There had to be one universe, just this one, where we don’t end up together. Here and now just happens to be it - Gaby Dunn2020: The Grand Game
Premise.
Welcome to 2020: The Grand Game, an alternate-history modern-world geopolitical nation RP. Here we attempt to tell the story of a unique world, a multi-polar world similar to our own but yet starkly different in many ways. In this RP, you’ll be playing the role of a nation and be tasked with managing internal, foreign and military affairs in this similar yet different global climate. As long as nothing contradicts the established history as laid out in the OP, you have relatively free reign regarding your nations history from the general POD in the year 1600, just keep that in mind and you'll be fine. Another important thing to keep in mind is that you are running a “real” nation, this isn’t a game of Hoi4 so pour some cold water on that war-boner. Your government’s actions must be realistic for the type of government, and keep in mind the state of your people because they very much can, and will, revolt and try to overthrow you depending on how you run things. So long as you keep in mind the ideology of your government and your people, however, you should once more be fine.
While there is a League of Nations it is significantly more divided than the UN given the state of world politics and it has no hegemonic superpower to enforce it's decisions. Thus, there is no real “organized”, legal way of really sanctioning a nation globally. Don’t act like this gives you a free hand though. You won’t be sanctioned for your government type, but if you act cruelly and do something as heinous as try to commit genocide you’re at major risk for sanction or invasion. If it isn’t in the name of human rights, it’ll be in the name of natural resources or geopolitical interest. Morality and imperialist interests will always exist, so you shouldn’t be surprised if your genocidal dictatorship ends up with an Abrams (or Challenger, or T-90, or ZTZ) parked in the backyard of your palace.
Also, the history is not 100% set in stone, I've done my best to try and make an interesting and at least vaguely plausible multipolar alternate modern world but if people have interesting suggestions, don't be afraid to bring them up! Also, a big shoutout to the Cobalt Network for coming up with the International Entity mechanic!
Rules
1: The word of the OP and Co-Ops (Chewion and Hypron) is law. You are encouraged to talk about it if you think we’re doing something wrong, but in the end, we call the shots, deal with it.
2: No drama in the OOC so don't flame, troll or otherwise be a douche. If you go too far and recognize this you'll get away with a warning but constant harassment, even after mediation, is a ban.
3: No godmodding, meta-gaming, etc. If you try to bend the rules or pull any gamey tricks, you’ll be warned and any meta RP actions will be disregarded. Continued repetition is a ban.
4: No one-liners so don't just make posts about single thing. Write a section regarding an economic endeavor, another dealing with diplomatic messages and another about your new space-program.
5: Post regularly. I won’t be too strict, but you generally shouldn’t have more than a week or so IRL between your posts. If you get sick/busy IRL, I’ll give you extra time as necessary.
6: You’re running a nation, so act like it. You can’t just invade places as you please and if you run your nation into the ground, the people will rise up and try to depose your government. When making a decision, try to keep in mind “would the people of my nation support this?”
7: Be realistic. You can’t just magically land divisions across the Pacific Ocean, and federalizing an ethnically diverse nation isn’t randomly going to make all regional nationalism disappear.
8: This RP isn’t just about war, so your posts shouldn’t fully revolve around it. Likewise, when you go to war, you should build it up to psychologically prepare your people for war. No OOC penalties for breaking this rule, but your population sure as hell won’t like it.
9: Have fun, no, seriously. This RP should be fun for all involved, if it feels like a chore, you’re welcome to leave. It’s just an RP, you shouldn’t stress yourself over it or have it take priority over your real life.
10: If you aren’t sure about something, ask the future co-ops or myself! We’re not geopolitics gods or anything but we’re always here to try to do our best to help you with your plans, be it world domination or improving your road network.
Guidelines and stuff to keep in mind
1: National Unity: Basically a measure of united your country is and if the government is looked on in a positive light from the perspective of the people. This value can be effected by many things, for instance, national unrest. If your nation is in rebellion obviously your national unity would be radically lowered. If your government has been found to have been doing things your citizenry does not approve of such as for example subverting democratic processes in a democratic nation, your national unity will also lower. While there is no strict numerical value for national unity, keeping it high is important in order to maintain stability.
2: Diplomacy: Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Meeting with a leader from one country can lower the opinion of your nation in another. Diplomacy will in many ways be at the heart of this roleplay, not warfare. Warfare will most surely exist but much of the roleplay should be occupied by managing national policy and involving yourself with other nations in agreements, civil wars etc, using your information about the global situation and your wits to turn the situation to your advantage rather than just going in "guns blazing" all the time. Thus diplomatic meetings, summits and backroom talks are all highly encouraged in the IC!
