MotF 90: Not Built in a Day

End Of Prussia

Here we go again. After my last "illegal" attempt of necromancy, I hope that your demand for a radical redesign to make this entry legit will finally be satisfied. And it's all in Jaffa Cake orange chocolate, yummy... I proudly present: The regression of Prussia into nothing!

After the Stresemann and Schumacher presidencies, the now consolidated German Republic found enough peace to deal with comparably petty problems known to any kind of modern industrial country, e.g. streamling its administrative system which in Germany turns into an agenda up to eleven as it affects its structure of federalism. Tiny exclaves and enclaves have already been streamlined, like Oldenburg's being absorbed into Prussia just like Lübeck, the absorption of the Hohenzollern lands into Württemberg, of the Anhalt into the Prussian province of Saxony while ceding the Erfurt precinct thereof to Thuringia, not to mention the merger of the two Mecklenburgs. But in essence, all these things were just a foretaste of what to come. The map below shows the lands that yet didn't stop to be part of the Prussian Free State by 1965.

The denizens of the western provinces have always considered themselves as "Muß-Preußen" or "have-to-be-Prussians", be it the Rhinelanders that came to Prussia after the Vienna Congress of 1815 or the Hanoverians who just happened to be on the "wrong" side in the Prussian-Austrian conflict over Schleswig-Holstein that led to their annexation by Prussia in 1866. And when the dust in political Germany settled and the East Elbian reactionaries were no longer able to run the show, these rogue provinces began to negotiate what should become a Reich-wide compromise. Of course, the have-to-bes were the first ones to bail out one by one, but in the end it became a free-for-all.

In about five years, all the gains from the 19th century were gone and the remainder in the East started to feel less loyal, too. Saxony-Anhalt desired to cooperate in Central Germany with Thuringia and Saxony as an equal instead as an appendix of Berlin, Silesia was itself enough as well, Berlin couldn't bother less if its hinterland was called Brandenburg, Prussia, Germany or even the entirety of Europe. East Prussia and Pomerania generally felt less and less welcome among the rest, so even there did resistance against a dissolution of Prussia start to wane. By 1983, Prussia was indeed history.

Yet this map won't bother to answer other questions. What about the Ruhr split up between Rhineland and Westphalia, may they even have merged soon after? What may have happened to the whole quagmire in Lower Saxony? Where would the Lippe states go? Would Braunschweig have been absorbed as a (w)hole-in-one or would tiny bits go to Saxony-Anhalt? What's the fate of Bremen and Hamburg? Questions over questions that will not be of concern here.

This could be considered a sequel to my NCR map, and since sci-fi and future scenarios are allowed, I'm guessing this is alright. As for the content of the map, it's kind of self-explanatory.

Seems like it's been a long time since I entered one of these...

Anyway, this map is from my Under the Eagle Flag universe. It shows the growth of the United States from the end of the US Civil War in 1866[1] until the United States victory in the Great North American War of 1951-55.

In this universe, the United States evolved in several distinct stages. First, the Western territories were gradually admitted as states over the course of the 19th century. A war pitting the USA against the weak Confederation of American States and its main international patron, the British Empire, took place 1916-18. The USA gained territory from both enemies, although arguably the USA did not defeat Britain and Canada on the battlefield; however, Britain's involvement in a much larger war in Europe (allied with Germany against France and Russia) made peace with the USA in exchange for minor territorial concessions a tactical necessity. Following its defeat in the European war, France fell to socialist revolution and civil war, and it was compelled to sell it Caribbean possessions to the USA to pay reparations to Britain and Germany. Martinique and Guadeloupe were eventually admitted as states, but not until much later. Finally, a second war with the CAS, now under a totalitarian nationalist and racist regime, resulted in the CAS ceasing to exist as a single sovereign country, and the USA annexing several of its former states.

