The Footprint of Mussolini - TL

My predictions would be thus:
Duarte Nuno holds onto the throne until his death despite a gradual drawdown of Italian troops, but there's new mass protests on Duarte Pio's ascension to the throne. There will be much less willingness to massacre crowds of one's own people and he will give in to the popular demand. If he has to vacate the throne he would only do so to only become king of Angola and Mozambique, where the regime is more popular - he is an ardent monarchist OTL who would not be willing to abdicate totally. Possibly the younger brother who is more of a patron of the arts than anything else might become the constitutional monarch of Portugal, if they decide to retain a monarchy to better fit in with Spain and the UK.
King Juan Carlos follows a path similar to OTL, but with even more success due to gradually bringing democracy not to a relatively poor former pariah state, but a regional power with nuclear weapons. If there's a more violent collapse in Italy, Spain might even surpass them for a short while. He might give some of the colonial lands back, but I think that due to the relatively small numbers and close proximity of the Spanish possessions, they are unlikely to return much to Morocco.
Bulgaria will probably continue much as they had been - the tsardom did not change that much when it joined the RA, Boris III was initially one of the more popular leaders thereof and Bulgaria probably changed the least in terms of it's internal policies. It will probably remain closer to an absolutist monarchy than most states, but with a relatively free press and good relations with most neighbours absent Turkey deciding that they are the leader of the RA now and trying to bully it's peers around.
Turkey and Iran will remain fascist dictatorships, the current systems are working too well for them to change much. They will probably cooperate a lot in the future, as the world as a whole becomes less friendly to their system.
China will become slightly less fascist, but as with the CCP of OTL, they will probably never really allow democracy or free speech. They will however economically be playing catchup for longer - albeit catchup with India, whose economy was rising earlier while China was still a mess.
Italy is trapped in a guagmire. Even if they vacate Ethiopia, there will be afrofascist attacks on their other possessions until that movement tires itself out. Ciano has to walk a tightrope between needed social programs for veterans & democratic reforms and maintaining the pride and image Mussolini built up. He will likely die soon as well - Italy has turned into a gerontocracy.
India will be the rising power challenging the USA for the top spot in this timeline.
Similarly to Bulgaria, Thailand will continue with a centralized monarchical system but otherwise relatively liberal society. I'd expect them to be one of Israel's main rivals in the Global Fighting Championship though.
Rhodesia will manage to kill Mugabe eventually and will in time try to clean up their act and give more rights to the indigenous population, at least enough to begin to mend their relationship with the British Commonwealth, although the state will not be truly internally stable for a long time yet.
South Africa is due to go up in flames in a brutal racist civil war.

As the Roman Alliance dies a slow death, the ITO will be abolished or fade away into irrelevance, replaced with a complicated web of trading unions and bilateral agreements based more on historical partnerships, cultural similarities and simple pragmatic proximity.

The crowds, though still huge, were noticeably smaller than at the death of Mussolini, and the stature of the international guests were likewise nowhere near as immense as those at Mussolini’s departure. Balbo has nowhere near the levels of support Mussolini enjoys in modern Italy, being a much more decisive figure. While he is still adored by (or at least having apologetics from) the Italian Right, the Italian Left consider him the worst of Italy’s three dictators. He has also become something of a modern meme among young Italians for his joie de vivre persona that many associate with the 1960s. By contrast, among many indigenous Africans, he is considered one of the most evil men of the 20th century. Whatever Balbo’s legacy, one thing was for sure - he had a better stack of cards given to him in 1963 than Ciano did at the close of 1975.

It's this joje the virve combined with the nuking of Addis Ababa which still does not sit well with me, it looks like an idiot ball moment. Balbo was always fond of being seen in a positive light, aware of the western Anglo-American mindsets and the sort of a macho man who would not mind getting stuck in himself to battles he could send subordinates to fight. He absolutely would not have been willing to pull out from Ethiopia obviously, but given the rest of his actions in this timeline and OTL, I have a hard time he was fully compos mentis when he ordered the H-bomb to be dropped. Perhaps in the future, an aide will let slip that he had been experimenting with a brand new drug when that decision was made, it's just too shortsighted and cartoonish otherwise.
 
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He absolutely would not have been willing to pull out from Ethiopia obviously, but given the rest of his actions in this timeline and OTL, I have a hard time he was fully compos mentis when he ordered the H-bomb to be dropped. Perhaps in the future, an aide will let slip that he had been experimenting with a brand new drug when that decision was made, it's just too shortsighted and cartoonish otherwise.
My personal headcanon is that Balbo's old age at least partially contributed to his nuclear attack as he was 74 when such an attack was made.
 
