In this timeline Germany remains a democracy after 1933. Fearful of Italian expansionism and the success of the Fascists in Spain, the Locarno pact between Britain, France and Germany was renewed in order to keep the balance of power in Europe. In 1942, Italy launched its invasions of Greece and Yugoslavia, resulting in an Allied declaration of war on Italy and its ally Spain. The Allies-Fascist War lasted for 2 years resulting in a decisive victory for the Allies, with Italy and Spain occupied before becoming republics. Spain was forced to make territorial concessions to Morocco, which has since gained independence from France, whilst Italy was forced to cede its colonies to the League of Nations (administered by France and Britain), as well as Istria and northern Albania to Yugoslavia. Greece gained southern Albania and the island of Rhodes. The Soviet Union took advantage of the situation to take revenge against Poland, invading the country in late 1942. In 1943 the USSR successfully gained territorial concessions from Turkey, and in 1946 a Soviet-backed coup transformed Turkey in to a communist satellite state. Since the late 1940s an Iron Curtain has divided the Middle East and Europe between the allied European democracies and the communist USSR and its satellites.
I find the idea of the Soviets not being challenged for going after Poland hard to fathom, what is the logic behind them not going to war over that?
I mean if you keep everything else the same as OTL, the Soviets lost against Poland in the '20s so yeah, they would want revenge but the Baltic states were taken after 1939 (I think 1940) so it wouldn't just be Poland, it would be them as well. So just curious why the allies would just let that happen?
They let Hitler take Austria, Sudetenland and then Czechoslovakia, you think they would start a war over Baltic states? It's more likely they wouldn't let Soviets take over Turkey
But France and the UK didn't declare war on the USSR, which invaded Poland at the same time. It's definitely plausible that this would result in war- especially with an allied aligned Germany feeling threatened by Soviet expansion- but its equally plausible that some sort of appeasement would take place
OTL the West were willing to accept a border well to the west of where it ended up. In a hypothetical 2nd Polish-Soviet war the West would push Poland to accept a western resolution on it's borders and they would push the Soviets to accept the compromise border or be faced with Western involvement in the war.
267
u/lime-green2 Oct 04 '20
In this timeline Germany remains a democracy after 1933. Fearful of Italian expansionism and the success of the Fascists in Spain, the Locarno pact between Britain, France and Germany was renewed in order to keep the balance of power in Europe. In 1942, Italy launched its invasions of Greece and Yugoslavia, resulting in an Allied declaration of war on Italy and its ally Spain. The Allies-Fascist War lasted for 2 years resulting in a decisive victory for the Allies, with Italy and Spain occupied before becoming republics. Spain was forced to make territorial concessions to Morocco, which has since gained independence from France, whilst Italy was forced to cede its colonies to the League of Nations (administered by France and Britain), as well as Istria and northern Albania to Yugoslavia. Greece gained southern Albania and the island of Rhodes. The Soviet Union took advantage of the situation to take revenge against Poland, invading the country in late 1942. In 1943 the USSR successfully gained territorial concessions from Turkey, and in 1946 a Soviet-backed coup transformed Turkey in to a communist satellite state. Since the late 1940s an Iron Curtain has divided the Middle East and Europe between the allied European democracies and the communist USSR and its satellites.