[1] In this universe, a distinct conflict from the War of Secession which pitted North against South. The US Civil War pitted Northerners against other Northerners, and it began when radical Unionist generals carried out a coup against a pro-peace civilian government elected in 1862 after the War of Secession had dragged on inconclusively for almost six years.

The Calidi Empire (93 GE -1217 GE)
(Link to Map)

The Hlymud states that the city of Pazoras, the finest jewel in the Calidi Crown, was founded by Rozgund the Engineer in 273 OE, who lead one of the few clans to survive the Scorching of Jyllmyr a decade before (There is evidence of a settlement built around that time in the East Quarter of Pazoras, but the tomb of Rozgund has not been found.). It is generally accepted that the first true King of the Calidi was the stoic Helzen I, who united the warring tribes in 93 GE.

Helzen's Kingdom would continue to expand, taking over most of Modern Calidia in 1st and 2nd Centuries GE, subjugating the southern Yldyn Kingdom in the Garulbaldin War (166-170 GE). This slew of victories would come to a halt with the rise of the Hemesin Confederation on the isle that bears that same name. The Hemesin destroyed the Calidi settlements on there isle, and turned there eyes towards the Kingdom itself. In 345 GE, a Hemesin host under Samsun the Elder would land at Karlis in the North, and marched on Pazoras itself, burning it down in 346. The Southern tribes would join the Hemesin, but it would not be enough the defeat the Calidi, and by 355 GE, the last of the Hemesin would be driven back to their Island.

The end of the Hemesin invasion is used to define the beginning of the Era of the Great Emperors, who would bring the Calidi Empire to it's zenith of rule over the Hylian Islands. Under the rule of Hindin II (418-466), the Calidi Empire usurped the throne of Kylnar, and pushed eastward, annexing the Jalamari nations on the border. Even the Hemesin would be subjugated during Chellin's War (473-481). By the end of the 5th century, Calidia would be the paramount power in the region.

The Pax Calidiana would not last for long, how ever, as the Empire was destabilized by rebellions and invasions. The Millians invaded from the West in 509, and crushed the Calidi army in the North, destroying the prestige held by the Calidi on the field of battle. The Yulians rebelled in 538 and won victory in 549, and the Hemesin would break free after a long war between 557 and 572, and the Great Hirgunate would annex the colonies of the Calidi Empire in the early 7th century. The Calidi were only left with Kylnar and Calidia by the end of this period.

The Empire would rise from the ashes, though, with it's emergence as the main power during the first Imperial Age. Kylnaric sailors discovered (and settled in the name of the Emperor) the isle of Dyinar in 718CE, and explorers would slowly push into the North-Western Seas in the 8th and 9th centuries. The Calidi first discovered the Humakala Empire on the continent of Dynimarion in 856 GE. The Zealous Emperor Kimin III (879-902) would call for the subjugation of the Humakala Empire. A coalition of native rebels and Calidi soldiers would invade in 883 GE. They won a devastating victory, taking a significant portion of the Empire's territory and leaving the Emperor of Humakala a figure head. In 925 the Emperor rebelled, but was defeated again by the Calidi again in 927. The empire was finally de-jure annexed by the Calidi in 940, opening a gateway to the west of Dynimarion, which the Calidi would subjugate between the 10th and 13th centuries GE.

In the early 13th century, Calidia was in the middle of Golden Age, stretching from Grand City of New Hyten in Rozgund Harbour on Dynimarion to the Gold Mines of Vikaiehthen in the Southern Sea, but hidden troubles would break the empire apart. In Dynimarion, the Yaulzu and other tribes, forced into mountains by the Calidians, were organizing a open Rebellion in the North-West. In Calidia itself, the aristocracy, who had been losing their ancient rights by the centralization and reforms of the Emperors , were fomenting revolution against the Royal House itself. These two events would end the 1,200 year-long reign of the monarchy in Pazoras, and dismantle the colonial empire that had been built up over the centuries.

