CATCHING UP: THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS
League of Nation propaganda poster
As we catch up where we last left off on the war itself, we find the Union in a hard-fought slog, barely able to move the needle against the Neutrality Pact for the entirety of 1937 and going well into 1938. Chuck Oswald and Reginald "Lazarus" Hubbard were marooned in the jungles of Gran Colombia with a handful of shipwrecked men of the R.U.S. Cape Cod, butchering and razing villages behind enemy lines and attaining folk hero statuses. Australian "Kanga" troops, under Field Marshal Thomas Shelley, arrived in the Canal Zone in early 1937, reinforcing the area and helping to sift through the rubble, even participating in the Defenestration of Metropolis when the Union military took back official control of the rebellious cityscape. Despite radio broadcasts and newspapers promising the flight of Neutie troops and the devastation of America's enemies, the reality was far grimmer. Yankee efforts at using the Black Bliss chemical defoliant weapon backfired with the monsoon season's arrival, blowing 100-foot tall clouds of carcinogenic chemicals and other harmful particulates onto the soil of Old Mexico. An attempted occult revolution known as the Starry Wisdom Revolt was finally crushed by freedom fighters under the command of the Second Prophet, William Graham, who launched the Revolt's leader off of a hotel balcony to his death.
Late 1938 would finally see a bit of a turn in the tide. With Metropolis back under control and the war taking a huge tole on the Neutrality Pact, Gran Colombia's government collapsed in October of 1938. While this also marked the entry of Eduist Brazil into the fray out of fear for its safety rather than actual love of its neighbors, this was the morale-booster that Steele and Supreme Marshal Acme Ashton so long desired. In truth, this likely saved Ashton from an "unfortunate demise" like that of Ambrose Jansen. The rescue of Chuck Oswald, Lazarus Hubbard, and the surviving sailors of the R.U.S. Cape Cod in a daring operation led by Richard Nixon and Franklin "Full Metal" Johnson. Nixon, while still a civilian and current "Playboy King of Kissimmee," also was the self-proclaimed "greatest pilot alive," and was frequently seen flying the skies of the Deep South in his chromed-out aeroplane appropriately named "Lucky Duck." The heir to the largest motion picture company in the world had been trying to court Joseph Steele's daughter, Wyetta, but she remained infatutated and obsessed with her last boyfriend, Chuck Oswald. When news broke that Chuck was still alive and was waiting for a rescue deep in the jungle, Nixon resigned himself to defeat and instead offered to lead the expedition himself. "If anyone can land a plane in that terrain, Nixon can, toots," he said of himself in the third person. He did indeed land the small miitary craft and the Cape Cod's men were finally going home.
In the Britannic Union, General Director Winston Churchill, an American agent who had taken the highest dictatorial position in the British Isles, experienced a break from reality, murdered his Director of Propaganda Phil Kent, who was aware of Churchill's duplicitous Order 78 that would hand over Britannic sovereignty to America. A palace coup led by Deputy Director Clement Atlee had tried to peacefully remove Churchill, but a naked Director-General was shot while attempting to assault Atlee in his office. This left the B.U. in a precarious position, and while Atlee tried to shore up power in his own name, Ullapool Chemical Command (under Beckie Flu vaccine hero Joseph Finch) moved closer and closer to developing the Operation Cromwell biological superweapon. While Churchill had pressed for OpCrom to be ready in 1937 come hell or high water (he had instructed Dr. Finch to "cordially take his concerns and throw them out the nearest window"), Atlee ordered work to slow and for all due safety protocols to be followed as the Britannic Union prepared to "finally annihilate the Irishman from the face of the earth." The Britannic Union maintained troops in West Germania, especially in the capital of Hamburg, and also in Mittelafrika and participated in the pacification of the Cuban Insurrection (1936-1942) and the subsequent Operation Tropic Thunder (1942-1952)--the occupation of the reconquered island and the purging of any remaining Inferiors. While the Holy Order of the Sons of Tobias would be the main fighting force in Cuba during these events, leaving the Grand Army and ORRA to fight in South America, the B.U. lost the second-largest amount of casualties in that sunny Caribbean paradise.
