False War

The False War is the name given to the period of the 20th century dominated by the ideological conflict between two of the primary ideological blocs in Antarctica: the Nationalist Bloc (made up primarily of Ed Island and its allies) and the Comintern (Snowviet Union and its allies). The Unaffiliated Bloc, while a significant factor in the end of the False War, played little into the greater conflict as many of the nations wished to disassociate themselves from either of the two ideological extremes.

The end of the False War came when STINC-zachal was established in the crumbling Olde Antarctica. As the threat to more than just the ideological enemies of STINC was realized, it was agreed between members of the Bridgestadt Pact and the imperialist powers of the Ninja Archipelago that this threat needed to be dealt with once and for all. As such, the "Allied Forces" as they were known declared war on STINC-zachal and its allies, and by the end of 1990 had completely liberated the Antarctic mainland. Puffle'and, having its own plans for the continent, installed its own leaders and formed Colonial Antarctica, a segregated colony reaching across all of the Antarctic mainland. Not wishing to start another conflict, Puffle'and's rule was begrudgingly accepted by its allies as it was far superior to a STINC-governed Antarctica.

Background
The term False War refers to the lack of large-scale fighting between the primary forces of the conflict prior to the STINC War.

Origins
While no one date can be attributed to as the beginning of the False War, the signing of the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation in 1945 and formation of the Bridgestadt Pact is generally accepted due to the immediate spread of advanced weaponry between the nations. Seeing this as an existential threat due to the heavy anti-Communist rhetoric within the pact, the Snowviet Union began to arm itself and its fellow Communist allies in Zhou and North Alemania, as well as supporting any Communist sympathizing nations or rebellions across Antarctica.

Weapon Development
During the period of extreme economic and military growth throughout the conflict, both sides began to focus on intercontinental ballistic missile technology. Among other things, this included improvements to ICBM range and deployment, early warning and recon satellites, and ICBM interception tactics such as lasers and surface-to-air missile defenses. In Ed Island, this became known as the Strategic Defense Initiative.

As nuclear weaponry had not been discovered until the 2010s due to the abundance of Thorium throughout Antarctica rather than Uranium, large-scale conventional weaponry remained key within arsenals during the False War. Among these were the Snowviet "Trinity" missiles and Ed Islandian "Hypersthene" burst missiles. While similar in practice, the two weapons were radically different in functionality and operation. While Hypersthene is equipped with a very sensitive polynitrogen compound warhead, Trinity is a next-generation thermobaric weapon intended as a development of traditional cruise missiles. While the Trinity warhead's size required a special enlarged cruise missile to carry, Hypersthene was compact enough for a pair of burst missiles to be carried by a single fighter jet. Until the development of nuclear weaponry, Trinity and Hypersthene were the largest penguin-made explosives in Antarctica.

In the Snowviet Union, this led to the arsenal ship concept, a naval ship capable of carrying hundreds of missiles in order to overwhelm anti-missile systems. The arsenal ship concept later transformed into the Snowviet Snovetsky Soyuz-class submarines, at the time among the largest submarines in Antarctica. The Snovetsky Soyuz submarines were the only ships capable of carrying the Trinity missiles without significant modification. While not completed by the end of the False War, both Snovetsky Soyuz submarines saw service in the Ed-Snowinn War where they were both sunk.

Ed Island responded by further developing anti-missile technology to counter these submarines, and explored the possibility of planting such technology in space. As part of the Strategic Defense Initiative, Ed Island began work on the Strategic Orbital Linear Gun (SOLG), which would use kinetic energy to destroy missile silos. It was later determined this weapon would be useless against submarines and other mobile targets, and would not be able to engage missiles already in flight. Thus, Ed Island's Ministry of Defense conceptualized a maneuvering orbiting spacecraft that could change its orbit at any time and use mounted lasers to destroy missiles at any stage of flight. The False War ended before the SOLG or maneuvering spacecraft could be completed, with the satellite sitting incomplete in orbit for over 20 years. The maneuvering spacecraft concept ultimately manifested as the EIAC's Arkbird spaceplane, which was later used as an orbital laboratory.

Final Years and Escalation

 * Main article: STINC War

The False War abruptly ended in 1990 after the STINC coup d'état led to the establishment of STINC-zachal, a tyrannical Communist state to rule over all of Olde Antarctica. After suffering several defeats across Antarctica in 1955 and 1984, STINC successfully came to power in the Fire Kingdom in 1989. Despite overt Snowviet support, STINC-zachal suffered an economic recession that rapidly engulfed all of mainland Antarctica. As a result, STINC-zachal assumed an aggressive stance towards the other nations of Olde Antarctica, rapidly bolstering its military and industry while searching for ways to end the recession. Tensions with the rest of Olde Antarctica were high, and border skirmishes were not uncommon.

