirely ignorant about what was going on in the world and wanted to be free. Like in their Asian possessions the Germans had introduced something of an educational system. This led to the awakening of a national and social consciousness. The Africans knew that they were not inferior to their German rulers. The Asians had already shown that Imperial Germany wasn’t undefeatable. The Africans started demanding increased autonomy or even independence as early as the late sixties, early seventies. Some of these movements were peaceful and protested without violence. Others who didn’t believe the Germans would listen, started a guerrilla war. The local colonial governors ordered the military to crush the independence movements which they did rather well. The unorganized peasants couldn’t stand up against the German army. Emperor Ludwig I however intervened in the emerging independence struggle before it became worse like it had become in Asia. Independence was granted to these countries after they had made some concessions. The German Imperial Navy would maintain its bases in Africa and the new African nations were to join the CIC and recognize the emperor as their official head of state. Other than that they would be completely independent. The offer seemed to good to be true and it was accepted. These naval bases were mostly refueling stations and a means to check American movement in the region. Some viewed it as neocolonialism as one German aircraft carrier possessed more firepower than the armed forces of these new countries combined which could enable the Germans to blackmail them.
Not all colonies declared their independence. Tanganyika and German Togoland, which also includes former French Benin, remained within the German empire and settled with limited autonomy. They did this purely out of economic motives as Germany was an economic super power and a good benefactor. Under German rule these colonies would progress much faster than their independent neighbors. Togoland would also become the primary launch site for manned space missions. Both countries received more autonomy which meant they mostly controlled their internal affairs such as justice, education, economy and so on. Foreign politics and defense remained under German control and German military forces remained on their soil which enabled the Germans to keep a close eye on their colonial subjects. In 1982 Tanganyika and Togoland ascended from colonies to full constituent states which gave them representation in the German parliament. Some in Germany opposed this move since they didn’t want ‘any of those African savages to soil the German government’ as the nationalists put it. They were about the only one who couldn’t see the inevitability of this move. German Micronesia remained in German hands as well and was granted representation in the German government in 1995. The ones who did become independent were: Congo, Zaire, Cameroon, Chad, The Central African Republic, Morocco, Senegal and Namibia. They were given some support from their German masters in the form of training and equipment for their armed forces and help in setting up a government and administrative system. The last German forces left Africa in 1977. The new governments mostly consisted of members of the former colonial administration so in the beginning things remained the same. Without their German masters looking over their shoulders however, the rulers of these countries quickly fell prey to corruption and greed and quickly started abusing the help of the Germans who quickly ceased their aid. This corruption, greed and mismanagement quickly led to economic decline and the advent of totalitarian regimes who mismanaged their countries even worse.
A prime example of this was Zaire whose unstable democratic government was overthrown in a military coup. Ludwig Kabila was appointed leader of Zaire’s armed forces following that country’s independence in 1975. General Kabila was only 37 years old when he was appointed leader of the Zairian army but he was very experienced as he had fought for the Germans in Asia for three years. He quickly rose to prominence on the political scene as he had comment on everything the weak democratic government did. This government became increasingly unpopular and the government couldn’t stop the rising conflict between the Hutus and the Tutsis. Kabila had his own agenda and would use the military to fulfill his goals and therefore made sure that he was popular. He managed to convince the government to increase the defense budget. This enabled him to raise the soldiers’ wages and increase the army in size. In late 1975 the army consisted of a mere 10 battalions. By 1978 the army consisted of over twelve divisions and several armored battalions. In that year Kabila decided that it was time to make his move. He gathered his forces and marched on Kinshasa were he ousted the democratic government. Tanks rolled through the city and his new government quickly consolidated power. His bid for power had been successful because the army was completely loyal to him. There was no resistance whatsoever, not even by the police forces. They were mostly bribed or cowed into submission. Kabila set out to purge the country from any colonial influences. This caused friction with the Germans who had only just left. From the very start Kabila’s economic policy was a mess. He instituted a policy of autarky and started an industrialization program. In the beginning production increased in many sectors of economy but a planned economy soon proved to be unproductive. It turned into a bureaucratic mess and shortages of just about everything became rule rather than exception. The fact that Kabila stuck with his autarky policy made things worse as food shortages only increased. He however still enjoyed the support of the military. He declared himself emperor in an act of defiance. Because of this Zaire was suspended as a member of the CIC. By the mid eighties he was hated by just about everyone in Zaire.
