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Ah Scheiße, here we go again.
Now I'm wondering how the Annionas are doing in this universe? I imagine they must be getting a weird sense of cosmic deja vu at seeing Rome get nuked, through they obviously wouldn't know why.
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Dragoon mentioned that the Khitans gave them a few noble titles after taking over their area. They've occasionally popped up since then.Now I'm wondering how the Annionas are doing in this universe? I imagine they must be getting a weird sense of cosmic deja vu at seeing Rome get nuked, through they obviously wouldn't know why.
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Alright, that’s helpful to know. On that note, how do you think the Hohenzollerns are doing here, especially with their home territory of Brandenburg staying outside of the German states and remaining in the Slavic cultural sphere?
I honestly don't know. Wilhelm probably didn't intervene in this timeline like he did in mine (and apparently the Annionaverse), so they'd be irrelevant.
Chapter 24: Welcome to the Jungle, 1956-1960 Part 2
Chapter 24: Welcome to the Jungle, 1956-1960 Part 2
(Rocky Jewel delivers a Televised concert outside Chicago, 1957)
While Africa burned, and Asia Blossomed the second American Reconstruction was just finishing. With it, a new status quo across the country. Innovations on American Music and Culture were being pioneered across the American South and spread by Radio and now, Television across the continent, Chief Among them, Rock and Roll that would enrapture a nation in guitar chords and smooth lyrics delivered from charismatic singers like Bernie Tru and Rocky Jewel. America was being rebuilt anew, and her culture would not be based in ancient regimes of the past, secluded in centuries old stone and glass, but built high and loud for all the world to see.
This isn't to say the Americans were going to take a passive role in world affairs. If anything, the good feelings of reconstruction and lack of willingess to perform internal reforms led the United States to grow more interventionist, and Militant internationally, especially where her interests conflicted with that of the other Three Great Powers. In Africa, the United States squared off with Socialist Insurgents and European Colonial Administrations through Proxy wars while in the Pacific, American involvement in the Philippines and other places was a regular event.
(Rocky Jewel delivers a Televised concert outside Chicago, 1957)
While Africa burned, and Asia Blossomed the second American Reconstruction was just finishing. With it, a new status quo across the country. Innovations on American Music and Culture were being pioneered across the American South and spread by Radio and now, Television across the continent, Chief Among them, Rock and Roll that would enrapture a nation in guitar chords and smooth lyrics delivered from charismatic singers like Bernie Tru and Rocky Jewel. America was being rebuilt anew, and her culture would not be based in ancient regimes of the past, secluded in centuries old stone and glass, but built high and loud for all the world to see.
Furthermore the American King, Was an Interventionist at heart and has quietly ordered expansion of the American armed forces and was prepared not simply continue the cold war but make his legacy, ending it, at least to some degree and thus was expected to pursue radical foreign policy movies against the Japanese and SBU who were the most ideologically opposed to the United States.
South America and Central America however continued to be a Thorn in the United States' side. Brazil, and her administration had been determined to keep a leading stance internationally, and reunify its own continent diplomatically and economically even if doing so militarily had failed. Brazil had notably declined several offers of foreign aid in the creation of the state backed Apollo Air, later renamed to Air Brazil a civilian transport airline dedicated to greater connections between Brazil, Columbia and the new South American Republic of Guyana.
Argentina meanwhile was the major point of conflict for various powers in South America, with the death of Argentine Dictator, Kyle O'Hara causing the largest disruption since the regions independence from Ireland. With no clear line of succession or system in place, the various workers communes all turned against eachother, with the Military stepping in to restore order and create a provisional government. The SBU, fearing that the Japanese were using the Argentine Military as a proxy, threw armed support behind worker's communes on the Atlantic coast and south, helping to name the Military Junta as counter-revolutionary. This caused a massive stir in the cities but also within factions of the military itself and within months the entire country was at war with itself.
In an effort to prevent the conflict from spilling north into the Amazon, the United States and Brazil intervened, seizing land up to the Parana River, sparking some international outrage from Japan and the Incan Empire. Meanwhile the various SBU backed factions in government organized formed into the 'New Revolutionary Guard' and performed a counter coup in lake 1959. The Fighting however would not cease for another six years. As a result the Lands taken by Brazil, would be later given limited Autonomy under the banner of the Republic of Concordia.
