AHC: Americanized Balkans

[Zek Sora]

No, that is not a typo.

With the whole "balkanized America" thing that seems to be popular here, I thought I might switch it up a bit.

Thus, your challenge is this:

With a POD after 1900, have the entirety of the Balkans united in a single democratic federation, with little to no dissent whatsoever.

I know you're thinking, Yugoslavia, duh, etc. But the real challenge is threefold:

- You must have a large but relatively much weaker state to the north, and an absolute failed state to the south, filled with drug cartels.

- The Balkans must be a world power by the end of the 20th century.

- The Balkans MUST have some sort of war with a Communist Russia, and win very decisively.

- Bonus points for a war with England.

Have fun!

 

[Hrvatskiwi]

No, that is not a typo.

With the whole "balkanized America" thing that seems to be popular here, I thought I might switch it up a bit.

Thus, your challenge is this:

With a POD after 1900, have the entirety of the Balkans united in a single democratic federation, with little to no dissent whatsoever.

I know you're thinking, Yugoslavia, duh, etc. But the real challenge is threefold:

- You must have a large but relatively much weaker state to the north, and an absolute failed state to the south, filled with drug cartels.

- The Balkans must be a world power by the end of the 20th century.

- The Balkans MUST have some sort of war with a Communist Russia, and win very decisively.

- Bonus points for a war with England.

Have fun!

Well this will be somewhat difficult, but I'll do my best:

Large but relatively much weaker state to the North... I guess you could have a kind of "Zachodslavia" out of the West Slavic nations (Poland and Czechoslovakia). Dunno how Hungary would be involved, but weirder things have happened. Although Prague and parts of Poland are pretty decent industrially, with the exception of coal they have far less in the way of valuable mining resources. Albania and the other parts of the south Adriatic have some oil reserves (although obviously not to the extent of Texas).

Given that there is no country directly South of Greece (except across the Mediterranean), the best Mexico analogue would be Turkey. Turkey could quite easily have turned into a (even more) corrupt narco-state, replacing cocaine with heroin.

The only way I can think of a Balkan-wide federation gaining any traction would be some sort of Balkan federation being established in Albania, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria like was proposed OTL, and then becoming anti-Soviet. When the USSR collapses and Europe liberalises, a number of other countries join the confederation. A major difference to the US though would be that federal power would have to be MUCH weaker, due to cultural sensitivities.

Defeating Communist Russia decisively in a war? Impossible. Pulling an Afghanistan? Maybe, although they would be in no position to be called a significant power after pulling that off.

World power? Just not doable. Significant regional power? Definitely. On the level of France and Britain? Theoretically possible. Superpower? No. Simply not possible given population, available human and material resources, and geographical positioning.

 

[NeonHydroxide]

Post-1900 PoD is not feasible. Here's an attempt moving the PoD back six hundred years:

A surviving, democratized Bulgarian Empire which takes up the entire peninsula to the Carpathians. The Holy Roman Empire collapsed in the late 1700s, leaving the vast but decrepit Habsburg dominions to the north, with a fantastically corrupt rump Byzantine empire to the south (surviving only as a Bulgarian buffer state). Forty years ago Bulgaria won a short but decisive war against the Kyiv Commune, resulting in the retaking of the province west of the Bug.

Indirectly, Bulgaria rules all of Southern Europe, through puppet states in Italy and a century-old personal union with Aragon. By the standards of this much more multipolar, less advanced world, this makes her one of the primary world powers.

 

[The Cosmonaut Cat]

Thus, your challenge is this:

With a POD after 1900, have the entirety of the Balkans united in a single democratic federation, with little to no dissent whatsoever.

I know you're thinking, Yugoslavia, duh, etc. But the real challenge is threefold:

- You must have a large but relatively much weaker state to the north, and an absolute failed state to the south, filled with drug cartels.

- The Balkans must be a world power by the end of the 20th century.

- The Balkans MUST have some sort of war with a Communist Russia, and win very decisively.

- Bonus points for a war with England.

Have fun!

- Austro-Hungarian Empire develops a democratic-federal system in a CP Victory world (not the most likely outcome IMHO but it doesn't need any changes in laws of physics). To the north is the Kingdom of Poland, a weak state subserviant to Germany. Kaiser says "Jump!" And the Polish leadership asks "How high?". To the south accross the Med are failed stares of North Africa (assuming the French, Italians & British colonialism has ended). Or maybe Itally underwent a civil war and is now a failed state.

- It's a CP victory world, so AH is one of the movers-&-shakers of the world.

- AH intervenes in Russian Civil War, helping defeat the communists.

- Was at war with England durring WW1.

 

[marathag]

1901

Martian Cylinders drop all over the World.

Black smog generators kill millions, Europe is very hard hit.

Nikola Tesla reverse engineers the technology from the Tripods after the Martians inexplicably begin to die from the Common Cold.

As most Governments are shattered, it is up to him and his associates to restore Civilization.

Only the crazy Bolsheviks resist him.

Oh, sorry, thought this was the ASB forum. Balkans getting along.....

