TL-191: Postwar

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Charles W. LaFollette holding a copy of his radio address​

"My fellow Americans. I have just received word from General Morrill that the Freedomite government has signed terms of unconditional surrender. The Confederate States of America are no more. The attention of the world is focused on that little town of Pineville, where the tyranny and oppression of Jake Featherston's regime has finally been laid to rest.

However, our celebrations are sobered by the terrible cost we have paid to achieve this victory. Our obligation and gratefulness go out to those who have been killed and injured in the line of duty. Many of our own family and neighbors and loved ones will not return home. Across the nation, in Ohio and Pennsylvania, and especially here in Philadelphia, from where I speak to you today, the Freedomite criminals left a trail of devastation and terror, for which we have paid them back tenfold. We will never forget Ohio, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia. And they will never forget Pineville."

[...]

Today we honor our brave airmen, seamen, and soldiers, who have displayed the greatest valor and fortitude, for which posterity shall never forget.

We honor the farmer and the worker, without which our arsenal of democracy would never have been created.

We honor the n-gro, both in the North and the South, who braved the horrors of the Featherston regime, and fought for liberty and righteousness.

We honor the great Al Smith, who led us through the dark days of 1941 and whose tragic death serves as a reminder of the sacrifices we have all made.

[...]

We must construct a new world from the ashes of the old. We must strive to create a world free from fear, free from hunger and thirst, free from tyranny, and free from prejudice and hatred. Let us strive, in cooperation with all nations, to create a world where the common man shall prosper. Where war and destruction, famine and disease, poverty and greed shall be things of the past. This is the goal we must aim for, in our great post-war world."

- Charles W. LaFollette's Radio Address to the American people announcing the surrender of the Confederate States of America. (July 14th, 1944)

Note: A lot of this speech is based on OTL Harry Truman's speech announcing the surrender of Germany and the surrender of Japan.

TL-191: POSTWAR​

 

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Index​

List of Events by Year
People Profiles
Articles and Historiography Index
Maps and Graphics Index

 

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List of Events by Year​

1940s					1944	1945	1946	1947	1948	1949
1950s	1950	1951	1952	1953	1954	1955	1956	1957	1958	1959

 

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Articles and Historiography Index​

Coca Cola
Old Hogwashes and Young Nationalists: Mid-Century Factionalism in the Democratic Party
France in the Shadow of Actionism
Togliatti

 

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Late 1944​

July 1944: The British-German armistice goes into effect. British troops are to leave the continent by the end of 1944, as well as withdraw from German colonies. All capital ships (such as battleships and airplane carriers) are to be handed over to the Germans. All superbomb facilities are to be inspected and dismantled by German authorities, and all British scientists working on the superbomb must be interned in Germany. British forces are to withdraw from Ireland at "greatest speed", though no timetable is given. The British are allowed concessions such as the lack of an occupation of the main isles and having individuals such as Churchill and Mosley tried in British courts (though under German supervision). A final peace treaty will be negotiated sometime in the future.

A British newspaper clipping reporting the arrest of Oswald Mosley and other key wartime leaders following the British-German Armistice​

July 1944: Following the British-German armistice, the Kingdom of France under Louis XIX begins negotiations with Germany through Swiss intermediaries. The French government had held out even after the superbombing of Paris in hopes that British superbombs would force a German surrender. This gamble, obviously, didn't pay off. As French and German diplomats meet in the city of Geneva to discuss terms of surrender, the German delegation is adamant about an unconditional surrender of France. Senior figures in the Actionist government begin to panic, and several high-ranking party and military figures start to flee to French colonies and Falangist Spain. One of these individuals is a certain Brigadier General Charles de Gaulle.

July 1944: Italy launches a surprise attack on British and French possessions in the Mediterranean and Africa, quickly seizing control of Corsica, Malta, Djibouti, and British Somaliland, as well as key areas along the French-Italian border. Spain also takes the opportunity to wrestle control of Gibraltar.

Italian troops disembark in Malta​

July 1944: Fearful of an Italian invasion, Pied Noir councils in Algeria declare their independence from France and seek German support. Germany, along with the rest of the Central Powers, recognize Algeria's independence. The country is entirely run by its Pied Noir minority, with Muslim Algerians having little to no voting or citizenship rights. Time will tell if this arrangement will be sustainable ...

July 14th, 1944: Acting Confederate President Don Partridge surrenders to the USA. The Confederacy ceases to exist, and despite sporadic resistance American troops occupy all Confederate States. Celebrations break out throughout the United States, though they are somewhat muted in Philadelphia due to the recent superbombing.

July 1944: US troops take control of British outposts in Greenland as well as British-occupied Iceland. In both places British troops surrender without firing a shot.

July 1944: The Democratic National Convention nominates Thomas Dewey for President, who manages to beat Senator Arthur Vandeburg (D-OH) and Governor Earl Warren of California. Dewey is known to be a moderate on economic issues, supporting social welfare policies and a balance between business and labor. Conservative senator Harry Truman is chosen as the vice-presidential nominee. [1]

Thomas Dewey on the campaign trail​

July 1944 - September 1944: The Second Great Rising begins in Ireland in an effort to force the British to completely withdraw from the Emerald Isle. Resistance groups, which acted without impunity in the countryside during the war, now move to take control of major roads and cities. By September, the British only control Dublin, Cork, and Northern Ireland.

An Irish rebel propoganda poster during the Second Great War​

August 1944: The Republican Party nominates Minnesota Governor Harold Stassen for President. A very popular and charismatic figure, Stassen is known for his many reformist plans as well as his support among farmers and small business owners in the Midwest.

August 1944: Though the British have made peace with the US and Germany, the war with Japan continues. Japanese troops in Burma capture Rangoon and begin the battle for Mandalay. The INA (Indian National Army) under Subhas Chandra Bose is also formed. A collaborationist military organization made up of Indian POWS and Indians living within Japanese-controlled Asia, the INA seeks "complete liberation" of India from the British.

August 1944: A deal for unconditional surrender is reached for France. French King Louis XIX abdicates, and the French Orleanist Monarchy is disestablished. Much of Northeastern France is to be ceded to Germany, and German military forces are to occupy Northern France in an occupation zone stretching until Brest. A pro-German Provisional Council under French admiral Francois Darlan is to rule the rest of France. The French army is limited to 200,000 men and the vast majority of ships in the French navy are given to Germany. The Action Francais Party is banned, and all high-ranking members are placed under German custody. In response to this treaty, Charles de Gaulle gives his famous "Brazzaville Speech", calling upon all Frenchmen and believers in Actionism to continue resisting in the Metropole and in the Colonies. Though resistance within France is almost nonexistent, several colonial officials in French West Africa and French Equatorial Africa are becoming more open to de Gaulle's ideas ...

Charles de Gaulle giving his "Brazzaville Speech" ​

August 1944 onwards: Clashes between Russian and Japanese troops along the Yalu River between Manchuria and Korea. The Kwantung army, without authorization from the central government, uses these incidents as an excuse to launch major offensives on Russian positions in Manchuria.

Advance of the Kwantung Army in Manchuria​

September 1944: US troops occupying the Dominican Republic capture Trujillo, who had been an ally of Featherston and was a key accomplice during the Haitian genocides. Trujillo will be tried before a military court in 1945 and sentenced to death.

