Post by stevep on Aug 6, 2018 23:24:25 GMT
Yes from what I recall the Race largely discounted islands so could end up with a lot of the southern Pacific islands staying in the empire/Commonwealth.
India might be the big question other than Australia. Given its population and resources, despite some areas being attractive to the Race you might, with better organisation, have it be so troublesome to the Race that they give up most/all of it when the peace is signed. Such an India could well, for reasons of common need have close defensive relations with Britain, although be likely to be formally/politically independent. This might also mean freedom for Nepal as well, although other border areas could be less certain. If with British aid India gains independence it could be at such a loss to the Race that they are forced to concede lands elsewhere. Thinking of a well-organised attrictional war that plays to their weakness of limited numbers, especially when coupled with the heavy losses elsewhere.
Throughout the rest of the war, the Chinese continued to fight the Race, being the most resistive of all the occupied territories on Earth. When the Race asked for a cease-fire in 1944, the Chinese were not invited to the proceedings as they had already been conquered. Another factor was that both the major Chinese factions demanded that they alone were the true rulers of China. After the Peace of Cairo was signed, China was recognised as a Race colony. The Chinese refused to accept this and continued on in their struggle against the Race, being the most rebellious of all the colonies on Earth. These efforts were assisted indiscreetly by the Soviet Union as well as the United States.
When the Race's Colonization Fleet arrived in 1962, many Race males, from common infantry males to Fleetlord Atvar, often felt frustrated with China, as it was too densely populated to be settled by colonists, but at the same time had to be kept garrisoned to keep up a strong image to other Tosevite powers. Chinese resistance took a heavy toll on Race forces, and it was these casualties that eventually forced Fleetlord Reffet to seriously consider letting Atvar recruit colonists to be soldiers. In spite of the difficulties in holding China, the Race refused to relinquish any of it when Japan acquired nuclear weapons in 1965 and demanded the return of large stretches of their former empire in China.
In 1964 the Race was temporarily expelled from many of China's major cities including Beijing by a coalition of Chinese factions. However, this rebellion was eventually put down. After Germany's defeat in the Race-German War of 1965, the Germans shipped what was left of their equipment over to the Chinese rather than surrendering it to the Race. This sparked a second mainly Communist rebellion, which employed German anti-tank and anti-air missiles to drive the Lizards from Peking and other cities in 1966 and hold them for a longer period of time. Though the Race eventually retook the rebel controlled-territory, they realized that it would probably be necessary to negotiate with the various factions.
a) Definitely a possibility, although some at least might end up in the US sphere as its stronger and nearer.
b) Possibly but not necessarily so. As the excerpt you mention says the Chinese wereb't invited to the peace conference, both because they were considered conquered and because they had no clear leader. If Britain was to both get nukes in time so it had a lot more influence at the conference and had also been helping India resist so that Race rule was patchy in reality and the place was a big resource sink like China then its quite possible that some/all of India could have been accepted as under British protection/rule and the Race withdrawn from it but have maintained domination of China as they did OTL.
I think part of the problem is because Turtledove is concentrating in Europe and N America you get virtually no details on all the other areas. China is possibly the biggest exception to this but India is in a number of ways better positioned to resist Race control. It also has a huge population but hasn't been split by prolonged civil war and invasion and in a more successful and active Britain it might well have a significant supplier of equipment and aid. Especially as long as the Race continues to overlook maritime movements of ships.
In the same way it seems rather lazy of Turtledove to have the Race occupy the rest of the undeveloped world. True there are areas, such as the Sahara and much of Australia or Mexico that are ideal for the Race, being hot and dry like their homeworld. [That's why I'm assuming at best only the more settled part of Australia is likely to be released from Race control unless the latter are totally defeated.] However why would they occupy vast areas like the Amazon and the W Africa rainforests, or the Andes or other high mountain regions. Not very suitable for their settlement or for their highly mechanised forces. In reality I think trying to control all those areas would stretch them very thinly and make it relatively easy for some low tech guerilla forces to pick away at their presence in much of those regions. If the Race successfully conquered the more developed parts of the world then those other areas could be cowered or brought under control over time but in reality I suspect that the process assumed in the book, where they quickly gained control of much of those areas would be likely to gravely weakened them as continued resistance would expose them to a death of a thousand cuts so to speak as assorted groups would pick away at isolated garrisons while the major powers fight the big battles in N America, Europe and E Asia. Especially since the Race is so ignorant of humanity it would find it a lot harder to suppress such resistance than the OTL colonial powers would.
I think its more likely, in a war where the Race eventually accepts a stalemate it would be more interested in suitable desert type areas, such as much of Australia, Central Asia, Iran, SW US than in vast areas that it was shown to have controlled in the books. True neither the US or the Soviets would be that happy with giving up what they consider national territory, which might mean there is another round of fighting before some compromise is made or one side concedes the point to the other. [Or if they really had any sense the Race might, seeing the examples in Poland especially but also elsewhere and the nature of the war that had been occurring when they attacked, might have tried a degree of divide and rule. Or at least offering concessions to some powers to get a peace settlement, enabling them to exert greater pressure on others. Might not work but could split the human powers a bit.]