I looked it up and the combat range of the B-29 is 5.230 km and the distance between the northern Philippines and Kyushu is approximately 2000 km so it's possible.
The Munich Coup - my latest TL
- Thread starter Onkel Willie
- Start date
Oops. My bad. I thought the Philippines were further away. Sorry.
Update 
. I divided it in two parts to make it less ... intimidating.
Stalin and the Japanese militarists had finally been defeated and peace reigned over the battlefields of Europe and Asia. Now it was time to make a peace settlement and end the abhorrent communist regimes whose horrors where now all made public from the Holodomor, mass deportations of kulaks, Poles, Crimean Tatars, Chechens and the purges to the massacres of Polish army officers, brutal repression, destruction of churches, starvation campaigns, genocide, rape, murder, pillage and massive violations of human rights. Japan wasn’t much better off as they had used thousands of natives and prisoners of war as slave labour to build railroads and bridges for them under terrible circumstances and the newsreels about these worn down living skeletons who suffered from infections and had lice and fleas enraged the American public and combined with communist atrocities, the revulsion was enormous and many called for heavy reprisals against both the defeated Soviet Union and Japan. Pope Pius XII was abhorred and called for a continued ideological crusade against communism, implicitly referring to Maoist China, officially known as the Peoples’ Republic of China (which went unrecognised by most of the world except for Japan and the ex-Soviet Union); he called it ‘our duty as Christians to liberate the people of China’. Both general Patton and his colleague in the Pacific, general Macarthur, advocated marching all the way to Beijing, something that American politicians weren’t completely averse to and with an occupation of Taiwan and Japan, America was in an ideal position. Peace, however, needed to be made first and half the European continent and large parts of Asia and the Middle East needed to be rebuilt again after one of the most devastating conflicts in world history. Over 60 million people had perished and destruction had been wrought over two continents and Europe was war weary because of it. The world was changed forever even if many wanted to go back to the old order.
A peace conference was called in Istanbul although the defeated powers would get a dictated peace and as they were in no position to demand a conditional surrender. In regards to the former Soviet Union, now ruled by a military junta, the following points were made: 1. The new Russia was to recognise the independence of Finland, the Baltic states, the Ukraine and Belarus, and the sovereignty of Poland, 2. Bessarabia was to be returned to Romania and Karelia to Finland, 3. Soviet occupational forces were to leave the Middle East and other occupied areas, 4. The communist party was declared a terrorist organization was to be disbanded, elections were to be organized and a referendum held on the new system of government, 5. The extradition of Red Army generals for war crimes (including the junta’s leaders) was a nonnegotiable condition for peace, 6. A demilitarized zone was to be created on the new western border, 7. War reparations were demanded from whatever new Russian government would be shaped, 8. Russia was to cede small areas of Belarus to Poland, Transnistria to Romania, the Don, Kuban and Rostov regions to the Ukraine and Smolensk to the newly created Byelorussian Republic which they were to recognise as well and 9. The former USSR was to be occupied for five years. Total occupation and division of Russia was not contemplated as Russia was deemed too large and the Allies feared a long guerrilla resistance. Instead, the Allies limited themselves to European Russia and only gave independence to the Ukrainians and Byelorussians. Central Asia had seen much Russification under the Tsars and then again under Stalin. Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, on the other hand, had managed to preserve their identity and declared independence in the wake of the Soviet surrender. This was recognised in an adjunct protocol. These countries would have turned into vassals of either Turkey or a resurgent Russia, but managed to play them off and maintain independence.
Japan could count on even less lenience as they were weaker than Russia and because the US insisted on a heavy punishment so they would the major power in the Pacific. Japan would be allowed to keep Sakhalin and all the Kuril Islands and Taiwan (to avoid putting it in Mao Zedong’s hands). Japan, would however, be occupied by Allied (mostly American, French and British) forces for ten years and would be fully demilitarized and stripped of war industries. Like the USSR, their war criminals would be put on trail (initially they wanted to put their war criminals on trail themselves, but the Americans quickly ended that illusion). This was concluded in the Treaty of Istanbul on June 18th, 1946.
In retrospect, this was a lenient peace as there were proponents of completely annihilating the Soviet Union, Japan and China through conventional and nuclear bombing and bringing these countries back to medieval circumstances and leaving the survivors as docile peasants. This was proposed in the so-called Morgenthau plan developed by Henry Morgenthau Jr., United States Secretary of the Treasury. This plan was dismissed as impractical as the Allies only had a few dozen nuclear weapons, far from the hundreds required for such an operation, and because it was ‘too horrible to even contemplate’ according to even President Dewey. The US harboured no ill feelings to the Russian population at large, only towards the communist clique under Stalin which would soon be put on trial if the military junta hadn’t executed them already. With this done, the long task of rebuilding lay ahead and the question of what to do with the world’s last communist state, China under Mao, would have to be answered. The first was decided by a conference of the Allied foreign ministers and ministers of internal affairs and the decision was made to make the rebuilding a common Euro-American effort. Britain, Germany and France both had largely untouched economies although they still had to switch back to a peacetime economy, not an easy task, but their country was in one piece unlike parts of eastern Europe. Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania, ex-Yugoslavia, Greece, Persia, Iraq and parts of India were devastated by battle and occupation. It was also decided to build a common European defence and economic structure. In the Treaty of Prague, this was called the European Economic and Defence Alliance or EEDA, formed in 1947. This was out of charitable, but also pragmatic motives. The Allies didn’t want to see communist or fascist totalitarian governments arise in eastern Europe or the Middle East. As for Mao, the United States began moving against him. This EEDA included the major European powers of Germany, Britain and France, but also Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Ukraine, Belarus, Finland, Sweden, the Baltic states and Norway. The fascist powers of Spain and Italy, with its southern block of Hungary, Bulgaria, Greece, Croatia and Serbia, were kept slightly away from European integration as they were not democratic and the Kaiser preferred to keep them (i.e. Mussolini) at arm’s length. They were organized into another common economic and defence structure known as the Southern League (SL), which also included Spain and Portugal, in the Treaty of Naples. These collective economic and defence structures would deter any kind of revanchist Russia and/or Japan although the former’s collective psyche was heavily damaged and they would need to do some soul searching for the foreseeable future.
These blocks were similar in their organization. The EEDA and SL both had a sort of European parliament and an annual meeting of prime ministers, foreign ministers and the heads of state and also a council of ministers which convened three times a year. There was also a directory and in the EEDA, the great powers of Germany, Britain and France each held a directory seat. There was also a fourth seat in the directory which rotated biannually with Poland being granted the first round as the fourth directory member and as the fourth member, Poland was also secretary. This was done partially on the initiative of Emperor Ludwig Ferdinand who wanted to build up at least cordial relations with his eastern neighbour now that he had the possibility to do so. The SL had a directory as well, but it differed in that it only had Italy as a member and Spain as a junior partner with the other members exercising little power. Both were economic structures as well and there was talk about a common currency. Due to the chauvinism of the day, that would be delayed until the 1970s, but agreements were made about common markets, a customs union, exchange of capital, services and labour, an end to internal borders to stimulate trade in Europe, abolishment of tariffs and instead instating tariffs for non-EEDA members only. The SL did roughly the same although Italy was economically the dominant power while in the EEDA this position was shared between the triumvirate of France, Germany and Britain.
As of 1946, Chinese forces still occupied Korea where a certain Kim Il-Sung had declared the Democratic Peoples’ Republic of Korea or DPRK for short. The Americans couldn’t accept the existence of a communist Korean state so close to their sphere of influence (occupied Japan) and also didn’t want to see another Stalin rise and grow strong enough to threaten them a few decades down the road. The Americans posited an ultimatum in August 1946 in which they demanded that Mao’s forced left Korea as it was a violation of Korean sovereignty and that they would allow democratic elections to see whether the population really wanted Kim Il-Sung and his band. Mao, by now, had had three years to consolidate his grip on China and was not about to undergo a humiliation that would compromise his image of China’s defender against western imperialism. He refused, declaring that this was the will of the Korean people as they were 100% supportive of their new government and began mobilizing troops to counter a possible American invasion although Mao knew that the Americans had qualitative superiority in all fields. The only thing Mao had going for him was quantity and that alone wasn’t enough. The Anglo-French-Americans responded with a naval blockade as China was not self sufficient. They couldn’t feed an entire population of over half a billion people.
Military action was also being prepared to forcefully remove the Chinese from Korea. American troops supported by the navy landed near Busan where they were met by the Korean Peoples’ Army, created under Mao and Stalin, but still in a nascent stage. The Peoples’ Liberation Army (often abbreviated to PLA), which was the PRC’s army, was sent in although the PLA now mostly still was a peasant militia, albeit an enormous one by any standards. With the Soviet surrender, they had inherited some equipment and Stalin had already given equipment to Mao as well during the war although this was limited. He had used this to establish his authority over all of China and later in Mongolia and Inner Manchuria after Soviet troops had left. Most of the PLA, however, still consisted of peasants armed with old rifles and pistols with a lack of anything heavier such as anti-tank weapons, artillery or tanks. The PLAAF (Peoples’ Liberation Army Air Force) was still in a very embryonic stage with perhaps only a few hundred modern Soviet-built aircraft and without long-range heavy bombers, the PLAAF lacked any kind of power projection to even nearby Japan. Needless to say, the landings at Busan succeeded and their execution was flawless. Diehard fanatical resistance from the KPA and PLA succeeded in slowing the Allied advance down, but their lines were broken by new American tanks such as the M26 Pershing and they were caught in pockets and destroyed albeit at a cost. In certain ways, these fanatics were similar to the Japanese in their refusal to surrender and their ‘fight to the death’ stance. Mao responded by sending the handful of modern units he had to Korea. These armoured units equipped with T-34s, the latest version of the IS-tanks and the new T-54 halted the advance at the halfway point between Busan and the Yalu river that separated China from Korea. The launched a counteroffensive with the use of human wave tactics and the new tanks which were an odd combination. Allied air superiority inflicted massive casualties, but this had an effect on morale as seeing hordes of millions of screaming Chinamen was surely impressive and they managed to advance south regardless of losses. The offensive was stopped at Seoul. A strategic bombing campaign also commenced against Chinese cities and soon China was suffering the same one thousand plane raids that Japan had suffered although China was larger and would take longer to bring to its knees that way.