Rafael Trujillo, Dictator of the Dominican Republic​

September 1944: The last of the Rio de Janeiro Conferences [2] between Germany and Japan. Since the Japanese turned on their Entente allies in 1943, German and Japanese governments remained in contact in order to coordinate the war in Asia. However, this meeting is for a different purpose: to plan the balance of power in the Far East after the war. Japan agrees to return German Pacific colonies in exchange for recognizing its claims over captured British territories. In addition, Germany and Japan plan out spheres of influence in China. The Germans will have influence in Shandong, as well as in Nanking and Shanghai. The Japanese will have control in much of southern China, such as Guangdong, Guanxi, and Yunnan. The Germans are to also permit Japanese troop movements through the Peking-Hong Kong railroad. The status of Russia is also discussed, but there is no consensus on what is to be done with her.

German and Japanese diplomats signing an agreement during the 1944 Rio de Janeiro Conference​

September 1944 onwards: British rule in India begins to break down. Nationalist, ethnic, and religious violence flare up across the subcontinent. In Bombay, the Royal Indian Navy mutinies and seizes control of the city, flying INA flags on government buildings. In the puppet Kingdom of Hyderabad, a socialist uprising threatens British control in the Deccan, with leaders expressing their allegiance to Bose.

Newspaper reporting on the Bombay Mutiny
​

September 1944: Russian and Japanese diplomats agree to end the fighting in Manchuria. Russian troops will withdraw across the Amur River, giving the entire region of Manchuria to the Japanese. However, this deal angers ultranationalists within the Cabinet, especially among the army faction, who wanted to foment a wider war in order to annex large swathes of the Russian Far East. Army leaders blame the Navy, the predominant faction in the government, for agreeing to peace with Russia to focus on their Nanshin-ron Campaign in Southeast Asia and deny the IJA its glory.

October 1944: A certain American businessman and owner of the popular American Agriculturalist magazine publishes a different kind of book. In his bestseller The South is Our Problem, Hans Morgenthau Jr. calls for the South to be completely deindustrialized, all food supplies to be controlled by the occupying authorities, Southerners to be put on a bare subsistence level of nutrition, and for no action to be taken to rebuild the South. The book becomes a bestseller among Democratic and Remembrist circles. Morgenthau is a good friend of Dewey and begins serving as an "advisor" on Southern policy.

October 1944: The Canadian uprising mostly ends, though some minor clashes with surviving guerillas in the wilderness will continue until the 1950s.

November 1944: Dewey defeats LaFollette and Stassen to win the presidency in a landslide. Though popular history places the reason for this victory on previous Socialist weakness towards the south, it was in reality a reaction to postwar economic anxiety caused by recession, inflation, and high unemployment.

December 1944: Japanese Prime Minister admiral Naokuni Nomura is assassinated, in what is believed by many to be an Army attempt to seize power. In response, Emperor Hirohito appoints Prince Naruhiko Higashikuni, the only one believed to be able to control both IJA and IJN factions, as Prime Minister.

Prince Naruhiko Higashikuni​

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[1] The Socialist Convention had occurred a month earlier in June.

[2] Got this idea from @S. Marlowski's iceburg chart

 

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Japanese-German Planned Spheres of Influence in China (according to the Rio de Janeiro Conferences)

 

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It's going to be some time before the 1945 post, so I've decided to post a teaser:

 

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Coca-Cola​

NOTE: This is a repost of something I had written in the Photos from Featherston's Confederacy thread. I think it would fit well in this timeline.

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Coca Cola (also known as Coke) was one of the Confederacy's most recognizable brands and iconic exports. The drink was first created by Colonel John Pemberton, a veteran of the War of Secession, and it quickly became the most popular soft drink in the Confederacy. By the 1920s Coke had become a worldwide phenomenon, as it was sold in places as far away as China and the Ottoman Empire, and the Coca Cola corporation was one of the most valuable companies in the Confederacy. The Coke syrup was produced in Georgia, while several plants around the world operated under a franchise model and used the syrup to produce the drink itself. Production of Coca Cola was also a major part of the Confederacy's industralization, as several bottling plants were opened in southern cities such as Nashville, Chattanooga, and Vicksburg.

A Coca Cola bottling plant in Alabama​

During the Featherston regime and the Second Great War, Coca Cola advertisements served as a major source for Freedomite propoganda. Several posters encouraged citizens to contribute to the war effort and support Jake Featherston, and depicted Confederate heroes such as Stonewall Jackson in order to improve morale. In addition, Coca Cola was sent to soldiers on the front lines. Black forced labor was used in several plants during the Population Reductions, where many were worked to death.

A Coca Cola advertisement featuring Stonewall Jackson, printed during the SGW

A Coca Cola advertisement featuring a C.S. soldier​

Coca Cola did not survive the end of the Confederacy. US bombing raids had destroyed much of the plants and infastructure used to create Coca Cola in the South, and the formula for Coca Cola syrup was lost in the chaos of war. During the occupation, the remaining facilities that were once owned by the Coca Cola Corporation were dismantled and sent North during the Southern deindustrialization.

Despite its demise, Coca Cola still lingers on in the cultural memory of North America, and an obsession over recreating the iconic taste remains. Rumors abound that President Dewey ordered US soldiers to scour the ruins of Atlanta in search of the secret formula, to little avail.

The taste of Coca Cola is something that will forever be lost to time.

 

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1945​

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January, 1945: The Treaty of Copenhagen is signed, formalizing peace between Great Britain and the Central Powers. Provisions of the treaty include:

• Strict limits on the size of the British army, navy, and air force
• Dismantlement of all superbomb installations and internment of all superbomb scientists
• British troops are to completely withdraw from Ireland by March 1945. American and German troops are to be stationed in Ireland for the foreseeable future.
• Britain is to be strictly neutral in foreign affairs, and is not allowed to join any military alliances
• Large reparations payments to European nations
• The establishment of the British Isles Control Authority (BICA), an organization made up of representatives from Central Powers nations (including the US, Ireland, and the Ottoman Empire) that will ensure Britain's compliance with the treaty. B.I.C.A. has the power to unilaterally veto acts of Parliament and dismiss Prime Ministers if they are deemed “threats to the peace of Europe”
• All territories in the Western Hemisphere held by the British (such as the Falklands) are to be transferred to U.S. administration. The exception is Guyana, which is divided between Dutch Suriname and Venezuela.
• Germany annexes Nigeria, the Gold Coast, Nyasaland, and Northern Rhodesia.
• Egypt is transferred over to Ottoman hegemony, and Sudan becomes a protectorate of the Ottoman Empire.
• The Isle of Man is occupied by Ireland, through it is technically still part of Britain

The signing of the treaty marks the last major action of the outgoing LaFollette Administration. At LaFollette’s insistence, the Germans promise to hold their annexations as “trust territories” to prepare them for self-government in the future. [1]

British and German delegations signing the Treaty of Copenhagen​

January 1945 onwards: The Pacific Scramble occurs between Japan and the United States navies, as both powers race to occupy South Pacific islands previously owned by Britain and France. Other than a few skirmishes between aircraft of both nations, there are no open engagements.

