The World of 6-Commando, Part II
Merry Christmas, everyone. This is a little Christmas Bonus, for you, and there’s more to come. All the best, folks – travel well, enjoy time with your family, or if you don’t celebrate the holiday, stay well and be peaceful, anyway.
And as before, here’s the text from above:
REPUBLIC OF CUBA
DIPLOMATIC APPELLATION: República de Cuba
CONVENTIONAL SHORT FORM: Cuba
CAPITAL: Havana
LARGEST CITY: Santiago de Cuba
AREA: 42,426 sq. mi.
POPULATION: 15.2 Million (1996 est.)
FORM OF GOVERNMENT: Constitutional Democratic Republic
HEAD OF STATE: President
HEAD OF GOVERNMENT: Prime Minister
INDEPENDENCE: 1897 (from Spain)
ESTABLISHMENT: 1899 (current Constitution)
Cuba has long had close ties with the United States, in spite of the rather rocky relationship the two countries had in the early days after the Cuban War of Independence. Cuban researchers participated heavily in the U.S. Atomic Program throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s, and the Cuban government detonated its first atomic weapon in 1979 with American assistance. Cuba possesses no native Uranium resources, and purchases the majority of its weapons material from the United States as part of a weapons-sharing arrangement. Cuba is a particularly strong advocate of an aggressive UNA atomic deterrent, and has the largest atomic stockpiles relative to its population of any atomic nation on Earth. Cuba is also in a geopolitically vital location in proximity to the Southern Coalition. This latter point is not lost on global strategists seeking to draw CONASUR into closer relations with the UNA, with some viewing Cuba as a possible starting point for such political inroads due to the shared culture and history of the nation with its South American neighbors. Cubans themselves are less enthusiastic, preferring a strong defense against possible CONASUR aggression.
EMPIRE OF JAPAN
DIPLOMATIC APPELLATION: Dai Nihon Teikoku
CONVENTIONAL SHORT FORM: Japan
CAPITAL: Kyoto
LARGEST CITY: Tokyo
AREA: 155,934 sq. mi.
POPULATION: 101.2 Million (1996 est.)
FORM OF GOVERNMENT: Constitutional Monarchy and Parliamentary Democracy
HEAD OF STATE: Emperor
HEAD OF GOVERNMENT: Prime Minister
INDEPENDENCE: None (Japan has been an established state society since at least 600 b.c.)
ESTABLISHMENT: 313 a.d. (earliest verifiable date for reign of Emperor Nintoku); 1879 (Taisho Constitution)
Japan’s atomic arsenal is highly controversial. At the start of the century, even up to the late 1930’s, Japan was an imperial power, and engaged in a series of long and ultimately unsuccessful territorial wars with China between 1933 and 1946 that continues to dog Sino-Japanese relations. However, the decolonization of Japan in the 1960s and 1970s coincided with a radical upswing in communist influence in Asia, particularly with the splitting-up of China, with the western mass of the country becoming a member of the FSR. As a result, although the Republic of China has consistently opposed it, the Japanese were assisted in building a deterrent force in the late 1970s by Canada and Australia. Though, like Mexico, Japan recently enacted a unilateral moratorium on new atomic weapons construction, the government of Japan has not placed any limit on its nuclear forces per se, and the possibility of further expansion is likely to become an issue as the current warhead stockpile begins to age. In the absence of any international aggreement on arms reductions, Japan is likely to remain a major atomic power for some time to come.
AUSTRALIAN FEDERATION
DIPLOMATIC APPELLATION: Federated Commonwealth of Australia
CONVENTIONAL SHORT FORM: Australia
CAPITAL: Canberra, F.C.T.
LARGEST CITY: Sydney
AREA: 3,473,974 sq. mi. (not including Unincorporated Antarctic Territory)
POPULATION: 37.7 Million (1996 est.)
