Yesterday, I felt that I had achieved so much playing the Cold War Enhancement (CWE) mod in such a short span of time. I think it has to do with how the gameplay mechanics of Victoria 2 differ from that of its contemporary in the Hearts of Iron series, Hearts of Iron 3. In the latter, in-game time advances by one hour, which means that more time is devoted to individual years. In-game time in Victoria 2 progresses by one day. Thus, I was given the impression that a lot was done in-game, even though I had started the playthrough back on Sunday. I had reached the point where I could safely deem the playthrough as finished. Although I will not be playing more of the mod anytime soon, that is not to say that I did not have fun experiencing the rest of what the mod had to offer.

The first half of the playthrough transpired over the course of the late 20^th century. The other half, which is the focus of this post, is covered most of the early 21^st century, and it ends at the centennial of the initial playthrough in 2046. It is sort of amazing how much the world changed in such a short span and in ways that I did not anticipate.

At the beginning of the 21^st century, the world had become multipolar. The US and the Soviet Union were no longer the two major superpowers that dominated the geopolitical map. India, China, Brazil, Japan, Great Britain, Italy, France, and a resurgent German Reich had emerged as great powers. An ever-growing series of internal and external crises had forced the Liberal Capitalists to retreat from the Empire of Liberty as nations abandoned Neoliberalism in droves. Many began adopting State Capitalism, while others chose Planned/Command Economies.

In North America, the collapse of the Empire of Liberty forced the Jeffersonians to realize “Fortress America” by establishing the North American Union with Canada and Mexico. The North American Union remains heavily influential in the geopolitical affairs of Latin America, from Cuba to Argentina. It continues to compete with the other great powers on the Eurasian landmass for influence over the continent.

In Europe, the German Reich became the dominant great power in Europe, its ambitions tempered by the British, French, Spanish, and Italians. Alliances and treaties are constantly forged and broken, with the occasional skirmish and international intrigue occurring every now and then. Meanwhile, Eurasianism fully manifests itself in the Soviet Russia, whose proponents viewed the nation as a spiritual successor to the legacy of Czarist Russia. This was occurring at a time when the Soviet Union came close to disintegrating like it did historically in the 1990s. The consolidation of power in Soviet Russia enabled the Soviet Union to avoid the same fate that befell Yugoslavia, allowing it to form the “Eurasian Union.” In reality, nothing changed; as I saw it, the Eurasian Union was still the Soviet Union because the same political forces stayed in power.

Despite the loss of the CMEA/Warsaw Pact countries, the dissolution of Yugoslavia and the fall of Hoxha’s Albania, the Soviets managed to annex the northern coast of Turkey, securing their grip over the Black Sea. This allowed the Soviets to supplant the US as the most dominant great power in the Middle East. The Pan-Arabists, however, failed to unite the Arab world. Iran became a Presidential Republic rather than an Islamic Republic, while Iraq joined the Arab Federation formed by Jordan and Palestine.

In East Asia, a series of wars between China and India had resulted in the former fracturing in various countries under the latter’s sphere of influence. The Maoists continued to hold out, even succeeding in a major war with the Jeffersonians that finally evicted them from the Eurasian landmass altogether. Only Australia and New Zealand remain as holdouts for the Jeffersonians in Oceania. Asia eventually split into Indian, Chinese, Soviet, and German spheres of influence.

Finally, in Africa, Egypt tried to become a great power but failed due to dealing with a series of civil wars and independence movements in former Sudan. The rest of the continent was split into the British, French, Spanish, and Italian spheres of influence. Great Britain remained as a Liberal Capitalist holdout, although its alignments with the US was no longer by the time the playthrough had already ended. The British, French, Spanish, and Italians adopted Socialist Monarchies, following in the example of the German Reich. The German Reich has no interest expanding into Africa, preferring the maintain the balance power with the resurgent European great powers.       

There were some recurring trends that I noticed over the course of the playthrough, especially in the latter half. It became more commonplace to encounter nations undergoing civil wars and others destabilized by the great power conflicts. While some nations dissolved into several smaller ones, others tried to consolidate power by establishing supranational power blocs. What started out as a series of trade agreements eventually morphed into proposals for establishing supranational powers. With the US and the Soviet Union no longer world superpowers throughout the early 21^st century and given the resurgences of other major great powers across the Eurasian landmass, creating entire nations under a supranational polity seemed like the only way to maintain a particular great power’s influence and prestige.

Overall, there were tons of interesting features and mechanics that were not available in vanilla playthroughs of Victoria 2. Most of the things that originated from the base game were recreated to suit the geopolitics of the post-1945 world and all the various political-economic, technological, financial, and socio-cultural trends that materialized because of the Industrial Revolution and the two World Wars. Although this is the last time that I will be talking about my second playthrough, there were a number of features that piqued my interest as a political scientist. I am thinking about addressing them in some future unrelated posts because they happen to have some historical basis or contemporary relevance.             

Categories: Blog Post

Tags: Economics, Finance, Philosophy, Politics, Psychology, Socialist Finance, Third Place, Work-Standard