Monday, March 20, 2017

The Austrian Painter's 75th Birthday: The World of 1964

So in the Austrian Painter's world Germany defeated France in 1914 and Russia in 1916. There has been no Great War as we think of it.

What else is missing?

No communist Revolution, no Nazis. No World War Two. No Cold War. No atom bombs. No space race. Britain is not bankrupted by two world wars.

At the heart of Europe stands the German Reich. She is rich and powerful. Culturally der Fatherland is a bit of a brute and showoff. But Germany is an economic powerhouse and a center of science and learning. She gets on well enough with Britain for they have the same concern, Russia. To that end Germany is the head of an alliance of Eastern European states against Russia. The number two nation in this alliance is Poland, followed by Romania and Hungary. It should be noted that the rump Austrian state has been absorbed into the Reich. Germany has a vast African empire centered on Congo, taken from Belgium as par the 1914 settlement. Its Syrian-Lebanon colony is a favorite vacation spot.

France is an economic basket-case which for the last four decades has been run by a series of despots each claiming to be the next Napoleon.  She has lost a series of colonial engagements from Asia to Africa and is something of a laughing stock on the continent.

The British Empire is strong though a bit slow and stodgy. By act of parliament India was granted dominion status in 1950.

Russia is a dictatorship with a rump parliament and still decades behind Europe. The Germans roughed her up in the Great Eastern War.

America has little interest in Europe and is focused entirely on the Pacific. As Germany commemorates the 50th anniversary of its victory in 1914, America commemorates the 25th anniversary of the Pacific War. Japan mourns.

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