Chapter 94. The Imperial Effect
May 1946, India
The
Surrender of India was a chaotic event, as it took place amid the disintegration of the Indian military and the collapse of the central state authority. Shortly after the signing of the
Instrument of Surrender, the federation all but disintegrated. Sindh, Nepal, Bengal, Mysore and Ceylon wanted to fight on, Coorg was annexed to Mysore and Manipur declared its union with Japanese-controlled Burma (which was recognized by neither Burma nor Japan).
Punjab,
Jammu and Kashmir,
Himachal Pradesh,
Uttar Pradesh,
Bihar,
Rajashtan,
Ajmer,
Mahdya Bharat,
Bhopal,
Vindhya Pradesh,
Madhya Pradesh,
Orissa,
Kutch,
Saurashtra,
Bombay,
Goa,
Hyderabad,
Madras and
Travancore-Cochin countersigned the
Indian Instrument of Surrender during the following days.
The Indian State of
Afghania was dissolved. Most of its territory (including the
North-West Tribally Administered Areas), with a Pashto majority, was annexed to the Imperial State of
Afghanistan, while a few small eastern areas, without a clear Pashto majority, were joined to the neighbouring
Punjab.
The Indian State of
Balochistan was dissolved. Its north-eastern part, with a Pashto majority, was annexed to
Afghanistan and a small area around Karachi was joined to the
Sindh, while the rest was merged with the
Afghani Balochistan and the
Iranian Balochistan, forming a new Imperial State,
Balochistan (with the capital in Quetta).
The Imperial Navy occupied the Maldives and the Laccadives unopposed. The
Maldives were joined to the Imperial State of the
Western Indian Ocean Islands, while the
Laccadives remained an autonomous part of
Travancore-Cochin.
The Indian Government duly accepted the loss of (almost all of) Balochistan, (most of) Afghania and the Maldives in the subsequent peace treaty.
The Imperial Army continued to advance in India, encountering sporadic resistance. It reached the
Bay of Bengal on the 10th of May,
Bombay of the 11th,
Hyderabad on the 14th,
Madras on the 18th,
Calcutta on the 20th and the southern tip of the Indian Peninsula on the 21st.
Sindh surrendered on the 7th of May,
Mysore on the 16th,
Ceylon on the 23rd,
Bengal and
Assam on the 25th,
Sikkim and
Bhutan on the 28th and
Manipur on the 31st. While
Kathmandu fell on the 29th on May, protracted resistance continued in remote valleys of
Nepal until late June.
June 1946, India
The Imperial Navy occupied the
Andaman Islands and the
Nicobar Islands unopposed in early June. The fact that the Japanese Navy based in nearby Indonesia and Malaya did not even try to take them was unexpected but welcome and probably indicative of their difficult situation.
The
Territorial Reorganization of India was started in June (and completed a couple of months later).
Jammu and Kashmir,
Himachal Pradesh, the northeasternmost, mountainous, part of
Punjab and the northernmost, mountainous, part of
Uttar Pradesh were merged into a new Indian State,
Northwest India (with an Autonomous Region:
Ladakh).
The easternmost, Hindi speaking, part of
Punjab and the
National Capital Territory were merged into a new Indian State,
Delhi.
Sikkim was joined to
Nepal.
Ajmer was joined to
Rajashtan.
Saurashtra and
Kutch were joined to
Bombay (with an Autonomous Region:
Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu).
Madhya Bharat,
Bhopal, an exclave of
Rajashtan,
Vindhya Pradesh and most of the southward panhandle of
Uttar Pradesh were joined to
Madhya Pradesh.
Coorg and the northern part of the Malabar Coast of
Madras were joined to
Mysore.
The southern part of the Malabar Coast of
Madras was joined to
Travancore-Cochin (with an Autonomous Region:
Laccadives Islands).