. I divided it in two parts to make it less ... intimidating. Chapter III: Rebuilding Europe and Asia & the Fate of Mao, 1946-1966
Stalin and the Japanese militarists had finally been defeated and peace reigned over the battlefields of Europe and Asia. Now it was time to make a peace settlement and end the abhorrent communist regimes whose horrors where now all made public from the Holodomor, mass deportations of kulaks, Poles, Crimean Tatars, Chechens and the purges to the massacres of Polish army officers, brutal repression, destruction of churches, starvation campaigns, genocide, rape, murder, pillage and massive violations of human rights. Japan wasn’t much better off as they had used thousands of natives and prisoners of war as slave labour to build railroads and bridges for them under terrible circumstances and the newsreels about these worn down living skeletons who suffered from infections and had lice and fleas enraged the American public and combined with communist atrocities, the revulsion was enormous and many called for heavy reprisals against both the defeated Soviet Union and Japan. Pope Pius XII was abhorred and called for a continued ideological crusade against communism, implicitly referring to Maoist China, officially known as the Peoples’ Republic of China (which went unrecognised by most of the world except for Japan and the ex-Soviet Union); he called it ‘our duty as Christians to liberate the people of China’. Both general Patton and his colleague in the Pacific, general Macarthur, advocated marching all the way to Beijing, something that American politicians weren’t completely averse to and with an occupation of Taiwan and Japan, America was in an ideal position. Peace, however, needed to be made first and half the European continent and large parts of Asia and the Middle East needed to be rebuilt again after one of the most devastating conflicts in world history. Over 60 million people had perished and destruction had been wrought over two continents and Europe was war weary because of it. The world was changed forever even if many wanted to go back to the old order.
A peace conference was called in Istanbul although the defeated powers would get a dictated peace and as they were in no position to demand a conditional surrender. In regards to the former Soviet Union, now ruled by a military junta, the following points were made: 1. The new Russia was to recognise the independence of Finland, the Baltic states, the Ukraine and Belarus, and the sovereignty of Poland, 2. Bessarabia was to be returned to Romania and Karelia to Finland, 3. Soviet occupational forces were to leave the Middle East and other occupied areas, 4. The communist party was declared a terrorist organization was to be disbanded, elections were to be organized and a referendum held on the new system of government, 5. The extradition of Red Army generals for war crimes (including the junta’s leaders) was a nonnegotiable condition for peace, 6. A demilitarized zone was to be created on the new western border, 7. War reparations were demanded from whatever new Russian government would be shaped, 8. Russia was to cede small areas of Belarus to Poland, Transnistria to Romania, the Don, Kuban and Rostov regions to the Ukraine and Smolensk to the newly created Byelorussian Republic which they were to recognise as well and 9. The former USSR was to be occupied for five years. Total occupation and division of Russia was not contemplated as Russia was deemed too large and the Allies feared a long guerrilla resistance. Instead, the Allies limited themselves to European Russia and only gave independence to the Ukrainians and Byelorussians. Central Asia had seen much Russification under the Tsars and then again under Stalin. Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, on the other hand, had managed to preserve their identity and declared independence in the wake of the Soviet surrender. This was recognised in an adjunct protocol. These countries would have turned into vassals of either Turkey or a resurgent Russia, but managed to play them off and maintain independence.
Japan could count on even less lenience as they were weaker than Russia and because the US insisted on a heavy punishment so they would the major power in the Pacific. Japan would be allowed to keep Sakhalin and all the Kuril Islands and Taiwan (to avoid putting it in Mao Zedong’s hands). Japan, would however, be occupied by Allied (mostly American, French and British) forces for ten years and would be fully demilitarized and stripped of war industries. Like the USSR, their war criminals would be put on trail (initially they wanted to put their war criminals on trail themselves, but the Americans quickly ended that illusion). This was concluded in the Treaty of Istanbul on June 18th, 1946.
In retrospect, this was a lenient peace as there were proponents of completely annihilating the Soviet Union, Japan and China through conventional and nuclear bombing and bringing these countries back to medieval circumstances and leaving the survivors as docile peasants. This was proposed in the so-called Morgenthau plan developed by Henry Morgenthau Jr., United States Secretary of the Treasury. This plan was dismissed as impractical as the Allies only had a few dozen nuclear weapons, far from the hundreds required for such an operation, and because it was ‘too horrible to even contemplate’ according to even President Dewey. The US harboured no ill feelings to the Russian population at large, only towards the communist clique under Stalin which would soon be put on trial if the military junta hadn’t executed them already. With this done, the long task of rebuilding lay ahead and the question of what to do with the world’s last communist state, China under Mao, would have to be answered. The first was decided by a conference of the Allied foreign ministers and ministers of internal affairs and the decision was made to make the rebuilding a common Euro-American effort. Britain, Germany and France both had largely untouched economies although they still had to switch back to a peacetime economy, not an easy task, but their country was in one piece unlike parts of eastern Europe. Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania, ex-Yugoslavia, Greece, Persia, Iraq and parts of India were devastated by battle and occupation. It was also decided to build a common European defence and economic structure. In the Treaty of Prague, this was called the European Economic and Defence Alliance or EEDA, formed in 1947. This was out of charitable, but also pragmatic motives. The Allies didn’t want to see communist or fascist totalitarian governments arise in eastern Europe or the Middle East. As for Mao, the United States began moving against him. This EEDA included the major European powers of Germany, Britain and France, but also Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Ukraine, Belarus, Finland, Sweden, the Baltic states and Norway. The fascist powers of Spain and Italy, with its southern block of Hungary, Bulgaria, Greece, Croatia and Serbia, were kept slightly away from European integration as they were not democratic and the Kaiser preferred to keep them (i.e. Mussolini) at arm’s length. They were organized into another common economic and defence structure known as the Southern League (SL), which also included Spain and Portugal, in the Treaty of Naples. These collective economic and defence structures would deter any kind of revanchist Russia and/or Japan although the former’s collective psyche was heavily damaged and they would need to do some soul searching for the foreseeable future.
These blocks were similar in their organization. The EEDA and SL both had a sort of European parliament and an annual meeting of prime ministers, foreign ministers and the heads of state and also a council of ministers which convened three times a year. There was also a directory and in the EEDA, the great powers of Germany, Britain and France each held a directory seat. There was also a fourth seat in the directory which rotated biannually with Poland being granted the first round as the fourth directory member and as the fourth member, Poland was also secretary. This was done partially on the initiative of Emperor Ludwig Ferdinand who wanted to build up at least cordial relations with his eastern neighbour now that he had the possibility to do so. The SL had a directory as well, but it differed in that it only had Italy as a member and Spain as a junior partner with the other members exercising little power. Both were economic structures as well and there was talk about a common currency. Due to the chauvinism of the day, that would be delayed until the 1970s, but agreements were made about common markets, a customs union, exchange of capital, services and labour, an end to internal borders to stimulate trade in Europe, abolishment of tariffs and instead instating tariffs for non-EEDA members only. The SL did roughly the same although Italy was economically the dominant power while in the EEDA this position was shared between the triumvirate of France, Germany and Britain.
As of 1946, Chinese forces still occupied Korea where a certain Kim Il-Sung had declared the Democratic Peoples’ Republic of Korea or DPRK for short. The Americans couldn’t accept the existence of a communist Korean state so close to their sphere of influence (occupied Japan) and also didn’t want to see another Stalin rise and grow strong enough to threaten them a few decades down the road. The Americans posited an ultimatum in August 1946 in which they demanded that Mao’s forced left Korea as it was a violation of Korean sovereignty and that they would allow democratic elections to see whether the population really wanted Kim Il-Sung and his band. Mao, by now, had had three years to consolidate his grip on China and was not about to undergo a humiliation that would compromise his image of China’s defender against western imperialism. He refused, declaring that this was the will of the Korean people as they were 100% supportive of their new government and began mobilizing troops to counter a possible American invasion although Mao knew that the Americans had qualitative superiority in all fields. The only thing Mao had going for him was quantity and that alone wasn’t enough. The Anglo-French-Americans responded with a naval blockade as China was not self sufficient. They couldn’t feed an entire population of over half a billion people.
