Alright, time for the final epilogue to conclude this story. Thank you everybody for your comments.
At long last, it was all over. The United States of America and her allies all over the world had won the worlds final great war. This victory came at great cost to both ally and enemy alike. Germany, with many of her major cities in ruins, was in shambles. Russia, a vast nation that controlled the largest empire on Earth, was broken and defeated. Many of America's allies had suffered greatly during the war as well. China, France, Britain, Italy, South America, and the United States herself had been the victims of crushing German nuclear attacks. Battlefields in France, Italy, Africa, India, China, Scandinavia, Germany, and Siberia were littered with the dead of all sides, joined by the burned out husks of knocked out tanks, as well as the wrecks of downed jet aircraft. Led by the United States, the people of the world began the long process of clearing away the destruction and putting the planet back together again.
The challenge was immense for many countries. The nuclear bombardments of both sides had resulted in a drop of average global temperatures, resulting in large scale crop failures in many places. Radioactive fallout also compounded this problem, making many places unusable for agricultural development until the contaminated topsoil was removed. It took until the late 1970's for temperatures to finally return to where they were before the war, but luckily thanks to intensive farming in places like Southern Africa, the United States, Canada, India, and the Ukraine, starvation was kept to a minimum and the world endured this painful period.
In the United States, the government of President John F Kennedy, now relocated to the temporary US capital at New York, switched the economy into full reconstruction mode. Money saved by demobilization of the armed forces was used to fund massive reconstruction projects in devastated places within the United States and around the globe. Dubbed the "Kennedy Plan" after the President, it led to the economic recovery of many nations around the globe.
Cities that had been destroyed by nuclear weapons, using funds of the Kennedy plan, were successfully cleaned enough of radiation that rebuilding could occur. Washington DC would be habitable again by 1971. Berlin, London, Moscow, Paris, Guangzhou, and many other cities devastated by nuclear weapons would be livable again by the early 1970's. Land contaminated by fallout downwind of the blast areas were livable and agriculturally viable again earlier than that, with crops being grown in these places again by the late 1960's. Built with new architectural designs, the rebuilt cities came to represent the versatility of mankind, able to rise from the greatest devastation to thrive once again.
As part of the post war reconstruction of the planet, the United States led the way in the globe's final political settlements, setting borders in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. This also coincided with the formation of a new, multinational assembly of nations, known as the United Nations, an organization created to allow states to peacefully settle their disputes rather than resort to war.
In Asia, Japan, the old arch-nemesis of the United States in the Pacific War, was finally granted its independence in 1963. Japan would go on to become one of the worlds largest producers of industrial and technological goods, as well as becoming a great force for world disarmament and peace. In China, temporary emergency president Chiang Kai Shek relinquished his emergency powers in 1965, allowing the country to once again have free and fair elections. The new Chinese government relocated the capital to the city of Beijing, while the nation set forward on its own massive reconstruction program. China's economy would recover to pre 1961 levels by the early 1980's, with the country coming back on track to becoming a rising world power. In Central Asia, the state of Turkestan is revived for the first time since the late 1930's. To its north, is the new Republic of Kazakhstan. Above both China and Kazakhstan, is the Siberian portion of the postwar Federal Republic of Russia, the successor state to the prewar Russian empire. India meanwhile, was able to retain control of Afghanistan, after a referendum of independence for that country was defeated, thanks largely to huge Indian economic development in the region. India, like China, is another growing power on the world state, one of the worlds largest democracies.
For Africa, independence did not come for a long time, with the nations of the area being granted independence only in the mid 1970's. What was once the massive German colony of Freistaat Mittelafrika was broken up along internal German administrative lines, for the sake of simplicity and economic viability. Ghana, Nigeria, The Republic of the Congo, Zambia, Equatorial Africa, and the East African Federation were carved out of Mittelafrika's former territory. For the hundreds of thousands of German settlers that once lived in these states, hostility towards them by the local population led to these people immigrating mostly to South Africa, with many settling in Namibia and the Boer regions of that country. The former Portuguese colonies of Angola and Mozambique were also granted independence around the same time period. To the North, Libya, Cote d Ivoire, and Guinea were granted independence in the late 1960's. Liberia, a nation that had been part of the allied war effort ever since the Second World War, was slightly enlarged with the annexation of German Sierra Leone. South Africa meanwhile has become the most powerful country in all of Africa. South Africa, which was at point experiencing increased racial tensions between the White and Black populations of the county, has now settled down thanks to peaceful negotiations between both sides. South Africa is now well on its way to becoming a prosperous multi-ethnic democracy, a sign of racial harmony in Africa. Finally, what was once the French Exile State of National France still partially remains. Due to massive European settlement in places like Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco, especially after the end of the Third World War, the region still remains under French control. France maintains a heavy military presence to combat against local insurgents, but these attacks are surprisingly very minimal due to the economic benefits and developments of French rule. Nevertheless, referendums on independence for the region continue to be organized, with the next one due to take place in the early 1990's.
