Zillamaster55
In Denial About Denial
The Faces of The New Order
Despite having fought alongside the Allied powers in the Second World War, and suffered dearly at the hands of the German submarine campaign, the Republic of Brazil managed to escape the worst of the post-war territorial and political punishment. Having left the Allies at the end of the war, Brazil focused on the homefront and preparing itself for a dark and unexpected future.
In the hands of the incredibly popular Kubitschek administration, Brazil’s government avoided immense political upheaval, and the economy of Brazil grew strong under his even-handed leadership. The Brazilian people still have faith in democracy as Kubitschek’s time in office has transformed Brazil into a rapidly industrializing and urbanized nation, and extremism has been stamped out thanks to multiple public programs to “overcome the worst of the political sphere”.
Brazil’s iconic Amazon Rainforest is beginning to recede as a result of a shift in global wind patterns, and with nutrients from the Sahara no longer coming in as reliably as it once did. With this, farmers are able to undergo the process of “slash and burn” at a much higher rate, clearing huge swathes of the rainforest for cattle grazing and other land intensive agriculture. Though still industrializing and urbanizing, Brazil still has an incredibly strong agricultural backbone to rely on, and is slowly but surely cornering the international market on cattle exports.
Brazil’s military leaves a lot to be desired. Much of the army is made up of reservists that undergo only the most basic of training, while the Brazilian navy and air force are terribly outdated, relying on imported equipment from the United States and Canada to bolster its numbers. Brazil’s political and diplomatic situation does not call for a massive army, however, but there are those that fear inevitable conflict between the various alliances of the globe.
However, though the current government is popular amongst the people and the economy is stronger than ever, the upper classes and military elites are beginning to chafe immensely under Kubitschek’s regime. There are rumors that, should the 1964 election not go in the favor of Kubitschek’s powerful opponents, that there may indeed be an attempt by the military to “challenge” the results of the election.
Canada, the strongest of Britain’s dominions and most loyal to the Queen, stands on guard for the British people. Having poured more than 75,000 men into the meat grinders of North Africa, Europe and the Pacific, the Canadian army was the “first in, last out” when defending the British Isles from the invading Nazis. Despite their great efforts and sacrifices, Canada and her allies were forced to watch as their mother country was divided amongst the victorious Axis Powers.
However, not all is lost. In Ottowa, Queen Elizabeth II and her constituents reside in Rideau Hall, still in charge of her remaining dominions and dependencies. The Canadian army is bolstered by thousands of escaping British soldiers from the homeland, in a sick and twisted repeat of the Dunkirk Evacuation from many years before. Much of the Royal Navy had slipped the noose of the German Kriegsmarine, and now remains in Canadian ports.
Under the Pearson administration, Canada has seen steady economic growth thanks to numerous reforms to the market and tax system. Canadian industry is bolstered by support from American companies and manufacturers, while the various members and dependencies of the Washington Accords benefit greatly from Canadian shipping, steel, aluminum and refining.
Canada’s military is much different from what it was before the Second World War. The soldiers of the Canadian army are heavily drilled, and despite running on surplus, are able to pull from a massive redundancy of supplies. The air force trains regularly with the Americans, and the Canadian navy is nearly triple the size it once was thanks to the Royal Navy docking its surviving ships, including the re-christened HMS Arthur Harris, a heavy carrier comparable to those in use by the United States.
Thanks to undesired changes in the global climate, Canadian weather cycles are much more severe than before. In the summers, temperatures climb to upwards of 30c in some of the northern areas, bringing a dry and miserable heat to the farmlands. To counter this, the winters are absolutely brutal, with the first snows coming in mid October and not retreating until late March, all the while with ferociously cold winds.
Canada’s greatest threat comes not from the outside, but from within. Despite the work done by Pearson and previous administrations to soothe tensions between the French and Anglo-Canadian population, the divide grows deeper and deeper. The Front de Libération du Québec, or FLQ, has become more emboldened in recent years. Blaming the British for “abandoning France”, the FLQ has garnered support from the otherwise neutral populace in cities like Montreal. Secondarily to this, there is a growing movement in Canada amongst “Republicans” who seek to do away with the monarchy altogether, and reduce the status of the Queen to a “Special Citizen” and nothing more. The “Great White North” walks a narrow tightrope.