3. Economics: Every nation has a unique approach regarding their economic system especially so in regards to rising powers and planned or semi-planned economies. Radical state control of the economy or completely free-wheeling Laissez Faire capitalist policies will in most situations lead to an economic downturn and failure to implement economic policies or implementing policies which end up having negative effects on the nation will result in lowered national unity. Most countries with resource-dependent economies tend to be unstable in nature and are thus highly likely to suffer from the negative effects of economic instability. Diversifying into different sectors can help escape this, however it could anger the corporate/political elites of your nation.
4. Internal Policy: Another major part of the RP is the governance of the state and implementation of internal policy connected to education, healthcare, infrastructure, culture or whatever else you decide to focus on. Elections are decided by the Global Authority for democratic nations while authoritarian states must keep the elite ruling class happy, failing to do this makes authoritarian states more likely to undergo violent political shakeups or even coup-attempts if national unity reaches a critical low-point. Large-scale political unrest can occur if either your leader has maintained an unpopular grip on high levels of power, instituted major policies that contradict with your nation's ideological/cultural/religious values, and if resources necessary for the economy and every-day life are horribly distributed. Policies which advocate for a massive level of connection to the global economy will make your country more open to foreign influences in both politics and culture while cosmopolitan ideals in your country grow stronger, with reactionary politics rising as a legitimate alternative over the course of years.
5. Technology: Technology is an essential part of economics, warfare, standards of living, espionage and so on. Countries that pour more money into technology development, or nations which subsidize tech development companies and so on will grow their technology more quickly. Nations can also enter into joint research agreements, speeding up the process of development. Generally nations will have access to the same military equipment they do IRL. However, also take stock of your territories. For example Anglois would have access to British and French tech, but with some perhaps being used by Occitaine, leading Anglois to use British equivalents. Like in any Alt-Hist RP though there will be plenty of nations with more developed industrial bases than they have in IRL, prototypes are sort of an open game, including paper prototypes. In a world where for example the Anglois Kingdom isn't part of an alliance where the UASC is obliged to step in and defend it, it would likely have placed money into it's own domestic warplane designs, such as maybe the BAE P125. Another thing to consider is international alignment. For example in this little slice of the multiverse, Poland is part of the Comintern and thus wouldn't be operating any Leopard 2's or F-16's, instead it would probably be using T-80's and SU-37's while the MSBS assault rifle would be chambered for the 5.45 instead of the 5.56 cartridge. If you'd like to produce something another nation has you can always ask them OOCly or ICly if you are allowed to license produce it. In some cases I'd be willing to, if both players agree, move a domestic design from one nation to the other in terms of which nation invented it. New military tech takes time to produce and implement into your armed forces but in a world with a generally more tense and competitive global climate there will be some leeway in introduction dates, though this does not in any way mean that for example the Soviets will be allowed to have turned the T-14 into the T-34 of the 21'st century or that Columbia is gonna get 10 Ford-Class Carriers ready to go from the start.
6. War: If diplomacy fails and war breaks out National Unity plays an important role in warfare by determining if the population enthusiastically goes out to buy war-bonds or riots against conscription in the streets. National Unity can be built up pre-war by using propaganda to rile up your populace before issuing a declaration of war. If your population doesn't support an offensive war, then you will be hampered. War should be declared before any invasions can begin as any invasion of a country without a declaration of war will deeply tarnish your international image. During the war, geography and logistics should be considered with great care. Work to keep your frontline at an ideal size and not overextending yourself, A full invasion into Siberia, the Himalayas, or the Amazon is a guaranteed way to overextend and collapse your supply chains faster than you can say Barbarossa. Military operations should be noted in detail or the GA will have to make assumptions and military progress may be a little hampered. How much detail you want to go into is totally up to you, but the more detail the better usually. Keep in mind that your troops will not do exactly what you say 100% of the time. There will be miscommunications, there will be mistakes, there will be desertion and there will be incompetency. While this very unlikely to cripple your entire war effort it should be something to keep in the back of your mind.
Established History
1: The Fourth Crusade sacked Constantinople much as in OTL and then proceeded to crush the Byzantine Empire. Then, the crusaders continued their drive deep into Anatolia where they broke the back of the Seljuk Turks and founded the crusader kingdom of Anatolia, leaving Trebizond and Morea as the sole remnants of old Byzantium in Greece and Anatolia. The early destruction of the Turkic forces in Anatolia leads Mamluk Egypt to become the dominant power in the Middle-East and North Africa between the 15'th and 19'th centuries and the world's pre-eminent Muslim power which at it's high water mark extended it's control from Tunisia in the west to Iraq in the east and from southern Anatolia in the north almost down to the Congo in the south when at it's height.
2: As the Hundred Years War rages in France, Jeanne d'Arc dies when an outbreak of plague sweeps through her village, with nobody to rally the faltering French forces, the English gain victory first at Orleans, then in the war itself. The Plantagenets take the French throne and move the English court to Paris where they proceed to restructure the various French regional parliaments into a single centralized parliament subordinated to the crown along the English model. With the monarchy situated in Paris, the English parliament takes an increasingly active role in governing England, whereas the English nobility, many of whom now spend much of their time in newly gained estates of France adopt more and more French customs and culture. Out of this English victory in the middle-ages, the United Kingdom of Anglois of today was born.