 

[M79]

Federate the Communist parties of the Balkans in 1925 after the conferences in which they repeatedly attempted to do just that. Though personalities and internal conflicts wear down on members, the federation survives until World War II when its members build on themes of brotherhood by uniting the resistances of those nations as a bloc. Under Tito from Yugoslavia they United Fraternal Balkan Front emerges as a major wrench in the Nazi war machine, by war's end they have not only liberated much of themselves but also acquired a great deal of fairly advanced material and Western lend-lease assistance. Though rebuilding is a struggle, they eventually emerge as Balkania with a capital at Skopje - the combined nation of Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Albania, and Yugoslavia - and begin the task of rebuilding. By the early-mid 1960s they have also begun to expand at such a rate that they are the second power in the Eastern Bloc behind Russia itself, potentially permitting a conflict, but Tito and Khrushchev eventually allow Balkania to leave on its own terms as a Communist state that does not permit Western interference but can make its own path. This "War of the Sickles" is won handily by Tito and encourages other satellites to seek greater freedom. Eventually this causes a rift in the Party that Tito promptly quashes. Tito begins permitting Western industries to "exploit" cheap labor and learning the techniques for manufacture of Western products. Although there are trouble with the death of Tito, the creation of the Senate as an executive body (one member each - heads of respective national parties) with two votes for Yugoslavia and Romania. With the fall of the wall Balkania goes the way of China and opts for use of its population to slowly integrate with the world. Its "Yugo" car becomes a cheap but reliable export around the world as its 60HP motor is "the AK-47 of automobiles" as it withstands almost any conditions and can run for over 300,000 miles is even maintained only somewhat.

By 2015 the average life expectancy is in the high 70s, literacy is 97.3%, and purchasing power is about 75% average for Europe as a whole. Moldova and Hungary are close trading partners and Turkey eyes this "New Byzantium" with suspicion, especially after nearly coming to blows with it in 1967, 1997, and most disturbingly with the Xanthi Incident in 2001 that nearly led to war following the deaths of over 40 soldiers between the two sides. Synthetic chemistry and "clean-tech" power production combined with tourism yield notable advances but the semiconductor factories and heavy industry, especially in Bulgaria and along the Danube River, form the backbone of the $1.8 trillion/year economy. Cyprus and Moldova have also joined Balkania following the failure of Cyprus as a nation once Russian drug cartels used the island for their laundering purposes and took it over. Moldova was vastly weaker and preferred Skopje to Moscow, especially if it meant that they could rejoin their Russian brethren. The attempt of Russia to retake Transnitria in 2012 resulted in a brief shooting match and shortly thereafter the deportation of all Russian-speakers from the region. The Russian Black Sea Fleet tried to intervene and met its demise from supercavitating torpedoes from Gamma-class fast attack submarines. In an awesome feat the Balkanians raised the Russian hulks and began repairing them with some modernizations, but these will not be seaworthy for another year or two.

 

[Halagaz]

No idea how to accomplish that. Here's a partially "succesful" attempt:

1886 - Bulgarian throne becomes vacant (as in OTL). Prince Nicholas of Montenegro is elected to be the new monarch. When in ~20 years Bulgaria formally throws away Ottoman suzeiranty this will, in theory, be a personal union. Nicholas rules over a relatively democratic and liberal Bulgaria.

1899 - the King of Serbia's personal regime is overthrown. Peter Karadjordjevic is elected as the new King (Nicholas I of Montenegro/Bulgaria would have worked even better, but Austria-Hungary protests and forces a compromise candidate like Peter). Unlike his predecessor, Peter I presides over a democratic Serbia, and is open to cooperation with Bulgaria/Montenegro.

1912 - the Balkan War: using its internal unrest as a pretext, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece attack and defeat the Ottoman Empire. Unlike IOTL, the Balkan states don't expand into (most of) Macedonia because Austria-Hungary threatens war if they do. Instead, Albania and Macedonia become independent of the Ottoman Empire and the Balkan allies annex various smaller borderlands.

1914 - the Great War: an Austrian Archduke or governor in Bosnia gets assassinated by angry locals; Vienna sees this as a chance to nip the South Slavic threat in the bud. One thing leads to another...

After the dust settles, the Entente has won, though the war was devastating for winners and losers alike. One of the new creations in europe is the Kingdom of Yugoslavia - and unlike the OTL one, it has evolved from a personal union and melding of several "equal" monarchies and is thus federated from the start. The new Yugoslavia is democratic, and the constituent lands of Serbia, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Croatia and Slovenia enjoy political and cultural autonomy. All this provides a stable framework for the country's continued existence and development.

To the north - a rump Austria-Hungary composed solely of, well, Austria and Hungary. Completely demilitarized (as a price for letting the Habsburgs stay), so while the rump Austria-Hungary is relatively large and relatively prosperous, it's in no position to threaten anyone.

To the south - Macedonia, an unstable narco-state with poverty, ethnic strife and narco-cartels out the wazoo.
(Fun fact: Opium from Vardar Macedonia made over 43% of the world's legal opium products in the first half of the 20th century. And high-quality opium it was, too.)
The backstory there is that Macedonia was seized (together with Albania) into Italy's sphere of influence, which prevented its unification with the rest of the south Slavs - and created an environment of oligarch governments and operetta dictators that only increased corruption, crime and overall instability and basked in the booming drug trade.



So there you have it - a USA (Yugoslavia), with a Canada (A-H) and Mexico (Macedonia) of sorts. Unfortunately the PoD has been moved 14 years back from the line, Yugoslavia is only a regional power, and a future war against Communist Russia is only a small possibility. But I don't know how any of those things can be fixed without ASB.