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unmerged(191425)

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Jan 18, 2010
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  • Hearts of Iron III
Intro

In real life throughout the 1920's in Argentina, a mass paramilitary organization and movement under the name of the Argentine Patriotic League grew to prominence. Acting much like the Blackshirts of Italy, the League attacked workers accused of Communism in order to prevent the rise of Marxism in Argentina. By the early 1920's the movement contained as many as 300,000 members nationwide. Much like their counterparts in Italy, they gained the support of certain military officials. In 1930, the League participated in a military coup to instate José Félix Uriburu to power.

The question I ask is what if the Argentine Patriotic League had become an official extension of the Fascist and Far-Right Wing movements that were sweeping the world in the 1920's until the mid-1940's? What if it's actions in the 1920's had led to the official establishment of an Argentine Fascist Party and the coup in 1930 had been held to lead the Fascists to power? What if Argentina had run with this Fascist influence to carry the national struggle into South America? This is the scenario I present in this AAR.

In my scenario, Argentina will exist as an official Fascist nation and will struggle for it's own national well-being. Will it last on it's own, or will it join the Axis alliance? Will it be able to fight off the Allied or Communist invasions, when or if they come? Will Argentina's presence as a Fascist nation assist the European Fascists and National Socialists in their quest for victory? Is Argentina able to stage a prolonged conflict? Time will tell.

Game Information

In order to make this scenario possible, a little editing was necessary with the Doomsday editor. Because, in this scenario, the authoritarian state that was created after the 1930 coup was a Fascist one, rather than a mere Paternal Autocrat government, all Paternal Autocrat officials have been relabeled as Fascists simply because the traditional dictatorship in it's own right never came to power. All supporters of the old junta have been relabeled as supporters of the Fascist state here. In addition to this, the Authoritarian and Interventionist sliders were edited to make them more compliant with this scenario. The game will be played on normal difficulty. Furthermore, to make things more interesting, I edited myself, General Curry, in as a potential military leader on loan from Germany. I'll be able to fulfill the role of an army commander, and a minister capable of filling the positions of Chief of Staff, the Army, and Intelligence (should I so choose).

With the Dirt Under Our Boots - A Fascist Argentina AAR​
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Table of Contents​

I. Prologue
II. The Great Spy Trials - 1936
III. Uruguayan War - January 4th-February 3rd, 1937
IV. Taking War to Chile - September 25-November 23, 1937

Prologue

After World War I, the main Allied Powers delegated the end terms to all those who fought opposed to them. Some countries that fought on the side of the Germany, such as Austria-Hungary were dismantled, creating new countries from what remained. Others, such as Germany were dictated unreasonable terms in the Versailles Treaty. Even Italy, which abandoned Germany in 1915 to fight on the side of the Allies was cast aside after the war when it pressed to claim territories where significant Italian communities lived in Fiume and Dalmatia. Early on in the countries which were delegated such humiliating defeats and denied their claims, a firm Nationalist fervor grew and grew. Herein, these people had struggled so hard and lost so many of their own in the World Wars to absolutely no avail. A change was needed.

On March 23, 1919, the ideology of Fascism was officially constructed by Benito Mussolini, an ex-Socialist, and many Arditi veterans of the war in the city of Milan. Meanwhile, in Germany Adolf Hitler joined the German Workers' Party and rapidly began working within the Party to conform it to his own ideology of National Socialism. By the early 1920's, the movements had grown to be considerably popular. In 1921, the Italian Fascist Party was founded in Rome off of the hundreds of thousands strong Fascist movement. By 1922, Benito Mussolini had pushed on Rome and pressured the government to appoint him Prime Minister with considerable authority. The Fascist era had begun.

Argentina had had the pleasure of staying out of the First World War, but regardless, the ideology of Fascism took no time to take roots. The Argentine Patriotic League was founded in January of 1919 as a Nationalist Catholic organization, but the movement would soon grow to be much more. As the Blackshirts surged through Italy in the early 1920's, the Fascist ideology that they promoted gained much popularity within the League for it's support Nationalism, willingness to work with and comply with the Catholic Church, and it's fierce opposition to Communism.

Eventually, by late 1920, the LPA had completely adopted the new ideology from the Italians and began promoting the program on their own within Argentina. The program was well received within Argentina where a Nationalist fervor grew and where many, especially those above the working class, began to feel more and more threatened by the increasing popularity of the Socialists. Early on, the movement grew to contain hundreds of thousands of members and immediately began to conduct paramilitary operations against active Socialist and Communist organizations.

In 1923, the official Partido Fascista Argentina (Argentine Fascist Party) was founded marking the beginning of the long road to power. For the next seven years, the Party managed to gain the mass support of the people by working it's way into favor within the Catholic Church and with the upper class industrial and business leaders of the country. The Party claimed that Catholicism was an outstanding influence within Argentina and claimed to support the funding of Catholic schools and other Catholic institutions with state funds. It assured the upper classes that it was the only thing standing between them and Communist revolution.