Island Chains Captured by the U.S. :

• Line Islands
• Howland and Baker Islands
• Phoenix Islands
• Tokelau
• Cook Islands
• French Polynesia
• Pitcairn Islands

Island Chains Captured by Japan:

• Island of Papua (except for German New Guinea, which is transferred to Germany )
• Solomon Islands
• New Hebridies
• Santa Cruz Islands
• Samoa (except German territory)
• Tonga
• Fiji
• Ellice Islands
• Wallace and Futuna Islands

Japanese aircraft destroy a British naval task force during the Battle of Tonga, shortly before landing on the namesake island. (c. February, 1945) While Japan had to fight its way through island chains during the Pacific Scramble, the Treaty of Copenhagen allowed the U.S. to occupy British and French islands without resistance.​

February 1st, 1945: Thomas Dewey is inaugurated as President of the United States. During his inaugural address, he introduces the “Dewey Doctrine” in which the US and Germany will serve as guarantees of world peace and halt the spread of superbomb technology.

President Thomas Dewey

The Dewey Cabinet
PRESIDENT: Thomas Dewey
VICE PRESIDENT: Harry Truman
SECRETARY OF STATE: George F. Kennan
SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY: Joe Kennedy Sr.
SECRETARY OF WAR: John W. McCormack
SECRETARY OF THE NAVY: John Bricker
ATTORNEY GENERAL: Alben W. Barkley
SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR: William E. Jenner
SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE: Henry Morgenthau Jr.
SECRETARY OF LABOR: Dave Beck​

February 1945: The United States and Mexico sign a peace treaty, in which the U.S. formally annexes Baja California. Mexico is also forced to pay reparations to the United States, and cede oil and mineral rights to U.S. corporations. The current emperor of Mexico, Francisco Jose II, abdicates in favor of his son, Alejandro I, who vows to hold free elections in the coming future.

February - April, 1945: The First 100 Days of Dewey’s Presidency. The first priority of the administration is to rebuild America after the devastation of Operation Blackbeard, especially in its industrial sector. A series of laws and executive orders are passed creating institutions to aid reconstruction. One of these are the Sector Planning Boards, made up of both government bureaucrats and industry leaders that will help direct economic recovery and rebuild infrastructure. The second is the Economic Relief Administration (ERA), which will use government funds in order to subsidize and invest in companies whose assets have been greatly damaged by the war. The ERA will also encourage the consolidation of corporations to create large firms capable of competing with Japanese zaibatsus and German conglomerates. In a compromise with Socialists in the senate, the Sector Planning boards will include leaders from labor organizations, and the ERA will only fund companies that have unionized workforces and labor-rights guarantees.

Secretary of Agriculture Henry Morgenthau Jr. (L) and Vice President Harry Truman (R) ​

February - May 1945: A period of intense debate within the Dewey administration over future plans for the occupied Southern territories. The Old Democratic faction, led by Vice President Harry Truman, supports reconciliation and fast-paced admittance of all former Confederate states. The New Democratic faction, represented by Secretary of Agriculture Henry Morgenthau Jr., wants a very strict occupation of the South with the aim of destroying the Southern identity. Under his plan, southern states will not be admitted into the United States for another two generations. Two very distinct plans begin to emerge:


The Truman Plan

• Southern infrastructure will be rebuilt through Dewey’s reconstruction plan, with the aim of restarting the Southern economy (therefore improving the US economy as a whole)
• Southern industry will be maintained and rebuilt (but strict controls to ensure that no weapons will be produced). Factories will be expanded to make sure that the South will move away from its “backwards, agrarian” state.
• Land reform from elite landowners to the common Southerner, as well as the introduction of labor unions and labor rights.
• Southern businesses and corporations are to be restored, except those that extensively collaborated with the Featherston regime or played a part in the Destruction
• State constitutions will be rewritten so as to ban extremist political movements and support equality among races.
• State governments and local governments will be restored. Fair and free elections will be held for both local and state positions within two years of the occupation with universal suffrage.
• The Freedom Party is to be banned, but the Whig Party and Radical Liberal Party will be restored as affiliates of the Democratic and Socialist Parties respectively.
• State Police are to be created to monitor the population and ensure no neo-Freedmite movement arises against U.S. occupation.
• The educational system is to be rebuilt and expanded. Schools will focus on the “inherent unity” of the North and South, as well as stressing the crimes of the Featherston regime, including the Destruction.
• All former members of the Freedom Party can be “rehabilitated” if it is found they took no part in the Destruction or war crimes, and if they swear loyalty to the United States
• A state will be admitted if it has

1) created a constitution with a liberal democratic values and has banned far-right Freedomite movements
2) Has laws for equality between all black and white residents
3) very low level of civil disorder and rebellion

• Once a state has been admitted, all residents will be given U.S. citizenship. Congressional delegations from the state will be elected.
• All states should be admitted to the U.S. by at 1965 at the latest

The Morgenthau Plan

• No action will be taken for the economic rehabilitation of the South, unless it directly serves the needs of the occupying authorities
• The South is to be deindustrialized. All southern industrial plants and factories (especially heavy industry) are to be destroyed, or dismantled and sent northwards to the industrial states ravaged by the Confederacy.
• All facilities for natural resource extraction (such as coal mines and mineral mines) are to be owned by the U.S. government or sold to Northern corporations
• A requisitioning program is to be instituted for farms across the South. The southerner is only to be given a daily ration of 1,200 Kcal a day in order to halt any sort of rebellion.
• State governments will not be restored for the foreseeable future. Instead the states are to be ruled by military administration. Political authority is to be distributed widely among municipalities, where elections supervised by U.S. officials will be held. Candidates can be disqualified by U.S. authorities, and the right to vote will be given selectively to those deemed loyal. After a decision by the President, a state can have its government restored, but Governors and legislatures are to be chosen by a convention of local leaders from across the state. The decisions of these conventions can be revoked by military authorities.
• Political parties can only participate in Southern elections if they meet the “National Party” doctrine, meaning that they have won states from all regions of the United States. This is to prevent a Southern regionalist or secessionist movement from rising.
• All symbols of the Confederacy and Southern culture are to be destroyed. The occupation authorities should encourage Southers to adopt Northern cultural practices. Schools will play a big role in this assimilation policy. In addition, all forms of mass media (such as radio stations and newspapers) are to be controlled by the occupation authorities.
• All P.O.W.s currently held by the U.S. will not be released until they have completed five year terms of forced labor
• Based on the discretion of occupation authorities within their zone, forced labor can be procured from the civilian population as well.
• Restoration of state governments (with direct elections for governor and the legislature) will occur based on a decision by military authorities/ the President. It is advised that this does not occur until at least 1970.
• Admission of U.S. states, and restoration of political/civil rights, should not occur until at least 1980.
• Black people will not be subjected to the harsh requirements, and will instead be automatically given U.S. citizenship and the right to vote in local elections

The Truman Plan is favored by business groups, members of the Socialist Party, and Old Democrats, while the Morgenthau Plan is favored by New Democrats and Remembrist groups such as the Soldier’s Circle.

February 1945: The Housing Act of 1945 is signed into law by President Dewey. The act will rebuild homes across the United States, as well as expand the number of housing units available to families

February 1945 onwards: Military officials occupying the former Confederacy notice a change in the nature of insurgent attacks. Not only are the frequency of attacks increasing, but insurgent operations are becoming bolder and more sophisticated. Though there are whispers of a widespread, organized Confederate resistance, higher ups dismiss these reports as a paranoid fantasy.

February 1945 onwards: The French Provisional Council undoes several discriminatory laws passed during the Accion Francais government, allowing minority groups such as Jews, Protestants, and “meteques” (foreigners or non-white French people) back into public life. However, political prisoners such as socialists are still kept in prison camps across France.

