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jamesmakesmaps — A Spectre Is Haunting Europe (Remake)
Published: 2021-11-02 23:31:16 +0000 UTC; Views: 16731; Favourites: 45; Downloads: 0
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It all started when the Red Army rolled into Warsaw on August 13, 1920. The 40,000 strong Polish Army was crushed and outnumbered 3 to 1 by the might of the Soviets. At the same time, the failing Ottoman Empire was forced to sign the Treaty of Sevres, partitioning just over half of the country to Armenia, Georgia, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Greece. An international zone was set up in the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits, including the city of Constantinople, and the Kurds were freed with an independent state in the east. Meanwhile in Poland, the Red Army did not stop their invasion. They rushed beyond Warsaw, and took Lvov and Lublin within 3 weeks. On September 9, the Polish government surrendered to Russia, and president Jozef Pilsudski fled to Berlin, then to London. The People's Republic of Poland was established, with the Curzon line as the border. But, the spirit of the Polish people didn't end. Many Poles actively resisted Soviet control, in what they called "Wielki opór", or "The Great Resistance". An estimated 23,500 people would be executed by the Soviets between 1920 and 1925 for being "counter-revolutionaries" and spreading "counter-revolutionary propaganda". At the same exact time, the Red Army invaded Armenia, which had just been awarded a large section of eastern Turkey. The country would surrender on November 29, while the Turks attempted to take back what they had lost. The Soviets pushed Turkey back to the demarcation line.On February 15, 1921, the Red Army invaded Georgia, finishing the consolidation of the Caucasus under communist control. They surrendered on March 17. After the defeat of the White Army in 1922, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was established. At the same time, a man in Italy named Benito Mussolini attempted a coup d'etat by marching into Rome and replacing the monarchy with a fascist government. But, they were stopped by military soldiers at the entrance into Parliament. A member of the Blackshirts' armed wing shot one of the guards, which began a bloodbath on the streets. Mussolini was caught and taken into prison, where he would later be found guilty of high treason against the state. He was executed on January 11, 1923. Later that year, a young Adolf Hitler, hearing of Mussolini's fate, nixed plans for a putsch in Munich. The NSDAP would later on lose election after election. In the 1932 general elections, Franz Papen won the presidency. Hitler was furious, and as a result, led a march on Berlin, starting the German Civil War. The French, Belgians, and British intervened and occupied the Rhineland and border area around Alsace-Lorraine.
The Nazis won the German Civil War, defeating Franz Papen's German Republic in 1937. The country was transformed into the Greater German Reich. Over the next 5 years, Germany rebuilt itself from the destruction caused by the civil war. Hitler wanted more, and began to exercise claims onto surrounding countries, wanting every land historically tied to Germany, including voiding the Treaty of Versailles, annexing German-majority lands in Czechoslovakia and Luxembourg. The Wehrmacht was rebuilt, with an extensive drafting program aimed at 18-45 year-old men and women. Hungary transitioned into a fascist regime led by Miklos Horthy. He signed the Pact of Steel with Germany in 1939, with plans to reclaim areas lost in the Treaty of Trianon in 1920. Meanwhile, Japan continued its invasion of China, its goal was to pacify the country and put it under Japanese suzerainty. Back in Europe, the Soviets were preparing for a war with Germany, so they prepared by fortifying the Ukraine, Byelorussia, and the Baltics. There were two lines set up, one was the Galicia-Minsk-Riga line, and the Dniper-Stalingrad line.
On October 28, 1943, Germany invaded Austria, which had signed secret treaties with Italy, France, and Britain. The three then declared war on Germany, beginning the Second Great War. The next day, Germany and Hungary invaded Czechoslovakia. The Rhineland and the former Austrian South Tirol were the two main flash points of the war early on, with Germany failing to cross the Alpine foothills. Czechoslovakia surrendered on November 19, and was partitioned between Germany and Hungary Then, the Wehrmacht broke through the line at Belluno, starting their blitz to the Adriatic Sea. Italy lets Yugoslavia occupy Istria to protect the city of Trieste from German occupation. Simultaneously, Germany began its invasion of the Low Countries and France, but was stopped dead in its tracks by a very aggressively fortified Maginot Line. They annexed Alsace-Lorraine and Luxembourg, starting its assimilation into the greater German nation.
Then, on April 1, 1944, the German invasion of the Soviet Union began. They attacked from East Prussia, Pomerania, and Silesia into Poland and Lithuania. By the end of the spring, in June, Warsaw was taken, and the Hungarian invasion of Yugoslavia and Romania began in early July. By September, Poland and Lithuania became German puppets under collaborationist regimes. The Galicia-Minsk-Riga line was crushed, but came at the cost of heavy casualties, which slowed German advances by almost half. Hungary de facto annexes Transylvania, but Yugoslavia and Romania still held on to some areas. In September 1944, the Sofia Agreement is signed between Yugoslavia, Albania, and Bulgaria, forming the Balkan Federation and reforming the internal divisions on ethno-linguistic lines. Meanwhile, Japan ran south into the heart of China, occupying 14 provinces, some of which under complete control.
