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Kami888

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Jun 19, 2004
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Comrades in Struggle – Anglo-German alliance minimod

This is a minimod for DH 1.03 intended to provide an alternative WW2 scenario.

It revolves mainly around an alternative timeline where the UK and Germany fight on the same side, although there are a lot of other noticeable changes. The hope is to provide a credible alternative to the traditional and overplayed alliances, yet still maintain balance and some realistic impression. The war currently resembles the Seven Years War, and has a somewhat similar strategic feeling to it.

The scenario still starts in 1936 and by late 1939 the alliances are as follows:
On the Axis side: Germany, Britain&Dominions (except Canada), Japan, Scandinavia, Netherlands, Mexico, Portugal, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Colombia, and a few minors.
On the Allied side: USA, USSR, France, Canada (government&army in exile), Norway, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Romania, Greece, Ethiopia, Arab nationalists, and a few minors.
Split by civil war: Spain, Italy, Yugoslavia, Finland, and Belgium.



The mod is in not anywhere near complete, but it is currently playable as an alpha. I was originally making it for myself, but I decided that since I don’t have much time to work on it myself, maybe there will be others willing to help.

Help is needed with the following, listed in order of importance:
-Balancing, combat modifiers, and some AI. For example, AI Germany needs to be able to handle the pressure placed upon it without being overrun within two years. If Prussia could do it and more for seven years, then Germany should too. Still, overall the scenario should remain defaulted to Allied victory. It's a strategy problem, as always. German success relies on the execution of a fairly precise military strategy – failure to execute it can result in a quick defeat. But of course, as we know, AI has no strategy and cannot really have any, so something must be done about it. The combat system and AI was mostly fine in 1.02 when the mod was initially made, but the switch to 1.03 screwed up a number of things. I have since had to partially restore the old combat model since the new one just wouldn’t work in this situation and also IMHO isn’t very realistic in general. The current combat model is highly experimental and up for revision.
-Ministers and leaders - these were almost untouched as of now, they need to be brought in line with the scenario storyline in order to not have Chiang leading Nationalist china or Antonescu leading Romania and stuff like that.
-Decisions/events. Only the basic decisions currently exist and with basic text. The scenario needs more decisions of all sorts to make it engaging, and it especially needs end-of-war events for both Allied and Axis victories and subsequent developments. (Soviet-American cold war in case of allied victory, Anglo-German cold war in case of axis victory?) Many of the existing events need improvement.
-Graphics – Event pictures, campaign image, background image, new themes, maybe other things.
-A lot of testing and bug fixing..

Since this is a minimod, none of these should be particularly difficult, yet still it’s still hard to do it all on my own so any help would be appreciated. Perhaps with some luck it can actually be turned into something serious and awesome.

Download link

Installation: Extract the contents of the archive into your Darkest Hour\mods directory.


Note: This mod uses some events from the TRP mod for DH1.02, particularly the ones for resources. Thanks TRP team!
 
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Poland and Russia? How's that going to work? I assume Russia only enters the war after Poland is defeated, with the promise of being returned the former lands of the Russian Empire?
 
I should probably post the whole history timeline. I have it saved in a document somewhere, can't remember where, I'll post it tomorrow.

Regarding Poland, it's a bit different. Poland agrees in 1938 to a Franco-Soviet guarantee (on Roosevelt's advice), the terms of which state that the Soviet army will be able to enter the Polish territory but only in case of a direct German aggression against Poland, and only upon the Polish request. This seems like a solid deal to Poland at the time since its relations with Germany are pretty good, and the Polish staff thinks that Germany would be suicidal to try to open another front anyway.

However, as soon as the general war breaks out in Europe in 1939, Poland is instantly invaded by Germany under a plan devised by the German general staff to bypass the strong Czech defensive fortifications in Sudetenland. The plan calls primarily for a quick destruction of Czechoslovakia before the Soviet reinforcements arrive in full strength, but it also serves other goals such as establishing a land link between East Prussia and Germany proper and pushing the German eastern front to a much more defensible line on the Vistula river, where the German staff plans to set up its defense against the Soviet hordes.

After a brief debate, the Polish cabinet realizes that it has no choice but to ask for immediate Soviet assistance because the alternative is that the Soviets will enter Poland anyway, except they will come as enemies rather than allies, and if that happens then the Polish state will be finished for the next few centuries no matter which side wins in the end. Of course, this still comes at a cost to Poland.

Actually this gives me an idea. One way to buff up Germany, or at least AI Germany, is to make there be a delay of a couple days from the time when Germany invades Poland to the point when Poland requests Soviet assistance. This would represent the indecisiveness of the Polish cabinet about the issue and at the same time it would allow Germans to make greater gains before the Soviet army stops them in their tracks.
 
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Reminds me of an old timeline once hosted on AlternateHistory.com, the "1933 What-If".

