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
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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