This is almost as bad as a semi-tankie Italy; sure, the regime is doing quite well, compared to the countries more closely aligned to the USSR, but there's still the possibility that this counter-culture might morph into an actual reactionary bent in the general populace, with post-Cold War Italy making Hungary and Poland seem progressive. Hopefully, Italy's fate here will end up resembling that of Italy in that Alternate History Hub video, with the mainland being heterodox enough in its implementation of socialism, it will avoid the rigidity and stagnation that doomed the Warsaw Pact.
The Red Boot: the history of Italy in the Cold War (TLIAW)
- Thread starter Gar48
- Start date
This is almost as bad as a semi-tankie Italy; sure, the regime is doing quite well, compared to the countries more closely aligned to the USSR, but there's still the possibility that this counter-culture might morph into an actual reactionary bent in the general populace, with post-Cold War Italy making Hungary and Poland seem progressive. Hopefully, Italy's fate here will end up resembling that of Italy in that Alternate History Hub video, with the mainland being heterodox enough in its implementation of socialism, it will avoid the rigidity and stagnation that doomed the Warsaw Pact.
- Iran had a secular repubblican revolution in 1956. It is close to the Soviets (kinda inevitable when NATO is still pissed about the nationalisation of the oil) and Israel.
- Israel is a Soviet ally, because Stalin thought Western Europe was going to turn fascist again and decided the jews were going to be useful as human shields.
- The Arab world is mostly allied with the US. Washington's support for arab rebels during the Algerian Crisis (aka Rhodesia on steroids) helped a lot
- Syria and Lebanon united in 1961 under Michel Aflaq. Not a democracy by any means, but still a better place than its FOM counterpart.
- Needless to say, Turkey is a very paranoid military dictatorship. The Kurds are more belligerant than OTL, and 90% of its neightbours are ideologically hostiles.
- The Arab Union of Iraq and Jordan exists, and it is stable as much as OTL Yugoslavia in 1991.
- Saudi Arabia, Lybia and Egypt are monarchies but it is the army who run the show.
Pakistan went Communist in 1953, so India is tecnically an American ally. New Delhi helped the US in China by supporting a rebellion in Tibet.
ITTL the New Delhi Accords (this TL's non-aligned movement) have expanded significantly after the destruction of the PRC
No Bangladesh? What is situation in china after PRC destruction?
india's relationships with Arabs and Israelis? Soviets?
What happened to conservatives in Pakistan?
india's relationships with Arabs and Israelis? Soviets?
What happened to conservatives in Pakistan?
After the revolution of 1953, the previous government of Pakistan fled in exile to Bangladesh. It was a military dictatorship until 1968.
Also conservatives either escaped to Afghanistan or Bangladesh, or got hanged by enthusiast communists.
The USSR annexed Manchuria (except some tiny pieces gifted to North Korea). Moscow also set up two puppet regimes in the north and Uyghuristan.
The south is a US-backed military dictatorship, while Tibet is an Indian ally.
Tibet and Uyghuristan are the two most peaceful parts of mainland China, as the locals suffered a lot under the Cultural Revolution. The rest of the country is a mess.
India has a lot of trade agreements with the Republic of Iran, but it is officially neutral in Israel-Arab conflict.
Moscow and New Delhi mostly try to ignore the other
I'm sure he'll get to addressing these issues in time if they fit the scope of the story though I feel as in the the title, is Italy. I feel like people are piling on Gav a lil too much
Thanks, but it is not a problem. If people want to ask more details about this world outside Italy, they just need to be polite
There is a lot that I wanted to include in the TLIAW, but I had to leave out.
Higligts include:
- The Empire of Ethiopia recognignising the government of Bologna even before the Soviets in exchange for Badoglio, Graziani and other WW2 criminals
- South Africa and Rhodesia avoiding Apartheid, while Ian Smith was blown to pieces by his own side in Algeria.
- The old "Sword and Sandals" movie remaining popular, with Marylin Monroe playing Livia Drusilla in a "I, Claudius" movie
I was thinking about sports - mainland Italy got the lion's share of everything, but I wonder if there will be a push to reform Italian sport along Soviet lines; motorsport might be especially impacted but, Emilia-Romagna being as fond of socialism as it is fond of speed, maybe the local brands will merely be turned into cooperatives, who knows.