Not terribly plausible, but still a fun timeline, especially since military aircraft still used Piston engines in that timeline (or primitive jets/rockets).
 
this is an awesome alternative- don't call this mod a mini-mod, it is grandeur and mind blowing.
although I have to say that I'll wait for the next more stable version to truly dive into the experience
i'd say leave the cold war for now and focus on the pre-war as well as the war itself
 
“Brother Blackshirts, my comrades in struggle:

Our fight is for the soul, and in that battle we go forward together till victory be won. Our struggle is hard, because we are fighting for something great, and great things are not lightly or easily gained. We are fighting for nothing less than a revolution in the spirit of our people. We must be worthy of our mission, for blackshirts are those who are summoned to lead the people to a new and a higher civilization. We care not whether we win tomorrow morning or at the end of a lifetime of labour and of struggle. For to us the little calculations of the little men mean nothing. All we care is that win we will because Britain demands it and no power on earth can hold down the will within us. Together in Britain we have lit a flame that the atheists shall not extinguish. Guard that sacred flame my brother Blackshirts until it illumines Britain and lights again the path of mankind.”
– Sir Oswald Mosley

orange-Oswald_Mosley+troops2.png


Prelude to war, part 1 (1924-1936):

In 1924, Lenin did not suffer a stroke and lived on for two more years. In this time, he grew completely unsatisfied with Stalin's de-facto leadership of the party and decided to throw his full moral support behind Trotsky, despite the disagreements between the two. As a consequence, Stalin was removed from his post as General Secretary right away and was replaced in it by Bukharin and shortly thereafter by Trotsky himself as Bukharin also fell out of favor. Trotsky and his supporters ended up using that position to consolidate power, eventually purging the party of their opponents, including Stalin, who later ended up exiled in Mexico. Having consolidated his authority, Trotsky went on to make good of his political program, starting with the First Five Year Plan in 1928, as well as an aggressive international revolutionary program, aimed at undermining every non-Bolshevik government in existence, but focusing primarily on the developed countries in Western Europe. But the USSR in 1920s was in a very fragile state itself and had few means at its disposal to export the revolution elsewhere. Its attempts to do so only drained the Soviet treasury and ultimately failed to overthrow a single European government, however it did result in an increasing social tension and unrest in several European countries, as well as hostility towards the USSR and a barely disguised plan devised in 1928 by Great Britain, France, and Japan to launch a new anti-Soviet expedition, in hopes of inducing the Soviet government to cease its subversive activities at once.

That plan, however, never got even close to the execution stage as the Great Depression hit the world in 1929 and forced the western governments to urgently turn their attention back to domestic affairs. That same year, the Soviets invaded Manchuria during a dispute with Chiang Kai-Shek over the Manchurian railway. After achieving a decisive victory over the KMT forces, they refused to sign a peace agreement and vacate Manchuria and instead continued to advance further, having entered into a temporary agreement with the Japanese Kwantung military also seeking the exploitation of the region. The result was a de-facto partition of Manchuria into Soviet and Japanese zones of occupation, pending a final settlement of status. The Soviets wanted to simply transfer the control over Manchurian territory to the CCP-affiliated Chinese forces while guaranteeing the Soviet control of the northern railway, but the Japanese vehemently protested and insisted on the establishment of an independent Manchurian state under bilateral occupation, led by former Chinese Emperor PuYi. The negotiating parties finally agreed on the idea of transferring control of Manchuria to an independent Chinese warlord and withdraw their forces, however disagreements remained over several issues, mainly whether the warlord will declare an independent Manchurian state or swear allegiance to the Chinese government led by KMT, and whether the Japanese-controlled Port Arthur would be included in the new state. The negotiations thus stalled and the occupation became a fact of life.

While the Soviets and Japanese were deliberating on the future of Manchuria, in 1930 the Central Plains War completely wiped out Chiang Kai-Shek. He was previously counting on the support from Zhang Xueliang in Manchuria, but the Soviet-Japanese occupation of Manchuria deprived him of that support and left him alone to face the storm. He was captured and executed in his capital of Nanjing by the Communist partisans who joined the anti-Chiang alliance on the Soviet advice and staged an uprising as soon as it became clear that his armies were getting beaten. A pro-Soviet warlord leader Feng Yuxiang emerged as the most powerful man in China after the war, and as such he picked up the KMT mantle and was tasked by the new President Yan Xishan with forming a new government in 1931. However, de-facto China remained divided into competing warlord fiefdoms and unity remained elusive. To make matters worse, soon after the war's end, president Yan Xishan began plotting for Feng's removal, fearing his growing personal power as well as that of the Communists further south. Although he still enjoyed official Soviet support, Yan Xishan's personal ambitions and ideology pushed him in the direction of seeking an alternative. However, the direct proximity of Soviet troops in Manchuria and American troops in the Philippines made any such move too risky at the moment, so a fragile peace prevailed for the next several years.

