Epilogue: Warfare and Diplomacy in the Atomic Age (1950s and 1960s)
Beginning in the 1950’s, the Nations of Europe consciously focused on expanding their influence around the world, trying to align as many countries as possible towards them (and away from America) in order to secure both allies and access to critical resources – particularly oil.
Suddenly, internal conflicts and wars across the globe began to attract interest from the two powers, though many others were still ignored. The first of many examples occurred in response to a problem which had been brewing for many years before its eruption in 1952 - the collapse of the Haitian Empire. The Empire had never been particularly stable, spending most of its existence consumed by ethnic conflicts between former slaves and their descendants, different ethnic groups across the various islands, and particularly in the Empire’s own colonial conquest of Colombie. Haiti had been saved multiple times during the Empire by American intervention, as the countries evolved into valuable allies in the early 1900’s.
The Haitian Crisis of 1952 began with a coup, when a faction of the Haitian army based in Cuba assassinated the country’s dictator, and attempted to install one of their own. He was resented by many lower-level officers for his political repression, reliance on corruption, and Haiti’s exploitation by American monopoly companies.
The coup caused a short civil war, lasting just about two months as the garrisons and warships of various territories supported one side over another. American intervention in support of the old guard resulted in the occupation of several islands, and soon a government military campaign through Cuba recaptured the Empire’s largest island from the Army. There was no other foreign intervention at this stage of the Crisis, as Haiti was firmly in America’s sphere of influence, and the entire ordeal began and ended quickly.
However, the period of chaos sparked a massive uprising across the South American territories, beginning a war for independence that would last over 13 years. While Haiti’s old government, under a successor, was able to regain control of its home territories, political violence continued for years and the country fell into a very poor state. Several coup attempts followed during this era, a few of which succeeded, though none sparked civil war as the 1952 coup had done. In Colombie, the guerillas fought with incredible tenacity, supported by European arms shipments smuggled in from the Livonian colony in Guyana. The rebellion was important to the two continental superpowers for two major reasons: first, a Livonia-friendly Colombie would give the country influence and military strength within the Western Hemisphere, which was obviously a huge concern for America. Additionally, there were large oil reserves within eastern Colombie.
Several campaigns followed in the rebellion, often separated by periods of relative quiet as the Haitian army ran out of steam, or political chaos at home froze the military. Eventually though, the Haitian Empire fell apart, with multiple islands becoming independent; including Cuba. Colombie became an independent state as well, though the Panama region was soon granted independence.
The Europeans had found themselves involved in their own war in 1956; a conflict that began with fighting between the rivaling nations of Iraq and Misr. Both nations were inherently hostile to Livonia and its allies; Misr was a communist nation which had strong interests in Livonia’s Suez territory, while Iraq had been consistently hostile to European influence for decades.
Similar to their conflict many decades ago, the war began with an Iraqi invasion into Misr’s Levant territory. It wasn’t long before the Misri army had fallen back, forming a defensive line around the much smaller Palestine territory, and maintaining the army via naval supply.
The western interest in this war began with a diplomatic push by the Karenian government, which saw this as an opportunity to finally take control of the Caucasus territories for purposes of nationalism, border security, and access to large oil reserves – as well as a chance to weaken Iraq, which was perhaps the greatest threat to Europe aside from America.
As Misr continued to take losses against the Iraqi forces, they were able to negotiate a deal with Livonia, which allowed them to transport their armies across the Sinai region, ultimately halting the Iraqi advance and saving the Palestine front.
This caused heavy backlash within Iraq, whose war plans had been dependent on the encirclement of Misr’s army. Just over two weeks after the deal was made, Iraq responded with a heavy bombing raid against Misr’s supply chain, using the obsolete American-made bombers purchased by the Iraqi government recently. Simultaneously, Iraqi soldiers rushed into the Livonian and Aquitanean colonies on the southern edge of the Arabian Peninsula, while also beginning artillery barrages and small-scale offensive operations along the Karenian border.
The scope of Iraq’s aggression caused widespread condemnation internationally, causing even America to shy away from assisting Iraq – they were already distracted at home, and the radical anti-western and isolationist policies of Iraq didn’t exactly endear the Americans to their cause, especially given the level of support that would be required for Iraq to succeed and the logistical challenges of delivering it.
Once again, Misr had become an ally of convenience for the Westerners, despite their differences – Livonia and Karenia were now in a state of full-scale war. Iraq succeeded in capturing colonial Arabia eventually, despite resistance from the well-defended coastal bases and airfields of Livonia and Aquitaine. However, the other fronts were a different story; Iraq was losing ground in both Palestine and the Caucasus, as European aircraft began to flood into the region and take control of the skies. The war continued through all of 1957, with Misri armies doing the majority of fighting on the ground – Karenia’s armies advanced past the Caucasus mountains, but their army wasn’t in any position to supply an invasion force through the mountains and deeper into Iraq.
