Non Plus Ultra

Non Plus Ultra is an alternate history mod for Hearts of Iron IV with a divergent timeline beginning in the early 1920s. This timeline supposes that several contemporaneous wars of that period — the Rif War, the Greco-Turkish War and the Russian Civil War — had different outcomes.

The mod can be downloaded on the Steam Workshop.

Name

The name of this mod — Non Plus Ultra — is Latin for 'Nothing Further Beyond'.

Popular history has the phrase inscribed upon the mountains flanking the Straits of Gibraltar. Additionally, Plus Ultra is the national motto of Spain which has ceased to exist as a unified country in this timeline.

Features

• New nations including Atlas Republic (Morocco), Castile, Navarre, Occitan Commune, Spanish Commune, Mali Empire and City of Seville.
• New events.
• Heavily reworked territories and resources.
• Reworked Strategic Regions in Spain.
• Rivers and tiles in Spain reworked.
• New leaders.
• New equipment pictures.
• Expanding Focus Trees.

Planned Features

• More Nations.
• More Events.

Nations

Country	Tag	Ideology	States	Research slots	Population (M)	Faction	Autonomy				Total factories							Total resources	Exists
Restored Mali Empire	MLI	Fascist	4	2	6.14	Portuguese Coalition	Free	2	0	6	8	10	10			10		30	Yes
Kingdom of Greece	GRE	Non-Aligned	14	3	10.35	Allies	Free	6	2	16	24	40	20			118	111	289	Yes
Aragon Republic	ZAR	Democratic	3	3	1.06	N/A	Free	3	0	3	6					24		24	Yes
Diocese of Cordoba	COR	Non-Aligned	1	3	1.17	Portuguese Coalition	Free	1	0	1	2								Yes
Bitlis	BTL	Fascist	1	2	0.44	N/A	Free	0	0	2	2	2						2	Yes
Royalist Castile	RYC	Non-Aligned	6	3	5.21	N/A	Free	2	2	5	9		8			16		24	Yes
Nakhchivan	NAK	Democratic	1	2	0.2	N/A	Puppet - Mountainous Armenia	0	0	2	2					2		2	Yes
Socialist Navarre	NAV	Communism	3	3	1.79	N/A	Colony - French Commune	2	1	3	6		2			12		14	Yes
Mountainous Armenia	ARM	Non-Aligned	4	3	2.53	N/A	Free	1	1	6	8	6					20	26	Yes
Atlas Republic	ATL	Democratic	6	3	7.40	N/A	Free	5	2	6	11	3				27	3	33	Yes
Granada Republic	GRN	Democratic	3	3		N/A	Colony - Atlas Republic												Yes
City of Seville	SVL	Democratic	1	3	2.00	Portuguese Coalition	Colony - Diocese of Cordoba	1	4	2	7	7		4		10		21	Yes
Spanish Commune	SPC	Communism	5	3	9.15	N/A	Free	4	3	8	15	2	2			8		12	Yes

Unified Timeline

1883

February

• French occupy Bamako in Mali (former French Sudan).

1898

• Spain loses Spanish-American War.

1904

• Morocco Partitioned.

1908

May

• Capital of French Senegal, Sudan, Volta and Niger moved from Kayes to Bamako.

1909

• Second Rif War

July

• Disaster at Wolf Ravine.
• Tragic Week in Barcelona.
• Louis Blériot becomes the first person to fly across the English Channel to extensive worldwide publicity.

September

• Spanish main offensive in Second Rif War.

1910

March

• Henri Fabre takes off in the world's first seaplane

November

• Eugene Ely becomes the first pilot to take off from atop a ship.

1912

• Spanish operations against Raisani of the Djebela, Western Rif.

April-May

• Mohammad Ameziane killed in Taourirt.

December

• End of the First Balkan War, except for the Greeks.

1913

July

• End of the Second Balkan War. Greeks gain Macedonia, Lower Epirus, Crete and much of the Aegean.