The depression in the developed world had turned out greater than anyone had expected, and the possibility of a complete collapse of capitalism grew nearer. The newer industrial powers, Germany and the US, were hit the hardest by the depression, but other countries were not spared. In the US there was an attempted coup against the newly elected president Franklin Roosevelt, which was put down with bloodshed on the streets of several cities. FDR then triumphally returned to the White House and the ring leaders were tried and executed. In Britain, the assassination of Ramsay McDonald in march 1930 by a radical Labour supporter created a temporary panic. King George then appointed Oswald Mosley, another moderate Labour MP and McDonald's personal friend as the new Prime Minister leading a national unity government. The unity government did not last long, however, as the Labour and Liberal parties quickly split between supporters and enemies of the government. In November the split was finalized as Mosley left the Labour party and established his own, called National Labour, taking a huge chunk of Labour supporters and MPs with him. National Labour then swept the 1931 elections and formed another unity government together with the Conservatives, National Liberals, and independent Labour MPs. It later absorbed the National Liberal party and sidelined the Conservatives, establishing an increasingly dictatorial regime modeled on Mussolini's Italy, which seemed to be weathering the crisis fairly well at the time. As the new British leader, Mosley immediately went on to push through Keynesian and protectionist reforms, including an Empire-first trade agreement which severely irritated the United States, already in crisis. The result was a temporary but rapid increase of the British budget deficit, which was followed by a gradual decline in unemployment and soon the restoration of budget balance. By 1933 Britain was already in recovery, while the United States was still struggling to overcome its financial difficulties and vehement political opposition to reforms.

In the meantime the Soviet Union was facing severe problems of its own, including a union-wide famine and mass death caused partially by the forced industrialization policy, and the ever-increasing paranoia about the unreliability of the Bolshevik Old Guard by Trotsky's close associates. Nonetheless, the USSR was initially enthusiastic about the "capitalist crisis" developing in the West, soon however it realized that the severe and sudden mass unemployment combined with a lack of "class consciousness" were leading to the growth of political movements seen as far from desirable by Moscow. The USSR's internal problems almost brought it to the point of abandoning its aggressive international stance altogether in 1930 and go in the direction of finally signing a comprehensive peace treaty with MacDonald, but the latter's assassination took Trotsky by surprise. Sir Oswald Mosley proved to be a tougher negotiating partner. The Kremlin, nonetheless, adopted an even more cautious approach. But the final straw came in 1933, with the rise of Adolph Hitler in Germany instead of the Soviet-backed KPD. This convinced the Kremlin of the necessity to urgently change its foreign policy or face imminent disaster. And so the "popular front" policy was developed, which called upon all non-fascist movements to cooperate with each other in order to resist what appeared to be an unstoppable march of fascism from country to country. The benefits of the new policy were slow to come, however, and by 1936 it seemed the Soviets had already lost the Netherlands and were about to also lose Sweden to far-right forces as well.

In Sweden, the depression saw the collapse of the unity government and the rise of anti-constitutional and nationalist forces, as well as riots in several cities. After the election of 1932 produced a dysfunctional parliament which could barely approve a single law, king Gustav V appointed army general Archibald Douglas as Prime Minister and convinced the parliament to grant him extraordinary powers. The parliament was more than happy to do that, as it would allow it to absolve itself from the responsibility for the unpopular measures and hardship that was inevitably to come. Indeed, later that year, the Swedish army ended up opening fire on the unarmed rioters protesting wage reductions in Adalen, as the government desperately attempted to reign in on the ballooning budget deficit with austerity measures. The lackluster response from the government to the incident had led to an all out uprising by the leftist forces. The uprising was suppressed within two months, but the casualties were in thousands on both sides, and the Swedish society was shaken. Although the social democratic party officially did not approve of the uprising, the government nonetheless ordered it to disband, along with the trade unions, and jailed many of their high ranking members. The National League of Sweden acted as a paramilitary force for the Government and the General Electoral League party, intimidating political enemies, including the dangerously vocal and growing National Socialist Party of Sweden, which called for a more radical and socialist approach to resolving the crisis. After a brief stagnation in 1934-35, a new wave of crisis hit Sweden in 1936, and the NSAP grew increasingly active in opposing the government's economic policies and its supposed passivity in advocating Sweden's interests abroad. June 1936 saw the assassination of several prominent politicians and the growth of political violence in the prelude to the September election. Nobody was quite certain what was to come next.

The growth of fascism in Europe had received a mixed reaction in the Americas. Many Latin American countries viewed fascism very positively and attempted to emulate it in domestic politics. They saw it as a form of government which could reconcile their class differences and produce a just social order, as well as provide a potential solution to the economic crisis plaguing the world, a solution which did not include abolishing capitalism altogether, anyway. This included Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, and others. This did not mean though, necessarily, that they were prepared to ally with either Britain or Germany. Argentina, for instance, still claimed the Falklands islands which Britain controlled and thus rebuffed most British and German approaches. Brazil also had little reason to trust either one of them and risk a disruption in its very lucrative trade with the United States.