Supported by the arrival of Livonian armor, the advance continued deep into Iraq until early 1958, when the country finally capitulated. However, this was not the end of conflict in the region; the Europeans took complete control of the peace and partition deals at the end, often ignoring Misr’s own extensive demands in favor of their own. Their demands for the spread of communist satellite states throughout Arabia and the surrounding area were denied completely, while the Europeans’ own proposals were very different in nature. This wasn’t just diplomatic friction – Misr’s furious diplomats even threatened to expel European forces from their territory completely, stopping just short of threatening their own war.
It didn’t end well. Misr’s diplomats soon stormed out of the negotiations and tried to set up their own zone of military control – attempts to expel the Livonian forces from the region resulted in several skirmishes between the former allies, and soon the Sinai region was once again closed off. The crisis continued over the next several days as Livonian and Aquitanean armored divisions assaulted major Misri bases in the occupied region. Ultimately, the conflict was ended via shock-and-awe after Baltic Navy bombardments of Misri bases in Palestine.
Within a week of the crisis, the Misri government agreed to negotiate again, rather than risk a complete loss of control.
Livonia’s victory in the crisis gave them and their allies near-complete control over the resulting peace with Iraq – as planned before, the empire was partitioned by the Europeans, with Karenia advancing its borders to the Caucasus via the creation of an autonomous republic, and an independent Persia and Arabia being established. Misr was given a wider section of the Levant territory to serve as a buffer, and Iraq’s regime was ousted in favor of a new, cooperative faction. To alleviate issues in the future, the two European colonies on the Arabian Peninsula were also granted independence.
In regards to Misr, a deal was struck to try and avoid conflict in the future – the country agreed to grant Cyprus and Crete independence, and in exchange, Livonia transferred control of almost all of its Suez territory to the country, with the exception of the Canal and a very small buffer zone.
However, the fallout over these events, as well as general instability and corruption which had plagued Misr for decades, eventually resulted in an Islamist coup two years later, removing the last major communist government from power and transforming the social structure of the Misr state.
There were, of course, several other incidents within and between countries during this time period, but many of these were given little attention by either of the superpowers. While some nations were willing to be friendly to the business interests of one side or another, particularly corrupt dictatorships, others were unwilling to commit to once side – there was no
major difference ideologically between the two, so pragmatic foreign policy generally won out in non-aligned countries, many of which remained neutral in the rivalry.
After the independence of Colombie, the newly-independent nation established friendly ties with Livonia, and accepted a guarantee of independence, but stopped short of an alliance, or even allowing any major military bases. The war-torn nation wasn’t interested in any more conflict – their aim was to avoid antagonizing America, and to try and remain at peace. Relations would remain sour between the two nations for quite a while though.
In the 1950s, under a new, autocratic leader, the Chinese nation within the Xi Dynasty realms began to centralize and reform. Industrialization and trade with both superpowers helped the country to finally begin to grow and prosper again, though there were many setbacks. Eventually, unification with Kucha was achieved in 1958, with Yi territories later joining in 1960, finally reuniting most of the Chinese nation again under a single flag.
The two Indian states, Talakad and Kanyakubja, went to war in 1964 over border tensions. Neither superpower assisted militarily, but the conflict was extremely bloody, and saw wide-scale humanitarian aid being orchestrated for the civilians of both states by the West, in a rare act of cooperation between the two rivals.
By the 60’s, much of the world’s colonial empires had been dismantled in one way or another, but select few territories still remained under imperial control. For Livonia, the most important colony, which they had refused to let go of despite widespread local unrest and insurgency, was Malaya – a land of great natural resources and strategic importance. Eventually, the region fell into all-out war, with the rebels receiving heavy material support from America, along with local cooperation by neighboring Indochinese countries. The war would last 4 years in a relative stalemate despite the technological imbalance, with Livonia eventually pulling out of the country after the destruction of all resource infrastructure in the area, as well as the heavy expenses of maintaining this war while a recession at home was underway, leading to voter backlash.
And so history went on – the tension of another World War was fading, though rivalries still remained. The fall of colonialism birthed many new nations, where instability reigned supreme. International politics evolved in a globalizing world, as the diplomatic union established in postwar Europe was eventually expanded and emulated into more nations. Life was better for many, but many regions were still full of problems, both old and new, and these would ebb and flow into the future, just as they have throughout the past.