Part 96: Victoria: Chapter 30 - Epilogue: Armed Camps

Epilogue: Armed Camps

In 1936, the world is divided into armed camps. Three major alliances have emerged, each led by one of the 'big three', the most powerful of the Great Powers in Europe.

Germany
The Great Depression was not kind to Germany, leaving it a nation of radicals, with Reactionaries, Communists and Anarchists all pitted against each other. The colonies too, are an increasing source of trouble as nationalism spreads like wildfire through the impoverished lands in Asia and Africa.


Alliance Blocs
The name of the Holy Roman Empire, while little more than a symbolic title, has been revived by Waldemar VII to enhance his own prestige. Comprised of the various states of the German Empire, Austria and Lombardy, the Holy Roman Empire also leads an alliance bloc in which Lithuania-Poland, Scandinavia and Switzerland are all members.


The Comintern, led by the Union of Rome, consists of Greece, Arabia, Armenia, Serbia, Croatia and the various other socialist republics that make up the Union of Rome, as well its stalwart ally the Commune of France.


The League of Democracies was founded by Iberia as an alliance of democracies and constitutional monarches against the forces of communism and reaction. Its members include the United Kingdom and Russia, a not entirely frictionless alliance across religious and cultural boundaries, but held together by mutual need.


Major Players

The apex power of the era, the Union of Rome controls a vast Mediterranean and Middle Eastern empire. Ruled by a party-elected Consul that is held in check by a People's Tribune elected by the masses, its government has so far been able to pursue a moderate course of self-strengthening and expansion eastwards and southwards, instead of taking on the rest of Europe. But with strength comes confidence, and there are signs that the balance of power may be tilting in favor of those who believe that the Union's destiny is to found a Socialist World Republic.


Iberia remained an absolute monarchy for several decades after its defeat in the Zuhriman wars. When its Grand Alliance with Byzantium, France and Austria collapsed in the late 19th century, a nascent democratic movement began to gain more traction, and a constitution giving all citizens the right to vote for their government was established. Avoiding further entanglements in wars or alliances, Iberia pursued a course of industrialization, and in 1936 its industries are second only to those of Germany and Union of Rome. With an increasingly radicalized world came the need for new alliances, and in the early 1930s Iberia formed the League of Demoracies.


After several centuries of technological and military supremacy to its nemesis Lithuania-Poland, Russia got a bloody nose when a German-supported invasion resulted in the loss of large tracts of its western border. Since then, Russia has been content to quietly build up its industries and create a strong social democracy, awaiting the day when it is ready to take revenge against the Commonwealth reactionaries.


After a century of complete dominance over the America, the Republic of Mazula found at last a challenger in the new fascist government of the CCA, as its large but outdated and under-equipped army suffered a devastating defeat in the 1920s, resulting in the loss of nearly all its territorial gains over the last fifty years. Battered but far from broken, Mazula is gearing up its industries after the radical downturns of the Great Depression, and a final struggle between Democracy and Fascism in America seems imminent.


Defeated and sent into exile when the Union of Rome won the Byzantine Civil War, the Byzantine Emperors took their refuge to India, where large parts of the colonial army was still loyal. After seizing control over India, they created an exile state, extending their control over the various minor kingdoms until the entire subcontinent was at their beck and call. The Byzantine army is large but outdated, and its industries are modest, its raw material-based economy having suffered considerably during the Great Depression. For Imperial India, reclaiming the throne in Constantinople is their greatest priority, but how can it hope to defeat the far more powerful Union without help?


In China, the old Ming Empire has radically reformed itself along modern, democratic lines, and the name Ming has fallen into disuse, its rulers simply referring to their country as the 'Chinese Nation', their ambition to return all of China to the Chinese. The deeply conservative and internally split Yuan China is still a formidable foe, while Japan, in possession of a growing army and modern fleet, have begun to nurture ambitions on both the British colonies in Asia and China itself.


In Jadakal, the Caliphate of Jadakal has united the continent's Berber population - on paper. In reality, its lack of external foes has resulted in growing nationalism and dissent among the population, and only the iron will of its Caliph has so far managed to hold it together.


National Rankings


National Statistics


National Armies


National Navies
- Note that this does not show any ships of 1920s and later models, so the total number is the one that really counts.


World Map
- Shown in paranthesis is the government type I expect the country to have in HOI2
- I'm using Kaiserreich terminology for leftist governments. Leninist = Syndicalist, Stalinist = Bolshevik, Radical Socialist = Radical Left-Wing



Finally, a few notes about the conversion and HOI2:
* I will be hand-converting, ergo not using the vicky -> hoi2 converter
* IC for countries will be determined by me based on factories, industrial score and game balance instead of being a direct carryover of # of factories
* Armies and Navies will both by reduced by 80%, so 5 vicky divisions or ships becomes 1 hoi2 division/ship.
* Pre-Cruisers, Pre-Dreadnoughts and 1910s models will become Great War, 1920s models will become Early and 1930s models will become Basic. In cases of brigades like destroyers the tech level of the parent ship will be the determiner.
* Resources will mostly be vanilla HOI2 with some modifications here and there where I feel it makes sense.
* Some currently annexed countries will make re-appearances as puppets where I feel it is appropriate, to get the blobbing and IC concentration down a bit.
* There will be some reader participation in HOI2, probably to determine events and such, but not for detail stuff like which front to reinforce or who to bomb - that would just get obnoxious.

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask. Once I write a rough conversion plan I will also take ideas for events and such.