Insular Italy, that's almost a clean slate, since Sardinian and Sicilian sport was quite underdeveloped compared to the mainland, despite the local teams often being quite old.
MAINLAND ITALY
- Football is still the national sport. It fits the Communist/Socialist ideals and Jugoslavia likes the sport too.
- Motorsports aren't particularly popular ITTL. Most of the car industries were either destroyed between 1948-1952, or turned into arms factories aftewards. While Longo's economic boom and the oil from Iran did result into a small resurgence of car races, it was nowhere the OTL level.
- In general, there was little effort to reform Italian sports along Soviet lines. Rome did create its own version of the Voluntary Sports Societies of the Soviet Union, but it produced mixed results
Baseball and Rugby are surprisinly popular thanks to American influence (MacArthur had a lot of naval bases built on the island).
Needless to say, the Olympic competition betweeb the two are very competitive
The intellectual
ITALO CALVINO
The intellectual
Italo Calvino was born in 1923 and, like most members of his generation, he had been part of the partisan resistance in both civil wars. Although he had distinguished himself for courage in both conflicts, Calvino had also been harshly criticized by some of his superiors for his lack of ideological fervor.
After the conclusion of the Second Civil War, Calvino decided to embrace his passion for literature. Not only did his literary career begin well before his political one, but it was instrumental in its inception.
In 1955, Calvino was hired as a journalist by L'Unità, and five years later, he became personal assistant to its editor Pietro Ingrao.
In 1962, Ingrao became a parliamentarian and he used his new connections to get Calvino hired by the Ministry of Propaganda. During this period Calvino began to forge important connections with members of the Socialist Party and with some of the more prominent reformists within the PCI.
Four years later, Ingrao as the new Minister of Education, hastened to summon his old collaborator to Rome, ceding his seat in Parliament to Calvino.
As a parliamentarian, Calvino opposed sending Italian troops to assist Russia in its conflict with China and voted for de Lorenzo's removal in 1971.
Surprisingly, Calvino declined Ingrao's offer to join his new Politburo. Indeed, Calvino suspected that his old mentor wasn’t going to hold the post for long, given his outdated economic positions.
While Ingrao started working on the creation of the Third Republic, Calvino soon began to collaborate with other reformist politicians, often presenting himself as both a more moderate and more radical version of Ingrao.
When it became clear that Ingrao's government was on the verge of falling, Calvino took it upon himself to ensure that his old mentor resigned without creating any trouble. During a private meeting, Calvino assured Ingrao that he would respect his political reforms, and let him remain in the Parliament.
With the support of the Socialist Party and the communist reformers, Calvino was then elected Prime Minister of the Third Republic. His radical ideas on the Italian economy and culture would prove crucial in the new international landscape caused by the war in China.
The Soviets had been weakened as a result of the war against Beijing. Not only had their international reputation been damaged, but Moscow was also forced to waste large numbers of men and resources against the various rebel groups, active in their occupation zone in northern China.
Meanwhile, the political situation had also changed profoundly in the Western bloc. The horror of war in China and the deaths from decades of military interventions in Third World countries had ended the anti-communist hysteria that had dominated the Western political world since 1952.
Western voters had decided to elect a new generation of leaders, more inclined to compromise and negotiation than their predecessors. One such leader was the new American President Jimmy Hoffa.
For Calvino and Tito this represented the perfect opportunity. For years Rome and Sarajevo had tolerated Soviet interference due to the lack of other options. Now Washington was willing to tolerate their communist governments if it meant weakening Moscow.
Toward the end of the year, Hoffa surprisingly announced that he would be traveling to the Third Republic and Yugoslavia for a diplomatic visit. Although the Mediterranean League would be officially created only the following year, many historians consider Hoffa's visit the moment when the Third Republic and Yugoslavia ended their alliance with the Soviets for good.
The first priority of the new Communist bloc was the establishment of new diplomatic and trade relations with Western Europe. Of course, the success of the first Italian-Yugoslav nuclear test in 1977 meant that Western Europe had to treat the Mediterranean League as an equal rather than as potential puppet.