The Confederation of the Carolinas, still under the playboy Chancellor Adelbert Upjohn "Johnny" Gamble VI, was experiencing a period of unparalleled growth, possibly the only member-state of the League of Nations to experience a bull market during the first few years of Operation Manifest Climax. While thousands of troopers flocked to the call of South American adventure and became future walking baskets of cancer due to the biological weapons used there, still more were steaming across the waters of the Atlantic to Africa, where growth in Jacksonland, the Carolinian Corridor, and Yonderland continued. Foreign troops, mostly consisting of Cokie boys, fought in the Handhunter Legions propping up Mittelafrika's Fuhrer, Reinhardt von Bachenheim, in his struggle against "Congo King" Opulo Odika, a native warlord seeking to become Emperor of Mittelafrika. Carolinian scientist Dr. Herman William "Big Bill" Jennings proposed the Congo Sea Project, to flood the Congo Basin and wipe out millions to create the world's largest man-made lake in what was also the world's largest human engineering project. Von Bachenheim saw himself barely able to retain power most days and had far too much territory to properly control, and so he agreed that the project would in fact be the best solution. So deep was Dr. Jennings' power that some called him the "Shadow Fuhrer."
"Shadow Fuhrer" Cokie scientist Herman William "Big Bill" Jennings
Fuhrer von Bachenheim
While native tongues still far outnumbered white settlers in Mittelafrika, English was becoming every bit as widespread as German, and even most German citizens spoke some degree of English. Some hardline Germano-centrists took offense at this, calling increasing Carolinian, American, and Britannic influence "foreign subversion." In mid-1937, the Germans First Party (Deutsche Erste Partei) was founded in the capital of Kappsburg, demanding the eradication and enslavement of black tribes and the eviction of non-German-speaking white citizens to "to create a new German Fatherland." While they at first agreed to work with Fuhrer von Bachenheim, over time their tone became more rebellious and insolent, prompting the late 1938 ban on all political parties aside from the ruling Reichs Partei. This only served to escalate tensions in the unstable Reich, and the "Headhunters" began to slaughter supports of the Germans First Party. In Kappsburg, many began to decry von Bachenheim as "a tool of the decadent fascist West," and accused him of "selling out Mittelafrika before it even had a chance to shine." The war against the Congo King would continue indefinitely, as would the roundups and slaughter of enemies of the state. A time bomb was ticking away in Mittelafrika.
In Holy Nippon, things were very interesting indeed. Dictator-General Arthur MacArthur had ruled with an iron fist since the death of John Splendidfaith in 1914. MacArthur said in early 1915, "I am no President or emperor, I am a Dictator-General. I serve at the pleasure of the President. Holy Nippon is under direct rule from Philadelphia, not from myself. I merely humbly carry out the instructions of Party, Atheling, and President to the utmost of my ability." He worked entirely under Steele's thumb and hugely advanced the state's anti-Nipponese culture policies, demanding conformity to American ways or else. While Splendidfaith had sought to join Nipponese and American cultures under a Christian banner, MacArthur sought to create a "mini-America." His efforts to rid the island nation-state of anything deemed "Un-American" led to the creation of the Holy Nipponese Council on Un-American Activities in 1923, with his son Lincoln MacArthur at the helm of the twenty-seat agency to snuff out "subversive" citizens. His other most important action was the seizure of Sakhalin Island in 1920 during the Russian Civil War, which he renamed Washington Island. The independent Sakhalin Island Republic had set itself up in the chaos, leaving it an easy target for an expansionist MacArthur. Later that year, when Russia's civil war ended and Oleg Volkov became Protector of the Russian People, he demanded "Washington Island" back, which Holy Nippon promptly refused. Rather than risk war with America, the Russians dropped the matter but did not forget or forgive it.
When Arthur MacArthur died in 1927 at the age of 82, Steele placed 47-year-old Lincoln MacArthur in power as Dictator-General. While his father may have despised native Nipponese, Arthur was more pragmatic. He tried to tone down the persecution and offered a "chicken in every pot" promise to end starvation on the island. Agriculture was abysmal there for much of his father's rule due to Steele demanding its rice crops to feed his bloated armed forces. The Second Chinese Civil War (1933-1955) plunged Mainland Asia into chaos. Qing Emperor Puyi was found dead in his chambers in 1930, likely of a remaining strain of Beckie Flu. Without access to huge quantities of vaccine, China never fully recovered from the Beckie Flu until herd immunity occurred somewhere around the early 1940s. In a blackly humorous similarity to what happened when Custer died of the same ailment, the Imperial Household Department decided that the best course of action was to deny Puyi's death and pretend that everything was fine, all while facing growing calls in various regions for secession. When the truth finally leaked out of the Forbidden City that the Emperor was a corpse, the Second Civil War erupted. Firebrand, populist young lawyer Mao Tse-tung declared himself Hongxian Emperor and offered a "blossoming future of democratic-imperial rule," to which half the country said, "Hell no." By 1938, most of the country had fractured, and MacArthur saw his opportunity to shine. While both were part of the League of Nations, Holy Nippon signed the Alliance of the Nippon Sea with the Republic of Corea and created a joint "Exploratory Task Force" to conquer parts of mainland China. This also opened up new trade deals with Corea that further helped stave off the agricultural nightmare in Nippon. While we shall learn more about the Chinese Civil War and the breakup of China into a plethora of nation-states in later chapters, this brief summary is helpful to understand the situation on the ground for the League of Nations and the Alliance of the Nippon Sea. While Steele was dubious on the ETF and wanted all focus put on South America, his successor Charles Oswald would eventually order full League of Nations involvement in the conflict in 1950.