To distract the people from the mess he had created, Kabila launched a war against neighboring Rwanda in 1988. he invaded the country hoping for a quick victory. As a response the other members of CIC instituted an embargo and German aircraft carrier SMS Wilhelm II and battleship SMS Wilhelm der Grosse established a blockade. When Kabila started to exterminate the Tutsis, Germany intervened. Kabila had authorized the use of mustard gas and tabun against the Tutsis. Now he had gone to far. His anti-German rhetoric, his openly fascist rule, his general hostility towards his neighboring countries, his self declaration of emperor and his latest act, this genocide, were too much and Germany declared war as did the other African members of the CIC. German forces invaded from Tanganyika on April 17th by which time the war had been going on for two months. German fighters and fighter bombers stationed on the Wilhelm II and quickly eliminated the Zairian air force. Within three days total air supremacy was established. Forces from Congo and the Central African Republic also participated in the invasion. The Zairian army was mostly equipped with aging Chinese Type 49 tanks and pre-war German tanks. Chinese tanks from 1949 were no match for advanced German Leopard III tanks. Within a week the Zairian army was shattered and the country was once again in German hands. A new government was elected a year later in 1989 and Zaire once again became a loyal German ally and member of the CIC.
Some in Africa and in the US as well accused the Germans of neocolonialism. They were in fact right as Germany could still boss its former colonies around. The colonies were mostly economically dependent on Germany as well since German companies had a monopoly on just about everything. This big share in the economies of the former African colonies enabled the Germans to control their actions to a certain degree. If one of these countries did something the Germans didn’t want, they would be embargoed and German companies would withdraw their assets thereby effectively crippling that country’s economy. This would be devastating for any African country especially since they were already poverty stricken. Kabila’s autarky had been attempt to undermine German economic dominance in his country. The Asian members were less susceptible to this kind of German blackmail as they were supported by China. The EACO by this time was an economic power to be reckoned with and Germany and by extension the CIC couldn’t afford to be embargoed by the EACO. This meant that Germany couldn’t boss around Indochina and the Philippines and had to be content with just screwing around in Africa.
Other countries tried to maintain their influence in their colonies in other ways. The French, Portuguese and Spanish fought vicious and prolonged guerrilla wars to keep their colonial empires. In the end this only helped to bring about an economic malaise in their home countries as the military expenditure was increased to fund this war instead of using the money for other more important things. The French fought for seven years in a desperate attempt to keep the last shred of what had once been the second largest colonial empire in the world. They eventually granted independence to the Algerian coast which promptly reunited with the rest of Algeria which had been under British rule until 1965. The reunification took place in 1970. The Portuguese and Spanish fought on well into the seventies and even the eighties which put a strain on their economies. The Portuguese left Angola in 1974 and after over ten years of war. They left Mozambique in 1975. This showed that fighting paid off as this independence struggle had driven out Portugal. The Portuguese left these countries devastated though. Both Angola and Mozambique are among the poorest countries in the world and are currently both dictatorships. The colonial wars in the Spanish colonies only ended after the death of De Rivera who had ruled the country with an iron fist for almost four decades. He died in 1985 at the age of 82. After his death Spain started to democratize and one of the first things the democratic government did was granting independence to Spain’s colonies. Spanish New Guinea and Spanish Morocco became independent. The latter joined with the rest of Morocco. Today the Canary Islands are all that remain of Spain’s colonial empire.
The arms race in the meantime also continued. After the launch of the Nautilus and the NU-1 in the fifties many more nuclear submarines were built and in the sixties the first submarines with submarine launched ballistic missiles, SLBMs, were introduced which gave the great powers the ability to park several dozen nuclear warheads right on the other’s doorstep. After the introduction of MIRVs in both armed forces each country could increase this to a at least a hundred warheads. American Trident II missiles have the ability to carry up to six 200 kiloton bombs. One Ohio-class submarine can carry up to twenty-four of these missiles. The German Type XXX submarine can carry even more of these missiles and is even more destructive than all the bombs used in the great war which had raged for eight years. The Type XXX weighed in at over 32.000 tons which roughly equals an early dreadnought type battleship. The Type XXX submarine however is a much more destructive weapon even though it doesn’t look like it at first sight. The first one to be introduced was the NU-2928 which was launched in 1980. It was capable of carrying 28 nuclear missiles, each carrying six 250 kiloton nuclear warheads. By now eight of these behemoths have been made. The build up of nuclear arsenals had continued for decades and by now nuclear arsenals numbered in the hundreds or even thousands which ensured Mutually Assured Destruction, or MAD as it was called, in case of war. The Americans by 1985 had at least 25.000 nuclear weapons and the Germans had about 2200 nuclear weapons. This seems little when compared to the American arsenal but Germany makes use of the so called weak-strong deterrent. I can be summarized with something emperor Ludwig I once said. He said that America had the power to kill 1 billion Germans. There aren’t one billion Germans however. Germany, he said, had the power to kill 250 million Americans which was more than sufficient. This build up of nuclear weapons would continue into the nineties. During that period a détente between Germany and America occurred in the light of China’s rise to power and the two powers agreed to stop building nuclear weapons and to decrease their stockpiles. America currently possesses around 10.000 nuclear weapons whereas Germany possesses around 1750 of them.
