World 1930-1940 (Chaos)

Germany
1930: Justice Party forbidden in Germany. By this way, the government wants to avoid them coming too close to take power in 1931. However, instead of them, the new Morale Party is founded.

1931: The elections (see below) result in a deadlocked parliament - neither the left nor the right nor the centrist parties can form a government, since there are too many differing groups in the parliament around. Now, the German military secretly meets with several corporate leaders. After the conference of Paulskirchen, they decide to strike. On th, the military occupies government buildings and declares to govern the country "in a coalition of the experts [...] until all the problems are solved". Shortly after, the new cabinet is presented: Six generals represent the ressorts for army, navy, airforce, armaments, occupied lands and infrastructure (logistics); corporate representatives have the ministries for economy, labor, housing and finances; other posts are held by bureaucrats or professors. Democracy and several basic rights (freedom of press, of striking, of demonstrations) are suspended, leaders of left-wing parties arrested or put under house arrest. Germany is declared a technocracy.

1932: Along the German-Russian border (i.e. the east border of German-controlled lands), construction of the Henrichlinie begins.

The first story of "Theobald the Technician", a series for boys with interest in science and technics, appears.

1933: New school system introduced: School enrollment starts at the age of five; Grundschule (primary/elementary school) and Hauptschule (high/secondary school) take five years each; for boys, there's firearms training in the higher classes; for especially gifted kids, the new technical schools (with the emphasis on maths, science and of course technics; cryptography is also taught) are introduced. Government critics point out (well - if they could) that this is quite similar to what happens in Greater Italy and Russia.

1934: The German empire is re-divided: Instead of the old lands (which from now on only play a role for traditional clubs), cities and villages there are now regions (15 to 20 million people), precincts (about 1 million) and districts (~50,000 - either a part of a bigger city or a collection of villages). Some traditional Germans on the country aren't happy if they're put together with their local rival communes, but they can't change very much.

1936: Olympic Games in Franzensburg (OTL San Francisco).

1938: Poland, Greater Bohemia and Hungary (have to) join an economical and financial union with Germany.

1939: The big cities of Poland and Hungary are connected to Germany with the new highway system.

German elections of 1931

 * 238 seats in Europe
 * 342 seats in Atlantis
 * 85 seats in Argentinien

665 in total

Nationalist Imperial Party (Europe, conservative-expansionist) - 36 seats

German State Party (Europe, centrist) - 41 seats

Economy Party (Europe, radical anti-Socialist) - 27 seats

Christian Republican Party (Europe) - 29 seats

Farmer parties (Europe, regional) - 30 seats

Liberal Party (Europe; liberal in both ways) - 62 seats

Socialist Party (forbidden in Europe) - 0 seats

Freedom Party (Atlantis, center-right; economically liberal, socially moderate conservative) - 61 seats

Expansionist Party (Atlantis, populist-right) - 43 seats

New Christian Party (Atlantis) - 40 seats

Progress Party (Atlantis, technocratic) - 24 seats

Citizen Party (Atlantis, populist-left, appealing more to the disappointed middle class) - 38 seats

Morale Party (Atlantis, populist-left) - 91 seats

Small Farmers Party (Atlantis, special interest party, split off from Equality Party) - 32 seats

Argentinian Freedom Party (equivalent right there, more technocratic) - 19 seats

Argentinian Rancher Party (special interest party) - 16 seats

Argentinian Farmer Party (special interest party) - 21 seats

Argentinian Morale Party (populist-left) - 12 seats

Smaller parties and Independents - 43 seats

The new government (ministers are now called technocrats; each year, one of them is chosen by all technocrats to lead the government; his title is "Oberster Technokrat des Deutschen Reiches" [supreme technocrat of the German empire], abbreviated OTDDR):

Army: Theodor Purschke (former general from Silesia)

Navy: Friedrich Braun (former admiral from New England)

Airforce: Björn Weishaupt (former general from the Great Plains, East Nakota to be specific)

Armaments and Fortifications: Wieland Henrich (another former WW general)

Foreign affairs: Gerhard Bos (former ambassador to Novorossiya)

Interior and Sports: Horst Bäcker (popular president of the German soccer/football association)

Police: Otto Schimanski (one of the heads of German criminal police)

Justice: Honorable Richard Mühlthaler (a high judge)

Education: Xaver Paul (head of the teachers' association)

