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Published: 2015-07-02 01:59:18 +0000 UTC; Views: 32498; Favourites: 137; Downloads: 355
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The next of my ideologically-dominated worlds , this time of fascism. It ain't no Disneyland. Many thanks to SRegan for letting me use his excellent Axis wishes maps. I also used Totentanz0's Axis projections as guides for other portions.---
It was once believed that communism was the great threat to Western democracy. When Leon Trotsky took over the Soviet Union and attempted to spread his vision of a socialist revolution worldwide, it certainly seemed to be that way. The great Red menace struck fear into the hearts of the people, and when the Depression came in 1924, it seemed as though the Soviet Union weathered it unscathed. Many turned to the left, seeing the Soviet Union as the new model for social order; Trotsky's government funded those groups. In France, Poland, Greece, Romania and the Baltics, the Soviets succeeded in creating friendly governments.
Others, however, turned to different voices. Voices that were just as loud and radical as the communists, but opposed to them. Instead of the proletariat, these men wanted to build up the race. Instead of internationalism, these men wanted nationalists. They were the fascists, and their call was heard throughout the world.
Italy was first, becoming a fascist state in 1924 under the leadership of Benito Mussolini. He served as the model for the other fascist leaders throughout Europe and North America. Britain was next, with the British Union of Fascists supported by the newly-crowned King Edward VIII. Then, in 1933, the Nazis in Germany, who would prove to be the masters of the continent in just a few years. America was next, with the Silver Shirts seizing power from the Roosevelt administration after the Business Coup. In the meanwhile, militarists took over the Japanese government, purging any who disagreed with them.
There were attempts to create a pan-fascist alliance against the Soviets, particularly by Germany, which sought to claim vast portions of the Soviet Union. However, the Germans only managed to bring the continental European powers into the fold. Britain and Japan went to war in 1936, as the Japanese seized portions of Britain's Asian colonial empire. Germany, incapable of convincing one or the other to join a war against the Soviets, instead focused its efforts on America. The Silver Shirts, having just crushed a Trotskyist revolt in the Rust Belt and losing the Philippines to a communist revolution, were eager to get revenge on Moscow. In 1941, after years of preparation, the Axis Powers, as they were known, struck. German troops swept over France, toppling the communist government and establishing a fascist state within six weeks. Then, the Axis swept eastward, demolishing Soviet forces. The Germans struck at the heart of the Soviet Union, while Italy and the Balkan fascists nibbled away at the south and Finland struck from the north. The Americans lent their massive economy to the Axis war effort, ensuring that the Axis would never be in want of supplies, but would not declare war until 1943.
By 1943, the Soviets were on their last legs. The British, losing the war in the Pacific, did not want to become hostile to Germany and America. The Japanese opportunistically struck at the eastern portions of the Soviet Union and invaded the Philippines, not wishing to let the Americans seize the entire eastern portion of the country or allow Washington to regain a foothold in Southeast Asia. By 1945, the last vestiges of Soviet resistance were being mopped up by Axis troops deep in Siberia. Massive swaths of the country were being depopulated, to be settled with Axis nationals. Undesirables of all sorts were marched into labor camps in Siberia, or worse, the death camps in former Poland. in 1947, a short war between Britain and the Axis saw most of Britain's African empire fall, and turned the British permanently against the fascists of the continent.
While the guns went silent in the 1950s, there was still a war. The Americans and the Germans, fairweather friends even during the Second World War, split when their mutual foe was destroyed. The Italians joined the Americans, seeking to overthrow Berlin as the master of Europe. Most of Europe did stick to Germany, however. And in the East, the Japanese created their own bloc, wishing to keep both Washington and Berlin out. As nation after nation successfully detonated nuclear arms, even the most crazed militarists realized that the world could not survive a third global engagement. Instead, wars would be fought by proxy around the world, as the great fascist empires competed for influence. In the 1970s, London and Berlin reconciled, as both saw the Americans as the greater threat.