Debate also begins among the Provisional Council over the future government of France, as some members are in favor of monarchy while others wish to establish a republic.

March 1945: Following the successful Burma campaign, Japan and the INA begin their invasion of India. The goal is to capture key territories in the east in the hopes of sparking a wider rebellion that will overthrow the Raj. The strategically important border cities of Kohima and Imphal are captured, and the British Indian Army is forced out of Northeastern India and into Bengal.

British Indian Army outside of Kohima​

March 1945: The Labour Party wins a landslide in Britain, securing 342 seats and a firm majority in Parliament, which is now based in Oxford. The new Prime Minister, Herbert Morrison, vows to defend India from Japanese aggression, while also continuing a policy of cooperation with the Central Powers and the B.I.C.A.

Time Magazine portrait of Herbert Morrison​

March 1945: After several months of tense negotiations, the Treaty of Bremen marks the end of hostilities between Russia and the Central Powers. Russia agrees to cede a significant amount of territory to Germany’s Eastern European client states, as well as recognize Finnish independence. In addition, the Caucasian Democratic Republic is carved out of Russia's North Caucasus territories.

Flag of the Caucasian Democratic Republic​

March 1945 - May 1945: A series of diplomatic exchanges, known as the Dewey-Higashikuni Letters, occur between the United States and Japan. The correspondence begins when Prime Minister Higashikuni sends a letter of congratulations to newly-elected President Dewey, which contains hope for a peaceful coexistence between both nations and a postwar order that will maintain world stability. The letters set the stage for the Constantinople Conference between the major powers to be held in August. There is hope within the administration that the so-called “Japan issue” can be solved through diplomatic means. However, hardliners remain skeptical. Secretary of State George Kennan encourages the talks, but warns Dewey to be wary of Japanese expansionism.

April 1945: In Arkansas, a group of guerillas disguised as U.S. soldiers halt three army trucks while manning a fake checkpoint. They manage to capture eighteen soldiers, as well as seven black auxiliaries and two occupation officials. The guerillas summarily execute the US soldiers, but the fates of the Black auxiliaries and occupation officials are much worse. Despite efforts of the Dewey Administration at censorship, the Walnut Creek Massacre, as the incident becomes known, causes widespread shock and anger in the United States.

Hundreds of hostages are taken throughout Northern Arkansas by the army and executed when the perpetrators of the massacre do not turn themselves in.

The Joint Committee for the Conduct of War begins investigating why the trucks were traveling inside occupied territory without proper military escort. Socialist newspapers accuse the Dewey Administration of gross negligence, and The Workingman speculates if the Democrats are being soft on the south in order to create a “permanent reactionary majority” once these states are readmitted [2].

Within the Dewey administration, the Walnut Creek Massacre plays a major role with which plan it will choose for the South...

Walnut Creek Massacre Memorial​

April 1945: Frank Sinatra, enjoying his peak in popularity after conducting several tours for frontline troops during the Second Great War, releases his hit single “Love on the Shores of Lake Champlain”. Frank Sinatra’s stardom marks the high point of Big Band music in the United States, a staple among the WASP crowd in big cities across the nation. However, unknown to many, the genre is on its way out, as new musical styles from the rural Midwest, as well as from immigrants from Eastern/Central Europe and Mexico will soon become popular ….

Frank Sinatra​

April 1945: After a vicious urban siege, the Indian port city of Chittagong is captured by Japanese troops. Subhas Chandra Bose makes a speech calling for all Indians to rise and overthrow the British Raj, using the Irish Rising of 1944 as a source of inspiration.

Disorder continues to spread around India, as nationalist pro-Bose rebels besiege Hyderabad and march towards Nagpur. In order to alleviate nationalist fervor, British Prime Minister Herbert Morrison arranges for imprisoned Indian National Congress (INC) members (such as Nehru and Gandhi) to be freed, and ends several of the repressive laws passed during the Chucrchill-Mosely government. Talks begin between Viceroy Archibald Wavell, leader of the INC Jawaharlal Nehru, and leader of the Muslim League Muhammad Ali Jinnah over the future of India.

In order to prevent the total capture of India by the Japanese, the United States sends covert support for the British Indian Army, through financial aid and direct deliveries of arms. The BICA discreetly allows for Britain to temporarily increase its military and send forces to India through the Suez Canal.

Subhas Chandra Bose inspecting INA troops​

April 1945: Composer Aaron Copland debuts his symphony “A Worker’s Jubilee” at Carnegie Hall in New York to mark the 90th anniversary of the birth of Eugene Debs.

Carnegie Hall during the debut of "A Worker's Jubilee"​

May 1945: In an address to a joint session of congress, Dewey outlines his hopes for the upcoming Constantinople Conference, while also mentioning his plan for Southern occupation, which is based on the Morgenthau plan with some additions from the Truman Plan. The approach is widely popular among the electorate, who are eager to punish the South after two world wars and the more recent Walnut Creek Massacre. Even several socialist politicians such as Senator Earl Browder and Henry Wallace, who are normally critical of Dewey’s policies, express their support.

May 1945: The Veterans Benefits Act is signed into law, giving veterans of the Second Great War government assistance in attending college and buying a home. Black Auxiliaries are also included in the legislation. While the bill is technically open for all soldiers “without consideration of racial background”, administrators of the benefits still find ways to discriminate against Hispanic and Far Eastern Americans.

May 1945: The film What We Have Left is released, becoming an American classic. The film tells the story of two friends, John Clarkson and Mike Smidt, returning to their working class neighborhood in Los Angeles after serving in the Second Great War. The film explores how both men readjust to civilian life, find love, and discover meaning in their lives. It is one of the first examples of the “Homeland” genre of films, which became popular immediately after the war.

June 1945: In a lightning combined arms offensive, the Japanese break through British lines and capture Dhaka.

June 1945: In the Hungarian portion of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, The Party of Independence and ‘48 wins a large proportion of seats and is able to form a coalition government. They rise to power on a wave of anger towards Vienna as Hungarians made up a disproportionate number of the dead in the Second Great War. Led by Hungarian right-wing nationalist and war hero Istvan Horthy [3], the party is opposed to Emperor Otto von Hapsburg’s attempts to increase the autonomy of minorities in the Hungarian crown lands. A showdown between Horthy and the Vienna government is in the making …

An election poster for the Party of Independence and '48​

June, 1945 onwards: Following its disastrous defeat in the Second Great War, political and economic turmoil engulfs the Russian Empire. Strikes occur in all major cities, especially Moscow, and are enough to halt many Russian industries. In the countryside, peasants turn their anger against local nobles and kulaks. The worst violence occurs in the Volga Basin, where the city of Tsaritsyn is briefly controlled by socialist rebels before a violent crackdown by Russian troops.