Nearly two decades after the “official defeat” of the Republic of China, the war still rages on for many. Having taken horrendous losses at the hands of the Japanese, with casualties in the tens of millions, all seemed lost for what remained of Chiang’s Republic. However, against all odds, the government in Kunming has rallied the Chinese people under the flag of the Republic, and prepares to march into a “New Age” at any cost.
Under Gao Zongwu, the Republic of China is a fragile nation held together with patriotism and good intentions. Much of China’s industry that was evacuated westward is manned by a morass of poor laborers, and the harvests are just enough to keep up with the rapidly growing population of both local births and refugees from the east. Gao’s regime is made up of only his most loyal, as any sort of dissent could lead to another situation like that of Wang Jingwei.
Economically, China is in a pitiful state. The industrial output of the Republic is largely made up of only the most basic consumer goods, which the Japanese ensure are only sold to China’s neighbors of Qinghai and Tibet, to act as middlemen elsewhere in the world. In the cities, the skies are choked with smog and soot from the many poorly managed factories and sweatshops, while the fields are a mess of rice, grain, pastures and orchards. Without special attention, one false move could cause the whole system to come crashing down.
China’s military, if one could call it that, is still enormous. The surviving troops from the Second Sino-Japanese War remain on constant guard along the borders, and nearly a million conscripts are set as reserves, waiting for the nation’s call. What little air force China can muster, despite being horribly outdated, is made up of dedicated troops willing to give it all to defend the homeland. Finally, China’s trump card can still be played in the form of more than four million able bodied men and women willing to fight and die for the freedom of the Chinese people.
As the world’s climate continues to shift dramatically, the sweltering summers in southern China last longer, with less and less rainfall in the Spring, causing much of the once fertile lands of the northeast to dry up, now replaced with pastureland. This has caused a huge migration to the cities from the rural regions, and many fear a “collapse” of the nation’s food supplies, and yet another famine.
France, once one of the greatest powers of European history, has been reduced to a shell of its former self. Occupied for years under the brutally repressive Nazis, handed over to the pitiful and poorly administered Vichy regime, and then finally returned to “independence”, France stares down the barrel of a dark and uncertain future.
Having lost a huge portion of its territory to the Ordenstaat Burgund, including the capital city of Paris, the French government resides in Toulouse, from where it attempts to keep control over a tattered and heartbroken nation. In the streets of every French city, German Beobachtungsoffiziere (Observation Officers) keep an eye on the day to day life of Frenchmen, despite calls for their removal by the French government.
Economically, France is entirely dependent on the Reich for its imports of raw materials and exports of manufactured goods. Much of France’s industrial regions were lost to the Burgundians post-war, and thus France has been forced to artificially “regrow” its industry to the south. Here, consumer and mechanical goods are built in sprawling “Villes de Travail” (Work Towns), with most of the products being sent overseas, either to the Reich or, should deals be made under the table, Spain.
The French military, crippled by both economic uncertainty and brutal demands enforced by the Germans, is still a force to be reckoned with. Only able to field a small number of men, ships and aircraft, the French have worked hard to drill these men on a constant basis, keeping them as prepared as possible. With the territorial ambitions of Heinrich Himmler being more than apparent, the French don’t believe that Hitler’s “Axis” remain as a whole for much longer.
Southern France’s hot summers have been exacerbated with nothing short of a monsoon season thanks to the shifting of the jetstream. Torrential rains pour across the western coast, with high temperatures in the south scorching the once coastal cities that now enjoy the view of enormous salt and sand flats.
There is a glimmer of hope in the darkness. In the dark alleys and beneath the shadows in both France and Burgundy, there are whispers of resistance. On occasion, a shipment of grain, gold or weapons may go missing. Perhaps an officer meets an unfortunate end, or a mysterious fire breaks out in a government office or two. The nation of France may have been broken, but the spirit of its people is stronger than ever.
How can one begin to explain the German Reich, headed by the legendary Adolf Hitler? Once the battered and broken loser of the Great War, Germany now puts a boot to the throat of a continent. Having marched through France and the mighty Soviet Union with ease, the Germans made their coup de grace with the atomic bombings of Portland and Norfolk via the use of long range missiles. Not a single nation in Europe was able to escape the influence of the Reich, with even neutral Sweden and Spain having to “knuckle under” and accept German diplomatic and economic pressures.
