Chapter 19: Curtain Call, 1945-1950 Part 5, Men of the West
In Europe an end to the war meant the beginning of uncertainties put off for almost a Decade. The Great Depression and Second Great War had cut deep scars into the makeup of the continent. Economically the devastation could be seen in every city, in every town and out every window. Mast movements of people were underway, either returning to thier homes due to the end of De-khitanization or wartime evacuations or being moved to new locations through the Provisional government's Peacetime measures. All the while the Internationale Loomed in the East, and the Japanese licked their own wounds in the Pacific Rim.
The Republic had survived, the country saved, but the future was now in the hands of those liberated over the last four years.
The President of the Khitan Republic, Arthur Belmore had been a figure of both morale and controversy through the darkest periods of the war. Having led the nation from 1936 and through the Exile and finally return he had immense popular support from both the military and his supporters throughout the conflict. Several hard calls, such as the decision to send direct aid to the Internationale, and the Nuclear Bombings of Italy had put him under fire from his criitics however.
In 1949 He would announce, that he would in fact no be seeking a legitimacy re-election in 1950, and opening the Government officially to a full General election for the first time. In that time however Belmore had set things in motion for National reconstruction and for the solidification of the Solar League and her allies.
The electoral chaos that resulted from Belmore stepping down to say nothing else, something to behold. In a flash all factions across every political spectrum had begun to rally support. The Khitan Empire, now freed from Fascist Tyranny could begin again with a Blank slate, or revert back to how it was. The Occupations and peace terms meanwhile were being carried out by the Military across Europe, and those referenda that could be held as promised for the Colonies had begun.
National reconstruction was the main issue of the country. The Senate still divided and ruling with an unelected mandate had ceded much of its authority to the Presidency in this time, with Military approved economic aid being distributed to the hardest hit areas first, mainly the Capital and Rhineland.
The regions that saw the lightest fighting was Old Avalon, the Regions of Britanny, Normandy and around Paris, as these provinces saw primarily infantry combat with little heavy bombing. Similarly the Alps already rural and isolated saw little fighting in the settlements as geography had made holding them untenable for either side in an era with modern artillery.
The devastation however was not exclusive to the Western and Central Republican provinces however, Hanover reformed as the Republic of the Elbe and Bavaria, reformed as the Danubian Republic were both the frontlines for the Fascist last stand against the liberation of central Europe. Cities from Hamburg to Vienna had been devastated. That is to say nothing of Italy who's entire Industrial heartland dissapeared overnight during the Atomic attacks. While some regions of Europe had been spared the worst horrors of war, others had suffered in Kind.
The First Fascist nation to fall in the war was the United Kingdoms of Hispania, often refereed to as simply, The Kingdom of Spain. In Comparison to the other nations within the New World Order, Spain had been treated somewhat with Kid gloves due to its somewhat unwillingness to continue fighting after several military disasters in the middle east and North Africa.
Supression within and outside government and factionalism, particularly against the Far Right Coalition of Abel Silveria had gotten to a point what when Khitan Troops had arrived in Spanish soil, a civil war had broken out in the streets of Vila Real and in other important urban centers. This would lead to King Paulo and his supporters launching a soft coup against the Government and attempting to sue for an early peace, only for Abel Silveria to reform his government in the Northern more mountainous provinces where his support base was highest.
Rather than let the Spanish capitulate and grant the Solar League a flank against her Troops in Aquitaine, the Italian Military backed Silveria's government and subsequent crackdowns on unrest across the territory he still held. This worked for a time but soon the Italians supported Silveria's crumbling regime less and less, and with the Fall of Barcelona in 1945, the King of Spain's demands for an armistice were headed and Negotiations over the fate of the country had begun in Earnest.
Spain as a political entity would ultimately remain together at the insistence of the British and Greeks, However it would become Federalized in the Khitan style with the Individual Kingdoms becoming equal states outright with far more authority over matters of government. Spain herself would be limited in military spending, her colonies stripped away wholesale. Abel Silveria's collaborators and supporters were executed or sentenced to life imprisonment though the Monarchy got off relatively free from the whole affair, surviving with some amount of political power, and the crown intact.
For the British and President Belmore, the Monarchy in Spain was ultimately the Country's best defense against the growing influence of Communism and Socialism as Spain due to its strange religious situation the Catholic minority of which the Kings of Spain were a part of were overwhelmingly considered to be more resistant to influence from the left and thus the Internationale.
