India-Indonesia War (Neo-British Imperium)

The India-Indonesia War, also known as the Malay-Indian War, was a colossal global conflict fought between the years of 2051 and 2057. Over eight million soldiers, and twenty-two million civilians, were killed as a result of the conflict. Due to the sheer magnitude, economic cost, and devastation of the War, many scholars, reporters, and government officials have called the Malay-Indian conflict the "third World War". A few powerful nations devoted much of their industrial, technological, and economic activity to the war effort.

The Malay-Indian War had its roots in the Chinese Civil Wars of the 2020s and 2030s. Rapid economic growth in China during the early twenty-first century caused a growing wealth gap, massive economic inequalities between provinces, and a fragile political situation. Starting with the secessions of Xinjiang and Tibet in 2025, a number of local regions and provinces in China declared their independence. Furthermore, even in regions nominally controlled by the national government, there was a surge in local autonomy (many have paralleled this development to the fall of the Han dynasty in the third century). By the year 2040, the Chinese Central Government was little more than a figment of the past.

In the early 2040s, India and Indonesia were left as the key superpowers in Asia (Japan and South Korea had experienced terrible economic problems and a wave of isolationism that crippled their international power). In 2041, India initiated an "executive security action" to "maintain stability in the lawless western regions of China". India initiated its occupation of the former western provinces of China. While India claimed that it was simply "maintaining order and stability for the People's of Asia", the nation's actions were widely viewed as an Imperialist attempt to ensure economic, military, and political dominance over Asia. Indonesia and Malaysia, meanwhile, had united into the Greater Malay Union in the early 2030s. Furthermore, under intense military pressure, Vietnam and the Philippines joined the GMU, essentially as Imperial territories. In 2042, the Greater Malay Union invaded the former Chinese provinces of Taiwan and Guangxi, and subsequently occupied much of the eastern part of China by 2045.

The diplomatic situation by 2050 was dire. Under the guise of maintaining order, the two Asian superpowers of India and Greater Malay Union (commonly known as Indonesia) had occupied much of the former territory of the now dissolved China. The Chinese economy was vast, and held immense potential tax revenue, and China furthermore had immense natural resources and industrial infrastructure. India and Indonesia had much disputed territory in China, and competed for dominance over the region. Much of the Western World, as well as the Shiite Iraq and Iran, allied with India; while the Sunni regions of Pakistan, Bangladesh, much of the Middle East and North Africa, as well as Nigeria, held cultural and religious similarities with Indonesia, and tended to side with the Greater Malay Union in disputes. Thus, the formation of the Trans-Atlantic Alliance (led by India) and the Pacific Coalition (led by Indonesia) were already evident by 2050.

The discovery of vast reserves of oil shale, nearly half the global supply, in the disputed territory between the Indian and Malay occupied regions of China, pushed diplomatic stress over the limit. An Indian military regiment, attempting to capture the Qing oil shale fields in eastern Fujian, met Malay forces and engaged in battle, ultimately resulting in the deaths of some two hundred troops. Following this incident, war was declared.

The War resulted in the victory of the Trans-Atlantic Alliance. In 2051, GMU was pushed out of Guangxi, Guangdong, Fujian, and Shandong. In 2052, Indonesia managed to reconquer these territories in China, after a change in military administration. In 2053, Indonesia pushed Atlantic forces out of Western China, and seemed to be winning the war. Meanwhile, Pakistan and Bangladesh occupied several Indian states, while the Middle East and North Africa resisted the TAA and threatened Europe and Iran/Iraq, while Greece was losing a war with Turkey. Atlantic support of Han Nationalist insurgency groups in Malay territory in China turned the tide of war. By 2054, Indonesia was pushed back to eastern China, while Greece expanded into Turkey, and North Africa and the Sunni Middle East were close to collapse. In 2055 Indonesia was forced out of China. Campaigns against GMU in 2056 and 2057 ultimately sealed the war effort. The terms of surrender included extensive war reparations from Indonesia, and set the stage for the 2080s Global War.

=Background= The Chinese Civil Wars set the stage for the Malay-Indian conflict. Massive economic growth in the Chinese mainland led to the expansion of a colossal wealth gap, economic inequalities between different regions, and political instability. During the 2020s and 2030s, many local regions in China gained significant autonomy from the central government. Many scholars have compared this development to the fall of the Han dynasty in the third century. Beginning with the fall of Tibet and Xinjiang in 2025, the Chinese Civil Wars ultimately lead to four million civilian deaths and massive destruction. Despite the costs of the civil wars and the collapse of the Chinese government, the economy of the nation continued to grow. By 2040 China (now a region as opposed to a unified country) remained the largest economy in the world. Furthermore, the many quibbling regions of China held massive natural resources. Thus, the increasingly imperialistic superpowers of India and the Greater Malay Union competed for economic, military, and political dominance over the newly weakened China.