Military action was also being prepared to forcefully remove the Chinese from Korea. American troops supported by the navy landed near Busan where they were met by the Korean Peoples’ Army, created under Mao and Stalin, but still in a nascent stage. The Peoples’ Liberation Army (often abbreviated to PLA), which was the PRC’s army, was sent in although the PLA now mostly still was a peasant militia, albeit an enormous one by any standards. With the Soviet surrender, they had inherited some equipment and Stalin had already given equipment to Mao as well during the war although this was limited. He had used this to establish his authority over all of China and later in Mongolia and Inner Manchuria after Soviet troops had left. Most of the PLA, however, still consisted of peasants armed with old rifles and pistols with a lack of anything heavier such as anti-tank weapons, artillery or tanks. The PLAAF (Peoples’ Liberation Army Air Force) was still in a very embryonic stage with perhaps only a few hundred modern Soviet-built aircraft and without long-range heavy bombers, the PLAAF lacked any kind of power projection to even nearby Japan. Needless to say, the landings at Busan succeeded and their execution was flawless. Diehard fanatical resistance from the KPA and PLA succeeded in slowing the Allied advance down, but their lines were broken by new American tanks such as the M26 Pershing and they were caught in pockets and destroyed albeit at a cost. In certain ways, these fanatics were similar to the Japanese in their refusal to surrender and their ‘fight to the death’ stance. Mao responded by sending the handful of modern units he had to Korea. These armoured units equipped with T-34s, the latest version of the IS-tanks and the new T-54 halted the advance at the halfway point between Busan and the Yalu river that separated China from Korea. The launched a counteroffensive with the use of human wave tactics and the new tanks which were an odd combination. Allied air superiority inflicted massive casualties, but this had an effect on morale as seeing hordes of millions of screaming Chinamen was surely impressive and they managed to advance south regardless of losses. The offensive was stopped at Seoul. A strategic bombing campaign also commenced against Chinese cities and soon China was suffering the same one thousand plane raids that Japan had suffered although China was larger and would take longer to bring to its knees that way.
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A landing at Incheon, north of Seoul, under general Dwight D. Eisenhower and admiral Chester Nimitz, successfully cut off the spearheads of the Chinese advance and armoured forces under George S. Patton destroyed them and a vigorous counteroffensive soon led to a rout of Chinese forces who he had pushed back to Pyongyang by January 1947, only slowed down by the Korean mountains and some diehard guerrilla fighters. A new interim government was formed in the liberated south of Korea and in China, opposition to Mao grew and his position in the party weakened, especially after President Dewey implicitly stated that nuclear weapons were an option that he kept open. Both Patton and Macarthur advocated their use against the Chinese. By March, Korea was liberated and unified under a capitalist, pro-western government in Seoul. Mao, in the meantime, regrouped on the Yalu river where he organized a stubborn defence. The northern bank was transformed into a bulwark in short order with millions of Chinese soldiers arriving to aid in the defence of China and with trenches, minefields, barbed wire and anti-tank ditches being made out of scratch. The Americans attacked, but were outnumbered 3:1 and the offensive ended in a bloody stalemate in the trenches with soaring casualty rates for both sides in spite of air superiority. Patton, as commander in the field, requested permission for the use of nuclear weapons, using heavy casualties as leverage. Three ±20 kiloton devices were used which caused an enormous gap in Chinese lines. The PLA retreated in disorder and at this point Mao was in an extremely uncertain position.
On March 7th 1947, a palace coup took place as a triumvirate of general Peng, Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping ousted Mao. The nuclear attacks, combined with the devastation caused by the strategic bombing campaign and the famine induced by the naval blockade (which the Allies conducted with impunity) were a series of disasters in Mao’s foolish war against the west and they didn’t tolerate that nor the enormous concentration of political power in his person. They quickly formed a new government and announced that Mao would be put on trial for ‘threatening the revolution’. The new government with Zhou Enlai as secretary-general, Deng Xiaoping as premier and Peng in charge of the military, virulently denounced Stalin and what that they called Stalinism and Maoism and made very clear their view that Maoism was foreign imposed, a view that was shared by many (although not all) western politicians. They surrendered on March 12th as Allied forces were pouring into Manchuria.
The Americans and British were somewhat more receptive to this new government as they were seen as a moderating influence (partially because of their coup against Mao) and because they dropped the anti-capitalist rhetoric, denouncing ‘communist practices’ and also because Mao was still seen as a puppet imposed by Stalin. A peace was would be negotiated although the Allies decisively had the upper hand in the negotiations. The Chinese were to recognise Korean independence and America’s right to establish bases in northern Korea and Taiwan and they were to acknowledge any treaties made by previous Chinese governments (unless those had been aborted by said governments) such as British rule over Hong Kong, Portuguese rule over Macau and so on. They were to recognise Tibetan independence as well although they were allowed to keep Mongolia and Inner Manchuria. To pre-empt any American demand for free, democratic elections, the Chinese offered to create a coalition government with the only other Chinese party of any substance worth mentioning, the battered and marginalized Nationalists of the Kuomintang which were by now leaderless as Chiang Kai-Shek had been executed by the communists. This would effectively turn China into some sort of pseudo-fascist state instead of a communist one and this power sharing compromise was included in the peace treaty, with the provision that once China no longer needed strongmen to keep order and rebuild, elections would be organized although this was a vague definition that would ultimately keep the dictatorial CCP-KMT government in power for over four decades even though they arguably did do good things such as unifying China and ending the civil war and rebuilding a battered nation into a great power under the new name of Social Nationalist Party of China. Lastly, China also recognised Japanese rule over Taiwan. This was the end of the Korean War or the Chinese War as it is known although it’s often considered to be the last phase of the Second World War.
In Europe, in the meantime, reconstruction efforts and massive aid programmes for eastern Europe had begun to ease their suffering. The same was so for the Middle East which would see enormous efforts from all the great powers. They would invest there heavily to rebuild these former battlefields and these countries would be very grateful and this would ensure that countries like Poland and Czechoslovakia would forget their grudges against the west which had spilt its own blood to liberate them. The same applied to the Middle Eastern countries with the occasional bout of estrangement over topics like colonialism and the like and the incidental flare-up of militant Islamism. The western countries had been spared massive destruction and had been set up for a massive post-war economic boom from all their investments in the aforementioned eastern Europe and the Middle East. With an end to the Maoist regime, China and its massive labour force was also opening up to European investors once again as was Russia which was a massive market for any western entrepreneur and lots of untapped resources. In the meantime, the St. Petersburg trials (Leningrad had been renamed to its old name) of Soviet war criminals had begun as evidence had now been gathered. Beria was dead, but most other NKVD leaders were still alive and in the same Lubyanka prison where they had tortured so many counterrevolutionaries. They were transferred to St. Petersburg with most military leaders. They mostly given death sentences and otherwise lengthy prison sentences. Most prominent stars were Zhukov, Konev and Timoshenko who had conducted the invasions and Mechlis who was the highest ranking NKVD officer left alive.
With the prevalence of rightwing and fascist ideas and the taboo on communism as it was a pariah ideology with 20 million deaths on its name besides the 60 million who had perished in the war, the west would take a rightwing and liberal course for the next few years where the ideas of colonialism and imperialism were upheld. The people in Asia had been gaining a national conscience for quite a while. Japan was an aggressor, to which they agreed, but a yellow Asian people had inflicted severe defeats on the Europeans before they managed to collectively beat Japan into the ground. This inspired nationalists across Asia and with the end of communism as a viable ideology, many Asian peoples flocked to the banner of Asian nationalism. This would be the start of a long and painful decolonization progress, something which the new Republic of China supported. French Indochina had a rebel movement under Ho Chi Minh who had switched from communism to nationalism as his ideology and with China so close, they had an influx of Chinese weapons and older Soviet-made equipment along with Chinese ‘advisors’. The French responded by sending troops to restore order in what would be one of the longest colonial wars in Asia. Something similar happened in the Dutch East Indies where Sukarno stood up. Malaysia also voiced a cry for independence as did India. In the latter case though, London had recognised that India’s time for more leeway had come. With nearly 400 million inhabitants, India could not remain a crown colony forever and with the populist rhetoric of nationalist leader Subhas Chandra Bose who had formed the Indian National Army, becoming very popular, it was inevitable. Even with the outbreak of the war, he hadn’t changed his mind. He saw it as an opportunity to get rid of the British and he had visited both Moscow and Tokyo. The ever growing popularity of the Indian National Army led to fear of a massive colonial war and a hopeless quagmire for Britain. Initially, Bose wanted full independence, but settled for Dominion status in the British Commonwealth in 1949.
The Dutch East Indies and French Indochina would have to wait longer. The Dutch ended their neutrality and joined the EEDA and so they gained French and British support in Asia. Ultimately, independence was unavoidable, but the Asians would have to fight for it. The French would wage an ongoing counterinsurgency campaign against Ho Chi Minh’s guerrillas throughout the fifties until popular support for what is now called the Indochinese War ended and French forces withdrew in 1962 after a fierce and sometimes brutal fight. After three years of insurgency, Sukarno proclaimed the Republic of Indonesia in 1949 which the Dutch refused to recognise. The French sometimes provided naval and aerial assistance and educated the Dutch army in anti-guerrilla tactics. They would remain in the Dutch East Indies until 1955 although by then they only controlled the Moluccas and Java. Burma achieved independence in that same year and Malaysia in 1960 as Britain wanted to keep the colony and its valuable oil and rubber.
In Europe, the economic boom of the late forties continued into the fifties which were highlighted by more integration as the EEDA extended its reach. Members were Germany, Britain, France, Poland, Czechoslovakia, the Scandinavian countries (including Denmark which had joined in 1948), Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic states and Romania. The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxemburg all joined in 1949 following Denmark’s example. Ireland would join in 1955 for the obvious economic benefits that membership entailed, leaving Switzerland the only neutral country in Europe although they would join in 1960 out of fear for their fascist southern neighbour. In 1951, Turkey made the choice to join Mussolini’s SL which had less qualms about their not fully democratic government than the EEDA which denied them admission until they democratized. With these integrated markets and political structures, the EEDA was now a certified powerhouse that could compete with the US which had risen to superpower status (the SL less so, but she was still a force to be reckoned with). Dewey, the US president who in 1948 had just won a second term, was somewhat reluctant to end isolationism after being dragged into what he saw as a European war (even if it was against communism), but it was no inescapably clear that Washington could no longer ignore the world stage and its status of superpower in it. The EEDA was undergoing a period of prosperity and growth unseen since the roaring twenties and by the end of the 1950s was ready to expand outside of Europe to include countries like New Zealand, Australia and Canada. Bilateral talks were held to strengthen political relations and increase trade. The step toward a global alliance wouldn’t be made until 1966, but this power block of the EEDA, the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand would be the world’s most powerful alliance, known as the Global Democratic Alliance or GDA.