The fascist empires are, all in all, very similar to one another in structure. The concept of Fuehrerprinzip has been adopted by almost all states - with Britain and Japan as notable exceptions - wherein an absolute leader rules over the entire state apparatus. There are no official transfers of power, with new supreme leaders rising and falling through unofficial political maneuvering. This has been a prevalent issue in Germany, where the SS, Nazi Party, and Wehrmacht are each independent power blocs that cannot stand one another, and in Spain, where the Falangist factions frequently assassinate members of rival factions. Some states have a variety of groups that they despise and seek to totally exterminate from the Earth; the Germans have the Jews, the Americans have blacks, and the French have Arabs. Other states, such as Italy, Britain and Finland, don't particularly care for genocide, but would rather impose their cultures on everyone else instead.
For the man on the street, these differences matter little. Practically everything of value, apart from those things owned by state-supported "private" entities, is owned by the government, so most citizens have little they could call their own. Surveillance is constant, with cameras on every street corner, telescreens in every home, and both crowds of thugs and secret police maintaining ideological purity everywhere. Dissent is punishable by decades in the labor camps, or summary execution. Flags and party symbols adorn everything, and there has been a trend of posters with the face of the nation's leader or founding figure looking down upon the people with a stern gaze; the Germans have even brought the face of Hitler into the home of every German. The average citizen does not mind these things; they are so pervasive, and have been around for so long, that they have become banal. Only a few aging men, locked up in retirement homes or psychiatric institution, remembers a time when things were different. But what do they know? They are just senile old fools.
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Comments: 148
RvBOMally In reply to ??? [2015-07-02 15:19:34 +0000 UTC]
I wouldn't count this as conventional, because more powers than just Germany and Japan are, well, powerful.
Edward VIII was a Nazi sympathizer, but he abdicated because he married an American divorcee.
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Laputa-Scorefinger In reply to RvBOMally [2015-07-02 18:01:54 +0000 UTC]
Hooray for love! Racist, racist love?
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RvBOMally In reply to Laputa-Scorefinger [2015-07-02 18:50:12 +0000 UTC]
Both of them did visit Hitler in 1937.
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Castorem In reply to ??? [2015-07-02 09:41:03 +0000 UTC]
It started out as a hopeful good-looking scenario, slowly transferring into one of the worst ones. Good job, you have successfully disgusted me. What happened to comrade Trotsky, execution, suicide?
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RvBOMally In reply to Castorem [2015-07-02 15:17:25 +0000 UTC]
He just disappeared when the Germans captured Moscow. Nobody knew where he went. Some say suicide, others say he escaped into the wilderness and got killed by his own men, others still that he led guerrilla forces against the Axis long after WWII.
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Cevolian In reply to RvBOMally [2015-07-02 23:17:10 +0000 UTC]
Nah. He's either a shepherd in Switzerland or hiding out in... Venezuela? Is that the Communist equivalent of Argentina?
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RvBOMally In reply to Cevolian [2015-07-02 23:41:02 +0000 UTC]
There are no left-leaning states in this world.
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OneHellofaBird In reply to ??? [2015-07-02 07:43:40 +0000 UTC]
what else is left for this series? all I can think of is democracy (gone sour, of course) and *occult* fascism (Lopez Rega, the neo-Templars and other "Foucault's Pendulum" guys)
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RvBOMally In reply to OneHellofaBird [2015-07-02 07:48:23 +0000 UTC]
Theocracy has been mentioned below. Maybe a green movement? Modern progressivism?
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Mechazoidfallen In reply to RvBOMally [2015-07-03 02:28:00 +0000 UTC]
It would be interesting to have a dystopian theocracy world with christian and islamic radicals galore, but the twist is that new age and occultist religions have also taken over many countries. A cold war between an alliance of Evangelicals and Muslims versus a collection of Astrologists, Wickens, Satanists, and your occasionally group ancient alien theorists.
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Laputa-Scorefinger In reply to RvBOMally [2015-07-02 18:00:35 +0000 UTC]
Or, if you want to be a true hipster about it, you can always mock the dangerous and totally still relevant political philosophy of Mozi , Warring States period consequentialist thinker. I sometimes use Mohists as "I Can't Believe It's Not Commies!" in my althist fiction/worldbuilding, their ideas are so perfectly dystopian and oppressive it's almost funny.