The Greater Malay Union was formed as a union of Malaysia and Indonesia, but is commonly referred to simply as "Indonesia". In the 2030s, under intense military pressure, Vietnam and the Philippines joined the Greater Malay Union, essentially as occupied territories. In the 2040s, the GMU and India both attempted to occupy and dominate the region of China. India generally occupied the West and North-East (Manchuria), while Indonesia dominated the South and East, from Guangxi to Hebei.

The Trans-Atlantic Trade Agreements of 2035 strengthened relations between Brazil, Mexico, the US, the EU, Russia, and India. Meanwhile, the largely Sunni nations of the world (much of the Middle East, North Africa, Nigeria, Turkey, Bangladesh, and Pakistan) shared a cultural and religious heritage with Indonesia and tended to side with the GMU on diplomatic issues. These two alliances came to be called the Trans-Atlantic Alliance and the Pacific Coalition, respectively. =Causes= Historians and scholars have cited several different causes of the Malay-Indian War. Most agree that the primary motivation of war was political, military, and economic dominance over China and Asia in general. Specifically, the most commonly discussed causes are:

1. Economic Resources in China. Despite a lack of a central government, and the enormous costs of the civil wars, the region of China had an enormous economy in 2050. A largely industrialized nation, China had an advanced information and services economy, as well as agriculture and sophisticated infrastructure. Any nation that could dominate China could extract trillions of dollars in tax revenue.

2. Physical Resources in China. The immediate cause of war was, of course, the oil shale reserves in disputed regions between Malay and Indian territory, particularly the Qing oil fields. China held vast shale, oil, natural gas, and agricultural resources that would greatly benefit any invader.

3. Militarism. Much as at the dawn of the First World War, many nations around the world had a policy of aggressive militarism and dominance by force, especially in respect to access to resources.

4. Alliances, Trade Blocs, and Political Dominance. At the dawn of the Malay-Indian war, much of global policy was dominated by large trade blocs and alliances. There was an extremely complicated network of trade relationships by the 2050s, but essentially, Free Trade Zones established an economic interdependence between India, Russia, the EU, Brazil, Mexico, and the United States. Thus, the economies of all these nations were intertwined within a network of trade relationships. The financial future of India was inexorably connected to that of the entire Trans-Atlantic Alliance.

At the same time, a trade deal between the Greater Malay Union and Turkey in 2039 ignited the formation of a network of alliances and trade blocs soon to become the Pacific Coalition. Already Turkey, North Africa, and much of the Middle East had been established as a free trade zone; now, an economic and commercial interdependence united many of the nations of what would become the Pacific Coalition.

Thus, two major trade blocs had been firmly established by 2050, corresponding to the Trans-Atlantic Alliance and the Pacific Coalition. Each of these trade blocs operated largely as a free trade zone; within each trade bloc, the economies of the member nations depended largely upon each other. Thus, when India went to war with Indonesia, many nations already had an economic "stake in the game", so to speak.

5. Culture and Religions. There has been a vicious debate among historians and scholars about this explanation of the War. On the one hand, many historians claim that religion had little or nothing to do with the conflict, which they find was primarily motivated by resources and economic interdependence (trade blocs). On the other hand, it is hard to explain the coincidence that nearly all member nations of the Pacific Coalition were primarily Sunni Muslim. Cultural and religious similarities probably contributed significantly to the formation of alliances prior to the war. =Initiation of War= The first battle of the Malay-Indian War was fought on March 5, 2051. In 2050, vast oil shale reserves had been found in disputed territory between the regions of China occupied by India and GMU. One of the largest of these deposits, the Qing oil fields, were quickly mined by the Indonesian government in 2050. Hundreds of shale extraction plants were constructed to make use of the deposits. It is important to understand that the Qing oil fields were only part of a much larger deposit that stretched from the edges of Guangdong to the western border of Hebei.

On March 5, the Indian military sent in a regiment of nearly ten thousand troops to occupy the shale extraction machinery in western Fujian. The Malay government countered their action; the result was a large and bloody battle, commonly known as the Qing battle or the First Battle for Fujian. Following the small conflict, the Pacific Coalition declared war upon the Trans-Atlantic Alliance in April of 2051. =Chinese Theatre= The Chinese war theatre was perhaps the single most important region of the Malay-Indian conflict. Indeed, dominance over the region of China was one of the primary motivations for war in the first place. In 2051, under the poor military leadership of Adi Agusalim I, the Greater Malay Union was losing the conflict. The Indonesians were forced out of Guangxi, Guangdong, Fujian, and Shandong. The Atlantic Alliance was occupying the new Asian territories effectively, and, at least for the TAA, the Chinese theatre seemed like a resounding victory in a mere year or less.