My predictions would be thus:
Duarte Nuno holds onto the throne until his death despite a gradual drawdown of Italian troops, but there's new mass protests on Duarte Pio's ascension to the throne. There will be much less willingness to massacre crowds of one's own people and he will give in to the popular demand. If he has to vacate the throne he would only do so to only become king of Angola and Mozambique, where the regime is more popular - he is an ardent monarchist OTL who would not be willing to abdicate totally. Possibly the younger brother who is more of a patron of the arts than anything else might become the constitutional monarch of Portugal, if they decide to retain a monarchy to better fit in with Spain and the UK.
King Juan Carlos follows a path similar to OTL, but with even more success due to gradually bringing democracy not to a relatively poor former pariah state, but a regional power with nuclear weapons. If there's a more violent collapse in Italy, Spain might even surpass them for a short while. He might give some of the colonial lands back, but I think that due to the relatively small numbers and close proximity of the Spanish possessions, they are unlikely to return much to Morocco.
Bulgaria will probably continue much as they had been - the tsardom did not change that much when it joined the RA, Boris III was initially one of the more popular leaders thereof and Bulgaria probably changed the least in terms of it's internal policies. It will probably remain closer to an absolutist monarchy than most states, but with a relatively free press and good relations with most neighbours absent Turkey deciding that they are the leader of the RA now and trying to bully it's peers around.
Turkey and Iran will remain fascist dictatorships, the current systems are working too well for them to change much. They will probably cooperate a lot in the future, as the world as a whole becomes less friendly to their system.
China will become slightly less fascist, but as with the CCP of OTL, they will probably never really allow democracy or free speech. They will however economically be playing catchup for longer - albeit catchup with India, whose economy was rising earlier while China was still a mess.
Italy is trapped in a guagmire. Even if they vacate Ethiopia, there will be afrofascist attacks on their other possessions until that movement tires itself out. Ciano has to walk a tightrope between needed social programs for veterans & democratic reforms and maintaining the pride and image Mussolini built up. He will likely die soon as well - Italy has turned into a gerontocracy.
India will be the rising power challenging the USA for the top spot in this timeline.
Similarly to Bulgaria, Thailand will continue with a centralized monarchical system but otherwise relatively liberal society. I'd expect them to be one of Israel's main rivals in the Global Fighting Championship though.
Rhodesia will manage to kill Mugabe eventually and will in time try to clean up their act and give more rights to the indigenous population, at least enough to begin to mend their relationship with the British Commonwealth, although the state will not be truly internally stable for a long time yet.
South Africa is due to go up in flames in a brutal racist civil war.

As the Roman Alliance dies a slow death, the ITO will be abolished or fade away into irrelevance, replaced with a complicated web of trading unions and bilateral agreements based more on historical partnerships, cultural similarities and simple pragmatic proximity.



It's this joje the virve combined with the nuking of Addis Ababa which still does not sit well with me, it looks like an idiot ball moment. Balbo was always fond of being seen in a positive light, aware of the western Anglo-American mindsets and the sort of a macho man who would not mind getting stuck in himself to battles he could send subordinates to fight. He absolutely would not have been willing to pull out from Ethiopia obviously, but given the rest of his actions in this timeline and OTL, I have a hard time he was fully compos mentis when he ordered the H-bomb to be dropped. Perhaps in the future, an aide will let slip that he had been experimenting with a brand new drug when that decision was made, it's just too shortsighted and cartoonish otherwise.

Probably Balbo just didn't so much anger. Middle East was nuked and no one didn't oppose. Probably Balbo just thought that he could do in his empire whatever wants to crush rebellion.

In other hand, it is possible that Balbo begun to become senile. He was already quiet old. Yes, he did that document with BBC and was pretty clear but perhaps him had just better day like in such cases might be. Perhaps after collapse of fascism someone will reveal that during his last months Balbo had some problems with his memory.
 
It's this joje the virve combined with the nuking of Addis Ababa which still does not sit well with me, it looks like an idiot ball moment. Balbo was always fond of being seen in a positive light, aware of the western Anglo-American mindsets and the sort of a macho man who would not mind getting stuck in himself to battles he could send subordinates to fight. He absolutely would not have been willing to pull out from Ethiopia obviously, but given the rest of his actions in this timeline and OTL, I have a hard time he was fully compos mentis when he ordered the H-bomb to be dropped. Perhaps in the future, an aide will let slip that he had been experimenting with a brand new drug when that decision was made, it's just too shortsighted and cartoonish otherwise.