1915

April

• Hundreds of Armenian community leaders arrested in Istanbul. Decapitation strike commencing the Armenian genocide.

1917

March

• Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus (north of Georgia) declares independence.

June

• Leaders of the Serbian 'Black Hand' secret society executed by firing squad after sham trial.

July

• Benito Mussolini discharged from military after recovering from wounds inflicted by a mortar bomb misfire.

1918

May

• Democratic Republic of Georgia proclaimed.

November

• British and French occupy Istanbul and establish Bosphorus International Zone.

1919

April

• Communist Revolt in Bavaria. Bavarian Soviet Republic formed.

May

• 20,000 Greek soldiers establish beachhead at Smyrna.
• Bavarian Soviet Republic crushed by the German Army and Freikorps.

August

• Bamberg Constitution comes into effect creating the Free State of Bavaria within the Weimar Republic.

1920

• Beginning of the Rif War

February

• German Workers Party renames itself the Nazi Party

June

• Revolutionary Turkey begins invasion of Armenia.
• Soviets occupy Northern Caucasus.

August

• Ottomans sign Sevres
• Usak falls to Greek Army

November

• Ceasefire between Revolutionary Turkey and Armenia. Mass killings and atrocities committed against the Armenian populace. (?)
• Soviets invade and subjugate Armenia.

1921

February

• February Uprising in Armenia. Bolsheviks forced to retreat.
• Soviet invasion of Georgia.

April

• After holding Yerevan for 42 days, the Armenian Revolutary Front retreats and establishes the Republic of Mountainous Armenia out of Goris.

May

• Concerned with the Greek advancing slowing, and several defeats, Italy makes a seperate peace with Turkey in exchange for the Turks dropping all claims on the Dodecanese.

June

• Rif War; Disaster at Annual. Ridiculous losses on the part of the Spanish in both men and equipment.

August

• Ankara falls to Greek forces

September

• End of the Greco-Turkish War, Greece not having ratified Sevres enforces its own demands on Revolutionary Turkey.

October

• Greece issues Ultimatum to Russia regarding Armenia and Georgia.

November

• First use of Chemical Weapons in the Rif

1922

October

• King Victor Emmanuel III offers Benito Mussolini the post of Prime Minister.

1923

• First Use of Mustard Gas (Iperita) in the Rif.

February

• Rif Republic is formally constituted with its capital in Axdir with Abd El Krim as the sultan/emir (head of state) and Hajj Hatmi as the prime minister (head of government).

August

• Hitler forms the Stosstrupp under his chauffeur Julius Schreck, a forerunner of the Schutzstaffel (SS).
• Corfu Incident between Greece and Italy.

September

• Miguel Primo de Riveria becomes Prime Minister and effective dictator of Spain.

November

• Beer Hall Putsch in Munich, Bavaria fails.

1924

January

• Dakar-Niger railway is completed in French West Africa.

April

• Italian General Election confirms Fascists as the Ruling Party

August

• Evidence of atrocities in the Rif, such as the use of chemical weapons on civilian populations, continues to mount.

1925

• Liddell Hart published Paris or the Future of War and advocates the use of air-deployed poison gas on urban centers.

April

• France joins the Rif War after being attacked (they'd been trying to provoke it with border incursions and economic blockades)

June

• Geneva Protocol (against the use of asphyxiating and poisonous gases as well as bacterial warfare) drafted and signed by around two score countries inlcuding Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, Denmark, Spain, Ethiopia, French Republic, Greece, Italy and Japan. Scheduled to come into effect only in February 1928. France and Spain continue using chemical weapons in the Rif.

July

• Great Druze Revolt in French Syria.
• Rif Republic forces reach the gates of Fez.

October

• Petitjean (Sidi Kacem) and Meknès fall to Riffi forces. Fez is finally pocketed.