The Berlin Pact made their furthest advances in the winter of 1945, in the east the Wehrmacht reached the plains of the eastern Ukraine, and were on the doorsteps to Smolensk. Up north the guerilla war by the citizens of Leningrad with 400,000 Red Army soldiers has been raging on since the late summer of 1944. 225,000 people have died here alone, the deadliest front of the war. Out west the Wehrmacht trudges towards Paris, mirroring the actions of the First Great War. Artillery litter the skies at all hours of the day along the 320-mile long front line, moving in some areas as little as 5 miles a day. The Maginot line is doing it's job, but at risk of failure because of German artillery strikes. Areas as far away as Bourges are not safe from air strikes. In the Alpine of northeast Italy, Venice is the target of the Germans. Taking Verona means easy access to the Po valley, and a easy road to Rome. In Yugoslavia the Germans and Hungarians are advancing through the north at an alarming rate. Zagreb was lost to Hungary in early 1945, Slovenia and Istria taken by Germany. Entire villages are torched, and half of Zagreb is in ruins. Belgrade is no better, shelling and bombings are now a daily occurrence, and even Sarajevo and the plains of Kosovo and Montenegro are not spared. On the Transylvanian front, the Romanians have cut off the Szekely Guard and 157,000 Hungarian soldiers after defeating them at Ludus. Orders from marshals are to no use, and it's only a matter of time before surrender is the only option. The Slovak underground continues their guerilla war against the Arrow Cross Party, killing high-ranking officials when given the chance. By the spring of 1946, the tide is slowly but surely turning in the Allied favor.
May 2, 1946: Adolf Hitler is in Mainz to hold a speech. 42,300 people show up to hear his speech about what will happen after Germany secures victory in Europe. The crowd erupts with every sentence he speaks. Meanwhile in the far distance, 500 meters away to be exact, a man and woman look out the window of a house. In the man's arms is a Kar98k with silencer and scope. The woman is carrying a pair of binoculars. "You see him, right?", she says, looking down the lens directly at Hitler. "Yes, looks like those mindless idiots are enjoying everything he says...", he replies. The man scopes in and zooms in on Hitler. The underground anti-fascist movement had planned the assassination of Adolf Hitler for years, and this moment would make or break the outcome of the war. He lets the crosshairs meet Hitler's head and takes a deep breath. "For the freedom and liberation of Germany from these fascist devils.", he says to himself before taking the shot. The bullet flies through the air at 1,400 feet per second. In only 2 seconds the Fuhrer is killed instantly, the bullet coming through his brain. The crowd looks in horror and scrambles away. The man takes five more shots, two hitting Albert Speer, one hitting Heinrich Himmler, and the final hitting a security guard. He puts the gun down and with the woman they flee from the scene.
One hour later a total of 10,000 rebels storm government offices around the country and decapitate the leadership. The coup is a success, and by nightfall the German Republic was declared, with Konrad Adenauer as President. The Wehrmacht, now without leadership, collapses on all fronts, within days of the assassination, and by May 15 the Allies push back at a rapid rate.
Date of Liberation of occupied cities by the Allies:
Amiens and Padua: May 16
Trento, Trieste, Zagreb, Brasov, Nancy, Ljubljana, and Kiev: May 17
Austrian border reached, Minsk captured, western Belgium and the Szekely taken: May 19
Vilinus, Tallinn, Brussels, Amsterdam, Liege, Alsace-Lorraine liberated, Maribor, and Cluj-Napoca: May 20
Partium, East Prussia, the Netherlands and Luxembourg liberated: May 21
Storming of the Pannonian Plain and Stuttgart Conference - Germany lays down arms: May 22
Czechoslovak Uprising and storming of Warsaw: May 23
Poland liberated: May 24
Hungary surrenders, ending the war: May 26
Casualties of the war: Estimated to be 21 million total, including guerilla fighters within fascist countries
Treaty of Vienna, signed on June 3, 1946:
Germany will be partitioned into north and south, and both nations will pay 20 billion Marks in reparations to the Allies.
Austria will hold a plebiscite to determine sovereignty by December 31.
The Rhineland will be occupied for exactly 5 years after the signing of Vienna.
Northern Schleswig will be ceded to Denmark.
Czechoslovakia will be restored to its borders before the outbreak of the war.
Warmia, Masuria, and Powiśle will be ceded to the Polish Soviet Socialist Republic.
The remainder of East Prussia will be turned into a Soviet satellite state.
