The Footprint of Mussolini - TL

One day's national mourning, streets named after him and the whole political spectrum lining up in droves to salute him. Leftists who didn't like him keep very quiet.

It will be a few years before serious criticism will start to emerge.

What about Turkey, Bulgaria and Greece? The latter is bound to be very interesting.
 
What about Turkey, Bulgaria and Greece? The latter is bound to be very interesting.

Turkey and Bulgaria gave condolences and lowered the flag to half-mast but no national day of mourning. Greece did have a day of mourning to prove their loyalty (or rather their collaborationist government's loyalty) which descended into farce when everyone left work to party.
 
List of national leaders of major countries.

Presidents of United State:

31. Herbert Hoover (1929 - 1933) Republicans
32. Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933 - 1944) Democrats
33. Henry A. Wallace (1944 - 1948) Democrats
34. Harry S. Truman (1948) Democrats

35. Joseph W. Martin (1948 - 1949) Republicans
36. George S. Patton (1949 - 1957) Republicans
37. Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. (1957 - ) Republicans


Monarchs of United Kingdom

George V (1910 - 1936)
Edward VIII (1936)
George VI (1936 - 1952)
Elizabeth II (1952 - )

Prime Ministers of United Kingdom

Ramsay MacDonald (1929 - 1935) Labour
Stanley Ramsay (1935 - 1937) Conservatives
Neville Chamberlain (1937 - 1940) Conservatives
Winston Churchill (1940 - 1950) Conservatives

Hugh Gaitskell (1950 - 1955) Labour
Anthony Eden (1955 - 1957) Conservatives
Hugh Gaitskell (1957 - ) Labour

France (post-WW2)

Charles De Gaulle (1944 - )

Germany (Nazi regime)

Adolf Hitler (1933 - 1944)
Heinrich Himmler (1944)

Emperors of Germany (after WW2)

Ferdinand V (1949 - )

Chancellors of Germany (After WW2)

Konrad Adenauer (1949 - ) CDU

Kings of Italy

Victor Emmanuel III (1900 - 1947)
Umberto II (1947 - )

Prime Ministers of Italy

Benito Mussolini (1922 - 1963) PNF
Italo Balbo (1963 - ) PNF


Presidents of Israel

Albert Einstein (1949 - ?) non-partisan
Yitzhak Ben-Zvi (? - ?) Mapai

Prime Ministers of Israel

David Ben-Gurion (1948 - 1949) Mapai
Menachem Begin (1949 - 1953?) Herut
David Ben-Gurion (1953 - 1957) Mapai
Menachem Begin (1957 - ) Herut

Shahs of South Iran

Mohammed Reza Pahlavi (1946 - )

Prime Ministers of South Iran

Mohammad Mossadegh (1946 - )

Republic of China (since 1945)

Chiang Kai-Shek (1945 - )

People's Republic of China

Mao Zedong (1945 - 1952)
Jiang Qing (1952 - )

Leaders of Soviet Union

Josif Stalin (1924 - 1953)
Nikita Kruchshev (1953 - 1957)
Mikhail Suslov (1957 - )
 
I think we could see a situation later in this timeline in which Italy invades Malta at the same time or just after Argentina invades the Falklands.....
 
Okay, few things to say.

1) Arrivederci, Mussolini. He may have been a bastard, but those last words were... frankly tearjerking. It's an oddly humanising parallel to Augustus - "Have I played my part well? Then applaud as I exit"/"W-was I worth Isaac's sacrifice?" - fitting considering Mussolini's accomplishments. No matter what else can be said of him, he found Italy a country of ruins, and left it relatively prosperous. Dolce Vita indeed.

...Fuck it, pouring out a drink for the bastard.

Here's to you, you fascist lunatic.

2) The heavy stuff aside, I'd be very interested in Evola's stuff, being a classics buff and all.