It's a miscalculation due to events ITTL. Here, using a nuke is considered the game ender based on all its previous usage - as well as a much more 'conventional' military weapon, especially in context of Italy's extensive use of nuclear devices, whereas owing to their non-usage in the Chinese War nukes are much more of a taboo in the West. Balbo calculated that with the Corley administration in, he would escape the worst effects of the backlash and quickly bring the war to an end. He knew that international sympathy for the Ethiopians was only going to go up in the long term, and the city was already in total ruin after fighting. They also saw Addis Ababa as 'theirs' to play with, rather than Poland being the rightful owners of Warsaw, and Balbo had arrogantly believed he's charmed the West enough to let it slide much as they did with France in the Second Arabian War. The plan fell apart when the Ethiopians did not surrender and Balbo realised he was now stuck with all the diplomatic blowback - he'd pressed for the attack in defiance of almost everyone in the Council on the basis that it would end the war. When it didn't, his arrogance deserted them and he became a lot more sober. Hubris was Balbo's main enemy. He wanted a showy, glorious end to the war, not a low-key mop-up in some mountain range near Sudan.
 
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Or more like staging an intervention to take them to rehab.

Italy: But bro, I saved your-

Israel: Yeah. yeah, you saved my life. Blah blah blah. Well you know what. You're supposed to fucking do that! You're supposed to rescue people! Yeah, you came through for me when no one else did. When no one wanted to stick their necks out for a Jew like me. But...but...because of that, I've overlooked the things you do...

Italy: Things? Things? I'm just defending-

Israel: You're hurting Ethiopia.

Italy: I do everything for that ungrateful-

Israel: What's the difference between you and the fucking Nazis?! They killed people for shitty reasons. And now you are! Sure, maybe not with gas chambers and ovens and gulags...but what does this look like.

(Israel shows Italy a picture of a dead Ethiopian family)

Israel: Is this what Italy should be? Is this what your empire is built on?

(Italy looked down, unable to speak)

Israel: You don't even look in the eye anymore. And you know what. I'm blame myself. We've been through so much, that I...I've let you do bad things. So maybe I'm guilty. But you know what. I'm done.

(Israel hands back an old rifle.)

Israel: This is the rifle you gave me back in 1943. When we fought in Trieste. But seeing the things you...you've done, maybe I was better off not taking it. Not if it meant seeing you become....

(Israel falls silent and walks away in tears, while Italy looks at the rifle with shame and longing)
 
Accurate and awesome! And yet sad at the same time...:cryingface:


My inspiration for this came from the scene in the Ray Charles movie (starring Jamie Foxx), in which his wife lets him have it for his drug abuse.

She admits she loves Ray, but she refuses to let him destroy himself with heroin.

All of us have had a moment with a friend and relative or a friend and relative has had this moment with us. Where love doesn't justify the bad things they do.
 
Somaliland and the Gulf possessions most likely. In fact, is the Suez integrated already?
Considering Egypt ITTL is a fraction of the strength, a puppet regime and generally pro-west I'd reckon at the very least the UK would be able to keep sovereignty over the canal itself well into the 21st Century. Possibly once the region begins to recover in full there would be a negotiation over shared sovereignty or at least special rights for Egypt however there will never be a complete native takeover like in 57' OTL.
 
For me most plausible thing is that Suez ends to be international zone controlled by UN. Surely South Egypt doesn't get that and hardly North Egypt too if it is even intrested. Would even Israel be intrested to control that?
 
So which British Commonwealth/overseas possessions IOTL are integrated parts of the UK in TTL?

At the moment, the Falklands, Cyprus, Malta, Gibralter and Belize. Integrating Black-majority territories (so almost all of the Carribean) were considered too politically risky, while islands like Bermuda are too important as tax havens to integrate, so the Carribean is more or less OTL.
 
At the moment, the Falklands, Cyprus, Malta, Gibralter and Belize. Integrating Black-majority territories (so almost all of the Carribean) were considered too politically risky, while islands like Bermuda are too important as tax havens to integrate, so the Carribean is more or less OTL.

What about Brirish controlled territory in the Pacific like Pictairn Island?
 
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