If you want to dystopify the nicest possible ideology ... how about abolitionism? A British Empire or post-Civil War US or, I dunno, Mega-Haiti or something decides to spread liberty by the sword, consequences be damned. Eh. You can probably make it work.
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EASTFverse In reply to Laputa-Scorefinger [2025-02-28 11:59:31 +0000 UTC]
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RvBOMally In reply to Laputa-Scorefinger [2015-07-02 18:54:25 +0000 UTC]
Huh, I didn't know about Mozi. I have used Legalists as "I Can't Believe It's Not the Third Reich." I may bring them in for my Asian-dominated timelines.
It's funny you mention abolitionism, because one of my upcoming scenarios is, what if Orwell was born about a century earlier and was an abolitionist writing against slavery. And technically speaking, the Coalition of Western Republics is a twisted, evil version of post-ACW America. There's a reason their version of "Sieg Heil" is "Our Union Forever."
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OneHellofaBird In reply to RvBOMally [2015-07-02 22:40:37 +0000 UTC]
hmm, a lot of the big Indian massacres were perpetrated by Abolitionists (and Methodists?)
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RvBOMally In reply to OneHellofaBird [2015-07-02 23:41:57 +0000 UTC]
Really? I suppose the British of the time were rather myopic about who deserved rights.
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OneHellofaBird In reply to RvBOMally [2015-07-03 03:32:00 +0000 UTC]
oh, I meant Native American
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Laputa-Scorefinger In reply to RvBOMally [2015-07-02 11:03:33 +0000 UTC]
Ordoliberal/Freiburg School dystopia? Whig dystopia? Third Way dystopia? C'mon, us sensible moderates never see our precious beliefs mocked and distorted for horrifying entertainment. We deserve a chance!
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RvBOMally In reply to Laputa-Scorefinger [2015-07-02 15:22:19 +0000 UTC]
I did in Pick Your Poison.
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Laputa-Scorefinger In reply to RvBOMally [2015-07-02 17:34:55 +0000 UTC]
You did? Huh, let me check that out.
Hmm, if you mean the "radically moderate" US, I think you can do better than saying that politicians promise everything and deliver nothing. That sounds more like a generic representative democracy-dystopia. Or OTL.
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RvBOMally In reply to Laputa-Scorefinger [2015-07-02 17:47:38 +0000 UTC]
Yes. That's the one.
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OneHellofaBird In reply to RvBOMally [2015-07-02 08:21:52 +0000 UTC]
hmm, we've already had Pick Your Poison
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RvBOMally In reply to OneHellofaBird [2015-07-02 15:24:47 +0000 UTC]
I think these single-ideology worlds give me more opportunity to explore the nuances within ideologies. Pick Your Poison was quite crowded.
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OneHellofaBird In reply to RvBOMally [2015-07-02 18:03:38 +0000 UTC]
Planet Hillary, where Contra Nicaragua, Libya, Ukraine, and Syria are shining beacons of prosperity and human rights and the naysayers get so mad they launch a soft dictatorship?
how about artocracy: dictatorship of the most creative, aesthetic holy wars, who can capture the human experience best (and I do mean CAPTURE)
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RvBOMally In reply to OneHellofaBird [2015-07-02 18:51:06 +0000 UTC]
Artocracy reminds me of a minor alien species from Warhammer 40K, which treats everything (including war) as art.
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Zomg420 In reply to RvBOMally [2015-07-02 08:11:44 +0000 UTC]
Could do, maybe like a mix of all modern radical liberal movements? As for democracy gone sour part, I would be thinking of populism. Basically mob rule world wide. Of course this leads to strongmen like Erdogan and Putin getting in..
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RvBOMally In reply to Zomg420 [2015-07-02 15:23:46 +0000 UTC]
Democracy may have something along the lines of French revolutionary excess and an almost cult-like devotion to "revolutionary principles." Anyone who thinks otherwise, or suspected of such, is clearly an enemy of the people and must be summarily executed.
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Void-Wolf In reply to Zomg420 [2015-07-02 14:54:29 +0000 UTC]
Doesn't the Anarchy map already cover mob rule?