Victors of the Second World War, Germany took the opportunity to meticulously divide her conquered territories amongst the “Reichskommisariats”, a hodge-podge of pseudonations ruled by a collection of sycophants and tyrants. With the Reichskommisariats in control of these newly conquered territories, the Germans believed they could turn their attention inward and enjoy their “Thousand Year Dominance” of Europe.
They were wrong.
Almost instantly after the end of the war, knives were drawn across the Reich as allies, opponents and enemies of Hitler began to gather with one another to carve out what influence they could. Fearing the near total departure of his strongest ally and leader of the influential SS, Heinrich Himmler, Hitler moved to acquiesce to Himmler’s demands of forming the Ordenstaat Burgund. Seeing Hitler as “too liberal” and “hesitant” to exercise the full powers of the Aryan race, Hitler’s view of National Socialism is challenged by the new “Burgundian System”.
Governments like that in Krim and Kaukasus follow the tune of Himmler’s “Burgundian System”, and increasingly refuse to take orders from Berlin. States like Moskowien are essentially incapable of fully following the Nazi demands, essentially betraying Hitler’s ideals and allowing the “Untermensch” Russians to have positions of power in the government and military.
On top of all of this, Adolf Hitler is quickly running out of close friends at home. Politically, the Reich itself is further and further divided amongst the camps of Bormann, Goering, Speer, Stauffenberg and Heydrich. These men have gathered huge portions of the government, industry and military to their banners, hoping to become the “heir” to the fuhrer. To their chagrin, despite having secured Germany’s position as superpower nearly twenty years ago, Hitler is still hesitant to name a successor.
Germany’s economy, once considered a “miracle” by many during the 1930s and early 1940s, is rapidly falling inwards upon itself. It has become abundantly and abhorrently clear that Germany’s conquests in the east were conquests of slavery and annihilation, with huge portions of the conquered territories being turned into gigantic labor and agricultural camps. This economic system was a boon at first, producing massive amounts of cheap goods for the German people, but has begun to crumble under its own weight.
Students and veterans of Germany regularly take to the streets demanding that something be done to help their situation. Despite sitting atop a pile of gold reserves and cheap consumer goods, Germany’s citizens are made increasingly poorer and more desperate. Jobs that could be taken by the average German are instead held by unpaid slaves, allowing industrial and economic elites to keep massive amounts of money out of the hands of German citizens.
Meanwhile, Germany’s military has begun to show its scars. The Wehrmacht is made up largely of desperate young men unable to find a proper job of their own, and as a result are drilled less and less as the years go by. Many men are wearing uniforms and carrying guns not too different from the Second World War, while units under the command of people like Goering and Stauffenberg hoard the newest and best equipment.
The once mild summers and winters of Germany have been pushed towards the extremes. During the summer months, it is hot and humid, with late summer being sent off with huge rain storms similar to those in France. In the mountainous regions, the winters are brutally cold, with some small villages being forced to evacuate as literal meters of snow buries their homes, carried by some of the most ferocious winds in German records.
Finally, atop of all of this torment and uncertainty, there is the greatest threat to Germany.
Adolf Hitler is dying.
And without a successor.
The “Thousand Year Reich” sits with millions of angry workers and soldiers, thousands of nuclear weapons, and five men ready to tear the nation to shreds.
Having fought on the landing grounds, in the beaches, in the streets, in the plains and in the hills, the armies of the United Kingdom saw a bloody, soul crushing and inevitable defeat at the hands of the Germans. Despite taking massive losses during and after the battles, despite having every facet of normality being stripped away before their very eyes, and being forced to watch as London was razed and rebuilt into a brutal, concrete effigy of its former self, there was something in the darkness.
In pubs, at sunday suppers, in the dockyards at nightfall, and across England, there was a whisper. A whisper of resistance, liberation and freedom. From far across the ocean, the Queen awaits her return. In the name of “Crown and Country”, Her Majesty’s Most Loyal Resistance (HMMLR) leads a “street war” against the occupational and “illegitimate” government of England.