(King Fernando III, 1948)
However, King Paulo it was decided, had to go, and so the Ruling Monarch of Spain was encouraged to Abdicate to a distant Cousin, Fernando, the Duke of Barcelona. Fernando had been chosen for his resistance to the Fascist and Populist regimes in Europe and for his personal assistance to resistance cells and refugees fleeing over the Spanish border to escape Italian and Bohemian Mistreatment.
Fernando's early reign however was not so much as reign as the place of a figurehead and the Occupation government laid the groundwork for a new Spanish Governmental system like what was being put into place in the Elbian and Danubian Republics. Extremist Parties were banned, and by the end of 1949, Fernando had been coronated and established a Provisional Government headed by the new Christian Democrat party, a conservative party with the backing of the British.
(Flag of the Danubian Federal Republic)
In Germany, the Bavarian Republic in Exile was contending with its own issues after the war. While not the first victim of Fascist aggression like Russia or an Axis power in earnest, Bavaria's relationship with the New World order, especially after its capitulation during road to war had muddled things.
Before the War, Far Right, Populists and Ultra Nationalist parties held a near Plurality of the seats in government, and Anarchists and Communists had significant saw on the other side of the isle, making effective government near impossible. When the minority republican government went into exile, the New World Order wasted no opportunity in appointing the Ultranationalists as thier favored collaboration government.
Occupied Bavaria had been effectively a willing partner in the invasion of the SBU and the Eastern Steppe, deploying thousands to the field and contributing her industry to the NWO without much issue. Resistance efforts meanwhile were restricted to the Communists and Anarchists.
The Returning Bavarian Republic in Exile now had to contend with this legacy, and with the backing of the Khitan army made several steps to try and endeer Bavaria more towards the Solar League and to avoid the fate of Italy, Spain and Bohemia.
The Government was reorganized into the New Danubian Republic, with the Capital moved from Nuremberg to Stuttgart. Extremist Parties were banned and the Exile backed FDU implemented several sweeping reforms to change the Bavarian Parliamentary system into a Federal Republic more in line with the Khitan model.
In 1948 The Danubian Federal Republic as it had become known had adopted a new Flag and turned wholly to economic and military reforms, rebuilding several dozen canals and dams destroyed as a result of Allied Strategic bombing as well as licensees limited military goods production in Steyr, Austria for use with the new Bundeswehr.
(Flag of the Italian Republic)
On the other side of the Alps, Italy was experiencing a far different post war period. Subjected to heavy military occupation via the Khitan Republic and England any semblence of post war order was still very much in the air. Italy as a country had fully collapsed at the end of the war, the atomic bombs had rendered much of her commerical heartland unusable and her military and manpower reserves had been depleted to the greatest extent in her history.
Catacylsmic was the word being used to describe the Italian situation, and comparisons to the fall of Rome were common. The only Italian region that had been spared the carnage was Milan, an industrial urban center in the north. Milan would serve to be the defacto capital for occupied Italy until a proper Government could be established.
Reconstruction however was slow, the Khitan Republic was quick to send vital resources to its own land first, and as a price of peace, had also displaced Hundreds of Thousands of Italians from thier land in Provence and Savoy which had only made matters worse. Media however was highly restricted and censored on the Penninsula meaning most actual information came from coded letters of troops still stationed within the region, or the unlikely source of SBU spies whos country had a vested intrest in leaving Italy a constant strategic drain on the Solar League so long as the Boot of the Penninsula was also under occupation.
In the Five long years after the end of the war ultimately the military government would do little save assess the damage and rebuild key infastructure to reclaim the Italian centers of political and economic power while anarchy began to grow in the countryside. Communist and Socialist militias were formed and violently hunted down and collaborationist Mayorships were slowly established, giving some semblance of legitimacy to entire situation.
(Early Flag of the Grecian Republic, 1945)
In Southern Italy, the Khitan Empire had inherited the peculiar and strange situation of a land of both Italians and Greeks. The Region had originally been the last holdout of both the Greek Monarchy and later the Greek Whites but its continued absence from the Kingdom and later Republic of Italy was a source for Geopolitical upheaval in the Mediterranean throughout the last century. This had, for the most part been something the Khitan Empire was able to safely ignore as its primary ally was the Hellenic Republic.
