Great War

Great War
	; Clockwise from top left: A K.S. machine gun team in the Rocky Mountains ; Messerschmitt BF 109 aircraft of the Free German Air Force in Southern England, 1933 ; Chinese troops fighting during the Battle of Wuhan ; A French Navy vessel on patrol in the Mediterranean ; A trench on the North American front in Superior, 1935 ; Royal Navy vessels during an engagement in the English Channel ;
Date	1 March 1932 – 25 October 1938; (6 years, 238 days)
Location	Europe, Africa, Middle East, Pacific Islands, China, Indian Ocean, North America, South America, Caribbean Sea, Atlantic Ocean
Result	Triple Alliance–Landonist Victory Creation of Mitteleuropa system in continental Europe; Landonist domination of North America and Balkans; Fall of Derzhavist Russia, French Fourth Republic, and Imperial Japan; beginning of military occupations; Decolonization of Asia and Africa and decline of European international influence; Creation of the League of Nations; Beginning of the Cold War; (see aftermath of the Great War);
Belligerents
Triple Alliance Germany; United Kingdom; Ottoman Empire; China; Yugoslavia; Netherlands; Bulgaria; and others; Colonial possessions British Burma ; British Raj ; Hong Kong ; Dutch East Indies ; German New Guinea ;	Entente Impériale France; Russia; Japan; and others; Puppet States Manchukuo ; Japanese Tondo ; Vietnam ; Colonial possessions French Indochina ; Japanese Korea ;
Landonist states: United Commonwealth; Italy; Iberian Union; Austria; Tournesol; Ireland; Mexico; Puppet States Albania ; Brazoria ; Croatia ; Landonist Greece ; Kosovo ; Soviet Ukraine ; Quebec ; Maritime Republic ; Landonist Superior ;	American Coalition Kingdom of Sierra; Superior; Astoria; Canada; Brazoria; Antilles; and others; Colonial possessions Guam ; Northern Mariana Islands ; Sierran East Indies ;
Commanders and leaders
Wilhelm II; Winston Churchill; Abdulmejid II; Chiang Kai-shek;	Jacques Doriot; Vladimir Salkinov; Hirohito;
Seamus Callahan; Spartaco Oddi; Enzo Durán;	Poncio Salinas; Christopher Rioux; Andreas von Sturnbach; Amelia Abarough;

This article is about the Altverse II conflict. For other uses, see Great War (disambiguation).

The Great War, also known as the World War, was a global conflict that lasted from 1932 to 1938. Contemporaneously known as the "the war to end all wars", it included the vast majority of the world's countries, including all the great powers, organized roughly into three opposing coalitions: the Entente Impériale, the Triple Alliance, and the Landonist Bloc. Fighting took place throughout Europe, the Middle East, Asia, the Pacific, North America, South America, and parts of Africa, and involved the mobilization of more than 100 million military personnel, making it the largest war in history. In a state of total war, the primary belligerents threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capacities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. The Great War was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, with an estimated 50 to 80 million total fatalities, with more civilians than military personnel killed. Tens of millions of people died as a result of genocide, famine, massacres, and disease. The war involved widespread use of aircraft, including in the strategic bombing of population centers, and other major advances in military and civilian technology, which intensified destruction.

The war resulted from a combination of factors, including the escalation of geopolitical disputes among the great powers, and an increasing framework of alliances which made the conflict global. Additional contributing factors include the emergence of the first socialist states under Landonism two decades prior, and the emergence of Derzhavism in Europe. The Revolutions of 1917–1923 greatly shifted the balance of power in Europe and North America, with the creation of the United Commonwealth under the Continentalist Party, a socialist revolution in Italy, and the unification of Ireland. Fearing the spread of communism across the continent, anti-Landonists would intervene in the Spanish Civil War (1926–1930), which served as a prelude to the wider Great War. After embarrassment in the Russo-Japanese War and subsequent rebellions across the 1910s, the Russian Revolution, and the emergence of a weak provisional government, Russian Derzhavism emerged under Vladimir Salkinov, who established a dictatorship after 1926. In France, internal strife after humiliation at the hands of a united Germany, and the dissolution of the Second French Empire in 1910, brought about the Derzhavist-inspired French State under Jacques Doriot. Anglo-German intervention in the Russian Revolution, along with clashes in Central Asia and Eastern Europe against British and German interests respectively, would lead to the creation of a Franco-Russian alliance in 1929. They were joined by Japan in 1931 to form the Entente Impériale—the culmination of the 1926 Molotov-Shidehara Pact, which normalized relations between Russia and Japan and acknowledged Japan's interests in China. The Anglo-German Alliance remained the largest counterbalance in Europe, joined by Sierra to form the Triple Alliance against both Japanese aggression in the Pacific, and to further contain the spread of Landonism.