3) Goddamnit, Suslov. Stalinism is no way to efficiently, let alone morally run a country, and the space race is just making things worse, no matter how quiet you are. Also, Malenkov's conversion and the hints that he may be more than he seems... Is there gonna be some sort of orthodox revival Malenkov will protect, leading to the inevitable collapse of the USSR?

4) Curious as to the fate of the Guyanas. The Dutch might be able to keep theirs under the guise of- oh who am I kidding, they're gonna lose it. Still, good odds for Britain and France considering the OTL situation. Speaking of which, we've talked all about what's going on in the bigger places like Angola and Mozambique, but I'm kinda curious about the smaller ones; @Sorairo, could we get a hint of what Guinea-Bissau and the Gambia look like?

5) Just how high is British and French influence in their former colonies, technically speaking? I've got the impression that, while both are stronger than OTL, France's position is much stronger but also features far more cracks, while Britain's is more suited to the long-term and flexible.

6) Jiang was a masterstroke. Love it.
 
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A theory on Asia's future:

With Jiang's movies stopping in 1973 and her OTL death '76, I'm going to go ahead and guess 1973 is when North China falls. Which likely means Chiang Kai-Shek gets to reunite the Chinas as his last great stroke before dying. With the way North China is going I am guessing it will be less of war than a collapse. Likely Chiang and the Japanese see chaos in the USSR and set up a starting pistol for Reunification.

For China, my guess is that the RoC sweeps through the North in geberal, with the North's conscript army either deserting or surrendering enmasse for the most part. The situation is further worsened for the North with the government falling into general chaos with many officials either running for the hills or committing suicide rather than remain at their posts. The main resistance becomes fanatical party guards and Beijing; while most of the populace welcomes the RoC to varying degrees; from expecting a better life under Chiang for all his flaws to just being unwilling to lift a finger for the Jiang regime.

Beijing becomes the most touted battle of the war with Jiang hserlf overseeing a mass hysteria siege of South Beijing by her followers and garrison. A final act of madness, as if taking the walled city will save the regime by drowning it in human waves. The Southern city holds out, and ultimately paratrooper reinforcements and panic at approaching Southern armies see the siege collapse with the city falling easily save for a few knots of resistance once the ROC forces enter in force. Jiang is found drowned in a pool in the Forbidden City having apparently been betrayed in the midst of a plan to blow the historic site up along with herself as a final act. Her corpse is displayed for public ridicule as an aged Chiang enters the city in victory.

Chiang dies a happy man having reunited most of China and erased Mao's legacy. Lands he regards as lost to Korea and the breakaway states he is oddly at peace with, feeling those will be his son's wars, and a cause to rally the Chinese peopel too in the future. With Chiang's popularity at an all time high his son succeeds him fairly smoothly.

Ezo takes longer to fall with bunker style redoubts sheltering the rime and supporters who have built up a belief in an Ainu genocide if Japan returns. While the sieges drag out the outcome is not in doubt and Japan is reunified under democratic Japan though Ainu relations will long be recovering as well as the economy of the Hokkaido.

The DPRK never becomes the Hermit Kingdom we know with Kim Il Sung having no Korean War or unbroken reign to use to rebuild the nation around a personality cult. While he does promote a personality cult its not as over the top or pervasive as OTL, and it is weighed against him leading Korea as the mot successful Asian communist state and seeing economic growth through the 60s and 70s. Wit Kin relatively popular with his peopel and the system of the Korean military he is best positioned to survive the Soviet collapse. He does so by making deals with the Chinese and Japanese. In short he agrees to stand aside in the fame pof the reunification wars in exchange for being left laone. And further closes his borders to Ezo and NC giving no aid or refuge to them; even going so far as to turn over ay officials of those states to their respective aggressors.

Japan takes the deal seeing any war between them and Korea as poison, and that Ezo will be much harder to crack if they have any outside support.

Chiang would like to sweep the Red Menace from Asia, and adjust the Korean border to gain lands he regards as rightfully Chinese, but the old dictator feels his time is close and is overpowered by an urge to claim the glory of reunification for himself. And removing Korea from the war he sees as practically ensuring a swift victory for him; and reasons his own son will one day crush the last Red state.

