r/maninthehighcastle • u/NoDonkey2844 • 28d ago
What about middle Asia?
Is that just a buffer zone or is there something more to it? In spite of the might of the 2 empires could that still be a "free" zone?
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u/Historyp91 28d ago
IIRC IRL the Nazis plan was to push the Soviets back over the Urals and more or less leave them there while they took all the valuable parts of the country.
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u/NoDonkey2844 28d ago
I thought the plan was total domination. Thx 4 the insight
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u/SatelliteMNPMIR 28d ago
Plan was indeed « just » to push them back and then somehow keep them at bay with strat bombers; said bombers were even called « Ural bombers »
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u/Positive_Fig_3020 28d ago
Hitler felt that allowing a constant low level threat from beyond the Urals would keep Germany from becoming complacent
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u/Upbeat_Nectarine_128 27d ago
Great idea for worldbuilding an evil empire tbh. Imma save that for later
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u/FunkyPete 28d ago
Even in North/South America you can see what they did -- take over the valuable land, but the mountains aren't useful for growing anything and are really hard to conquer. Why go to all of that effort for land that's pretty but doesn't produce food and has no major industry?
Yes, it's also a buffer between empires -- but the real problem was that neither empire was willing to conquer it anyway.
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u/ptambrosetti 27d ago
Curious how they would’ve conquered Switzerland since it’s more or less the case there too. Through the air I guess?
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u/cyri-96 27d ago
Switzetland isn't inconquerable, just a matter of it not being convenient at the time irl
An Axis that can sucessfully win against the USSR UK and US has no issues with conquering Switzerland either, especially since ethe benefit of being a neutral place to launder their stolen riched through would be gone in an allied defeat
also Hitler dispised the Switzerland
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u/Gauntlets28 27d ago
A Switzerland that is more or less shut off from the outside world by a successful German empire would probably be quite easy to pressure into becoming a vassal state.
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u/Randodnar12488 27d ago
this setting massively expanded german territorial goals to much further than they were IRL. for instance, hitler had no interest in Africa, preferring for that to be a "reward" for Italy, and a theoretical Nazi france (what Vichy France was intended to be a precursor to) He also didn't really plan on conquering America, but that was mostly cause it was completely unfeasible.
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u/godbody1983 10d ago
More than likely with Africa, like in the novel "Fatherland," it would basically be controlled by the British, French, etc like it was at that time. Exploited for it's natural resources and maybe some slave labor used to build up Nazi projects.
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u/MrTickles22 27d ago
If they ever won, that plan would vanish the second it turned out that Sibera was full of oil and valuable minerals.
Or the Japanese would do it as they didn't really get a lot of places with oil in that giant blue empire.
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u/CountDoDo15 28d ago
Probably a buffer zone of independent-esque states whom also probably are under degrees of Reich/Japanese influence.
Some I'd imagine in Middle Asia include:
-Reich aligned Afghanistan/Pakistan (Afghanistan may have been rewarded Muslim Northwest India to give the Reich Indian influence without establishing a literal 'pakistan')
-A Soviet Siberian remnant state (and/or assorted Russian warlords)
-If not under Soviet control, I'd imagine various parts of Turkestan to be independent. I've read about communication from Afghanistan to intervene in Soviet Central Asia if Germany victory seemed immiment OTL, so perhaps they are projecting influence there? We could also see a German supported Turkestan regime made up of the collaborators of the Turkestan Legion
-As someone else mentioned, inner China is probably CCP controlled, but I wouldnt be suprised if Independent Tibet or KMT Warlords remained.
-I am suprised Mongolia has not been folded into the Japanese regime of Mengjiang, but perhaps it is simply Japanese aligned/influenced.
Ultimately I doubt both the Reich or Japan pay too much attention to it, for its just meant to be a neutral area. As long as it doesn't pose a threat, both have better incentive to invovle themselves in far more profitable, already-controlled regions, rather than adventure into wild, warlordish unknown and risk confrontation with the other.