The Great War is generally considered to have begun on 1 March 1932, when the French State, in coordination with Russia, launched an invasion of Germany. The Derhzavist alliance was declared war upon on 3 March by the United Kingdom and its allies. Under the terms of the Continental Pact of December 1931, the socialist republic of Italy and the Entente Impériale partitioned Eastern Europe and the Balkans into separate "spheres of influence", resulting in the Invasion of Yugoslavia and the creation of puppet states in the Balkans. The Franco-Russian alliance succeeded in occupying Germany and much of Central Europe through a series of campaigns and treaties, establishing hegemony over northern continental Europe. The uneasy peace between the Entente Impériale and the Landonists was broken by Operation Charlemagne, a surprise invasion of Landonist Spain, opening the Southern Front of the European Theatre in 1934. With Continental assistance, the Italian-Spanish alliance would repulse the French and launch a counter offensive, securing the southern half of the country, while in the north a Triple Alliance amphibious invasion at Normandy occupied the northern half of France and assisted in the liberation of Germany. By 1936, a stalemate would result in the partitioning of France along the occupation zones, leading to the creation of North and South France. A ceasefire between the Triple Alliance and Landonists would once more divide Europe into two zones, as both alliances invaded Russia and toppled the Derzhavist government in 1938.

In Asia, the ongoing Second Sino-Japanese War between Japan and China continued concurrently throughout the Great War, with a Japanese invasion of China being initially successful despite guerilla resistance. The Japanese occupied large portions of northern China, secured Manchuria and Taiwan, and numerous port cities along the coast. Japanese ambitions in the Pacific would lead to the bombardment of Pearl Harbor in Sierran Hawaii in late 1934, which corresponded with a simultaneous invasion of other Pacific territories, beginning the Pacific War. The Japanese Tondo campaign ultimately ended in a Japanese victory, and with limited French assistance, Japan invaded and occupied the remaining European colonies of Southeast Asia, although sparking a rebellion against France in Indochina in the process. For the remainder of the war, the Japanese and Triple Alliance battled extensively at sea in the South Pacific, with the allied countries adopting an "island hopping" strategy toward Japan which gradually reversed its gains. An allied invasion of the Russian Far East in 1938 also contributed to the collapse of the Derzhavist government and the establishment of Ussuria. The Ottoman Empire, having aligned with British and German interests, became bogged down in the Caucasus and the Balkans against Russia. A Entente-supported Arab Uprising led to the creation of new Arab states in Mesopotamia and Levant regions, while the Landonist-led North African Campaign, while initially successful, was repulsed from Egypt. The Ottoman Sultan signed a peace agreement which led to his overthrow by the Turkish National Movement, launching the Turkish War of Independence against Greece, Bulgaria, and Russia.

In North America, the Great War generally began on 16 April 1932 with the Invasion of Brazoria by the United Commonwealth, in support of Landonist rebels in the ongoing Brazorian Civil War. The Continental Revolutionary War of 1917–1921 previously sparked conflict with the rest of Anglo-America, and an uneasy peace developed after revolution failed to materialize across the rest of the continent. The commencement of the Brazorian uprising broke any illusion of coexistence with the Landonist east, catalyzing an anti-Landonist alliance of the remaining powers on the continent – Sierra, Superior, Astoria, Canada, and Brazoria – into an alliance concentrated on the containment of United Commonwealth. Although seemingly isolated in the continent, the United Commonwealth possessed a significant population, industrial, and infrastructural advantage, allowing it to quickly mobilize and overwhelm many of its neighbors. The brief Invasion of Canada during the Crimson Summer – an overwhelming combined invasion by air, land, and sea – led to the surrender of the republic after 56 days, with the United Commonwealth propping up Landonist puppet regimes in Quebec and the Maritimes. The Western American Front, involving the Landonist invasions of Superior, Brazoria, and later Sierra, proved one of the most deadly fronts of the conflict, eventually collapsing into a stalemate at the Rocky Mountains near the Sierran border. The Landonists would secure victory in the Brazorian Revolutionary War in 1935, subsequently cementing Brazoria as a Landonist state. Superior would likewise be nearly completely occupied by a Landonist government, although Superian guerrilla campaigns impeded Continental efforts. After the Mexican Campaign of 1935, which saw Sierra's southern territory overwhelmed and brought the front nearly to the doorstep of Porciúncula, a Sierran counteroffensive would push the Landonists back into Mexico, ensuring Sierra’s survival. Landonist forces would also secure Sierran territories in the Yucatan peninsula, although further Landonist interventions in Latin America proved a crippling mistake. In the Caribbean the Landonists blockaded the Antilles and captured numerous islands, although under pressure from the Empire of Brazil these gains were curtailed. With the French invasions of Spain and Italy, these conflicts were folded into the European war against the Landonist powers, through a Continental-Italian alliance.

The Great War changed the political alignment and social structure of the globe, and set the foundation for the international order of the world's nations for the rest of the 20th century and into the present day. The League of Nations was established to foster international cooperation and prevent future conflicts, with the great powers – China, Germany, the United Kingdom, the United Commonwealth, and Sierra—becoming the permanent members of its Security Council. The war resulted in the complete collapse of the Derzhavist alliance in Europe, and a capitulation of Japan, despite the Emperor being retained. Europe became divided roughly between the liberal democratic north and the Landonist south, in what became known as the European segment of the Iron Curtain, while in North America the continent remained divided between east and west. The United Commonwealth maintained its position as a Landonist state in the continent, and established a series of Landonist-aligned buffer states in what became the Chattanooga Pact, while the Anglo-German and American alliances evolved into the Northern Treaty Organization as a counterweight. This division of the globe into two blocs, supported by rival superpowers, set the stage for a nearly seventy-year Cold War. In the wake of European devastation, the influence of its great powers waned, triggering the decolonization of Africa and Asia. Most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery and expansion. Political and economic integration, especially in Europe, began as an effort to forestall future hostilities, end pre-war enmities, and forge a sense of common identity.