Between 1976 and 1979 Calvino traveled several times to Paris, Madrid and other capitals of the Commonwealth of Europe for new trade agreements.
Particularly important was Calvino's state visit to Paris on November 15, 1978.
The new agreements signed with Prime Minister Alain Savary sanctioned a decrease in the number of troops present along the Franco-Italian border, and most importantly, the unofficial end of Italian aid to the separatist groups present in the Aosta Valley.
Having ensured the security of the western and eastern borders of the Third Republic, Calvino started focusing on his ambitious plans to reform the Third Republic.
The enhancement of Italian culture became one of the foundations of Calvino's internal and external policies, as demonstrated by his Five Year Plans of 1978 and 1983. Not only had the new Prime Minister always been critical of the cultural closure of his predecessors, but he also believed that the valorization of Italian history would facilitate the desovietization of the Italian peninsula.
Rome began to dispense more and more funds to Cinecittà and other cultural centers. Under the direction of Culture Minister Pier Paolo Pasolini, the regime's books and films began to focus on events and historical figures related to the socialist spirit of the Italian nation.
Many of the statues and streets dedicated to Lenin and other Soviet leaders were therefore replaced by statues and streets dedicated to Luigi Longo, Garibaldi and other figures deemed significant to the history of the Italian proletariat.
Censorship was somewhat relaxed, as Calvino allowed the diffusion of western music and fashion that fit the ideals of the new Italy.
The cultural liberalization of Calvino's government also entailed two particularly contradictory social liberalizations.
First, Calvino moved to restore diplomatic relations between the Papacy and the government in Rome. Ever since the flight of Pope Pius XII to Avignon during the Second Civil War, the position of the government of mainland Italy toward the Catholic Church had oscillated between cold indifference and open hostility.
Calvino, particularly eager to legitimize his government in the eyes of many southerner Italians, sought to exploit the new international position of the Third Republic to change the situation.
On February 11, 1979, Calvin and Pope Aleander VII signed the Lyon Accords. The Papacy agreed to lift the 1948 excommunication against members of the Popular National Front, while Rome granted more freedom to the members of the clergy in its territory.
There was no discussion of the fate of the Vatican, still claimed by the Papacy, but used as a national museum of the Risorgimento by the government in Rome since 1955. The new freedom of the Italian clergy also coincided with extensive infiltration of its ranks by the SIS.
Paradoxically, Calvino also softened the Third Republic's policies toward homosexuals . While homosexuality was tecnically still illegal, Calvino warned the SIS to cease all investigations and arrests against known or suspected “deviants”.
After de Lorenzo, Calvino hoped to deprive Western and Soviet intelligence services of any blackmail material against politicians of Third Republic. The fact that Pier Paolo Pasolini, one of Calvino's most important political allies, was openly homosexual contributed decisively to the Prime Minister's decision.
Under Calvino's leadership, Italian luxury products were sold once again in Western Europe and America for the first time since 1952. Suddenly being a fashion designer or a painter were no longer considered decadent capitalist activities but, on the contrary, useful means to support the Italian revolution.
Italian ports were reopened not only to Western commercial ships, but also to tourists eager to see ancient monuments that for decades had been accessible only to a few diplomats and Soviet bloc residents.
Hoffa's impeachment and the poor relations with his successor, William Buckley Jr, did not prevent Calvino from achieving other important results in his second and third terms.
In 1981, the government of Saudi Arabia was overthrown by the Islamists of Juhayman al-Otaybi, an event that began the many uprisings and civil wars of the Arab Winter.
As Western governments found themselves forced to ration their oil or buy ita t eorbitant prices from the Soviets and the Arab Union of Syria, Rome gained an important ally in the Middle East. In 1982, Abdessalam Jalloud was able to take control of Libya, thanks to military aid sent from mainland Italy since 1965.
Calvino was not only the first head of state to recognize the new Libyan government, but also the first to travel to Tripoli to meet with the country's new dictator.
At the end of the meeting, a triumphant Calvino announced to the crowd gathered in front of the presidential palace that the Third Republic would assist Jalloud's regime financially and militarily.
Rome justified this decision as redemption for the crimes committed by the Italian government during the colonial period. In reality Jalloud agreed to repay Rome's support through almost free supplies of oil. In exchange for the modernization and stability of his dictatorship, Jalloud had become an unofficial member of the Mediterranean League.
