At the close of the Great War, the world was in shambles. Europe was all but destroyed, Africans had died in colonial bids, and the Chinese Civil War was flaring up again thanks to Japanese overtures. With things looking bleak, mass pro-peace sentiments were settling in. With America's president, Woodrow Wilson, at the helm, the major world powers convened and established the League of Nations (though America would not join until after the World War).
The League worked well for a short time, but was quickly proving to simply be another battlefield for nations to toss insults and ridicule at each other. After Japan began a mass invasion of China in 1937, it was obvious the League was effectively defunct.
In Italy, Spain, Poland and Hungary, Fascist parties rose to prominence. In Russia, the revolution had established the Soviet Union. In Germany, the Kaiserists came to power, and the Revanchist Party took hold in France. Mass rearmament began, and Europe was poised for war once more.
On 12 March, 1938, Kaiser Wilhelm III took the throne, and the very next day, German forces poured over the border into Austria. On 16 March, Otto I was crown Archduke of Austria, and formally placed the realm under Germany.
With feelings soaring high, Kaiser Wilhelm III ordered troops into the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia. France, with the Revanchist attitudes in place, declared war on Germany for the "unlawful invasion of a peaceful nation in direct violation of the Versailles Treaty." The World War had began.
Seeking to end the war quickly, the Germans buffered their western flank and formed an alliance with Hungary, in which Slovakia would be given to Hungary if it assisted in cracking down on the Czechs. The Hungarians quickly agreed, and invaded on 2 April.
Britain, meanwhile, was attempting to broker peace, calling for a general meeting of the League of Nations to try and soothe things out. France and Germany refused. And so, Britain began to conscript in the event that war struck her as well.
The first Spring of the war was relatively quiet. Neither side wanted to commit troops to the slaughter that would be the Maginot Line. However, the Kaiser looked back to history and decided that another go with the Schlieffen Plan was worth a go. With no major Eastern Front, a large assault on France could go well for Germany. On 3 May, German troops crossed the border into Belgium and Luxembourg, and swerved South on 5 May. However, They ran into French forces outside the town of Philippeville. The French had been eying German forces for weeks, and with the invasion just started, Charles de Gaulle order a counter invasion.
Britain was horrified. Both powers had just invaded small neutral nations, the very same nations that had drawn Britain into the Great War. With the League convened in Geneva, Britain sent their ambassador a note.
On 11 May, Italy, Poland, Portugal, the Netherlands, Greece and Great Britain declared war on France and Germany for "violating the neutrality of nations, for bringing war once more upon the general populace of the world, and for inciting incidents of hatred and death upon their fellow man. These League Nations hereby declare war upon both parties who are aggressors against all of Humanity."
Both Germany and France were horrified. Neither could best the British at sea, and this war would open up numerous fronts to fight. However, neither party wanted to end their "just war upon their enemy". On 16 May, Germany struck North into the Netherlands, Denmark, and Norway, and used their now silent forces in Prussia to lash out on the Polish. France, meanwhile, invaded mainland Italy, and began a mass building program on their Southern coasts. In a secret alliance, Spain agreed to assist the French, and invaded Portugal on 22 May, and Portuguese colonies on 23 May.
The war took another strange twist on 15 June, when a Russia joined the war on the French side. It quickly invaded Poland's East and the Baltic states, using them as a springboard for the invasion of East Prussia.
Japan would also join the war that year, on Germany's side so as to invade Russia's far east for resources. This would actually end the Chinese civil war, as both the Communists and the Republicans ended their dispute to ally with the British against the Japanese and French.
The war would stalemate for the rest of the year, with all sides loosing forces left and right (save the British for the most part, who used their navy mostly to assist their allies).German and Russian forces clashed in Poland (having been effectively divided in two by the forces). Chinese, Dutch and British forces were invading French Indochina, and Portuguese, Italian, British and Greek Forces were attacking the French and Spanish in Africa. Throughout the war, Gibraltar and Malta were fortified used as launch points for invasion in the Mediterranean.
The Americans later joined the war on the side of British after Japanese forces invaded the Philippines after numerous successes in China and Russia.
On 18 August, 1943, France and Spain officially surrendered to the League, turning their forces over the British and Italians for the war on Germany. Germany succumbed to the League on 20 November after League bombers assaulted German towns for nearly 3 weeks, leaving the nation in ruin.
Chinese, American, British, Dutch, and Portuguese forces invaded mainland Japan on February 1, 1944 after joint naval operations had pushed the Japanese out of most of their Pacific holdings. However, Japanese determination stalled League and Allied forces for a year, forcing them to stay on Kyushu and Shikoku. Chinese, British and American forces liberated Korea on 27 June, and Manchuria on the 29 June.
With Russia as the last major combatant, and having most of Eastern Europe as a buffer, the League and allies simply took over the role of the Japanese in the East, though British, Dutch and Italian forces invaded the Crimea on 9 July. Iran joined 11 July, opening up Central Asia to the British.
On 3 August, 1944, British, Italian and new French forces routed a Russian army outside of Kharkiv, Ukraine, revealing that the Russian forces were spread extremely thin. A quick march west liberated Kiev on 17 August. Russian forces began defecting or fleeing League and Allied forces on all fronts. On 31 October, Stalin shot himself in Moscow, just before British forces began assaulting the city. On 1 November, Russia formally sued for peace.
This finally ended the war in Europe, and allowed the League and Allies to focus on Japan. However, America requested that no action be taken yet except to continue wearing down Japanese forces. On 31 December, over the skies of Kyoto, a lone bomber was spotted by Japanese officials. They noted it, but ordered no attack on it, having little to no ammunition to attack with. Then, a soldier spotted in dropping one bomb. A flash.
On 3 January, 1945, Japanese awoke to a radio broadcast from their Emperor, declaring the war over, and Japan defeated.
The World War ended with an estimated 20 million dead, 15 million displaced, and near complete destruction of the world's economy and most of Europe's infrastructure. The League, however, was stronger than ever. With the British at the helm, and with new American backing, the League restructured itself into a formidable body, a international parliament as one person noted. Though ensuring the right of all nations to their own path, the League effectively began reordering the world. New nations were founded, mostly from the defeated German, French and Russian lands and colonies. An international agreement o use the British Pound and American Dollar as reserve currency came about, and giving the League the right to limit member nation's militaries, by force if need be, was introduced.
In honor of the change, a new League flag was ordered. Using the old League emblem on a white flag was passed, but worries that it would look too much like flags of truce saw two red stripes, representing the bloodshed that lead to the League's restructuring, were added.