Background

Relations of the Great Powers, 1848–1932

Western civilization underwent profound scientific and political changes in the 19th century that accelerated its development and placed it in a position of wealth and power far ahead of any others. The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain before radiating outward to other countries of Europe, which followed behind it to varying degrees. The industrial economy created a larger output of manufactured goods while increasing demand for natural resources. Both the natural resources and new markets for the manufactured products were increasingly sought outside of Europe, leading to more efforts at colonization in Africa and Asia during the century. The technological changes occurred around the same time as the spread of liberalism, mass democracy, and nationalism across Europe in the aftermath of the French Revolution, contributing to the Revolutions of 1848 and the emergence of Germany and Italy as unified nation states. By the middle of the century Great Britain was at the top of the hierarchy of Western countries in power and prestige. Its status as an island country in the Atlantic meant that it could focus on building its maritime empire without fear of invasion, which increased the country's wealth and made it the center of the international financial system. Britain was also able to intervene on its own terms in European affairs to maintain the balance of power that had been established at the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 by helping ensure that no single country could dominate the continent.

The unification of Germany in 1848–1853 initially strengthened Britain's position and changed the situation in Europe. In the centuries that Central Europe was fractured and not dominated by any single power, it allowed the countries of Western Europe, such as France, Spain, and the Netherlands, to challenge British maritime supremacy. The emergence and rapid economic growth of Germany forced the western European states to prioritize their security on the continent and gave Britain the advantage in the colonial sphere. This was why France backed down and accepted British demands during a colonial border dispute in Africa in 1898 rather than risk a war with Britain while the German Army was on the French border. Under the leadership of Emperor Wilhelm I, and especially his successor Friedrich III, Germany maintained goods relations with Britain by avoiding an expansion of its navy or its colonial empire to a degree that would threaten British interests. It also entered the Three Emperors' League with Russia and Austria, to prevent either of them from becoming an ally of France. These policies changed after the death of Friedrich III in 1902, who was succeeded by Wilhelm II.

While still maintaining close ties with Britain, Wilhelm II began antagonizing both Russia and France. He discontinued the Three Emperors' League in 1908 when the Bosnian Crisis revealed the rivalry between Austria and Russia over influence in the Balkans, as he decided that Austria would be easier to control. Instead of Russia he invited Italy, which joined the League in 1909. Furthermore Wilhelm had many conversations with King Albert II of Great Britain. The British had stayed out of entanglements on the continent, but saw France as their main rival after the French intrigues in British Africa and the French opposition to Britain's interests in the Far East, where France joined Russia in limiting Japan's gains after its victory in the First Sino-Japanese War. The French emperor Napoleon IV, who received an education in Britain, tried to improve Anglo-French relations before his early death, but his successor Napoleon V pursued an expansionist foreign policy and was hostile towards Britain. By 1908, both King Albert and British Prime Minister Henry Campbell-Bannerman favored a German alliance as a way to counter France, seeing Germany as less of a threat to maintaining the Concert of Europe than the French. Wilhelm II came to believe that Britain would not assist France in the event of a war with Germany.

In April 1910 the Agadir Crisis led to the outbreak of the Franco-German War. The French had been expanding their control over Morocco over the previous decade, but had promised to respect German economic interests. A rebellion that broke out against the Sultan of Morocco was used as a pretext by France to subordinate the Sultan's government to French administration. Believing that Germany's economic interests were threatened, Emperor Wilhelm sent a German gunboat to Agadir. After negotiations between German and French diplomats went nowhere, and Wilhelm thought that war with the French Empire was inevitable, he ordered a mobilization. The Germans mobilized their troops more efficiently and made better use of railways and artillery, while France's own rail network was not as extensive. Careful planning, faster mobilization, and more effective command and control by the Germans resulted in the French Army being routed in the northeast of France before capturing Paris, ending the war. The quick German victory stunned European observers and led to a political crisis in France that culminated with the abdication of Napoleon V in the fall of 1910. The war against France was the first of the cracks that emerged in the European balance of power that would lead to the situation of 1932.

Emergence of Landonism and Derzhavism

Among the new ideologies to arise in the 19th century was socialism. It was a reaction against the dangerous and impoverished conditions of the working class that was created by industrialization, which was furthest along in the countries of Western Europe and North America. Socialism eventually developed into Marxism–Landonism, with the former originating in Europe from Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, and the latter being a North American development on their work by Isaiah Landon. In the United Commonwealth, decades of government corruption and mismanagement resulting from the alliance of financial interests with the dominant Federalist Party, along with the strictest working conditions in all of the industrialized world, led to the Continental Revolutionary War in 1917. An attempt to put down a rebellion in the Appalachian Mountains sparked a civil war that ended with the Continentalist Party in control of the country, and the Federalists exiled to the Antilles in the Caribbean. The U.C. became the first revolutionary communist state, along with Italy which also underwent its own revolution in 1918. A military revolt precipitated a takeover of the Italian parliamentary system by the Socialist Party of Italy, under Benito Mussolini, who created a one-party state, abolished the Italian monarchy, and attempted to address Italy's economic backwardness compared to the rest of western Europe.

