Hello there and welcome to this crazy project of mine that may or may not come crashing down in flames. Not too long ago, I bought HOI4 on a steam sale and immediately went to get the Kaiserreich mod. After playing a few games with Germany I couldn't help but imagine how "Gate" might have played out if it opened into the Kaiserreich universe and this is the result. I'll be loosely basing this timeline loosely on a recent Germany campaign I played. Oh, and if you have no idea what Kaiserreich is, go watch AlternateHistoryHub's video on it on Youtube. Anyways, without further ado, let us begin!
Notable world events from 1936 to 1940:
Europe:
In early January of 1936 the Berlin Stock Market collapses, plunging Europe and the wider world into an unprecedented economic depression, which took many years and hardships for the nations of Europe to climb back from. This event becomes known as Black Monday.
A few days after Black Monday occurs, President Alexander Kerensky is assasinated in Moscow. Amidst the political chaos, General Kornilov storms Moscow, and appoints himself as President and dissolves the Parliament. Following his death, the Russian Republic was dissolved by his successor, Boris Savinkov, who declared himself Vozhd, and the national-populist Russian State was created.
In Germany, the disastrous effects of Black Monday had shattered the German people's faith in the currently ruling conservative party, and Kaiser Whilhelm II appointed the Social Democratic Party's and it's 'realist' coalition's leader, Otto Wels as Chancellor following the elections. The new government swiftly made sweeping political and economic reforms; allowing the Kaiserreich to slowly reverse the effects of Black Monday.
In Switzerland, the Savoyard crisis occured in 1937, where the Commune of France demanded Upper Savoy from Switzerland. Germany stepped in and threatened the Communard government with war if Swiss independence was not respected, resulting in the Commune stepping down. Switzerland soon joined the German-led Reichspakt, a system of alliance in Europe uniting the German puppet states estabilished following their victory in the First Weltkrieg.
Shortly after, a syndicalist revolution toppled the monarchy in Norway, creating the Socialist Republic of Norway. In response, the Kingdom of Sweden and the Kingdom of Finland joined the Reichspakt, to secure themselves against the Russian State as well as the Syndicalist Menace.
In Italy, the Austrian influence collapsed following Black Monday. Their forces pulled out of the Italian Republic in the Northeast, which reorganized itself into a federation not unlike the one that collapsed following the revolutions in France and the United Kingdom. In 1938 the Socialist Republic of Italy declared war on the Kingdom of Two Sicilies and the Papal State to their south. The war came to a stalemate in Latium and Abruzzo for years, allowing the Italian Federation to gather it's strength and intervene in 1940, catching the Syndicalists completely off-guard and occupying their core Northwestern territories. In the following months, the Socialist Republic capitulated and was annexed by the Federation, to which the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and the Papal State joined, uniting Italy for the second time in it's history.
In the Kingdom of Spain, a three-way civil war broke out in 1936 between the Syndicalists, Carlists and the loyalists. After two years of bloody conflict, the loyalists emerged victorious. However, the King fell into a coma before the civil war and his heir was assasinated. With no way to determine who was the next in line of succession, the monarchy was abolished and a republic was declared, which soon joined the Reichspakt, as well as Ireland.
In January of 1938, the Russian State announced the creation of the "Moscow Accord", a system of alliance opposed to the Reichspakt, to which Georgia and Afghanistan joined. Later, in September that year, the Russian State started mobilizing for war following their swift takeover of Central Asia. Not long after, The Russian State demanded the Don-Kuban Union, the German Empire stepped in however and defended the Union from Russian encroachment by allowing them to join the Reichspakt. The Russian State, realising that they're not ready for a war with the Reichspakt yet, they conceded.
In January of 1940 the Communard village of Avricourt got accidentally shelled by German troops conducting exercises near the border. The German Empire issued a formal apology and agreed to pay the Commune of France reparations for the damage caused, which defused the situation.
Later that year, as part of the German Empire's Mitteleuropa reforms, which included the creation of a common currency ('Europamark'), estabilishing the Council of Europe, the Grain and Steel Programme and European Exchange Programme, the Polish Republic was invited to the Reichspakt which it accepted.
On the 30th of November, 1940, the Second Weltkrieg broke out when The Russian State declared the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk null and void and finally declared war on Germany after years of tension. A few months later, sensing their opportunity, the Commune of France, the leader of the Third Internationalé, a system of alliances made between the Syndicalist nations of the world, declared war on the German Empire as well.
In December of 1940, Greece joined the Moscow Accord, entering the war on the side of the Russian State, as well as Georgia and Afghanistan.
