The Great Wars
From the Archives... Following is an early article knocking about some ideas on how the Great Wars went in IB. The larger articles on the First Great War and the Second Great War are far more detailed. This is offered for extra-historical purposes.
"The Great Wars" is the term used for the two major wars fought in Europe during the twentieth century. Roughly they correspond to WWI and WWII. Naturally, there are some differences. (Has it ever been stated what The Second War was actually like *there*? Like, if Japan was involved, if it had to do with nazism and fascism, if there was a holocaust, etc.?)
I doubt it. Naziism never happened *there* - or if it did it certainly wasn't anything significant. *Here* Fascism and Naziism were basically products of the discontent in Italy and Germany about the end of WWI- how badly Germany and Italy were treated by the Allies. *There* Germany wasn't treated so oppressively, so there was less discontent and thus less for the Fascists and Nazis to play on. In fact, I'm not sure of the causes of The Second War *there*, or even if it was a *world* war. In fact, I'm not sure it could even have happened. However, I do have some Ideas, if you kind Gentlemen will allow me to Hypothesise. [Some blow-up or other. You know those Continental types, always at war over some minor little thing!]
If I remember my GCSE history correctly, the rise of the Nazi party (and hence the beginnings of WWII) *here* were caused by resentment after the Great War and how the defeated Germans were treated. This was excaberated by the Wall Street Crash which plunged the world into economic recession. This economic uncertainty started to give a considerable amount of popularity to extremist parties in Europe, the Communists and the Nationalists. When the rather fragile Weimar Republic toppled, Hitler came to power in Germany. He started violating the Treaty of Versailles left, right and centre and this (despite Chamberlain's rather weedy efforts in the directions of appeasement) sparked off WWII.
However in IB things must have progressed rather differently. Here's my suggestion on what happened:
As Padraic said, the Great War ended in a stalemate. When both sides got tired of slaughtering their soldiers for very little gain, they met at Versailles to hammer out a peace treaty, as the Allies (principally the FK, the SLC, France and the Two Sicilies) and the Germans and Austrians [Ferko- what side were Dalmatia and the Balkans on?] were facing political unrest at home. The Germans went back to their pre-war borders, so Alsace-Lorraine is still German. Also, the Allies didn't force Germany to pay reparations and *both* sides agreed to limit the size of their forces.
Since the SLC isn't as much of a power *there*, Wall Street wouldn't be as significant. [There was also an economic slump in Europe and Britain at the time.] Let's say that it did crash, but the effects weren't as serious. There followed a period of minor recession, which was, however, enough to cause unrest. [The widespread nature of this recession might do that in lands already wrecked by the previous War.] The Austro-Hungarian empire, due to internal problems, basically imploded and seizing on this weakness the rather belligerent Helvetia instigated a series of border conflicts. The collapse of Austro-Hungary instigated a period of minority unrest in Eastern Europe and separatist movements spread, which eventually precipitated the break-up of the Ottoman Empire.
Fearing similar events might take place in their countries, the governments of Germany, Italy, Greece and Spain chose dictators to lead them, which were more centralist than nationalist. Presumably the CN were fairly active at this time [Padraic?]. [The CN are _always_ active! And anyway, Dunein had been in a slump for decades before the Great War anyway - this new recession hit the Province very hard. With unemployment rates of up to 40% in some areas, Chos Nusteor had a wide open stage to vent and air its long list of grievances.]
Due to the constant border conflicts with Helvetia, Austria allied herself with Germany again, and this soon became an Anschluss (the Third German Empire- the Kaiser had not been deposed). Both countries had still remained fairly strong after the Great War and together they were even stronger. The Anschluss thus neatly avoided the armament strictures of the Treaty of Versailles, which rather worried the rest of Europe. In 1935 the Anschluss declared war on Helvetia and had conquered it by early 1939. [Probably they tried to feed the Germans some local delicacies. Helvetian cuisine - now _there's_ a reason to declare war!]
Greece had been itching to move East and go to war with the Turks since the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in 1922 and in 1936, encouraged by the Anschluss and then allied with them, finally do so, ultimately retaking the Imperial City.
At this time the Baltic League was teetering on the brink of war with Russia. Seeing this as an oppurtunity to regain territory in the east, after the conquest of Helvetia the Anschluss allied itself with Russia in 1939 and invaded Republic of the Two Crowns on the 1st of September 1939. The Republic's allies (the FK, France, Italy, Spain and the SLC [and Dalmatia?]) declared war on the "Grossartige Allianz" (Germany, Austria, Russia and Greece). The Second Great War began.
By 1940 the Allianz had conquered the Baltic League and most of northern France. Dirigible bombers laid seige to the FK and most major cities suffered heavily in the Blitzkrieg attacks. Attempts to cross the British Sea and invade the FK were thwarted by the efforts of the Arvorec and British navies.
Due to only a token Allianz presence in the Baltic, the Baltic Resistance fought back against the Allianz and with Scandinavian aid, expelled them. This effectively cut Allianz forces in half, and so weakened, the Allies hit back. The FK and the SLC landed in Normandy with the Arvorec marines and the Brehonecq freedom fighters to the south of them. The Italians, with the aid of the Helvetian resistance, attacked Austria and the Dalmatians attacked Greece.
The War dragged on for several years [aided by the fact that the Allianz did not invade Russia], the Allianz having retreated somewhat from its earlier gains in the east. In February 1949 the Allianz dropped an atom bomb on Lodz. However, Berlin was still taken in April by Allied troops from the Republic of the Two Crowns and the FK. The other Allianz surrendered. [There have been some questions as to why the Bomb was dropped on Lodz. Also, was the thing dropped from a dirigible or launched on a rocket?]
An exhausted force of victors could force little more from Germany than yet another stalemate. While the Empire was very much hamstrung by the Treaty of Berlin; neither was it entirely defeated nor was it properly subdued in the post war period.
[PB]
