Comprehensive history of the Cold War (1921-1991) (Mega WIP)

Borders of the Yellow Bloc (yellow),
Communist Bloc (red),
Market Bloc (teal),
and Non-aligned Movement (gray).
Circa 1979.

The Cold War was a period of geopolitical tension between the Keepo Republic, the People's Glorious Republic of Swaden, and the Federal Oligarchy of Blanjiland and their respective allies. These three superpowers divided the world into distinctive political blocs, colloquially referred to as the Yellow Bloc, the Communist Bloc, and the Market Bloc. The period is generally considered to span from the 1921 Law Doctrine to the 1991 Keepan Civil War. While no power officially declared hostilities against one another, all three participated in supporting regional conflicts across the world, referred to as proxy wars. After 1945, the threat of global thermonuclear war led to a three-way arms race which lasted until 1989, when the League of Nations passed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Act, outlawing the construction of weapons of mass destruction. Outside of nuclear and conventional warfare, the Cold War influenced culture globally due to increasing rivalry and struggle for dominance through music, literature, sports, ideology, technology, coalescing into the Space Race.

The Yellow Bloc is named after its leading superpower, the Keepo Republic, in reference to its flag. It was a coalition of generally liberal democratic states but was also host to a great number of authoritarian governments. The Communist Bloc was led at first by the Socialist Republic of Swaden until 1934 when it was reorganized into the People's Glorious Republic of Swaden, with its member states being a mix of socialist, social democratic, communist, anarchist, and hyper-authoritarian left-wing governments. The Market Bloc was inactive for most of the Cold War, but after the inevitability of Blanji entrance into the Cold War, was founded as a loose alliance of plutocratic, liberal-democratic, and present/former colonial holdings of Blanjiland. All three Blocs participated in supporting, funding, and backing their respective ideologies in neutral and enemy-aligned governments, particularly in ex-colonial states of the Keepo Republic, which became the defining battlegrounds of the Cold War.

The Cold War began immediately after the end of the Great Blanji-Swadenian War in 1919. The Keepo Republic quickly turned its political and military alliance, the Central Powers, against its former ally Swaden regarding the fear of an oncoming attack due to reports of Swadenian soldiers marching into Russia to support the struggling Bolshevik movement in overthrowing the tsarist Whites. After the end of the Russian Civil War in 1924, the two states would establish the Workers' United Front, which renamed itself the Communist International in 1952. Major Crises in this period included the 1921 Herning Stock Market Crash, the 1925 Medican War for Independence, 1926 Gotland Crisis, the 1927 Chinese Civil War, 1932 Congolese War for Independence, 1936 Spanish Civil War, 1938 Medican Civil War, 1942 Istanbul Crisis, and 1945 Bermuda Test.

Mushroom cloud of the
1945 Project Bermuda Atomic Bomb test;
the first of tens of thousands of nuclear tests
conducted throughout the Cold War.

Following the first successful detonation of an atomic weapon by the Keepo Republic, both Swaden and Blanjiland raced to produce one of their own. Other competitors included the United States and the Soviet Union. Swaden would become the second nuclear power after the successful detonation of "Liten pojke" in 1949, followed immediately after by the United States, whose atomic weapon, dubbed "Trinity", would become the most powerful atomic weapon detonated of the 1940s. The Soviet Union would complete its "First Lightning" project in the same year. Blanjiland, however, would fail to produce an atomic weapon until 1955, when it would develop the "Budget Bomb", the weakest atomic weapon to date. The atomic phase of the Cold War would be defined by this nuclear arms race, where the Keepo Republic and Swaden produced monumentally large numbers of atomic weapons, and later, ballistic missiles. Major Crises of this period include the 1945 Ho Chi Minh Rebellion, 1948 French Revolution, 1949 "Liten pojke" Test, 1950-53 Korean War, 1954 collapse of détente, 1956 Afgeri Revolution, 1956 Suez Crisis, 1962 Keepan-Medican War, and 1962 Faroe Islands Missile Crisis.

In the years after the Faroe Islands Missile Crisis, Blanjiland became a far more important actor on the world stage, as it established its own permanent nuclear arsenal, and soon after, an official political alliance. The Space Race entered into the public eye as Blanjiland became the second nation, after the Soviet Union, to put an artificial satellite in orbit. The race to the moon would see Blanjiland be the first to put a human into the orbit of the moon, but the achievement of landing a man on the moon would go the United States in 1969. The Keepo Republic would be the second to land a person on the moon, and Blanjiland would land the first female on the moon, While Swaden would be the first to send a person into deep space. The Space Race would finally come to an end with Blanjiland establishing the first permanent space station in 1971. Keepan decolonization would finally end in 1968. Major Crises of this period include the 1961-1974 Collapse of the Portuguese Empire, 1966 Sino-Soviet Split, 1967 USS Liberty Incident, 1968 Prague Spring, 1969 collapse of the second détente, and the 1969 Moon Landing.