November

• Schutzstaffel (SS) is officially constituted. Julius Schreck is Reichsführer-SS. Heinrich Himmler joins the organisation.

1926

January

• Rif Republic reforms into the Atlas Republic.

May

• Muslim population of Algeria rises against France. Italy begins covertly supplying arms to the rebels.
• A military coup in Portugal institutes authoritarian rule.

September

• Settat falls to the Atlas Republic; Casablanca and Rabat are encircled.

November

• Fall of Rabat to Atlas Republic.

December

• Fall of Casablanca to Atlas Republic. 50,000 french soldiers captured.

1927

February

• Fall of Marrakech to Atlas Republic.
• Retreating French forces in southern Morocco are reinforced, predominantly by colonial divisions from Senegambia and French Sudan. French logistics strain to bring in enough supplies through Agadir.

March

• French Spring Offensive.

May

• Second Battle of Marrakech. French reclaim the city.

1929

January

• Heinrich Himmler becomes Reichsführer-SS.

October

• Spanish collapse around here somewhere.

1930

February

• Communist takeover in France. Due to the piecemeal, fragmented nature of the effort France is briefly divided into four regional communes. These being the French Commune, Breton Commune, Arpitan Commune and Occitan Commune.

April

• Breton Commune is fully integrated into the French Commune.

1931

• Kingdom of Greece secures Bosphorus International Zone

1934

July

• Night of Blunt Knives. Many intended victims, predominantly SA members, survived the attempted coup de main. Ernst Rohm was forewarned of the attempt and acted not only to thwart it, but prepared a counter stroke. The SS was beheaded and Adolf Hitler was detained in Landsberg for a second time.

History

Atlas Republic, Spain & France

The start date of the Third Rif War, in which the Atlas Republic was formed, is a point which is vague. Generally it is attributed as 1920 without a specific day or month, but there was fighting in the region beforehand. Others attribute the Disaster at Annual in July 1921 as the start of the war.

General Background

The health of the Kingdom of Spain at this time was not good. In 1898, the country lost the last of its major overseas colonies to the United States in the Spanish-American War; Cuba, Guam, Puerto Rico and the Philippines. This caused the government to lose a lot of prestige and credibility. The immediate danger of a coup was averted, but long-term political instability remained. The economic loss to an already diminished nation and the rallying point for democratic, communist and anarchist agitators would doom the country. Spain proceeded to sell off its remaining pacific islands to the German Empire just to balance its books.

After this loss, in 1908, the Spanish crown turned its attention to Morocco which had been partitioned in 1904 between France and Spain. At this point the Spanish occupied only five coastal exclaves including Melilla, Ceuta and Larache. They began their expansion in the region by securing a larger foothold around Melilla with the clandestine collaboration of Bou Hmara, a pretender rogui to the Sultanate who betrayed himself and made his own position untenable by supporting the construction of Spanish iron mines. Subsequently Bou Hmara was defeated by an army organized by sheikh Mohammad Ameziane and Abd al-Karim El-Khattabi, the father of Abd El Krim, and driven out of er-Rif.

Bou Hmara predicted his departure would "cost the Spanish many thousands of millions of pesetas and streams of blood and tears". He was captured by Sultan Mulai Abdelhafid in 1909, paraded through Fez in a cage and killed in some brutal fashion; possibly involving lions.

Into the power vacuum came Mohammad Ameziane who called for a jihad against the Spanish whose designs he clearly perceived. So began the Second Rif War.

Second Rif War

The Spanish Army was at this time a force of conscripts which were untrained, ill-equiped and lacking maps. For a time in 1909 the Spanish Navy bombarded coastal villages, before succumbing to international pressure.

On land the Spanish were ambushed several times. The most notable of these was an ambush of the 1st and 2nd Cazadore Brigades, known as the Disaster of Wolf Ravine, in which Brigadier-General Guillermo Pinto was killed and in which Spanish casaulties numbered 1,046 men (27 July 1909). General José Marina, in overall command of the theater, did not attend his funeral.

