XXV. Steps towards domination - modernisation and the African expansion
Change in leadership and 'The False War'
Just as Persian troops were crossing the Ethiopian plateau towards Mali, a change of heart was underway in Parsa. Parvis Hekmatjoo had assumed control of the Tudeh party after the sudden death (reported as a heart attack) of Farzan Mosaddegh. At the first meeting of the Central Command, he asked military leaders to restrain their expansionist urges and to consider foremost the stability of the Persian Socialist Republic, which, according to the latest analysis of the Makhmalbaf Institute, was rated as -9, in large part due to its centuries of expansion and rule over non-Iranian peoples.
Chairman Hekmatjoo advocated instead a policy prioritising the stability of the Central Asian Treaty Association members (a kind of modern viceroyalty where CATO Prime Ministers would be assigned advisors in Parsa), and discouraging occupation of new lands: CATO members would have full support for actions against the rogue states of the Mediterranean - Argos, Atina, Istanbul, Bursa, and the former Carthaginian city-states. Meanwhile, the army would be permitted to engage in disruptive operations within the Malian frontier, so as to prevent the Timbuktu junta from making gains in the same area.
The Mediterranean basin in the 1960s
Developments during the 60s
International and domestic trade flourished as air travel expanded exponentially, with the opening of commercial airports across the republic. Adjoining these airports were military airfields, many of the largest ringed by the offices, assembly lines, and hangars of the the state-owned aircraft manufacturers. As the industry matured, the technological superiority of Persian aircraft became widely known.
The land forces were strengthened by the production, in Kermanshah in 1964, of the first tanks, and the formation of the 1st Armoured Division. Soon, assembly lines in Parsa and Pathragada were also busy producing the formidable machines.
The sea power of the Persian republic, however, was still lagging behind the world standard, due to a shortage of well-developed ports. Armuza and Dilli, famed naval centres of an age past, were still recovering from the severe wounds inflicted on them by the Indian uprising of the 1930s, and were being surpassed by the drydocks of Hangzhou (and, soon after the restoration of order in 1967, Mekke).
In 1963, the former captain of Persia's first battleship, Admiral Bahram Afzali, took an early retirement from military command to devote his energy and military-political connections to the refitting of one of Dilli's oldest drydocks, which earned it fame and earned the Admiral much good will - so much so that his former command was renamed Bahram, and he received a major boost to his political aspirations.
Admiral Bahram Afzali's contribution to the Dilli drydocks
Persia's industrial capacity was making solid gains through the 60s as well, the demand for power becoming so great that a large hydro-electric project was begun on the upper reaches of the Euphrates near Kermanshah, site of the nation's largest ironworks.
The Mediterranean wars
The 60s and early 70s saw much activity in the formerly Greek, Turkish, and Carthaginian lands of the Mediterranean. From CATO members, the stated intent was restoration of order, by taking control from non-cooperative 'rogue' nations, and bring modern political instiutions to that area of the world. CATO powers Germany and Russia were the main contrbutors to this effort, though Persian offered some air and naval support. Bursa was under German occupation by 1962, and Russia later conquered Argos from the Malians. When, in 1964, the leaders of Istanbul pleaded to be accepted into the Persian Republic, Persian forces resettled the population to cities and towns in the Euphrates area, and established a naval base and oil-drilling centre in the region. Also, after Egypt's capitulation to Spain in 1964, Spain was active in the area, taking control of the ancient city state which they named Atenas.
The evacuation of Istanbul and construction of the naval base
The Military Committee of Mali was also active in the region, brutally conquering Argos in 1967 in spite of aerial bombing and harassment of their cavalry regiments.
The 1970s
Japan's long naval war with Portugal continued without any major world impact, but both nations were cementing their positions in the ranks of the the most powerful nations, by technological and soft power if not by military might. Japan's popular music,
rokku ando rooru, was contributing to its commercial success, much in the way that football did for Persia.
Persia's size and somehat cumbersome bureacracy were significantly impairing its ability to keep up with other major nations in technological prowess. But it made up for this with a well-developed industrial espionage ring. In 1970, refrigeration technology was stolen from a Japanese laboratory in Fukuoka, and mass media technologies were finessed from the Scandinavians in 1972. The completion of the Three Gorges Dam, sped up by a new construction technique developed by an engineering team from Beijing, also brought technological prestige.
The Three Gorges Dam near Kermanshah
In 1976, the Scandinavians sent two men to the moon. This inspired Spain, Portugal, and Russia to announce their own similar programmes. There was little interest as yet within the Persian leadership, however.