While the Space Race dominated the 60s, behind the public eye was the largest period of détente, which had lasted the entire decade. Talks would fail in 1970, reinvigorating all sides of the Cold War, as Blanjiland started to prove itself a dominant political entity. The latter years of the Cold War were marked by significant instability in all three Blocs, starting with the 1972 assassination of Keenjilap Bilbo, the longest-running dictator in history. The ensuing crisis paralyzed Swaden while the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China continued to fracture the Communist Bloc among their own sub-blocs. Victory in Indo-China and a jingoistic Prime Oligarch saw Blanjiland turn against its pseudo-armistice with the Keepo Republic, as conflicts in Africa and South America rose to peak levels. The Blanji-backed Mareqor government would backstab their benefactors in favor of the Keepo Republic, causing an oil crisis for the Market Bloc. Further fighting between the Keepo Republic and the Medican Empire was a cause for major embarrassment and nearly led to nuclear war between the two. Before the launching of nuclear missiles, American intervention would see the fruitless SALT I and SALT II conventions to counter the proliferation of atomic weapons. In 1978, Blanjiland would synthesize the first antimatter weapon, though it was not tested in fear of unforeseen consequences. Without sufficient proof of the existence of these weapons, the Keepo Republic and Swaden were in a state of paranoia as they raced to produce an antimatter weapon of their own. The era would close with the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan, which would become symbolic of the futility of conventional warfare throughout the Cold War. Major Crises of this period include the 1972 assassination of Keenjilap Bilbo, 1974 Mareqoran War for Independence, 1975 assassination of Leopold Easton, 1976 Congolese-Rhodesian Brush War, 1976 Third Keepan-Medican War, 1977 Unification of the Bolivar, 1978 Blanji Antimatter Claim, and the 1979 Soviet-Afghan War.

The Cold War would not end with a bang, rather, with a whimper. In 1980, Swadenian technicians would produce their own antimatter weapon, though in what would be known as the Svalbard incident, the weapon abruptly detonated, leaving no trace of the laboratory at all. Blanjiland became less focused on international affairs, working on maintaining its economic hegemony over everything else. After a democratically elected socialist government took control of the Bolivar, however, Blanjiland became fixated on regaining one of its major trade partners, leading to a pointless decade-long conflict that failed to achieve any of its goals. BSE would also dominate Blanji politics, eventually culminating in the Panic of 1994. Swaden, emerging united and victorious in defeating Blanji infiltrators, was able to recover from the Svalbard incident and go on to reassert itself on the world stage. The Keepo Republic, defeated once again in Asia, and without its empire in Africa, proceeded to wane in influence on the world stage. Keepan attempts to find an alliance in the newly established Iraq saw all three powers intervening in the Iran-Iraq war, ending in a stalemate. In 1989, Afgeristan opportunistically invaded Iraq, in a conflict that is continuing to this day. The 80s would end with the Market Bloc and Communist Bloc finding a new battleground in Greece, as the Yellow Bloc fought off a resurgent Japan, invading Keepan-occupied Korea, and later, Soviet-occupied Korea in the Second Korean War. Two decades of economic stagnancy, defeat, and exhaustion would finally cause revolutions in many Yellow Bloc states, ending in 1991, with the Keepan Civil War.

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 global thermonuclear war. Meanwhile, in the years after the Keepan Civil War, Blanjiland has superposed the Keepo Republic as the sole power between the Communist Bloc and the global revolution. Increasing tension between Blanjiland and Swaden, as well as a reformed Keepo Republic, now an ally of Blanjiland, has been referred to as the Second Cold War.

Photo of a Blanji AB-90 jet,
carrying experimental air-to-air missiles.
Circa 1955.

Photograph of Blanji Prime Oligarch
Percy Van Doorn,
among his top scientists in the
early years of the Space Race.
Circa 1962.

Photograph of a dogfight, taken
during the Medican Civil War.
Circa 1939, colorized.

Photograph of a protestors
in Budapest.
Circa 1956.

Photograph of Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin,
saluting the flag of the
United States on the
surface of the moon.
Circa 1969.

Photograph of American President
Ronald Reagan and Soviet
Premier Mikhail Gorbachev
shaking hands after signing
the Intermediate-Range
Nuclear Forces Treaty.
Circa 1987.