The build up of conventional forces also continued. Germany’s military bases in France were increased in size and were only disestablished in 1989 whereas American and British bases had already been disestablished in the sixties. Hundreds of thousands were drafted each year and German and American subs were always prowling beneath the waves were they danced their deadly dance. On the surface aircraft carriers dominated and they became increasingly bigger. This trend of bigger and bigger aircraft carriers culminated in the construction of the super carriers the first of which was the USS Nimitz. It was commissioned in 1975 and was truly gigantic. It weighed in at over 101.000 tons when fully loaded and could carry over 90 aircraft which is bigger than the air forces of some small countries. When the Germans found out what the Americans were building, they responded with their own class of super carriers. They launched the SMS Wilhelm II in 1980. Today the Americans posses eleven Nimitz-class carriers versus eight Wilhelm II-class carriers. Electronic warfare also became more and more important. Tanks, vehicles and soldiers were given more and more gizmos to perform better on the battlefield. By the nineties onboard computers were standard equipment for tanks and a decade later all soldiers would be equipped with at least a GPS system. Both countries’ air forces also saw major changes. The Messerschmitt Me-562 and the F-18 would dominate the skies. Technology advanced quickly and by now both these planes are already being phased out. The Germans introduced the Messerschmitt Me-662 in 2007. This is Germany’s first stealth fighter. The Americans already had stealth in the 1980s with the introduction of the F-117 and B2 bomber. Soon the F-117’s and the F-18’s role will be fulfilled by the new F-23 Viper. Germany at the moment doesn’t have any stealth bombers like the B2 and still relies on strategic bombers such as the huge Junkers Ju-788.
The peace between America and Germany was shaky but would remain in place. It was somewhere else that a war would break out. Somewhere in 1984 a Chinese army patrol was chasing a band of Tibetan rebels. They crossed the border into India and the Chinese patrol chased them into Indian territory. There the Chinese encountered Indian forces. A bloody skirmish ensued. Today it’s still unclear who started the shooting. Both the Chinese and Indians accuse the other of starting hostilities. Both sides quickly called in reinforcements and Chinese tanks rolled across the border and Chinese and Indian planes clashed in the skies. This would become known as the Sino-Indian war. Fortunately the war didn’t escalate as in both Beijing and New Delhi cooler heads prevailed. Nevertheless several hundreds perished. When the Chinese government found out what happened they recalled their forces immediately and sent a telegram to the Indian government proposing the cessation of hostilities. The Indian government wisely agreed. Both powers had nuclear stockpiles numbering in the hundreds. If this war had escalated, it would have become a nuclear war. The stockpiles of India and China are relatively small when compared to the stockpiles of America and Germany but even a small nuclear exchange of only a few dozen nuclear weapons could have devastating on earth’s climate not to mention the humanitarian crisis it could cause. China and India remain in a state of cold war until this day.
The economies of both countries grew amazingly fast. China also became more democratic. After the death of Chiang Kai-Shek in 1975 the Chinese populace started demanding more democracy and after enough pressure was applied the Kuomintang acquiesced and ended martial law which had been in place since the start of the Sino-Japanese war in 1936 and organized the first democratic elections in China’s history in 1979. The Chinese people had become more self aware and didn’t really see why a dictatorship was still necessary. China was stable and safe. In fact it was one of the most powerful countries in the world. Several parties emerged but two became prominent and still dominate the political arena. The first one is the KMT itself which can rightfully claim to be responsible for China’s greatness. The other was the more leftist Democratic Progressive Party or DPP for short which was the party for the people according to its propaganda. Other parties are the Chinese Solidarity Union, the greens and the liberals. These parties combined never got more than 20% of votes in national election. They did have success in regional elections. The mayor of Nanjing for instance is a member of the greens and the mayor of Beijing is a liberal. After this democratization the Nationalists had to watch how the DPP ruled the country ten consecutive years. They won the 1979 and 1984 elections with a comfortable majority and the KMT was forced into the opposition. In the 1989 elections the KMT made its comeback. In spite of this democratization China still is quite authoritarian. Elections are held once every five years and the winning party comes up with presidential candidates. The president is then elected by an electoral committee comprised of the provincial governors. The president himself still has quite a lot of power. He has the right to veto any decisions made by the parliament. Such a veto can only be overcome by a two thirds majority in both houses of parliament which is hardly obtainable. The president is also the leader of China’s armed forces. This was deliberately done by the KMT to maintain as much power as possible. There have been attempts at reforms but so far all of these haven’t even gotten past the Chinese parliament.