Like all other movements, the Party made a popular appeal as well, promising to improve the well-being of the common people. Eventually, the people were captivated by the ideology, and the upper classes hurled funds into it's coffers. After Communist and labor organizations were broken up by the Party's paramilitary supporters, business leaders would refuse to hire any worker that was not a member of the Party. The Party held support in the military too, winning over the more Nationalistic commanders and soldiers. By 1930, the country was ready for a Fascist revolution. The Party, using it's paramilitary wing, the LPA, as well as the Fascist military supporters made a push on the government, instating José Félix Uriburu into power. The era of Argentine Fascism had begun. In 1932, Uriburu died making way for Agustín Pedro Justo, where the story of struggle truly begins.
 
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The Great Spy Trials - 1936

The years after Uributo's death up until 1936 were peaceful. The Fascist government had stabilized itself at the head of the Argentinian nation. Like many Americans who admired Mussolini's regime before World War II, the Argentinian government too gained some foreign respect, especially in Italy, Germany, and Spain. When the war broke out in China between Guangxi Clique and the Nationalists, Argentina retained a position of neutrality. However, in during Italy's invasion of Ethiopia, the Argentinians differed from the Leftist backlash in applauding the invasion. When the annexation came on March 11, the Argentinian President sent a letter of congratulations to the Italian Duce.

As the Spanish Civil War broke out, Argentina declared it's support for the Nationalists and supported the Italian intervention, but remained irritated at the Germans' refusal to send their own troops. President Justo considered an offer of an alliance to the Nationalists, but it was decided that the Nationalists weren't ready to accept something of that degree, so the offer was never made. Because of this, the Argentinian Military wouldn't be able to join the Falangists and Italians against Republicans, although Argentina was more than willing to help.

During August, attentions were turned inwards into Argentina as two spies, one American and one British were discovered leaking military secrets. The spies attempts were viewed as an anti-fascist reaction, which inspired a witchhunt throughout the military and throughout civilian life, looking for anyone who might be supplying secrets to democratic or Communist nations in order to help bring about the downfall of Fascism. A total of five hundred people were accused and executed for espionage. Accused spies were convicted of handing secrets to Britain, America, Republican Spain, France, Portugal, Germany, and Italy.

The government, during the final months of 1936 did not make any outward accusations towards the nations of the world, instead trying to keep the hunt contained inside the country. The hunt effectively came to an end a number of months earlier after the anti-spy hysteria calmed down significantly. With enemy spies out of the way, Argentina was finally able to pursue conquests of it's own in South America. As the Trials continued, many felt that it was time to act now before it was too late to achieve these conquests later on. Argentina was ready for Empire.

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A convicted spy being executed in Buenos Aires
 
Uruguayan War - January 4th-February 3rd, 1937


On January 4th, the Argentinian Fascist government officially conducted it's first act of war. As the Great Spy Trials had brought about a desire to conquer, Argentina finished mobilizing it's troops along the Uruguayan border. On the Argentinian side, there were a grand total of ten divisions of completely updated troops; a grand total of 106,000 men. On the Uruguayan side, there were only a matter of a few thousand. The Argentinians were more than ready for the invasion and they showed it when it came time to advance. The Uruguayans on the other hand were in no condition for a struggle against Argentina.

When war was declared, the Argentinian troops immediately began advancing, making use of artillery brigades to pummel the defenseless Uruguayan troops. The Argentinian Air Force was on stand by at the nearby airbase in Buenos Aires, but the Uruguayan troops capitulated so easily, it was not thought necessary to bring them in. The Uruguayan Army fell apart. Some of it's soldiers attempted to fight in vain and died. Most simply surrendered or fled. The Argentinian Army took a grand total of around 6,000 prisoners and killed or wounded an estimated 2,000 more. Total Argentinian casualties were around 800 soldiers, among which only 350 were killed.

As the Argentinian Army was occupying the capital of Montevideo, the Uruguayan government sent a last desperate plea for a white peace, but this was rejected, and by February 3rd, the Argentinian Army occupied the entire country of Uruguay and annexed it. The news was received well in Argentina, but many other countries in the world voiced concern. America was one of the first, officially withdrawing from the non-aggression pact signed between the two countries on January 6th. Other complaints came from Canada, Australia, Britain, Scandinavia, Republican Spain and the Soviet Union. Praise was received from Germany and Italy.

As the Army marched into the country, little partisan activity was noticed, but that that did occur was immediately dealt with. Argentina had taken a step forward in the world. It had now earned itself a place of loathing amongst Democratic and Communist countries. This surely was not an end to the conquest, but it served as an outstanding beginning. The attitude of the people of Uruguay was anger, but then again such sentiments were silenced as much as possible after the country was thoroughly conquered.