(Khitan Nuclear Test Plant 3, Outside Caux)
Reducing reliance on Oil, would at least in Theory reduce the Dependence of the Empire on her African and Southeast Asian Colonies. With Rationing still in effect during winter months due to ongoing conflicts in Africa and a refusal to be at the Mercy of the Americans for fuel, other more outlandish proposals were brought forward such as an all electric Metro Network, electric roads and so forth. Many of these concepts would never see the light of day, as an important discovery was made off the coast of Scandinavia in lake 1959, effectively bringing much of the SRDI to a screeching halt. Though many of the ideas would live on in Popular and Pulp Science fiction, common features of a fictional 'world of tomorrow'.
On other fronts, the late 50's brought the announcement of the Khitan Rocket Test Site Initiatives in an effort to at least appear to be competitive with the Americans. The Issue Rocketry professionals in the Khitan Empire grappled with is that there was no true location to properly test Atmosphere launches that wouldn't result in rockets potentially landing in the Atlantic and thus be at risk to be taken by the Americans. The Close Proximity of the SBU was also considered a major concern. For almost three years suitable sites were surveyed until finally the Colonial office received a telephone call, From Australia, with an offer.
Australia was the site of a decent number of Nuclear Tests, being isolated and faraway from much of the 'action' of the ongoing cold war. Thus it naturally fell into the role of also being the primary missile test site for space flight. By 1958, at least three rocketry stations were under construction across central Australia, with the Ayer's rock station reaching completion in mid 1959, in time for the November 'Hugo' rocket tests.
In the Meantime, the Empire made due with what it could, constructing smaller test sites on the Leased Island of Malta as well as in South Africa. Though the former tests were with outdated rockets, usually to test propellants and the later was more to test rockets under load due to the proximity to South Africa's Uranium Mines.
Australia ultimately would be the ideal site for Space and Nuclear Testing due to its large expanses of land, relative isolation and low population but also its high concentration of Uranium for weapons testing. The only issue was transporting rockets from Australia to bases in Europe. In an effort to solve this Issue, The three Branches of armed service were tasked to develop a method to deploy nuclear arms efficiently and quickly to a hostile power in both a first strike and reactionary capacity, as Silo's in the relatively small and dense Khitan heartland couldn't be relied upon. The Army responded with a portable launcher initiative while the Airforce went to work on larger and longer range bombers, but the ultimate winner would be the Imperial Navy who in late 1960 would be given a Blank Cheque to develop the so called "Ordinance Return System", The very first, and Largest Nuclear Submarine Program.
The Priority for Dumont was always the other Superpowers, In Particular, Japan and the United States as potential partners and the SBU as dangerous Rival. Dumont was firm in his foreign policy that Europe would always come first, and thus if that meant valuable corporate interests were lost elsewhere, it was a price paid. This angered many within his party who didnt share quite the same patriotic commitment and though would never dare call a Hero of the Liberation a Fascist for wanting corporate intrests to work for the state, would begin to withdraw support as the situation in Africa worsened.
The Political left, has no such reservations and outwardly had been attacking Dumont at every given opportunity, first for his rhetoric and next for his censoring of free speech and political liberties across the country. The Suppressant of Self Determination for the Germans and Occitan minorities left within the country and of course his continued altering of Belmore's decolonization promises to keep the Empire together despite more half of it being unwilling to stay.
In late September 1959, Francis Dumont announced he would not be seeking Relection, citing failing health and wanting to return to his family. He had notably found a Khitan Republic uncertain in its path forward and steered it away from decline and towards a place in the new Balance of Power, but had irreversibly damaged the democracy in ways not quite yet felt. Stability and Success, but at a cost. His foreign policy history would be much the same, Great success, namely the Containment of the SBU, but at the cost of the empire losing its technological advantage to the Americans and at least, seemingly, China to the Japanese. In retrospective, Dumont had been arguably the best President in Khitan history after Arthur Belmore when acting as an executive, especially given the Pre World War history of Political deadlock.