The United States, however, saw the resurgence of nationalism in London and the new-found British protectionism with increasing alarm. FDR initially contemplated a non-interventionist foreign policy during his election campaign, but shortly after the election, seeing the developments in Britain, Japan, and Germany, he was convinced by the Council on Foreign Relations to postpone any such changes until better time. As a result, the American troops remained in Haiti and Nicaragua, where they were until recently fighting a Mexican-backed leftist rebellion. Costly and unpopular as these measures were with the Latin American neighbors, it was deemed more dangerous a possibility to lose them to pro-British or pro-German movements. Luckily for the US, Calles of Mexico already ceased his support for the Nicaraguan Sardinistas in 1930, and the uprising officially ended two years later with the election of a moderate president Casaca in 1932. This allowed the US troops to stay with not too much cost, although it continued to offend the Sardinistas and others. Meanwhile, the death of MacDonald happened at a very unfortunate time, as the leading naval powers were gathered in London in order to negotiate a new naval treaty and prevent an Anglo-American naval race. The previous attempt in 1927 in Geneva had been a complete failure. The negotiations were suspended for the occasion and resumed later in April, but the atmosphere was increasingly sour. In 1931, an agreement was finally reached. Among the provisions, the US was permitted 20 heavy cruisers, UK also 20, Japan 15, France 12 and Italy also 12. This brought the Japanese closer to the 70% overall force ratio which they desired. However, this was the last international naval disarmament agreement to be signed for a long time. Instead, in 1934 Britain surprised everybody by signing a bilateral naval treaty with Germany, establishing a 3:1 overall tonnage ratio between the Royal Navy and the Kriegsmarine respectively, a development which completely shocked the French, Soviets, and Americans for different reasons. The US was also annoyed by the stalling of the disintegration of the British Empire which was slowly taking place prior to the depression. While the Empire-wide conference in 1930, held against the backdrop of depression and outrage at MacDonald's assassination, did establish the legislative parity between the Commonwealth nations in theory, in reality the political power in all the dominion capitals as well as in London began to be seized and centralized by local supporters of the charismatic Oswald Mosley. Mosley's increasing authoritarianism and charisma rendered their parliaments more and more irrelevant, and with it the "legislative parity" which they agreed to in 1930 became a meaningless term as well. The United States worried that what was in store for the commonwealth was nothing less than a de-facto parallel "personal union" of the dominions under Mosley's leadership. This was in addition to the already existing personal union of the Crown, which was by now somewhat ceremonial, although legally it still retained extensive powers. This development suddenly made the British empire an even more formidable opponent than it was just a few years before.

Another country which looked with unease at the developments in London was France. The growth of fascism and pro-German sentiment in London could not avoid stirring anxiety in Paris, which began to see London as less and less of a reliable partner. Officially the Entente Cordiale still stood, but the cross-strait relations began to look increasingly distant. Despite the pro-fascist tendencies in some of the French public and the ruling elite, France simply did not see itself as a subordinate partner to Germany, an inevitable result if France were to enter into a permanent agreement with Germany in its present form. While France continued to try to woo Britain into staying loyal to the Entente, the Anglo-German naval agreement in 1934 was the final straw which convinced Paris that it urgently needed new allies. But whom? Poland and USSR were natural options, but hell would crack open before Paris could truly reconcile the two, and they were useless without one another. Poland without USSR would be overrun within a month, while the USSR without Poland would have no way of getting to Germany. Besides, in 1914 France already had to face Germany together with Russia, and back then it survived just barely, thanks to British help. How the hell would France survive now, not only without the British help but with the possibility of Britain actually being against it? Yet, France felt reasonably secure behind the Maginot line, feeling that even if Germany were to attempt to invade through Belgium, France was much better prepared this time. Furthermore, the American ambassador in Paris secretly contacted the government in 1935 and assured it that the United States would intervene if France comes under attack. At the very least, this would distract the British attention away from France and its empire. This helped to reassure France that submission was not its only option, and in late 1935 France completely severed the cross-strait relations and signed an alliance with the Soviet Union. The pact of mutual assistance was ratified in 1936 and later the same year France elected a left wing government. However, the pact was almost meaningless as long as it remained separate from the French alliances with Poland, Romania, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia. Since the Polish-Soviet differences appeared to be irreconcilable, the best hope for France was to convince Romania to allow the Soviet army to cross through its territory and reinforce Czechoslovakia in the event of war, but even here, there were serious problems. Chiefly, there was a fundamental territorial dispute between the Romanian and Soviet governments over the ownership of Bessarabia, thus Romania felt extremely insecure about allowing the Soviet army in, even if just for transit. In 1936 neither Czechoslovakia nor Romania could yet be convinced of the necessity of such a move, and a long road remained ahead. In the meantime, France proceeded to pour a lot of effort into the civil war which erupted in neighboring Spain, where, as expected, it found itself on the opposite side of the British. It was felt that the nationalist victory in Spain would be completely antithetical to the French interests as it would leave France encircled from all sides by potential foes, so the French did everything they could to ensure the Republican victory, short of sending the regular French army over the Pyrenees. The Americans and Soviets also helped, and yet, it was not enough to suppress the nationalist revolt once and for all and the civil war looked set to drag on for some time.
 