June, 1945: The film Under the Red, White, and Blue is released, an adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel of the same name. The film criticizes the glamorous life of America’s rich during the 1920s economic boom, characterizing them as empty and decadent, without care for one another and the world around them. The main character Ned Carraway, the son of Midwestern farmers, moves to the Hamptons after becoming moderately wealthy and meets a millionaire named Jay Gerlach. The movie depicts Gerlach’s attempts to make Lily, the wife of another millionaire, fall in love with him. After a series of events, which result in Gerlach being killed by a tailor who mistakenly believes Gerlach is having an affair with his wife, Carraway finds that much of Gerlach’s life is a lie, and that noone, not even Lily or her husband, care for him. After this, Carraway leaves New York City in disgust, hoping he can make an honest living in the midwest. [4]

Poster for Under the Red, White, and Blue
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July, 1945: The first Victory Day Parade is held in Philadelphia commemorating the surrender of the Confederacy. President Dewey, former presidents Herbert Hoover, Charles W. LaFollette, and Upton Sinclair, as well as several dignitaries from Central Powers nations are in attendance.

July, 1945: Architect Alex Schwartz is hired by the city of New York to draft plans to redesign damaged areas. Though there is much skepticism over the young architect’s readiness for the job, his plans amaze both laypeople and city leaders. New neighborhoods will be built with expanded and modern cable car systems, large greenbelts and parks, mixed residential and commercial areas, as well as new buildings in the art deco and neoclassical styles. New York’s urban planning styles will serve as the inspiration for many cities across the United States.

The Schwartz school, as Alex Schartz’s design philosophy will become known, is inspired by the City Beautiful movement, neoclassical architecture, and German architecture. It will become the dominant urban planning school of the mid-20th century.

The Hamilton Arts Center, one of the buildings constructed in New York City as part of the Schwartz Plan.​

July 1945: Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania create the ENIAC computer. It is the first computer to be totally electronic, programmable, and digital, and will be used by the U.S. government for some interesting projects ….

August 1945: The Constantinople Conference is held. Attended by President Dewey of the United States, Prime Minister Higashikuni of Japan, Chancellor Carl Goerdeler of Germany, Sultan Ertrugrul of the Sublime Porte, and Otto von Hapsburg of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the conference seeks to plan out the postwar order.

Dewey proposes measures intended to stop the spread of superbomb technology, including the creation of an “International Peacekeeping Force” to occupy areas with large uranium deposits. The Peacekeeping Forces will be governed by an “International Parliament” made up of representatives of all nations. While he is supported by Otto von Hapsburg, Goerdeler and Higashikuni balk at these measures, with Goerdeler telling Dewey privately that his proposal would result in “utter chaos” as too many nations will be involved in setting policy. Goerdeler puts forward a counterproposal, in which the five nations will serve as “Gendarmes” over their spheres of influence, ensuring peace and order while also seeking to prevent other nations from gaining superbombs. In addition, annual “Five Power Conferences” will be held to resolve disputes between the great powers and address any pressing issues.

After rounds of tense negotiations, Higashikuni signs the “Marmara Declaration”, promising that Japan will eschew superbomb development, and that German troops will be stationed near major uranium deposits in China to prevent their use by the Japanese. In exchange, Germany and the United States agree to recognize Japanese dominance of Burma and Malaya, and limit the number of troops, ships, and aircraft stationed in their Pacific territories. Furthermore, both Germany and the United States are forbidden from deploying nuclear weapons in the Pacific.

A major impasse occurs over the status of India. While Higashikuni is insistent on the whole of the Indian subcontinent being included in the recognized sphere of influence of the “Marmara Declaration”, Dewey refuses to do so. A compromise is reached in which the U.S. and Germany will recognize the Japanese sphere of influence over the part of India it already controls (as well as several additional territories added on), with the rest of India under British control. The U.S.A. and Germany will use the B.I.C.A. to force Britain to agree to a cease-fire in India.

The three nations also agree to a pact promising to intervene in the case of Russian aggression or superbomb test.

Dolmabahçe Palace, site of the Constantimople Conference​

September 1945: A revolt by Greeks in Salonika is crushed by Bulgarian troops, with assistance from the Ottoman Navy. [4]

Turkish naval vessel off the port of Salonika​

September 1945: In a meeting with President Dewey, intellectual Langhston Hughes advocates for the creation of a Black homeland in North America.

September 1945: NBC’s television news show The New York Times Press Hour begins broadcasting locally in Philadelphia. The format consists of a group of NYT press reporters discussing the news with a guest. The first guest is former cabinet secretary Henry Wallace.

September 1945: A ceasefire in India comes into affect between the Britain and Japan. The British withdraw their forces from almost all of Bengal, including the major city of Calcutta, giving these areas to Japan and the INA. While the war with Japan is over, the British must still deal with putting down nationalist uprisings throughout India, and with the transfer of power to Nehru's Indian National Congress and Jinnah's All Indian Muslim League.

November 1945: Italian nationalist Amilcare Mussolini [5] leads a protest march from Italy towards Trieste in order to demonstrate against Austria’s “occupation” of Istria and the Dalmation coast, which many Italians believe is their rightful territory. Upon reaching the Austro-Hungarian border, the march devolves into a mob that attempts to breach the border gates, resulting in Austro-Hungarian guards firing upon the crowd. Among the dead is Mussolini himself.

The incident causes a diplomatic spat between Italy and Austria-Hungary, whose relations had never been warm. Demonstrations occur in Italy and among Austria-Hungary’s Italian population. In the “Days of Trieste”, Trieste’s Italian community riots and erects barricades, though they are eventually pacified by Austro-Hungarian police.

Amilcare Mussolini (L); Italians rioting in Trieste (R) ​

November 1945 - May 1952: Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu releases his famous Daylight trilogy of films: Bright Dawn (1945), Noon (1948), and Tokyo Sunset (1952). The trilogy deals with the lives of a lower middle class Tokyo couple from their marriage in Bright Dawn to their middle aged years in Tokyo Sunset. The trilogy is deemed as one of the greatest works in the Shoshimin-eiga genre, which deal with the daily lives, dramas, and struggles of working and middle class people in Japan. However, due to censorship by the Imperial Rule Assistance Association, the single legal party in Japan (who prefer the more militaristic and action oriented jidaigeki films), there is very little overt political content in these films. While Shoshimin-eiga films will never become popular among the masses internationally, they will help inspire the American Neo-realist genre in the coming decades.

Scene from Bright Dawn (1945)​

November 1945: After almost a yearlong armistice, the U.S. and Argentina sign a formal peace treaty. Other than paying indemnities for U.S. ships sunk throughout the war, the Argentianians get off relatively scott free. The treaty begins an era of increasingly friendly relations between both nations.

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[1] This promise is not likely to be kept
[2] This is most likely Socialist posturing over the Richmond Agreement. The idea that the Democrats will ally with Southern reactionaries is ludicrous.
[3] Son of Austro-Hungarian Admiral Miklos Horthy. While the elder Horthy is a firm believer in Austria-Hungary and loyal to the emperor, the younger Horthy's view of the Austro-Hungarian Empire has been changed by his wartime service.
[4] ATL version of The Great Gatsby.
[5] ATL version of Benito Mussolini.

 

[kernel]

Old Hogwashes and Young Nationalists: Mid-Century Factionalism in the Democratic Party​

Edmund Levine, American Historical Review, Vol. 38, No. 2, Development of the Three Party System (Aug. 2014), pp. 186 - 197 (11 pages)

"The genesis of the "Old" and "Young/New" factions of the Democratic Party can be traced to the Progressive Era and the rise of Theodore Roosevelt. While much of the old party bosses were content to rely on their city and state machines and leave reform-minded policy to the Socialists and Republicans, it was Roosevelt that introduced anti-trust legislation and worker protections into the mainstream of the party as Governor of New York. [....]

