Chapter 24:
With no longer worrying about avoiding the attention of the US, we quickly took over Cuba. They just happened to be in a period of economic collapse due to the cut off of Soviet subsidies. Their main lacking, at least to get back to the economy such as they had in the 1980's was being able to afford petroleum imports. Their main export, sugar, was itself dependent on fuel for their tractors and agricultural chemicals.
In August 1994, before our intervention, there was an open protest against Castro. Similar to Iraq the Castros would be too troublesome by reputation and also by their desire to remain in control, so they were removed. Lower level people were put in charge who liked the idea of running Cuba on our behalf and also in raising the living standards of Cubans without putting foreign companies in charge of the place.
The turnaround was quick. We had Libyan help to explore for oil in the waters around Cuba and get that production going. Magical solar cells replaced much of their energy needs, with petroleum products now being used mainly for tractors and petrochemicals. Tourism was built up as an industry.
For the remainder of nations that were not affiliated with the Technology Alliance, nor tied to MACUSA's group, we worked out with MACUSA rules of engagement. Neither would overthrow magical ministries. The local magical ministry would need to approve of overthrowing the non-magical government.
These rules were agreed to shortly after we took over Cuba. We didn't want to start having agents fighting each other, and causing civil wars when we would back opposite sides. MACUSA probably thought they would do better this way, since they didn't have a lot of experience with operating in non-magical environments. Their non-magical government did, but the skills of using magic for these operations were in our possession. For us, avoiding war was paramount, and we thought we could compete well in this new front of what was in reality a Cold War.
Now we were in the domain of persuasion and showing benefits. Our goal was to show a superior trading network, superior help in their economic development for the non-magical country. For the magicals we tried to show better opportunities to earn money and prestige by helping the non-magicals.
Khan started to make speeches more, and try to appeal to an idealism, a set of goals. He was very good at that.
Khan's country of origin, India, continued to be more integrated with the Technology Alliance. Their magical population found his message more appealing over time. There was also a sense of not wanted to be left out of a movement changing the world. In India they saw the rapid economic progress in Pakistan and initially tried to have their own ministry do the same domestically. However over time they saw that they were falling behind.
Southeast Asia joined the Technology Alliance, including Malaysia and Singapore.
The Prime Minister of Singapore was being frozen out of contact with US President Clinton due to Singapore imposing caning as a punishment of a young American man convicted of vandalizing cars, despite Clinton's personal appeal to not impose that sentence. When Khan visited him, the Prime Minister didn't get any counter-offers from the US.
Khan said, "I admire what Singapore has accomplished in its short period of independence. Its peace, order, and prosperity is a model for what the entire Technology Alliance strives for. We expect to learn from you while offering the benefits the Technology Alliance can provide for Singapore."
With South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan, we couldn't see any prospect to take them over. Instead we encouraged trade with them. Our goal was to make our trade more valuable for them than US trade. Their need for raw materials were mostly satisfied by the Technology Alliance. We made special agreements with them to let them license technology and sell high tech products without our outright copying everything, at least not without paying them significantly for the technology we copied.
North Korea was agreeing to all sorts of joint ventures with South Korea, in addition to tourism and family visits to North Korea.
Eastern Europe generally found trade with the Technology Alliance to their advantage. Some of them joined the Alliance as a choice, without being ruled by it. We still sent in magical help for their economies and coordinated it with their governments.
The Covert Action Force that I led ensured security for our operations and also for cooperative politicians. It helped also transform what was organized crime to auxiliaries that were paid well and worked for us.
Fudge delivered what he promised and was paid for. The European Union agreed to a trade agreement with the Technology Alliance. EU members were allowed to individually more closely cooperate with the Alliance. UK and Ireland joined the Technology Alliance immediately.
British Prime Minister John Major and Queen Elizabeth were fully informed as to the magical help given to the UK. The fan fiction trope that Queen Elizabeth could command the Minister of Magic turned out to be not true. The British Ministry of Magic was formed in opposition to King William III after asking for protection from that King and being ignored. If King William III and Queen Mary II responded differently, then there could have been a Magical Ministry formed in allegiance to the British Monarchy.