3: The Renaissance/Age of Exploration/Military Revolution and European Colonization happen much as in OTL with some differences. The Anglois Kingdom and Kingdom of Iberia become the major colonial powers in the world with the Netherlands, Occitaine, Ireland and Sweden becoming lesser Colonial powers, Germany and Italy join the race for colonies later on in the mid to late 19'th century. The Reformation does occur but Lutheranism never really expands far beyond Northern Germany, Scandinavia, Scotland and the Low Countries. Calvinism gained a substantial following in England and parts of France, however the English Parliament, soon followed by the Royal Anglois authorities passed acts allowing various religious dissident groups to migrate to the colonies where they could practice their faith free from persecution, leading to Columbia being the majority protestant state that it is today while England and France remain majority Catholic.
4: The Anglois colonies in North America revolt and proclaim their independence as the United American States of Columbia under the world's first modern democratic constitution, not that dissimilar to the US of OTL. There is a significant divide between the Anglo north and French-speaking hugenot-descended south however, not only in culture but in economic organization as the southern states are highly dependent on cotton-slavery. Iberia's American colonies start slipping from the ailing Empire's grasp in the early 19'th century and Columbia starts rising to great-power station after crushingly defeating Mexico in a war over the territory of Texas. The European empires began viewing Columbia with hostility as it worked to keep them from regaining lost sway in the Americas by using a weakened, destabilized Mexico as a springboard for their influence after the Columbians repelled an attempted Anglois intervention in the country and spreading their influence south, stabilizing Central America and placing it firmly beyond the reach of the European Empires. Meanwhile in India, the spread of Christianity by Anglois missionaries finally led to a terribly bloody series of war between radicalized Indian Christians and the traditional established elites and conservative forces. However, unlike the Taiping Rebellion in China which was crushed by the conservatives, the Indian Christians managed to hold on with Anglois assistance, leading to India's current religious demographics.
5: The the deep north-south divide in the UASC finally leads to the hugenot states seceding after a contentious election between anglophone anti-slavery Republican Abraham Lincoln and pro-slavery francophone Democrat Jacques C Balligny, in turn leading to the Columbian Civil War. Led by abolitionist President Abraham Lincoln, the northern states succeed in defeating the southern states thanks to their great advantage in population, resources and industry managing to in time overcome the initial military leadership advantages of the south. The subsequent assassination of Lincoln by southern radical Valentin Dubois and domination of Congress by the radical republicans led to the passing of the 14'th Amendment to the Columbian constitution, giving all former black slaves full Columbian birthright citizenship. Violence stemming from white extremists and retaliatory crackdowns by the government in Washington plagues the South until the late 1880's as the country goes through a long and painful reconstruction period. The violence in the South pushes more than 100 000 Columbian freedmen to make the journey to Liberia, expanding the territory significantly and kicking off the Scramble for Africa as Anglois worked to limit the spread of Columbian influence.
6: Russian Tzar Alexander II survives the assassination attempt against him and continues to reform Russia, investing in education, infrastructure and raising the level of professionalism in the officer corps, his successor dies of disease soon after rising to the throne and Russian Foreign Minister Simonov is replaced before managing to come to an agreement and sign a treaty with Japan which had the potential to avert the looming threat of war between the two nations in Korea and Manchuria. Russia suffers a humiliating loss against the Japanese in 1905 and the internal conditions in Russia worsened significantly during the subsequent rule of ultra-conservative Tzar Nicholas II, feeding into and further radicalizing Russia's now rapidly growing communist movement.
7: In 1909, the Austro-Hungarian Empire integrates the Kingdom of Bavaria, deeply antagonizing Prussia's North German Federation. In a bid to unify Germany and complete Bismarck's vision, the North German Confederation invades Austria's South German allies in 1915 when their troops cross the borders of Saxony, Thuringen and Hessen. So started the Great War, with the North German Confederation, Anglois Kingdom, Kingdom of Italy, Mamluk Empire and Greece as parts of the Entente, facing off against the Vienna Circle, made up of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Russian Empire, Occitaine, Anatolia, Bulgaria and the southern German states. By 1920, the Austrian Empire had collapsed, as did the Mamluk Empire while the Russian Empire fell to a communist revolution led by Vladimir Lenin in 1919. The Entente Alliance had been victorious. The triumphant Northern Germans annexed the Southern German states, Austria and Bohemia while Italy gained Nice and Corsica from Occitaine and most importantly, took Venice and Istria from Austria. The Mamluk empire collapsed and in it’s place rose the Hashemites and Saudis while Anglois and Italy greatly expanded their influence in the Middle-East. Poland, Hungary, Finland and Yugoslavia all gained independence from the crumbling empires that had once ruled them while an unstable Hungary soon lost Transylvania to a Romanian lighting attack and Anatolia found itself at odds with both Greece and the USSR until the tensions in the Black Sea ended with the signing of the Turin Accord, leading to the formation of the Free City of Constantinople as an independent, neutral state and guarantor of the Moncreux Convention along with a Soviet mandate in Kurdistan. The guns were silent, for the time being.
