This Week in Alternate Histories - June 23 to June 29

JUNE 23
Alt-Timeline: Travaillis Republique Democratique
Year: 2014
The Brittany region of France finally achieves independence. Since the end of the war over sixty years ago Brittany had recovered more quickly and was more open to working with the UK & USA. On June 23 the Grand Alliance of Europe recognizes Brittany as an independent nation over French protests.

JUNE 24
Alt-Timeline: Alexander's Earth
Year: 2151 native calendar (AD 1820)
Nearly fifteen years after the Unknown War devastated the Earth, the inhabitants of Almazangrad emerge from their underground city and begin to explore the desolate area around their settlement. Initial explorations show only slightly elevated background radiation in the area around the city giving hope to the survivors of expansion and accumulation of desperately needed resources.

JUNE 25
Alt-Timeline: Alternate Great Lakes
Year: 1788
Virginia becomes the 9th state to ratify the US Constitution. Saint Lawrence has refused to join the new union.

JUNE 26
Alt-Timeline: Sino-Soviet Alliance
Year: 1945
The United Nations charter is signed. A controversial section of the charter allows for a formation of a UN military which would cause trouble when the Soviet Union fails to utilize its veto power at the start of the Korean War. In the future this would be seen as the primary weakness of the new organization and the rise of a more powerful international communist organization in the '50s.

JUNE 27
Alt-Timeline: British North America
Year: 1768
The Treaty of Fort Stanwix is signed between the British and the Iroquois Confederacy. It establishes the borders of Iroquois territory and creates provisions for the British to enforce violations by colonists.

JUNE 28
Alt-Timeline: Campi Flegrei
Year: 1955
A major Nazi air attack with most of their jet fighters breaks the back of the Red Army at the start of the Battle of Radom. This battle marked the limit of the Russian advance into Germany territory.

JUNE 29
Alt-Timeline: World War III
Year: 1963
An agreement is finalized with President João Goulart of Brazil and elements of the US Navy to use Brazilian ports for resupply in the aftermath of the nuclear exchange sparked by the Cuban Missile Crisis. The chaos of the global war and shifting weather patterns is causing problems worldwide, but the presence of the Navy vessels helps stabilize the ports and stimulates economic activity.

Hawaii-SP

The eruption of Campi Flegrei in 1942 crippled human civilization for many years, especially in Eurasia. North America was affected to a lesser extent and the Second World War played out differently than in the original timeline.

Eventually, as with so many disasters, things begin to recover. American television develops and begins producing shows to entertain their customers. One such show was a police/espionage show created by Leonard Freeman set in the new state of Hawaii (admitted to the Union in 1963 as the 49th state). The premise of the show was a fictional state police agency in Hawaii. The leader of the agency, Steve McGarrett (played by Jack Lord) also had ties to US Naval Intelligence which brought international espionage plots into this police drama.

It premiered during the 1968-1969 season with an allegedly rogue Japanese secret agent Katsuo Kawaguchi (played by George Takei who played a secondary character on the obscure sci-fi show Star Trek during its second and third seasons). The SP team would combat criminal organizations, enemy agents, serial killers, and drug dealers. A large number of scenes were filmed on location in some of the most beautiful areas of the islands. The locations, varieties of stories, and the hard work of Jack Lord made the series a great success.

When the Chinese War started in 1972 a number of stories dealt with American servicemen stopping at the islands on the way to the front or returning for R&R after a tour. For a few seasons the espionage elements of the series overtook the crime drama. The writers were not afraid of tackling controversial issues such as the anti-war movement, combat fatigue, and even less than altruistic elements of the American government.

After the nuclear attack on Bejing by a European Reich unit attached to the Japanese Empire the ratings of the show began a rapid decline. Americans were turning more to comedies and trying to forget the horrors of war. The series was cancelled after its 9th season (1976-1977).

In 1997 the series was revived for three seasons with a mostly new cast. James MacArthur returned as Dan Williams who was now the Governor of Hawaii. Gary Busey played the new head of the agency. The new series suffered from mediocre writing and lacked a visionary mind behind it to make it as great as the original. The international storylines were weak. The Japanese Empire was becoming more moderate and the imminent independence of Manchuria made the depiction of them as the primary villains of the series a bad idea. The third season focused on an anti-drug message and seemed like too much of a lecture and not very entertaining.

An attempt to reboot the series in 2010 failed. It is bound to happen at some point in the future as interest grows.