Mussolini saw increasing US-EEDA relations as threat to the Southern League and increased funding for his atomic program and also began courting the new Chinese regime which began an alliance of convenience with the Italians as they had no conflicting interests with them, unlike the other colonial powers who all had interests in Asia. This Sino-Italian alliance led to Italian economic and technical experts being sent to Beijing to help modernize China. By 1956, China had seen a decade of change. The end of Mao’s regime had heralded the beginning of a new China with massive foreign investment. Understandably, some sectors were nationalized. Coal and steel were considered integral to modern economies and ended up under state supervision. When oil was discovered in Manchuria in 1954 (the Daqing oilfield), the oil sector was also nationalized as was the electricity sector. Under the triumvirate of Zhou Enlai, Deng Xiaoping and general Peng, a modernization campaign was begun. China turned out to have the world’s largest supply of coal and many coal mines sprang up with foreign assistance. China was also electrified or so the government claimed. In reality, most rural areas were still not electrified by 1960, but electricity production had seen massive increases nonetheless (to 25 billion kWh by 1960 approximately). China was not yet recognised as a great power, but that would soon end. By the mid sixties, China would the largest producer of steel and coal and would see the beginnings of its now booming electronics industry. With its oceans of cheap labour, China could easily produce cheaper computers, TVs and kitchen appliances than any western country. A flourishing trade arose with China and a banking system began to evolve. This growth increased as Chinese entrepreneurs and businessmen went international as they went to the stock market.
This was also the start of the space race and arms race although race is perhaps not the right word. At the time, the GDA was the only competing power with the SL a distant second. The European powers and the US experienced budget surpluses for much of the late 40s and the 50s which they spent on new prestige projects. This would lead to, among other things, France and Italy becoming nuclear powers in 1952 and 1955 respectively (although the Italian project was rushed by an impatient Mussolini, leading to a first test of ‘only’ 9 kilotons). The Americans and the Anglo-German-French compact responded by creating multi-megaton ranged hydrogen bombs or fusion weapons, commonly abbreviated to H-Bomb. The step to fusion after one had learned fission was theoretically not very difficult although Italy had the smallest economy of the European powers. Their fusion weapon would have to wait until 1965. The rather underappreciated Asian giant China would also awaken the world and focus attention on themselves as an Asian great power with their first test in 1962 (rumour has it that the Italians sold them a non-functional nuclear warhead for study which accelerated their project). With the detonation of a hydrogen bomb in 1964, China was the country that had made the step from fission to fusion the fastest and was the first nuclear power of Asia.
The space race remained in western hands and they made tremendous leaps. Ballistic missiles had been played with since the 1920s and had never seen much attention. That changed after the war as several generals saw their military applications as they could not be shot down in any way and could deliver a payload (conventional or chemical) anywhere in theory. German rocket scientist Wernher von Braun was approached and was offered funding beyond his wildest dreams as long as he also found military applications for weapons, leading to the intercontinental missiles we see today. The effort was quickly expanded to a joint European effort of the great powers which would eventually come to include the US as well. Their first victory they achieved in 1949 by achieving semi-orbit with a so-called A4 missile. This initial work was greatly expanded upon and both the US and the Euros sent man’s first primitive artificial satellites into space in the early and mid 1950s, quickly followed by manned flight in 1957 after repeatedly testing their safety measures on dogs for the Europeans and monkeys for the Americans which was a great leap forward for humanity as they had set their first steps off planet earth and into the wider universe which increased the enthusiasm for further exploration even more. With the tightening of Euro-American relations, their space programs were merged in the early sixties as a prelude to the forming of the GDA. Their combined industrial power was gigantic and in 1961 a legendary event would take place with the first manned lunar landing (already preceded by several exploration probes in the late 50s). This event was widely publicized and hailed as a triumph of western ingenuity, strength and endurance. It was a boost to the ego of the west which saw China slowly creeping up and colonial wars in Africa looming on its doorstep.
On March 7th 1947, a palace coup took place as a triumvirate of general Peng, Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping ousted Mao. The nuclear attacks, combined with the devastation caused by the strategic bombing campaign and the famine induced by the naval blockade (which the Allies conducted with impunity) were a series of disasters in Mao’s foolish war against the west and they didn’t tolerate that nor the enormous concentration of political power in his person. They quickly formed a new government and announced that Mao would be put on trial for ‘threatening the revolution’. The new government with Zhou Enlai as secretary-general, Deng Xiaoping as premier and Peng in charge of the military, virulently denounced Stalin and what that they called Stalinism and Maoism and made very clear their view that Maoism was foreign imposed, a view that was shared by many (although not all) western politicians. They surrendered on March 12th as Allied forces were pouring into Manchuria.
The Americans and British were somewhat more receptive to this new government as they were seen as a moderating influence (partially because of their coup against Mao) and because they dropped the anti-capitalist rhetoric, denouncing ‘communist practices’ and also because Mao was still seen as a puppet imposed by Stalin. A peace was would be negotiated although the Allies decisively had the upper hand in the negotiations. The Chinese were to recognise Korean independence and America’s right to establish bases in northern Korea and Taiwan and they were to acknowledge any treaties made by previous Chinese governments (unless those had been aborted by said governments) such as British rule over Hong Kong, Portuguese rule over Macau and so on. They were to recognise Tibetan independence as well although they were allowed to keep Mongolia and Inner Manchuria. To pre-empt any American demand for free, democratic elections, the Chinese offered to create a coalition government with the only other Chinese party of any substance worth mentioning, the battered and marginalized Nationalists of the Kuomintang which were by now leaderless as Chiang Kai-Shek had been executed by the communists. This would effectively turn China into some sort of pseudo-fascist state instead of a communist one and this power sharing compromise was included in the peace treaty, with the provision that once China no longer needed strongmen to keep order and rebuild, elections would be organized although this was a vague definition that would ultimately keep the dictatorial CCP-KMT government in power for over four decades even though they arguably did do good things such as unifying China and ending the civil war and rebuilding a battered nation into a great power under the new name of Social Nationalist Party of China. Lastly, China also recognised Japanese rule over Taiwan. This was the end of the Korean War or the Chinese War as it is known although it’s often considered to be the last phase of the Second World War.
In Europe, in the meantime, reconstruction efforts and massive aid programmes for eastern Europe had begun to ease their suffering. The same was so for the Middle East which would see enormous efforts from all the great powers. They would invest there heavily to rebuild these former battlefields and these countries would be very grateful and this would ensure that countries like Poland and Czechoslovakia would forget their grudges against the west which had spilt its own blood to liberate them. The same applied to the Middle Eastern countries with the occasional bout of estrangement over topics like colonialism and the like and the incidental flare-up of militant Islamism. The western countries had been spared massive destruction and had been set up for a massive post-war economic boom from all their investments in the aforementioned eastern Europe and the Middle East. With an end to the Maoist regime, China and its massive labour force was also opening up to European investors once again as was Russia which was a massive market for any western entrepreneur and lots of untapped resources. In the meantime, the St. Petersburg trials (Leningrad had been renamed to its old name) of Soviet war criminals had begun as evidence had now been gathered. Beria was dead, but most other NKVD leaders were still alive and in the same Lubyanka prison where they had tortured so many counterrevolutionaries. They were transferred to St. Petersburg with most military leaders. They mostly given death sentences and otherwise lengthy prison sentences. Most prominent stars were Zhukov, Konev and Timoshenko who had conducted the invasions and Mechlis who was the highest ranking NKVD officer left alive.
With the prevalence of rightwing and fascist ideas and the taboo on communism as it was a pariah ideology with 20 million deaths on its name besides the 60 million who had perished in the war, the west would take a rightwing and liberal course for the next few years where the ideas of colonialism and imperialism were upheld. The people in Asia had been gaining a national conscience for quite a while. Japan was an aggressor, to which they agreed, but a yellow Asian people had inflicted severe defeats on the Europeans before they managed to collectively beat Japan into the ground. This inspired nationalists across Asia and with the end of communism as a viable ideology, many Asian peoples flocked to the banner of Asian nationalism. This would be the start of a long and painful decolonization progress, something which the new Republic of China supported. French Indochina had a rebel movement under Ho Chi Minh who had switched from communism to nationalism as his ideology and with China so close, they had an influx of Chinese weapons and older Soviet-made equipment along with Chinese ‘advisors’. The French responded by sending troops to restore order in what would be one of the longest colonial wars in Asia. Something similar happened in the Dutch East Indies where Sukarno stood up. Malaysia also voiced a cry for independence as did India. In the latter case though, London had recognised that India’s time for more leeway had come. With nearly 400 million inhabitants, India could not remain a crown colony forever and with the populist rhetoric of nationalist leader Subhas Chandra Bose who had formed the Indian National Army, becoming very popular, it was inevitable. Even with the outbreak of the war, he hadn’t changed his mind. He saw it as an opportunity to get rid of the British and he had visited both Moscow and Tokyo. The ever growing popularity of the Indian National Army led to fear of a massive colonial war and a hopeless quagmire for Britain. Initially, Bose wanted full independence, but settled for Dominion status in the British Commonwealth in 1949.