Meanwhile Barcelona was up in arms with the calling up of reserve troops. The strike was caused by previous failures, anti-colonial and anti-militarist sentiments. At news of the disaster the strike turned into rioting. Of the 120 buildings burned, 80 were church-owned. The Roman Catholic clergy were largely pro-imperialist africanistas and rioters considered Catholics to be part of the corrupt bourgeois class immune to conscription. After police shot at demonstrators, barricades were constructed and the government declared a state of war and sent in the army from surrounding regions to end the revolt (the local garrison refused to fire on workers). Up to 150 civilians were killed. More than 1,700 faced military courts.

After the 'Tragic Week', domestic and international condemnation caused Alfonso XIII to replace Antonio Maura as premier.

By August of 1909, General Marina had lost another two generals — Benito and Vicario — in yet another defeat. Over the following months troop strength was raised from 5,000 to around 40,000, with heavy artillery, in preparation for an offensive. Daily naval bombardments targeted ravines around the city and columns were sent out to burn out dwellings and fields.

The offensive came in late September 1909 supported by artillery and an observation balloon. They managed to compel several Riffi chieftains to sue for peace, but the offensive lasted only a month due to the expense incurred. Half of the army was sent back to Spain.

At the cost of 2,500 men killed or wounded Spain 'won' the Second Rif War, managing to secure the immediate surrounds of Melilla including the lagoon to the south east and Cape Three Forks.

Change in Tactics

Operations continued at a subdued level into 1910, securing the southern inlets of Mar Chica lagoon.

The Spanish now changed their tactics and attempted to peacefully suborn weaker tribes, sowing further dissension among the Riffi. The native police was expanded into a full permanent company, then in 1911 the Regulares were formed by Dámaso Berenguer — a Cuban-born officer who presently serves Royalist Castile. They were patterned on similar French native units.

In May and June 1911 the French and Spanish made consecutive moves. France at the request of Sultan Mulai Abdelhafid to lift the rebel siege at Fez. Spain to retake the western exclave lost during hostilities — encompassing Larache and Alcázarqivir — and also expeditions into the hinterlands to establish their authority. Ostensibly these actions were also taken in support of the Sultan of Morocco.

Kert Campaign & Raisani's Revolt

In September-October 1911 General Gabriel Orozco launches an offensive attempting to drive Mohammad Ameziane's Riffi across the Kert River. Among those present was Brigadier-General Miguel Primo de Rivera — future dictatorial prime minister of Spain and father of José Antonio Primo de Rivera, head of the fascist party in Socialist Navarre. The effort was unsuccessful and by the end of the year Mohammad Ameziane was in a position to threaten Melilla.

In the late spring of 1912, Mohammad Ameziane was cornered in Taourirt and killed in the resulting skirmish. The next year one of his sons, Mohamed ben Mizzian, would join the Spanish Army. With that threat neutralized, Miguel Primo de Rivera was transfered to Tetuan, south of Ceuta, to join General Felipe Alfau's staff in a campaign against Raisuni of the Djebala; a charismatic, violent and brutal warlord who claimed descent from the Prophet.

Raisuni had intitially approved of the Spanish presence in Morocco but that changed when one of his looting expeditions through Spanish occupied areas was crushed by a contingent from Larache dispatched by General Manuel Fernández Silvestre, a flamboyant womanizer who was a personal favorite of Alfonso XIII. As an officer, however, he was reckless and arrogant; which would later cost him a leg in 1921 at Annual, but wouldn't stop him from commanding the army of Royalist Castile.

1912 also saw the arrival in Morocco of pair of young officers in Millán Astray and Francisco Franco who were officers in Regulares.

On March 30, Sultan Mulai Abdelhafid kowtowed to the French and Morocco became a French protectorate causing rioting in the streets of Fez.

Third Rif War

In 1919 General Dámaso Berenguer assumed the post of