-
We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.
- Status
Gah, update's not going to happen tonight because of computer trouble. However, I do have a nice set of screenshots available and tomorrow you will find out about the world of 1942 in all its glory 
The World in 1942
In 1942 the world was a very different place than it is now. Yet it was in the turbulent year of 1942, more than any other, that the foundations were laid for the modern world and many of today’s major conflicts can be traced back to the shape of the world in 1942.
North America
In North America the continent had remained fairly unchanged since the end of the Second American Civil War.
The United States, while the victors of the war, continued to suffer its effects. Reconstruction and the watered down version of the Democrat ‘New Deal’ had managed to stimulate the economy to some degree but in almost every city in America there were still long lines at soup kitchens every day with unemployment having stood at just below 20% for a generation.
With the Germans continuing to squeeze American firms out of global markets, and with trans-Atlantic trade brought to a crippling halt by the unrestricted warfare being waged in the continuing Second Weltkrieg, the American economy was in dire straits and would continue to remain so for years to come, despite the best efforts of a series of lacklustre Republican and Democrat administrations.
In contrast, the Pacific States of America was prospering. Never having been really hit by the Great Depression, America’s prosperous west coast had broken away during the civil war with the Federal government forced to acknowledge their independence in order to avoid fighting yet another opponent. Since then the PSA had looked north and westwards, implementing a market liberal economy which, coupled with Pacific resources and naval and aviation industries, had let to continued economic growth and high employment with the PS being able to tap into lucrative trade across the Pacific Ocean with Japan and Australia.
Canada, meanwhile, had been through a period of constant industrialisation ever since the British Revolution of 1925. The Exiles, as the refugees from Britain were known, had swelled Canada’s workforce and industries, enabling the country to develop an industrialised economy and a large army, air force and navy.
All of these were now engaged in a ferocious struggle with the Union of Britain. Unable to fight each other on land, the two nations had turned to the Atlantic Ocean to wage war with submarines from each nation trying to starve the other into submission through attacks on shipping and with formidable carrier groups mounting regular attacks on naval installations on both sides of the Atlantic.
However, while both sides continued to whittle down each other’s navies at a great cost in human life, the war in the Atlantic remained essentially a stalemate.
South America
In South America the major conflict of note was the war between Brazil and the Chile-Platinean alliance.
The war between the three nationalist dictatorships had begun in 1939 after years of squabbles over disputed border territories and, after three years of war by 1942, the Second Great South American War had already claimed tens of thousands of lives.
However, with both sides exhausted by the duration of the war, it was becoming increasingly obvious that soon one of them would gain the upper hand and utterly crush the other.
Africa
As a continent, Africa remained chained in colonial servitude. By 1942, Ethiopia was the sole independent nation left on the continent with the rest of Africa divided between the major European powers.
In the south, South Africa’s white government had begun the introduction of a new system of segregation based on race called Apartheid. While this had met with resistance from black paramilitaries, the system which was to define South Africa for the next fifty years was swiftly settling into place.
To the north, Mittelafrika had expanded at the expense of Portugal prior to the formation of the Catholic League, annexing Angola after a colonial war which had ended in Portuguese defeat.
And, even further north, the French Empire continued to exert control over its African possesions, gradually expanding the system of departéments to more and more of its territories in an attempt to incorporate them as integral part of France.
South East Asia
In South East Asia the most notable changes in the past decade had been the seemingly unstoppable march of Syndicalism. In India the Bharitya Commune had sent agents into the Princely Federation to trigger worker uprisings which, coupled with an invasion by the Commune’s army, had succeeded in toppling the Maharajahs and incorporating the Federation into the Commune.
Not content with this success which had made the Bharityans the most powerful nation on the subcontinent, far larger than the remnants of the British Raj, the syndicalists had established smuggling routes through Burma to German Indochina in order to supply syndicalist militias with weapons. With these weapons, syndicalist uprisings had successfully overthrown the government of Burma and enabled syndicalists to launch a national uprising against the Germans in Indochina, waging a guerrilla war which had succeeded in forcing the Germans out of the country, with the German government forced to acknowledge Indochinese independence in 1940 after several years of war.
Meanwhile in China the Qing Empire had succeeded in unifying the interior of the country after crushing various rebel factions and nationalising Germany’s General East Asian Company. However, the Mongol Empire under the mad Khagan Ungern von Sternberg had also taken advantage of the disunity in China to attack and conquer the warlords of Xibei Lianbang Yiyuan, extending his control over much of north China.
The Far East
In the Far East there had been three main benefactors from the collapse of the Russian nation. When Siberia had broken away from Russia during the Second Russian Civil War, it had immediately been attacked by both Mongolia and Transamur and partitioned between them.