Francis Dumont would privately ask his close friend top General, Dorian Black to once again return from retirement, this time to run for election as the Centrist Candidate, but Dorian Black refused on ideological grounds, being a Labour Man, and instead endorsed the head of the Opposition, Robert Lehr. Many still speculate what would have changed had Black accepted the offer, but his refusal now left the Centrists at an impasse, and now the 1960's was anyone's game.
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This one took a while, a mixture of not much to particularly write about, being busy with personal stuff and deciding on narrative direction ended up making this update far longer than it should have been, My apologies. But were back, and Dumont is Out. Only time will tell if his replacement can rise to the task.
I dunno what your talking about, King Frank has plenty of life ahead of time! Look how Young he is!.
Gaunzhou/Hong Kong is about the closest Equivalent yes. Though all the Great Powers have thier own film industries.
I mean if it ends in nuclear war, We will win it of course. I mean how could we not, right?
Yea, Typo, Fixed, Arthur Macdunn is still trying to play both sides in the American Unification, hes too busy to hop realities.
This, They are minor nobility with a few relatives kicking around the Republic, A few of them survived the Second world war, I plan to do a small aside on the royal families left in the world at some point becuase there isnt many.
Probably never got their start to be fair. Some family somewhere that sent sons to die in the two world wars rebuilding a life outside the outskirts of a German city and nothing more. Minor nobility in the distant past, now forgotten by time.
Judging from the last picture, looks like America's new king won't be reigning for long unfortunately, but at least they can now nuke whoever they want.
I find it funny how California ended up aligning with Japan in the end despite fighting alongside the Americans against them in the Great American War not too long ago. Looks like Japan did win in the end.
Speaking of Japan, I really like the section of this update dedicated to discussing media and culture in this update. Looks like we'll be seeing Anime take off in a few decades after all.
I dunno what your talking about, King Frank has plenty of life ahead of time! Look how Young he is!.
Gaunzhou/Hong Kong is about the closest Equivalent yes. Though all the Great Powers have thier own film industries.
I mean if it ends in nuclear war, We will win it of course. I mean how could we not, right?
Yea, Typo, Fixed, Arthur Macdunn is still trying to play both sides in the American Unification, hes too busy to hop realities.
Ah Scheiße, here we go again.
Now I'm wondering how the Annionas are doing in this universe? I imagine they must be getting a weird sense of cosmic deja vu at seeing Rome get nuked, through they obviously wouldn't know why.
This, They are minor nobility with a few relatives kicking around the Republic, A few of them survived the Second world war, I plan to do a small aside on the royal families left in the world at some point becuase there isnt many.
Probably never got their start to be fair. Some family somewhere that sent sons to die in the two world wars rebuilding a life outside the outskirts of a German city and nothing more. Minor nobility in the distant past, now forgotten by time.
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Looks like it’s anyone’s game with Dumont gone, only time will tell what happens to Khitian democracy now.
Seems like America has become a more active player under King Frank’s leadership. I’m glad about that, keeps this four way Cold War interesting. Sure hope he doesn’t suffer the same fate as the IRL US president he shares a portrait with.
Rip ArgentinaI wonder what South America looks like on a map now with the civil war going on?
Seems like America has become a more active player under King Frank’s leadership. I’m glad about that, keeps this four way Cold War interesting. Sure hope he doesn’t suffer the same fate as the IRL US president he shares a portrait with.
Rip ArgentinaI wonder what South America looks like on a map now with the civil war going on?
Well, the world certainly isn’t stable.
The Khitans now stand at a crossroads. What road will they take?
The Khitans now stand at a crossroads. What road will they take?
I thought it was fine. Pretty nice breather before we get back to more important things.
Yeah, that's probably what happened. Without Wilhelm, Lothar-Udo Udonen never became Friedrich von Hohenzollern and faded into obscurity.
He better live and follow through on his ideals. Would be an interesting leader.
Considering America is a kingdom here, I doubt Rocky Jewel is called the King in this timeline.
Where's Huey long? is he safe, Is he alright?
Will the new ushering 1960s decade led to renaissance in culture as well as recipe for growing chaos and protests?
Which country will be the first to send satellites and astronauts into space? I think maybe if Khitan can try before rival Socialist Balkan Greeks.