Roosevelt's selection as nominee at the Democratic Convention of 1912 saw the first fissures between the conservative guard and "Half Breeds", who advocated for a "Fair Deal" to reduce the allure of the Socialist Party. The 1890s and 1900s had seen widespread worker unrest and violence, including labor strikes that often devolved into riots and anarchist bombings targetting political and business leaders. It was a common fear among the Democratic Party, and members of their middle class and upper class base, that a Socialist Party victory would bring "an orgy of violence not seen since the Jacobin Years of France, in which our faith, our prosperity, and the very existence of out American civilization shall perish." Thus, in the logic of the Half-Breeds, moderate reform had to be enacted in order to stifle revolutionary sentiment [...]

Ironically, it would be Roosevelt who would lose to the Socialist Party and usher in a period of almost-complete Socialist dominance at the presidential level until 1944. The First Great War had left many of the Half-Breed priorities, such as anti-trust legislation and unemployment insurance, to the wayside, allowing these issues to be picked up and enacted by Socialist politicians. By the early 1920s the reform wing of the Democratic Party would lose much of its influence, with members either adopting more conservative stances or leaving the party altogether. [...]

The return of reform-minded ideology to the Democratic Party would not occur until the 1930s and 1940s, when a new generation of Democratic leaders and politicians would rise to the forefront. These "New Democrats" were not a unified ideological bloc, but rather a dispirate group of individuals who challenged the Democratic Party orthodoxy in various ways. It is therefore difficult to describe accurately the ideological nature of the New Democrats, as historians have applied the label to both nativist reactionaries such as Gerald L.K. Smith as well as liberals such as then-Representative Henry "Scoop" Jackson. However, we can note some commonalities. Several New Democratic politicians were former Soldiers' Circle members, which primarily attracted working class youth and thus made these politicians more favorable to the idea of a welfare state. While the Soldiers' Circle was a shadow of its former self during the 1920s and 1930s, it rose to prominence once more following the signing of the Richmond Agreement as well as the Second Great War. Despite their moderation in the economic sphere, several New Democrats were more extreme than their Old Democrat counterparts, espousing anti-immigrant, anti-semetic, ultranationalist, and hardline attitudes towards Featherston's Confederacy and later the occupied South. Curiously, it was the New Democrats that were more friendly towards Black people both in the North and the South, and often voted in favor of President LaFollette's bills to establish racial equality in the armed forces.

The New Democrats would achieve their triumph with the nomination and victory of Thomas Dewey in 1944, but had to swallow the nomination of Old Democrat Harry Truman as Vice President and the selection of several Old Democratic cabinet members. Dewey, while a reformist New Democrat, tied to achieve a balance between the two factions that made up his cabinet, but could not make them come to a consensus over the most controversial issue that divided the Democratic Party: the Southern Dilemma. Old Democrats had viewed the South as an integral part of the United States torn away by foreign meddling, which would return into the arms of the Democratic Party relatively soon. The New Democratic attitude was the polar opposite, with calls for the complete subjugation and destruction of the South becoming ever more common. These differing outlooks lent themselves to the rival Truman and Morganthau plans, which were favored by the Old Democrats and New Democrats respectively. Within the Dewey cabinet, the debate over the South had become so divisive that Secretary Morganthau and Vice President Truman were no longer on speaking terms. [...]

Yet the South was not the only issue that divided the Old and New factions. Economic reconstruction had been a key plank on Dewey's platform, yet he faced resistance from Old Democratic members of Congress over his attempts to increase state intervention into the economy, and had to rely increasingly on Socialist Party support to pass his agenda. [...]

 

[kernel]

France in the Shadow of Actionism
Pierre Oulett, 2002​

" .... thus the Actionist regime had established an efficient method of resource extraction from its African holdings that would be utilized to great effect during the buildup to war. Through direct administration by High Commissioners, often powerful members of the Accion Francais, the regime employed brutal methods in their quest for colonial profitability, which observers likened to the Congo Free State almost two generations prior. Commissioner rule was bolstered by the thousands of French settlers, soldiers, and mercenaries dispatched by the Metropole. [...]

The Commissioners remained in their positions following the fall of the regime. As the French Provisional Government was saddled by a ruined economy and onerous reparations payments to Germany, comissioner rule was valued for its ability to provide the new French government with raw materials and capital to fund economic relief to its population while also meeting German reparations requirements. As long as the colonies provided for the Metropole, both Germany and France turned a blind eye.

It was this neglect that would give Brigadier General Charles de Gaulle the opportunity to set up networks both inside the West African colonies and France itself. Clandestine meetings between de Gaulle and Commissioners were a regular occurence. Concurrently, the Commissioners began to strenghten their own forces within the colonies, utilizing manpower from both the colonial army as well as hundreds of thousands of settlers fleeing France for a better life in Africa. Further support came from Falangist Spain, who secretly provided the Comissioners with arms and fighter aircraft ...."

 

[kernel]

“ … one of the few Italian socialists to favor joining the Entente during the First Great War. Incensed by the fact that fellow Italians in Tyrol and Dalmatia remained under the control of the reactionary Austrian State, Palmiro Togliatti would try, with little avail, to persuade his party to support intervention.

Following the Bolshevik revolt and Russian Civil War of the 1920s, Togliatti briefly left the PSI (Italian Socialist Party) and, along with Antonio Gramsci, founded the Communist Party of Italy. Yet, once the true facts of the Red Terror became known, and the Bolshevik movement was inevitably defeated, Togliatti became disillusioned with radical socialism and Leninism, returning to his old home in the PSI. By this time the political situation in Italy had changed drastically. The PSI was beginning to lose its stature as the largest political party. New nationalist movements, such as the National Fascist Party, threatened to permanently end Italy’s liberal democracy before fizzling out just as fast as they had risen. [...]

After more than a decade under the conservative rule of the Italian People’s Party (PPI), Togliatti led the PSI to regain the reins of power in 1939, rising on a tide of discontent due to the ongoing depression and the failed Spanish intevention [1]. Two years after his election as Prime Minister of Italy, Europe plunged into war. Togliatti was less inclined to throw his lot with the Central or Radial Powers, equally dreading both a German-dominated and an Actionist dominated Europe. As superbombs rained down on the capitals of the Radial Powers, Togliatti initiated Operation Tiberius, capturing key territories from Britain and France in the hopes that Italy would be well positioned to serve as a counterbalance to the Central Powers […]

The death of Mussolini proved to be one of the greatest crises of the Tolgiatti government. As Italy and Austria-Hungary entered a diplomatic crisis, and Italian nationalism became inflamed on both sides of the border, it seemed to many that the 1920s were returning, and that political extremism was rearing its head once more. On the streets of Italian cities, both right-wingers and socialists carried signs calling for a Greater Italy, and major newspapers across the political spectrum printed cartoons showing Austria-Hungary being broken apart into various ethnic nations. The greatest point in the crisis came when imprisoned trade unionist and agitator Josip Tito escaped from his cell in Ljubjljana, and upon making his way to Italy was granted asylum ....”
- Togliatti, Phillip Downing (1997)

“The upcoming meeting of the International Working Union of Socalist Parties represents a critical juncture for the working classes across the world. After several terrible years of war, we now must grasp the opportunity to achieve liberation for all the toiling masses. In the continent of Europe, with its aristocratic excesses and reactionary oppression, Comrade Togliatti’s Italy remains a beacon of hope. It is therefore no coincidence that all representatives will gather in Rome to decide on the direction of the international socialist movement, and it would be my honor to lead the delegation for the Socialist Party of America.”
- Henry Wallace’s speech to the Socialist Party of America’s 1945 National Convention (held on December 11th, 1945)

[1] In my headcanon, Italy sent troops to assist the Spanish Monarchy during the Spanish Civil War

 

[kernel]

1946​

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February, 1946: The French Provisional Council, with German approval, creates a constitution establishing a new monarchy in France. Infante Jaime, Duke of Anjou (and brother of King Juan III of the Kingdom of Spain-in-exile) is chosen to be the new King of France, bringing a Legitimist claimant to the throne. Significant power is placed with the King, though the new National Council (which replaces the Provisional Council) will have powers to veto Royal decrees as well as pass annual budgets. The National Council itself will be chosen through complicated multilayered elections. While having some aspects of democracy, the new French government is deeply authoritarian and conservative, beholden to the will of Germany.