And, as Transamur was effectively a Japanese puppet state, this had effectively consolidated Japan’s position as the premier power in the Far East.
Having crushed the nationalist uprisings in Korea and Taiwan and having annexed Guam during the Second American Civil War, the Japanese Empire’s East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere was now the most powerful bloc in East Asia and, with the gradual decline of German influence in China, was posed to become a power equal to that of the German Empire itself.
Western Russia
The boundary between German Russia and the Mongolian Empire is shown in red
In the middle of the Second Russian Civil War, Ukraine’s army had occupied Russian territory up to the Volga river. When the Russian Republic had responded with a declaration of war, Germany, which held Ukraine as a satellite state, had stepped in to protect the country, declaring war on Russia in return.
The intervention of the Mitteleuropa had marked the end of Russia as an independent state. Finland had taken advantage of the situation to annex Lapland and Mongolia declaring war in order to grab as much Russian territory as possible before the German army brought an end to Russia.
By 1942, the successor states to Russia included a mighty Ukrainian empire stretching east for hundreds of miles into central Asia and a Soviet Republic attempting to annex Lithuania and White Ruthenia and defending itself from the nationalist regime of Scandinavia which had taken advantage of the Soviet distraction in the south to attempt to annex Soviet-occupied Finland.
In 1942 the world was a very different place than it is now. Yet it was in the turbulent year of 1942, more than any other, that the foundations were laid for the modern world and many of today’s major conflicts can be traced back to the shape of the world in 1942.
North America
In North America the continent had remained fairly unchanged since the end of the Second American Civil War.
The United States, while the victors of the war, continued to suffer its effects. Reconstruction and the watered down version of the Democrat ‘New Deal’ had managed to stimulate the economy to some degree but in almost every city in America there were still long lines at soup kitchens every day with unemployment having stood at just below 20% for a generation.
With the Germans continuing to squeeze American firms out of global markets, and with trans-Atlantic trade brought to a crippling halt by the unrestricted warfare being waged in the continuing Second Weltkrieg, the American economy was in dire straits and would continue to remain so for years to come, despite the best efforts of a series of lacklustre Republican and Democrat administrations.
In contrast, the Pacific States of America was prospering. Never having been really hit by the Great Depression, America’s prosperous west coast had broken away during the civil war with the Federal government forced to acknowledge their independence in order to avoid fighting yet another opponent. Since then the PSA had looked north and westwards, implementing a market liberal economy which, coupled with Pacific resources and naval and aviation industries, had let to continued economic growth and high employment with the PS being able to tap into lucrative trade across the Pacific Ocean with Japan and Australia.
Canada, meanwhile, had been through a period of constant industrialisation ever since the British Revolution of 1925. The Exiles, as the refugees from Britain were known, had swelled Canada’s workforce and industries, enabling the country to develop an industrialised economy and a large army, air force and navy.
All of these were now engaged in a ferocious struggle with the Union of Britain. Unable to fight each other on land, the two nations had turned to the Atlantic Ocean to wage war with submarines from each nation trying to starve the other into submission through attacks on shipping and with formidable carrier groups mounting regular attacks on naval installations on both sides of the Atlantic.
However, while both sides continued to whittle down each other’s navies at a great cost in human life, the war in the Atlantic remained essentially a stalemate.
South America
In South America the major conflict of note was the war between Brazil and the Chile-Platinean alliance.
The war between the three nationalist dictatorships had begun in 1939 after years of squabbles over disputed border territories and, after three years of war by 1942, the Second Great South American War had already claimed tens of thousands of lives.
However, with both sides exhausted by the duration of the war, it was becoming increasingly obvious that soon one of them would gain the upper hand and utterly crush the other.
Africa
As a continent, Africa remained chained in colonial servitude. By 1942, Ethiopia was the sole independent nation left on the continent with the rest of Africa divided between the major European powers.
In the south, South Africa’s white government had begun the introduction of a new system of segregation based on race called Apartheid. While this had met with resistance from black paramilitaries, the system which was to define South Africa for the next fifty years was swiftly settling into place.
To the north, Mittelafrika had expanded at the expense of Portugal prior to the formation of the Catholic League, annexing Angola after a colonial war which had ended in Portuguese defeat.
And, even further north, the French Empire continued to exert control over its African possesions, gradually expanding the system of departéments to more and more of its territories in an attempt to incorporate them as integral part of France.
South East Asia
In South East Asia the most notable changes in the past decade had been the seemingly unstoppable march of Syndicalism. In India the Bharitya Commune had sent agents into the Princely Federation to trigger worker uprisings which, coupled with an invasion by the Commune’s army, had succeeded in toppling the Maharajahs and incorporating the Federation into the Commune.
