French Trafalgar, British Waterloo (1940-1978)

Third Global War
The global calamity that was the, which lasted from the Argentinean Invasion of on February 17, 1940, to the Unconditional Surrender of  on December 5, 1946. The war was fought by two major alliances: the National Socialist nations of the world, namely, the and the , united in the. The other alliance, the, was composed mostly of the world's democracies, including and the , as well as the right-wing dictatorships of  and. In all, it is estimated that over 100 million people around the world, which includes military and civilian deaths, as well as the estimated 23 million killed in the National Socialist nations based on race and culture called the Holocaust.

Europe in Ashes
The bitter fight in Europe, which started with the combined assault on Imperial France by German armored spearheads and the British Royal Marines, ended six years later after the atomic destruction of Berlin by a French nuclear weapon. Though the French campaign, originally expected to last three months tops, dragged on for a year before Emperor Louis II left across the Mediterranian to the colony of Algeria with most of the armed forces, in a miracle of organization and planning called "." After the supposed destruction of France, the invasion of Russia, was launched in May of 1942, nearly destroying the unready Poles and Russian Empire. But in a brave last stand in front of Moscow, the Russian army proved its resilience, and halted, and drove back the National Socialists. It would be another four bloody years of combat, and the French return to the homeland via Italy, and the eventual New World invasion of the United Kingdom (and the overthrow of ) and "Natso" Europe. However, the unleashing of the atom, in a race that all the major nations took part in, was just barely won by Germany and Britain, who used the power to level St. Petersburg and Lyon in radio active dust. But in response, the League of Nations used atomic weapons on Germany (as Britain was now fully occupied), destroying Hamburg and Leipzig. The incidental death of, the "Fuhrer" of Germany, at Leipzig, at last allowed General Erwin Rommel, the so-called "Knight of the Steppe," to surrender.

The Fight in the New World
As the war in Europe and South America raged, it seemed unlikely, at first, that North America would be drawn in. That is, until the, ongoing since 1937, spilled over into in July 1942. As the US attempted to try to resolve the crisis in the North, the Confederacy and the launched its sneak attack on the US from the reclaimed Kentucky, quickly occupying Ohio and Indiana, and splitting the US in two. The factories in the East, cut off from supplies from the west, began to ground to a halt, but President, a former supporter of Appeasement, rallied the nation to resist, and convinced and  to join in the fight. The wealth and resources of Alyseka and Mexico helped to divert the National Socialist attention from the US, allowing America, along with Assiniboia and Alyseka, to launch a counter attack in January 1944 that relinked the nation but it took until September to ready for an assault on the CSA itself. In this regard, the South American allies had defeated Argentina,, and  in turn, and launched an amphibious assault on the Gulf coast, surrounding the CSA, and dooming it. The war in North America ended with the capture of President on March 2, 1945, when all attention was focused then on Europe.

Asia in Upheaval
At the time of the start of the Third Global War, and imperialist had been driving deep into the fractured and divided. However, the invasion had brought the three bickering sides together in a common goal of driving Japan out of China. With all three sides working together: the communists under Mao Zedong, Lou Tseng-Tsiang's Greater China Movement (with a thinly disgusied National Socialist agenda), and Yan Huiqing, leader of the Yellow Dragon's, which called for a new Chinese Empire and rooting out Foreign influence. However, as the alliance was formed, it was soon clear that Lou Tseng-Tsaing was the most powerful of the three, as he was able to bring in those from the other factions quite easily. After the death of Huiqing druing the Battle of Nanking in 1941, the Yellow Dragon's virtually disolved, the majority joining the Greater China Movement, renamed the Chinese National Party. With the now overwhelming power of Tseng-Tsaing, and thast the fight against Japan had managed to liberate much of the coastal area's, including Shanghai and Beijing, the CNP made its move, and on March 15, 1942 atatcked the Communists, virtually shattering the unready Red Army. Mao fled to Russia with the remains of the Red Army, while the CNP began its plan to dominate Asia. An invasion of French Indo-china and Burma achieved great success, which was followed by the surendering of the last Japanese Armies in Manchuria in 1943. However, the CNP had overstretched itself, and its policy of "cleansing" China made the population, tired of war, revolt against the National Socialists. With the army split between defending the coast from a new invasion from Japan, in South-East Asia, and in Russia hunting down Mao, the revolt soon captured Bejing. The Japanese took this opportunity and invaded China again, though this time as liberators and not conquerors. The heroic French stand in Indo-China soon turned into a rout of the Chinese army, and and invasion of Southern China by the army lead by General Jacques Leclerc soon took over Hong Kong. However, the CNP refused to yield by the time the German Surrender in Europe, so it was decided to use another nuclear weapon, this time aimed at Shenyang. After a final nuke was used on Zhengzhou, a coup by Chinese General's killed Tseng-Tsaing, and signed an unconditional surrender. The Third Global War was now finally over.