The DPRK this survives the collapse ending p the lone red flag, a fact they hold pride in for some time. Kim earns both condemnation as a backstabber; and praise as the only sane man in Red Asia, who put his peopel before his toxic allies.

Still despite surviving and a decent reputation abroad, the Kim regime declines as the economy stagnates, and the all of the RA and the RoC dictatorship-to-democracy reform, over the years removes many justifications. In 1995 Kim Il-Sung's death is greeted with wary optimism for chage. Which doesn't come under Kim Jong-Il's reign. The dam bursts in the late 90s with a Korean Spring that the dicator tries to crush to avoid a repeat of the 70s. It fails, bringing international comdemnation and military desertion that sees the regime fall within a year of civil war, with Kim Jong-Il committing suicide rather than face capture and trial for his war crimes. The Communist Era is far better regarded in Korea than elsewhere, but still regarded as something that overstayed its welcome at best. Seen as having restored much of Korean pride and power after the Japanese terror, before Kim Jong-Il proved an inadequate inheritor and the party's deafness to the desire for change from the people made its downfall necessary.
 
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I think we could see a situation later in this timeline in which Italy invades Malta at the same time or just after Argentina invades the Falklands.....

ITO has an international jurisdiction, unlike the geographically confined NATO. Attacking Malta would start WW3, as would the Falkalnds.
 
If the films of Jiang are distributed in the West, they would have to be dubbed in English with completely re-written scripts and turn them into comedies! Now those can be laughed at and on ATL's MST3K. I can certainly see Madame Jiang awarded the Golden Raspberry award for worst actress!
 
If the films of Jiang are distributed in the West, they would have to be dubbed in English with completely re-written scripts and turn them into comedies! Now those can be laughed at and on ATL's MST3K. I can certainly see Madame Jiang awarded the Golden Raspberry award for worst actress!

A woman in her 60s pretending to be a teenager, Mary Sue-ing herself in her roles, this would be both cringe inducing and hilarious.
 
If the films of Jiang are distributed in the West, they would have to be dubbed in English with completely re-written scripts and turn them into comedies! Now those can be laughed at and on ATL's MST3K. I can certainly see Madame Jiang awarded the Golden Raspberry award for worst actress!

A woman in her 60s pretending to be a teenager, Mary Sue-ing herself in her roles, this would be both cringe inducing and hilarious.

I don't think she's pretending to be a teenager. I think Jiang Qing is a major womanchild.

Hell, Jiang's movie career could itself become the focus of a twisted black comedy. Jiang Qing has the ego of a Hollywood prima donna, and the capability of committing actual murder. That is black comedy gold right there.

Jiang Qing: Execution!

Hapless Assistant: What?

Jiang Qing: The execution of this shot is wrong.

Hapless Assistant: Oh!

Jiang Qing: For that I shall kill...

Hapless Assistant: (gasp)

Jiang Qing: The director's career!

Hapless Assissant: Yes comrade.

Jiang Qing (turn: March yourself to the gallows...

Hapless Assistant (gasp)

Jiang Qing: For the scene where we execute the traitors. Remember, we are using real prisoners for that scene, so lay down the tarp so the blood doesn't ruin the wall.

Hapless Assistant: Yes comrade.
 
Man, Balbo seems to have a massive ego. I expect that bad things will happen if it gets challenged, which will contribute to the eventual fall of italian fascism,
 
African-nationalists could very well adopt their own form of antisemitism: that Jews were responsible for colonialism. Sadly, while it isn't fair to blame Israel, Israel has strongly colluded with numerous fascist regimes. While there are understandable reasons for this, you can't really blame a poor Ethiopian person for resenting a nation that helps keep him under the Italian heel.

I can picture the likes of Kenneth Kaunda and Robert Mugabe making their own versions of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

Here we go again.