The appearance of a communist state in both Europe and in North America provoked immediate responses from their neighbors, and throughout the 1920s both continents were consumed in a "red scare" as governments began fearing a larger communist uprising. However, the initial Revolutions of 1917–1923 did not see any more successful communist takeovers, and the ideology remained confined to Italy and the United Commonwealth. In the Austro-Hungarian War, a brief attempt to create a communist regime in Hungary failed, and in the Russian Revolution the appearance of the Marxist–Landonist Bolsheviks actually led to a far-right movement called the Derzhavist Party to take power in the Tsar's government. Based on the ideas of Pavel Gorgulov, the derzhavists were responding to similar pressures in Russia as the communists were in other countries, though seeking to harness capitalist industries more effectively instead of trying to remove them. The ideology was also driven with esoteric ideas about Russia's ancient history, western civilization, and the need to defend it from its perceived internal and external enemies. Derzhavism was also violently anti-Landonist. It gained the attention of right-wing movements in other parts of Europe and North America, most notably the National Republican Movement in France.

By the start of 1924, when Europe and North America emerged from the Revolutions, efforts were made to prevent communism from spreading. The Second French Empire gave away to the French Third Republic in 1910, which had a chaotic political history and oscillated between monarchists, liberals, and socialists before the National Republican Movement swept the legislative elections in 1926. The National Republicans established a similar state to the Derzhavists in Russia, and the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War gave them a reason to consolidate their power into a one-party government. The head of the French State, Jacques Doriot, assisted the Spanish nationalists in their war against an assortment of leftists with weapons, funding, and volunteers, though they were defeated after their initial offensives failed and the nationalist forces were isolated to several regions. Portugal also fell to the Spanish Landonist Workers' Party after a British attempt to defend it failed. The British Expeditionary Force, despite being vastly outnumbered, held off the Spanish advance long enough for the Portuguese royal family and much of the government to evacuate to London, where it formed a "Free Portuguese" government-in-exile. The Spanish Civil War, with its unprecedented level of violence and devastation that had not been seen in Europe, created more committed Derzhavists in opposition to communism, especially in France, and set Europe into a consolidation around three major "blocs" of countries.

Franco-Russian Entente and the "Three Bloc World"

With France's defeat by Germany in 1910, the leaders of Britain were given a sense of relief about the perceived threat to the balance of power, as represented by Napoleon V's French Empire. Even as France entered a period of political turbulence Britain continued to strengthen its relationship with Germany, and entered a Triple Alliance with Germany and the Ottoman Empire in 1920. The latter was included because of the growing importance of its oil for both Germany and Britain. They reached an agreement in 1913 to delineate their economic spheres of influence in the Ottoman Empire, with Iraq and the Persian Gulf going to British interests while Anatolia and Syria were in the German sphere. Meanwhile France, under a series of conservative governments, entered into a Franco-Russian Entente in 1916, an arrangement that was strengthened after the Revolutions of 1917–1923 and that was joined by Japan in 1926. The Japanese were escalating their conflict with China and needed to secure their frontier from potential Russian attack, leading to the Molotov-Shidehara Pact that divided the Far East between their spheres of influence. Despite the formation of the "Entente Impériale" of France, Russia, and Japan, the British establishment was mainly concerned with Marxism–Landonism, and missed the significance of Derzhavism.

Italy, Spain, and the United Commonwealth formed their own group of countries that was isolated from the rest of the world, while the Triple Alliance and the non-communist nations of North America established their own partnership, driven by the need to economically and militarily contain the communists. The Cliveden set, an informal organization of influential aristocrats and politicians who controlled British foreign policy, had reached the conclusion that France was now a bulwark against communism, and that the ultimate goal was a pact of Britain, Germany, France, and Russia for the purpose of containing that ideology in Europe. This would reduce the current "three bloc world" of the Landintern, the Anglo-German Alliance, and the Franco-Russian Entente to just two blocs. France's attention had to be diverted from its hostility against Germany towards Spain and Italy. However, the Cliveden set underestimated French resentment against Germany and Britain, and while Jacques Doriot opposed communism, he and his other officials were also motivated by anti-English and anti-German feelings that were widespread in France. Britain continued to assist France discreetly in the late 1920s, such as organizing technology transfers under the pretext of fighting the Spanish Civil War. This did not change until 1931, when Winston Churchill, who saw France as the primary threat to Britain, became prime minister, though the "two bloc world" supporters still held a lot of influence in the British Foreign Office.

In the late 1920s France was able to develop an air force and the beginnings of a tank force with assistance from the British, and improved the efficiency of their army based on the experience of the Spanish and Franco-German Wars. Even though Franco-British interests were still reconcilable, the ideology of its leadership and desire for a war with Germany to avenge the humiliation of 1910 made France drift further away from the Anglo-German Alliance. Furthermore, British international banking groups had developed ties with Germany and the North American countries, but were excluded from French economic development after 1926 and from Russian economy after 1923. This had the effect of strengthening the Anglo-German relationship. Eventually it became impossible to bridge the gap between the Franco-Russian Entente and the Anglo-German Alliance. In the Americas, Sierra, Superior, and Brazoria entered an agreement for mutual defense as they faced the looming threat of the United Commonwealth, which was led by Seamus Callahan, who wanted to surround the U.C. with a ring of satellite states as a buffer with western North America. Although neither side wanted a war in 1932, the events in Brazoria made conflict unavoidable. In the Far East, Japan had become isolated due to its war against China, and Sierran-led economic sanctions presented a problem that could only be resolved by attacking south, to obtain the resources of British- and Dutch-controlled Southeast Asia.