With the SBU's dangerous form of Socialism spreading in Eastern Europe Arthur Belmore thought it wise to deny the Greeks the return of the region at all costs, as doing so would make the Mediterranean a Socialist lake once more, which would threaten the Status quo in both Spain but also Italy and Occitannia.
Italy however was a complete mess, and so ultimately a concept that only existed on theoretical geopolitics was made a reality, the Grecian Republic, A Republic for the Greco-Italian peoples of Sicily based on the Old Hellenic Model and watched and protected closely by the Khitan Republic. The Grecian Republic be neither Greek nor Italian but Sicilian, and efforts would be moved towards the creation of a Sicilian Identity in an effort to spur further secessionist tendency from both powers.
This was of course all theoretical at this point, while some Griko's existed in small numbers throughout the region they are not considered the cultural orthodoxy. To ease in this end, the Khitan Provisional government aligned itself with former whites and descendants of the whites during the Hellenic Civil War to reconstruct the old National identity. Other, Non nationalist groups such as the Infamous Mafia families of the region would also be a valuable asset towards this end and were given special protected by the government in exchange for further aid in the en-devour. This would be an attack on all levels from elementary textbooks to restrictions on speech and assembly all in the name of preserving an Independent state in southern Italy.
For the people of the region, these reforms were incredibly unpopular. The Urban centers and political elite of this new, effective dictatorship of a miniscule minority however had quickly latched onto the opportunity. The Greek Republic had died, in its place was the abomination of Communism across the Adriatic. It would be through this class that the generations long work of creating the Republic would begin.
Further North, the Elbian Republic was also being established. Both as a reward and a continuation of the old status quo of Europe, The German Republic of Holstein was reorganized into a Federal Republic incorporating the Territories of Holstein, Hamburg, Upper and Lower Saxony, Brandenburg and Pomerania. Slavic Peoples who traditionally lived in these territories, in particular, Saxony and Pomerania were displaced east, into the Slavic Provisional Government.
The Government of Holstein itself more or less returned in the same form at had been before the war, though with more autonomy than before. Now officially independent the new Elbian Confederation set to work on the reconstruction of its economic heartland and the settlement of her now eastern territories. Handling the Demographic shifts of the country, particularly from the West and moving East was something the Government was no prepared for in any respect of the world.
Immigration from the Khitan Republic, and the Forced relocation of Poles and Bohemians quickly crippled the Elbian bureaucratic infrastructure, resulting in a return of Khitan Troops in order to maintain order in 1947. While this time the Khitan Troops would leave it would be a cold reminder that while now independent, the Confederation was still wholly depending on the great powers that surrounded her.
To this end the various parties of the Confederation looked outwards primarily not inwards for policy, with the Liberals and Conservatives adopting Pro Scandinavian platforms, meanwhile left learning parties looked further towards Britain and the United States. More authoritarian and centrist parties meanwhile tended to gravitate towards the Khitan Republic. This would further complicate north German politics exiting the immediate post war years, and combined with the influx of displaced Germans into new lands in the east, lead to complete political instability each election year post 1950.
Reconstruction of the country meanwhile proceeded fairly well. Scandinavian interests found the confederation to be an ideal jumping point for foreign expansion, with the reconstruction in cities along the Baltic Coast being somewhat ideal places for the expansion of Scandinavian Industries, providing a vital lifeline to bring the country back to life.
Dealing with the Slavic Hegemony was the major issue facing the Solar League at the end of the war. Vast, Ethnically diverse and now the cause of two major world wars, the Bohemian state had proven to be tumultuous and unstable at the worst of times and incredibly dangerous at its best. Bohemia unlike Italy had been spared the fires of the Atomic Bomb but not the boots and tank treads of the Khitan Army.
Now that the fighting had officially ended what to do with the state was a question on many minds. There were some who wished to See, Bohemia, Poland, the Ukraine and the Pomeranian minorities all broken apart into their own states, Making many Slavic Repuiblics out of the Solid whole. Political relality however quickly dulled the idea as it became clear that the SBU was setting up puppet states in the Ukraine and black Sea. Dividing up the once powerful empire would leave a power vacuum that Russia or Scandinavia could easily fill if the SBU didnt.
Thus it was decided to leave the Lands of Bohemia and Poland together albiet reduced, with large portions of Pomerania going to Germans. The Remaining lands of Poland, Bohemia and Galicia would be reformed under Third Krakow Republic. Meanwhile economically the country was quietly pillaged of its intelligence, heavy industry and remaining resource reserves for use back in the Khitan Empire.