Although the success of the Libyan revolution resulted in the expulsion of Italian diplomats from Israel, Calvino's popularity was not affected in the slightest, and Parliament reconfirmed his government for a third term in 1983.
In the last two years of his government, Calvino was mainly concerned with expanding the Italian peninsula's nuclear arsenal, and managing the space program of the Mediterranean League.The only noteworthy event of this period was the resurfacing rivalry between Rome and Cagliari, after Sicilia-Sardina began its own nuclear program.
On September 6, 1985, Calvino suffered a cerebral hemorrhage while on vacation in Tuscany. Despite the rush to the hospital, it was impossible to save him, and Calvino died thirteen days later.
His Politburo hastened to declare that the Prime Minister had died while working in his office, and proclaimed a week of national mourning. More or less spontaneously, numerous crowds gathered in major Italian cities to commemorate the leader who had finally fulfilled the revolutionary promises of 1952.
His funeral demonstrated one last time the success of his policies. Whereas the funerals of his predecessors had been attended only by members of their families and governments, Calvino's funeral was attended by many international heads of state, including U.S. President Gore Vidal and Soviet leader Gennady Voronov.
Through his ingenuity, favorable circumstances, and much good fortune Calvino had to all intents and purposes transformed mainland Italy from a small country dependent on the Soviets to an independent state with considerable influence in the Mediterranean. Although later years would demonstrate the limitations and errors of some of his initiatives, his legacy continues to this day to influence the politics of the Third Republic.
Perhaps it was precisely the attempt to emulate the success of Calvino's legacy that ruined the one of his successor.
The intellectual
Italo Calvino was born in 1923 and, like most members of his generation, he had been part of the partisan resistance in both civil wars. Although he had distinguished himself for courage in both conflicts, Calvino had also been harshly criticized by some of his superiors for his lack of ideological fervor.
After the conclusion of the Second Civil War, Calvino decided to embrace his passion for literature. Not only did his literary career begin well before his political one, but it was instrumental in its inception.
In 1955, Calvino was hired as a journalist by L'Unità, and five years later, he became personal assistant to its editor Pietro Ingrao.
In 1962, Ingrao became a parliamentarian and he used his new connections to get Calvino hired by the Ministry of Propaganda. During this period Calvino began to forge important connections with members of the Socialist Party and with some of the more prominent reformists within the PCI.
Four years later, Ingrao as the new Minister of Education, hastened to summon his old collaborator to Rome, ceding his seat in Parliament to Calvino.
As a parliamentarian, Calvino opposed sending Italian troops to assist Russia in its conflict with China and voted for de Lorenzo's removal in 1971.
Surprisingly, Calvino declined Ingrao's offer to join his new Politburo. Indeed, Calvino suspected that his old mentor wasn’t going to hold the post for long, given his outdated economic positions.
While Ingrao started working on the creation of the Third Republic, Calvino soon began to collaborate with other reformist politicians, often presenting himself as both a more moderate and more radical version of Ingrao.
When it became clear that Ingrao's government was on the verge of falling, Calvino took it upon himself to ensure that his old mentor resigned without creating any trouble. During a private meeting, Calvino assured Ingrao that he would respect his political reforms, and let him remain in the Parliament.
With the support of the Socialist Party and the communist reformers, Calvino was then elected Prime Minister of the Third Republic. His radical ideas on the Italian economy and culture would prove crucial in the new international landscape caused by the war in China.
The Soviets had been weakened as a result of the war against Beijing. Not only had their international reputation been damaged, but Moscow was also forced to waste large numbers of men and resources against the various rebel groups, active in their occupation zone in northern China.
Meanwhile, the political situation had also changed profoundly in the Western bloc. The horror of war in China and the deaths from decades of military interventions in Third World countries had ended the anti-communist hysteria that had dominated the Western political world since 1952.
Western voters had decided to elect a new generation of leaders, more inclined to compromise and negotiation than their predecessors. One such leader was the new American President Jimmy Hoffa.
For Calvino and Tito this represented the perfect opportunity. For years Rome and Sarajevo had tolerated Soviet interference due to the lack of other options. Now Washington was willing to tolerate their communist governments if it meant weakening Moscow.