Everything from graffiti and leaflets to car bombings and assassinations take place as HMMLR tries to throw off the shackles of Nazi domination. However, HMMLR faces a greater threat than being crushed by the Nazi-aligned government. Instead, there are massive issues from within. Funding and arming HMMLR is done entirely “at home”, with donations, smuggled goods and robberies being used to fuel the fires of rebellion. How HMMLR goes about its campaign is also divided. Militarists, Monarchists, Republicans, Bukharinists and Anarchists are all forced to come to the table and work with one another to fight against the Nazis, and many fear that this is but an alliance of convenience.
Regardless of these issues, England’s future sits on a knife’s edge.
The ambitions of the late Benito Mussolini have been realized. Italy has gone from a weak peninsular kingdom to the dominant power of the Mediterranean once again. Like the Roman Empire long before them, Italy straddles the Mediterranean and Balkans, either through direct control or through one of the many colonial governments under its thumb. Despite having played second fiddle to the Germans in Europe, Italy’s victories across North Africa and the Middle East make up for it in spades.
Or so it seems.
Immediately after the victory over the Allies, the Germans and Italians went their separate ways, almost violently. Vehemently disagreeing with Hitler’s ideals of racial purity and a “New Europe”, Mussolini pulled away from his once trusted ally, and focused his efforts on overseeing the now enormous colonial territories, and the beginning of the “Atlantropa” project. However, Mussolini would not see the completion of the project, nor the tumultuous years of the “Catastrofe Terrestre” (Land Disaster) that would take place immediately after his death in 1948.
Across Italy’s new African colonies, administrators are hand picked from the Italian military and industrial elites to oversee huge swathes of land seized from the Allies after the war. So far away from Rome, and largely ordered to maintain the peace, the territories of Grande Congo and Africa Centrale are under the control of horrendously corrupt and incompetent administrators.
With the ambitious and ultimately disastrous “Atlantropa” having come to a close just a few years prior, the Italian way of life has been irreversibly changed. The once wide and beauteous ports of Italy are now surrounded either by dusty salt flats, or morasses of saline swampland. The hopes of having huge swathes of land to be turned into pastures and fields have been dashed as enormous “Salt Storms” roil forth in the hottest months of the summer, reaching as far inwards as Rome itself on some occasions.
The spilling of huge amounts of saltwater into the Congo Basin has destroyed the once beautiful and expansive Congo Rainforest forever. Instead, in its place, is hundreds of thousands of acres of dry grasslands. With agriculture in mainland Italy sitting on the edge of total collapse, the Italian government is forced to begin stripping its colonies of its harvests yearly, which are becoming more and more meager as corrupt colonial governments cook the books and sell off food that could be consumed by the swathes of hungry civilians.
Italy’s economy is entirely dependent on the huge amount of oil that has been discovered in the newly acquired Italian Middle East. Despite all the issues plaguing Italy as a whole, the people of the Italian peninsula are richer than ever. Unlike Germany and Japan, with closed economies focused on themselves, Italy sends its oil across the globe, undercutting American companies at every turn. The money is then spent on Italian industry and subsidies for the Italian people, of which the colonial populace sees very little.
The Italian military is little different from the armies that marched victoriously through Cairo towards the end of the war. Though armed with the latest in firearms and aircraft technology, the men of the Italian army are rarely trained, poorly maintained, and spend most of their time on unnecessary colonial garrison duty.
With all these issues plaguing the Italian state, Galeazzo Ciano’s administration is beginning to show its cracks. Numerous elements within the Italian government seek to take Ciano’s place and take Italy on an entirely different path. This, paired with dozens of independence movements across Italy’s colonies, leaves Italy in a desperate position. Should the wrong move be made, the entire Italian empire could come apart at the seams.
Giving Germany a chance to finish off the Roman eagle, just like they did 1500 years ago.
The history of Japan is a history of victory after unexpected victory. From crushing the Russians at Tsushima to wiping the floor with the Americans at Midway, the Japanese stand triumphant over nearly all of East Asia, their influence stretching from the Kurils to New Guinea. After dumping millions of lives into the wars in China, Southeast Asia and the Pacific, the Japanese people finally celebrated their victory with the Germans after seeing two American cities turned to ash, and Chiang Kai Shek laying down his arms shortly thereafter.
