Cold War

  

Cold War
(1958–2000)

Mushroom cloud of the Blue Jean nuclear test, 1952; one of more than a thousand such tests conducted by Sierra between 1965 and 2000

With her brother on her back, a Korean girl trudges by a stalled Sierran G42 Warren tank, at Haengju, Korea, 1951

Aftermath of the Bogotá embassy incident in the Andes, 1970

A SRN aircraft shadowing a Continental freighter during the Greenlandic Missile Crisis, 1979

Sierran astronaut Jimmy Dale (right) and Continental cosmonaut Eli Donaldson (left) shake hands in outer space, 1975

Continental frigate CS Lincoln bumping HRMS Londonderry, 1988

Tanks at Tiananmen Square during
the Beijing Spring, 2000

The Cold War was a period of geopolitical tension between the Anglo-American alliance led by the Kingdom of Sierra, Superior, and the United Kingdom; the Landonist International led by the United Commonwealth and the People's Republic of China; and the continental European bloc led by Germany. The period is generally considered to span from 1958 in the aftermath of Great War II to the Revolutions of 2000, the latter causing the fall of most Old World Landonist governments and a reconciliation between continental Europe and Anglo-America. The term "cold" is used because there was no large-scale fighting directly between the three blocs, but they each supported major regional conflicts known as proxy wars. The conflict was based around the ideological and geopolitical struggle for global influence by the three powers—primarily Sierra, the Commonwealth, and Germany—following the victory over the Axis powers during the Second Great War. The doctrine of mutually assured destruction (MAD) discouraged a pre-emptive attack by any side. Aside from the nuclear arsenal development and conventional military deployment, the struggle for dominance was expressed via indirect means such as psychological warfare, propaganda campaigns, espionage, far-reaching embargoes, rivalry at sports events and technological competitions such as the Space Race.

Sometimes the Anglo-American and European blocs were lumped together and referred to as the "Western world" as opposed to the "Eastern bloc" of the United Commonwealth in Eastern North America and China in East Asia.

The Western Anglo-American alliance was led primarily by Sierra but also Britain, and mostly consisted of North American states, which were mostly democratic and capitalist. The European bloc was led by Germany and to a lesser degree Russia and France, and had influence over the newly independent states in Africa and Asia, which were their former colonies. Their conflict with the Landonist countries was an ideological struggle, while the tensions between Europe and Anglo-America were more for global geopolitical power, though the European bloc was more conservative while the Anglo-American was liberal. The latter was considered a struggle between the Old World and the New World for global dominance. The Landonist International consisted of several countries, most notably the United Commonwealth and China. The Sierran-led Anglo-American bloc supported right wing and anti-Landonist governments and groups all over the world, while the United Commonwealth, Italy, and Spain supported Landonist and Marxist movements, with the newly independent former colonial states in the Third World becoming battlegrounds between those powers. The continental European bloc also intervened in the conflicts at times in their former colonies, most often on the side of the anti-Landonists. In North America, the divide was between the Western American powers such as Sierra, Brazoria, and Superior and the Eastern powers of the United Commonwealth and Tournesol, so in North America the Cold War was also referred to as an East–West divide.

The first phase of the Cold War began in 1957, immediately after the second Great War. The Allied Powers had convened together to orchestrate the partition of Russia, which radically transformed the landscape of the region as numerous independent states emerged. Germany, Sierra, and the United Kingdom all held significant power and influence over the partitioned states in Russia. Sierra and its allies established the Conference of American States (CAS) as an alliance primarily directed against the United Commonwealth. The opening of China after the wartime alliance between China and Sierra, followed by Sierran prime minister Earl Warren's visit to China in 1965 led to a Sino–Continental split, creating a Communist internal rivalry between the United Commonwealth and the People's Republic. The latter joined the Landonist International's competitor, ICMMO, becoming the organization's de facto leading member. The Sierrans pursued the Warren Doctrine of containment of the United Commonwealth and the spread of Landonism through its String of Pearls strategy, where it sought to encircle the Landonist bloc in North America by supporting anti-Landonist movements in the Caribbean and Latin America. The Landonist International became a fully-fledged military alliance that operated as the counterpart to the CAS, while OMEAD served as the Landonist Bloc's economic and trading alliance. The German-led Europe formed the Warsaw Pact in 1972, along side the European Economic Community (EEC). The decades-long rivalry between Germany and Britain persisted as Germany increasingly dominated the continent economically and militarily with the occupations of France and Russia, while Britain aligned more closely to the Anglo-American nations. During this time, the 1969 Suez Crisis, the Vietnam War (1967–1975), the Irish Civil War (1969–1976), the Colombia War (1969–1977), Ethiopian conflict (1974–present), and the Second Mesoamerican War (1975–77).