The Dutch East Indies and French Indochina would have to wait longer. The Dutch ended their neutrality and joined the EEDA and so they gained French and British support in Asia. Ultimately, independence was unavoidable, but the Asians would have to fight for it. The French would wage an ongoing counterinsurgency campaign against Ho Chi Minh’s guerrillas throughout the fifties until popular support for what is now called the Indochinese War ended and French forces withdrew in 1962 after a fierce and sometimes brutal fight. After three years of insurgency, Sukarno proclaimed the Republic of Indonesia in 1949 which the Dutch refused to recognise. The French sometimes provided naval and aerial assistance and educated the Dutch army in anti-guerrilla tactics. They would remain in the Dutch East Indies until 1955 although by then they only controlled the Moluccas and Java. Burma achieved independence in that same year and Malaysia in 1960 as Britain wanted to keep the colony and its valuable oil and rubber.
In Europe, the economic boom of the late forties continued into the fifties which were highlighted by more integration as the EEDA extended its reach. Members were Germany, Britain, France, Poland, Czechoslovakia, the Scandinavian countries (including Denmark which had joined in 1948), Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic states and Romania. The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxemburg all joined in 1949 following Denmark’s example. Ireland would join in 1955 for the obvious economic benefits that membership entailed, leaving Switzerland the only neutral country in Europe although they would join in 1960 out of fear for their fascist southern neighbour. In 1951, Turkey made the choice to join Mussolini’s SL which had less qualms about their not fully democratic government than the EEDA which denied them admission until they democratized. With these integrated markets and political structures, the EEDA was now a certified powerhouse that could compete with the US which had risen to superpower status (the SL less so, but she was still a force to be reckoned with). Dewey, the US president who in 1948 had just won a second term, was somewhat reluctant to end isolationism after being dragged into what he saw as a European war (even if it was against communism), but it was no inescapably clear that Washington could no longer ignore the world stage and its status of superpower in it. The EEDA was undergoing a period of prosperity and growth unseen since the roaring twenties and by the end of the 1950s was ready to expand outside of Europe to include countries like New Zealand, Australia and Canada. Bilateral talks were held to strengthen political relations and increase trade. The step toward a global alliance wouldn’t be made until 1966, but this power block of the EEDA, the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand would be the world’s most powerful alliance, known as the Global Democratic Alliance or GDA.
Mussolini saw increasing US-EEDA relations as threat to the Southern League and increased funding for his atomic program and also began courting the new Chinese regime which began an alliance of convenience with the Italians as they had no conflicting interests with them, unlike the other colonial powers who all had interests in Asia. This Sino-Italian alliance led to Italian economic and technical experts being sent to Beijing to help modernize China. By 1956, China had seen a decade of change. The end of Mao’s regime had heralded the beginning of a new China with massive foreign investment. Understandably, some sectors were nationalized. Coal and steel were considered integral to modern economies and ended up under state supervision. When oil was discovered in Manchuria in 1954 (the Daqing oilfield), the oil sector was also nationalized as was the electricity sector. Under the triumvirate of Zhou Enlai, Deng Xiaoping and general Peng, a modernization campaign was begun. China turned out to have the world’s largest supply of coal and many coal mines sprang up with foreign assistance. China was also electrified or so the government claimed. In reality, most rural areas were still not electrified by 1960, but electricity production had seen massive increases nonetheless (to 25 billion kWh by 1960 approximately). China was not yet recognised as a great power, but that would soon end. By the mid sixties, China would the largest producer of steel and coal and would see the beginnings of its now booming electronics industry. With its oceans of cheap labour, China could easily produce cheaper computers, TVs and kitchen appliances than any western country. A flourishing trade arose with China and a banking system began to evolve. This growth increased as Chinese entrepreneurs and businessmen went international as they went to the stock market.
This was also the start of the space race and arms race although race is perhaps not the right word. At the time, the GDA was the only competing power with the SL a distant second. The European powers and the US experienced budget surpluses for much of the late 40s and the 50s which they spent on new prestige projects. This would lead to, among other things, France and Italy becoming nuclear powers in 1952 and 1955 respectively (although the Italian project was rushed by an impatient Mussolini, leading to a first test of ‘only’ 9 kilotons). The Americans and the Anglo-German-French compact responded by creating multi-megaton ranged hydrogen bombs or fusion weapons, commonly abbreviated to H-Bomb. The step to fusion after one had learned fission was theoretically not very difficult although Italy had the smallest economy of the European powers. Their fusion weapon would have to wait until 1965. The rather underappreciated Asian giant China would also awaken the world and focus attention on themselves as an Asian great power with their first test in 1962 (rumour has it that the Italians sold them a non-functional nuclear warhead for study which accelerated their project). With the detonation of a hydrogen bomb in 1964, China was the country that had made the step from fission to fusion the fastest and was the first nuclear power of Asia.
The space race remained in western hands and they made tremendous leaps. Ballistic missiles had been played with since the 1920s and had never seen much attention. That changed after the war as several generals saw their military applications as they could not be shot down in any way and could deliver a payload (conventional or chemical) anywhere in theory. German rocket scientist Wernher von Braun was approached and was offered funding beyond his wildest dreams as long as he also found military applications for weapons, leading to the intercontinental missiles we see today. The effort was quickly expanded to a joint European effort of the great powers which would eventually come to include the US as well. Their first victory they achieved in 1949 by achieving semi-orbit with a so-called A4 missile. This initial work was greatly expanded upon and both the US and the Euros sent man’s first primitive artificial satellites into space in the early and mid 1950s, quickly followed by manned flight in 1957 after repeatedly testing their safety measures on dogs for the Europeans and monkeys for the Americans which was a great leap forward for humanity as they had set their first steps off planet earth and into the wider universe which increased the enthusiasm for further exploration even more. With the tightening of Euro-American relations, their space programs were merged in the early sixties as a prelude to the forming of the GDA. Their combined industrial power was gigantic and in 1961 a legendary event would take place with the first manned lunar landing (already preceded by several exploration probes in the late 50s). This event was widely publicized and hailed as a triumph of western ingenuity, strength and endurance. It was a boost to the ego of the west which saw China slowly creeping up and colonial wars in Africa looming on its doorstep.
Eurofed
Banned
Why isn't Ukraine getting the Don, Rostov, and Kuban areas as well ? It makes as much as if not more sense as giving Smolensk to Bielorussia. They were historical and ethnic Ukrainian areas, their addition strenghtens Ukraine economically and weakens Russia, esp. if the latter keeps Central Asia and Outer Manchuria as it seems.
Otherwise, excellent updates as always. The evolution of China makes sense, it is a neat solution.
Alright I put it in. And...
Tadaa, the end. Now don't look so disappointed. Another TL is already in the works.
With the wars of independence in Asia almost done, many Africans were inspired to pick up arms against their colonial overlords as well as the latter was unwilling to let these colonies go. In Angola a vicious war erupted between the Portuguese army and guerrilla warriors and terrorists who challenged the authority of the dictatorial, rightwing, authoritarian Estado Novo regime in Lisbon. Portugal, under the leadership of António de Oliveira Salazar, responded with heavy handed and even brutal counterinsurgency tactics to squash the rebellion and preserve the Portuguese empire. Terror bombings, fire bombings, use of tanks and flame throwers and even chemical weapons, reprisal executions, reprisal confiscation of land and seemingly arbitrary imprisonment of ‘restive elements’ were among the methods used by the Italian supported regime of Portugal although they would lose in the end. Italy was experiencing its own problems in Libya which was inspired by the Arab nationalism and Arab socialism which were the popular ideologies in neighbouring Egypt under President Nasser who had overthrown the Egyptian king, to the dismay of Mussolini who had been unhappy with the rise of a nationalist regime so close to what was becoming Italy’s ‘third coast’. Nasser professed and popularized his ideology throughout the Arab world and was virulently anti-imperialist and anti-colonialist and called for an end to Western interference in the Arab world and their oil fuelled greed, something which made him popular in other Middle Eastern countries who had similar feelings, if more ambivalent as they remembered how that same West had fought for their freedom. Thanks to them, the Middle East was now relatively free with more or less democratic, if authoritarian, governments. In Syria and Iraq, this led to the rise of the Ba’ath party which also upheld Arab nationalism and socialism (although they distanced themselves from communism which they despised thanks to Stalin’s actions). Fortunately for the Italians, Nasser had made the mistake of nationalizing the Suez Canal in 1956 which led to joint European intervention which ended his regime so they were rid of him although his legacy remained.
Italy was one of major proponents of colonialism as an extension of the fatherland. These colonies expanded Italy’s influence and contributed majorly to the Italian prestige. All great powers (except Germany) had colonies and so Italy had to have them too. With the discovery of oil in 1950, Rome was even more determined to keep Libya. Libya itself had a very small native population of under a million souls which was increasingly being overshadowed by the arriving Italian immigrants who came looking for the oil wealth that the now prosperous colony held hidden under its desert sands. Many millions of poor southern Italians, many of them Sicilians, left their homes and were encouraged by the fascist regime to settle in northern Libya which was now rapidly being Italianized and the old dream of the third coast was coming true as hundreds of thousands flocked toward the oil over the years. By 1960, the Italian population had a two thirds majority and was pushing out the indigenous Arab and Berber populations to the desert while they settled in the richer oil regions and became the dominant ethnicity, making Libya an Italy in the desert. The Arabs and Berbers were forcefully Italianized and as part of this were forced to learn Italian and western writing and adopt western style of clothing, etiquette and so on. This was an attempt to wipe out their culture under the euphemism of bringing civilization. Positive points were there as well. The rather poor infrastructure was expanded to accommodate the new arrivals with new railroads and highways connecting the cities in the north, expanding greatly on the one railway that was already there, and the construction of power plants, modern communications and better port facilities. Illiteracy also dropped to virtually zero. Nevertheless, the peoples of Libya saw how the Italians stole their land and forced them to assimilate. This led to widespread resistance, both passive and active. Many refused to speak Italian and stuck with Arab which the Italians didn’t understand. They also refused to go to Italian schools and dress in western style. Some picked up arms and began a sporadic terrorist campaign, which was met with disproportionate amount of force.