The Early Calidi Kingdom highlighted on a map of the Late Empire:

1917 - The Russian Revolution starts, the front crumbles in the east.
1918 - The treaty of Brest-Litovsk end hostilities in the east. The Germans launch the Spring Offensive in the west and reach Paris. The French army is plagued by mutinies, and with revolution on their doorstep, the French government rushes to get a favorable armistice. The Germans occupy everything to the east of the Meuse, including the riverbanks to the west of the Meuse. All German colonies are awarded to France, Britain and Japan. The war has officially ended.
1919 - The treaty of Berlin finalises the borders in the east with the Soviet Union. Roughly all territory gained by Prussia in the Third partition of Poland is annexed to Prussia as the provinces of Lodz and Southeast Prussia. The United Baltic Duchy is made a member of the German Empire. Lithuania, Finland and Ukraine are established as independent states.
1920 - All French and Belgian territory east of the Meuse is annexed to Germany in the final peace treaty with France. The Belgian territories and a small part of former French territory is annexed to Prussia as the province of the Ardennes, the rest goes to the Imperial Land of Alsace-Lorraine.
1923 - All German troops leave French and Belgian territory. Belgium elects anti-German parties.
1924 - Civil unrest in Belgium. The German army moves in. The rest of Belgium is annexed to Prussia as the province of Flanders. The Belgian Congo is split between France and Britain.

UNIO LATINUS​

The Latin Union (officially Unio Latinus) is a federation of 15 countries (as of 1960) from the European, American and African continents joined by their common Latin heritage.

While founded by European powers, recently the balance within the UL has shifted towards America, where we find 2 of the 5 countries with the largest GNP of the world, Argentina and Brazil. All in all, half of the 10 countries with the highest GNP are part of the UL (although it's to be noted that the GNP of the United States and the British Empire are comparable to the total GNP of the UL).

1861- Italia unifies under the Kingdom of Italia
1873- Spain becomes a Federal Republic
1875- Portugal becomes a Republic
1875- Spain and Portugal create the Federal Iberian Republic, which acknowledges 4 entities: Spain, Portugal Philippines and the Major Antilles (Cuba and Puerto Rico).
1876- The FIR and the Kingdom of Italy sign the Treaty of the Mediterranean, a military alliance and a commercial pact.
1879-1881- The Great European War: the Entente of France, Russia and the Ottoman Empire intend to weaken and obtain territorial advantages from Prussia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The German states secure the alliance of the Mediterranean forces. The Germano-mediterraneans secure victory, and as a result Russia releases Poland and Ukraine, France is forced to fragment and the Ottomans abandon European soil.
1883- The Treaty of the Mediterranean removes all internal tariffs. The economic South-American heavy weight, Argentina, enters as a platform to penetrate the European markets. Corsica, barely two years into its independence, requests becoming part of this new entity and is accepted. The Latin Customs Union is born.
1884- Occitania enters the LCU.
1895- Italy grants independence to Tunisia, which promptly becomes a member of the LCU
1912- To counterbalance the Panama channel, controlled by the US, Argentine proposes the building of an alternative channel in Nicaragua. Argentinian engineers design a viable structure, and Nigaragua is offered LCU membership and development aid in exchange for allowing the project to be undertaken.
1941- The long prepared incorporation of Brazil into the LCU demands a new political structure to coordinate the economies of all the countries. The Latin Union is born.

UNIO LATINUS​

From the same universe as my entry for MOTF 70:

From A History of Modern Arabia, by Abdullah bin Muhammad Faroukh, New York Press, 2011.