We started to be a little more direct in magic used to for non-magical purposes. Some phases of some public works projects and major construction projects were subcontracted by companies hiring magicals. They operate in a closed off site and then a foundation, tunnel, repaired roof, etc., appears. Even charging much less than non-magical companies, it was well worth the while for skilled witches and wizards to do that work.
Since solar wouldn't be that believable for Britain, we instead put together offshore wave energy production sites. The other major source was geothermal. Each of those just had the appearance of being real, but instead got their energy from magic.
British Magical Minister Fudge would have friendly meetings with Prime Minister Major. At one that I was invited to, Major was laughing and telling Fudge, "So back in June I announced my resignation as Conservative leader. Then I immediately ran for election for the same position and won by 218 to 89. That is how you stay in power."
Fudge answered jovially, "I wouldn't dare do that. They'd probably say cheerio, best retirement, and then vote someone else in."
The world of personal computers had two basic centers, USA and the Technology Alliance. In the US, personal computers were based on Intel chips and ran the newly released Windows 95. In the TA, a variety of chip makers in China, Malaysia, South Korea and Europe made chips compatible with each other. The TA hired Linus Torvalds to continue to develop Linux and related software. He had a budget to hire employees and get whatever equipment he needed. Everything produced was open source. Any popular software was quickly reinvented by his organization. There were additional labs throughout Eastern and Western Europe to help produce open source software.
For internet coverage, while we wanted to have data cables everywhere, we were looking for something cheaper and still functional. We also wanted eventually to move to space, so why not help jump start that effort. We copied the entire idea and engineering plans of Teledesic, a US company with existing plans to launch 840 active satellites at 700 km altitude. They estimated it would cost $9 billion. We thought with magic and lower cost Russian and Kazakh space launching we could bring this cost down considerably.
Parallel to satellite coverage was a plan to provide internet coverage by cell tower. We had researchers working on affordable 3G mobile coverage and phones. It would be a few years before we'd be ready to roll that out, but we were planning the towers in advance for 3G. Cellular modems for computers would be available at the same time. Wi-Fi was planned in advance as well. It was hoped it could be rolled out at the same time as 3G so that cellular modems would not often be needed.
Meanwhile in the US, magic helped push technology forwards. Intel was already selling Pentium II's, 2 years ahead of schedule. DVD's were not ahead of schedule. The movie studios insisted on copy protection, which delayed the release of the product. In the Technology Alliance, LaserDiscs were popular and widely sold. The TA looked the other way about copyright infringement. We had the idea that it could be a bargaining chip for any eventual agreement with the US to do something about compensating the owners of the content.
Magical innovations from MACUSA included road maintenance. This was a constant effort in the US, and with magic they could do so with much less disruption of travel and with far less expense. Tunneling was another area easy to do with magic, since it is completely hidden from view. With a much lower cost, a series of tunnels to connect Boston, including replacing an elevated highway with a tunnel, was underway years ahead of my timeline. The other contractors must have had an idea of what was going on, since they originally planned for the expensive freezing of ground while they tunneled.
The water supply system of New York City was quickly improved, instead of the decades the original project was going to take. In that underground system there was also magically provided water added. The southwest US, with its constant water allocation fights suddenly found itself with enough water.
Tourists at the Hoover Dam couldn't notice that more water was being sent downstream than arrived from upstream. Also, the electricity production was somewhat higher than one would expect. At nearby Las Vegas, gamblers didn't notice that magic was being activity searched for and anyone using magic to improve their gambling odds were quietly asked to leave and told that next time MACUSA would prosecute them.
There was a noticeable difference in TV programs and movies from my timeline to this one. American shows and movies now always showed magic in a favorable light. It looked like they were preparing the public for the end of the Statute of Secrecy. There was a really good blockbuster movie called "Salem 1692". It showed Tituba as doing real magic at the start of the movie. Then the movie was very sympathetic to the victims of the accusations. The young accusers were first shown listening to sermons about killing witches, and then later accusing others of witchcraft. By the end of the movie you felt that witches should be left alone.
Our covert force intercepted a communication from a Colonel Green of the UK, notifying the US that in case of conflict that he could freeze up certain UK responses, giving a chance to capture a large UK force.
I showed Khan the Original Series episode "The Savage Curtain". Then I said, "Colonel Green is going to be a continuing source of problems. We must get rid of him." We agreed, and ordered our forces to do so.