Africa and the Middle East:
In Mittelafrika Statthalter Herman von Göring was removed from his position following a scandal where Mittelafrikan officials compiled evidence against him and presented it to the restored Bundesrat, Reichstag and the Kaiser himself. Their report revealed that Statthalter von Göring was involved in corruption, embezzlement, kidnapping and threatening of journalists and even the hiring of assasins. In his stead, the Kaiser appointed the leader of the "Reformgruppe" Theodor von Hassel as Statthalter.
In December of 1938, the War in the Desert began as the Sultanate of Egypt declared war on the Ottoman Empire. All across the Empire, Arabs rebelled and the Ottomans were pushed out of the Middle East. However, after their forces regrouped and reorganized in Anatolia, they managed to push the Arabs back, and after years of bloody fighting started pushing into Egypt itself.
Asia:
Following Black Monday, the Qing Empire collapsed into civil war between warlord states, revolutionary groups and the forces still loyal to the Emperor.
In 1937, the Viet-Minh rose up against German rule in Vietnam. Their uprising however was eventually crushed with the arrival of German marines and other reinforcements.
In 1938, the Japanese Empire announced it's goal of conquering the Pacific Ocean, alarming both Reichspakt and Entente leaders. Japan began the annexation of the Philippines shortly after their declaration.
In India, the Princely Federation became victorious in the Indian Reunification War, and in December of 1939 joined the Japanese-led Co-Propserity Sphere. They were followed by the Kingdom of Siam, who joined in April of 1940. This brought the Entente into conflict with Japan, as the by-then occupied Dominion of India was part of the Entente, and they did not accept India as lost, even if they had to face Japan in the Pacific too.
In May of 1940, the Japanese-backed Fengtian Government in Manchuria intervened in China and launched it's offensive into the Qing-held provinces.
North America:
In 1937, the elections in the United States were won by the Socialist Party led by Jack Reed. This however did little to ease the political chaos in the US. General MacArthur forcibly removed Reed from power and declared martial law. Reed fled to the Syndicalist-controlled Great Lakes region which not long after declared the creation of The Combined Syndicates of America. In reaction to this, Huey Long declared the Creation of the American Union State in the southern U.S., while the governors of the West Coast States also declared the Pacific States of America, as well as New England, which quickly aligned itself with Canada and joined the Entente. General MacArthur gave the leaders of all parties 30 days to stand down before he ordered his troops to arrest and execute the leaders of the separatist states. With the deadline expired and no answer received from either of the separatist states, the Second American Civil War broke out.
Despite their fierce resistance, Federal forces were pushed back on all three fronts, and Washington D.C. itself was captured by the CSA. The AUS soon found itself surrounded by the CSA and was slowly pushed back by the Syndicalists and the AUS capital of Baton Rouge fell into the CSA's hands. Meanwhile, the PSA pushed beyond the Rocky Mountains, and a stalemate soon ensued between them, the Federal remnants and the CSA.
In 1939, the Dominion of Canada intervened in the Second American Civil War on behalf of the PSA. What remained of the Federal forces under MacArthur collapsed under the pressure. Even though they faced a two-front war, the CSA continued to gain ground against the PSA and even broke into Central Canada. However, they remained unable to hold the New-Englander and Canadian offensives aimed at their core territories in the Great Lakes region as well as Entente naval landings along the East Coast. While the latter was ultimately unsuccessful, the former saw success and the CSA slowly lost ground in the Great Lakes region.
South America:
War broke out between Syndicalist Chile, the Patagonian Workers Front and Argentina, with the former emerging victorious and the Socialist Republic of Argentina was born. In response Brazil joined the Reichspakt in hopes of gaining protection from the growing Syndicalist threat from their South as well as from Venezuela; all of whom joined the other Syndicalist nations of the Third Internationalé.
Australia:
In 1936, a Syndicalist revolution toppled the government of the Australasian Confederation. A countercoup was successful in New Zealand, which broke away from the newly declared Australasian Union and joined the Entente. In November of 1940, the Australasian Union joined the Third Internationalé.
Events of the Second Weltkrieg (1940-1948)
Europe:
Shortly after the Second Weltkrieg broke out, the Kingdom of Denmark joined the Reichspakt, which made supplying German forces on the Souhtern Swedish-Norwegian border significantly easier. Those forces immediately launched an offensive aimed at Oslo, however the winter conditions and reinforcements from the Union of Britain and the Commune of France significantly slowed the Reichspakt forces' progress down until spring, when Oslo was captured by German-Swedish forces, Syndicalist resistance still continued in the Northwestern parts of the country that were still unoccupied, this did little to prevent the advance of Swedish forces, allowing Germany to redeploy their troops from Norway to their front with the Commune of France.