Toward the end of the year, Hoffa surprisingly announced that he would be traveling to the Third Republic and Yugoslavia for a diplomatic visit. Although the Mediterranean League would be officially created only the following year, many historians consider Hoffa's visit the moment when the Third Republic and Yugoslavia ended their alliance with the Soviets for good.
The first priority of the new Communist bloc was the establishment of new diplomatic and trade relations with Western Europe. Of course, the success of the first Italian-Yugoslav nuclear test in 1977 meant that Western Europe had to treat the Mediterranean League as an equal rather than as potential puppet.
Between 1976 and 1979 Calvino traveled several times to Paris, Madrid and other capitals of the Commonwealth of Europe for new trade agreements.
Particularly important was Calvino's state visit to Paris on November 15, 1978.
The new agreements signed with Prime Minister Alain Savary sanctioned a decrease in the number of troops present along the Franco-Italian border, and most importantly, the unofficial end of Italian aid to the separatist groups present in the Aosta Valley.
Having ensured the security of the western and eastern borders of the Third Republic, Calvino started focusing on his ambitious plans to reform the Third Republic.
The enhancement of Italian culture became one of the foundations of Calvino's internal and external policies, as demonstrated by his Five Year Plans of 1978 and 1983. Not only had the new Prime Minister always been critical of the cultural closure of his predecessors, but he also believed that the valorization of Italian history would facilitate the desovietization of the Italian peninsula.
Rome began to dispense more and more funds to Cinecittà and other cultural centers. Under the direction of Culture Minister Pier Paolo Pasolini, the regime's books and films began to focus on events and historical figures related to the socialist spirit of the Italian nation.
Many of the statues and streets dedicated to Lenin and other Soviet leaders were therefore replaced by statues and streets dedicated to Luigi Longo, Garibaldi and other figures deemed significant to the history of the Italian proletariat.
Censorship was somewhat relaxed, as Calvino allowed the diffusion of western music and fashion that fit the ideals of the new Italy.
The cultural liberalization of Calvino's government also entailed two particularly contradictory social liberalizations.
First, Calvino moved to restore diplomatic relations between the Papacy and the government in Rome. Ever since the flight of Pope Pius XII to Avignon during the Second Civil War, the position of the government of mainland Italy toward the Catholic Church had oscillated between cold indifference and open hostility.
Calvino, particularly eager to legitimize his government in the eyes of many southerner Italians, sought to exploit the new international position of the Third Republic to change the situation.
On February 11, 1979, Calvin and Pope Aleander VII signed the Lyon Accords. The Papacy agreed to lift the 1948 excommunication against members of the Popular National Front, while Rome granted more freedom to the members of the clergy in its territory.
There was no discussion of the fate of the Vatican, still claimed by the Papacy, but used as a national museum of the Risorgimento by the government in Rome since 1955. The new freedom of the Italian clergy also coincided with extensive infiltration of its ranks by the SIS.
Paradoxically, Calvino also softened the Third Republic's policies toward homosexuals . While homosexuality was tecnically still illegal, Calvino warned the SIS to cease all investigations and arrests against known or suspected “deviants”.
After de Lorenzo, Calvino hoped to deprive Western and Soviet intelligence services of any blackmail material against politicians of Third Republic. The fact that Pier Paolo Pasolini, one of Calvino's most important political allies, was openly homosexual contributed decisively to the Prime Minister's decision.
Under Calvino's leadership, Italian luxury products were sold once again in Western Europe and America for the first time since 1952. Suddenly being a fashion designer or a painter were no longer considered decadent capitalist activities but, on the contrary, useful means to support the Italian revolution.
Italian ports were reopened not only to Western commercial ships, but also to tourists eager to see ancient monuments that for decades had been accessible only to a few diplomats and Soviet bloc residents.
Hoffa's impeachment and the poor relations with his successor, William Buckley Jr, did not prevent Calvino from achieving other important results in his second and third terms.
In 1981, the government of Saudi Arabia was overthrown by the Islamists of Juhayman al-Otaybi, an event that began the many uprisings and civil wars of the Arab Winter.