FORM OF GOVERNMENT: Nominal Constitutional Monarchy operating as De Facto Parliamentary Federal Democratic Republic
HEAD OF STATE: Monarch (de jure); Prime Minister (de facto, since 1981)
HEAD OF GOVERNMENT: Prime Minister (Note: since 1981, the Prime Minister has been de facto Head of State and Head of Government)
INDEPENDENCE: 1902 (Australian Home Rule Act)
ESTABLISHMENT: 1824 (Australian Federalisation Act)
Australia is the world’s largest producer of Uranium ore, but is not a major producer of fissile radioactives. Rather, Australia exports the majority of its ores to Japan, Indonesia, the Republic of China and the United States, where they are processed and enriched, and either passed on to other UNA atomic states, retained (in Japan and the USA) for domestic arms production, or returned to Australia for incorporation into more advanced weaponry. Australia’s relatively small strategic arsenal is somewhat deceptive: the nation is a leader in tactical atomic weapons, which are not counted in strategic terms. Australia is also a major producer of advanced bioinformatics, used in guidance systems of missiles and in gel computers. This gives Australia a major advantage that goes beyond its apparent numerical atomic capabilities by enhancing the weapons it does possess, making them far more accurate and able to be tuned to many different atomic yields. Uniquely for an atomic power, the Australian Federal Air Force is the only branch of the armed services of Australia permitted to handle or use atomics; where the Army or Navy use them, they do so under Air Force supervision.
One century ago on this day, the good of mankind shone through the mud and blood of the Great War…
“On 24 December 1914, in the midst of the Great War, French, British, Belgian, Russian, German and Austro-Hungarian troops in the East and West defied their superiors and laid down their arms. For two days, these adversaries celebrated Christmas together and embraced each other in a moment of brotherhood and humanity. Carols were sung, gifts were exchanged, football was played, and the few trees they found were decorated. For some, it would be their last Christmas on Earth. For the world, these dramatic events are still remembered as mankind’s finest hour.”
One of my favorite historical events, only slightly behind the Apollo 8 mission. It’s tough to imagine anything like it being possible today.
The only thing missing is the troops going to their respective superiors and shooting every one of them dead and declaring the war is over and every king, queen and emperor a marked enemy of the people.
Then Private first-class Whatziznam promotes himself to general and establishes a military dictatorship over western Europe.
Interesting… Japan’s territory now includes Sakhalin Island to the north, and Australia also includes what we know as Papau New Guinea.
Oh, and Merry Christmas, everybody.
Japan lost Sakhalin island to Russia at the end of World War 2. Good thing Japan wasn’t divided the way Germany was. Imagine that! I see that they aren’t in China or Korea either. Japan got the a-bomb and tested one at the end of the war. Unfortunately they had no way of delivering it so the destroyed most everything they had worked on.
Excellent work, am looking forward to the next ones, and hope your Christmas was a very good one!
Hmm…No antarctic treaty eh? I wonder how much of the southern continent is controlled by CONASUR, and what fraction of that is Chile’s…
When did the Japanese Empire lose Korea and Taiwan? Korea I can understand them losing control due to nationalist unrest, but Taiwan? One of the dirty little secrets of WW2 is that the majority of the people in Taiwan had no problem with Japanese rule, and the island is valuable enough I can’t see Japan giving it up without a fight. As far as I am aware in this alternate history, the Japanese Empire never suffered any military defeat and the Republic of China wouldn’t be in any position to directly challenge it.
Then again, ethnic nationalism does seem to sneak up on empires when they aren’t looking.
Any more details on the Japanese Empire’s territorial losses?
This alternate world of yours just keeps getting more interesting Mr. Average!
I was thinking somewhat along the lines of Hans L. about Japan. I was wondering how the Chinese managed to beat them back without the kind of American-British-Allied help that they got during WWII in “our” world.
These background pages are still fascinating though.
Merry Christmas Everyone!
Given the independence date you gave for Cuba, I assume that in this world the US did not go to war against Spain in 1898, resulting in temporary US rule of Cuba (among other transfers). Clearly there was some US involvement, though, or at least pointed non-involvement; I wonder what form that took?
The Cuban Revolution was assisted by the United States, but the US did so with arms and diplomatic intervention, not through open conflict. The United States were (I say ‘were’ because the US in the 6-Commando world is a Consitutional Confederacy, not a Federal Republic) not really equipped for international interventions until well into the 1950s.