The Hard Won Peace
With the war finally at an end, and National Socialism dead, it was time to try to rebuild the world. The first step was to determine the price and territorial adjustments to be made. France decided that, for once and for all, to destroy the power of Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom. Germany was divided in two, with most of the land west of the Rhine and Hanover being directly annexed into the French Empire, while the rump German state became the Protectorate of Prussia. Northern Italy was also annexed, and Southern Italy became another protectorate. The United Kingdom was divided between a French dominated and American supported, while the US still had a presence in  which had been ravaged by the National Socialist presence. The population reduced from roughly 4 million to nearly 400,000 in forced labor and concentration camps that resulted in the death of thousands. The Confederacy was divided between a Latin-American occupied zone in the Southern States and a US zone in the Northern CSA. However, neither side would allow the other to begin the process of Unification, so by 1950, the was formed with US backing, and the  in the south by the Brazilian lead alliance.

In South America, a major redrawing of the map took place. Argentina was stripped of much land which was given to Brazil and Chile, while Venezuela was completely dismantled, divided between Colombia and Brazil. Peru and Bolivia, after having land taken from them by the victorious allies, were forcibly united into the.

The Russian Revolution
Despite the success of the Imperial Russian Armies in the Third Global War, discontent with the Romanov Dynasty reached its peak as the war drew to a close. Czar Micheal, who's only son was illegitimate, had sown the seeds when he pressured his brother, Nicholas II to allow his son to take a place in the Line of succession after himself. This was met with shock and outrage in Russia, but Nicholas agreed, and George was made second in line for the throne. After Nicholas died in 1926 and Micheal assumed the throne, there were protests and revolts, and the extremely harsh measures used to stop the turned many against the monarchy, despite Micheal having no role in ordering and executing those measures. The war, and Micheal's determination to stay in St. Petersburg, even as the National Socialist armies closed in, rallied the people around him, and managed to eventually turn the tide.

The stress of the war, however, killed Micheal a few short weeks after the victory, and the crisis of the Romanov succession, dropped during the war, reared its ugly head again. George was crowned the czar, but almost immediately after, his war record was called into question. It was known that he was purposely given the command post on the Persian border, and actively dodged combat duties. Although he had tried to get his father to give him a command on the front with China or the West, he was kept on the border with the neutral nation. As well, the efforts by the new Czar to try get more handle in day to day operations of the Empire soon turned more people, and most of the Duma against him. Non-violent protests, strikes and work stoppages soon shut down the empire, but George refused to budge, but every effort to try to salvage his reputation backfired or didn't go far enough. On 8 August 1948, Prime Minister Vyacheslav Skryabin, one of the most popular and respected politicians in Russia since Leon Trotsky, flatly stated to Czar George that, unless he abdicated, the Prime Minister and his cabinet would resign, and the Empire would collapse. George at last conceded, and announced he would abdicate the next day in favor of his cousin Andri, a respected Air Force officer during the war. However, Andri said he would only accept the throne if the citizens of the empire approved it. A referendum was held to decided the fate of Russia, and it narrowly came to voting down the monarchy, 47% to 53%. A new constitution was drawn up and approved in 1949, and Russia became a republic, with Skryabin being named the first.