Prior to the outbreak of the Second Weltkrieg, both the Commune and the German Empire heavily fortified their side of the border, this, coupled with the fact that Germany stationed a majority of it's forces along the Communard border with Flanders-Wallonia, Switzerland and Germany proper, led to a stalemate not unlike the one that lasted for the majority of the First Weltkrieg on that same front, even though both sides switched their emphasis to motorised and armored formations. This stalemate continued even when significant reinforcements from both the Reichspakt and Third Internationalé arrived to reinforce the Western Front.
In Spain, the forces of the Third Internationalé put a larger percentage of their forces on the Spanish-French border than expected. Syndicalist forces pushed beyond the Pyrennes mountains and captured Barcelona and other northern Spanish cities before being stopped by Spanish and other Reichspakt forces primarily from Brazil and Mittelafrika.
To the East, the advance of the Russian State was quickly halted by the Reichspakt in Finland, the United Baltic Dutchy, White Ruthenia and Ukraine, while the Don-Kuban Union's Eastern regions came under Russian occupation as the country was attacked from both the North and the South by Georgia and only the quick arrival of mainly German reinforcements managed to stabilise the front not too far from the capital city of Ekaterinodar. Following these developments another stalemate ensued in the Eastern front with neither side able to overcome the other.
In the early months of 1942, the Commune of France declared war on the Netherlands, which immediately sought entry into the Reichspakt. The Union of Britain attempted naval landings in Flanders, the Netherlands and Hannover in Germany, with all of them getting repelled within a period of two months.
Later in 1942, the French Republican exiles in Algeria delcared war on the Commune of France, with the rest of the Entente soon joining the war against the Third Internationalé. Realising their need to work together to defeat the remaining Syndicalist nations of the world, the Entente leaders invited Reichspakt officials to the Canadian city of Halifax to discuss the possibility of cooperation in exchange for returning the French and British homelands in full to their respective governments in exile. In the conference, France renounced their claim on Alsace-Lorraine and agreed to join Mitteleuropa following their victory. The British and French also renounced their claims on their former African and East Asian colonies. The British also agreed to renounce their claim on Northern Ireland. Following their agreements to German demands, the leaders of the Entente and Reichspakt agreed to sign a treaty of non-aggression and military access to each-other's lands and ports.
Following the Halifax Conference, Entente forces poured into Spain and, once Entente-Reichspakt navies secured the English channel and into Germany. Entente forces also made landfall in Brittany. Faced with a three-front war and cut off from reinforcements from the Third Internationalé, the Communard military quickly lost ground, Paris was captured by Franco-German troops, a moment widely regarded as the beginning of the Franco-German Thaw. The Allies pushed on to join the Brittany pocket with their northern gains before sweeping south, reaching the French Riviera in a few months. With Marseilles captured, the Commune of France capitulated.
Following the Commune's collapse, German forces quickly regrouped to the Northern Coast of France and Northern Ireland before making landfall in Glasgow, Plymouth, Portsmouth, and Dover. In a few months, London was captured by German troops, and swept through England, forcing the Union of Britain to capitulate. The country came under temporary German occupation for several months before being handed over to the Dominion of Canada. In the following peace treaty, Australia, Norway and Iceland (which also joined the Internationalé) were annexed by Germany, while Great Britain was restored in the British Isles, as well as the French Third Republic. In Norway, the monarchy was restored, Iceland became a republic while it's prior delcaration of independence was respected and was free of Danish influence, though it still joined the Reichspakt together with Norway. In Australia, the Germans estabilished a Reichspakt-aligned republic in the western parts of the country while in Eastern Australia the Dominion was reestabilished.
After their triumph in the West, German and Reichspakt forces were redeployed against the Russian State. The Russians fought fiercely, however the Reichspakt slowly pushed them back in Northern and Central Russia. After a year of fighting in 1944, Petrograd fell to a Finnish offensive, Moscow was captured by German-Ukrainian troops. This however did little to stifle The Russian State's fighting spirit. What followed was several years of brutal fighting in the harsh Russian steppes. Both sides endured hellish conditions and low supplies as the armies of the Reichspakt slowly pushed the Russians up to the Ural mountains, with the only exception being the Don-Kuban Union where the best Russian and Georgian divisions held off the Reichspakt until Reichspakt marine forces made landfall in Western Georgia and pushed into the country's central regions, forcing them to capitulate.