Dictator-General Lincoln MacArthur
Holy Nipponese troops participate in the Chinese Civil War (1940s)
In West Germania (officially known as the Germanian Republic), by far the weakest of any of the League of Nations member-states, Wolfgang Kapp, the titan of the nation, passed away in 1938. He was 80 years old and still in great health, but a case of food poisoning brought him down and destroyed his body within a week. Some accused Illuminist agents of assassinating him, but rather than spend its time witch-hunting as always, the Republic's government in Hamburg knew it had to get its act together to keep itself from fracturing. Kapp was a behemoth of a man, and that fact cannot be understated. American historian James Carter said of Kapp in his 1969 work Iron Wolfgang: "Wolfgang Kapp, it is my firm belief, was the only thing that kept all of central Europe, a beacon of Teutonic Christian culture, from succumbing to the godless hordes of the East." Upon Kapp's death, his right-hand man Hermann Ehrhardt became Reichsprasident, only to be assassinated in 1939 by a disgruntled Army veteran.
The Republic looked to an uncertain future as an emergency election swept young Alois Decker into power. Decker was a well-respected veteran Handhunter who had been fighting in the Mittelafrikan Civil War against the Congo King and called himself "The Happy Warrior." His good looks and charisma made him a darling of the gutter press, as did his love affair with a third cousin of George Custer. As tensions heated up between the New Holy Roman Empire, the Illuminist Bloc, and Europa throughout the 1930s and 40s, Decker had to walk a fine line to avoid bringing his country into various entanglements. The economy was... rough, to say the least, and civil unrest was rife as the various major powers attempted to influence the population. Decker also faced a crisis in 1939, when Kaiserin Erika finally passed away in Finland, leading to the collapse of the so-called Empire of Germania there. While many called for political union with West Germania and feared Illuminist revolution there, the population was traditionally monarchist and full of Russian expatriates that loathed Illuminism. Rather than join the fascist block, the short-lived Sovereign Free Territory of Finland offered its throne to Sweden's King Gustaf V. While Sweden was an "Honorary League Member-State," it was mostly concerned with trade and the like and remained politically neutral. Gustaf feared at first that the rest of the League would eliminate his trade deals and foreign aid and so at first turned down the throne. However, a few days later the League snubbed West Germania for reasons of political expediency and gave its blessing for the political union. Finland entered into union with Sweden on New Years Day, 1940.
In 1944, Reichsprasident Decker faced a terrible scandal when his mistress Brunhilda Mueller was revealed to be an Illuminist agent. Mueller was executed for treason and mobs began to flock around the Bundesgesetzgebung (Federal Legislature), the capitol building of the Republic, demanding Decker's resignation and worse. Decker, formerly the press's golden boy, now faced disgrace. He ordered the military and police to mobilize to "put down a rebellion" on February 9. The Carolinian ambassador, Humphrey Ward, acting on behalf of Joe Steele and the rest of the League of Nations, called Decker directly and ordered him to stand down and resign or face immediate action. Decker stepped down an hour later and fled the country back to parts unknown. Some reports say he lived out the rest of his life in Norway's Iceland, as photographs were taken of an elderly man in 1968 at a local grocer in Hellnar, Iceland, and printed in American tabloids definitely resembled an aged Decker.
When Decker resigned, emergency elections were once again held and Wilhelm Friedrich Burst was inaugurated. An elderly statesman of the old Kapp school and a veteran of the Germanian Civil War's Lutheran Brigades, he was palatable for all parties involved, including Joe Steele. Whereas Decker was a womanizing celebrity in his prime, Burst was essentially a nonentity, a blank slate that did whatever his masters in Philadelphia commanded.
Prime Minister Alois Decker "The Happy Warrior"
Prime Minister Wilhelm Friedrich Burst