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TheAstronomicon In reply to ??? [2015-07-02 07:27:23 +0000 UTC]
Theocracy =/= Fascism. Other than that, I approve of this rather grim world.
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TheAstronomicon In reply to RvBOMally [2015-07-02 18:04:09 +0000 UTC]
People tend to confuse Imperial Japan with a fascistic system, they were militaristic religious extremists.
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RvBOMally In reply to TheAstronomicon [2015-07-02 18:40:38 +0000 UTC]
Ah. Well, they are a major Axis power. I felt I had to include them.
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EASTFverse In reply to RvBOMally [2025-02-28 12:00:45 +0000 UTC]
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Zomg420 In reply to ??? [2015-07-02 06:29:31 +0000 UTC]
It's a scary world, because thoroughly at the end the people of each of the countries have accepted fascism and totalitarianism as something normal, and live with it from their birth. This practically stunts any large-scale rebellion except.. other forms of fascism, as seen in Ireland.
You mentioned that the British and Japanese are different but didn't say how, do they function more like absolute monarchies with dedication to the Monarch as leader so slightly less infighting? Though I assume this infighting method of changing leaders is seen as practically their version of democratic vote.
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RvBOMally In reply to Zomg420 [2015-07-02 06:53:35 +0000 UTC]
The British are less centralized, with different fascist parties for each dominion they have. The Japanese are not a one-party state; their militarists are not organized as a political party with a particular ideology.
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Zomg420 In reply to RvBOMally [2015-07-02 08:08:08 +0000 UTC]
How do they maintain control with less centralization, or is it more of a loose confederation guided by cultural, economic and political ties? Like a British EU?
Also one thing I've noted - even more standard colonial straight lines in Africa.
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RvBOMally In reply to Zomg420 [2015-07-02 15:25:37 +0000 UTC]
It's more like a British EU.
That's not my fault. Blame Mussolini and Franco.
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SRegan In reply to ??? [2015-07-02 06:28:36 +0000 UTC]
Really nice - great to see my UCS Axis war aims patches getting use, though worth noting most were based on Totentanz0 's excellent BAM map series over here. I really like the last paragraph, which shows how little separates fascist and Stalinist states. Interested to see how 'theocracy' pans out!
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RvBOMally In reply to SRegan [2015-07-02 06:54:53 +0000 UTC]
Yeah, I added that last paragraph to hammer home just how firmly planted the jackboot is on humanity's face. I normally gloss it over, but I thought it deserved mention here.
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KuboCaskett In reply to ??? [2015-07-02 03:58:02 +0000 UTC]
No Disneyland? You don't say (sarcasm)
Anyways, this sure is a pretty depressing map, I hate to see how the Slavs and the Chinese are doing. I already know the Jews and Poles (and Koreans) are mostly dead or in hiding (just like In the Presence of Mine Enemies, though I do think this scenario is more believable than that).
I haven't taken the time to look at the other maps regarding Monarchies and Anarchies, but I have to say this and the Communist one are the most depressing ones out of them.
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RvBOMally In reply to KuboCaskett [2015-07-02 04:22:01 +0000 UTC]
There are Koreans outside of the Japanese Empire, and Jews outside of the German sphere. In particular, Jews have been granted safety in America, simply to piss off Berlin.
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Void-Wolf In reply to ??? [2015-07-02 02:15:09 +0000 UTC]
So first a world of monarchy (if that is what your Long Live the King is), then a world of capitalism, the one of communisim, then one of anarchy and now one of facism...
Bravo! Another dystopian masterpiece! I wonder what's the next one... theocracies? (I picture the American South would be some backwater protestant consevrative theocratic hellhole... the western equivalent of North Korea)
Once again, congrats!
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KuboCaskett In reply to Void-Wolf [2015-07-02 03:34:20 +0000 UTC]
You mean Iran with a dash of North Korean-totalitarianism.
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RvBOMally In reply to Void-Wolf [2015-07-02 02:46:49 +0000 UTC]
I don't actually have the next one planned. Theocracy may well be it.
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