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A Brief History of the 20th Century: An Alternate timeline


blah the Prussian
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Chapter 10


The Changing of the Guard


Author’s notes: so, it’s been a while, I have no excuse because I actually have been keeping up with schoolwork. Ah well, on with the show!



Monarchist Europe, at the onset of the 1960s, had completely recovered from the Second World War. France, spurred on by Russian economic assistance, finally had controlled its unemployment, and the Communist insurgency in the south was finally under control. Germany, meanwhile, was booming, and the Balkan states of Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, and Greece were finally fully modernizing in a process mirroring Russia in the later years of Alexander II’s reign. Europe, overall, was in the best place it had been since the Great Depression.


It was under this backdrop that some of the greatest social changes in European history took place. These changes would be centered on the Jewish Rights Movement. Throughout most of European history, Jews had been a persecuted class, along with Roma. Europe had slowly mellowed towards the Jewish people following the Industrial Revolution, with Germany in particular adopting a positive stance towards them. Germany, in fact, opened its borders to refugees fleeing Fascist persecution in France, and Jewish exile brigades would go on to be some of the most decorated in the war. Russia had been slightly slower, with persecution of Jews only abolished in the later reign of Nicholas II, under the administration of Vladimir Ulaynov. It was this move, in fact, that in part inspired the attempted Fascist coup against Tsarina Olga, the last gasp of Russian reaction.


Even if Jews could not be discriminated against legally following the Second World War, actually properly implementing these reforms was another matter. Anti-Semitism was still a part of life, and many negative stereotypes against Jews persisted. The actions of the radical People’s Front of Judea did not help matters, especially in Russia. The truth was, even without discriminatory laws, plenty of people discriminated of their own free will. The Jewish Rights Movement sought to change this. They were led by a young woman named Anne Frank.


31 when she first became head of the organization in 1960, Anne Frank had been born and raised in Germany. Her brothers had both been killed in the decisive battle of Köln, and her father, working as a medic, had been killed by the French nuclear attack on Dusseldorf. This allowed her to appeal to the German sense of military pride, still influenced greatly by the Prussian Junkers. Throughout her life, Frank would work tirelessly to achieve equal rights for Jews, and largely achieved this goal.


Britain, meanwhile, had finally recovered fully. The reign of Queen Elizabeth II had served as a healing time for the British people, as they abandoned almost completely the path of Fascism. This was set in stone when the delusional God-Emperor of the Imperium of Mann, a decrepit Fascist remnant on the Isle of Mann propped up by a single nuclear bomb, decided to launch his attempt to “restore the rightful rule of the true British race from the hands of the Xeno heretics” by nuking Cardiff. It was then revealed, much to his dismay, that said nuke was defective. The British wasted no time in putting an end to the Imperium of Mann. The God-Emperor was shot 100 times by British special forces, after being found in his office ranting and raving about “Chaos Gods” and “My traitorous son Horus, and his damned heresay”. His last words, upon being informed of his arrest, were reportedly “Heretic! Call in the Space Marines!” He was, it has been reasonably concluded, completely insane, apparently having created a fictional world where he was a heroic God-Emperor protecting all of humanity from space orcs. In no world would such a clearly insane idea ever become popular.


There was a dark side to Europe’s economic prosperity. Urban centers were increasingly being clogged with teenage gangs, who terrorized their neighborhoods and overall presented a huge problem for law enforcement. Most historians agree that these gangs were the result of increasing the massive amounts of orphans left behind after the war; without parental guidance, these children were more susceptible to the influence of criminals. These gangs would menace the streets, selling drugs and engaging in “gang wars”; unlike their adult counterparts in the Mafia, however, these gangs were anything but pragmatic, routinely acting more out of passion than out of the desire for cash. Ultimately, the police would use this against them, and the 1969 capture of the most infamous gang leader, Alex Delarge, is generally considered to mark the end of their reign of terror.


Perhaps most significantly, the old guard was dying out, leading to a new generation taking their place. In June of 1962, Gerd von Runsdent, Chancellor of Germany during WWII, died. He ruled as dictator, but stepped down following the war; a modern Cincinnatus. His last words were recorded as such: “I was not the leader the people deserved. But I was the one it needed.”