The British involvement in Arabia had long focussed on the reduction of Ottoman Power in the area in favour of their own puppets, protectorates and otherwise influenced states. This was, to a large extent, achieved with Stockholm. The two middle sons of King Hussein I of Hedjaz, Princes Abdullah and Faisal had been instituted as Amirs of Mesopotamia and Syria respectively, after much bartering with the French in the latter case, and while Faisal due to his position was recognised in London as treating with France more than with Britain, it was seen that given the familial ties with the British backed regimes in Baghdad and Mecca that he would at least not be actively antagonistic towards the British crown. Crown Prince Ali, meanwhile, had been installed as Amir of Palestine, a position that would give him a solid grounding in diplomatic juggling due to the many conflicting interests in the Sandjak which included a sizable Jewish minority that Zionists across Europe and America, not to mention the Anti-Semitic who sought the expulsion of that people from their lands, were eagerly attempting to increase with funding for the establishment of Jewish settlements in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa and other locations. While Ali did institute a yearly cap on the number of Jewish immigrants that prevented the trickle from becoming a flood[1], he still had to recognise that the main source of funding for the modernisation and growth of Jerusalem at this point was the Zionist’s settlements that had grown up to the west. Tact was used to try and create compromises that would allow the Jews visiting the Western Wall and the population of the neighbouring Moroccan Quarter from ruffling each-other’s feathers, while non Jews, including Arab Christians, Muslims and Palestinians, were encouraged to create their own neighbourhoods in West Jerusalem to create a more ‘varied’ city while reducing the ability of extreme Zionist nationalists to claim that Jerusalem had become a ‘Jewish City’. Equally, foreign tourist and pilgrimage groups began to increase as peace brought a new interest in Antiquarian studies and greater freedom of movement. Early British concerns over whether it was wise to allow the heir to a throne they wanted control over to get diplomatic training were allieved when Lawrence, appointed soon after the war as British Resident in the Hashemite realms (a position that allowed him to act as an adjunct to the diplomats within the each state while not being tied to permanent residence in either one) pointed out that the King of Hedjaz would need to tread lightly around the situation in Syria and his relations with the Muslim world just as much as the British would, and certainly it would be advisable to have someone willing to recognise the futility of King Hussein’s dream of a united Arab Kingdom which, though pushed from public view by the successes for his house at Stockholm was still his eventual goal.

The immediate post-war situation, lasting from 1919 to 1923, saw the British experiment with several different diplomatic viewpoints with respect to gaining complete dominance over the Arabian Peninsula, based on the existing British colonies and protectorates in Aden, Oman, Nejd and the Gulf. Hopes of a simple ‘Peninsular Ideal’ had been dashed by the failure of the British backed House of Saud, who at the time ruled the Amirate of Nejd and Hasa, to conquer and neutralise the Ottoman backed Rashidi Sultanate of Jabal Shammar[2] in the years following 1916. At the same time, the growing backing of the Hashemites began to relegate the Saudis to a secondary place of importance in British strategic thinking. Stockholm saw the ‘Arab Circle’ created, where the Rashidis were surrounded by British friendly states, though the Amirates of Upper and Lower Asir and the Qasimi King of Mutawakelite Yemen remained outside the British sphere. Syria too represented a weak link. The Saudis were biding their time and gathering their strength for new attacks at this point, while the British started currying favour with the Idrisids of Lower Asir, offering both power over Upper Asir and protection from Yemeni claims to their southern territories. This was strengthened by deals between Hedjaz and Lower Asir to delineate their mutual border. In 1921, however, Ibn Saud declared himself ‘Sultan of Nejd’ and sought greater independence from Britain. London stayed silent, refusing to endorse the title but at the same time wary of losing what had been a valuable ally, even if it had proved lacklustre in the last few years.[3] 1921 also saw the death of Amir Muhammad bin Ali al-Idrisi and the succession of his son Ali. The next two years of weak leadership would be tough for Asir and saw a decline in her prospects with respect to Nejd and Yemen.