In 1955, Benito Mussolini, the Duce of Italy, had suffered a minor stroke. His doctors told him to stop speaking in public and making public appearances as politics would overexcite him. The restless dictator complied, but with his 75th birthday in 1958, he ignored this and went out to see the people who were celebrating. Celebration, however, turned into a nightmare. He suffered a stroke and died the same day. A nation mourned while the Libyans cheered and hoped for a change in policy. After a reign from 1922 to 1958, over 36 years, the Italian dictator was dead although the Libyans came out deceived if they thought anything would change and the 60s and 70s would remain much the same for them. A fierce power struggle had erupted between Italo Balbo, Alessandro Pavolini and Galleazo Ciano who all tried to rally the Grand Council of Fascists behind them and become the new Duce of Italy. Balbo had long been seen as heir apparent to Mussolini, who had transferred him to Libya, far away from Rome, for that very same reason. Balbo was a lot less conservative and had his own anti-monarchist wing in the party known as the Republican Fascists, while Ciano and Pavolini sided with the conservative fascists who were now in the opposition which would prevent Balbo from exercising the same totalitarian power that Mussolini had had before him. This also prevented him from ridding Italy of the monarchy. Many Italians didn’t support that anyway so he limited himself to decreasing the role of the monarch to a ceremonial one. For all intents and purposes, the fascist party had split in two even if they presented themselves as a uniform entity to the outside world. Whatever the case, they agreed that Libya was integral to Italy now and by the end of the 60s, they had managed to quell the rebellion.
The same could not be said of Ethiopia, Italy’s colony on the horn of Africa which was a major source of diamonds and gold and provided affluence to Italy. The Ethiopians themselves didn’t get any share of it and unleashed a war of independence that would push the Italians out eventually after Balbo died of a heart attack in 1974. The relatively small Eritrea, however, sided with the Italians against the Ethiopians who wanted to make them part of Ethiopia again as a Muslim community in an otherwise Christian country. The Eritreans and Ethiopians were played out against each other by the Italians who played a clever game of divide and rule. Somalia was much less divided ethnically with a large, dominant group of Somalis who were almost all Sunni Muslims. With the discovery of oil in Puntland, a similar effort like the one in Libya was started up and with a population of under 2 million, they too were quickly outnumbered by Italian immigrants. This development was further stimulated by attempting to draw other European immigrant such as Albanians. Seeing that there was little future in occupied Albania, many packed their bags and left for Africa. Some Greek adventurers also tried their luck in Italy’s African empire.
Other European countries had much larger colonial empires and couldn’t mount any efforts like these with their own population base and also couldn’t apply the heavy handed tactics of the regimes in Portugal and Italy as these democratic governments were much more in the spotlights. They would fight, but much more civil and the enormous colonial empires of France and Britain would break up eventually as countries broke off and were recognised one by one, the last one being southern Rhodesia, or Zimbabwe, in 1980 with a few notable exceptions such as Dutch Suriname and French Guyana and Oran (Algeria) which became overseas departments, the latter having a large French community. France keeping Oran would frequently lead to tensions between Algeria and France although in the end France prevailed in saving this shred of its colonial empire.
By now, the European economies had entered something of a malaise, although by no means as bad as the depression that had gripped the world in the 1930s. This was partially caused by the enormous defence budgets needed to maintain order in the colonies, but this was compensated by a generous welfare state that had been built over the years at the urging of rising neo-fascist youth movements who arose as any radical leftwing ideologies were taboo and turning to them would only alienate the government and they wouldn’t get any of their demands met. Fascism was a similarly collective ideology, though not nearly as radical as communism, that provided structure and a group feeling to many young people who were trying to find an identity in the new optimistic western culture of rapid technological advances and a trend of urbanisation coupled with individualisation. They professed a democratic version of fascism which upheld the idea of class cooperation, collectivism, strength through struggle and so on (ideas that Balbo partially supported in his Republican Fascism) while they were more ambivalent to classical fascism that the now dead Mussolini had originally created which was too dictatorial for their tastes and could potentially lead to war if more fascist-nationalist governments like that arose. Eventually, this youth movement would wind down and settle for more traditional political currents even if substantial moderately fascist parties still exist today.
With the decolonization process now slowly devolving to full-fledged independence, the Europeans focused on other things to maintain their status as great powers, especially with a rising China and a resurgent Russian Republic which was turning into a true economic titan. The loss of the Ukraine and Belarus which held so much of the base of heavy industry that Stalin had built and large deposits of coal and iron ore, not to mention the fact that the Ukraine was Russia’s bread basket, greatly hurt the new republic’s post-communist economy which the new government was attempting to turn into a mixed economy based on the successful Chinese model. With the new Central Asian republics now more in a dominant position now that the Ukraine was gone, a lot of investment and government spending was directed there and soon massive deposits of untapped resources were found such as coal, oil, natural gas, uranium, iron ore, copper, manganese, chrome, silver and even gold and platinum which made Russia potentially the richest country on Earth as Russia was propelled forward into the top ten of uranium producers, oil producers, coal producers and natural gas producers with more resources lying in Siberia unused as of yet. These massive investments in the republics of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and the like was a massive influx which would triple the average income of the Central Asian republics when compared to 1941. St. Petersburg, the new Russian capital, also saw a lot of investment and saw how a new oligarchy of rich Russian and foreign businessmen formed around the Russian president and his clique which combined were the new Russian elite, the new aristocratic boyars to the presidents. These aristocrats were among the richest men in the world. Militarily, Russia had been weakened as well, but by the end of the 1950s, Russia was much more affluent than before and by 1970, Russia would have one of the largest conventional armies in the world, ranked behind only China. Russia had a strategic bomber force, even if by 1966 Russia hadn’t acquired atomic bombs. The new elite was interested in profit and not war and feigned a pacifist streak. The Russian population at large either didn’t care much for it or were averse to it because of the use of atomic bombs against Soviet cities. Russia, however, did have a large domestic program for peaceful use of nuclear energy complemented by large hydroelectric plants. They harnessed fission for their growing economy. With the detonation of China’s atomic bomb, some changed their minds and determined that Russia needed a nuclear deterrent and the Americans and Euros largely acquiesced in the face of a China that was marching toward the status of dominant world power. In 1967, Russia tested a 70 kiloton device, the strongest first test ever. With a 2.2 megaton fusion device tested in 1973, Russia entered the club of Earth’s greats once more. Russia, in the end, would only keep a deterrent of some 500 bombs, compared to 3000 Chinese, but they had them nonetheless. Their use of nuclear and hydroelectric energy also puts Russia on the forefront of greenhouse gas reduction in the light of the climate changes that were beginning to show.
By now, China had entered the space race as well and was trying to catch up. They launched their first satellite in 1970 followed by a manned flight in 1974 in which they orbited Earth three times in total before landing safely in the Yellow Sea, west of Korea. The Euro-American block responded with several more lunar landings and unveiled plans for a lunar base to be established before the end of the decade and a manned mission to Mars before 1990. These were very ambitious plans and very costly ones although their combined economies could handle it and were quite able to produce the technology needed for such an immensely complex undertaking. A joint Euro-American space station was already well underway by the start of the decade and was finished in time to see China’s first manned flight into outer space in 1974. Its sister, Independence, would be finished in the 80s and would be even larger. This station, known as Freedom, was used to simulate the conditions of a prolonged stay on the moon and asses the affects that a long exposure to low gravity would have on a human body so they could train for it and devise ways to counter it. Experiments were conducted with other organisms as well such as plant life and microorganisms to research whether growing food on the moon in hydroponic bays was feasible so the scientists on the moon wouldn’t need to be resupplied which would be quite a costly effort. The first construction machinery was sent during the mid seventies to prepare for the arrival of a crew which had supplies for six months. They built several basic structures such as a crew quarters, with a kitchen and showers and a storage room. They also created a basic water purification facility and put up solar panels to generate electricity for the lot. Luna-1 was ready to go and would be fully operational by 1979. In the three decades that have followed, Luna-1 has only expanded to include a launch platform and a mining facility to dig up the silicates and iron and aluminium supplies in the moon’s crust. Today, Luna-1 has become a small town with an international crew of over 90 people there at any given time. This would also be the launch base for the first manned mission to Mars in 1986 and today serves as a staging ground for preparations for a permanent human presence on the red planet which shall happen in the near future as well as missions to the Jovian and Saturnian moons.
The 80s had arrived and by now the fascist powers were on the decline, politically anyway. In 1982 already, a large student protest had erupted in Rome against the Grand Council of Fascists which by then effectively ruled the country even if it remained divided over many issues. The Council ordered the uprising to be put down which resulted in violent clashes with the police and then a confrontation with tanks of the Italian army which rolled through the streets of Rome to restore order which they did. The students demanded more political freedom, democracy and an end to censorship and repression of dissidents. Spain was in a similar situation. Thanks to generous aid from the Italians, Franco had managed to restore Spain to the status of great power, with nuclear weapons even. His secret nuclear program received large amounts of Italian assistance in the shape of both theoretical work and technical expertise, but also resources and blueprints to reactors. This would strengthen the Italian block, or that was the general consensus. The result would be a successful nuclear test in 1972, three years before Franco’s death. After his death, voices for freedom began to rise in Spain as well. Unrest brewed and the Italians and Spanish were forced to make some concessions. Eventually, Spain and Italy would both allow democratic elections in 1989, ending the last dictatorships in Europe. After this move, the Balkan powers fell like dominos in the late 80s and early 90s and joined the GDA peacefully.
