Suomen Ikä - A Finland AAR - HPM-HFM

Author: Sp00nexe
Published: 2017-08-24, edited: 2017-08-24
Welcome to "Suomen Ikä", a Finland AAR. In this game the small Finnish nation went from being the powerless satellite of the Russian Empire to a full-fledged global superpower.
The state of the world in 1933 AD. The political world is almost unrecognizable from the far of year of 1936, global powers have risen and fallen, alliances made and broken, blood taken and fallen, but at this moment of time one nation reigns supreme...
The small duchy of Finland quickly rose from a small, powerless duchy under the yoke of Russian oppression to a global superpower. It was able to overthrow their union with Russia, retake the lands of their ancestors, defend from the forces in the west who sought to contain this rising empire, etc. But so far none has managed to contain this rising power.

Finland has conquered Russia and the lands beyond the Urals, the warm Baltic ports, the frozen ports of Finnmark, and even seize their far-flung homeland in the East.

Many of the lands conquered by the highly trained and modern Finnish forces were quickly overwhelmed with the almost constant exponential growth of the Finnish population, thanks to progressive social reforms granted to them by their benevolent emperor and the inability of the state to expand the factories in the capital fast enough to employ the populace, pushing them east.

Finland stands as the hallmark of western civilization, a wealthy, reactionary stronghold - unmatched by any feeble Indo-European "powers".

This is truly, the age of the Finn.
South America has been a generally sleepy continent, asides from a few skirmishes amongst powers in the South that quickly resulted in states like Brazil and Argentina gobbling up the smaller powers.

A notable feature of this map - besides the greater Chile - is the heroic survival of the F.R.C.A and even prosperity. The state managed to (seemingly by a miracle) survive the storm of the civil war and come out as a prominent power in the Americas, and in the economic world through their control of the Panama.
Europe experienced the most change of any continent during this era.

Finnish armies devastated and slowly grinded down the vast Russian Empire initially into an unstable communist state*, and eventually a feeble republic, controlling their core lands. The Russian north has been almost entirely colonized by the Finnish hordes, their colonies and minority groups knocked out of their control like the teeth out of a man receiving the end of a rifle butt. In Russian history this is commonly known as the "Age of Humiliation", and will serve as a constant struggle for Finno-Russian relations in the future.

Austria was dismantled by the Finnish armies, freeing the Czechs, Slovaks, Hungarians, Romanians, and the Greater Yugoslav state. The Hapsburg are however allowed to retain power as a Finnish satellite, a position begrudgingly accepted by the Hapsburg monarchs.

France, after a brief era of revolution, came out as they did before as a sprawling empire, seizing land from Catalonia to Wallonia and the Rhineland. The French Army is truly one of the most impressive armies on the continent, and thus have been close allies of the Finnish state since the beginning of their struggle.

Germany, despite time after time being defeated in the battlefield by Finnish and French forces, never learned to contain their militarism, and as a result have been procedurally dismantled by Finland and her allies. It now sits as a sorry shell of a nation after a brief civil war between the Republicans and the Communists.

The United Kingdom too had been dismantled by the Finns after their war of agression on Boer states, and have themselves too seen their empire crumble before their own eyes and their once prestigious royal family abdicate and now sit as a little republic off the coast of France.
Central Asia experienced little change during this era, but many states were freed by the Finns who crushed Russian dominance in this region.

The Kazakh Khanate sits on the brink of unification into a Turkestani state, Persia making little gains, Afghanistan stagnant, Caucasia balkanized, and India in a state of gridlock after the power vacuum left behind by British dismantlement resulted in several small states seizing power, and now sit eye to eye with the other, neither strong enough to overpower the other.
Africa is a strange place. It is dotted with independent states, released after the collapse of their European overlords. In the South the Boer states seized power over the British after an attack on a Boer outpost, spelling doom for the British Empire.

The continent is primarily dominated by the Portuguese, the Italians, and of course the Dutch who reign supreme in West Africa - regaining their colonial glory.
East Asia stayed pretty quiet.

The Qing, after an era of stagnation, has westernized and retaken lands from the Europeans, aswell as conquered some tribes in the West. However, they lost lands in the North to the Finns and the Japanese.

The Japanese have established an early co-prosperity sphere, after a victory of the Shogun and westernization allowed them to unleash their power on the Korean peninsula, Manchuria, the Philippines, the Pacific, and Taiwan.

The Finns have conquered their only warm colonies - Indochina.

Australia conquered some lands from their former overlord, and a few states have set themselves free, but generally East Asia remains a quiet and stable region.
North America saw the Finnish colonization of the far north - through the former Russian colony of Alaska.

The Finnish have dismantled the British chains in Canada, and out came the republics of Columbia, Metis, and Canada - newly born states.

The United States remained an isolated nation, NEVER making an appearance beyond the Americas, and have generally remained within their borders, however have seized many Carribean colonies to be integrated later into the union.
And so sits the world in 1933, a transformed planet, with an uncertain future, but one this is for sure, this will be an age flavored like mämmi!

Thank you for reading!

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Images: 20, author: porkpotpie, published: 2017-09-01, edited: 2017-09-24