The League of Nations
Another of the first major plans was to establish, for the first time in the world's history, an international body which should help to bring the world's countries together. Pushed for by US President and Russian Prime Minister Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov, and with the support of the French Empire, the  was formed on January 1, 1947, made up of all the members of the winning Grand Alliance. By 1952, most of the neutral nations of the war had also joined, and in 1954 the losing nation's and their new governments finally joined the organization.

Cold War, Hot Peace
However, despite the work to defeat the National Socialist nations, the also showed the bitter tensions and the rift that had come between the three major "groups": the South American Allies lead by, the North American Allies lead by the United States, and the French allies, which included  and her allies. This has lead to increasing tensions between the major powers, which has ultimately called the.

The conflict was perhaps most interesting in the fact that France and the United States, allies since the days of Napoleon, were now hostile enemies. The relationships of the two nations, now superpowers in every sense of the word, had now fractured, almost from the moment the war ended. The disagreements had started when French Prime Minister and American President, during a conference held in , nearly came to blows over the decisive course of the war, which France believed should control Europe for the cost of the war, while the US tried to speak for the liberation of the peoples of Europe to reform the nations into democratic societies. In the end, France would win the argument, and later create the "Greater French Empire", which stretched over most of Western Europe, North and Central Africa and South-East Asia.

The United States, with its allies stretching across North America, and reaching, and , stood as the only major democratic force in the world. In 1949, this was solidified in the, which created a globe spanning alliance to counter the forces of "...oppression, hate, bigotry, dictatorship and misery," in the words of Assiniboian President.

The British Isles War
In the Aftermath of the War, the British Isles had been divided between the US and France, with American controlled Scotland and Ireland, and Imperial dominated England. The division between the two newly independent countries was based along the ancient boundary of the two ancient kingdoms, but almost from the beginning both sides were annoyed at the division, as both thought their boundaries would be further north or south. England, under their new Prime Minister, former General and defector to France in 1940, Bernard Montgomery sought to rearrange the borders in England's favor by force. France secretly sent supplies and weapon's to the English. Scotland, under Alexander Fleming, feared for the saftey of his new nation, but President did not share this point of view, so only the most limited of weapon's and supplies were sent to the nation. However, on March 6, 1951, President Marshall was proven wrong when the English attacked the north.

Despite the drive to the north, which captured Glasgow and Edinburgh with two weeks of the beginning of the war, America promised everything she could to help, and got the rest of the Juneau Pact on board as well. As the Scottish and the few American forces that remained were pushed back, President Marshall and Secretary of State Joseph Goebbels tired to get the League of Nations involved. France, however, did its best to try to prevent America and the Juneau Pact from interfering. France was hoping to allow the superior English armies, many of whom were veterans of the war, to knock Scotland out. However Marshall, annoyed with the delaying tactics, went ahead and convened an emergancy meeting of the Juneau Pact, and got the alliance to agree to send a support force, starting with two divisions of Marines. After the marines, under General Henry Barcortt, helped to organize the Scottish to defend the pocket around the city of Aberdeen, and eventually turned the tide, soon driving the English out of Scotland.

However, under direct command of President Marshall, General Barcortt was to halt at the disputed boundary. He venomously protested the orders, and actually tried to provoke the English to attack north again to allow him to push south. When news arrived in Washington of Barcortt's actions, he was immediately sacked by Marshall, and General Philip J. Harford was assigned in his place. By this time, the English had reorganized themselves, and launched a new attack under General Montgomery himself, which succeeded in smashing through the Juneau Pact defensive lines. A delaying action by Assiniboian Colonel Kenneth G. Bugg managed to allow the majority of the defenders to escape and regroup. Colonel Bugg and his regiment only surrendered after ten days of fighting, holding off three British division's. When he finally did surrender, Montgomery himself gave the order to ensure that Colonel Bugg, nor his men, were to be mistreated for their "unrelenting heroism and devotion to duty, even if it was for the enemy." However, he had ensured that the Scottish would not be defeated in 1951, and winter set in before any more offensive operations could be taken.

The Start of the Tri-Powers Conflict
With the lack of offensive operations after 1951, the started to wind down, with only some air and naval operations taking place. On September 5, 1952, a ceasefire was signed, ending the combat operations of the war. However, no peace treaty was ever signed, so the ceasefire only barely holds to this day.