The rising prospects of the House of Saud would, however, take a turn for the worse in late 1921 during the latest attempt to conquer the Rashidis. With their forces flagging and the Saudi army taking the capital of Ha’il and laying siege to Al Jawf and positions on the caravan routes towards the Wadi as Sirhan, the Rashidis appealed to the French[4] for protection as they once had the Ottomans in similar circumstances. Paris at first supplied only a small quantity of arms through a private merchant who could be sacrificed to appease the British afterwards if necessary, but as the Rashidis continued to hold out into early 1922, managing even to retake Ha'il in a stealth attack during the summer, this blossomed into a full support agreement in return for a protectorate over the Amirate. London, recognising a fait accompli when presented with one, firmly but politely requested that ibn Saud stop his attack ‘in light of the new diplomatic situation’. Ibn Saud reluctantly agreed, though he resented the British for, in his view, stealing his victory, and for the pointed addressal as ‘Amir of Nejd and Hasa’ showing their opinion for his self declared Sultanate at last. The British-Nejd relationship cooled, and Ibn Saud began preparations for a new attack in between low scale raiding of the British-Ottoman (in practice British-Mesopotamian) protectorate of Kuwait, border probing that was both deniable and indeed denied by Riyadh.

1923 saw a new Amir of Asir as Ali bin Muhammad hand the reins of power to his uncle Hassan bin Ali, a distinctly plain character, though one with more ability than the nephew. French support was finally stabilising the turbulent family politics of the House of Rashid by allowing the ruling Amir, Abdullah bin Sa’ud bin ‘Abd al-Aziz[5] to pay off the less troublesome members of his family and force the more troublesome into exile in Anatolia where several would have fatal ‘accidents’. Already the first of the 4 Amirs since 1906 to have ruled for more than a year, his now strengthened rule would make him the most successful in a generation, halting the decline of the Rashidis relative to the Saudis. It was the Saudis that would make the biggest change however. In late 1923, Ibn Saud launched an attack on the Kingdom of Hedjaz, long his greatest rival for power in Arabia, and began a campaign to conquer the state with the capture of Taif, a moderately important town Southeast of Mecca. London was horrified. While under different circumstances, even a few years earlier, this would have been tolerated, it was now believed that should they fail to protect the Kingdom of their father, the sons of Hussein would take a more anti-British stance. There was not much Abdullah could be expected to do, given his greater reliance on the British, but both the Crown Prince in Palestine and especially Amir Faisal in Syria could easily shift from a pro-British and friendly stance to ones more neutral, or even outright antagonistic, ruining the entire British diplomatic and strategic position in the former Ottoman Empire.

Immediately a battalion of Indian Muslim troops was transferred to Mecca, and given the order simply to ‘defend the Holy cities of Mecca and Media from attack’. Hussein was tasked with the actual defeat of the Saudi forces, but the message was sent that Britain would not stand passively by and watch the Kingdom fall, while the defence of the holy cities without an offence against fellow Muslims was useful propaganda in the Empire itself, though the Wahhabist following of the Saudis would later be used to justify any offensive moves required. As the Hedjazis fought the Saudis in the area surrounding Taif, the Rashidis now used their new strength, with French and tacit British approval, to attack Najd itself, the young Amir riding into battle to prove his mettle to those who were still wary of supporting him. The lightening campaign saw the region of al-Qasim, taken by the Saudi’s during the troubled years of 1906/07, retaken for the Rashidis. Saudi troops now began to withdraw from the Hejaz towards Riyadh to defend the capital if required, and the Hyenas that had been circling, waiting for a sign of the direction of the war, pounced. A joint Mesopotamian-British force began marching into al-Hasa, officially claiming that the region should be part of Mesopotamia due to the previous Ottoman ownership, but quickly showing that a simple land grab and creation of a new British protectorate were more on the cards. Asir strengthened her control over Upper Asir, still requiring most of their strength to defend the southern reaches around Hodeida from Yemen, who at that point were securing territory surrounding Najran.