A month later, the old Chancellor’s liege would pass on. Wilhelm III was not a perfect Kaiser, but he tried his best. He led Germany through arguably its worst crisis ever, and was a powerful symbol of resistance, visiting soldiers at every opportunity. He was succeeded by his second son Ludwig Ferdinand, as his first son Wilhelm, a tank commander, had died in the war. The coronation was to be the first televised coronation in history, and the huge turnout confirmed the support of the people for House Hohenzollern.


Finally, Tsarina Olga I of Russia died in 1964, the last monarch in power since WWII to die. She had led Russia through its transition to full democracy, and defeated the darker side of Russian culture for good. She had also overseen the defeat of Fascist China, arguably the most powerful Fascist state in history. She was succeeded by her extremely popular son Nicholas, who would become Tsar Nicholas III. Nicholas had flown a fighter on the Siberian front, and had become an ace. He was extremely popular with the common people and military, and promised a new era of Russian interventionism.


The ascent of these new Emperors also saw the rise of new, more assertive, governments in these countries. Germany’s new Chancellor, in particular, Heinrich Kissinger, was particularly aggressive, vowing to “liberate the people of Iberia and southern Italy from their oppressors, to make Europe truly safe from the menace of Communism.” Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Zhukov (son of the famous general), meanwhile, focused on Turkey, calling it “a Communist dagger aimed at the heart of Russia.” In order to counter the influence of the Communist regime, Zhukov funded Islamist rebels. This would have disastrous consequences in the future, but for now many Russians appreciated their Prime Minister’s tough stance towards Communism.


Russia, however, also faced problems at home. Since the reforms of Alexander II, Poland had had a separate legislature that handled internal affairs, while its foreign policy was run from St. Petersburg. This, however, caused a growing divide within Poland between those who were satisfied with this arrangement and those who still wanted full independence. Although during WWII the Poles put aside their differences to fight Fascism, following WWII the Polish Republican Army’s mix of nationalism, republicanism, and some elements of Communism found a willing supporter in the USSA. PRA terror attacks were a constant menace to Polish society throughout the 60s and early 70s.


Although no one could have known it at the time, the period in history historians would refer to as the First Cold War was coming to an end. The long age of fear was coming to an end, and would give way to a brief spot of optimism. Events in the USSA were about to shake the world.


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Hooray! You're back! And our alternate egos actually have a peaceful Balkan nations this time around compared to the huge real-life mess we had (and still have)! And pity the soldiers and lackeys who went to live with the God-Emperor at Mann!

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Hooray! You're back! And our alternate egos actually have a peaceful Balkan nations this time around compared to the huge real-life mess we had (and still have)! And pity the soldiers and lackeys who went to live with the God-Emperor at Mann!

It was really only Yugoslavia that ended up as a mess, and I figure that I can let Yugoslavia survive here without it being occupied, having the Ustase put in place, and then having a brutal civil war between Serbs and Croats during WWII.

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Wow, this is becoming radically different. Also, how many nuclear weapons have been used at this point? I would say your earth is killing it's own atmosphere with so much radiation. The Imperium of Mann sounds like it could've become like North Korea if it had created a "British War" of sorts.

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Wow, this is becoming radically different. Also, how many nuclear weapons have been used at this point? I would say your earth is killing it's own atmosphere with so much radiation. The Imperium of Mann sounds like it could've become like North Korea if it had created a "British War" of sorts.

Wait so, let me count: Dusseldorf, Paris, Soweto, and an aborted attempt for Cardiff. Definitely more than RL!Hiroshima and RL!Nagasaki.