Assam,
Bhutan,
Manipur, the easternmost part of
Bengal and the
Andaman and Nicobar Islands were merged into a new Indian State,
Northeast India (with ten Autonomous Regions:
Bhutan,
Arunachal Pradesh,
Nagaland,
Manipur,
Mizoram,
Chittagong Hill Tracks,
Tripura,
Meghalaya,
Andaman Islands,
Nicobar Islands).
The southern part of India ought to be reorganized on ethnic and linguistic lines (in particular, the States of Bombay, Hyderabad and Madras ought to be dissolved), but the demographic situation on the ground had to be properly assessed first (and that takes time).
No estimated time for the annexation of India was proposed, so India remained a
puppet state of the Empire for the time being.
Mahatma Gandhi remained its President and a now loyal
Subhas Chandra Bose was silently reinstated as Prime Minister. Various plans regarding India were discussed, such as to turn it into an Empire ruled by Anne, Elizabeth II (who declined), Princess Margaret (who was eager) or a local monarch, or into a collection of Kingdoms ruled by the local rajahs, but nothing was decided at that time.
May - June 1946, East Asia and the Pacific
The Imperial Army, boosted by Indian soldiers experienced in jungle warfare, crossed the Burmese border in mid-May, encountering significant Japanese resistance. The speed of the Imperial advance was disappointing (only between two and four hundred kilometres in six weeks), because of the very difficult terrain and entrenched Japanese military.
The Imperial advance was helped by three amphibious landings on the eastern coast of the Bay of Bengal, but
Rangoon was not reached. The
Irrawaddy River was reached in mid-June,
Mandalay fell on the 21st of June and the Imperial Army crossed into the
Shan State (Thailand) and
Yunnan (China) in late June. On the 26th of June, the Imperial units coming from the north (Szechuan) finally linked with those coming from the south (Burma) in central Yunnan. At the end of June, the Empire controlled about half of Burma, half of Shan and half of Yunnan.
The situation in the
Quarantined Area of Western China improved, but only slightly, despite the best efforts of the Imperial volunteers. In those conditions, concentrating sufficient forces in the area was impossible, so advancing eastwards was out of the question for the time being.
North of the Quarantine Area, the Empire took the rest of
Inner Mongolia, the northernmost parts of
Shansi and
Hopei and the westernmost parts of
Manchukuo.
In Siberia, the
Chita pocket was reduced after a seven week siege. Further east, the Empire took the rest of the
Amur Oblast (except the city of Blagoveshchensk) and the rest of the Cis-Amurian part of the
Khabarovsk Oblast (including the
Jewish Autonomous Oblast, which was dissolved, because the Jews represented less than ten percent of the population, and most of those wanted to leave).
There was relatively little progress in the Far-East (and the Amur was not crossed at that time) because it was impossible to assembly a sufficiently large army so far north in that period of the year (the spring thaw made the ground so muddy that movement was very difficult for tanks, hellish for infantry and impossible for trucks).
Tibet was annexed to the Empire as an Imperial State. It was significantly enlarged with 95% of
Tsinghai (but less than 20% of its population), 6% of
Kansu, 37% of
Szechuan (but less than 3% of its population) and 5% of
Yunnan. Thus, Tibet increased its territory with 76% and its population with about 80% (most of them ethnic Tibetans). In theory, Tibet had also claimed the rest of Tsinghai and additional areas of Kansu, Szechuan and Yunnan, but those territories included a very large Chinese population which, if annexed, would have jeopardized the ethnic Tibetan character of the country.
Mongolia was also annexed to the Empire as an Imperial State. Chinese majority areas of
Inner Mongolia were reverted to China (all of
Wuhai,
Ordos and
Kweisui, the southern parts of
Bayannur,
Baotou and
Ulanqab, a small part of
Xilingol and none of
Alxa) and Mongol majority areas of
Manchukuo were annexed to Mongolia (small parts of
Chifeng and
Tongliao, all of
Hinggan and more than half of
Hulunbuir). Keeping the rest of Inner Mongolia would have resulted in ethnic Mongols being a minority in their own country.