The battles soon moved from Hedjaz to Najd, and then to the gates of Riyadh itself, before Ibn Saud finally surrendered to the joint Hashemite-Rashidi-British-French force in September of 1924. The Rashidis had their occupation of Qasim recognised, the Asiri and Yemeni gains were likewise confirmed as were the British protectorates over both[6] in a classic case of divide and rule, Saudi settlers and nomads were expelled from the lands east of the Anglo-Ottoman Blue Line, the territory of which was now to be divided between the various British protectorates in the area, now including the new Amirate of Hasa, stripped from the Saudis by the British and as a final indignity the new Amir was King Hussein’s last son, Prince Zeid. The French protectorate over the Rashidis was again confirmed, while the Saudis lost British support and were neutralised, a fact that would see the Rashidis once again capture Riyadh and extinguish the Third Saudi State, with Abdullah bin Mut’ib[7], a particularly troublesome relation, installed as a new French backed Amir of Nejd in 1927. The remaining undefined borders in the region were further delineated, and the British diplomatic situation now shifted to the ‘double crescent’, the two interlocking arcs of the protectorates of Kuwait, the Trucial States, Oman, Aden, Yemen and Asir, and the Hashemite Quintet of friendly, allied and influenced states in Hedjaz, Palestine, Syria, Mesopotamia and Hasa. Fought in many ways as a sideshow to the events in Russia and Europe at the time, this would shape the future of the peninsular for years to come.

[1] Among other things 1917 saw no Balfour declaration due to the stronger hand of the Arabs vis a vis the situation in Syria and Mesopotamia
[2] The author is a tad presumptuous here. Jabal Shammar would remain an Amirate until the Peace with the Saudis in ’24 when, as part of their victory, they raised themselves to the sultanate.
[3] This is essentially OTL, with some small differences with regards to Asir mainly focussing on greater efforts by Britain to delineate the boundary with Hedjaz. The same dynamics are present up to this point after all.
[4] Syria actually has a border with the interior of Arabia TTL.
[5] Not assassinated in 1920 due to butterflies.
[6] Don’t expect Yemen to last while the King still hopes for a greater Yemen...
[7] Surrendered to the Saudis IOTL.

Click to expand...

Following the fall of Hashemite Iraq in February 1958, the Nixon Administration reversed course in the Middle East. Previously the regime had been extremely hostile to Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, though it had quietly allowed a Syria teetering on the brink of communism to merge with Egypt in December 1957. At the time, the Administration figured, over the objections of the British, that the expansion of the new United Arab Republic into Iraq was preferable to the new Iraqi regime falling under communist rule. [1] The retired General Eisenhower, who cast a long shadow over Nixon since he made his decision not to seek a second term in 1956, approved of this, commenting that "Since we are about to get thrown out of the area, we might as well believe in Arab nationalism." [2] With quiet American support, the new Iraqi regime was encouraged to join the UAR. This enraged the British government, who lent support to King Hussein of Jordan in his last-ditch attempt to salvage the Hashemite dynasty in Iraq. The resulting fiasco would lead to the fall of Jordan to a Nasserist-inspired revolt, and was derided throughout the Western world as "The Second Suez". By the end of the year, Jordan was in the UAR and MacMillan was out of Downing Street. Rab Butler led the Conservative Party to a landslide loss in the following election. After the Second Suez, Lebanese President Chamoun's appeals for intervention to steady his regime against the Muslim majority's pro-UAR protests was unthinkable, and Lebanon too joined the UAR by the end of 1958.

Following the disastrous 1958 Midterm Revolution, President Richard Nixon was reduced to a rump President in domestic affairs, as Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson was able to pass his New Society legislation with a veto-proof majority. Nixon turned even more to foreign affairs, and his greatest accomplishment as President is generally deemed his 1960 visit to Cairo. However, this was not enough of a boost to give him victory for a second term. Nixon lost the popular vote by a razor-thin margin, but it was his loss in the electoral college that proved most humiliating: the State of Illinois was declared, after several recounts, to be a tie between Nixon and Johnson. Johnson won the coin flip, and thus, the Presidency. Domestically, the Johnson Era continued.