8: The bloodletting and horror of the Great War led to deep, profound changes in Europe, radical movements rose as the old monarchic systems seemed less and less appealing to the continent's bloodied youth. Still, as the global economy boomed, these groups remained on the margins. After all, few people listen to extremists and political doomsday prophets when there's more than enough money to go around except perhaps in Japan and Hungary. In Japan the fledgling democracy fell to a Showa nationalist regime and in Hungary, outrage and a deep feeling of national humiliation saw the rise of the ultranationalist Arrow Cross Party and its seizure of power.
9: In 1930, the Berlin Stock Market Crash brought about a deep global crisis, the Great Depression had come. The profound economic hardship led to great unrest across the world. War broke out in Asia as the Japanese Empire first invaded Manchuria and then struck toward the Chinese heartland, making great bloody strides into a China weakened by internal division and civil war before Chiang Kai-Shek managed to organize a united front against the Japanese. An economically struggling Europe saw communist revolutions in Romania and in Poland where the disaffected peasants hoped to repeat the agricultural revitalization which happened in the USSR under General Secretary Nikolai Bukharin. In other countries such as Germany both extreme left and right ideologies were on the rise. Finally, in 1938 as it seemed like the faltering conservative government in the German Empire was about to enter into a coalition with the surging right-wing radical Teutonist Party, a communist revolution erupted in the Ruhr and along Germany's northwestern coast led by Paul Levi, Karl Liebknecht and Ernst Thälmann. Soon thereafter, the Polish-majority areas of the German Empire such as Posen, East Pommerania, Masuria and Upper Silesia saw their own uprisings. The German Empire descended into a bloody civil war. By 1941 however, it seemed that Imperial German forces with Entente support were finally on the verge of defeating the communist rebels after years of bloody fighting when troops from the People's Republic of Poland and USSR crossed the German border in a surprise attack. Polish leader Bierut had finally managed to convince Soviet leader Bukharin to intervene directly in Germany's civil war. The Comintern intervention immediately pulled Anglois and Italy into the conflict and so, the Second Great War in Europe began.
10: With the great powers of Europe busy fighting once again, the Japanese saw their chance to capture the resources they desperately needed to finally break the deadlock in China by striking against the European colonies in Southeast Asia and against the Columbian territory of the Philippines. With the Anglois busy with the war in Europe, the Japanese decided to strike the Columbian Pacific Fleet at anchor in Hawaii on December 7'th 1941, hoping to destroy it and force Columbia to remain out of the conflict and open the path for Japan to attack Dutch Indonesia and Anglois Indochina. The attack on Pearl Harbor led to the start of the Pacific War where Columbia found itself standing side by side with the Chinese in a war against Japan and fighting soon erupted between the Columbian and Japanese navies across the Pacific ocean as both sides tried to take strategically important islands. In Europe the Entente alliance managed to defeat most German communist forces in the western parts of the country by late 1941, regaining control of the immensely important Ruhr and allowing them to turn their full attention to the east and stop the Soviet-Polish attempts to overrun the defenses along the Oder river and open a path toward Berlin as well as to regain a foothold in Bohemia which had almost completely fallen under Comintern control. With the great powers busy, the Hungarians attempted to invade Romania but were forced to halt their advance despite Bulgarian assistance in the south, leading Hungary and Bulgaria to join the Entente in the fight against the Comintern and forcing Germany, Anglois and primarily Italy and Greece to divert troops to the Balkans.