Prelude

Alsatian Crisis

Tensions in the Far East

Brazorian Civil War

Course of the war

1932: Initial offensives

Western Front: The German War

French soldiers in Saarbruken during the invasion, March 3 1932.

On 1 March 1932, France invaded Germany after staging a series of false flag attacks on the border between France and Germany as the pretext for a full-scale invasion. The first French attack was an offensive into the Saarland in Western Germany with the invading forces numbering at 40 divisions. The United Kingdom responded with an ultimatum given against France, demanding the withdrawal of all French forces by March 3 from Germany or risk war against Britain. The ultimatum was ignored by France come March 3 and so the United Kingdom formally issued a declaration of war against France, followed by the Netherlands, the Ottoman Empire, and Britain's overseas colonies and Commonwealth member states within the wider British Empire. The declaration of war was followed up by the immediate mobilization of the British Armed Forces, in particular the Royal Navy for operations against the French Navy for control over the English Channel. The German Army forces stationed in the west were outnumbered, but put up heavy resistance and bought the rest of the Reichswehr enough time to mobilize their reserves and other troops for war. By the start of April, the French Army had successfully captured the Rhineland in western Germany and made headways into Bavaria, but losses were high on both sides.

On April 13, three days before the opening of the North American front, Russia launched its own invasion of Germany on the grounds of protecting Russia's westernmost borders and accusing the German state of supplying arms to Polish insurgents and persecution of Slavs within their borders. By the time of the Russian invasion, the German military had been completely mobilized and matched the numbers of the invading French Army, however the Russian Army fielded larger numbers of troops and Germany's eastern territories had been understaffed in several areas, leaving Prussia exposed and soon overran in several areas. Facing overwhelming numbers, the German Army in the east was forced to retreat and set up defensive positions in the capital city of Berlin, which would be besieged on April 20 by Russian forces. Two days after the Russian declaration of war, the British Army landed troops in Central Germany along with further reinforcements from the Royal Navy to support the German Navy and the Royal Air Force. These reinforcements, the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) managed to relieve some of Germany's pressures in the west and allowed them to concentrate newly raised divisions in the east as British and German troops fought in the Rhineland and in the Netherlands as the Royal Netherlands Army was mobilized following the start of hostilities due to France's revanchist ambitions and backing of French separatists in Flanders. The Ottoman Empire had also mobilized their military and launched raids against Russian military bases in Crimea and Southern Ukraine.

Invasions of Brazoria and Superior

Continental Army forces marching through Dallas, 18 April 1932.

On April 16, over a month after the start of hostilities in Europe, the United Commonwealth launched a full-scale invasion of the neighboring Republic of Brazoria with the intent on occupying the country and establishing a friendly communist government. The invasion was launched from the Arkansas and Louisiana in the Okaloosa, targeting the cities of Waco, Houston, and Oklahoma City. Tournesol, an ally of the United Commonwealth, allowed the Continental Army to station troops on its borders and invade the province of Oklahoma to its south and would allow Continental forces to attack nearby Colorado as well, where they could attack the Kingdom of Sierra by air. The invasion resulted in a formal declaration of war and mobilized the Sierran Crown Armed Forces for war against the United Commonwealth, effectively opening up the North American theater and bringing the war to North American soil. The Republic of Brazoria would also issue its own declaration of war as well on the United Commonwealth and would receive material assistance and direct military intervention from Sierra to aid in their war effort. By the time war broke out, Brazoria was fighting its own civil war between Landonist insurgents of the Brazorian United Landonist Relief Front and the "Whites", anti-communist forces supportive of the democratic republican government of Brazoria backed by Sierra and the American Coalition.

Due to the civil war, Continental forces were able to capture large swaths of Brazorian territory and captured many cities, including Waco and Oklahoma City and surrounding cities, settlements, and towns as well. Dallas, one of Brazoria's largest cities, was hotly contested before the Great War began and fell quickly once the Continental Army arrived and the Brazorian Army was forced to retreat, handing the city over. Houston, Brazoria's largest city and a major industrial hub located in the south, was under White control when the war broke out and didn't surrender. Instead, fortifications were built and reinforcements from all branches of the Brazorian Armed Forces were brought in to defend the city from the advancing Continental forces which arrived at the city's gates on April 28. The Brazorian forces, under the command of General Lawrence Armstrong, refused the demand to surrender and began the Siege of Houston that same day. The nearby city of Galveston was secured by both the Brazorian Navy and elements of the Sierran Royal Navy and a submarine squad of the Antillean Navy later on to ensure that Houston would remain supplied to aid in the defense.

Continental Army soldiers distributing newspapers to citizens in occupied Superior.