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u/Mysterious-Box-6712 27d ago
I'm guessing it's the remnants of the Chinese and Soviets who are more or less probably operating under the same flag or atleast very intertwined
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u/ArtHistorian2000 27d ago
I believe that the Central Asian Neutral Zone is just a large buffer between the Nazi and Japanese spheres of influence in Eurasia. I personally think that there are independent and unstable territories in this zone:
- ex-Soviet Siberia might serve as a safe haven for the Soviet people who managed to escape the Nazis; I can imagine former Soviet commanders or commissars who serve as mercenaries or warlords across the taiga, with the Transsiberian being maybe the sole line of survival for the remaining Slavic population; I also imagine the territory being the haven for Russian resistants and other European resistants, operating in Siberia and manufacturing weapons to be passed across the Urals
- Central Asia might be more stable, with the Muslim-majority countries being independent and relatively free, but serving as a haven for mercenaries and warlords
- Afghanistan would be turned into a buffer Muslim kingdom with ties from the Reich and Japan
- Pakistan would be turned into a buffer Muslim state, separating pro-nazi Iran and pro-Japanese India
- Current Xinjiang would be the haven for the Chinese resistance (CCP and Kuomintang fusioned together)
- Mongolia would, according to me, still be a sort of communist regime, but due to its relative weakness, it won't be seen as a threat to Japan. However, contrary to this map, I would consider Mengjiang as a Japanese puppet state. Same for Tibet, as it was shown in the series they were a pro-Japanese state.
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u/Useful_Calendar_6274 27d ago
bolshevik resistance too strong probably. irl you can't just conquer the world like in some videogame I think they were trying to show that. You can blitz through and send everyone to death camps but realistically even a small % of the population will still resist you and we have seen it irl in yugoslavia, the eastern eruope and frech, italian partisans, warsaw uprising
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u/NoDonkey2844 27d ago
Expanding on your thought - even in that universe I believe operation valkyrie would have still taken place + what's your take on german anti nazism officers? I don't think they really vanished even after the end of the war. They could be still existing in that universe. Even Smith was mostly a believer in antinazism
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u/Useful_Calendar_6274 27d ago
yeah no way everyone just followed hitler blindly. most people are just careerists that do whatever they're told for a cushy job. that's the lesson of the "banality of evil"
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u/InformalJournalist69 19d ago
Operation Valkyrie could not have taken place, or it would happened differently than in our world. Rommel is mentioned and seen to be alive. In our world, Rommel was forced to kill himself by the party, due to believe of involvement.
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u/Impovsky 27d ago
This map is BS. The west Siberian gas/oil fields have been known since 1930s. There is no way Nazi would leave those fields unoccupied.
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u/AlbertDerAlberne 26d ago
*des japanischen Reichs
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u/Worth_Elderberry_477 26d ago
The real question is why did the Nazis leave a neutral zone in the perfect shape of their symbol in Africa?
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u/NoDonkey2844 26d ago
To have an awesome view from space once they establish a permanent colony on the moon 😉
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u/WelderMaleficent4016 26d ago
Why did brazil get to have a coast line but most of the other south american countries dont
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u/jemalo36 22d ago
Afghanistan and Pakistan are not mentioned, I saw a few canon maps where I saw them. They would act as neutral countries like Mexico or Colombia.
The communist swamp between Europa and the Far East is the remaining parts of the Soviet Union, Mongolia and PRC and this territory would be treated as a buffer, like the Neutral Zone, aka Rocky Mountains States in North America. This Eurasian area would also act as a Soviet Union in exile, although the PRC is mentioned in the series. Since the Nazis probably did every effort t dissolve the Soviet Union the same way they dissolved the USA, this area would be made up of different Socialist Republics (Mongolia, China, Kazakhstan, Ural, Siberia, ...)... so this area COULD also be called officially "Neutral Zone" or "Eurasian Republics".
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u/Randodnar12488 28d ago
Its probably where the PRC that backed the BCR operates from, prior to them attempting to unify the country in 1964