The change in military leadership to Adi's son, Ale, following the father's assassination, proved beneficial to the Indonesian war effort. Under the new leader's superior strategic acumen, a number of surprise attacks were launched on Atlantic forces in China. Starting with a strike on a US military base in Fujian on March 7, 2052, the GMU was able to reconquer all of its lost territories by the end of 2052. In 2053, a series of successful invasions allowed the Malay forces conquer nearly all of Western China. However, under the new US president Hope Harrison, a new Atlantic strategy was launched. Support was provided for radical Han insurgent groups throughout China who destabilized the Indonesian occupation. While many had ethical qualms about giving military aid to radical, nationalist, fascist terrorists, the strategy ultimately worked. The Indonesian government was no longer able to administer its territories, ensure public safety or even tax its dominions. In 2054, GMU was pushed back to eastern China. In 2055, Indian forces invaded the remaining Indonesian territories in China from the west, while US and EU navy forces invaded from the eastern coast. By January of 2056, the Chinese theatre was a resounding Atlantic victory.

2055
=Indian Theatre= The Indian theatre was significant to the war effort. Sandwiched between Pakistan and Bangladesh, two nations strongly allied with the Coalition, damaged the Indian path to victory in China. In 2052, Bangladesh invaded the Northeastern states of India, successfully occupying the territory. The same year, Pakistan invaded Rajasthan. In 2053, many of the northern states of the country were controlled by the coalition forces, with Indonesia threatening to expand into India from western China. In 2054, the tide of war changed; the deadly Iran-Pakistan conflict weakened Pakistan, while at the same time Indonesia was forced out of western China and could no longer afford to procure military aid for its ally, Bangladesh. By 2055, the Indian theatre was an Atlantic victory.

Pakistan Conflict
=Mideast and North African Theatre= The Mideast and North Africa were critical to the Malay-Indian War, especially in relation to the involvement of Europe. Starting in May of 2051, the European Union started to launch volleys of cruise missiles on military and civilian targets in Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Tunisia, and Egypt. By August, the program was expanded to Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Jordan, and Yemen. These attacks angered the powerful nation of Turkey, ultimately leading to the Turkey-Greece conflict the next year. In 2052, the Atlantic Alliance, led by the EU, invaded Algeria, a North African nation with a large population of fifty million people and relatively high GDP. Subsequently, Morocco and Egypt were occupied by the TAA the next January. However, the increasing success of the Pacific Coalition that year undermined the Atlantic war effort. By 2054, increasing insurgency in the region forced the European forces to retreat from North Africa, especially to provide more support for Greece in its war against Turkey.

Meanwhile, the Mideast had experienced significant conflict. In 2052, Pakistan invaded eastern Iran, leading to the Iran-Pakistan conflict. Coalition forces created a Sunni insurgency in Iran and Iraq, which bogged down the Alliance. Naval battles between the US navy and Saudi Arabia occurred in 2052, most notably the Battle for Aden, an important shipping port, resulting in Arabian victory. In 2053, the US invaded the south of Saudi Arabia, but encountered enormous resistance, and by 2054 was forced to retreat to provide more aid to India in the Chinese war theatre. In 2055 the EU and US launched a new war plan, successfully conquering much of North Africa and the Middle East, especially successful given the weakened Coalition state(2).

2055
=Turkey-Greece War= The Turkey-Greece conflict began with the Karadeniz Incident on April 5 of 2052. Throughout 2051 and 2052, the militaries of the European Union had been striking military and civilian targets in Coalition nations with volleys of cruise missiles. On April 5, the Greek military observed what seemed to be a Turkish warship in the black sea approaching Russia. A cruise missile was launched, destroying the vessel. The Turkish government claimed that the ship was a passenger liner called the Karadeniz, and that the attack had killed hundreds of innocent civilians. The result was immense anger throughout Turkey, and a Turkish invasion of Greece. Many historians have speculated that the Karadeniz incident was only a justification for Turkey’s expansionalist impulses.

In May, the Turkish navy invaded the Aegean islands, Dodecanese islands, and the Cyclades. In July, Turkey proceeded to invade Crete. After several months of administering these territories, as well as warding off the European attacks, Turkey invaded the Peloponnese from the South, while simultaneously invading Bulgaria and Northeastern Greece from the East. By 2054, with significant aid from the Indonesians, Turkey had conquered Athens and much of the Greek territory. However, a war with Iraq and Iran weakened the nation, and by 2055, Indonesia was able to provide almost no military aid. In 2054, Turkey was forced out of Greece by the EU, and in 2055, Greece expanded into Istanbul and proceeded to occupy western Turkey.

2055
=Invasions of Greater Malay=

2057
=Nigerian Civil War= =Legacy=