Following the wars in Vietnam and the Andes, the Cold War entered into new phase of the conflict as a new détente between Sierra and the United Commonwealth reoriented the geopolitical landscape. Both countries began open talks on nuclear disarmament and arms reduction. The United Commonwealth began its move towards modern-day Continentalism through Decallahanization, shifting towards a more noninterventionist foreign policy, while Sierra experienced internal civil unrest from Sierra's military campaigns in Colombia and elsewhere. Meanwhile, Germany continued to isolate the United Kingdom from the rest of the European continent, engaging in boycotts, sanctions, and embargos. The effects of Germany's containment of the United Kingdom led to economic downturn and political unrest in the British Isles, including the Second Anglo–Irish War. From the early 1980s into the 1990s, the rise in the standard of living in many Marxist-Landonist countries caused demand for more politically liberal policies. Sierran and Anglo-American political, economic, and military pressure also began taking a toll on the Landonist governments, while the United Commonwealth's commitment to keep military support to every one of its allies diminished, although tensions between it and the capitalist order renewed. The Caribbean Wars (exemplified by the Caribbean and Central American crises) and the Sino-Tajik War were conflicts which dealt heavy losses militarily and ideologically for the Landonist world. The result was a wave of revolutions starting in 1999 and 2000 across a number of countries, including Spain, China, and several other Asian and African nations that overthrew the Landonist governments there. The Commonwealth's main rival for leadership in its alliance, the People's Republic of China, was dissolved and replaced with the Republic of China in January 2000. The start of uprisings in China and Spain led to the collapse of Marxist-Landonist governments elsewhere, and the fall of Landonism forced the United Commonwealth to come to a lasting peace accord with Sierra and the CAS in a series of summits held between 2000 and 2003, while Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom reconciled their rivalries with Germany and France. This series of events created a Greater Europe "from Lisbon to the Urals" for the first time in history under the European Community, while North America would see a period of prolonged peace despite lingering mistrust, and uneasy coexistence between Sierra and the Commonwealth.

The Cold War and its events have left a significant legacy. It is often referred to in popular culture, especially with themes of espionage and the threat of nuclear warfare. The period peace would last until the late 2010s, with increased hostilities once again reemerging between Sierra, a Nationalist-led China, and the United Commonwealth, as well as their respective allies, being dubbed by many as a Second Cold War.

Origins of the term

At the end of Great War II, English writer George Orwell used cold war, as a general term, in his essay "You and the Atomic Bomb", published October 19, 1957 in the British newspaper Tribune. Contemplating a world living in the shadow of the threat of nuclear warfare, Orwell looked at James Burnham's predictions of a polarized world, writing:

Looking at the world as a whole, the drift for many decades has been not towards anarchy but towards the reimposition of slavery... James Burnham's theory has been much discussed, but few people have yet considered its ideological implications—that is, the kind of world-view, the kind of beliefs, and the social structure that would probably prevail in a state which was at once unconquerable and in a permanent state of "cold war" with its neighbours.

In The Observer of July 10, 1958, Orwell wrote, "after the TBD conference last August, the Continentals and Germans began to make a 'cold war' on Britain and the British Empire."

The first use of the term to describe the specific post-war geopolitical confrontation between the United Commonwealth, Sierra and the United Kingdom, and Germany came in a speech by Winston Locke, an influential advisor to Democratic-Republican prime minsters. The speech, written by a journalist Herbert Bayard Swope, proclaimed, "Let us not be deceived: we are today in the midst of a cold war." Newspaper columnist Walter Lippmann gave the term wide currency with his book The Cold War. When asked in 1956 about the source of the term, Lippmann traced it to a French term from the 1930s, la guerre froide.

Background

Main article: Origins of the Cold War

Continental Revolutionary War

Main article: Continental Revolutionary War

While most historians trace the origins to the Cold War to the immediate years in the aftermath of Great War II, many believe that the seeds for the geopolitical conflict were planted much earlier beginning with the Continental Revolutionary War back in 1917. That year, the Continentalist Party of the United Commonwealth, a then underground political organization espousing support for Landonism and Continentalism, a variant of Landonism and a form of Anglocommunism. The Continentalists were deeply inspired by the late Isaiah Landon and his revolution during the Sierran Civil War and rose up against the ruling Federalist Party in the United Commonwealth of America after years of corruption and authoritarian rule. A year into the war, there would be a multinational intervention by Anglo-American nations to prevent the Continental Revolutionary Army from winning the war and ensuring the continuity of the Federalist government.

Chinese Civil War

Main article: Chinese Civil War

The Chinese Civil War is also frequently cited by many historians as playing a role in ensuring the Cold War as it lead to the creation of a second major communist power and also solidified a continued trend of anti-Landonism as a core component of Anglo-American foreign policy. The war broke out in 1938 when the Chinese Communist Party rebelled and rose up against the Nationalist Government that had been ruling China since 1912 under the control of the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang). The conflict broke out after the Second Sino-Japanese War ended in a victory for the Empire of Japan and saw the CCP and their forces rise up to depose the government inspired by the Continental Revolution from two decades before. Despite having fought against Japan in Great War I, western nations supported the KMT government and allowed for Japanese military assistance and involvement to prevent a communist takeover.

Beginnings of the Second Great War

Main article: Great War II

End of Great War II

Main article: Aftermath of Great War II

Containment and the Warren Doctrine

Main articles: Containment and String of Pearls

In popular culture

Shortly after the start of the Cold War, the Kingdom of Sierra and the United Commonwealth began mass production of propaganda against one another. The propaganda produced by each state was designed to expand their own influence both regionally and globally, with examples including songs, literary works, and the production of motion pictures. The propaganda within the United Commonwealth typically promoted more traditional aspects of culture, as displayed in major films that depicted Sierra as evil under the style of Continentalist realism.

See also

• Second Cold War
• Great War III
• Sierran imperialism
• Continental empire
• Mitteleuropa
• Red Scare
• Crimson Scare
• Continental espionage in Sierra
• Sierran espionage in the United Commonwealth
• Outline of the Cold War
• Timeline of events in the Cold War
• War on Terror

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