In 1945, the war entered into a new phase when Germany dropped an atomic bomb on the Russian city of Tsaritsyn by the Volga river, destroying the city and causing massive casualties to the Russian State. This however only made the Russians even more determined and they refused to surrender. In the following years, German atomic bombs were dropped on the cities of Samara, Perm and Kazan as well as on major Russian troops concentrations, which allowed the Reichspakt to break through the Ural mountains. The cities of Ekaterinburg and Chelyabinsk, the last major Russian cities still in the State's hands, with the former serving as the temporary capital of the Russian State and the Vozhd's temporary headquarters were heavily fortified and were defended by fanatical and desperate Russian troops. Even with nuclear weapons, the cities were captured after a year of brutal fighting in 1948, forcing the Russian State to capitulate, marking the 'official' end of the Second Weltkrieg.
In the peace negotiations, Finland gained the entirety of Karelia and Murmansk Oblast, the United Baltic Dutchy gained the Region of Dünaburg and White Ruthenia, now officially called the Belarusian People's Republic gained the Vitebsk, Smolensk and Kirchev Oblasts. Russia's Central Asian gains were reorganised into the Central Asian Federation while Afghanistan, Greece and Georgia became German puppets and Reichspakt members. Russia istelf was split into three countries; the Russian Republic to the west of the Ural Mountains, the Siberian Republic which controls the central part of the country and the Far Eastern Republic.
Africa and the Middle East:
By 1940, Ottoman forces captured Alexandria and Cairo, ending the War in the Desert with the capitulation of the Sultanate of Egypt, which was replaced by the old Khedivate of Egypt, becoming a semi-autonomous puppet of the Ottoman Empire.
In December of 1949, Germany intervened in the Ogaden War between the national populist State of Somalia and the Kingdom of Ethiopia on the Ethiopians' side. By the 15th of January, German forces captured Mogadishu and the State of Somalia collapsed and was annexed by Germany which transferred it to Mittelafrika's administration.
Asia:
The Pacific became a battleground between the Entente and Co-Prosperity Sphere, and German East Asia and the Australian Syndicalists respectively. Australian troops and German marines and schutztruppen clashed in Eastern New Guinea with German forces eventually driving the Syndicalists out of Guinea.
Following years of clashes between the Entente and Japanese navies, Entente forces made landfall in the Philippenes, as well as in Western Siam, after which the Kingdom of Siam agreed on a conditional surrender to the Entente. Entente forces also attempted naval landings in India, with little success.
In 1945, after conquering the majority of China, with the exception of the Sichuan and Xinjiang Cliques, as well as the southern Nationalists, the Fengtian Government betrayed Japan and declared war, quickly capturing Port Arthur and storming into Korea while Entente and Fengtian troops captured the northern and southern parts of Sakhalin Island respectively.
Following the collapse of the southern Nationalist Group in 1949, the Fengtian Government declared war on the Sichuan Clique, the last warlord state in China, which was defeated and annexed by April of 1950. Following the defeat of the Sichuan Clique, the Republic of China was declared. The new republic faces the rest of the Co-Prosperity Sphere to their west and Japan itself to their east.
North America:
The Entente push into the Red Belt and East Coast of the CSA continued into 1941, with the capture of Washington D.C., Chicago, New York and other major CSA cities by New England's forces, the CSA was forced to capitulate, and the territory of the old U.S. was divided temporarily between New England and the Pacific States.
Following the victory over the Third Internationalé in Europe, the U.S. was reunited and joined the Entente.
South America:
In South America, similar events to the European theatre of war occured. The Third Internationalé's forces pushed into Southwestern Brazil and it was thanks only to Reichspakt reinforcements that the Paraná didn't completely fall into Syndicalist hands before the war ground to stalemate in South America as well. The stalemate lasted until the marines of German East Asia made landfall in Chile and pushed into the Chilean capital of Santiago. Following this, Chile capitulated and Syndicalist forces started to be slowly pushed back from Brazil.
Following the defeat of the South American Syndicalist nations, the Peru-Bolivian Confederation, which also fought against the South American Syndicalists declared war on Brazil, dragging the Reichspakt into another war. Generally seen as a side show to the Weltkrieg, the Confederation was defeated within the same year by the Reichspakt. The Confederation was split up and a few regions were conceded to the previously liberated Reichspakt-aligned South American nations.
Australia:
Following their victory in Guinea, German Marines and Schutztruppen made landfall in Northern Australia before pushing south along the coastline into Sydney and Canberra, forcing the Australian Union to capitulate. Australia came under German occupation until the end of the war with the Third Internationalé, when the German Empire liberated Western Australia as a republic, which joined the Reichspakt while in the eastern parts of the country the Dominion was estabilished.
Das Tor
On the 15th of June, 1950, the Gate opens in the centre of Berlin...