Not content with this success which had made the Bharityans the most powerful nation on the subcontinent, far larger than the remnants of the British Raj, the syndicalists had established smuggling routes through Burma to German Indochina in order to supply syndicalist militias with weapons. With these weapons, syndicalist uprisings had successfully overthrown the government of Burma and enabled syndicalists to launch a national uprising against the Germans in Indochina, waging a guerrilla war which had succeeded in forcing the Germans out of the country, with the German government forced to acknowledge Indochinese independence in 1940 after several years of war.
Meanwhile in China the Qing Empire had succeeded in unifying the interior of the country after crushing various rebel factions and nationalising Germany’s General East Asian Company. However, the Mongol Empire under the mad Khagan Ungern von Sternberg had also taken advantage of the disunity in China to attack and conquer the warlords of Xibei Lianbang Yiyuan, extending his control over much of north China.
The Far East
In the Far East there had been three main benefactors from the collapse of the Russian nation. When Siberia had broken away from Russia during the Second Russian Civil War, it had immediately been attacked by both Mongolia and Transamur and partitioned between them.
And, as Transamur was effectively a Japanese puppet state, this had effectively consolidated Japan’s position as the premier power in the Far East.
Having crushed the nationalist uprisings in Korea and Taiwan and having annexed Guam during the Second American Civil War, the Japanese Empire’s East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere was now the most powerful bloc in East Asia and, with the gradual decline of German influence in China, was posed to become a power equal to that of the German Empire itself.
Western Russia
The boundary between German Russia and the Mongolian Empire is shown in red
In the middle of the Second Russian Civil War, Ukraine’s army had occupied Russian territory up to the Volga river. When the Russian Republic had responded with a declaration of war, Germany, which held Ukraine as a satellite state, had stepped in to protect the country, declaring war on Russia in return.
The intervention of the Mitteleuropa had marked the end of Russia as an independent state. Finland had taken advantage of the situation to annex Lapland and Mongolia declaring war in order to grab as much Russian territory as possible before the German army brought an end to Russia.
By 1942, the successor states to Russia included a mighty Ukrainian empire stretching east for hundreds of miles into central Asia and a Soviet Republic attempting to annex Lithuania and White Ruthenia and defending itself from the nationalist regime of Scandinavia which had taken advantage of the Soviet distraction in the south to attempt to annex Soviet-occupied Finland.
P.S. Sorry for the delay in getting this up - for various reasons I've been unable to write the update until today.
My god Antonine, you have done it. World War II now seems as a simple flashpoint that will allow for even greater things to come. I hopefully await those things. I give you 1 internet.
A winner is you! Keep it up.
A winner is you! Keep it up.
Wow, this world is certainly very interesting.
*has moved away from Georgia to California here.*
*has moved away from Georgia to California here.*
Russia is a mess, and Ethiopia looks vulnerable. Try and get ETH into an alliance - if not possible, invade.
Hey,when you destroy mittelafrika,give some colonies to Portugal,like Angola and all East Afrika.
Unlike every other non-white nation he's invaded so far, Ethiopia is Christian. In the much more right-wing world of this AAR, this would count for much more than it would OTL.
I'd say give them Angola back and a land bridge to connect the two colonies.
I forgot to ask, is there any chance of getting the winner of the La Plata-Brazil War into the catholic League?
With regards to Africa, I don't really have any plans to annex Ethiopia. The IG reason being because it's Christian and the real reason being that I don't want any more pushover wars if I can help it - I prefer a challenge
Also, if/when war comes with Germany then yeah, Portugal will get back its colonies plus a land bridge. And Spain will probably get a slice as well. One of the ideas I've been looking into is the concept of Eurafrica -a united European continent with Africa kept in its colonial servitude for resources and such. It's a fairly grim vision but one I guess which might well become reality whoever wins the war in Europe. I'm really quite glad I don't have to live in this TL, especially as I might end up being born in a town which glows in the dark - whoops, spoilers
Good question about La Plata/Brazil - to be honest it hadn't occurred to me but it does seem likely given the direction I'm considering for the League. That being said, I've got about two or three events to code already so it will probably have to wait for the time being.
Also, if/when war comes with Germany then yeah, Portugal will get back its colonies plus a land bridge. And Spain will probably get a slice as well. One of the ideas I've been looking into is the concept of Eurafrica -a united European continent with Africa kept in its colonial servitude for resources and such. It's a fairly grim vision but one I guess which might well become reality whoever wins the war in Europe. I'm really quite glad I don't have to live in this TL, especially as I might end up being born in a town which glows in the dark - whoops, spoilers
Good question about La Plata/Brazil - to be honest it hadn't occurred to me but it does seem likely given the direction I'm considering for the League. That being said, I've got about two or three events to code already so it will probably have to wait for the time being.
- Status