Now, however, Japan is set to deal with the harsh reality of maintaining a massive empire. The years of remaining on a war footing has caused the Japanese economy to stagnate, with much of its industry still having yet to retool from wartime production. As a result, the Home Islands are dependent on consumer goods produced across China and Southeast Asia, all the while taking raw resources from places like Korea and Indonesia.
While Japan itself moves towards a “Consumer/Service” economy, its colonial territories are at the mercy of the Zaibatsus, or enormous corporations that own nearly all aspects of everyday life, especially in places like Vietnam and Cambodia. As Japan takes the lion’s share of goods from its puppet states, the people of mainland Japan become complacent, unwilling to pay attention to the struggles that take place in the overseas territories.
Meanwhile, in mainland Asia, the Japanese “Kwantung Army” runs amok in a completely lawless land between the Reorganized National Government of China and the Republic. Having lost control of the Kwantung and its officers, the Japanese government is incapable of preventing the flow of arms and munitions to this rogue force as the Imperial Japanese Army is allied with several key companies, threatening to throttle the Japanese economy should the civilian government make a move.
Militarily, the Japanese continue to be steeped in tradition. Rather than follow in the footsteps of the United States, the only other naval power, the Japanese continue to produce larger and more ferocious battleships, with five Super-Yamato class battleships regularly steaming from port to port as a show of force. Meanwhile, the land forces of Japan are rigidly organized from the top down, and are both inflexible and slow to adapt to new technologies. Only the special forces, such as the SNLF, are willing to take on the latest weapons and tactics.
With the world’s climate shifting dramatically, Japan’s yearly harvests are plagued with massive monsoons that wash away huge portions of the fields, while warm winters bring sleet or cold rain, giving some areas little to no reprieve from water. As a result, the Home Islands are increasingly dependent on the colonies to begin importing food.
After all of these issues, the Ino regime is faced with one final and overbearing threat. Ino Hiroya’s government sits on a rapidly sinking ship as the Japanese government is quickly being torn apart by reformists, militarists, extremists and economic giants. Should the government make the wrong move, the entire Empire will begin to fall out from underneath it.
Leaving Japan exposed on all sides.
Exposed to very, very vengeful people.
Spain, one of the few nations in Europe to escape the clutches of World War II, sits as a “shell shocked observer” to the divide between Hitler and Mussolini. After his victory in the Spanish Civil War, Francisco Franco leads Spain into a new and uncertain future. Loosely allied with Italy, Spain is at an interesting crossroads.
Diplomatically, Spain has remained open to trade with the west, and is the only member of the Pact of Rome to regularly conduct business with members of the Washington Accords, giving them a leg up on their competition. Thanks to the “Atlantropa” project that forced Spain to lose much of its Mediterranean ports and zones of trade, the Spanish have become increasingly dependent on foreign imports and exports.
Militarily, Spain struggles to keep up with its neighbors. A somewhat unstable economy and sluggish high command has caused the Spanish military to fall behind in terms of strategy and equipment, with much of Spain’s weaponry and equipment being hand-me-downs or surplus from Italy. With the Axis-aligned France sitting across its border, the Spanish are wary of any moves made in central Europe, as the Pyrenees could quickly become a warzone.
Franco’s control of Spain is undisputed at this point. The opposition has either been crushed, imprisoned, or exiled, and Franco is incredibly popular amongst the populace as the fascist government has spun Franco’s neutrality during the Second World War as a “way to maintain the lives of the Spanish people”. This, of course, means that Franco is the only thing holding Spain together at this point, and any change to Franco’s control could cause the entire system to collapse.
United, Great and Free are three words used to describe Spain.
For now.
The Motherland lies in ruins. Under the ineffectual and incompetent administration of Nikolai Bukharin, the Soviet Union suffered famines, economic instability and political upheaval for years, right up until 1940, when the German Reich pounced on the ailing nation. Tens of millions died as Bukharin and his generals threw everything they had against the combined efforts of the Germans and Japanese, but to no avail. Within less than two years, Vladivostok, Leningrad, Bukharingrad and Moscow had fallen, and the Soviet Union began to splinter. Seeing no other option, Bukharin offered the Soviet Union’s surrender to the Axis. After shaming himself before the world, Bukharin committed suicide, unable to face the humiliation any further.