The Upper Nile War
As Mali began to restore order in the conquered Mediterranean city of Argos, and was threatening to impose its control on several Carthaginian cities, the Central Military Command decided that the war with the Mali Military Committee would have to be prosecuted more vigorously. First, in 1973, an Apostolic Palace resolution ensured that eastern nations would embargo the Africans. Then, in 1974, a full assault on the eastern flank of Mali - the cities of Tadmekka and Walata on the Upper Nile, and Nioro on the coast - began. Due to difficult territory of the Upper Nile region (alternating deserts and swamplands), however, the land assault made slow progress, often taking months to secure a major town, and supply lines to the army were continually being raided by local bandits and, embarrassingly, slowed by outdated cavalry and airship attacks. Victory was almost assured, but was painfully slow in emerging.
[I]The Parsa Standard[/I] said:
"
Chittagong delegation playing out of its league"
Yesterday, at the ongoing international congress in Mekke - scheduled last summer to determine the status of the Mediterranean, before the renewed hostilities between Persia and Mali - the delegation from the Tributary Shendu State (commonly known as Chittagong), backed by their political masters Kampuchea and by Mali and Japan, pressed for the transfer of formerly-Chinese Xi'an to their administration, based on a 0.02% ethnic Indian minority and the presence of a religious site, the Shwedagon Paya, that they claimed had been built a thousand years ago by Hindu slaves. Many of the delegates to the conference decided to adjourn for a luncheon during the proceedings on this ludicrous request, with the result that it was carried, and Persia was threatened with war if they refused. The Persian delegate, the popular Admiral Bahram Afzali, guffawed loudly in response, facing down in front of the television cameras the Indian and Kampuchean delegates, who could only then mumble that they were following proper protocol for international diplomatic meetings, and that the world was shamefully appeasing a bully in failing to back up their demand. No declaration of war ensued.
In early 1979, as the slow subjugation of the eastern Malian cities became inevitable, a disagreement within the top ring of the Tudeh party evolved into a bloodless coup, where Hekmatjoo was sacked for his lack of direction and urgency, and Admiral Bahram Afzali, by now easily the most popular politician in the land, took the reins. He pressed for a surge of military force in the war with Mali, for a policy of direct military administration of conquered Malian territory, and vowed overall to restore the dynamism of the Persian Socialist Republic.
Afzali's surge consisted mainly of air power. In negotiations with the Egyptians, use of their air base at Diospolis Megale was secured, and in late 1979, the 1st and 2nd Bomb Wings pummeled the important oil centre of Tadmekka, after which it was easily taken by artillery, infantry, and (in their last battle before being reorganised) the legendary Nader Shah Horsemen.
The bombing campaign on Tadmekka from the air base in Egypt
The Nader Shah Horsemen and the conquest of Tadmekka
The morale of the Persian land forces quickened by news of the enhanced air power, the land forces surrounding the cities to the south handily put down the last of resistance, even before the bombers could arrive, the 1st Armoured Division and Taqi Khan Pessian Infantry taking Walata, the 1st and 6th Amoured Divisions instrumental in Nioro's capture.
The conquest of Walata
The conquest of Nioro
The Military Committee of Mali agreed to meet in Diospolis Megale in December 1979 to negotiate a peace, but would not satisfy Persia's demands for complete capitulation. The war continued, with Persian forces advancing on another major oil producing region, Taghaza.
Bahram Afzali's ambitions
The Persian economy, somewhat neglected due to the African campaign, was now in full recovery mode, with a stock exchange opened in Hangzhou in 1980, the premier trading centre, and the re-establishment in 1981 of the historic Armuza Trading Company. But other nations were making even grander advancements: the Internet was inaugurated in Trondheim in 1981, and both Japan and Scandinavia were putting into service novel technologies such as robotics and superconductors. To add insult to Persia's claims of worldwide pre-eminence, Spain completed its lunar landing in 1983 and Portugal, Russia, and the USA were soon to follow suit. Bahram Afzali pronounced that it was time to wrap up the war in Africa and turn the nation's energy to technological achievements. Espionage, of course, continued to be a useful tool for the Persians, and superconductor technology from Japan found its way into Persian labs around 1983.
In October 1983, an all-out air-and-land assault on the city of Taghaza put the Persian Central Command in control of a fouth major Malian city. This time, the representatives of the Military Committee of Mali were forced to disband their committee on the spot and to sign documents declaring the vast nation of Mali to be henceforth the newest Satrapy of the Persian Socialist Republic.
Deployments near Taghaza
The conquest of Taghaza
The capitulation of the Malians at Diospolis Megale
Territory acquired in the Malian War
With the inclusion of a non-Asian menber in the Parsa bloc, the Central Asian Treaty Organisation was renamed the Central Treaty Organisation (CenTO). Under this expanded political organisation, the leaders in Parsa now ruled, directly or indirectly, over 23% of the earth's land and 25% of its population.
The Persian Socailist Republic itself, as it did not return the occupied cities to the Satrapy of Mali, stretched from the Upper Nile region in Africa to the East China Sea, and from a border with Spanish Atenas in the west to the southeastern sub-continent of Borneo.
Chaiman Afzali spoke now of the moon, and beyond.