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Alternate History General Discussion

A problem with Nazi Germany v. America Cold Wars is that unlike Communism Nazism isn't an ideology that can gain support from everyone regardless of what continent they reside in as it is a racial ideology to the core. All such a Cold War would consist of is the Nazis and Italians engaging in brutality to get the colonies of Vichy France, Spain, Portugal, Italy etc. in Africa and eventually running out of money before collapsing in the 60s or 70s. Not to mention the Slavic insurgency in Eastern Europe. It wouldn't be the worldwide global struggle as the OTL Cold War was.
 
A problem with Nazi Germany v. America Cold Wars is that unlike Communism Nazism isn't an ideology that can gain support from everyone regardless of what continent they reside in as it is a racial ideology to the core. All such a Cold War would consist of is the Nazis and Italians engaging in brutality to get the colonies of Vichy France, Spain, Portugal, Italy etc. in Africa and eventually running out of money before collapsing in the 60s or 70s. Not to mention the Slavic insurgency in Eastern Europe. It wouldn't be the worldwide global struggle as the OTL Cold War was.

Well, yes and no. You won't have people signing up for fascism in the same way they signed up for the international socialist fraternity, but that doesn't mean they won't decide that they ought to pursue fascism for themselves. Fascism's got to have something on the ball if it got Germany from the weakness and division of Versailles all the way to the European hegemon that broke the Soviet Union, hasn't it? And if you decide on that and you're in a place where it would serve Germany and Italy to cause trouble, they very well might lend you a hand. Or maybe you'll take it the other way, when when they show up to your national liberation front meeting with boxes of rifles and silver thalers. maybe these Germans aren't so bad after all.
 
A problem with Nazi Germany v. America Cold Wars is that unlike Communism Nazism isn't an ideology that can gain support from everyone regardless of what continent they reside in as it is a racial ideology to the core. All such a Cold War would consist of is the Nazis and Italians engaging in brutality to get the colonies of Vichy France, Spain, Portugal, Italy etc. in Africa and eventually running out of money before collapsing in the 60s or 70s. Not to mention the Slavic insurgency in Eastern Europe. It wouldn't be the worldwide global struggle as the OTL Cold War was.

Even Apartheid South Africa and Rhodesia had black allies.
 
Don't forget UNITA and RENAMO. In addition, they supported Katanga and Biafra.

I was thinking purely of state leaders but good point. Jonas Savimbi and Moise Tshombe are excellent examples of black africans to make deals with the devil.

There's also the Liberian case but that's rather more complicated.
 
I was thinking purely of state leaders but good point. Jonas Savimbi and Moise Tshombe are excellent examples of black africans to make deals with the devil.

Do you lean towards the "Sincere ideologue", "Leftist who lied to the west/SA to get their support", "Ovimbundu ethno-nationalist", or "shameless opportunist" interpretation of Savimbi? Honestly curious.
 
Do you lean towards the "Sincere ideologue", "Leftist who lied to the west/SA to get their support", "Ovimbundu ethno-nationalist", or "shameless opportunist" interpretation of Savimbi? Honestly curious.

My gut instinct is that anyone in politics is primarily a shameless opportunist but honestly I don't know enough about the subject to comment with any expertise, I'm afraid. I know a little about the Angolan civil war but mostly in terms of its effects elsewhere.

I'd go with whatever @morbidteaparty thinks, as he's the one who wrote a Tl about Savimbi, and then pretend its my opinion.
 
Savimbi is such an interesting character given his pivot from Maoist trained anticolonial guerilla to Reagan funded rebel, that you can conceivably argue for all 3 interpretations and have enough evidence to back your claim, and I'd be wary of overtly stating one over the other though tbh I don't think, despite the Cold War backdrop a d rhetoric that the left-right split is all that relevant to the Angolan Civil War.
 
It does feel like very few timelines actually end. At least very few of the ones I’ve read, it just keeps going on and on.
I mean we have had essays written here about how you should always take things to the present. I think it's nonsense but it's also unsurprising considering how many people in the genre don't really think about work as lit.
 
I would think having a definite end point is important when planning alternate history stories. This ain’t DBZ or Naruto, you ain’t gonna make any money writing this for five plus years unless you’re gonna get it published or have a Patreon account.

Though if you are, like the bods behind Kirov and Timeline 10/27/62, I see why you keep it going forever because (ala Dragonball) that's paying the bills. "Time to write the Kirov Reverse Harem spinoff series*," I'd say after paying the gas.

*Kiroverse Harem
 
I mean we have had essays written here about how you should always take things to the present. I think it's nonsense but it's also unsurprising considering how many people in the genre don't really think about work as lit.

Have we had that on here? That does surprise me. I'd expect it on other sites but the emphasis on publishing and vignettes/tliad over long timelines here encourages a different culture.
 
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