King Infante Jaime of France
​

February, 1946: Negotiations between the Indian National Congress, the Muslim League, and Viceroy Archibald Wavell continue into 1946. It is in the interests of all three parties to ensure that India is undivided to deter any future Japanese invasion, yet the specifics of how this will be done causes great controversy. Eventually, an agreement is reached in which India’s provinces are divided into three autonomous groupings: Pakistan, comprising the Provinces of Sind, Punjab, Northwest Frontier and Baluchistan, Hindustan,,comprising the Hindu majority provinces in Southern and Central India, and Bengal, comprising of the rump areas of Bengal still under British administration. These three areas will be united under a single federal government called the Federation of India. Princely states will be under federal jurisdiction but will have widespread powers within their territories.

On February 15th, 1946, the flag of the Indian Federation is hoisted in Delhi, and Jawaharlal Nehru takes office as the first Prime Minister of India, with Muhammad Jinnah as Foreign Minister and Finance Minister. The subcontinent is now divided into two nations: the Federation of India and Bose’s National Republic of India (also known as Azad Hind).

Crowds watch the hoisting of the Indian flag over the Red Fort in Dehli on February 15th, 1946​

March, 1946: Vietnamese revolutionary Nguyen Sinh Cung returns to Japanese Indochina from the United States. Upon reaching the port of Hamphong, he arranges clandestine meetings with several nationalist intellectuals and resumes contact with revolutionary cells operating in the countryside. Cung consolidates many of these disparate groups and figures to found the Proletarian League for the Independence of Indochina, a popular front movement to mount armed resistance against the Japanese Empire.

March, 1946: The first Five Powers Conference is held in Salzburg, Austria. All five powers sign the “Waterways Agreement” to protect navigation rights across the world. The strategic maritime cities of Tangier, Port Said, Aden, and the Shanghai International Settlement are designated as International Cities, which will be under joint administration and will host small numbers of troops and naval vessels from the Five Powers.

At the conference, Austrian foreign minister Richard von Coudenhove delivers his famous “Paneuropa speech”, in which he calls for a European federation of nations "from the Pyrennes to Vladivostok" to be created to to allow an "order based on peace to prevail". He compares his idea for the union with the USA's integration of the Southern States and the Japanese Co-Prosperity Sphere, declaring "let a united Europe, a united North America, and a united Asia embark on a crusade for peace and justice throughout the world, to end the scourge of war and ensure a Golden Age for all mankind to flourish."

Richard von Coudenhove givjng his famous "Paneuropa" speech at the first Five Powers Conference (1946)​

March, 1946: Indonesia gains its independence, becoming a client state and firm ally of Japan. Its president, the nationalistic Sukarno, calls for all of the East Indies to be united under Indonesian rule, triggering concern in the Portuguese government over the future of their colony of East Timor.

President Sukarno annnouncing Indonesia's independence.​

1946 onwards: In accordance with the Dewey (and Morgenthau) plans, occupation authorities begin mass requisitioning of food from southern farms in order to control the distribution of food to Southern inhabitants and limit their food intake to subsistence levels. The policy is intended to reduce the chance of rebellion against the U.S. and to create a reliable method of control over the South. Despite these aims, several farmers engage in resistance against the occupation authorities, and are detained in a sprawling network of detention camps popping up throughout the South.

Growing guerilla violence, concentrated in the rural areas of the Deep South as well as the Appalachian Mountains, plagues U.S. efforts to administer the former Confederacy. Some rural areas have fallen under the complete control of insurgents, who are largely comprised of former soldiers, Freedom Party officials, and civilian militia who refuse to recognize the Confederate Instrument of Surrender.

While an additional 20,000 troops are sent to the south to help quell the rebellion, publicly the Dewey Administration downplays the insurgency, with Dewey calling the militants “wreckers” and “remnants of a bygone nation” that will be easily defeated.

Confederate "Remnants" laying an ambush position against a US patrol​

April, 1946: With some insistence from the Ottoman Empire, King Faisal II of Egypt formally renounces his sovereignty over Sudan, which becomes an independent nation. Ruled by the charismatic religious leader Abd al-Rahman al-Mahdi, the new Sudanese Mahdiyya is a firm and loyal supporter of the sultan in Constantinople [1]. However, the re-establishment of the Mahdist state is not popular among the Christian minorities in the country. Furthermore, Egyptian nationalists are incensed at the loss of Sudanese territory, and their faith in the monarchy reaches an all-time low.

April, 1946: Grand Prix racing competitions resume, with races in Europe, North America, and South America. The Munich and San Francisco Grand Prix are the first to be considered compliant with the “Formula One” rules.

May, 1946: Poland wins the 1946 Football World Cup held in Sweden.

The 1946 Polish national football team​

May, 1946: Henry Wallace, representing the Socialist Party of America at the International Working Union of Socialist Parties in Rome, delivers the “Century of the Common Man” address, outlining his vision of a world free from exploitation and want.

​

(L) Henry Wallace giving his "Century of the Common Man" address, (Center and Right): Two paintings by Hungarian-American artist Hugo Gellert inspired by the address.

May, 1946: Simmering tensions between American and immigrant laborers reach a fever pitch in the summer of 1946. The economy had only started its recovery from the 1944 recession, and despite Dewey’s reconstruction programs much of the residents in the Great Lakes region still reside in refugee camps and makeshift shelters, with essential services and infrastructure still unavailable for the vast majority of people. Only a fraction of the industrial plants still open during the early 1940s have been rebuilt.

A scarcity of jobs means both native-born Americans and immigrants, who are mostly from Eastern Europe, compete for the same positions, with several factories preferring to employ the non-unionized immigrant labor force as workers.

On May 1st (May Day), a series of worker demonstrations in Youngstown, Ohio devolve into riots, with mobs attacking people of Eastern European and Jewish descent. Violence expands to cities across the Midwest, with Remembrance groups such as the Soldiers’ Circle joining in on the attacks.

As the weeks go on, rioting spreads to the West Coast, this time targeting Asian Americans (such as Chinese and Japanese Americans) as well as Mexican Americans. Both in the Midwest and West Coast, around 137 people are killed in what is later known as “Bloody May”. The true extent of these riots and pogroms will not be properly explored by historians until the 2000s.

The "Bloody May" riots in Detroit ​

May, 1946: Germany achieves important concessions from Wang Jinmei’s northern KMT government, based in Shanghai. These include trading and economic rights as well as the ability to station soldiers in the port of Shanghai.