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This could get intressting! I really hope you will expand your fleet, could be useful to have a rather large and modern navy if you are going to ally with the Axis powers.
 
I suggest trying to keep relations with the yankies, You never know when they might suddenly come out of their isolation to attack you..

That's true. It's happened to me in previous games in South America. They landed at least five invasions over a war lasting from '40 to '53, one of which took me seven years to repel.
 
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IV. Taking War to Chile - September 25-November 23, 1937


With Uruguay conquered, Argentina, still unsatisfied, turned it's sight to Chile where it saw an open access to the Pacific Ocean and a country that would thoroughly benefit the Argentina nation to conquer. As soon as Uruguay was annexed, the Argentinian Army began redeploying all along the Chilean border. New divisions recently formed from green recruits from all around the country joined the veteran divisions from the Uruguay conquest. Unlike the war in Uruguay, Argentina readily deployed it's entire Army into the fight.

As the forces were redeploying, Argentina began increasing it's efforts to maintain a positive relationship with the United States of America, ever-weary that an American intervention in South America against Argentina could spell disaster for everything that Argentina had accomplished; even threatening the Fascist Revolution itself. In June when the Japanese invaded China, Argentina remained cautiously neutral; undecided on whether to support the Japanese or to oppose them as a threat to Argentinian sovereignty.

By September 25, the Argentinian Army was completely deployed and ready to invade Chile. At 11 AM, war was declared and the Army immediately set about invading the Chileans at key points. The Argentinian leadership knew that Santiago (the Chilean capital), Antifagasto, and Punta Arenas would all have to be secured before Chile would completely capitulate. In the north, the Argentinians under General Velez launched an attack directly on the Chilean capital, instantly defeating the Chilean forces defending it. In the South, it was decided that the Chilean city of Wellington would have to be taken before a march on Punta Areas could be covered on the flanks. A single division under the command of Major General Molina Gomez attacked, supported by Field Marshal and President Junto's forces.

On October 13, the capital Santiago and it's entire surrounding area was completely secured and a new attack, led by Lieutenant General Curry, a German General on loan, was launched on Antifagasto and supported by General Velez's troops stationed in the province of Santiago. The attack was an instant success. The Chilean defenders were crushed, and Lt. General Curry's armies marched in. On the same day, the province of Wellington was also secured and President Justo marched with his army on Punta Arenas in the south. Initially there was no opposition, but on October 26 a Chilean division attempted to defend the province to no avail. It was crushed by President Justo's forces later that day.

On October 14, the Argentinians had completely secured Antifagasto and by November 22, Punta Areans was secured. At midnight, on November 23, Chile surrendered. As forces in the unoccupied middle of the country surrendered, Chile was completely annexed by Argentina. Argentina now had a direct access to the Pacific Ocean, as well as access to Chile's decent treasury whose funds would be more than useful in the months to come. International reaction from the Allied nations was similar, like it was in the Uruguayan War, but here America launched less official opposition. The diplomatic efforts seemed to have paid off for the Argentinians.

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General Velez marches on Santiago

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President Justo attacks Punta Arenas
 
Good progress, so far. Your only rival in the area is Brazil...
I just hope that the USA won't attack you too soon. :D
 
Good progress, so far. Your only rival in the area is Brazil...
I just hope that the USA won't attack you too soon. :D

Relations are good so far, so I can only hope that they don't. I'm going to keep improving relations until I get them at +200. I'll try to keep it there for as long as possible.
 
You may want to tread lightly. The US have this pesky habit of declaring war on even the most friendly Latin American nation after the first two conquests...

Your focus is probably to secure your conquests right now (damn US Marines can pop up anywhere), but are you going to build a modern navy now that you are in the two-oceans club?
 
Hey, may I ask if you're adding cores to all of the areas you annex?
 
Hey, may I ask if you're adding cores to all of the areas you annex?

That would be a good idea, but he should not do it until after he has secured the continent. As a matter of fact, I think it might be worthwhile to rename your country at this point to reflect the fact that you have unified South America. I also do not think you should ally with any of the major alliances. I also would not worry about anyone other then the United States for much longer, most of the time, I find that the majority of the major powers leave you alone after WWII starts because they are kind of busy beating each others brains out and cracking skulls to worry about little old you.
 
My biggest concern right now is to build a big enough Army to push out the Americans where ever they land. We all know how if we don't immediately crush their initial landing force, they'll start bringing in undefeatable amounts of troops in a matter of days.

I think you might be able to get away with taking Paraguay. I wouldn't progress up the Pacific coast too quickly.
 
congrats and a nice start!