No estimated time for the annexation of China was proposed and no Chinese puppet state was established at that time, so the conquered parts of China remained
under military occupation for the time being. The Kuomintang (and other anti-Japanese fighters) were treated well but they were not granted any real amount of power. Various plans regarding China were discussed, such as to turn it into an Empire ruled by Anne (
the Mandate of Heaven) or a suitable Qing heir (Puyi's younger sister, Yunying), but nothing was decided at that time.
The Americans took more islands in the
Ryukyu Chain (
Amami,
Miyako and
Yaeyama) and planned more nuclear bombings in July, followed by landings in
Kyushu in August.
The Australians (with American and New Zealander support) took the western tip of
New Guinea (
Bird's Head Peninsula) and adjacent islands and the easternmost Indonesian islands (
Yamdena and
Aru).
Christmas Island was finally liberated in June. Further landings in
Alor,
Wetar,
Ceram,
Halmahera and
Morotai were planned for July and August.
May 1946, Africa
On the 10th of May,
Madagascar and
South Africa acceded to the Empire, at the same time with
Balochistan,
Tibet and
Mongolia, thus increasing the number of Imperial States to 70.
The
Empire of Africa was finally federalized, with the following seven
African Federal States being created:
- West Africa (capital Dakar) -- Senegal, Gambia, Bissau, Conakry, Sierra Leone, Mali, Timbuktu, Upper Ivory, Upper Volta, Upper Ghana, Dahomey, Niger (west);
- Guinea (capital Accra) -- Liberia, Ivory Coast (south), Ghana (south), Togo (south), Benin (south);
- Nigeria (capital Lagos) -- Southern Nigeria (including southern British Cameroons);
- Chad (capital Kano) -- Northern Nigeria (including northern British Cameroons), Tibesti (parts of Niger and Chad proper), Darfur;
- Congo (capital Congoville) -- Cameroon, Ubangi-Shari, South Congo, Middle Congo, Gabon, Cabinda, Río Muni, Fernando Pó, São Tomé, Príncipe and Annobón;
- Zambezia (capital Luanda) -- Angola, Katanga, Barotseland, Bembaland, Nyasaland;
- East Africa (capital Dar es-Salaam) -- Equatoria, Kenya, Uganda, Ruanda, Urundi, Tanganyika, North Mozambique.
No estimated time for the annexation of Africa was proposed, so the Empire of Africa remained a
puppet state of the Empire for the time being. Anne remained its Empress and Makumba Mutombo its Prime Minister.
June 1946, Oslo, Norway, Nordic Union
After long and difficult negotiations, the Empire and the United Nations came to a binding understanding that, in the event of a Japanese surrender, the areas under Japanese control would have the following fate:
- China (including Hainan and the Treaty Ports, such as Hong Kong and Kwantung, but not Taiwan) -- Imperial control;
- Burma, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam -- Imperial control;
- Korea -- Imperial control, no weapons of mass destruction¹, Jeju Island and Dagelet Island demilitarized;
- Malaya, Sumatra and Java -- Imperial control, no weapons of mass destruction¹;
- the Philippines -- fully independent in at most six months after liberation, fully neutral from 1 January 1950², no weapons of mass destruction¹;
- Japan (including the Ryukyu Islands, the Kurile Islands and minor Pacific islands) -- independent, fully neutral from 1 January 1950², no weapons of mass destruction¹;
- Taiwan -- Either independent or part of Japan (referendum), fully neutral from 1 January 1950², no weapons of mass destruction¹;
- Papua (entire island of New Guinea and adjacent islands) -- External Territory of Australia;
- Christmas Island -- External Territory of Australia, no weapons of mass destruction¹;
- Micronesia (Mariana Islands, Caroline Islands, Marshall Islands) -- Territory of the United States of America.