11: Throughout 1942 and 1943 the Chinese managed to slowly retake ground inch by bloody inch thanks to Columbian material support and training as well a large number of Columbian volunteer pilots managing to help the previously weak and struggling Chinese air force to gain air parity with the Japanese while in the Pacific, Columbian forces began inching closer to Japan in bloody landing after bloody landing. The great naval battles of the Pacific War proved the Age of the Battleship to be over. With ever more crucial Japanese sea-lanes being cut with every month, Japan's defeat seemed only a matter of time and indeed, by late 1944, Columbian troops were landing on Kyushu, but with casualties that horrified the Columbian public at home. Forcing the Columbian President Roosevelt to enter into negotiations with the Japanese, to the great protests of China and Chiang Kai-Shek. On the 21'st of November 1944, the Peace of Canberra ended the Pacific War, Japan lost nearly all of it's gains in China but retained Taiwan and the Kinmen Isles, as well as retaining control of Korea. Chiang Kai-Shek, deeply depressed over the "Columbian Betrayal '' and his perceived failure to liberate all of China from the Japanese, retreated from politics, leading to the rise of Wang Jingwei and Mao Zedong. Meanwhile in Europe, the front had largely ground to a stalemate on the Oder and Neisse, similar the one seen during the First Great War however, both sides were marshalling their forces for large offensives. In 1944 a great Entente offensive crossed the Oder and pushed the Polish-Soviet forces out of Neumark and Eastern Pommerania. The celebrations were however soon cut short, as in the Balkans, Bulgaria fell to a combined Romanian and Soviet offensive. Another Comintern offensive tried but failed to break out across the Hungarian Plain while Entente forces mounted a successful offensive against Prague encircling 300 000 Comintern soldiers in the city. The front ground to a halt once more with the Comintern trying but failing to relieve Prague in the winter of 1944, Prague falling to the Entente during the winter. Sure of victory, the Entente attempted a spring offensive against Warsaw but were stopped before even breaking through a few kilometers and were then hurled back from the outskirts of Gdansk with heavy casualties. With the combined death-toll of the Second Great War rising to 15 million by the autumn of 1945, neither side saw any clear path to victory and both grew increasingly worried that continued bloodletting may lead to the great internal instability seen toward the end of the First Great War.
12: In the winter of 1945, peace finally came to Europe with the signing of the Treaty of Copenhagen. The so-called “Christmas Treaty '' saw Europe's borders redrawn mostly along the line of control. While the war had no decisive victor, it is undeniable that the Comintern had significantly expanded thanks to the conflict, with Poland gaining Poznan, Masuria, Gdansk and Upper Silesia while a communist regime was installed in Bulgaria which also gained some territory in the south allowing it access to the Sea of Marmara. It also saw the formation of a Communist state in Slovakia and parts of Czechia under the leadership of Karol Smidke. Understandably, Germany was furious at the loss of territory and seeing a massive influx of Germans previously inhabiting the territories lost in the East, almost left the Entente over the "Betrayal and cowardice of the Italians and Anglois'' to form an alternative alliance with Hungary, however, the collapse of the alliance was avoided in the last minute after a top meeting between Prime Minister Winston Churchill and the German Kaiser. The borders between the Entente and Comintern nations remained tense and highly militarized for decades in anticipation of another conflict both sides were sure to come.
13: With the death of Chiang Kai-Shek in 1953, most expected Wang Jingwei to replace him as the leader of China, what happened instead was a coup orchestrated by the KMT-Right led by Dai Li who used his control over the Chinese security apparatus to purge the KMT of it's leftist elements and secure his control over the party and the country as a whole. The coup led to the Trial of the 55 where Wang, Mao and other leading members of the KMT-Left were charged with crimes such as treason and collaboration with the Japanese occupiers during the Pacific War and sentenced to death. Where many had expected China to lurch toward socialism and closer ties with the Comintern under Wang, it instead turned hard to the right under Li who proceeded to rapidly industrialize China with a series of brutal economic plans which while it did give the country a strong industrial base and solid military-industrial complex, it came at the cost of significant human suffering. In the late 1950's the grip of the European powers over their colonial possessions in Asia began to slip. As the Anglois left Indochina, the weak, unstable governments in both Cambodia and Vietnam fell to communist revolutionaries who proceeded to cement their control. As Ho Chi Minh’s regime consolidated itself, Chinese forces invaded Vietnam in an attempt to install a pro-Chinese government in Hanoi. However, instead of the unstable Vietnamese state collapsing the invasion rallied the Vietnamese around the new government and even after a decade of brutal jungle fighting the Chinese military proved incapable of defeating the Vietnamese which led to an internal revolt within the KMT which ousted Dai Li from power in 1968 and the exit of Chinese troops followed by Vietnam and Cambodia being fast-tracked into the Comintern. The Chinese economy was reformed and opened to the world leading to a great economic boom which by today has turned Nationalist China into an economic giant, surpassed only by Columbia.
14: After it's first democratic election in India in 1954, the former Anglois Dominion was granted independence, with Myanmar becoming a separate country but no separate Muslim state being created. The new state was soon rocked by several Islamic, Hindu and Christian groups rebelling in an attempt to establish religious dominance in the new state. After several years of fighting, The unified Indian state collapsed as Bengal, Pakistan and Nepal broke away from New Delhi and formed their own independent states.
15: With anti-colonial unrest spreading from Asia to many of their African colonies, the Anglois and German monarchs released the symbolic “Sandringham Proclamation” in 1958, in which they promised to gradually grant their colonies in Africa independence. Later, Occitaine and Iberia released similar declarations of their own in 1960. Determined not to let the decolonization of Africa lead to war as in India or the potential rise of communist regimes as had happened in Vietnam, Cambodia and the botched Italian decolonization of Somalia, the European powers went through a long, slow decolonization process in Africa involving plenty of compromises and negotiations. As a result of this transition of power, most of the African colonies had peacefully transitioned into largely functional, stable democratic states by the late 1980's and early 1990’s, several of whom soon proceeded to join the Entente.