Outside of its goal of spreading Landonism and establishing a union of socialist states in North America in accordance with the end goal of Continentalism, the United Commonwealth also sought to capture Brazoria knowing that it would allow them to invade Sierra and eliminate their biggest geopolitical and military rival. As part of this effort, Superior would also be invaded on April 19 by the Continental Army's Northern Front. The Superian Royal Army was still undergoing the process of mobilization and was caught off guard when the invasion began. This, along with their relatively smaller sized military, allowed the Superian Armed Forces to be overwhelmed at the border and retreated inland, with the federal government and royal family fleeing westward towards the city of Clarke in Absaroka and declared it Superior's provisional wartime capital while their official capital of Saint Anthony fell following the capture of Minnesota and the other eastern states. The invasion of Superior was motivated in part by the desire to spread the Sierran military thin by forcing it to fight on two fronts, weaking Sierra and leaving it open for a possible invasion. By May 3, the United Commonwealth had successfully captured and occupied large portions of Superian territory being stopped following their defeat at the Battle of Sand Hills, allowing coalition forces to retain control over half of Nebraska along with most of Lakota and Yellowstone states and the northwestern most edge of Dakota. All occupied territories would be organized under the Superian Continental Republic, a U.C.-backed puppet government under Jon Hansen.

The Kingdom of Sierra would intervene in defense of Superior and would be supported by Canada and Astoria, the latter of which possessed a fairly significant industrial base and capacity for a relatively smaller sized country in North America. Astoria was aligned with Sierra and as such joined the American Coalition before the outbreak of war in North America. Seeking to support the American war effort, Astoria would commit to sending material aid and assistance to Superior and other coalition member states, referred to as Astorian Lend-Lease. The country's involvement was viewed as essential as it was able to relieve pressure on Sierra and its allies as well as serving as a rearguard in defense of Sierra's territory of Alaska.

Japanese attack in the Far East

Japanese forces advancing through French Indochina, 22 April 1932.

Following the Japanese invasion of Mainland China in support of the First Manchu Republic against the Chinese Republic, the Empire of Japan pushed into mainland China and captured the northern territories of the country along with besieging Shanghai. The Nanjing massacre along with the shelling of the HRMS Fremont, caused a deterioration in diplomatic relations between Japan and Sierra, convincing the latter to send military aid to the National Revolutionary Army and the Nationalist Government. Sierran military assistance to China put the country at odds with Japan and conflict was viewed as inevitable by the Japanese military establishment and government in Tokyo, especially as Japan possessed military ambitions across all of the Pacific and Asia. The Second Sino-Japanese War would be absorbed into the Great War and Japan would court the backing of its allies in France and Russia to aid in its war effort under the guise of expanding Entente influence into the region, to the point that France permitted the Imperial Japanese Army to advance through French Indochina to attack China's southern flank. Seeking to inhibit Japan's offensives, Sierra imposed an oil embargo on Japan along with the United Kingdom and other countries, putting economic pressure on Japan by cutting it off from oil and other resources needed to fuel their war machine, the latter of which was dependent on foreign imports due to Japan possessing limited resources within its own borders. In response, the Royal Navy raided Entente bases and Britain continued supplying China through the Burma Road.

The embargo against Japan by Western Powers along with other sanctions caused Japan to turn to drastic measures in order to shore up the needed resources and material to support their war machine. To this end, Japan instituted a series of severe measures to acquire needed resources for the Japanese military and deprive their Chinese foes, in particular the Chinese Communist Party, of any resources they could use in their fight against Japan. Such measures would be reported and caused public opinion to further turn against Japan worldwide. These sanctions ultimately compelled Japan to engage in diplomatic negotiations with the American and European allies, mainly with the Kingdom of Sierra, Germany, the Netherlands, and United Kingdom in order to lift the sanctions and possibly end the war in China. Such a move was done as Japan was hesitant to engage in open warfare against the Allies, especially given Sierra's larger population, military's and industrial base along with the resources of its allies such as the British Empire and its vast overseas holdings.

Japanes aircraft launching from the Akagi for the attack on Manilla Bay, 26 April 1932.

While the Japanese government hoped for a positive outcome in the negotiations, they ultimately went nowhere and caused frustration in Tokyo, compelling Imperial Japan to prepare for war. Emperor Hirohito was initially hesitant about war against the allies, but began favoring Japan's entry into the war as the negotiations dragged on and no progress was made. A conference was held on April 2 for the impeding war where Japan's top military and political leaders met to discuss the strategy and objectives of their impending conflict against Sierra and the European allies with Emperor Hirohito and prime minister Saito Makoto chairing the conference. During the conference, IJA general and Minister of War Sadao Araki called for the Imperial Japanese Navy and its air service to bomb the K.S. navy base at Manilla Bay in the Sierran East Indies (present-day Tondo) in order to cripple its Pacific Fleet that was anchored there, believing that the surprise attack should destroy the fleet believing that it would allow Japan to invade and conquer several territories in South Asia such as the resource rich Dutch East Indies which possessed large quantities of oil that was needed for Japan's territorial conquests. Preparations for war began shortly after the conference began in preparation for the both the attack on the K.S. naval base in Manilla Bay and followup invasions against European colonies. By April 23, the mobilization was completed and Japan issued its offer to the allies; Japanese promises to not attack any territories south of China in exchange for the embargo and all sanctions against Japan. On April 25, a counter-offer was issued by Porciúncula calling for Japan to withdrawal from China and for Japan to agree to non-aggression treaties with the allies.

Battle of the Rocky Mountains

Crimson Summer: Collapse of Canada

Naval warfare

1933–1935: Consolidation and turning point

Fall of Yugoslavia

An Italian Army artillery unit in Ochrid, 9 April 1933.