The Overall plan for the Slavic Republic would be military occupation followed by a gradual de-escalation and Re-Democratization of the country. Important Republican leaning officials from both before and during the war years were given positions within the Provisional government, which would be quietly constructed from the ground up to serve as a bulwark against extremism and ensure a liberal democratic status quo within the country.
Further North, Scandinavia was quickly becoming known as the Great Power who did not fight within the war. Only Joining the Great American war towards its ending, and hoping to serve as a fair and neutral place to conduct postwar diplomacy, Scandinavia had effectively cut itself off from European Politics for the Duration of the Second World War.
Its place in the war however was well known as Scandinavian industry had sold vital supplies to the New World Order as well as arms to the Solar League. Scandinavian Industry having been spared the horrors of war was untouched and now booming as reconstruction efforts spread across not only Europe but America as well.
Scandinavia herself however had only managed to stay out of the war through a firm authoritarian hand as the Centrist parties in alliance with the military had brutally cracked down on Fascist and Communist groups within the country. Now that the seminal conflict was over, relieving those wartime measures was a slow and awkward process as those hit by the collateral of such bans were now returning to government disgruntled and with thier own faith in the legitimacy of the democracy forever shaken.
This would only be made worse through immigration enmasse from Regions of Deportation in Europe and Americans fleeing post war devastation. Scandinavia, long considered a desolate land short of people but high in ideals now had for the first time a genuine refugee crisis that had been raging since late 1945. As Refugee Crises tended to do, wages fell, and Social welfare systems that did exist quickly became strained. In 1948 The Conservatives dissolved their Coalition with the Liberal party and ran on an Anti Immigration platform, hoping to stop the tide of American, German and Polish Refugees. The next year the Conservative manifesto however was widely reported on to have adopted terminology from Nordic Pride party, a far right group banned during the war, leading to a massive surge for Labour who ran on a platform for expanding the country's welfare state. By 1950 Scandinavia now had a majority left leaning Government, a refugee crisis to handle and a surging explosion in domestic population and economic growth. The makings of a new superpower some would say, while others quietly suspected disaster in the future.
Across the North Sea was another major European power. The British Commonwealth had survived the war scarred but victorious. Devastation from the war in Britain was mainly due to air bombings and mainly in Southern England in stark contrast to the wartorn husks of Italy, The SBU and Khitan Republic. Britain however was a small nation and her Military along with crippling amounts of war debt now looked to be the major issues moving forward.
In particular this economic Malias would be shoved onto the Colonies, primarily in Africa where resource extraction would remain at wartime levels in an effort to fund both reconstruction efforts as well as the Pensions and Payments for the armed forces who fought and now garrisoned Europe.
In 1948 Bernard Churchill, despite leading the country to victory during the election had narrowly kept the Interventionist faction in power following the rise of the Workers faction in the last election. While Publically the British Commonwealth had appeared to survive the war intact, it's need to appear strong in the face of a destroyed Europe and America was being maintained at the cost of the country's economic. War Debt had become peacetime debt and Bankruptcy was looming closer by the year. All the while promises needed to be kept, London Restored and military retiree pensions re-instated.
With 1950 Looming, The Khitan Republic, in poor economic shape itself agreed to suspend several payments for oil, rubber and steel in the face of a dire British situation, though it ultimately would be an unpopular move, as those resources were seen as Vital across the Channel for the Republic's own reconstruction efforts. The Americans, in particular Brazil waited in the wings to potentially exploit British economic collapse and of course the threat of the SBU backing a potential workers or military uprising was not only real but increasingly growing threat as the country moved out of the decade of war and into a new time of peace.
Which brings things back to the Khitan Republic, and the Elections of 1950.
Belmore's stepping down and subsequent Political chaos was now in full swing and as the new Decade turned Political factions began to from along old Ideological lines. In particular, most parties could agree that the Old system of government had a fundamental flaw that led to the diasters of the Great Depression and the Fall of the Republic. How to alleviate those issues however was where much of the disagreement lied.
On the right, the Monarchists had led the charge, fully intending to use the Joint deadlocks of the last few decades to dispel the need for a True Republican system. It was in the country's best intrest to have a Firm hand like what existed in the United States to solve the country's crisises and there was no other fit for the task than one of the bloodline that made the Republic what it was. No individual more popular across the World and no one with better credentials.