China was harsher in its methods. The leaders here were also either dead or didn’t have a long time to go. General Peng Dehuai had died in 1974, followed by Zhou Enlai in 1976, leaving Deng Xiaoping the only one of the original triumvirate that ruled China after Mao’s demise that was still in power. Here too, the call for more democracy rose as China grew more affluent. China, by 1990, would be a certified superpower with nuclear weapons, a blue water navy with a powerful and daunting carrier arm, missile cruisers nuclear submarines and the world’s largest army which was supported by the second largest economy in the world in terms of GDP, second only after the US which would eventually be surpassed by 1999. This was complemented by an ambitious space program which will soon be on par with the west. Ten years before, China was well underway to this point of becoming as wealthy as the west, but the regime was still fundamentally totalitarian, unchanged since 1947. The pseudo-fascist oligarchy was rudely awakened when in 1989, they were experiencing protests as well. These student revolts evolved into riots and violent clashes between government forces and the protestors which led to a strike in certain sectors. Fear of a general strike and maybe even a revolution gripped Beijing. Deng Xiaoping made several major concessions, but managed to keep the reins of power in his hands until his death in 1997. With these developments, China is looking forward to becoming the world’s largest democracy in another two decades.
This was all taking place in a time of change. The world was, and still is, growing smaller and with the advent of the internet, the world can fit in the palm of one’s hand. For a time, political analysts and armchair generals prophesized a cold war or even war between the Chinese block and the GDA, but with ever growing trade links between the two, this has become increasingly unlikely, even with the recent formation of the Shanghai Alliance, a counter block against the omnipotent GDA, which included the major powers of Asia, China and Russia (not India which remained neutral), and also Indochina, Malaysia, Burma, Tibet, Thailand and Indonesia. These two economic powerhouses now dominate the world. The trend of increasing political links go hand in hand with these trends that are called globalization. This seeming utopia won’t cease to exist in the foreseeable future, barring a major natural catastrophe, and although the much idealized, expected, desired and prophesized World Nation is still far away, the world is moving in that direction and is ready to spread out into space.
Tadaa, the end. Now don't look so disappointed. Another TL is already in the works
. Chapter IV: African Freedom, the Fall of Fascism and the New Global Order, 1966-2009
With the wars of independence in Asia almost done, many Africans were inspired to pick up arms against their colonial overlords as well as the latter was unwilling to let these colonies go. In Angola a vicious war erupted between the Portuguese army and guerrilla warriors and terrorists who challenged the authority of the dictatorial, rightwing, authoritarian Estado Novo regime in Lisbon. Portugal, under the leadership of António de Oliveira Salazar, responded with heavy handed and even brutal counterinsurgency tactics to squash the rebellion and preserve the Portuguese empire. Terror bombings, fire bombings, use of tanks and flame throwers and even chemical weapons, reprisal executions, reprisal confiscation of land and seemingly arbitrary imprisonment of ‘restive elements’ were among the methods used by the Italian supported regime of Portugal although they would lose in the end. Italy was experiencing its own problems in Libya which was inspired by the Arab nationalism and Arab socialism which were the popular ideologies in neighbouring Egypt under President Nasser who had overthrown the Egyptian king, to the dismay of Mussolini who had been unhappy with the rise of a nationalist regime so close to what was becoming Italy’s ‘third coast’. Nasser professed and popularized his ideology throughout the Arab world and was virulently anti-imperialist and anti-colonialist and called for an end to Western interference in the Arab world and their oil fuelled greed, something which made him popular in other Middle Eastern countries who had similar feelings, if more ambivalent as they remembered how that same West had fought for their freedom. Thanks to them, the Middle East was now relatively free with more or less democratic, if authoritarian, governments. In Syria and Iraq, this led to the rise of the Ba’ath party which also upheld Arab nationalism and socialism (although they distanced themselves from communism which they despised thanks to Stalin’s actions). Fortunately for the Italians, Nasser had made the mistake of nationalizing the Suez Canal in 1956 which led to joint European intervention which ended his regime so they were rid of him although his legacy remained.
Italy was one of major proponents of colonialism as an extension of the fatherland. These colonies expanded Italy’s influence and contributed majorly to the Italian prestige. All great powers (except Germany) had colonies and so Italy had to have them too. With the discovery of oil in 1950, Rome was even more determined to keep Libya. Libya itself had a very small native population of under a million souls which was increasingly being overshadowed by the arriving Italian immigrants who came looking for the oil wealth that the now prosperous colony held hidden under its desert sands. Many millions of poor southern Italians, many of them Sicilians, left their homes and were encouraged by the fascist regime to settle in northern Libya which was now rapidly being Italianized and the old dream of the third coast was coming true as hundreds of thousands flocked toward the oil over the years. By 1960, the Italian population had a two thirds majority and was pushing out the indigenous Arab and Berber populations to the desert while they settled in the richer oil regions and became the dominant ethnicity, making Libya an Italy in the desert. The Arabs and Berbers were forcefully Italianized and as part of this were forced to learn Italian and western writing and adopt western style of clothing, etiquette and so on. This was an attempt to wipe out their culture under the euphemism of bringing civilization. Positive points were there as well. The rather poor infrastructure was expanded to accommodate the new arrivals with new railroads and highways connecting the cities in the north, expanding greatly on the one railway that was already there, and the construction of power plants, modern communications and better port facilities. Illiteracy also dropped to virtually zero. Nevertheless, the peoples of Libya saw how the Italians stole their land and forced them to assimilate. This led to widespread resistance, both passive and active. Many refused to speak Italian and stuck with Arab which the Italians didn’t understand. They also refused to go to Italian schools and dress in western style. Some picked up arms and began a sporadic terrorist campaign, which was met with disproportionate amount of force.
In 1955, Benito Mussolini, the Duce of Italy, had suffered a minor stroke. His doctors told him to stop speaking in public and making public appearances as politics would overexcite him. The restless dictator complied, but with his 75th birthday in 1958, he ignored this and went out to see the people who were celebrating. Celebration, however, turned into a nightmare. He suffered a stroke and died the same day. A nation mourned while the Libyans cheered and hoped for a change in policy. After a reign from 1922 to 1958, over 36 years, the Italian dictator was dead although the Libyans came out deceived if they thought anything would change and the 60s and 70s would remain much the same for them. A fierce power struggle had erupted between Italo Balbo, Alessandro Pavolini and Galleazo Ciano who all tried to rally the Grand Council of Fascists behind them and become the new Duce of Italy. Balbo had long been seen as heir apparent to Mussolini, who had transferred him to Libya, far away from Rome, for that very same reason. Balbo was a lot less conservative and had his own anti-monarchist wing in the party known as the Republican Fascists, while Ciano and Pavolini sided with the conservative fascists who were now in the opposition which would prevent Balbo from exercising the same totalitarian power that Mussolini had had before him. This also prevented him from ridding Italy of the monarchy. Many Italians didn’t support that anyway so he limited himself to decreasing the role of the monarch to a ceremonial one. For all intents and purposes, the fascist party had split in two even if they presented themselves as a uniform entity to the outside world. Whatever the case, they agreed that Libya was integral to Italy now and by the end of the 60s, they had managed to quell the rebellion.
The same could not be said of Ethiopia, Italy’s colony on the horn of Africa which was a major source of diamonds and gold and provided affluence to Italy. The Ethiopians themselves didn’t get any share of it and unleashed a war of independence that would push the Italians out eventually after Balbo died of a heart attack in 1974. The relatively small Eritrea, however, sided with the Italians against the Ethiopians who wanted to make them part of Ethiopia again as a Muslim community in an otherwise Christian country. The Eritreans and Ethiopians were played out against each other by the Italians who played a clever game of divide and rule. Somalia was much less divided ethnically with a large, dominant group of Somalis who were almost all Sunni Muslims. With the discovery of oil in Puntland, a similar effort like the one in Libya was started up and with a population of under 2 million, they too were quickly outnumbered by Italian immigrants. This development was further stimulated by attempting to draw other European immigrant such as Albanians. Seeing that there was little future in occupied Albania, many packed their bags and left for Africa. Some Greek adventurers also tried their luck in Italy’s African empire.
Other European countries had much larger colonial empires and couldn’t mount any efforts like these with their own population base and also couldn’t apply the heavy handed tactics of the regimes in Portugal and Italy as these democratic governments were much more in the spotlights. They would fight, but much more civil and the enormous colonial empires of France and Britain would break up eventually as countries broke off and were recognised one by one, the last one being southern Rhodesia, or Zimbabwe, in 1980 with a few notable exceptions such as Dutch Suriname and French Guyana and Oran (Algeria) which became overseas departments, the latter having a large French community. France keeping Oran would frequently lead to tensions between Algeria and France although in the end France prevailed in saving this shred of its colonial empire.
By now, the European economies had entered something of a malaise, although by no means as bad as the depression that had gripped the world in the 1930s. This was partially caused by the enormous defence budgets needed to maintain order in the colonies, but this was compensated by a generous welfare state that had been built over the years at the urging of rising neo-fascist youth movements who arose as any radical leftwing ideologies were taboo and turning to them would only alienate the government and they wouldn’t get any of their demands met. Fascism was a similarly collective ideology, though not nearly as radical as communism, that provided structure and a group feeling to many young people who were trying to find an identity in the new optimistic western culture of rapid technological advances and a trend of urbanisation coupled with individualisation. They professed a democratic version of fascism which upheld the idea of class cooperation, collectivism, strength through struggle and so on (ideas that Balbo partially supported in his Republican Fascism) while they were more ambivalent to classical fascism that the now dead Mussolini had originally created which was too dictatorial for their tastes and could potentially lead to war if more fascist-nationalist governments like that arose. Eventually, this youth movement would wind down and settle for more traditional political currents even if substantial moderately fascist parties still exist today.