In the Middle East, the political settlement was far more simplistic. Out of the Ashes of the dead Ottoman Empire, the arab peoples were granted independence. Arabia, an arab state encompassing the entire Arabian peninsula, was established in 1964. To the north, the nations of Mesopotamia and Syria were established in 1965. To the east, the state of Persia was reestablished under a democratic government, after it was invaded and partitioned in the late 1940's by Russia and the Ottomans. In the Caucuses, the pre 1936 states of Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan were reestablished. West of the Caucuses, the new Republic of Turkey was formed in 1968, the legal successor state of the Ottoman Empire. Turkey quickly moved to erase all old ties to the Ottoman Empire, and became one of the most secular states in the entire Middle East. Finally, in the holy land of Palestine, the multi-ethnic state of Yisratin was created. This state has since become a symbol to the world of religious freedom and harmony, were Muslims, Jews, and Christians live together in peace and equality, guaranteed by equal representation of all peoples in its constitution.
Finally, Europe, the epicenter of the chaos of the Third World War. Here, a number of changes are made. First, The nationalities of the Balkans are granted independence most during the mid 1960's. Albania, Serbia, Bosnia, Romania, and Slovakia are carved out of the once mighty Hapsburg Hungarian Empire. Hungary itself is reduced to its core territory in the process. Scandinavia to the north is divided along pre war lines, with Norway, Sweden, and Finland being granted independence. Denmark is also given independence, but without Greenland, which now becomes part of Canada's Northwest Territories. In the Baltics, the former German Baltic states are granted independence as the new United Baltic Republic. To the south of the UBR, Lithuania is reestablished, but with most of its prewar territory given to Russian Belarus. Poland is revived as well, largely in its pre war borders, with the exception of the Pripyat marshes. To the southeast, Ukraine is revived. In western Europe, Belgium, a country that has not existed since the end of the First World War, is reestablished. To its northeast is the rebuilt Netherlands. In Central Europe, Germany is reestablished, but with many changes. Bohemia is given independence, as the new Czech Republic. Alsace Lorraine is detached from Germany and given to France, an act that is recognized by the new postwar German government which relinquishes all claims to this disputed territory. What is left of the former German Empire is reorganized into the new Federal Republic of Germany in 1974, led by pro-allied German government officials and completely purged of all monarchic and royalist influence. Germany's new capital is the western city of Bonn, undamaged and unaffected by the nuclear stage of the Third World War. Plans are already being made to relocate the capital to a rebuilding Berlin, but these plans are not expected to come to fruition until the early 1990's. Finally, in the east, the new Federal Republic of Russia is established in 1975, with its temporary capital in Smolensk, until Moscow is finished being restored to its prewar state. Russia is reduced mostly to its pre 1936 borders, with the exceptions of Transamur, Belarus, and the don-Kuban region, all of which voted to remain part of the new Russian republic. Both Russia and Germany are home to US military bases, which remain due to a need to make sure both Germany and Russia's democratic governments remain stable.
The world is now set to enter a new golden age, led by the United States, which now enjoys the status of being the world's sole superpower. This golden age is not only enforced by the powerful United States Navy and Airforce, but also by the complete destruction of all of the earth's nuclear weapons. The last nuclear warhead in existence was disabled on May 14th, 1972, a day which has since become "world peace day", a global national holiday.
The New Democratic World Order, as the post third world war earth is called, would not have been possible without the sacrifice and struggle of the United States of America. From 1936-1962, the USA went through the brutality of Civil War, a terrible Second World War against Syndicalism, a horrific Pacific War against the Japanese Empire, and a final, devastating battle for the future of mankind against the tyranny of Europe's dictatorial monarchs, a battle that included the destruction of six major American cities and the deaths of millions of people all over the world. With the Struggle In Defense of Freedom now over, the United States, and the people of the world, now go forth into a brighter, secure future.
The New Democratic World Order, circa 1980's.