Chapter XI: The New World Order
In the following weeks after the war, the Empire got involved in a small conflict with Yemen. Intelligence indicated that the Yemites were hiding several Arab rebel leaders, after attempts to extract them failed, divisions stationed nearby crossed the border and occupied Sanaa after minor resistance, days later it was announced the last independent Arab nation would be formally annexed by the Ottoman Empire.
This event was barely noticed by the international community, Yemen had been a small and isolated country so with the world burning in the flames of war, none really cared about the destiny of this small arab nation.
More worrying news came in the 1st February of 1943 when several Ottoman marine contingents without orders from the government occupied the island of Crete.
A younger generation of highly militaristic , nationalist, foreign educated and highly dynamic officers had risen in the last war, a generation who didn’t experience the dark days when the Ottoman Empire was called the sick man of Europe. This disperse “ideological group”, unofficially called the “Heirs of Osman”, was sick of the cautious approach of the mainstream Ottoman politics, they wanted to restore the Empire to the glory of the past and avenge all the wrong doings done against them, one of them was the perceived German betrayal when they sold some year back Crete to the Greeks.
So without any official consent - although certainly approved by some of the more radical members of the high command and the Porte - several contingents led by some of this group most extremist members landed in secrecy in Crete and seized control of the island.
This lead to a Crisis between the Ottoman Empire and the Greek Kingdom. The Ottoman government caught by surprise by this initiative was forced to sanction it so to not reveal the lack of control the Empire was starting to have over this officers, the Greeks of course were demanding the immediate withdraw of the contingents under the threat of war
Surprisingly the solution came from an unlikely party. Serbia – a fellow member of the recently formed Belgrade pact, an alliance of several Balkan nations – convinced the Greek government to let Crete go, at least temporary. At that time none knew exactly what happened behind closed that convinced the Greeks to abandon the island, such decision was completely out of character for these Balkan nations, nevertheless war was avoided for now.*
The officers returned to Constantiople as heroes and even received a decoration by the Sultan himself. However weeks later the ringleaders were rounded up and arrested under the accusation that they were planning to overthrow the government. It remains a mystery if this was true or not, the Porte could have used this as an excuse to remove problematic elements from the army, however it was also likely that this accusation was true and this radicals were following the steps of the “Young Turks” before them.
Such act of course didn’t end the “Heirs of Osman” influence, but did remove the most radical and problematic elements of the group.
Meanwhile in Europe tragedy struck the German Empire, the great Emperor Whilhelm II passed away to be succeeded by this son Whihelm the III. Even in wartime a magnificent funeral was held, representatives from all the non-Syndicalist world attended, including several chefs of state like the Russian Tsar, the Bulgar Tsar,the Danish King, the Austrian Emperor and the Swiss President (despite the nation’s neutrality policy they cleared favored the Germans and were hoping to get the lands occupied by the Commune years before returned in case of a German victory). The Ottomans sent the Crown Prince Nihad as a representative to attend the funeral, since the Ottoman Sultan’s health and age didn’t let him undertake such journey.
At the same time the funeral ended a major offensive was launched. Using copious amounts of armored divisions, the Germans broke the Communard lines and put the Syndicalists on the retreat. The French were thrown in total disarray, the use of the fast armored brigades – a tactic put to test by the German strategists in the Great Arab War- was highly unorthodox and impeded any chance of regrouping and counter-attack the furious Germans.
Unable to successfully defend themselves the Commune was completely defeated and the leadership forced to flee to the Union of Britain, days later the Spanish Anarchists fell too – they had lost most of their army in the French front.
The Italians held on for a few days, before the Germans hit the Italian beaches like a hammer and overwhelmed them. Of the Syndicalist powers only the Union of Britain held on, protected in their island fortress and seeing further fighting pointless, they grudgingly accept an armistice.
This massive assault had been clearly under preparation for some time, however this date was chosen to honour the life of the previous Emperor and celebrate the crowning of the new one.
A wave of relief was felt through all of the old Europe, as Prince Nihad still in Berlin said ”
The collective relief that the Berliners felt was almost palpable. They have lived for decades under the threat of the red scourge, even despite all their apparent power they still feared one day wake up with the syndicalists sacking their homes and taking their children. But now those days are over, no longer they will have to fear that evil, it’s like this city and it’s people were reborn”
Now the question remained what to do with the occupied lands, after much consideration it was decided that France was too much of a threat to be left intact and it was partitioned, Geneva went back to Switzerland, Western Flanders was given to the small state of Flanders-Wallonia. Brittany, Normandy and Occitania were given independence and an Hollezohern monarch, the rest of the France was given to rump French state under the rule of Francois III. With this the French exiles in Algeria had to face the terrible reality that there was now no chance of reclaiming their homeland, still they hopelessly protested and demanded their land back even while thousands left North Africa heading towards the German puppet states
In Spain a puppet government was established too while in Italy the Kingdom of Two Sicilies was restored, however the Germans kept Anzio as a concession.
With this one of the bloodiest chapters of the history of mankind came to a end, the syndicalist was eradicated from mainland Europe effectively destroying the dream of a worldwide revolution, only a few rogue isolated states remained around the world. A new order now reigned in a Europe firmly under German grip.
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Next Chapter
Settling a Debt
*Demanded Crete from the Greeks just to amuse myself, despite a very low chance they actually gave it to me.
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