16: 1955 saw the first atomic bomb being test-dropped on a remote, isolated part of German Congo, confirming that nuclear weapons could be used in warfare. The Germans were the first to create nuclear weapons technology, but they were by no means the last. The sheer panic that gripped Slovakia and Poland soon led to the Soviet Union testing its own first nuclear weapon in 1958, followed closely by Anglois and Columbia in 1960. The destructive power of this new weapon led the nuclear-capable states of Germany, Anglois, Columbia, China, Japan, Brazil and the Soviet Union to sign the Nuclear Armaments Control Treaty in 1975 where they agreed to limit their stockpile to no more than 200 nukes each. India would proceed to later start a nuclear weapons program of its own in the late 1970's after fighting another war with Pakistan, but only keep 60 warheads after heavy international pressure in the League of Nations and comprehensive sanctions which led to a deep economic recession in India.
17: The 1970's saw tensions in Europe declining and some demilitarization as new treaties were signed between the Entente and Comintern. Despite this facade, the two alliances engaged in proxy conflicts around the world the very same time. One in Africa and one in Central Asia. The Ogaden War was fought between Somalia, a member of the Comintern and neutral Ethiopia which saw received material support from Italy. The Italian support proved inadequate and the war ended with Somalia conquering Ethiopia’s somali-majority regions in the east. The defeat, coupled with the effects of a lingering drought in the early 1970’s led to Ethiopia’s collapse along ethnic lines. In Afghanistan meanwhile, the deeply unpopular communist regime ruling the country was in danger of being overthrown by the Taliban, leading the Soviet Union and Comintern to send military support in order to prop up the failing regime in Kabul while Entente intelligence agencies collaborating with India proceeded to ship weapons to the Taliban as well as to provide them with advanced training in guerilla warfare. The Afghan communist regime fell in 1981 and the Comintern forces retreated in a humiliation similar to what the Chinese endured in Vietnam, losing control of most of the country but unilaterally incorporating the northeastern part of the country and the Wakhan Corridor into the People's Federation of Turkestan.
18: By the late 1980's South Africa went through its own trials and tribulations, the death of Nelson Mandela in prison robbed the country of a figure capable of making the compromises needed to keep the country together. With Mandela gone, the conservative elements of the Apartheid regime dominated the conversation on reform and South Africa eventually collapsed into a civil war with a large Bantu rebellion in the Eastern areas of the country. While superior in training and equipment, the South African military quickly lost control over the eastern countryside, holding out in Pretoria, Durban and Bloemfontein which the rebels quickly besieged. Despite giving full citizenship rights to the mixed and asian populations of South Africa, the apartheid regime didn't have the manpower needed to make lasting gains against the numerically superior rebels. As the brutal ethnic violence quickly spiraled out of control, Columbia intervened through the League of Nations and demanded an end to the fighting, later presiding over the peace talks along with the Anglois. The Bloemfontein Accord saw South Africa split into the Cape Republic in the west and the Bantu State in the east which declared its capital in Egoli, formerly Johannesburg. A large guerilla insurgency soon gripped the Cape, armed and funded by the Johannesburg government with the aim of overthrowing the Cape Town government and reuniting South Africa under Egoli. While most people with advanced economic skill in South Africa concentrated in the Cape, the general uncompetitiveness of South Africa along with internal unrest and distance from most of the world's economic centers gave the Cape Republic a stagnant economy seemingly incapable of recovering from the War. The Bantu State didn’t fare much better and soon descended into a repressive, totalitarian, ultranationalistic dictatorship and after its economy collapsed and was ravaged by hyperinflation.
19: The destabilization in Africa caused by the South African Civil War led Anglois to expedite the settlement of its colonial issues. Referendums were held in its remaining colonies with Gambia, Kenya, Ceylon and Peninsular Malaya voting to join as full constituent overseas territories while in tense negotiations between China on one side and Anglois and Iberia on the other, China gained control over Macau and Hong Kong.
20: In 1991 after the death of it's popular monarch, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia descended into civil war between nationalist rebels seeking independence, Serbian communists and Yugoslav royalists, immediately destabilizing the European continent and threatening to spark another war between the Entente and the Comintern as the two sides supported their preferred proxies with weapons and foreign fighters. The brutal fighting raged until 1996 when a Hungarian SAM shot down a Romanian military cargo aircraft carrying weapons to the Yugoslav communists who were in control of Serbia. The incident soon spiraled out of control as German border troops exchanged small-arms and mortar fire with their Slovak and Polish counterparts with general mobilization soon being ordered in several countries. Europe would surely have been bloodied by a Third Great War if not for a joint Sino-Columbian offer to mediate in the LoN luckily managed to de-escalate the tension enough to avoid an all-out war. Instead, Yugoslavia was officially broken up, with the democratic republics of Slovenia, Croatia, and Herzeg-Bosnia joining the Entente while communist Serbia joined the Comintern.
