The Hundred States of Europe

In the final days of Nazi Germany the Allies were already planning its future, and that of Europe as a whole. Both sides were striving for a peaceful continent, but could not agree exactly. Should Germany be punished or rebuilt? Would Poland's democracy be that envisioned by the East or the West?

Imagine if, at some point in the conferences, the Allied leaders had decided upon a different route. Rather than deal with pacifying the threat of a powerful Germany, the Europe of the future would see it sliced down into its constituent territories, each of which would become an independent nation. In the Balkans, ethnic unrest could be solved through similar means - dividing the countries down to the county level, where cultural conflicts would be replaced by a long tapestry of small, stable blocks. Austria and Czechoslovakia would see similar fates. Rather than have the Soviet Union absorb the Baltic states, they too would be partitioned so that those which wished to join or ally with the Soviet Union could do so, whereas those who wished to remain independent and capitalist could exist in a neutral fashion. All that remained was Poland. Here, tension between the Allies grew. Could they carry the conscience of destroying the nation which they themselves began war to defend? But the leaders were determined, and somewhat satisfied with the new political landscape. Poland, the final step in the remapping of Europe, was divided when its leaders were finally swayed that all the former Allies would act to maintain the integrity of any confederation they wished to form. As a token gesture of the 'sacrifice' of the Western Allies, French leaders were compelled to release the territories composing Alsace-Lorraine.

The effect of this drastic partitioning would have numerous immediate effects. Stalin need not have a sphere of influence in Eastern Europe; the ease of new micro-nations becoming communist would provide such a power base without any need for major action. Ethnic tensions could be easily defused as racial groups could clearly mark out where their lands started and ended. But most beneficially the former Allies now had a sea of buffer states between them, making any future armed land conflict long and hard - even though that meant little in the dawning Atomic Age.

Despite promises that the new nations could reform into larger states, the victors of World War Two began to grow comfortable with the new position, and worked clandestinely to stifle any change in the current situation. The forefront nations of Western Europe - Britain and France - managed to slow their decline by growing rich on the products from the sea of states to their East. When turmoil began to engulf states on the edge of the microstate sprawl, a UN delegation made up of local representatives would suggest that the nation dissolve for its own good - Greece in 1948, Finland in 1950, Sweden in 1951, Norway and Denmark in 1952, and Turkey in 1960. Some nations would also dissolve willingly, without external pressure, such as Switzerland in 1988 when the threads of centuries of neutrality were torn by the chances of wealth through federation with nearby states. At the time some pointed out that the loss of Switzerland meant that the Western salient into the microstate sprawl weakened its strategic standing against the Soviet Union - but by then these nations had lost any interest in World War Three, having grown decadent and obese on the wealth they siphoned from states incapable of resisting.

Today, the Soviet Union is slowly being eaten away at by the success stories of former territories on its western fringe joining the microstate sprawl. The United States and USSR still square off over the world, but an apathetic Europe laughs at their troubles while its coffers overflow, spilling into the development of colonies in North Africa and Asia, ignoring the fierce proxy wars that flare up across the global battleground between the Pacific Treaty Alliance and the Socialist Alliance. Britain, France, Spain and Portugal are now the only major European powers left, bullying the disintegrating Benelux Group and most of central and northern Europe into feeding their wealth.

Some analysts say the world is at a tipping point.

Thoughts, comments and ideas welcome.