When the dust finally settled as the USSR had finally finished breaking apart, one man stood victorious. Georgy Zhukov, the Soviet Union’s most valiant general who had expertly prevented the Germans from pushing any further than the A-A line, secured power after removing Bukharin’s few allies from the Soviet government, cementing total control over the rump state.
Economically, the Soviet Union is a backwater. What few cities are under its control are focused entirely on producing military equipment and only the most basic consumer goods. In the rural parts of the nation, the chilling cold of the new jetstream makes farming almost an impossibility, and only the hardiest crops can be produced in these frigid regions.
Militarily, however, the Soviet Union is quickly returning to the force to be reckoned with it once was. Both men and women are conscripted into the Red Army, and made to do two years of rigid training and patrols along the border with both the Axis in the west and the revisionists to the east. Despite taking massive losses during the war, millions of refugees from Europe still flock to the Soviet Union, and entire divisions are made up of Jewish, Roma, Slavic and other escapees. Armed to the teeth, the Soviet Union is ready to lash out at any moment should the need arise.
Zhukov has a tight leash on the Soviet Union, but some fear that his grip may soon weaken. Aging rapidly due to the stress of maintaining a rump state, and the growing popularity of Valery Sablin’s “Siberian Revolutionary Front”, Zhukov is quickly running out of time. Should any sort of conflict come to the Soviet Union, Zhukov must play his cards right.
The great bear slumbers...but for how long?
All is not well in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. Having sacrificed nearly a million men on the beaches of Europe and the sweltering heat of the Pacific, the United States of America saw its allies fall one by one at the hands of the Axis. Finally, the American war effort came to a screeching halt after the destruction of Portland and Norfolk via nuclear weapons launched all the way from Europe. President Truman, humiliated and heartbroken, signed the official surrender of the United States in the Treaty of Madrid, seeing huge portions of America’s pacific possessions lost, and being forced to watch helplessly as the Germans butchered Europe like one would a calf.
At home, the United States was stunned. Despite all the propaganda, all the bravery, the hard work and unity put into the war effort, the United States had still lost. There were many that were furious with America’s surrender, demanding that the fight continue, while others were simply so shocked that they couldn’t imagine fighting any longer. This caused a ripple effect that would last for decades. But everyone in America knew one thing that rang clear in their minds.
“It’s not over till it’s over”
Under the administration of the recently elected Richard Nixon, the United States stands at a crossroads. In the streets of the American south, huge protests take place demanding that schools and businesses be desegregated, with the charismatic Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. leading thousands of people on peaceful marches, gaining traction amongst racial lines. Meanwhile, elements of American nationalism begin to raise their ugly head as the “American Liberty Party” seeks to install a “harder, tougher, less compromising man” in charge of the United States.
Economically, America remains a giant. America’s industrial power never stopped growing, and with the rest of the “Free World” now dependent on American goods, oil and food, the United States is on a fast track to becoming the strongest economy in the world, more powerful than the combined might of any of her opposing alliances. This, of course, comes at a cost. America’s economy is powerful mainly due to the presence and influence of numerous companies and banking conglomerates that managed to gain the favor of the American government over the past twenty years.
The United States Armed Forces are among some of the best in the world. Learning from the mistakes made in the Second World War, as well as adopting and modifying technologies from her rivals, the United States boasts the largest navy, army and air force. America is also the only other nation in the world to possess Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs), rivaling Germany and putting the Japanese and Italians under the gun, should it come to it.
The summers and winters of America are very different compared to what they used to be. Summer in the south is much hotter and much drier than usual, with hurricane season being shorter and more mild as the years go by. Meanwhile, winters in the Midwest and Great Plains are horrendously cold, with the snows starting unseasonably early, and spring coming unseasonably late, making harvesting season a tiny window for farmers to get through.
Despite all of the greatness in America’s economy and military, and the progress made by the Civil Rights Movement in the American south, there is still a dark cloud hanging overhead. The United States of America is the lynchpin of the Washington Accords, and sits as the “City on the Hill” for those in need. Unfortunately, this means that the United States must play a deadly game of nuclear chess with the rival superpowers of Germany, Italy and Japan.
For America, it’s Yankee Doodle
Do
Or
Die.