However, the, sometimes called the "Cold War" soon took its place. The antagonism between the Juneau Pact Nations, and the newly formed, lead by France, soon started to spiral out of control. American and Allied soldiers left Germany and France in 1953, while the French contingent in the divided Confederacy left the next year. The debate over the punishing of the war criminals, which originally was going to be done by a United Tribunal of the League of Nations, was instead decided to be held separately, and that the nation's who captured the accused being tried under that nations. However this resulted in that some of those convicted, including Confederate Major Joshua Neilford, convicted of ordering the execution of American POW's being exonerated by Brazil (as he was acting under orders), while the US bitterly opposed this, but couldn't do anything about it, as Major Neilford was granted asylum in Brazil, and was not given to the American's to try as a war criminal.

The Failure of the "Truman Doctrine"
With the election of in 1953, the Tri-Powers Conflict moved away from a political confrontation to one with a more ideological perspective. Truman, with his "freedom at any cost" rhetoric, was swept into the White House, and immediately set out to secure peace for the democratic world. However, his bellicose stance, including expanding the army, increasing the nuclear arsenal, and an increasingly stringent stance on the diplomatic front soon turned the public and the international community against the US. The last straw, however, broke out in 1955, when it became known that the US was sponsoring revolutionaries in areas occupied by France, Brazil and Japan. These fights were being sponsored by US intelligence services, under authorization of President Truman, and many of the plots were simply unthinkable, and had they been achieved, would have been paramount to war. One of these plots included the assassination of Emperor Louis II of France and Emperor Hirohito of Japan to cause civil war.

Harry Truman was indited on charges of overstepping Presidential authority and for charges of trying to spark an aggressive war, and was impeached from office, only the second president to do so in history. His Vice-President, was sworn in, and spent the rest of the term trying to restore some semblance of normalcy to the nation, but all of his efforts were unable to solve the diplomatic and internal problems. In the 1956 election, Nationalist candidate was elected, and started to tackle the economic and external problems that plagued America. However, he suffered a heart attack in the Oval Office on December 6, 1958, and resigned his post a month later, leaving to his successor the economic problems of the US, and the beggining of a revolt in Occupied California.

French Dominance and the Death of Pétain
With France now secure in Western Europe, and with vassal states and minor allies in Eastern Europe, and almost all of non-Free Africa under her command, the French Empire had reached the height of its power.

However, the economy was in shambles from the destruction of France by both the Natso British and German invasions, and the armed forces, victorious in the conflict, was now exhausted, in serious disrepair, and a hodgepodge mixture of prewar designs, purchases from allies and captured equipment. The high command and the various ministries had been thrown into chaos after Operation Phoenix, was returning to Paris to find their offices in rubbled and the documents either destroyed or gone missing. And with the aging of Prime Minister Pétain, the various leaders tried to do their best to stand in the war hero's graces, and secure the position needed to succeed Pétain.

On the night of March 17, 1959, Prime Minister Pétain died in his sleep of a massive heart attack. Emperor Louis II called for a week of mourning, and the funeral at Notre Dame Cathedral was an exhibition of the greatness of Pétain, and how he transformed France into the Empire it was at his death. The funeral was attended by many dignitaries from around the world, including President Vyacheslav Skryabin of Russia and Japanese Prime Minister. However, the President of the United States, Joseph McCarthy did not attend, mostly due to his health issues at the time. However, this was considered a snub by the former allies.

The race to replace Pétain began almost the minute it was announced he had died. By the middle of the week of mourning, two contenders seemed to to be ready to battle it out: Marshal Charles de Gaulle, a hero of the Third Global War and now the Minister of Defense, and Paul Ramadier, a leader of the French Resistance during the occupation of Metropotalitan France by the Natso British and German armies. Eventually, de Gaulle was able to out maneuverer Ramadier, and secured the support of the, and its leader André Marie. Three days after the funeral, Emperor Louis II appointed de Gaulle the new Prime Minister of Imperial France.