The final straw came when the Water Kingdom defaulted on loans issued by Ed Island, which STINC saw as their moment of opportunity. In mid-1990, STINC-zachal declared war on the Water, Air, and Ice Kingdoms hoping to extend its control over the entire Antarctican mainland. In a short period of time, STINC was in control of nearly the entire continent. The Bridgestadt Pact, seeing this as a clear act of aggression from the Snowviet Union, declared war on STNC-zachal and the rest of the Comintern.

Aftermath
With the defeat of STINC, the Snowviet Union, and the rest of the Comintern, Antarctica entered into a period of relative peace. Without the threat of the Comintern, all of the Bridgestadt Pact members reduced their military spending with the goal of putting the funds towards peaceful projects.

The Allied Forces had conflicting plans for Antarctica after the war. Historically, it had been noted that any country that managed to unite most or all of the Antarctic mainland had the potential to be the most powerful country on the continent, as displayed by the High Penguin Confederacy and the failure of Khanzem. Aiming to prevent this, the Bridgestadt Pact had created plans for a "New Antarctican Order" in the late 80s that would permanently divide Antarctica into eight subservient nations, each becoming members of the pact and having their own independent government. Puffle'and had its own plans for the Antarctic mainland which involved establishing a dominion similar to Calada or Austiceia under a subservient monarch.

In order to resolve these conflicts diplomatically as no country was prepared to fight another war so soon, a simple democratic vote was held in several key population centers throughout the continent. While the results were close, in the end the population chose to remain under a monarchy. Shortly after a total Bridgestadt Pact withdrawal, Colonial Antarctica was established in 1991.

Legacy
The False War set the stage for the rise of the United States of Antarctica as a continental superpower, with the end of the conflict greatly reducing the strength and influence of all three blocs. After the fall of Colonial Antarctica, democracy flourished throughout Antarctica, with many new republics forming such as Acadia, UnitedTerra, and the Federal Republic of Polaris.

In 1993, the Republic of Snowiny descended into a state of total civil war. Lasting for 10 years, the war ended in 2003 with a Republican victory against incumbent Nationalists and beginning the democratically elected presidency of the Liberal Party's Geronimo Stanling. President Stanling failed to bring reform and change that was much needed in Snowiny, and Robert Smith took on the task of bringing that change as he was elected for the presidency in 2011. He restored monarchy in Snowiny, and became very unpopular. He was ousted in 2015 through a peaceful revolution and Simon McClark became the third president of Democratic Snowiny, who reformed the country into the United Provinces and successfully brought much needed reform to the country. Under Smith's presidency the Western Union was created, and McClark continued with work on that project.

The end of the STINC War led to the immediate demise of Communism within Rusca, with the first democratic elections being held in 1991. Similarly within North Alemania, the Communist government fell but reunification talks with the South collapsed. Rather, members of the Hochstadt Family took up the throne and formed the short-lived Federal Kingdom of Alemania, which entered into a personal union with Snowzerland in the early 2000s. The newly-formed East Pengolia as well as the appearance of North Joseon greatly sparked fears of a Second False War, and while East Pengolia has tended to maintain relatively positive relations within the Free Republic Union, North Joseon continues to be a thorn in the side of anti-Communist nations around Antarctica, especially those nations with close relations with its southern counterpart.

The rise of Snowzerland greatly diminished the influence of an already reduced Bridgestadt Pact. Alemania, Osterreach, and Lichenstien all fell victim to Snoss Imperialism, leaving Ed Island and Magyaria as the pact's sole remaining members. Ed Island's independence was threatened when its former ally Snowiny, under the influence of a Snowinn supremacist group known as the Sons of Snowiny, invaded the nation in 2012 in an attempt at revenge. The subsequent Ed-Snowinn War ending with the Snowinn invaders being driven out. Ed Island joined the Axle Powers in early 2014 alongside Shops Island, the Culldrome Isles, and Munijoch, once again becoming one of the most powerful organizations in the Antarctic Continent. With not only the Nationalist Bloc suffering the effects of Snoss Imperialism, Snowzerland came to dominate the Ninja Archipelago with Batavia, Alemania, and Puffle'and coming under Snoss control at some point.

Trivia

 * The False War can be considered an allegory of the real-life Cold War, but is not a direct parody.