Status quo ante bellum will be established in Soviet Eastern Europe.
The Treaty of Trianon(1920) will be re-enforced, and Hungary will pay 20 billion forint in reparations to the Allies.
This treaty will be enforced starting at midnight on June 3, 1946.
Phillipe Pétain, President of the French Third Republic
Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and associated colonies
Charlotte, Duchess of Luxembourg
Paul-Émile Janson, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Belgium
Queen Wilhelmina of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and associated colonies
Luigi Sterzo, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Italy and associated colonies
Peter II of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia
Carol II of the Kingdom of Romania
Vitéz Béla Miklós de Dálnok, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Hungary
Edward Benesh, President of the Republic of Czechoslovakia
Leon Trotsky, General Secretary of the Communist Party and Leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
Konrad Adenauer, President of the German Republic
Results of the Austrian plebiscite, taken on August 19, 1946:
Should the regions making up the former Republic of Austria redeclare independence, or remain with the new South German Federation?
Independence: 21.82%
Remain: 68.07%
Undecisive: 0.11%
Voter Turnout: 79.84%
After the war, Europe returned to a somewhat normal state. Many, many cities had to be rebuilt, some from the ground up. Memorials are littered across Europe paying tributes to the men and women who dutifully served the Allied armies who did not make it through, the youth who sadly would never make it past childhood, victims of genocide by the fascist regimes, and resistance fighters who sacrificed life and limb to liberate their countries from fascist rule. A somber, yet hopeful future is what Europe faces. The Kuomintang and the Soviets would defeat the Japanese by 1949, and liberate Korea. The scars of war still stung the people of the continent far beyond the end, and decolonization is beginning to see its effects throughout Africa and Asia.
A list of countries that gained independence from European/American control after the Second World War:
Cameroon - January 1, 1960 (Same as OTL)
Mauretania, Mali, and Senegal - May 1, 1960
French Congo unified with Republic of the Congo - June 1, 1960
Somalia and Eritrea - June 26, 1960
Dahomey, Niger, Upper Volta, Ivory Coast, Beafrika, Gabon, Chad, and Tanganyika - August 1, 1960
Nigeria - October 1, 1960 (Same as OTL)
Sierra Leone - January 1, 1961
Ruanda-Urundi - January 28, 1961
Treaty of Oran gives Constantine independence - April 26, 1961
Buganda, Bunyoro, Toro, and Ankole - September 1, 1961
Samoa - January 1, 1962 (Same as OTL)
Colony of Kenya and British Uganda unify into Kenya- March 28, 1962
Federation of South Arabia - April 4, 1962
Gambia - May 31, 1962
Jamaica - August 6, 1962 (Same as OTL)
British protectorate over Zanzibar ends - January 1, 1963
Dhofar - June 9, 1963
Sarawak - July 22, 1963
Rhodesia and Malawi - December 31, 1963
Belize - January 1, 1964
Bechuanaland - August 1, 1964
British protectorate over Swaziland ends - September 9, 1964
Guyana - May 26, 1966 (Same as OTL)
Lesotho - October 1, 1966 (Same as OTL)
Namibia - October 27, 1966
Fiji - September 20, 1967
Río Muni - September 22, 1968
British protectorate over Tonga ends - June 4, 1970 (Same as OTL)
Republic of East Arabia - December 2, 1971
British protectorate over Oman ends - November 3, 1972
Angola - March 27, 1973
Federation of Guinea and Cape Verde - September 24, 1973
Mozambique - September 8, 1974
Suriname - November 25, 1975 (Same as OTL)
Guiana - January 1, 1980
Vanuatu - July 30, 1980 (Same as OTL)
And with that, the centuries-long era of colonialism was effectively over. The world went on without any major issues until 1984. The Communist regimes of Eurasia began to crack, as independence movements began to take hold on areas in the Soviet Bloc. In 1986, Mongolia and Sinkiang abandoned communism, and became democracies. In 1987, Prussia declared itself a democracy too, with a German-leaning government. The Soviet Union could not exist in its current state anymore, so in 1989 the New Union Treaty was signed, forming the Union of Eurasian People's Republics. The government became more democratic socialist than the former CPSU. In 1991 Tuva voted in a plebiscite to join Mongolia, which was condemned by Eurasia but supported by the Republic of China. Meanwhile in the Middle East, Kurdistan declared war on Syria over a dispute over Deir-ez-Zor in 1995. The Eurasians sent military assistance to Kurdistan, which earned them the ire of the rest of Europe. At the end, Kurdistan won, and in 1999 Syria suffered a coup that replaced the monarchy with an Eurasian-style socialist republic. The year is now 2000, and a new century awaits us. The United States, China, and Eurasia are the three superpowers, but will this long peace last?