With the decolonization process now slowly devolving to full-fledged independence, the Europeans focused on other things to maintain their status as great powers, especially with a rising China and a resurgent Russian Republic which was turning into a true economic titan. The loss of the Ukraine and Belarus which held so much of the base of heavy industry that Stalin had built and large deposits of coal and iron ore, not to mention the fact that the Ukraine was Russia’s bread basket, greatly hurt the new republic’s post-communist economy which the new government was attempting to turn into a mixed economy based on the successful Chinese model. With the new Central Asian republics now more in a dominant position now that the Ukraine was gone, a lot of investment and government spending was directed there and soon massive deposits of untapped resources were found such as coal, oil, natural gas, uranium, iron ore, copper, manganese, chrome, silver and even gold and platinum which made Russia potentially the richest country on Earth as Russia was propelled forward into the top ten of uranium producers, oil producers, coal producers and natural gas producers with more resources lying in Siberia unused as of yet. These massive investments in the republics of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and the like was a massive influx which would triple the average income of the Central Asian republics when compared to 1941. St. Petersburg, the new Russian capital, also saw a lot of investment and saw how a new oligarchy of rich Russian and foreign businessmen formed around the Russian president and his clique which combined were the new Russian elite, the new aristocratic boyars to the presidents. These aristocrats were among the richest men in the world. Militarily, Russia had been weakened as well, but by the end of the 1950s, Russia was much more affluent than before and by 1970, Russia would have one of the largest conventional armies in the world, ranked behind only China. Russia had a strategic bomber force, even if by 1966 Russia hadn’t acquired atomic bombs. The new elite was interested in profit and not war and feigned a pacifist streak. The Russian population at large either didn’t care much for it or were averse to it because of the use of atomic bombs against Soviet cities. Russia, however, did have a large domestic program for peaceful use of nuclear energy complemented by large hydroelectric plants. They harnessed fission for their growing economy. With the detonation of China’s atomic bomb, some changed their minds and determined that Russia needed a nuclear deterrent and the Americans and Euros largely acquiesced in the face of a China that was marching toward the status of dominant world power. In 1967, Russia tested a 70 kiloton device, the strongest first test ever. With a 2.2 megaton fusion device tested in 1973, Russia entered the club of Earth’s greats once more. Russia, in the end, would only keep a deterrent of some 500 bombs, compared to 3000 Chinese, but they had them nonetheless. Their use of nuclear and hydroelectric energy also puts Russia on the forefront of greenhouse gas reduction in the light of the climate changes that were beginning to show.
By now, China had entered the space race as well and was trying to catch up. They launched their first satellite in 1970 followed by a manned flight in 1974 in which they orbited Earth three times in total before landing safely in the Yellow Sea, west of Korea. The Euro-American block responded with several more lunar landings and unveiled plans for a lunar base to be established before the end of the decade and a manned mission to Mars before 1990. These were very ambitious plans and very costly ones although their combined economies could handle it and were quite able to produce the technology needed for such an immensely complex undertaking. A joint Euro-American space station was already well underway by the start of the decade and was finished in time to see China’s first manned flight into outer space in 1974. Its sister, Independence, would be finished in the 80s and would be even larger. This station, known as Freedom, was used to simulate the conditions of a prolonged stay on the moon and asses the affects that a long exposure to low gravity would have on a human body so they could train for it and devise ways to counter it. Experiments were conducted with other organisms as well such as plant life and microorganisms to research whether growing food on the moon in hydroponic bays was feasible so the scientists on the moon wouldn’t need to be resupplied which would be quite a costly effort. The first construction machinery was sent during the mid seventies to prepare for the arrival of a crew which had supplies for six months. They built several basic structures such as a crew quarters, with a kitchen and showers and a storage room. They also created a basic water purification facility and put up solar panels to generate electricity for the lot. Luna-1 was ready to go and would be fully operational by 1979. In the three decades that have followed, Luna-1 has only expanded to include a launch platform and a mining facility to dig up the silicates and iron and aluminium supplies in the moon’s crust. Today, Luna-1 has become a small town with an international crew of over 90 people there at any given time. This would also be the launch base for the first manned mission to Mars in 1986 and today serves as a staging ground for preparations for a permanent human presence on the red planet which shall happen in the near future as well as missions to the Jovian and Saturnian moons.
The 80s had arrived and by now the fascist powers were on the decline, politically anyway. In 1982 already, a large student protest had erupted in Rome against the Grand Council of Fascists which by then effectively ruled the country even if it remained divided over many issues. The Council ordered the uprising to be put down which resulted in violent clashes with the police and then a confrontation with tanks of the Italian army which rolled through the streets of Rome to restore order which they did. The students demanded more political freedom, democracy and an end to censorship and repression of dissidents. Spain was in a similar situation. Thanks to generous aid from the Italians, Franco had managed to restore Spain to the status of great power, with nuclear weapons even. His secret nuclear program received large amounts of Italian assistance in the shape of both theoretical work and technical expertise, but also resources and blueprints to reactors. This would strengthen the Italian block, or that was the general consensus. The result would be a successful nuclear test in 1972, three years before Franco’s death. After his death, voices for freedom began to rise in Spain as well. Unrest brewed and the Italians and Spanish were forced to make some concessions. Eventually, Spain and Italy would both allow democratic elections in 1989, ending the last dictatorships in Europe. After this move, the Balkan powers fell like dominos in the late 80s and early 90s and joined the GDA peacefully.
China was harsher in its methods. The leaders here were also either dead or didn’t have a long time to go. General Peng Dehuai had died in 1974, followed by Zhou Enlai in 1976, leaving Deng Xiaoping the only one of the original triumvirate that ruled China after Mao’s demise that was still in power. Here too, the call for more democracy rose as China grew more affluent. China, by 1990, would be a certified superpower with nuclear weapons, a blue water navy with a powerful and daunting carrier arm, missile cruisers nuclear submarines and the world’s largest army which was supported by the second largest economy in the world in terms of GDP, second only after the US which would eventually be surpassed by 1999. This was complemented by an ambitious space program which will soon be on par with the west. Ten years before, China was well underway to this point of becoming as wealthy as the west, but the regime was still fundamentally totalitarian, unchanged since 1947. The pseudo-fascist oligarchy was rudely awakened when in 1989, they were experiencing protests as well. These student revolts evolved into riots and violent clashes between government forces and the protestors which led to a strike in certain sectors. Fear of a general strike and maybe even a revolution gripped Beijing. Deng Xiaoping made several major concessions, but managed to keep the reins of power in his hands until his death in 1997. With these developments, China is looking forward to becoming the world’s largest democracy in another two decades.
This was all taking place in a time of change. The world was, and still is, growing smaller and with the advent of the internet, the world can fit in the palm of one’s hand. For a time, political analysts and armchair generals prophesized a cold war or even war between the Chinese block and the GDA, but with ever growing trade links between the two, this has become increasingly unlikely, even with the recent formation of the Shanghai Alliance, a counter block against the omnipotent GDA, which included the major powers of Asia, China and Russia (not India which remained neutral), and also Indochina, Malaysia, Burma, Tibet, Thailand and Indonesia. These two economic powerhouses now dominate the world. The trend of increasing political links go hand in hand with these trends that are called globalization. This seeming utopia won’t cease to exist in the foreseeable future, barring a major natural catastrophe, and although the much idealized, expected, desired and prophesized World Nation is still far away, the world is moving in that direction and is ready to spread out into space.
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Thanks for the compliment. Maybe you should read my 'The Twin Eagles and the Lion' TL as well .
.I suggest you read then as my skills don't go beyond editing existing maps in paint .
.Well, Germany has 1914 borders +Sudetenland and Austria and minus Alsace-Lorraine. Russia has the Central Asian SSRs but loses Ukraine which gets the Don, Kuban and Rostov regions and Belarus which gets Smolensk. Poland has 1939 borders in the east and 1914 borders with Germany in the west. Finland gets Karelia back and the Baltic states are independent (as us Luxembourg btw, no power swallowed them). Italy includes Istria, Dalmatia, Albania, Kosovo, Libya. Eritrea and Somalia. France is OTL plus a swath of land around Oran which they managed to keep as an overseas district.
In Asia, Korea is unified under a western government and China has Mongolia, but lacks Tibet. Japan ITTL got to keep Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands and Taiwan. In South America, the only change is that the Dutch keep Suriname.
I think that's about it.
EDIT: Yugoslavia has been cut up. Vardar Macedonia has gone to Bulgaria and Slavonia in bits of Vojvodina to Hungary and Croatia broke away, leaving Serbia a puppet to Rome.
In Asia, Korea is unified under a western government and China has Mongolia, but lacks Tibet. Japan ITTL got to keep Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands and Taiwan. In South America, the only change is that the Dutch keep Suriname.
I think that's about it.
EDIT: Yugoslavia has been cut up. Vardar Macedonia has gone to Bulgaria and Slavonia in bits of Vojvodina to Hungary and Croatia broke away, leaving Serbia a puppet to Rome.
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Eurofed
Banned
I seem to remember also that Hungary got northern Transylvania. I'm not sure whether Hungary also got southern Slovakia in the First Vienna Award or not (I would suppose it did, it was an adjunct to the Munich Agreement which occured ITTL as well) and whether Bulgaria got southern Dobruja or not.