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I think this needs listing in 'Mod Advertisements' sticky. If you're interested...
 
Please no Trotsky, that guy had the political sense of a mouse.

Stalin controlled the minutes of the meetings, Lenin cannot so easily push him out either.
 
I like the story very much, though i would like to see Russia instead of SU, but i think that's impossible :D don't let the mod go to waste
 
Another long history post. I figure this is necessary because if anyone decides to help out with the mod, they should know roughly what they're doing. :)
Also, if anyone on this board is an expert on the politics of the countries mentioned below, please let me know if the story at least looks plausible, i.e. make sure that there are no totally "wtf" developments.


Part II.

Italy.
200px-Flag_of_Italy_%281861-1946%29.svg.png


The Spanish experience proved to be contagious, and in the next two years, similar civil wars broke out also in Belgium, Yugoslavia, Finland, and Italy. There was a real fear in France that if any of these countries were to fall, France would be the next in line. The Germans would not even have to invade Paris, their French fifth column would do the work for them. "Better Hitler than Blum" was the catchphrase used by a vocal, though perhaps not very large, segment of the anti-communist population. To this end, France provided extensive training and support to the anti-German forces in all those countries, a factor which helped greatly in preventing their collapse.

Instead, the collapse of Italy proved to be particularly hurtful to the image of the international Fascist movement, and it did a lot to halt the spread of fascist-like movements worldwide, especially in Catholic countries. Until 1934 Fascist Italy seemed to be doing splendidly and nothing stood in its way to greatness. It had attempted to pursue a balanced foreign policy, which sought to increase Italian influence abroad without antagonizing any of the European great powers. It participated in the Locarno treaties of 1926, and it guaranteed the Austrian independence against the German encroachment in 1934. It had emerged from the Depression relatively unscathed as the other capitalist nations sank, a factor which certainly contributed to the Italian overconfidence in deciding to invade Ethiopia in 1935, despite the repeated French warnings. Trotsky was particularly outraged by the move. Foreseeing the invasion in 1934, he had already authorized to begin secretly training and supporting the Ethiopian armed forces with the tacit agreement from Paris. In an unprecedented move, the French allowed masses of Soviet military advisers to land in the strategic French colony of Djibouti en route to Ethiopia. When the invasion finally came, feeling that Italy was being gradually lost to the opposing camp and was becoming a potential threat of its own, Blum was pressured to take a stance and he ended up sending French aid to Ethiopia as well. The result was a bloody disaster for the Italians. Their attempts to move into inner Ethiopia had stalled barely after crossing the frontier, as the numerically superior Ethiopian armies descended upon them from the mountains and through the deserts. Despite the great application of firepower, the Italians were unable to make progress. Instead, the Ethiopian Empire launched its own counter-offensive in 1936, and while it did reach its goals militarily, it did a superb job at demoralizing the Italian forces and generating a real fear that the Italian colonies in East Africa may be soon lost. The remainder of 1936 was spent in a de-facto stalemate with small alternating gains by both sides. The Italian army was outraged - they were promised a short and victorious campaign, not a replay of World War 1 trench warfare in the hot depths of Africa.