21: In 2001 the Western Hemisphere was shaken from it's slumber by the 9/11 attacks against Columbia. Highlighting the rise of international jihadist terrorism previously largely confined to the Middle-East and in a lesser degree Central Asia and the Indian Subcontinent, one of the most important centers of these many movements was Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, which Columbia proceeded to invade the very same year, quickly overthrowing the Taliban regime and occupying the country. Despite the rapid occupation of the country, Columbian forces and those of their Golden Circle allies soon found themselves embroiled in a long, costly guerilla war in Afghanistan's harsh terrain. The War in Afghanistan did however lead to improved relations between the Golden Circle and the Comintern as the two blocks cooperated against cross-border terrorist networks operating in both Afghanistan and Turkestan. The Comprehensive Treaty on Cooperation was signed by representatives of the GC and Comintern in 2008, leading to improved trade relations between the two, but was also exploited by the USSR to gradually glean advanced Columbian technology and attempt to reverse-engineer it. Although the Columbian government has recently been trying to prevent this and hopes to renegotiate its trade agreements with the USSR. In the early 2000's Egypt's policy of settlement and arabization in southern Sudan and Darfur, designed to ease the overpopulation pressure in it's heartland along the Nile backfired hard, with various African Christian and animist groups taking up arms and starting the insurgencies which have plagued Sudan and Darfur since.
22: By 2010, a combination of internal pressures and dissatisfaction with their authoritarian states along with the adverse economic effects of the 2008 Financial Crisis led to widespread protests erupting in a wide variety of Middle-Eastern states, however, the situation was the worst in the United Arab Republic which had risen after baathist revolutionaries overthrew the Hashemite Sharif in the 1950's. The UAR collapsed after attempted crackdowns spiraled out of control when some units refused to open fire on the demonstrators which had gathered in the UAR's major cities and instead defected. The UAR soon collapsed in a multi-factional civil war in 2014, pitting the regimes loyalists, Hashemite restorationists, Shias, Kurdish communists, Maronites and Sunni Wahhabis against each other in a bloody quagmire of a war that still rages to this very day with the great powers of the world deeply involved as they attempt to back up their preferred proxies and gain more influence in this strategic part of the world. Perhaps most importantly, it saw Egypt, now stuck fighting insurgents in the South and with a war to the East shift to a hard-power based foreign policy and quickly building up a capable domestic arms industry with the goal of defense autarky.
Major Global Alliances
The Golden Circle: A military and economic alliance built by and centered around the UASC. It consists of nations in the greater Columbian sphere of influence dating all the way back to the time of Columbian expansion in the 19'th and early 20'th centuries. While the Golden Circle is seen across the world as the premier bastion of democracy and freedom in the world, it cannot be denied that the UASC is the unquestioned, dominating leader of the Golden Circle and the alliance is often simply seen as an extension of the United American States themselves, given the vast level of economic and political influence that Columbia has over the member-states. The membership of the Golden Circle consists of Columbia, New Hibernia, Nordbight, the Bahamas, Mexico, Cuba, Hispaniola, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Gran Colombia, Ecuador, Liberia and the Philippines.
The Entente Cordiale: A military and economic alliance centered on the United Anglois Kingdom, the German Empire and the Kingdom of Italy along with other Western European nations and former European colonies. It began as an Anglois-German-Italian alliance opposed to the Austro-Hungarian and Russian Empires which it fought in the First Great War but now it is mostly aimed against the Soviet Union and Comintern which it fought in the Second Great War. The EC is largely made up of the centrist/rightist-leaning constitutional monarchies and democracies in Europe alongside a number of democratic ex-colonies in Africa. The EC consists of Anglois, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Herzeg-Bosnia, Albania, Greece, Australasia, Senegal, Mali, Dendi, Damagaram, Dahomey, Yorubaland, Biafra, Sokoto, Azawad, Chad, Ouaddi, Ubangi, Ovamboland, Tanzania, Uganda and Madagascar.
COMINTERN: A military and economic alliance built by and centered around the Soviet Union to defend and progress the revolution, it stands primarily against it's western rival the Entente ever since the two alliances fought the Second Great War which broke out as the Comintern attempted to intervene in the German Civil War, tensions between the two alliances have somewhat eased with the passage of decades but still very much remain. The Comintern is heavily dominated by the Soviet Union and all of it's member-states are governed by authoritarian communist regimes. Indeed, having an authoritarian left-wing government is a requirement for joining the alliance. While most Comintern states follow some type of Market Socialist economic policy, some prefer greater economic centralization. Many people simply consider the Comintern to be an extension of the Soviet Union, especially given the various integration deals signed between its members. It's members are the Soviet Union, Poland, Slovakia-Moravia, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Kurdistan, Turkestan, Mongolia, Vietnam, Cambodia and Somalia.