By 1964, the United Arab Republic was nearly in tatters. Nasser consolidated too much power onto himself. His Iraqi deputy, Abdul Salam Arif, had managed to persuade Nasser to allow considerable autonomy for Iraq. But Arif was the only politician in the entire UAR that Nasser respected enough to consider giving up on his power. To placate Syria after a 1962 officer's revolt, Lebanon and Jordan were joined to the Syrian Province, undoing the 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement that had carved up Syria instead of supporting a united Arab Kingdom centered in Damascus. But by 1964, the Syrians were again agitating for more autonomy, and Nasser was reluctant to give it to them. This all changed when Israel, feeling increasingly encircled by its Arab foes, invaded the UAR in what would be known as the One Day War. Just two hours after the war began, the USS Liberty was accidentally attacked by the IAF. In response, the US Navy's Six Fleet carrier, the USS America, launched nuclear weapons at the Israeli base in charge of the Liberty attack. The Liberty incident caused the Israeli government to fall, and by the end of the day, the Israelis had withdrawn and the war was over.

In the Arab World, the Liberty incident was seen as a miraculous punishment from God in revenge for Israeli aggression in 1948, 1956, and 1964. In Saudi Arabia, a power struggle between King Saud (assisted by the Free Princes movement, Oil Minister Abdullah Tariki, and increasingly large Saudi army) and Prince Faisal (assisted by the ulema, the Sudairi Seven, and the increasingly large and newly-reformed Ikhwan) came to a sudden end when Nasserists in the army and Ikhwan officers came together in a successful coup. The new regime demanded immediate accession to the United Arab Republic, "according to God's will." After making sure that there would not be an American intervention (not only was it an election year, but Johnson was loath to get involved in a war after winding down Nixon's unpopular foreign adventure in Indochina), Nasser accepted. This set off Nasserist coups in Libya and Sudan, who also promptly joined the UAR. Ben Bella, President of Algeria, had always been the most pro-Nasser of all the Arab statesmen. Nasser had hosted him in exile during the entire Algerian War, and was viewed by Bella as a paternal figure. Bella joined the euphoria after divine victory over Israel, and Algeria joined the UAR.

Nasser was now on top of the world. In less than a decade since his triumph at Suez transformed him into the only credible Arab head of state, he had largely united the entire Arab world under his leadership. But cracks were threatening to break up the new union. The Nasserists in Libya and the former Saudi Arabia had been naive enough to let Nasser to what he wished, and he quickly established his power in those provinces. But the political class of Algeria and Sudan were extremely reluctant to kowtow to Cairo, and their voice combined with the Syrians and even Arif's Iraqis in forming a proper federation. Nasser was enraged, and the largely secret negotiations took up nearly the rest of 1964. Nasser ultimately scuttled the talks entirely in order to focus on the nationalization of the oil industry. In October 1964, Nasser announced that he had managed to get a 60:40 deal in ownership of oil between the UAR and the oil companies in the province of Iraq. The resulting celebrations in the streets boosted the unity of the the UAR, despite the near-fracture it had endured just months earlier.

On January 1, 1965, Gamal Abdel Nasser died. Coming just a few months after he gained control of oil for the Arab people for the first time, and less than a year after he had united the majority of the Arab world under his rule, he was mourned more extensively than any leader before or since in the Arab memory. Nasser was succeeded by his Iraqi Vice President, Arif. Arif would dismantle Nasser's Arab Union Party, choosing to spread the influence of the Ba'ath Party as a civilian counterpart to the United Arab Free Officers Movement. Knowing he would never reach the heights of Nasser's power, Arif successfully negotiated with local elites in Syria and Sudan over autonomy, though he had to send in the military to crush an aborted anti-Bella coup in Algiers. Arif also warmed relations with the United States, who had been growing increasingly wary of the UAR as it had gained more power and territory. As Arif would explain it, "Nasser had finally broken the back of colonialism. Once we had Arab unity, we could deal with the Americans eye-to-eye." But colonialism was not completely eradicated. Arif successfully invaded the newly-independent British client states on the Arabian peninsula. The last colonial puppets cried out for a savior, but the British Labour government, unwilling to "go for a Suez Round Three," met their pleas with silence. With this, colonialism in the Middle East ended. Arif was able to use his political capital from the successful war to go to Tel Aviv, who were relieved that the UAR did not really long to drive them into the sea after all. Instating the Right of Return seemed like a small price to pay. Complaints by many Palestinians that a "visa error" would not let them actually return to their lost homeland were mysteriously absent from the Voice of the Arabs.