The future status of
Sakhalin / Karafuto as well as of
Borneo,
Celebes and
East Indonesia was still not decided, but the negotiations continued. However, it was already determined that, whatever their ultimate fate, they would host no weapons of mass destruction¹ and, if not part of the Empire, they would be fully neutral from 1 January 1950².
1. Defined as nuclear, biological and chemical weapons and missiles with a range longer than one hundred kilometres.
2. In case United Nations military occupation is necessary for ending the war, the foreign military presence will end prior to that date.
March 1946, Flores Island, Azores
Article Seventeen of the 9th of January 1946
Oslo Ceasefire between the Empire and the United Nations mandated that:
The Empire will clearly and truthfully explain the nature and works of the phenomenon called the Imperial Effect, backing their assertions with practical examples, reproducible demonstrations and/or other reasonable proofs if asked for and available.
Accordingly,
Half of the westernmost Azorean island Flores remained under American control for a further two weeks during which time the Empire demonstrated the Imperial Effect there (making use of the makeshift internal land border between the Empire and the United Nations, inter alia).
During the two weeks long demonstration of the
Imperial Effect,
Flores Island was divided into:
- the United Nations Area (northwestern part of the island, still under American control),
- including the Cedros Area (recovered from Imperial control after the first week),
- the Imperial Area (southeastern part of the island, under Imperial control),
- including the Lajedo-Mosteiro Area (occupied by the Empire after the first week),
- and the No Man's Land (a 100-200 metres wide strip of land between the frontlines, plus an uninhabited national park / protected area in the interior of the island).
The experiments involved hundreds of people:
- Imperial civilians and soldiers,
- civilians and soldiers from the Imperial puppet states,
- Azorean locals,
- Imperial prisoners of war taken by the United Nations,
- prisoners of war taken by the United Nations from Italy, France, Germany, before those countries were taken over by the Empire,
- United Nations prisoners of war taken by the Empire,
- United Nations volunteers.
The Empire proposed 73 experiments, of which 71 were approved by the United Nations. Seven of them were repeated for various reasons (inconclusive, mistakes, etc). Afterwards, the United Nations proposed a further 55 experiments, all of which were approved by the Empire. Three of them were repeated for various reasons. In the end, a further 16 experiments were conducted, proposed by any one of the parts.
Before each experiment, both the Empire and the United Nations predicted the result, i.e. either positive (affected by the Imperial Effect) or negative (not affected). All Imperial predictions were proven correct by the experiments (the subjects were tested for the Imperial Effect both before and after the experiment). The United Nations guessed right in 73.2% cases (104 experiments out of 142).
Hundreds of diplomats, scientists, doctors, psychologists, psychiatrists, police detectives, toxicologists, chemists, physicists, philosophers, theologians and occult cranks oversaw and studied the experiments, using thousands of cameras and microphones installed all over the island and the Modified Electroencephalography (MEEG) tests for the Imperial Effect and performed hundreds of interviews with the subjects, both before and after the experiments. Over one hundred thousand pages were typed, most of them remaining classified.
At the end of the two weeks-long experiment period, the United Nations declared their satisfaction with the conduct and results of the experiments and opined that the Empire had been truthful, forthcoming and helpful.
Thus, t
he Empire [had] clearly and truthfully explain[ed] the [...] works of the phenomenon called the Imperial Effect, backing their assertions with practical examples, reproducible demonstrations and/or other reasonable proofs if asked for and available. The way in which the Imperial Effect worked was now crystal clear. But the Empire had promissed to reveal not only
how the Imperial Effect worked, but also the
nature of the Imperial Effect, i.e.
what the Imperial Effect actually was.
By then, the United Nations knew what the Imperial Effect was
not. Experiments involving subjects enclosed in various protective suits had shown that its nature was clearly not chemical or iatrogenic and neither did it seem to be physical or radiological. Moreover, no hypnosis or other traditional types of mind control were observed, as the Imperial Effect seemed to be, for all intents and purposes, instantaneous, and physical coercion, while usually working, was clearly not necessary. Of course, no cult items, prayers or any invocations of any diety were observed, but that did not discourage the increasingly numerous voices claiming a supernatural cause for the utterly baffling phenomenon.
