Into the Breach

Chapter 03 Aftermath for the Ostriches

Who could have thought that a war with the second most powerful industrial power in the world would be disastrous for the economy? Well, literally everyone…except for governments as always. With all the countries that had markets flooded with Chinese products suddenly found shortages in finding such products.

To give credit where credit is due, the governments of the belligerents were not truly incompetent, and had indeed planned a system of rationing beforehand, thus mobilizing the economy for the war. When the war was over however, most just hoped that the Republic of China could fill the void and they tried, however the devastation to the economy that a world war had caused, as well as the further paranoid communist purges across China had led to a world-wide recession after the demobilization of the economy.

Short-sighted? Maybe, but it was no different from what all their predecessors had done.

The economic recession led to many unifying movements gaining popularity. Whether Pan-Arabism in the Arab League (and beyond, in countries like Chad), Pan-slavicism in ex-Yugoslavia and Bulgaria. Romanian reunification in Romania and Moldova as well as some parts of Ukraine, Pan-Africanism, Czechoslovakism and many more.

 The people found unity through misery, however, with these unifying movements came separatist ones, and when they clashed, the violence was terrible. The various nationalists in the Balkans clashed with the new Yugoslav supporters, Romanian protests in Ukraine were put down by the police, and in the Arab world, the Pan-Arab movement was received with…mixed sentiments. Countries with Pan-Arab agendas and popular support like Syria, Iraq, Egypt or Saudi Arabia were mostly welcoming of this revived movement.

However, in other countries its reception was much colder. In Lebanon Pan-Arabs were suppressed and judged no different from Syrian Nationalists, as they considered the influence of the Ba’ath party to be a security risk for the Republic, furthermore Lebanese nationalists or religious and ethnic minorities that felt threatened by this movement, such as the mostly Orthodox Armenians, ended up taking up justice in their own hands, with acts of vigilantism being widespread, and Pan-Arabs as well as Syrian nationalists being found hung to Cedar trees, much to the disdain of Syria, these cases of murder were rarely persecuted, as the state was more than happy to turn a blind eye to the killing of their new strategic opponents.

Pan-Africanism grew in popular support, however it remained on the fringe of the political ambitions in the region, another blow to the movement arose when the nations of Sudan and South Sudan reunified after the deposition of the government through a popular uprising in the former. With the authoritarians out of power, and with promises of treating the mostly Christian Southerners fairly this time, a referendum made the reunification a reality, as many had predicted in the 20s.

Still, the shortage of funds meant that the rich South could not be fully exploited, despite that it remains a great blow to Pan-Africanism, with the East African Union, the nation that was most likely to form from such sentiments having one of its potential members removed.

However, other movements such as Czechoslovakism found a surprising popularity among the people. After much discussion and a referendum, the Czechs and the Slovaks found themselves together, again. A surprising turn of events, however not completely unexpected, as the majority of Czechs and Slovaks showed nostalgia when asked about Czechoslovakia in previous polls. Still, this was only one of many movements, and with their neighbour, Ukraine suppressing Romanians, and the Romanian state reluctant to make a move on either Ukrainian regions populated by a majority of Romanians or Moldova, out of fear of further economic degradation, Czechoslovakia was seen as one small success in a sea of failures.

However, the worst had yet to come, especially for the land of the free, who was to face trying challenges in the following years.