Which country will be the first to send satellites and astronauts into space? I think maybe if Khitan can try before rival Socialist Balkan Greeks.
More proxy wars, America intervening, Dumont out of Khitan politics, my oh my, seems the late fifties was quite a time. The sixties is going to be interesting for the Empire, a political crossroad is on the horizon indeed.
I’ve been rereading the CK2 section of this and I just finished the Witch Queen’s War part. I can only imagine all the literature, television, movies, and video games based around that era. It’s so steeped in legend, and it’s a unique situation where pretty much everyone lost (besides the Queen of Wales), not to mention being arguably the beginning of the decline of the First Cathay Empire.
Certainly the history of the Khitan is a long one, but few parts of it are so heavily mythologized. The initial migration of the Khitan to the West and the creation of the 4th Faith (Zunism) are the other main points that come to mind for that kind of legendary quality, and those both happened before the Khitan even settled down.
I can also definitely imagine the Witch Queen’s War being a hotbed for conspiracy. All that death and bloodshed, and it ends in the Queen and the Claimant killing each other, the Norse Great Holy War failing (while not really shown in the narrative, I imagine the Queen of Wales having to fend off the Norse while the mainland is embroiled in civil war would make for a great dramatic television show), and Morgan personally driving off the Shadow Council out of, presumably, revenge for her terrible childhood. There’s very little in the way of a satisfying victory, just a shaky return to status quo. It’s a classic case where the results don’t really match the input and, when combined with the mythologized nature of the whole thing, let’s just say I can imagine there’s going to be a significant sect of people who don’t believe the, “official,” set of events.
On the negative I‘d say with all likelihood that these beliefs would lead to the concept and, “proof,” of an evil Khitan Shadow Council or something of that note amongst this world’s Nazi-equivalents. So that’s not so fun.
On an unrelated but nonetheless interesting note is the reminder that this world’s Norse religion is based at least in some way on Hinduism, which just sounds incredibly cool.
Certainly the history of the Khitan is a long one, but few parts of it are so heavily mythologized. The initial migration of the Khitan to the West and the creation of the 4th Faith (Zunism) are the other main points that come to mind for that kind of legendary quality, and those both happened before the Khitan even settled down.
I can also definitely imagine the Witch Queen’s War being a hotbed for conspiracy. All that death and bloodshed, and it ends in the Queen and the Claimant killing each other, the Norse Great Holy War failing (while not really shown in the narrative, I imagine the Queen of Wales having to fend off the Norse while the mainland is embroiled in civil war would make for a great dramatic television show), and Morgan personally driving off the Shadow Council out of, presumably, revenge for her terrible childhood. There’s very little in the way of a satisfying victory, just a shaky return to status quo. It’s a classic case where the results don’t really match the input and, when combined with the mythologized nature of the whole thing, let’s just say I can imagine there’s going to be a significant sect of people who don’t believe the, “official,” set of events.
On the negative I‘d say with all likelihood that these beliefs would lead to the concept and, “proof,” of an evil Khitan Shadow Council or something of that note amongst this world’s Nazi-equivalents. So that’s not so fun.
On an unrelated but nonetheless interesting note is the reminder that this world’s Norse religion is based at least in some way on Hinduism, which just sounds incredibly cool.
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Yeah, culture will be really affected here by the fact that the Khitans went west into Europe and brought Zunism with them. Different languages evolved and different religions appeared. The Witch Queen's War will definitely be a very weird moment in history full of different interpretations.
Just finished rereading the CK2 section, so I’m just going to comment more on it. Namely, I think it’s revealed a lot about the Zunist religion, namely that it’s very much less centralized than its having a religious head would imply. While it never really had a Protestant reformation type thing, it’s still probably very diverse, possible in some ways even more so than modern day Christianity.
Also, if there’s any lessons to be learned from the First Khitan Empire, it’s that having all the power centralized in a single inbred monarch tends to lead to massive civil wars and instability. Willingly going back to that time would be pure insanity. Long live the Republic!
Also, if there’s any lessons to be learned from the First Khitan Empire, it’s that having all the power centralized in a single inbred monarch tends to lead to massive civil wars and instability. Willingly going back to that time would be pure insanity. Long live the Republic!