At the same time, the world economic crisis finally started to catch up to Italy. Mussolini, of course, blamed it all on Roosevelt, who had wasted no time in applying economic sanctions on Italy as soon as it invaded Ethiopia in 1935. And while there was definitely truth to that, the Italian economy also had very serious problems of its own, as it had been accumulating contradictions for well over half a decade. As it turned out, the aggressive government bailout of failing Italian banks in 1931 and sweeping and inefficient government projects lacking overall direction (such as the "battle for land") had not truly solved Italy's problems, as it was hoped and first appeared. Instead, it gave an illusion of normality while the problems persisted and grew behind the scenes. The deficits in the balance sheets of the Italian banks had now been translated into deficits of the Italian budget, which was already overblown by the aggressive militarization and the war in Ethiopia, and Italy began to rapidly accumulate debt. While clearly dangerous, Mussolini's government felt it had other choice as to take the risk, for at least the Italian debt was relatively cheap at the time. This all began to change, however, soon after the application of American and French sanctions on Italy in 1935. This quickly raised the price of the Italian debt and put pressure on the Italian currency, the Lira. Finally, as the war dragged on in Ethiopia and as the American and much of the world economy experienced a new (albeit short) wave of depression in 1937, the Italian government budget had clearly exceeded its capacity to continue maintaining the status quo, and the economy sank into a rapid meltdown. The government was forced to re-evaluate the Lira, until then pegged to the American dollar, several times. But this had resulted in hyperinflation, wage delays, massive layoffs, and bankruptcies. It was also a huge drop in the purchasing power of ordinary Italians, particularly the urban workers in the North and West of the country, who had never had any great love for Mussolini in the first place. As the government desperately needed to improve its financial standing and as riots began to spontaneously erupt in several cities, creating a real threat to public security, the government urgently sent a delegation to Ethiopia to negotiate peace. But it was too late, and the negotiations proved nearly futile. Fully aware of Italy's weakness and impending collapse, Ethiopia had little reason to come to a negotiated agreement with Rome, for it was clear in Addis Ababa that whatever Italians refused to give, Ethiopia could take - perhaps if not now then within a year. At this point, however, the French offered themselves as "mediators" and began to apply pressure on Ethiopia to agree to peace, threatening to withdraw the French aid otherwise. The result was the Second Treaty of Addis Ababa, which was even more humiliating to Italy than the first. Italy was forced to give up its colony of Eritrea to Ethiopia, but at least it could console itself with the retention of Somalia. Mussolini knew that this treaty was his death sentence, but he was determined not to step down and continue the fight no matter what. History may move in circles, but it was better to live a year as a lion than a thousand years as a sheep, he reasoned. So where Crispi had resigned in 1896 after the Battle of Adwa among the mounting street protests, Mussolini responded to them with a show of force. It was true - despite his failures, Mussolini still had a great deal of supporters, especially among the rural south who saw him as a much lesser threat than the Communists and Anarchists who'd inevitably seize power were he to be overthrown. Compared to how the Bolsheviks were treating the Soviet farmers, the Blackshirts looked like guardian angels indeed. And as the resignations and defections rapidly mounted from the National Fascist Party, the government, and the armed forces, the stage was set for a confrontation. The French did their part in making sure that the confrontation would not be peaceful by encouraging the armed elements of the opposition to openly rebel, and supplying them with arms and supplies from across the border. To spite the French for their betrayal, Mussolini went on to sign the Pact of Steel with Germany, and gave Hitler green light to annex Austria. Not that he really needed one anyway, for Italy was by now powerless to confront Germany or anyone else for that matter. Within a couple of months, Italy was divided roughly in half between the Fascist and anti-Fascist forces, the former now receiving German aid from across the former Austrian border - now Germany's border. The Italian veteran contingent also had to be urgently withdrawn from Spain where it fought alongside the Nationalist forces, leaving the Nationalists there vulnerable and tipping the balance in the Republican favor. Italy's fortunes had sunk rapidly and low.

Yugoslavia.
200px-Flag_of_the_Kingdom_of_Yugoslavia.svg.png


Following Italy, civil wars also broke out in Yugoslavia, Belgium, and Finland for various reasons. Yugoslavia had little reason for existence after the British had withdrawn support form it in 1936, and the ethnic tensions soon became irresolvable. Belgrade tried to appease its Croat constituents by granting them greater autonomy in 1938 (Banovina Croatia) and joining the anti-Comintern pact with Germany the same year, but it was not enough to defuse to powder keg that was brewing, and appeasement served only to anger the Serbs and the Royal Army more than anything. Violent incidents became common, particularly in the ethnically mixed city of Sarajevo, which saw multiple shootings and bombings within just one month. There was a bombing of a Serb wedding procession, there was an army shooting of Croat demonstrators, there was also a bombing of the Sarajevo market perpetrated by unknown assailants. Germany had no use for Yugoslavia, and was actively fueling the unrest there by smuggling arms through the Austrian and Hungarian borders to various paramilitaries. The newly ultra-nationalist Turkey was helping its Balkan brethren as well, for they considered Turkey to be their only protection. The government reacted with further appeasement and offers of decentralization, hoping to pull the initiative away from the trouble-makers.

One offer floating around was to transform the Yugoslav Kingdom into a confederation under a personal union, akin to the British Commonwealth. Each nationality would have its own parliament responsible for local affairs, however there would also be a Yugoslav parliament which would decide on the vital issues such as foreign affairs and defense, and a common King of course. But when in early 1939 a group of angry French-backed army officers carried out a coup in Belgrade and declared a republic, Yugoslavia was over. First the Slovenes and soon the Croats and Muslim Slavs (backed by Turkey) seceded and war broke out along the ethnic lines. The government could not recognize their independence at least because much of the territory they've claimed was populated by ethnic Serbs who wanted nothing to do with their new-to-be masters and wanted to remain in Yugoslavia. France and USSR likewise pushed the new government to pursue a hawkish route by promising weapons, training, and diplomatic cover.