The Soviets would be the first to put a satellite, dog and man in orbit, while their three competitors in the US, Italy, and Britain stumbled behind them. In 1961, President Kennedy made the declaration that America would make it to the Moon by the end of the decade. Mussolini declared that the Italian flag would land on the Moon before the Soviet. The Space Race often fell into the background due to the Colonial conflicts that raged through Africa during the 1960s and 1970s, but it would ultimately prove the decisive blow that began the Fall of Communism, and not in the way anyone expected.

"US, Italy, and Britain stumbled behind them", the Italians and the Yanks make speeches about beating the soviets while focused primarily on their own issues?

Does this mean that the moon is to be painted pink?

Malenkov had fallen into a deep depression due to his involvement in the deaths of two Soviet leaders and the creeping fear that he was next. He had seen the total downfall of Communism in the international scene, to see it replaced with a bastardized version of Fascism of all things. To Malenkov, it seemed like things would only continue to get worse. In the Winter of 1962, he took a leave of absence, walking through the streets that evening in aimless drift. Finally, he stopped at a local Orthodox Church mid-choir. He entered, looking so disheveled that no one recognized him as a leading member of the atheistic government. The priest gave a sermon talking about the value of perseverance and hope – the words striking Malenkov deeply. On that night, Malenkov became an Orthodox Christian. Though he continued his old job in the Communist Party without any sense of contradiction, he would kindle his faith and regularly attend services on a weekly basis alongside often awestruck and often terrified co-religionists. Suslov and Molotov, who considered Malenkov as threatening as a wet sock, teased and made fun of him but did not see it as serious enough to warrant dismissal. Malenkov was considered a link to the Stalin regime, a Party loyalist and too stupid to cause much mischief. For that reason, he was humored to stay in his post. If Malenkov had been purged, one can only imagine what the 1970s would have looked like for the Soviet Union.

He loses one religion, converts almost instantly to another.

While the Surfer Rock of the early 1960s was pulled from radio, the Heavy Metal of the early 1970s was actually seen as something that would encourage soldiers in the field of battle – it would form many a soundtrack to the nightmares of Italian soldiers in Ethiopia. Football hooliganism was actually encouraged by the police, with the police arranging venues for rival supporters to ‘have some fun’. At the same time, gaudy reconstructions of ancient Roman sites began to encourage a feeling of continuity with the ancient world. Khoms in Libya was renamed Leptis Magna and made to look like the styles of yore. Evola’s attempts to promote the ancient Roman Gods over the Christian were shot down by the Church and Balbo but it didn’t cost him his career. Under Evola, Italy’s film industry would undergo a great revival, particularly with its great directors like Sergio Leone. Leone’s ‘Spaghetti Westerns’ which focussed on settler life in Libya and Ethiopia have since been greatly criticized for their Fascistic undertones, but their artistic worth is unquestioned.

Reconstructions of ancient sites? Does Italy not have historians and archeologists who would be able to explain why attempts to rebuild a historic structure are more damaging to the study and authenticity thereof?
 
Reconstructions of ancient sites? Does Italy not have historians and archeologists who would be able to explain why attempts to rebuild a historic structure are more damaging to the study and authenticity thereof?

They likely got overruled by party propagandists, who are more concerned with selling an image of the ancient world to fit Fascism than any historic accuracy.

Also for Balbo nuking a sea into existence ITTL, that makes an odd parallel to the Soviets killing a sea OTL. I wonder how viable the new sea will be and its impact on the ecosystem.

I love the image of the Greeks putting on the forced mourning, only to then clockout and start celebrating. Like the Vegetable Festival in Curse of the Wererabbit.
 
She may be batshit insane but at least she's pouring most of her energies into making glamour films instead of national purges like Stalin or recreating the hell on Earth that is the Islamic State.

Yes, but when world leaders indulge in such nonsense, it is a sign of a society in serious crisis or being on the verge of collapse.

You can laugh at this, but remember that there are millions of people who face severe punishment for treating these antics like jokes.
 
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