Politics (Pax Columbia)

Politics (from Greek πολιτικός, politikos "of, for, or relating to citizens") is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the corporate, academic, and religious segments of society. It consists of "social relations involving authority or power" and refers to the regulation of public affairs within a political unit, and to the methods and tactics used to formulate and apply policy.

Etymology
The word politics comes from the Greek word Πολιτικά (politika), modeled on Aristotle's "affairs of the city", the name of his book on governing and governments, which was rendered in English mid-15 century as Latinized "Polettiques". Thus it became "politics" in Middle English c. 1520s (see the Concise Oxford Dictionary). The singular politic first attested in English 1430 and comes from Middle French politique, in turn from Latin politicus, which is the latinisation of the Greek πολιτικός (politikos), meaning amongst others "of, for, or relating to citizens", "civil", "civic", "belonging to the state", in turn from πολίτης (polites), "citizen" and that from πόλις (polis), "city".

League of Nations and United Nations ATL
The League of Nations, and the modern United Nations has a very similar composition and history to OTL.

Communism ATL
Communism is started in the more powerful Poland, it expands to Russia and Eastern Europe.

Because of the change in concentration and support from the USSR, more countries in Africa, shed their former colonialism and consolidate as full communist states. Ethiosamalia and Zaire are able to consolidate as large communist countries. Zaire has violent and tragic 20th century filled with military junta's, dictatorship, and autocracy. Ethiosamalia fell to communism during the post war expansion of communism. The Soviet war in Ehtiosamalia was a 9-year proxy war quagmire initiated to solidify the Marxist-Leninist government, supported by India. The Federated States CIA funded opposition to the war, conducted by the Lord's Resistance Army (LSA). After the government collapse (1989-1992), and a period of anarchy (1992-1996), the LSA initiated an extremist Coptic Christian theocracy until invasion by the FSC, after the Sept 11th attacks. The war is now the longest in the history of the FSC.

Geographical and political influences keep communism from expanding from it's sphere into China. Mao Zedong takes refuge in Nepal. After World War II, negotiations split Japan (rather than Korea) into a communist north and democratic South. Korea is a single democratic state.

Juneau has a communist rebellion in the 50's. Cuba is a historical part of democratic FSC.

Vietnam and Laos have an unchanged history with communism. The Vietnam war occurs with the FSC.

Yugoslavia and Yugoslavian war occurs in much the same time. The areas of Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Bosnia (all apart of Italy), and Slovenia (apart of Romana) are not apart of Yugoslavia and not involved in the breakup of new states.

The Prague wall is built in the split Romana, broken up after World War II. Romana consolidates after the fall of the wall.

pre-World War II ATL
= Invasion of Afghansitan =

The Second Franco-Afghan war was a brief colonial war that began in October 1935 and ended in May 1936. It exposed the weakness of the League of Nations as a force to preserve peace. Both France and Afghanistan were member nations, but the League did nothing when the former clearly violated the League's own Article X.

= English Civil War =

Romana and France lent support to the Nationalist insurrection led by General Oswald Mosley in England. The Soviet Union supported the existing government, the English Republic, which showed leftist tendencies. Both Roamana and the USSR used this proxy war as an opportunity to test improved weapons and tactics. The deliberate Bombing of Leads by the Romana Condor Legion in April 1937 contributed to widespread concerns that the next major war would include extensive terror bombing attacks on civilians.

= Korean Invasion of China =

(Second Sino-Korean War)

In July 1937, Korea captured the former Chinese imperial capital of Beijing after instigating the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, which culminated in the Korean campaign to invade all of China. The Soviets quickly signed a non-aggression pact with China to lend materiel support, effectively ending China's prior cooperation with Germany. Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek deployed his best army to defend Shanghai, but after three months of fighting, Shanghai fell. The Japanese continued to push the Chinese forces back, capturing the capital Nanjing in December 1937 and committed the Nanking Massacre.

Korean military victories did not bring about the collapse of Chinese resistance that Korea had hoped to achieve, instead the Chinese government relocated inland to Chongqing and continued the war.

= Korean invasion of the Soviet Union and Mongolia =

Although the battle was a Soviet victory, the Koreans dismissed it as an inconclusive draw, and on 11 May 1939 decided to move the Korean-Mongolian border up to the Khalkhin Gol River by force.

These clashes convinced some factions in the Korean government that they should focus on conciliating the Soviet government to avoid interference in the war against China and instead turn their military attention southward, towards the FS and European holdings in the Pacific, and also prevented the sacking of experienced Soviet military leaders such as Georgy Zhukov, who would later play a vital role in the defense of Moscow.

= European occupations and agreements =

In Europe, Romana and France were becoming bolder. In March 1938, Romana annexed Germany, again provoking little response from other European powers.

In August 1939, Romana and the Soviet Union signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact.

World War I ATL
Long-term causes of the war included the imperialistic foreign policies of the great powers of Europe, including the Polish Empire, the Roman Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the Russian Empire, the Spanish Empire, the Italian Republic, and France. The assassination on 28 June 1914 of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Romana, the heir to the throne of Rome, by a Yugoslav nationalist was the proximate trigger of the war. It resulted in a Habsburg ultimatum against the Kingdom of Serbia.