Universities and Research: Prof. Dr. Albrecht Schmitt (head of the professors' association, had to flee from the Socialists when they took Bonn, where he was head of the university)

Culture and Propaganda: Wilhelm Plattner (owner of one of the biggest movie studios in Paradies)

Church: Reverend Christoph Fehrenbach

Heavy Industry: Norbert Krafft (son of the famous "industry baron" who was shot by Socialist terrorists a few years ago)

Light Industry: Heinz Anderssen

Trade: Herbert Vanbeuren (owner of one of the greatest shipping firms of the world, had to flee from the Netherlands when they became Socialist)

Infrastructure: Johannes Baldwin (another general)

Housing: Ludwig Huber (owner of a big construction firm; he is said to have built half of the metropolis Wildenhartburg)

Agriculture: Waldemar Kettler (formerly head of the influential Argentinian Rancher Bund, practically identical to the party)

Settlement [1]: Karl Oberländer

Colonies: Ottokar von Brunn

Occupied lands: Siegfried Lechner (former general)

Labor: Prof. Dr. Julius Grün (professor of economy, expert for the organization of industrial labor)

Social Security and Health: Gerhard Novotny (head of the German compulsory health insurance fund)

Finances: Eduard Jorck (former central bank director)

Women: Heidelinde Moser (head of the German country women's association)

Bureaucracy: Alfred Neumann (former secretary in the Chancellor's office, served under six different governments and is persuaded he understands government work better than all of them)

[1] The German government decided to use former New Roman provinces of Texas and Montana (OTL East Colorado / West Kansas) as settlement grounds for the fast growing German population.

Socialist Block
1930: Iberian peninsula reorganized as a Socialist confederation, governed by a coalition of very different left parties. The Germans are surprised (negatively) to find out that the Socialists start building up their own computer network.

Young Shayna Löwenpferd, after becoming adult, is allowed to travel to Italy. The Socialists think she won't dare to escape since her parents are still in Marseille; however, she stays in Italy, never to return.

1931: German airplanes stationed on the Azores attack and sink a fleet of Socialist pirate ships. Hundreds of sailors die.

1934: The Socialists surprisingly proclaim that they made a non-aggression pact with the Italians.

1936: Socialists in England and France start digging the Channel tunnel.

1939: German-supported incursions in Britain, France and Spain start, occupying the government and making them unable to interfere in eventual wars.

New Rome / Greater Italy
1930: Shayna Löwenpferd has a number of different jobs, finally ending as a teacher. Her hopes for a job at a university are crushed since the famiglia doesn't trust anyone not in the Imperial Catholics and doesn't like working women that much either.

1932: The five mightiest padrones meet in Rome to discuss the future of Greater Italy. Thanks to the fact that they all hate Germany, they can push their differences aside. While they don't take power officially, a good observer would definitely note some changes in Greater Italy...

Fascists make life in Italy difficult for people with foreign names. Shayna Löwenpferd changes her name into Sofonisba Leoncavallo.

1933: The kids and teenagers of Italy are organized in the "Free Italian Youth" (comparable to your average totalitarian youth organization), which includes several older organizations with similar aims, like the "lupi neri" (black wolves). They're often lead by fascisti.

1934: The first Italian soldiers are sent to Russia or other foreign places where they can train with weapons which Greater Italy isn't allowed to have (aircraft carriers, tanks, planes).

1935: Disguised as a team of explorers, Italian soldiers test their first liquid fuel rocket in the no man's land south of Libya. Since the tests are successful, they start building more rockets. The fuel comes from Libya itself, the iron is imported from Russia.

Sofonisba Leoncavallo is forbidden to publish. Unable to protest or flee, she mostly retreats into her house and works on her philosophical system.

1936: "La Rete Italiana", the Italian computer network, is started. (It consists of three smaller regional networks, however - Europe and North Africa, North Atlantis and South Atlantis.)

1939: Italy has stockpiled enough reserves of rubber, grain, fertilizer, coal and iron for a longer war.

Russia
1930: "United Russian [computer] network" started.

1932: Gridenkov's Reconstructionist Party wins over 20% of the votes, makes a coalition with conservative "House Russia".

1933: Assassins murder Novorussian president Alexeyev. Vice president and police minister Gridenkov takes over, suspends the constitution. New police minister is an Ossip Venyaminovich Belochvostikov, who'll later become infamous as "The man of steel" - Stalin. Many Russians accused to be "German-friendly" or political opponents of Gridenkov end up in labor camps.