Shanghai Cooperation Organization: A military and economic alliance built by and centered around China. While various powers quickly began trying to court China after the end of the Pacific War and the subsequent Sino-Columbian Split, an embittered, depressed Chiang spurned them all. The peace deal ending the war in the Pacific was seen as a grave betrayal by Chiang Kai-Shek, who was now more suspicious than ever of foreign powers that had long subjugated China by unfair treaties and forced concessions. The result of this policy was the eventual formation of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization after the fall of the Dai Li regime. Given that China is the worlds largest economy measured by purchasing power parity, the member-states of the SCO have largely been completely sucked into China's economic orbit. The members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization are China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Pakistan.
The Greater East-Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere: The GEACPS is the final remnant of the once expansive Showa Japanese Empire that exploded out across the Asia-Pacific region before falling to the overwhelming Columbian onslaught. The GEACPS only has three members which are essentially projections of Japan itself with their governments run by corrupt pro-Japanese politicians. With a looming China above it which seems to only be growing it's power year in order to assert Chinese hegemony over Asia, it seems that Japan and the Sphere need to reach out and find new allies in the region. Only a truly remarkable Japanese leader could make sure that the GEACPS survives next few decades. It's only members are the Empire of Japan, the Reorganized Republic of China and the Protected Republic of Korea.
Joint Defense Treaty of South Asia: A military and economic alliance built by India, in the 1980's in panicked response to it's encirclement by the SCO, soon drawing in other nations fearing China's growing power and control. While most of it's members are economically intertwined with India, Indonesia has been pursuing a more independent foreign policy than other members such as Bengal or Nepal, striking bilateral deals with Austrialasia and recently a comprehensive trade agreement with the Empire of Japan and greater Co-Prosperity Sphere. While it's main goal is the counteract China, the JDSA is also wary of any signs of Comintern expansion southward as the Russians seem to have a hard time abandoning the dream of a port in the far south. The JDSA's members are India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bengal, the Maldives and Indonesia.
Minor Global Alliances
The Kalmar Union: Formed in the late 19'th century in the wake of the Prussian-Danish War, it saw the economic, military and political integration of Scandinavia. Today, the Kalmar Union is much more than a mutual defense alliance or economic bloc, it has become a supranational political organization with it's own parliament in the Swedish city of Kalmar, it has it's own central bank in the same city which administers the Scandinavian Krona, the block's common currency and it has an integrated command and control system for the national militaries of it's members. The Kalmar Union is deeply committed to a policy of armed neutrality in Europe and has prospered greatly during and after the Second Great War by equally trading with both the Entente and Comintern, skillfully maneuvering European politics. Most analysts believe that by mid-century, the Kalmar Union will transform into a single Nordic state. It's members are Sweden, Denmark and Norway.
The Rio Pact: Formed under Brazilian leadership with Entente backing, the Rio Pact is an alliance of South American democracies unbeholden to the UASC and it's Golden Circle. With the Entente nations of Anglois and Germany helping bankroll many of Brazil's most important infrastructural projects, the country, and thus the alliance built on it is heavily reliant on the Entente Cordiale due to the amount of debt it owes to Paris and Berlin. Without this financial support, the Brazilian economy would falter if not significantly reformed. The Rio Pact stands against the Argentinian-led Latin American Alliance, a group of authoritarian right-wing nationalist regimes backed by China and the SCO. The members of the Rio Pact are Brazil, Uruguay and Chile.
Latin American Alliance: Built by Argentina with Chinese support, the Latin American alliance is composed of three South American nationalist regimes trying to further their goals in the region and counteract the Rio Pact. Recently the LAA and Rio Pact have been involved in a brutal proxy war in Paraguay while on the homefront, Chinese capital floats most of the LAA's economic projects and ambitions. The members of the Latin American Alliance are Argentina, Bolivia and Peru.
Current Wars and Conflicts
EUROPE
Serbian Communist Insurgency in Bosnia
Albanian Insurgency in Kosovo
LATIN AMERICA
Paraguayan Bush War
MIDDLE-EAST
Yemeni Civil War
UAR Civil War
CENTRAL ASIA
War in Afghanistan
Jihadist Insurgency in Turkestan
INDIAN SUBCONTINENT
Kashmir Conflict
EAST ASIA
Sino-Japanese Conflict
Rohingyan War in Myanmar
AFRICA
Insurgency in Sudan
Insurgency in Darfur
Jihadist Insurgency in the greater Sahel
South African Border Conflict
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