As Western governments found themselves forced to ration their oil or buy ita t eorbitant prices from the Soviets and the Arab Union of Syria, Rome gained an important ally in the Middle East. In 1982, Abdessalam Jalloud was able to take control of Libya, thanks to military aid sent from mainland Italy since 1965.
Calvino was not only the first head of state to recognize the new Libyan government, but also the first to travel to Tripoli to meet with the country's new dictator.
At the end of the meeting, a triumphant Calvino announced to the crowd gathered in front of the presidential palace that the Third Republic would assist Jalloud's regime financially and militarily.
Rome justified this decision as redemption for the crimes committed by the Italian government during the colonial period. In reality Jalloud agreed to repay Rome's support through almost free supplies of oil. In exchange for the modernization and stability of his dictatorship, Jalloud had become an unofficial member of the Mediterranean League.
Although the success of the Libyan revolution resulted in the expulsion of Italian diplomats from Israel, Calvino's popularity was not affected in the slightest, and Parliament reconfirmed his government for a third term in 1983.
In the last two years of his government, Calvino was mainly concerned with expanding the Italian peninsula's nuclear arsenal, and managing the space program of the Mediterranean League.The only noteworthy event of this period was the resurfacing rivalry between Rome and Cagliari, after Sicilia-Sardina began its own nuclear program.
On September 6, 1985, Calvino suffered a cerebral hemorrhage while on vacation in Tuscany. Despite the rush to the hospital, it was impossible to save him, and Calvino died thirteen days later.
His Politburo hastened to declare that the Prime Minister had died while working in his office, and proclaimed a week of national mourning. More or less spontaneously, numerous crowds gathered in major Italian cities to commemorate the leader who had finally fulfilled the revolutionary promises of 1952.
His funeral demonstrated one last time the success of his policies. Whereas the funerals of his predecessors had been attended only by members of their families and governments, Calvino's funeral was attended by many international heads of state, including U.S. President Gore Vidal and Soviet leader Gennady Voronov.
Through his ingenuity, favorable circumstances, and much good fortune Calvino had to all intents and purposes transformed mainland Italy from a small country dependent on the Soviets to an independent state with considerable influence in the Mediterranean. Although later years would demonstrate the limitations and errors of some of his initiatives, his legacy continues to this day to influence the politics of the Third Republic.
Perhaps it was precisely the attempt to emulate the success of Calvino's legacy that ruined the one of his successor.
Question: Where is the center of fashion and design in Europe? Paris? London? Would Milan or other Italian cities be known for fashion in the Communist world?
Paris. After the Second Civil War, fashion wasn't a priority for the government of Mainland Italy.
Calvino did reserve a lot of funds for italian stylists, but there is a lot to do.
London is too busy dealing with anarchists/communists/the IRA to care about fashion since the military coup of 1973
Randolfo Panciardi was the only member of Scelba's cabinet who managed to reach Sicily-Sardinia, and afterewards he had to use local soldiers and politicians in his government.
Officially Italian was the only language allowed in the two islands, but nobody (even the generals actually running the show) wanted to cause another revolt.
Honestly I just liked the concept but I can give you the backstory:
CHINA
Mao got assasinated in 1956. It was either the Americans in a particoulary paranoid mood, or Mao's subordinates angry at his failure to stop Italy from following the Soviet revisionists.
His successor decided that China needed to purge itself, so you got a worse Cultural Revolution and a more aggressive foreign policy (TBF Moscow and Washington were hardly better than the PRC in this regard).
ENGLAND
The Italian and Algerian mess (also no Suez Crisis) convinced London that decolonisation was a mistake. Cue to almost twenty years of colonial wars and not exactly competent PMs.
Queen Elisabeth got murdered in 1970, and Labour, running on the platform of "Why the fuck are we fighting in China?", was on the verge of winning the election.
The army didn't like it one bit (ITTL they were fighting very hard to preserve the empire) and the new king* decided to back them.
*Sadly the dude has more in comon with OTL Andrew than George.
When you kill off De Gasperi earlier than OTL, you should be allowed to destroy reality a tiny bit.
As a threat.
Well the aviation nerd within me is wondering just how much the butterflies have influenced the airliner industry. The war in China and the global economic crisis soon after must have been a devastating blow for the industry. The 1981 oil crisis being another significant blow for the industry in less than a decade.