June, 1946: The film Rio releases in the United States. Set in the Brazilian capital of Rio de Janeiro during the Second Great War, the story follows a young American spy, Jackson Douglas, on a mission to deliver information about a British superweapon.

June, 1946: The United States formally purchases Greenland and Iceland from Denmark for $200 million. Both territories had been under U.S. occupation since 1944. While Germany has some reservations, it accedes to the purchases as long as the United States does not deploy a significant number of troops or naval equipment in Iceland.

July, 1946: Ever since the fall of the Confederacy, several of its client states in Central America have fallen into turmoil. In Nicaragua, a civil war reignites between President Anastosio Samoza Garcia’s National Guard and revolutionaries led by Augusto Sandino. Beginning in July, the U.S. Navy attacks parts of the Nicaraguan coast, and captures Puerto Samoza, allowing for the rebels to be supplied with artillery and barrels. At the Battle of Masaya, the rebels, with assistance from US air power, take control of the heights around the capital city of Managua. In a deal negotiated by the U.S., Samoza flees to Brazil, saving the capital from a siege and allowing Sandino to create a new government [2].

US planes drop bombs over Nicaraguan government positions​

July, 1946: Chinese warlord Long Yun, with Japanese support, rises against the southern KMT government based in Canton (Guangdong), taking much of Yunnan and Guangxi provinces and declaring the “Yunnan Governate”. The rise in power of the Yunnan Government gives the Japanese great influence in Southern China, especially around the border regions of Japanese Indochina.

August, 1946: German singer Marlene Dietrich begins her North American tour, where she is greeted enthusiastically in several U.S. cities. However, she is received coolly in Quebec. During a show in the city of Trois Rivieres, the audience chants “Vive Francaise Libre!” and throws rotten apples and garbage at the stage. Dietrich and her entourage leave Quebec for their safety.

Marlene Dietrich on stage in Trois Reivieres, Quebec, right before audience members begin throwing garbage on stage.​

August, 1946: The Economic Relief Administration consolidates several steel companies such as U.S. Steel and Bethlehem Steel into the National Steel Corporation. The steel industry was heavily impacted by Operation Blackbeard, with several manufacturing facilities in the Midwest damaged by the war. National Steel is given several government subsidies and loans, as well as industrial equipment confiscated from former Confederate plants in Birmingham. The Association of Steelworkers labor union is given one-fifth of the seats on the company’s board of directors.

August, 1946: Various European nations attend the Schonhausen Conference in Berlin to discuss continent-wide economic policy. The European Customs Union, a common market among member nations, is formed. In addition, European Monetary System is created, pegging the currencies of member states to the Reichsmark to ensure “financial stability”. Critics accuse these two bodies of furthering German hegemony over Europe.

Italy is also an attendee at the Schonhausen Conference, and while it does not join the customs or monetary union it becomes a "most-favored nation" of the trading bloc, with major concessions granted over tariffs and market access. Germany hopes that Austro-Hungarian and Italian tensions will subside if Italy becomes more integrated into the Mitteleuropa system. Italy, on the other hand, does not want to become economically isolated from Europe, but simultaneously wishes to maintain its self-reliance and economic independence.

August, 1946: In the Blida Massacre, Pied Noir soldiers kill over 200 Arab Algerians, resulting in a wave of demonstrations and retaliatory violence.

September, 1946: The American Handball League is founded in Des Moines, Iowa. Comprised of about twenty teams across the nation, the league will see massive growth over the coming decades.

September, 1946: The 1946 German General Elections result in a victory for the Free Conservative Party, led by Carl Goerdeler, and their coalition partner, the Centre Party, led by Franz von Papen. Although the Social Democratic Party (led by Otto Grotewohl) wins a plurality of the seats, they are short of a majority and are unable to form a government. Goerdeler continues his tenure as Chancellor, with von Papen reinstated as foreign minister.

Carl Goerdeler, Chancellor of Germany​

October, 1946: Bolshevik revolutionaries in Russia capture the cities of Perm and Yekaterinburg as the nation delves further into instability. In response to the alarming rise in power of the Bolsheviks, the German Empire begins to provide arms shipments to the Czarist army as well as generous loans. However, this assistance comes at a price, and Germany is set to achieve economic control over Russia's vast resources.

October, 1946: Secretary of State George Kennan embarks on a diplomatic tour of South America, with an emphasis on the nations of Chile, Argentina, and Brazil. While Kennan is well received in all nations, there is still some tension with Brazil due to American involvement in Nicaragua, as Brazil is wary of the spread of revolutionary sentiments in the Latin American region. Kennan promises that the United States will not be involved in the internal affairs of any nation in South or Central America [3].

October, 1946: The writer JRR Tolkein, currently residing in South Africa, publishes the epic fantasy novel The Fall of Gondolin. The novel is the first in a series of books describing the epic tale of the Silmaril Jewels, collectively known as The Silmarillion. The novel is met with mixed reception at the time of publishing, though it later goes on to become a literary classic. In Germany, the novel is interpreted as an elaborate metaphor for the fall of Britain in the Second Great War, and is therefore banned from being published in the country until the 1960s. However, the novel does enjoy popularity in other parts of Europe such as Austria-Hungary.

A 2020 edition of the novel The Fall of Gondolin.​

November, 1946: Socialists gain control of the House and Senate in the 1946 midterm elections, Despite Dewey’s reconstruction and relief efforts, voters are dissatisfied with shortages of goods and a sluggish economic recovery after the 1944-45 recession. During the election campaign, Socialist politicians criticized the refusal of the Dewey administration to enact price controls on key products, blaming this on Dewey’s friendliness with Big Business. Republicans also expand their seats in the House and Senate.

Key politicians who won seats in this election include:

• Harold Stassen (Republican): elected U.S. Senator for Minnesota
• Joseph McCarthy (Socialist): elected U.S. Senator for Wisconsin
• Vito Marcantonio (Socialist): elected U.S. Senator for New York
• Lee Pressman (Socialist): elected U.S. Senator for New Jersey
• James P. Cannon (Socialist): elected Governor of Kansas
• Henry Wallace (Socialist): elected Governor of Iowa
• William Knowland (Democratic): elected U.S. Senator for California

December, 1946: Germany establishes the first permanent Antarctic bases in Queen Maud Land as part of the Ritscher Expedition. Japan, Argentina, Chile, Italy, Brazil, and the United States begin their own plans to gain a presence in the southern continent.

Gauss Station, the first permanent Antarctic base​

December, 1946: Japan delivers a secret “request” to Portugal for the colonies of Macau and East Timor to be placed in a joint administration with the Yunnan Governate and Indonesia respectively, as well as permission to station marines and navy ships in both territories. The request also mentions the possibility of a Japanese purchase of the territories if Portugal finds the terms unsuitable.

Japan also “requests” Australia for naval access in its ports along the Timor Sea and the Torres Strait, as well as for Australia to declare itself a neutral nation.

Both Australia and Portugal view the requests as a thinly veiled ultimatum, and appeal to the United States and Germany for assistance.

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[1] Ironically, the Mahdists were initially formed during a revolt against the Ottomans in the 19th century.
[2] The United States is not acting out of pure altruism. It has some interests in Nicaragua that will be explored in later updates.
[3] Whether this promise is kept remains to be seen.