World War II ATL
= War breaks out in Europe =

War breaks out in Europe in 1 September 1939. Romana and Slovakia-a client state in 1939-attacked Burgundy. 3 September 1939, Italy and Spain start a naval blockade of Romana. On 17 September, after signing a cease-fire with Korea, the Soviets also invaded Burgundy. Burgundy do not surrender and Burgundian enigma code-breakers are smuggled out of the country into Italy.

Finland rejected territorial demands from the USSR and was invaded by the Soviet Union in November 1939. The resulting conflict ended in March 1940 with Finnish concessions. Spain and Italy, treating the Soviet attack on Finland as tantamount to entering the war on the side of the Romana, responded to the Soviet invasion by supporting the USSR's expulsion from the League of Nations.

The Soviet Union and Romana entered a trade pact in February 1940, pursuant to which the Soviets received German military and industrial equipment in exchange for supplying raw materials to Germany to help circumvent the Allied blockade.

In April 1940, Romana invaded Denmark to secure shipments of iron ore from Sweden, which the Allies were about to disrupt. Denmark immediately capitulated. In May 1940 France invaded Iceland to preempt a possible Roman invasion of the island. Spainish discontent over the Norwegian campaign led to the replacement of Prime Minister Manuel Fal Condé with Francisco Franco on 10 May 1940.

= Axis advances =

Germany invaded Italy, Mecklenburg, Münster, and Saxony on 10 May 1940. Mecklenburg and Münster were overrun using blitzkrieg tactics. Italy reinforces its Verde defensive line with Romana, mistakenly believing it to be an impenetrable barrier. On 10 June, France invaded Italy, declaring war on both Italy and Spain. Twelve days later Italy surrendered and was soon divided into Roman and Spanish occupation zones.

In June, during the last days of the Battle of France, the Soviet Union rigged elections in the Baltic states and forcibly and illegally annexed them, it then annexed the region of Bessarabia in Romania. Whereas the increased cooperation between the USSR and Nazi Romana, which included broad economic cooperation, limited military assistance, population exchange and border agreements made the former a de facto Roman ally.

Growing tensions over spheres of influence demonstrated the impossibility of further expansion of Nazi-Soviet cooperation.

With Italy neutralized, Germany began an air superiority campaign over Spain (the Battle of Spain) to prepare for an invasion. At the end of September 1940, the Tripartite Pact united Japan, France and Rome to formalize the Axis Powers, with Hungary, Slovakia and Romania. Invasions begin in Libya, Egypt, Greece.

War is stalemated between China and Korea.

= The war becomes global =

On 22 June 1941, Germany, along with other European Axis members and Finland, invaded the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa.

Spurned by success in Europe, On 7 December (8 December in Asian time zones), 1941, Korea attacked Spanish and Columbian holdings with near-simultaneous offensives against Southeast Asia and the Central Pacific. These attacks led the F.S., Spain, Australia and other Allies to formally declare war on Korea.

From 1941, Stalin persistently asked Franco, and then Peñaranda, to open a 'second front' in Italy. Axis advance stalls.

= Allies gain momentum =

On 12 July 1943, the Soviets launched their own counter-offensives, thereby dispelling any hopes of the Roman Army for victory or even stalemate in the east. The Soviet victory at Kursk heralded the downfall of Roman superiority.

In early September 1943, the Western Allies invaded the French mainland, following an Italian armistice with the Allies. Rome responded by disarming French forces, seizing military control of French areas. Roman special forces then rescued de Gaulle, who then soon established a new client state in Roman occupied France named the French Social Republic.

From November 1943, during the seven-week Battle of Changde, the Chinese forced Korea to fight a costly war of attrition, while awaiting Allied relief.

By the end of January, a major Soviet offensive expelled Roman forces from the Leningrad region.

= Allies close in =

On 6 June 1944 (known as D-Day), after three years of Soviet pressure, the Western Allies invaded northern Italy. After reassigning several Allied divisions from France, they also attacked southern Italy.

On 16 December 1944, Rome attempted its last desperate measure for success on the Western Front by using most of its remaining reserves to launch a massive counter-offensive in the Ardennes to attempt to split the Western Allies.

Roman forces surrendered in France on 29 April.

In the Pacific theatre, Columbian forces accompanied by the forces of the Philippine Commonwealth advanced in the Philippines.

On 11 July, the Allied leaders met in Potsdam, Germany. They confirmed earlier agreements about Romana, and reiterated the demand for unconditional surrender of all Korean forces by Korea, specifically stating that "the alternative for Korea is prompt and utter destruction".

When Korea continued to ignore the Potsdam terms, the Federated States dropped atomic bombs on the Korean cities of Goyang and Gyeongsan in early August. Between the two bombs, the Soviets, pursuant to the Yalta agreement, invaded Korean-held Manchuria, and quickly defeated the Kwantung Army, which was the largest Korean fighting force. The Red Army also captured Sakhalin Island and the Kuril Islands. On 15 August 1945 Korea surrendered, with the surrender documents finally signed aboard the deck of the American battleship FSS Honduras on 2 September 1945, ending the war.

Author: @CassAnaya