Finland.
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Finland was put on the crossroads when the Nazis rose to power in Sweden. On one hand, Sweden was now a direct and clear threat to Finnish sovereignty. On the other, so was the Soviet Union, potentially, so the choice was very difficult to make. A series of minor diplomatic blunders by the new Swedish foreign ministry, and the Finnish Social Democratic government, elected in 1936, chose to carefully align with the Soviet Union, seeing it as a lesser threat. This came at a cost, however, as the USSR demanded that the Finns censor anti-Soviet press and allow the communists to operate freely on the condition that they obey the law. The USSR also offered an ambitious pact of territory exchange and mutual defense to Finland, offering Finland a big chunk of land in Karelia in exchange for a much smaller but very strategic territory near the approaches to Leningrad, USSR's second biggest city. The Finnish parliament debated this proposal but ultimately rejected it as not serving Finland's interests. The main problem with the proposal was that the chunk of territory near Leningrad which the Soviets demanded was to cut through the first branch of the so-called Mannerheim line, which was a Finnish line of fortifications along the Soviet border. The line was considered very strategic by the Finns, and the loss of any part of it would substantially decrease the Finnish defensive capability vis-a-vis the Soviet Union. The Soviets insisted, however, and a long series of negotiations began between Helsinki and Moscow over the possibility of redrawing their mutual border. In the meantime, with Soviet help, the leftist forces in Finland had rebuilt themselves into a capable force, and re-awakened the scars and divisions of the Finnish society dating back to the civil war of 1918. The Finnish SDP government was not blind to this growing danger, but could do little for the fear of upsetting its Soviet neighbor.

In 1938, taking cue from the German Anschluss of Austria the previous year, Sweden put pressure on Denmark for a political union between the two countries. Denmark, led by a Social-Democratic government at the time, had absolutely no interest in such a union, and was guaranteed independence by France and the USSR. But with Sweden, Germany, and Britain all putting pressure the Danes at the same time, and only the Norwegians, with their tiny military, being in sufficient geographic proximity to offer any help, the Danish government saw itself as having no choice but to step down, leaving the army to assume control. The army then followed a familiar script - it allowed the Swedish forces to enter the country and set up bases, while promising to hold a referendum on the issue of joining Sweden. King Christian X of Denmark, who refused to approve of the referendum on "Danish anschluss" was forced to flee to France, where he found refuge and declared the anschluss illegal. Few Danes heard his voice, however, as the new government introduced sweeping censorship. Denmark was then effectively partitioned between the three powers. The UK took Iceland, Greenland, and Faroe islands, Germany took Northern Schleswig, and Sweden took the rest. The annexation of Denmark caused a panic in Finland, but emboldened the right-wing forces at the same time. In fall of 1938 they brought down the SDP government and called for a snap election. The hotly contested election campaign in the winter resulted in a victory of right-wing forces, partially due to their increased popularity (the SDP government was blamed for economic mishandling and passivity in foreign policy), but mostly due to the fact that the traditional SDP and Agrarian vote was now partially taken by the Finnish Communist Party, backed by Moscow. A national unity government was thus formed, headed by Ryti's liberal NPP party, which included all the moderate parties but excluded the FCP, PPM (Patriotic People's Movement), and the SNSP (Swedish National Socialist Party). The new government then decided to stop relying on the Soviet Union so much, a policy which was seen as toothless and dangerous, with Sweden treating Finland as a de-facto Soviet ally, the possibility of Finland turning into a battlefield between Sweden and the USSR did not appeal to anyone. Ryti then decided to pursue a more neutral policy and try to please everyone, hoping that this would help avoid the repeat of the Danish experience or worse scenarios. After all, the Swedish Nazi ideology emphasized the idea of a Nordic Union, and the Finns were not Nords themselves. The government also decided to investigate the activities of the FCP, suspected of planning an insurrection of some sort. Its suspicions were true, more true than anyone had realized, but when the police raided the FCP headquarters and local branches with a permit to investigate the party's activities, they didn't find any direct evidence to implicate it in wrongdoing, only circumstantial evidence and suspicious behavior. Nonetheless, they've decided that it was enough to take the FCP leaders into custody. An attempt to arrest them, however, did not succeed as the suspects evaded arrest amid a pitched battle. The actions of the police, however, set in motion an unpredictable chain of events which unfolded with lightning speed. First, there were small groups of demonstrators on the streets protesting the police activity. Next, there was a mob marching through the city waving red flags - clearly mobilized by the FCP for the occasion. Then there were clashes with the police, and finally by the next morning it was all over - all the administrative buildings in the capital were seized by armed groups under FCP's control, and the government fled west, then north, as the "revolution" spread across the country. The army was too late to react and was thrown into disarray, so it had to quickly retreat north together with the government, while suffering a large number of defections in its ranks. Yet, it didn't collapse and didn't go far, and it in a few days it returned with a determination to teach the reds a lesson for the second time. Marshal Mannerheim was appointed commander in chief, and he emerged as the most powerful man in "White Finland", sidelining Ryti's civilian government and acting effectively on his own. Finland was now set to relive the horrors of the 1918, possibly on an even greater scale than before.