At the onset of the war, Yugoslavia officially declared itself neutral and sought to maintain this position by maintaining relations and offering concessions and deals to both Landintern and Entente nations. Yugoslavia was a constitutional monarchy and as such, the Yugoslav government was inertly suspicious of the Landintern, in particular Italy, as they feared that the country would possibly be invaded and built up its military in preparation for a possible assault, however it was undermined by outdated equipment, lacking logistics, and a lack of proper transportation infrastructure. In December of 1931 months before the outbreak of war, the Continental Pact was signed between Italy and France in which the Balkans was recognized as being in Italy's sphere of influence and as such, an invasion was prepared. Following failed diplomatic efforts, Italy would invade Yugoslavia on 8 April 1933 on the grounds of preventing further French expansionism and protecting the interests of ethnic minorities and the Yugoslav working class. The Royal Yugoslav Army was mobilized on the outset of the invasion, however its preexisting issues prevented a proper response to the invasion, finding limited success against the Italians who invaded via occupied Albania and by sea.

Operation Charlemagne: Invasion of Spain

Blockades of the Antilles and France

Caucasus Front

Protesters on the Outskirts of Tbilisi in 1935

In the Caucasian Region independent Ethnic Revolts against the decline of Derzhavist Russia led to Allied-Supported revolutionaries in Tbilisi rebelling against Russia starting in 1933 and ending a Revolution that saw the beginning of the end to Derzhavist Rule within the Caucasus. In 1936 allied supported from the Triple Alliance helped fund a certain georgian revolutionary and general named Giorgi Mazniashvili who had been a outspoken anti-russian crusader ever since the Derzhavist Control of Georgia began. The Tbilisi Revolt led to Democratic Firebrand, Noe Zhordania to Return to Georgia as a leading Figure in a Fight against Russia and the Derzhavists. Russian Occupation with the European Front led to no strong military opposition towards the New Georgian State. In Armenia and Azerbaijan, Similar Independance Movements appeared and were further influenced by Democratic powers in Western Europe rather than Landonist Allies in North America. Armenian Nationalists attempted to sway the Nation away from Western Democracy and desired to Ally with Landonists as they wanted to take territories from both the Ottomans and Azerbaijan but after the Ottoman collapse the Nationalist pro-Landonist movements in Armenia died out after Concessions from the Anatolian Republic. The Countries in Caucasia after the war Continued an Alignment with Western Democracy and all ended up Joining the League of Nations. The Caucasus front was never a Major front during the war an remained in obscurity and unimportance. Russian Armies never met along the Caucasus with Revolutionaries and Rebels but it remained influential in the Establishment of Western Democracy in the Caucasus and Helped prevent a Landonist Takeover or a Continued Derzhavist controll of the Oil reserves in the Southern and Northern Caucasus.

New Guinea and the Solomons

Operation Anvil and the Caribbean

The Mexico Campaign

The Burma Road and Operation Ichi-Go

The Arab Revolt

1936: Allied counterattack

Operation Dragoon: Italo-Spanish invasion

Island-hopping in the Pacific

Collapse of the Ottoman Empire

Liberation of Superior

The Tondo campaign

Operation Overlord: Normandy landings

1937–1938: Derzhavist collapse

Late war diplomatic conferences

Capitulation and Division of France

Negotiated surrender of Japan

Collapse of Russia

Aftermath and legacy

Consequences and settlement

The basis for the postwar settlement was determined at the Pittsburgh Conference in Pennsylvania, United Commonwealth, in February 1938. The resolution focused around the conflict among the North American states and the treatment of the defeated derzhavist countries. The big four leaders that led the delegations included Winston Churchill of Britain, Christopher Rioux of Sierra, Seamus Callahan of the United Commonwealth, and Erwin Rommel of Germany. The goal of the delegations from the Western Allies was to prevent more of Europe and North America from being taken over by the communist bloc, as it was clear that Europe and North America were falling into a division between two opposing alliances, while Callahan sought to strengthen the United Commonwealth's position and ensure continued cooperation for peace through the League of Nations. His counterparts agreed to establish a League of Nations as well, including a Security Council that consisted of their countries and China, as they saw it as a way to restrain the United Commonwealth in the future. The charter of the League of Nations was adopted in New York City in March 1938. The Pittsburgh Conference adopted a set of principles for a postwar international order that was left ambiguous, and inadvertently set the stage for the early Cold War conflicts.

The first point of agreement was allowing the United Commonwealth to achieve a sphere of influence in Eastern North America and Southern Europe, while the Anglo-German-Sierran coalition secured Western North America and the rest of Europe. A general consensus was arrived regarding the Allied occupation of Russia, which was split among several zones, and the independence of several former territories of the Russian Empire. They also agreed to cooperate with the new government in Japan on the basis of its surrender in 1937 without an occupation of the Japanese home islands. The withdrawal of Japanese troops from Manchuria and Korea was deemed necessary, with Rioux wanting to assist China and punish Japan's aggression, while Callahan believed it would give an opportunity for the local communist parties to take control. One major point that was left vague was the status of Greece, which had been attacked by Italy in 1931 before arriving at a truce in the form of the Rome Accords, and later fought the derzhavist regime in Bulgaria. This led to a conflict among the Big Four after the outbreak of the Greek Civil War in the years following.