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Chapter 11

Fall of the Kingfish

By the year 1964, Huey Long had ruled the USSA with an iron fist for decades. He had purged the Communist Party, won the Second World War, and spread Communism across the world. However, cracks had begun to form in his regime. The rebel group the Sons of Liberty, led by Martin Luther King Jr., was growing in strength, and the secret police was becoming an increasingly dangerous career choice. Arguably even worse, for the first time since the death of Jack Reed, real opposition was present in the Communist Party. The reformers, led by writer Kurt Vonnegut, sought after "Socialism with a human face", as an alternative to Long's authoritarianism. Long had allowed them to function as long as they did not call for his overthrow, but conflict between the two seemed inevitable. Ironically, however, the downfall of Huey Long would not come from the Sons of Liberty or from Vonnegut; instead, it would come from his chief henchman, J. Edgar Hoover.

Ever since his ascension to the position of head of the Secret Police, that Hoover was Long's successor had been an open secret. However, by 1965 Hoover had grown impatient; he wasn't getting any younger, and Long showed no signs of dying. Thus, when Long got a heart attack on February 2, 1965, Hoover saw his chance. He bribed Long's doctors to offer him incompetent treatment. Within a week the Kingfish, who brought Fascism to its knees, was dead, killed by one of the few people he trusted.

Hoover, however, was no Long. He had the respect of no one, from the military to the rest of Long's cabinet. Thus, when he announced that, "In accordance with the wishes of great Comrade Long" he would be the next President of the USSA, he found his hold on power to be very shaky. Not helping matters was that, on March 13, one of the doctors revealed Hoover's treachery. Now, not even the hardcore Longists supported Hoover, and an unusual alliance between General Matthew Ridgeway, chief of the People's Army, Kurt Vonnegut, and Martin Luther King was born. Protests racked the country. Hoover initially threatened nuclear retaliation against the protestors, but his own secret police arrested him. The next day, on March 16, King spoke to jubilant crowds in front of the Lincoln Memorial. The first free elections in the USSA since Reed were called.

In truth, the election of 1965 was only going to go one way. King was supported only by a fringe group of radicals, and, even though Vonnegut (as interim President) pardoned him, he was still tainted by the label of 'terrorist'. Ridgeway, for his part, had no interest in leading, and so the Longist faction of the Communist Party put forth as their candidate the thoroughly loathed Lyndon Baines Johnson. It was never a contest. On May 4, Vonnegut was sworn in as the new President of the USSA.

The President's reforms were immediate. The Secret Police was dissolved, and the Communist Party was split up into different factions; the Longists, the Democratic Socialists, the Syndicalists, and the Liberals(King's party). Further, American foreign policy was reshuffled. The death of Long had led to reformists taking power across Latin America; Vonnegut recognized these Democratic Socialists as legitimate. He also cut off support for the regimes in Iberia, South Italy, and Israel. North Italian forces were quickly marching south to dethrone the Mafia bosses who ran the South. Meanwhile, the European League prepared to invade Iberia and restore its Monarchy, an invasion that would be over in a month. The social fallout, however, would be another matter, with the next generation of Spanish and Portuguese nobility (who, of course, recovered their estates after the fall of the regime) being traumatized children who spent their childhood in concentration camps being told that their parents were evil. Needless to say, the new Kingdom's therapy budget was significant.

The importance of the year 1965 cannot be overstated. Well, actually, it can, because some commentators began to call it the "end of history" because the USSA had embraced democracy. This claim, of course, was idiotic. Still, though, it was important. The First Cold War came to an end, and a reconciliation between Communism and Capitalism seemed around the corner. Of course, not everyone was happy with this state of affairs...

New York, USSA

"So," John asked, "how was the army?"

"Great, great," Donald Trump told his childhood friend. "You know, being in South Africa, it changes you. I saw people who had nothing, and they were liberated, thanks to us. They were so grateful." At this his hand clenched into a fist. "And then I get back here and Long's dead and we're in the hands of a traitor. Doesn't seem right."

John knew better than to argue with his friend on the subject of Long. Donald, though, was not done. 

"I mean, we won big in WWII, you know? Real big. But then Vonnegut... he signs it all away to the Capitalists. It wasn't his to give! It was the soldiers who won it, it was the people of those countries. Not him."

"So what do you want to do?" John heard himself say. 

Donald thought for a split second before replying. "I'm going to make Communism great again."

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