Updated Sunday 15 May, 2011 12:18 PM

Washington Rewritten

One of the major nails in the coffin of the British empire was the decision to sign the Washington treaty in 1921, effectively abandoning a trusted ally (Japan) and committing Britain to the hints of an alliance with Washington, a commitment that proved VERY elusive and came at a very high cost. America refused to provide guarantees for the Empire and would not support the British with anything concrete. The net result was a severely insulted Japan, which was diplomatically isolated – and then driven into the hands of the axis. WW2 showed how weak the British Empire had become and it was destroyed by the Japanese and American interference. America has always proven a very jealous ally.

I am presuming that the British find the guts to demand major, public, and long-term guarantees. They need, at least, economic support, military assistance and a commitment to defending the British Empire – even without the US being attacked directly. I suspect that American politics would not allow any president to make such agreements – and the talks break down.

Japan and Britain kiss and make up. Japan is dependent upon imports from the British Empire and would therefore forgive any minor indiscretions. Britain quietly agrees to not support the Chinese, as long as British interests (Hong Kong, trade stations, missionaries) are protected.

There probably won’t be a larger battleship race. The British were exhausted and in no state to continue building new ships. The Americans had the ability, but did not feel that they needed to, while the Japanese had only limited building capability anyway – although, in OTL, they did not bother to keep the Washington treaty limits.

There will be profound economic and military repercussions. The great depression may be lightened if the British and Japanese are selling to each other within their empires. The two powers can share technology and tactical ideas – can you imagine the British having a carrier with Shokaku-level planes at Norway – and can keep their own defences in the Far East at minimal levels. The British do not build a major naval base at Singapore. The Australians benefit from the depression slack and build bases in Australia. Japan is able to build a larger army to fight in China, while the Chinese have less suppliers and foreign assistance.

Assuming that war still starts in 1939, it will probably take a different path. Japan sends a few ships to aid the British in the Atlantic and Norway. They help the British to wipe out a large chunk of the German fleet at minimal costs. The Japanese learn important lessons about anti-submarine warfare. France probably still falls.

Bigger differences here. The Japanese and British occupy both Indochina and the Dutch East Indies. The former because they pay homage to Vichy – denounced as a German puppet – and the latter for ‘safe-keeping’. Japanese flood into both areas. The US occupies the French islands in the Caribbean.

Sea Lion looks even more impossible to Adolf, as does North Africa. The expanded British units (Singapore, Austrian, Indian garrisons) plus the Japanese units make the Italian defeat quicker. The British and Japanese spend 1940-41 cleaning up the remains of the Italian Empire, as well as taking most of the French Empire for ‘safekeeping’. Hitler heads east earlier, takes Moscow, but is unable to finish off the Russians, committing Germany to years of hard warfare in Russia. The Japanese are less than willing to aid the Russians – the Nomonhan battles were a stalemate in ATL – and block allied plans to send supplies. The war in the east stalemates.

Peace becomes imperative. Britain is running out of resources with only one major victory to their credit (Norway). Chamberlain is still in power (absent the Norwegian disaster he’ll survive in Power if he’s canny enough to blame May 1940 on the French), while there are fewer supplies from America. Hitler’s forces have reached the limits of what they can seize by force, Stalin does not have anything like the army he’d built up in OTL. Franco is able to serve as mediator in exchange for goods from Britain.

Britain recognises the German position in Europe. Germany recognises the British conquests in Africa on the condition that the British allow immigration of ‘undesirables’ from Germany. Vichy France is dissolved and Germany occupies all of France. Japan’s conquest of Indochina and the Dutch East Indies is confirmed. Britain occupies Greenland and Iceland, although with US observers. Germany keeps the Ukraine and Byelorussia, but withdraws from the Russian SSR.

The long-term implications of this are very interesting. Stalin would have a reduced power base and would probably get the blame for the defeats, making soviet politics far nastier than OTL, while he’d be desperately trying to build an atomic bomb. Germany would be sated for the moment, while Italy would be a subordinate power and French independence would have been ended for the foreseeable future.

Africa would have been largely divided up between the British and the Japanese. The Japanese would have far more incentive to have ‘living space’ and would probably colonise much of the Ex-French Empire and the Congo. The British would probably developed Madagascar as a Jewish state, avoiding the Palestine problem, but suffering problems from Jews who wanted Palestine.

The Far East is very different. Without the collapse of the British Empire of OTL, India would probably attain dominion status instead of full independence, perhaps reasoning that British formal domination is better than the almost-certain war in Vietnam. The Japanese would probably end up fighting to control most of china, eventually burning out at some point. Without a creditable threat, America goes back to isolation.

FeedBack Form

Hit Counter