The butterflies alone from all events that has happened across the world and in Europe has likely killed or significantly delayed the Airbus consortium from building the Airbus 300. Ensuring that American manufactures such as Boeing, Douglas and Lockheed will be able to maintain market dominance across the West and Non-aligned world for now, with the Soviet bloc countries sticking to whatever Antonov, Tupolev, Ilyushin and Yakovlev builds, of course I can't forget of the Czechoslovakian Let Kunovice.
I would be very surprised if the Concorde somehow has not been killed and cancelled by the events that happened in the UK, the decades long colonial warfare combined with the economic crisis after the china war and the Military coup. The British Aerospace Industry whether it is nationalized or not is probably just straight up doomed to eventual irrelevance and decline if the country continues onto the path of becoming a isolated International pariah state.
The butterflies alone from all events that has happened across the world and in Europe has likely killed or significantly delayed the Airbus consortium from building the Airbus 300. Ensuring that American manufactures such as Boeing, Douglas and Lockheed will be able to maintain market dominance across the West and Non-aligned world for now, with the Soviet bloc countries sticking to whatever Antonov, Tupolev, Ilyushin and Yakovlev builds, of course I can't forget of the Czechoslovakian Let Kunovice.
I would be very surprised if the Concorde somehow has not been killed and cancelled by the events that happened in the UK, the decades long colonial warfare combined with the economic crisis after the china war and the Military coup. The British Aerospace Industry whether it is nationalized or not is probably just straight up doomed to eventual irrelevance and decline if the country continues onto the path of becoming a isolated International pariah state.
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With a POD in 1943, most of the airliner industry of this TL is completely different from OTL.
A lot of OTL scrapped military aircraft projects were actually developed ITTL. President MacArthur assumed that some kind of nuclear war was inevitable, and the US needed better aircrafts to win.
Not only were planes like the Lockheed YF-12 and the Avro-Arrow actually built ITTL, but they also siginficantly influenced the civilian airline industry.
Yes, a lot of American airlines not only survived ITTL (for example Aaxico and Reeve Aleutian Airways) but expanded significantly overseas.
On a less amusing note, nuclear-powered aircrafts have been developed by both Moscow and Washington ("Nuclear disarmament? It sounds like some capitalist/communist bullcrap!"). There have been talks about using them also for civilian flights, albeit nobody is sure how much safe they actually are.
The UK is currently scrapping the barrel regarding its aviation. Nobody wants to visit or trade with a military dictatorship, that by 1985 has lost control of most of Scotland and has threatened to invade Ireland multiple times.
While London did develop some impressive aircraft designs for military purposes ITTL, its civilian airline industry was more or less completely ignored. ITTL a lot of the british enjeneers , who worked on the Corcode in OTL, moved either to the US or France.
France is doing slightly better, as Paris was a bit smarter about decolonisation ITTL (the shit in Algeria traumatised even Jean-Marie Le Pen). Under Prime Minister Jean Monnet, the European Commonwealth did develop its own aircraft designs and it is a bit more heavily armed than OTL EU.
I would be fascinating to learn more about how the "Other Italy" of Siciliy-Sardinia is doing.
Refugees likely fled there during the civil war, maybe as much as a milion, and defectors only have a small straight to cross too. Italian capitalists and industrialists like the Agnelli family, likely also found refuge there. Capital resources won't be a problem for the Other Italy. It can have its own economic miracle too like Taiwan did OTL.
Btw the idea of a coup in the UK is far fetched, it would take a lot going wrong for it to happen. This is your story though
Oh no, I agree. England's political institutions are too solid so any attmpted coup would realistically fail.Btw the idea of a coup in the UK is far fetched, it would take a lot going wrong for it to happen. This is your story though
However I kinda liked the idea of Great Britain, of all places, becoming a dysfunctional Cold War dictatorship
This world is basically a dystopia after all. No De Gasperi= the collapse of reality.
I did consider writing chapters about the leaders of Sicily-Sardinia too, but the end results were a mess with poor narrative flow. Also the TLIAD L'Ordine Nuovo already pulled something similar, so I was afraid of being unoriginal.
I could write another TLIAD/TLIAW about the exiled government after this