1936: Politics and Current Affairs

So, 1936 passes pretty quietly all round (unless you happen to be Spanish; we’ll cover that separately). There are a few things to note though.

Domestic and International Affairs

Things are quiet on the home front, with the exception of the abdication of Edward VIII towards the end of the era. He is replaced by his younger brother, George VI, who will probably still be in power when fighting begins. There’s also a bit of a cabinet reshuffle at the same time.

In international affairs, we saw the emergence of a new world power, the Mongol Military Government. One to watch, surely?

We also had the Winter Olympics, which was a pleasant enough diversion whilst it lasted:

And back at home, we had our first off-map naval commissioning, the Arethusa-class light cruiser HMS Penelope:

Editors note: one of the areas I love about CORE is the naval commissioning event thread, featured for several nations and reflecting their historical naval production (vanilla AoD has large starting naval build queues as a rough simulation). These work by taking a portion of your supply stockpile as off-map usage. The new ships (and recommissioned old ships, at least in the case of the Royal Navy) are added back into the scenario over time. For the UK, this is a series of 22 ships.

The Axis Emerges

Bigger news during the year are the beginnings of growing tensions in Europe, with the alignment of Italy and Germany and the Rhineland Crisis. We must be vigilant indeed:

Ethiopia

1936, of course, saw the conclusion of Italy’s fun and games in East Africa… at least for a while. Our Supreme Leader, however, isn’t happy about the idea of a second-rate fascist power playing at colonialism, especially not in our patch, so extended sanctions are required. Our business community won’t be happy, but they’ll live. Of course, these sanctions won’t change the outcome of Italy’s invasion, but they’ll send a clear message.

Of course, the result really is foregone, so we’re not surprised to see Italy annex Ethiopia in short order. They will, however, rue the day.