Belgium.
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The final victim of the growing European crisis was Belgium. Originally formed with the French help and intended as a Catholic buffer state, Belgium was always divided between its Flemish and Walloon constituency. Its independence was also guaranteed by Britain, who stepped in to defend the country in 1914, and won the sympathy of a large number of Belgians. When the obvious cracks began to emerge in the Belgian social fabric in 1930s, it was highly indicative of the larger cracks emerging between the European Great Powers. With the Nazis now in power in Netherlands advocating the concept of "Greater Netherlands", and with the additional support of Germany and the UK, the so-called Orangist movement in Belgium was greatly strengthened. This led to the growing polarization of the Belgian society and the effective death of Belgian parliamentarian. The elections of 1936 produced a deeply polarized parliament. The Flemish community, angry at the government's handling of the depression, voted overwhelmingly for the Flemish National Union, while Wallonia was divided between Catholics, Liberals, and Labour. Being the single largest party in parliament, the King had to invite FNU to form a government, however the FNU did not find sufficient support to form a ruling coalition. Thus Belgium went almost two years without forming a new government. After the German anschluss of Austria in 1937, the King authorized a new election hoping to resolve the deadlock. None such relief was forthcoming, however, as the election of 1938 produced a new parliament which was just as polarized as the previous, except this time the Labour party and Communist party emerged as clear leaders in Wallonia. The King then appealed for unity and invited a Liberal candidate Janson to try to form a government, hoping that he can gather enough support from the opposing factions. When that failed, the task was handed to a known moderate Socialist Paul-Henri Spaak, who finally received the backing of the Moscow-sponsored Communist party and formed a minority government. The FNU, however, feeling cheated and excluded despite being the largest fraction in parliament, and with no other legal means of pursuing its goal of Greater Netherlands, the FNU declared a boycott of parliament. In its absence, the parliament began passing laws vehemently opposed by the Flemish community, but these were vetoed by the King. As the political violence and assassinations took an increasingly sectarian dimension, King Leopold found himself in an unenviable position. His attempts to personally intervene on the behalf of the Flemish community in order to avoid a full sectarian clash had only run into anger and hate from the Socialist-led government, who saw the FNU as a traitorous and alien organization seeking the demise of the Belgian state. Soon the King began to feel that the Walloons now viewed him, too, as a British trojan horse (Leopold III came from the same royal house as the British monarchy), and no longer as a unifying leader of Belgium. And as the left-wing government exerted ever more pressure on him to stop interfering in governance or resign, the King finally gave in and resigned in January 1939, leaving the government to eagerly proclaim a republic. The referendum on the issue was not to be held since it was feared that the Flemish outnumbered the Walloons and could restore the monarchy. Furthermore, the security situation in the country was so poor that the government had a legitimate excuse not to hold the referendum at this time. Immediately, armed groups began taking over Belgian cities and the army disintegrated into Flemisish and Walloon parts as the former refused to obey their new commander-in-chief, President Camille Huysmans. The French and Belgian governments hoped that the appointment of Huysmans to Presidency by parliament would help placate the Flemish constituency and remove some support from the FNU, but the Flemish by and large considered him a traitor and sellout and refused to deal with him. Consequently, Belgium became torn apart between its two communities at each others throats.
 
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I think this needs listing in 'Mod Advertisements' sticky. If you're interested...
Maybe once it's finished or close to finished.

Please no Trotsky, that guy had the political sense of a mouse.

Stalin controlled the minutes of the meetings, Lenin cannot so easily push him out either.
I'd have to disagree with that. By the end of the civil war Lenin had such an authority and informal cult surrounding him that I'm pretty sure if at that point he had openly said "get rid of Stalin" there would and could have been no Stalin. Especially if the messaged reached the public. If the public found out that Lenin does not want Stalin to lead, Stalin is finished.

I like the story very much, though i would like to see Russia instead of SU, but i think that's impossible don't let the mod go to waste
Thanks I'll try.

if the allies win, what will happen to the British Empire? how will you partition them?
I haven't decided yet, you guys could help me with that. Still looking for event writers and all :)
 
Here's some screenshots as promised:

The invasion of Ireland starts with a surprise Irish preemptive attack.


Civil war in Italy several weeks after start.


The Yugoslav People's Army attempts to push the rebels away from Sarajevo. The Nationalists appear to be gaining the initiative in the Italian war, but in terms of industry and numbers both sides are roughly equal.


Early invasion of Canada


Last line of defense of Canada