The Case was for Idris IV, the Boy Prince Turned Ambitious monarch during the war years. Belmore's resignation and subsequent chaos had been all that was required for the Emperor's supporters to nominate and introduce Belmore into the race as the Candidate of the 'National Stability' party, a Big Tent coalition of Monarchists, Former Divine Socialists and radicalized conservatives. Nationally the expectation of Idris running for president only was thin veneer, nobody expected if Idris should win he would give up his power or even entertain further elections, though a fairly significant amount of people within the Republic either didnt care or thought it was worth the risk in order to return a strong and steady hand to government, above coalitions, compromises or criseses.
The Centrist Camp, primarily made of Conservatives and Political elites meanwhile nominated a few Candidates, all of whom were swept aside by surprise announcement of General Francis Dumont's Presidental Campaign. The Butcher of Bagdad, Overseer or D-Day and famous 'Last Man in Dunkirk' had not only returned but had returned to lead the country it seemed. Dumont's campaign was similar in tone to that of the Royalists, A strong and steady hand was needed for the Republic, Dumont had been a part of every military operation since the exile, he had fought on the front of nearly every major battle and now he felt he would be best qualified to lead the country moving forward.
The Dumont knew well his advantages, In the Months following his announcement he had swept aside most of the more establishment candidates in the Centrist lane of the Presidency on name recognition alone. By March of 1950, He had all but secured the Nomination from the Bloc. His polices were vague though mostly boiled down to a firm hand against communists and fascists alike while maintaining a strong hand of friendship towards the British Stratocracy. In terms of reconstruction, Dumont's terms were clear, Regulations were to be dismissed, private and national territory waived when needed, red tape cut whenever possible. Alongside further intervention in places Belmore had felt a lighter hand was all that was necessary. Military style reconstruction, Pragmatic, Quick, Brutal if necessary.
Colonially however was Dumont's ace, Dumont was a favorite of the so called "Integrationist Plan' which called for supporting Pan-Imperial parties across the country, showing favorable views to the Junta in Australasia, and the Unionists campaigning in south Africa. In a time when Monarchism and Socialism was growing rampant across the globe the only force that could truly be relied upon to be incorruptible was the Military and the Khitan Empire's institutions. For many in the Republic this would be a quiet dogwhistle that Dumont not only wanted to try and subvert the decolonization efforts abroad but outright reverse them if possible, which for the electorate at large which did not consent to such compromises and cared to see them reversed, resonated deeply.
The Left mainly consolidating around resistance fighter, school teacher and renowned Political authority, Andreas Vangoud, who had attracted a large tent of Socialists, Communists, Anarchists and labour politicans under his banner. Vangoud claimed that the Rise of the Far right was due to a failure of capitalism in its purest form and that the country should reverse course and pursue a politics of internationalism and leadership by example. Amoung Vangouds policies were universal healthcare and the nationalization of utilities and other public businesses as well as the establishment of a New national bank with permissions to serve as a public option for private citizen's banking requirements. All of which he had written of extensively of in his books, which criticized the capitalist system, the human condition and what he felt was the natural devolution of society without government protections.
As the campaign raged however, Vangoud's supporters, especially those most radical had increasingly become the face of the new Labour movement, and his two opponents, Dumont and Idris did not hesitate to point out the dangers and frailties of communism and far left policy. With tensions rising between the SBU and the Khitan Republic, Vangoud's progressive reforms were increasingly lost in the conversation about the merits of Socialism in such a tumultuous time. The Death blow was his denouncement by a contemporary, popular Fantasy Author and Oxford professor, recently having gained fame through the newly published 'Numidium' book series. J.E.S Reilly.
By September the Results had come in. The Lower Representatives, unaligned by party would form into a coherent order soon enough, The Senate out of 60 Seats was 26 Seats for the Centrist Coalition, 13 Monarchist, 16 for the leftist faction and 5 Independents. The Presidential Votes meanwhile failed to achieve a majority leaving the decision up to Senate Vote.
By Late November the Result was in, after Ten Votes, Idris IV had dropped out of the race, leaving the Right leaning Coalition one viable option, Francis Dumont.
Dumont in an address to the nation, thanked his constituents, and agreed as promised to hold the Second constitutional convention in the following year and in the meantime continue reconstruction efforts to the best of his ability as president.
In the same breath however he would denounce the growing emnity between the SBU and Khitan Republic, announcing while no guns were being fired, the battle for the hearts and minds of the World at large had only just begun.