The dissolution of the Ottoman Empire was accepted, and the Conference agreed to recognize the emerging Arab states as well as the Anatolian Republic. The spheres of influence were split between Anglo-Sierran and German interests, with the Arabian peninsula and the Persian Gulf being recognized as part of the former and the Levant as the latter. Callahan did not make any commitments about the United Commonwealth's potential future involvement in the region during the Conference. Churchill accepted that the Ottoman sultanate would not be restored, and agreed to pressure Greece to end its occupation of western Anatolia. The Greek refusal to do so until the routing of their army by the Anatolians contributed to instability and the start of the civil war in that country. The Allies later found that their attempt to keep the Middle East stable by backing monarchies was challenged by a wave of Arab nationalism and socialism, leading to the Arab Cold War after 1952 and the Suez Crisis in 1960, widely seen as the end of European colonialism.

The biggest point of disagreement in Pittsburgh was France. There Callahan insisted on the Italo-Spanish zone of occupation, mostly of southern France, to become a communist state. He knew that Spartaco Oddi and Luis Guido wanted to secure a land corridor between their countries through southern France and to create a buffer with the Anglo-German alliance. The new border would run roughly in the middle of France, from the Atlantic coast to Switzerland. Austria and Switzerland would be recognized as neutral by both sides, while in the Balkans, Croatia and Albania were recognized as communist republics. Churchill and Rioux wanted to create a united France that would be a bulwark against communism, and would weaken the position of Italy and Spain, something that was opposed by Callahan. Rommel supported the partition to prevent the resurgence of French imperialism and militarism.

The opposition of Churchill and Rioux was changed when they realized that the majority of France's industrial and resource-rich areas were part of the Anglo-German occupation zone, and they thought the agricultural southern France would not be capable of surviving as an independent state. The border of North France and South France was agreed to as the line of control between the two blocs. The allies agreed on the principle of banning derzhavism, punishing war criminals, and disbanding all military forces of the occupied countries. In North France, a Western parliamentary system guaranteeing freedom of speech, assembly, and religion was to be established while in South France all parties except the French Communist Party were already being closely monitored by the Italians and the Spanish. Churchill insisted on the French colonial authorities in Algeria to remain in place, while British Egypt and Libya, along with British bases in Malta, Gibraltar, and Cyprus, created a string of Allied bases through the the Mediterranean, from the Strait of Gibraltar to the Suez Canal. The northern coast of the Mediterranean was under Eastern bloc control, with the exception of Greece. These were the basic principles adopted as the Pittsburgh Declaration.

The surrender of Russia in May 1938 left Europe and North America divided between the communist Eastern bloc and the capitalist West. With mass armies along their borders, the power of the two blocs was balanced. The initial period of cooperation within the League of Nations, between 1938 and 1940, gave way to increasing rivalry. Rioux was replaced by Poncio Salinas, who believed in maintaining a strong alliance of Western countries and established the Northern Treaty Organization in April 1940 with the signing of its founding document in London. Created for the purpose of "defending Western civilization, democracy, and freedoms," the NTO established a unified military command and functioned as a tripwire that meant an invasion of one member country would start a war with the entire Western bloc. Prior to the actions of Salinas, Callahan hoped that Sierra would return to its prewar isolationism, and in 1938 and 1939 he saw the British Empire as the primary obstacle to the United Commonwealth and the Marxist-Landonist countries, which was faced with economic difficulties from financing the war and the loss of the British pound sterling as the international reserve currency in favor of a basket of currencies. Accordingly, Callahan thought that the devastation of the war and the growing nationalism in European colonies meant it was only a matter of time before communist movements took power in the Western bloc. Salinas believed that isolationism would place Sierra in a vulnerable position and wanted to avoid another Great War in ten or twenty years' time, and also thought that the key to economic recovery was trade between America and Europe.

The years between 1940 and 1950 saw the drifting apart of the two blocs beyond the point of reconciliation, the onset of the Iron Curtain, and the start of the Cold War. Tensions along the border between North and South France in the winter of 1940–1941, the intensification of the Chinese Civil War during that decade, and the outbreak of other conflicts were perceived by London and Porciúncula as violations of the Pittsburgh Declaration, while the United Commonwealth condemned the entry of Greece and the Anatolian Republic into the NTO. The scientific and technological race that occurred to develop nuclear weapons during the 1940s became another source of tension. A speech given by Seamus Callahan at the founding conference of the Chattanooga Pact, the United Commonwealth's response to the NTO, made it clear that he saw the Eastern bloc as the world's hope for a brighter future and that it was surrounded by hostile capitalist tyrannies. The 1940s and 1950s saw the only major wars between the two blocs, which were only then followed by indirect proxy wars in the 1960s to the 1980s. The policy of containment of Continental power was followed in the former period by Salinas and Franklin Tan, while the advent of nuclear weapons and the Irish Missile Crisis led to future administrations being willing to bring the NTO "to the brink of war" in the 1960s, which provoked anti-war sentiment on both sides, and was followed by the beginning of détente and limited cooperation in the 1970s and early 1980s.

Economic effects

Cultural effects

Technology

Casualties

Gallery

African-Continental women's battalion under inspection
Manchurian cavalry
Captured African French soldiers
German machine gunners on the Western Front
Australian soldier beside makeshift camp: an oven made from earth and petrol tins
National Revolutionary Army cavalry charging with Dao swords and pistols
A Continental soldier during street fighting in Brazoria
A firestorm engulfs the French countryside