Rebellion in the America's
In the aftermath of the Third Global War, the formerly independent was annexed by the United States, which gave the newly minted superpower a massive stretch of land and over 32 million people. However, the annexation was protested, and different groups tried to mount a resistance, but the US Army managed to clamp down and destory the rebbellions as they popped out. But in 1958, a new struggle was launched, led by former Pacific Republic army officer Ronald Reagan, the head of the Californian Independence Movement. Reagan first started by trying to drive out the American Army out of bases near the major centers, byt this resulted in higher than expected casulaties by the rebels. AS well, under the leadership of General George Patton (the Military Governor of the Occupied Territories), the rebels were continuously pushed back. Reagan tried to limit the violent aspects of the movement, but renegades within the movement soon launched a wave of terror through California.

The strong, but firm, hand of General Patton was considered ineffective of trying to pacify the rebelious territory, as violence mounted and casulaties grew. Patton himself was attacked three times by rebels between 1961 and 1963, but the forth time in 1964 resulted in his assassination, and his replacement by the young General John F. Kennedy, who, under pressure from Washington, was forced to try to fight the rebels. The young generals policy lead to a wave of destruction, anger and violence that soon grew out of control, with American soilders being targeted and killed by the dozens each week. Kennedy kept asking for more troops, hoping that by confining the rebels to certian areas, then dealing with them from there, was the key to pacifying this "minor Western problem."

Escellation from France, and Varmont's Plan
France, under Primer Charles de Gaulle, recognized the need to try to fight America were ever it was struggling, so managed to convince its ally to send weapons and support to the Californian Rebels. Japan zelously undertook this task, sending weapons to California, as well as advisors. Within the Californian Independence Movement there were different factions, but Japanese (and later French) weapons were mostly funneled to those that were extreme right winger's, the so called "Cali's," who were the more violent and extreme of the many groups in the CIM. Reagan tried to purge the movement of Cali's, but was promptly told by his French and Japanese Advisors to mind his own buisness. The CIM's job was to hary the American's, and ultimatly defeat them, with help from France and Japan. If Reagan did try to force out the Cali's, thn French and Japanese support would disappear. Reagan acquised, but secretly approached the American's to try to end the fight, with California gaining representation in the US Congress.

The United States continued to pour troops in, Kennedy claiming that victory was "right around the corner." However, an improvised explosive device on a highway General Kennedy's convoy was traveling on exploded, destroying the General's armored transport, and knocking the General into a coma in 1965. A replacement was sent in the form of General Francis Varmont, who, having studied his predecessors, developed the "Pacification Plan #1". In Varmont's plan, he took the belief that the rebels, who had by this time drove many ordinary people away from them with their violent attacks, could be further isolated by helping to defend these towns that the rebels had been fighting for, which would cut of the gurellia's support chain, ultimatly leaving the CIM out of the loop with the people. With the help of Reagan, who gave the hideouts of the Cali's, the US Army soon went on the offensive, destroying the rightest encampments. Other fighters were given amnesty to lay down their arms, and many soon became the leaders of the militias the US Army set up in villages to fight the Cali's.

However, the Assaniation of President in Chicago in 1966 stunned the nation, and Vice-President Edward R. Morrow, in his first speech as President, announced that intelligence had found that it was the Cali's that killed the President. Although no information was released to support this, and conspiricy theories continue to abound, the nation cried for blood. General Varmont went before Congress to defend his plan, only recently started, to ensure that another hothead doesn't undo the already visable results that were being achieved. General Varmont and President Morrow both asked the nation for calm, and the general then went to work, implimenting his plan fullscale.

With the support and public links severed, and their bases and hideouts bombed and destroyed by the US Army as per Varmont's plan, the extremeists in the Californian Independence Movement soon were on the run, and many surrendered in droves. By 1968, the CIM was virtually destroyed, with the extremist leaders being put on trial. Ronald Reagan also went on trial, captured by units in San Fransisco, but was aqquited when it was revelaed that he had ultimatly betryaed his own movement.

It was ultimatly found out that France and Japan had sent weapons to the Californian Rebels, which sparked outrage in America, tired of the war that made 450,000 soilders fight, resulting in casulaties over 175,000. President Morrow demanded compinsation, which France and Japan agreed too, though no deal was ever fully worked out.