1936: Gridenkov has stabilized his regime, declares himself "vozhd'" (leader), making it clear to everyone that his government is more than just a short episode.

1938: Germany tries to keep South Russia apart from Unionist Novorossiya, even supporting the democratic Russian parties - an ill-advised move, because this only discredits the Russian democrats for collaborating with Germany.

China
1930: Nipponese government gives up, accepts Chinese occupation. Many Nipponese start to emigrate - to the Canadian Commonwealth, to the Tirs (if they want to enter Tir Tairngire, they have to convert to Irish Catholicism, however), or even to Atlantis.

1932: Olympic Games in Beijing.

Date 1932: Another Gansu earthquake in China.

1936: Uprisings in Nippon against Chinese occupation start.

1939: Siam becomes a Chinese satellite again.

Canada and Pacifics
1930: Canada starts building a nation-wide computer network.

1933: King George IV of New Albion dies childless, the crown goes to his third-grade cousin who becomes George V. While barely anyone outside the country acknowledges that, the papers here speak of barely anything else for several weeks.

1934: The German technocracy claims all of Antarctica for Germany.

1936: China and Canada have the first dispute about Annam and Lan Xang (OTL Laos) - the emperor wants to restore them to China's sphere of influence.

1937: The democratic Canadian government is toppled and replaced by a technocratic government, as in Germany.

Muslim world
1932: Seljuks and Greater Judea make a treaty about their common border (which is now about OTL's Turkish-Syrian border)

1933: After Persian threats, the Caucasus Alliance of Georgia, Armenia and Trapezunt make an appeal to Russia, which is answered positive. Russia starts to arm them.

1935: Germany trades some border lands in India (parts of OTL Pakistan) against oil rights at the Persian Gulf.

1938: The Arab League (a defense pact between the various states of the Arab peninsula) falls apart for internal differences.

Balcans
1932: Anti-German coup in Bulgaria put down.

1934: Serbian minister president and his cabinet (which is barely more than a German/Hungarian puppet) assaulted and killed by a group of officers. Some links point to Russia. A new government is soon installed, but the situation stays difficult.

1935: "Dacian talks": The governments of Vlachia, Moldovia and Transsylvania meet to talk about a possible reunification, forming the state of Romania. Germany wouldn't mind, Hungary doesn't like the idea. The talks still fail for internal differences.

1939: In Epirus (OTL Albania), the Ghegs in the north and in Kosovo rise up against the dominance of the Tosks in the South and on the coast.

Mediterranean
1931: Following the technocratic takeover in Germany, the relations between Germany and Socialist Greater Judea cool down for some time.

1932: Egypt is shaken by radical Muslim movements which filtered in from Sudan.

1936: When people in Algeria see that the Socialist Block isn't going to crumble, the French, Occitans and some Catalans who fled there get the Algerian citizenship.

1939: "The Breakup": Surprisingly, the Socialist Block and Greater Judea part for ideological differences.

Sub-saharan Africa
1930: Germany has to give up big areas north of the Congo basin (OTL Central Africa, Cameroon).

1931/32: Germany gives up the regions of OTL Angola and Mozambique.

1934: Australia (OTL South Africa) becomes a "Sonderrechtsprovinz" (province with special rights/laws) of the German technocracy.

1936-39: Germany retreats from most of West Africa, keeps only a few trading rights, and oil-rich Nigeria.

India
1932: Mass strikes and uprisings throughout many regions of the subcontinent make the German presence there even more costly.

1933/34: The north-western states (OTL Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and a few smaller states around there) are granted independence from Germany.

1936: The Sikh state has its first border clash with the new states - Germany reaps what it sowed.

1937-39: The south-eastern states (OTL Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Orissa) are granted independence. Now Germany only has to control the SW and the Ganges valley, which is more profitable.

Rest of Atlantis
1930s: The growing strength of workers' movements makes the state of Braseal more unstable.

1934: Mexico comes up with a plan to unite with Central Atlantis, which Germany forbids, since they fear about the control of the Miskito (Nicaragua) canal.

1938/39: Uprisings of African and Arab-descended ex-slaves in Louisiana, Florida and Caroline.

1940: Olympic Games in Novolondon.

(Note: All the "computer networks" mentioned here are at the moment not much more than computers specialized on codebreaking connected by telegraph. Still, they're very useful...)