NOTES
After a major change to human history caused by a super-volcano erupting, even a relatively minor eruption, it seems unlikely that television would be the same. However Hawaii would still have been made a state, Leonard Freeman, Jack Lord, and James MacArthur were all born before the disaster and America was not affected as badly as the rest of the world. I've been thinking about how television and movies would be different in alternate timelines. When I determined in this timeline that Alaska would become the 50th state in 1976 - having taken a long time to recover from the volcanic winter, I thought how a popular show like Hawaii Five-0 would have been different since it wouldn't have been Five-0. Hawaii Four-Nine didn't really have the same ring to it.

The successor series I mention in the post is inspired by the pilot of a OTL spin-off pilot that was made in 1997. When I had heard of the recent rebooting of Hawaii Five-0 I the fan of the original series in me had said it should have been set in the same 'universe' as the original, possibly with James MacArthur coming back to play the governor and reactivating the state police..... last night I found out that my lame idea was used back in 1997 for an unsuccessful pilot!

The series title image I have in the post I created using a public domain image and basing it off the iconic one from the real-world show.

Campi Flegrei

7 April 1906 = Mount Vesuvius does not erupt as it did in the OTL. Changes deep underground move the magma and create new pressures in the area.

9 November 1943 = A massive eruption of Campi Flegrei near Naples, Italy takes place. Naples and other nearby settlements are erased. The resulting tsunami obliterates all of the warships in the Mediterranean. Earthquakes rattle the region adding to the chaos.

The resulting ash clouds and dimming of the amount of the Sun's light reaching the Earth's surface leads to major disruptions in human civilization. The combat on the Eastern Front dies down as dropping temperatures make the winter harsher than any in memory. Air operations are cancelled by many powers in Europe due to the ash. Bombs stop dropping on cities for a short time. Rome is destroyed, the Fascist government destroyed. Many other Italian cities are devastated and in chaos. Norther settlements come under direct Nazi control, southern ones are on their own.

1943 = Heavy snows and a late spring in England causes major disruptions in war operations. Fields across the Balkans and Ukraine as well as other regions are unable to produce crops due to late spring and heavy layers of ash. Russian offensives against Germany slow as the summer progresses. The need for increased food production and the terrible weather conditions force many armies to withdraw.

The Second World War takes a decade off as the various nations fight famine and disease. There is sporadic fighting but no major battles except for the Americans and Japanese in the Pacific.

1953 to 1957 = The Soviet Union is on the offensive again. While consolidating their hold on Europe and finishing the bulk of their genocidal plans the Nazis managed to stockpile considerable number of rockets and a few squadrons of jet powered aircraft. These weapons allow them to stall the Red Army and force Kruschev to the bargaining table in 1957. Britain is still in a terrible state, much of India lost in rebellion and extremely harsh winters have kept it economically depressed. They are in no position to help their Russian allies.

During this time period China has broken into three regions; Communist, Nationalist, and Japanese dominated.

1960s = The United States, along with Canada, Mexico and a number of other countries, forms the North American Treaty Organization to defend themselves against further aggression by the Third Reich. As politics shift in Europe, Germany forms the European Reich, giving more autonomy to some regions of Europe but retaining control of the European Council that makes up the Reich.

Global sea-levels have reached their low-point in the 1960s. They begin to recover as the volcanic winter beings to end.

1972 to 1975 = The Chinese War takes place as Red China and the Soviet Union attack Japanese Manchuria. The United States aids the Nationalist Chinese against the Reds and Japanese in a three-way war. Communist China collapses as Bejing is destroyed by a Germany nuclear weapon - the first time such a weapon is used in war.

1980 = The United States elects a more isolationist President after the high price paid in the Chinese War. In addition to war fatigue a major downturn in the economy creates a new depression.

In the 1990s NATO increases its military spending and introduces new amazing technologies. Britain is recovering from two decades of hellish winters and is becoming an economic bright-spot in Europe thinks to American support and intervention.

1996 = Der Führer dissolves the Euro-Reich and opens Europe to free multi-party elections. This action surprises some, but the decades of economic disfunction and political unrest finally forced some action on Germany's part. It was luckily a peaceful event, der Führer was a child during the volcanic winter and war years and did not want to be responsible for a nuclear war and winter.

1996 to 2006 = Numerous small-scale wars in the Balkans and Eastern Europe.

2000 = Alaska is admitted into the United States as the 50th State.

2014 = The world is in relative peace. A new Führer in Germany takes power on March 14. He appears ready to begin reversing some of the reforms of recent years and yearns for the re-acquisition of lost territories.

Some information on Campi Flegrei and its supervolcano:

1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phlegraean_Fields

2) http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/italian-supervolcano-could-end-eurozone-crisis-the-easy-way-14271712/?no-ist

3) http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1342820/Vesuviuss-big-daddy-supervolcano-Campi-Flegrei-near-Naples-threatens-Europe.html