During this period of democratization the economy also started booming. By now the EACO had swallowed just about all countries in southeast Asia. It had been founded in 1961 with China, Korea, the Philippines and Indochina as its founding members. Burma, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and Indonesia joined in later which led to the creation of the world’s largest economic block. The EACO’s population exceeds over two billion by today. Asian products are commonplace in western shops by now and the EACO is a very important player in politics as well. Militarily China was becoming stronger as well. In 1990 the Chinese launched the 110.000 ton super carrier Sun Yat Sen. Eleven more would follow within two decades. The Indians responded with the Nehru-class carriers. By the late seventies the Chinese and Indians both had SLBMs which gave them a second strike capability. A new space race was also born when in 1980 the Chinese brought a man into space. The Indians did the same in 1985. Both started to invest heavily in their space programs and started to build space stations to research the effects of long time exposure to conditions in space. Germany was still ahead of both and put a man on Mars in 2006 to show German dominance. The Americans in the meantime started planning a lunar base for 2020 and a manned mission to Mars of their own. The Asian powers would catch up though. China and India have both signed the treaty that bans militarization of space and have kept to their word as far as western intelligence agencies know. Both countries have announced plans to put a man on the moon by 2010. In the light of this new rising super power America and Germany grew closer. In 1995 emperor Michael I who had succeeded his father a year before visited America, India and Russia to strengthen Germany’s ties with these countries. He was the first German emperor to visit America and India and also the first to visit Russia since Friedrich III. He signed a treaty of mutual friendship with both India and America. Together with the heads of state of the members of the CEDEP he also signed a partnership treaty with Russia which led to the formation of the Russia-CEDEP council and the Russia-CEDEP summit which is held every four years.
The first of these Russia-CEDEP summits led to clear agreements about combating climate change. This had become a more and more important issue over the years. Already as early as the seventies the Club of Prague announced that unlimited industrial growth couldn’t continue and that the world was being destroyed. During the nineties this became visible to the normal people as snowfall in winter decreased and summers became longer and more moist. Certain species of animals started to move north or started decreasing in number. Polar bears are among them. All the greenhouse gasses that the industrial powers sent up into the atmosphere were changing the world’s climate for the worse. Russia and CEDEP signed the so called Helsinki Protocol in 1995. The TDCO and the United States signed as well. Several Asian countries have signed too. The effects are noticeable. The hole in the ozone layer for instance has shrunk for the first since its discovery in 1979 and the rate at which the ice sheet on the north pole and the glaciers are melting, is decreasing. The Polar bears’ numbers have stabilized for the first time in a decade. This however is slowing it down, not stopping it. The two fastest growing economic powers in the world, China and India, have refused to sign as the Helsinki Protocol would inhibit their economic growth. Those two also happen to be the two largest producers of greenhouse gasses in the world. They also pollute the environment in other ways for example by dumping waste into their rivers. In China this has only stopped a year ago after fierce protests by environmental groups. This brought several species of fish and dolphin back from the brink of extinction.
Czar Nicholas III who had succeeded his father Georgy in 1989 signed the partnership treaty with the Germans as he was growing more and more concerned about China instead of Germany. Enmity between Russia and Germany had ended years ago as it was obvious to both that the other wasn’t a threat. Right now China’s economic power overshadows the economies of Germany, America and even that of resource rich Russia. The world had evolved from bipolar after the war, to tripolar with the rise of China, quadrupolar after the rise of India and now back to bipolar with the Russian-German-American-Indian block on one side and the EACO on the other. The Americans also founded the American Union, AU, as a counter block of their own. This made official what already was. South and Central America had effectively been America’s backyard since the end of the war. By 2008 the cold war between America and Germany was over out of sheer necessity as a new power had overtaken both. The era of German domination has ended. The 21st century would be China’s. The time of China has come.
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