After surviving an assassination attempt from anti-Israel extremists, Arif became paranoid that the near-breakup of the UAR would have happened again had he died. He worked to further institutionalize power in the Ba'ath Party instead of centralizing it on himself, though he remained without a doubt the paramount leader of the party. Arif also became interested in expansion to Morocco, as the addition of the populous Arab state on the edge of Africa would further blunt charges of Egyptian hegemony. He actually got his chance in Tunisia first: President Bourguiba was convinced that Arif was plotting to invade his country, and ordered a hit on Arif. After surviving his second assassination in a year, Arif declared that God was protecting him, and publicly called out Bourguiba on Voice of the Arabs for his complicity in the assassination attempt. While Arif viewed the issue of Tunisian accession to the UAR with disinterest, he was enraged. So were the Tunisian people; Arif was by now nearly as popular in the Arab world as Nasser was. Tunisia joined the UAR in a popular referendum a few months after Bourguiba fled to Paris, though the narrowness of the vote (it was democratic) offended Arif. Following the referendum, Nasserist officers in Morocco launched a coup. However, the King Hassan held firm, and Arif was forced to intervene. Paranoid that Morocco would view itself as a conquered province, Arif launched an invasion of the Spanish Sahara and Mauritania the following year, fulfilling Moroccan nationalist's dreams of a Greater Morocco. Arif also redesigned the provincial borders in Arabia in a similar bid to quell a simmering rebellion in the backwards Yemen Province. These events were greatly played up by the Voice of the Arabs in 1972, while the quiet independence of New Sudan was downplayed. Arif spent the rest of the 1970s consolidating Ba'athist hegemony over the UAR, often with the help of oil money. One last small war of expansion would occur in 1980, during a brief the Arab intervention in the Iranian Civil War. As an Iraqi, Arif was particularly proud of the liberation of Khuzestan.

Arif's rule came to a sudden end when the 1998 Arab Spring forced him to call for free elections. Ba'athists maintain that Arif expanded the Arab nation's land, health, education, and living standards, but his opponents deride him for his authoritarianism, corruption, and drifting from Nasser's socialist vision in exchange for American support. In the 2000 presidential election, Muslim Brotherhood candidate Qaboos bin Said won a convincing victory in a three-way race, with the Ba'athist Mohamed Heikal coming in second, and independent Khalid Abdel Nasser coming in third. President Said was reelected in 2004 rather easily, though the strength of the second-place finisher, Neo-Nasserist Muammar Gaddafi, came as a great surprise. The Ba'athist candidate, Rafik Hairiri, got third. Said's Vice President, Leila Khaled, was elected over Gaddafi by a frog's hair in 2008, with Ba'athist Bassel al-Assad coming a distant third. Gaddafi refused to accept the election, and his supporters staged several demonstrations against Khaled in an attempt to force his resignation. After this stunt, observers were even more surprised that Gaddafi did as well as he did in the 2012 election, when the Ba'athists finally reentered power with the victory of Saad Hariri, who opponents criticized for his perceived nature as puppet to Ba'athist power brokers and the bias coverage he received from the still-influential Voice of the Arabs. For the first time, the Muslim Brotherhood placed third, though the unpopular incumbent put up a spirited campaign.

[1] The Eisenhower Administration and MacMillan Government were at odds over the same issue IOTL.
[2] He said this IOTL. However, Nixon goes through with the détente with Nasser more thoroughly.