The Imperial plenipotentiary admitted that the Imperial Effect had a supernatural cause, being
baked into the very fabric of this Universe on the 18th of September 1937 (the fourteenth birthday of the Empress) by the
Creator of this splinter Universe, the purpose of that slight change in the laws of nature being to conduct an experiment, i.e. to see how much a medium sized country (Romania) could expand using that advantage. The talk about the
Multiverse,
parallel Universes,
branches in space-time and
higher dimensions was very interesting to the theoretical physicists, but the whole theory, while supposedly fitting the observations, was
non-falsifiable and, thus,
unscientific.
While such extreme claims could not be accepted without some sort of proof, they could not be outright rejected either, not when the Imperial Effect refused any rational explanation. Therefore, the United Nations accepted the Imperial claim as
possible but unsubstantiated and asked that some
physical, tangible evidence for that theory to be produced, even if flimsy or circumstantial, but more than just unsupported words. The Imperial plenipotentiary promissed that the Empress would try to produce something that could be construed as evidence as soon as possible.
The issue of proof notwithstanding, a number of questions were asked and answered.
- The Imperial Effect is not linked to Empress Anne, but to the Crown and State.
- Initially, it was the Crown of Romania and the Romanian State, but the Crown of Romania is identical to the Imperial Crown and Romania had evolved into the Empire.
- The Empress can not turn the Imperial Effect on and off, the same way she can not influence other laws of nature, such as gravity or electro-magnetism.
- The Empress does not have any supernatural powers.
- The Empress is mortal, but her eventual death will not influence the Imperial Effect in any way.
- The Empress is not in any sort of contact with the Creator of this Universe (Who is presumed to be different from God, the Creator of the Entire Multiverse).
- The Empire does not know anything about the misterious events which took place in the night of 14/15 May 1943 in and around the Hutchins Hospital in Scotland.
- No other changes in the laws of nature are expected to occur.
- The changes in Judaism and the Unification of the Christian Churches have nothing to do with the Creator or with the existence of the Imperial Effect.
- Whether the Creator is pleased or not with the results of His experiment is not known and, probably, unknowable, as He does not interact with people at all.
- It is not known whether any religions, or parts thereof, are correct or wrong.
- The history of the parallel Universe, in which the Imperial Effect was not introduced, is known in broad strokes until November 1951. A summary is provided in the annex.
- The Alternate History published by the Empress in 1939 is not fiction, but represents the real history of a parallel Universe which diverged from ours in 1601.
- All that is known because the Empress received a large amount of revealed knowledge on the 18th of September 1937.
- No more knowledge has been revealed since and none is expected to be revealed in the future.
- No, we can not interact with other parallel Universes and neither can their inhabitants interact with us.
- And so on.
While the basics of the way the Imperial Effect worked were published and widely disseminated, no information about its nature were made public, although speculations abounded.
The Americans vacated their part of the Flores Island after the end of the experiments, so that it could be integrated into the Empire.
Eleven days later, the
United Nations Commission for the Study of the Imperial Effect received a letter from Anne.
While the following statements, if they turn to be true, do not prove the validity of all Our claims, they do at least prove that some supernatural phenomena have occured, because neither producing nor predicting novae ought to be within Our capabilities.
I. A nova, of maximum magnitude six, will be visible in the constellation Serpens, in the spring of 1948.
II. Another nova, of maximum magnitude seven, will be visible in the constellation Cygnus, in the summer of the same year.
III. No brighter novae will be visible until then.
Unfortunately, you will have to wait for two years to assess the validity of Our claims. Should We come upon additional proof for some of Our claims, We would forward them to you without delay.
Ana Iulia Imperatrix Regina.
(alongside the national flag)
(alongside the national flag)
(alongside the national flag)
(alongside the national flag)
(Imperial flag)
(National flag)
