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Published: 2020-12-27 13:12:49 +0000 UTC; Views: 6214; Favourites: 51; Downloads: 8
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Description
A flag and map of France which in an alternate timeline became Communist following an indecisive WWI. Politically it is democratic socialist with strong syndicalist leanings, while economically it is increasingly market socialist. It is also a founder of the Third International (alongside the USSR and the Workers' and Peasants' Republic of Italy) and for a long time its leader.More information regarding its history and other details to be added in the future if/when I have time/inspiration.
EDIT: Here's a bit of history regarding its POD and the FFSR's formation...
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On the eve of the Great War, the unstable 29 years-old nationalist Raoul Villain* in France changed his mind and aborted his intended assassination of Jean Jaurès, leader of the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO), instead targeting his colleague Jean Longuet first when he dined with Jean Jaurès at a later date before trying to kill him too, hoping the assassination of a grandson of Karl Marx himself would sent a more sensational and impactful message to both French Left and Right.
Surviving the assassination where Jean Longuet did not, Jean Jaurès and the rest of the French Left was shocked and galvanized into even greater opposition to France’s entry into the Great War on the grounds of pacifism and international proletariat solidarity which would remain for the rest of the conflict, leading to censorship and suppression by the French government which only served to unify the French Left and radicalize them towards more revolutionary character.
* (OOC: Yes, I’m as surprised as you are regarding his name)
Even with continued French proletariat agitation, the Great War would break out and drag on for the next few years nevertheless, with France and the rest of the Entente Powers trapped in a stalemated quagmire against the German-led Central Powers. The political instability brought on by French Left agitation may had helped convinced the German High Command it was not necessary to restart unrestricted submarine warfare, believing the French would collapse before Britain would be starved out and therefore there was no reason to risk entry of the United States of America into the Great War on the side of the Entente. Even so, the US would continue to trade weapons, supplies, and give out loans to the Entente Powers, not wishing to see an Entente defeat ruining all the investments they had made.
Russia’s collapse in 1917 into revolution would shock the world and make the war even more dire for the Entente, though not to the point of a Central Powers victory. While the Bolsheviks concluding the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk** in January 1918 netted much less gains in the East than the German High Command could hope for with puppet states of Poland, Finland, and Lithuania, it still allowed them to bring even more troops from the Eastern Front to the Western Front for their Kaiserschlacht, hoping to knock out France and the rest of the Entente in one decisive blow. While confident of success without US intervention, poor strategic planning and less supplies from the East still resulted in a failure of the offensive, the Entente successfully stopping the attack and pushing them back at a much greater cost – though in the end, they still could not fully dislodge them from Belgium and parts of northern France, leading to a continued stalemate with both sides quickly running out of men and materials to sustain the war effort.
** (OOC: On POD 3 - There were TWO versions of the Treaty, one which does not include Belarus and Ukraine, while the second one which does. This scenario assumes as a result of what Alternate History fans called ‘Butterflies’ - Where small alterations reverberates into unpredictable changes in its ripple effects -the Bolsheviks caved in earlier and signed the first version, which would lead to a less disastrous Russian Civil War and in turn a stronger Soviet Union)
With all sides on the brink of military and economic collapse by the early third of 1919, the Entente and Central Powers were finally forced to conclude a ‘Peace of Mutual Exhaustion’. France would be unoccupied and given Lorraine back, but is left without Alsace, while Italy despite provisions of the secret Treaty of London got nothing despite losing nothing. The German satellites in the East were recognized in exchange for the loss of their African and Asian colonies as well as removal from Belgium. These concessions proved inadequate for the monumental and horrific military and civilian sacrifices made by all countries, leading to widespread social and political discontent and radicalization.
The French Political Left is vindicated by their general opposition to the war, despite also being blamed for the lack of victory by the right. Fears of socialist revolution as in Russia and outrage at indecisive end of the Great War led to agitation among French military and political right, culminating in a military/paramilitary coup against the French government in early 1920. French public is outraged, leading to increasing support for the French workers’ unions, socialist parties and anarchist groups and widespread civil unrest and agitation against the French junta.
The assassination of French Junta leader in mid-1920 would drive the military regime to suspend civil rights and liberties and attempt to suppress the French Left – triggering the formation of a popular front among French Left for a national general strike, which quickly escalates into armed uprisings against the junta and the French bourgeois and elites, with much of the French army, traditionally left-leaning and even more so following years of French labour/Left agitation and influence, to siding with the Second French Revolution. French unions and Leftist parties, despite reservations, sides with and led the revolution.
The subsequent civil war would last a year, and despite tantalizing British support (due to their own civil unrests and troubles as well as intervention in the Middle East with the collapse of the Ottoman Empire), the military junta is overthrown and the French political right, delegitimized for their tentative support or failure to oppose the coup, is persecuted or driven out of France in the subsequent purges alongside the bourgeois and others considered counterrevolutionaries/reactionaries. While colonial elites in Africa sided with nationalist France and briefly became a haven to French elites, bourgeois and right-wing political figures and pro-junta military forces, the uprisings would spread there as well among natives and even parts of the French settler populations, aided by French revolutionary forces with elements of the French Navy which sided with the revolution.
Mainland France and half of French Africa (Algeria, Mauritania, Mali, Niger and the Ivory Coast) would fall completely under control of revolutionary forces, which would proclaim the Fédération des Républiques Socialistes Fraternelles (the Federation of Fraternal Socialist Republics) in late 1921, recognized immediately by Soviet Russia, now the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The remainder of the French colonial empire would fall apart, with African colonies between Chad, Togo and Congo occupied by and later annexed into the British Empire, becoming independent, or swearing loyalty to the French Provisional Government arising in Madagascar, while French authorities in Indochina are overthrown by local nationalists, which subsequently declares independence.
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amazinggamer [2023-02-23 15:01:03 +0000 UTC]
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BrutalityInc In reply to amazinggamer [2023-02-23 15:32:14 +0000 UTC]
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