We should take over the moon.
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I had a weird ass writing prompt pop in my head the other day. Basically a What If scenario where the South won the Civil War and established a Confederate States of America, only to then be caught completely off guard by a slave uprising and the CSA ended up becoming a seat of power for black people who in turn immigrated back into the african nation.
If anyone wants to use that feel free. I don't have the time ATM.
Reminds me of these alternate history stories I started reading a while ago.
http://althistory.wikia.com/wiki/Alternative_History:List_of_Althists
http://toixstory.deviantart.com/
These people are pretty serious with it, looking at a bunch of factors most people would never consider. It actually gave me a much greater understanding of how Europe came to dominate the world and how close it came to not getting to dominate the world at multiple points in history.
For a Civil War story check this out: http://toixstory.deviantart.com/art/Heart-of-Dixie-392351173
Well, decided to bring out another old idea of mine and finally make a map for it. Basic POD is that a bloodier Bleeding Kansas leads to a premature civil war, one which, under the less-than-stellar leadership of James Buchanan, succeeds in breaking the Union apart. Butterfiles flap their wings, and history takes some radical turns. Map is set in 1911.
Wall o' text explanation below.
***
North America
The POD occurs in early 1857 as James Buchanan is elected to office in the midst of Bleeding Kansas. While in OTL the situation sorted itself out, in this timeline violence rocked the turbulent state. Buchanan, frightened of inaction, decided to send federal troops to calm the violence.
Unfortunately, the United States Army was, at the time, ill-equipped to handle the violence. Fighting broke out, and the Army caused what would later be known as the "Topeka Massacre." Though only around 30 pro-slave state men were killed, the event, like the Boston Massacre before it, enraged the populace.
The pro-slavery states demanded an immediate end to federal intervention and to enter Kansas into the Union as a slave state. When Buchanan refused, in an attempt to assert his authority, many Southerners took it as the President refusing to apologize for the deaths of Americans. This led to a domino effect, and by the end of summer 1857, all slave states but Maryland and Delaware had seceded from the United States.
The new nation, dubbed the Confederate States of America, waged a war of independence against the federal government. Unlike OTL, the war was much more swift and brutal, and heavily in favor of the South. Buchanan spent much of the war desperately trying to backpedal and apologize to the CSA, rather than wage an effective war against them. With a depleted officer's corps, and most of the standing army in Kansas or the western territories, the South was able to drive deep into the north.
James Buchanan and much of Congress was captured in 1868, and Philadelphia followed five months later after a brutal campaign that was nonetheless successful. After the capitulation of the temporary government in Philadelphia, the United States surrendered on October 10, 1858. In one of the swiftest and effective campaigns North America had ever seen, the United States was split in half.
The irony of not gaining Kansas, the territory the war was fought over, was not lost on the South. However, most of the pro-slavery men had gone east to fight in the war, and an emptier Kansas was claimed by abolitionists. Confederates briefly demanded the territory, but decided it was best to take what they could get.
The post war years were turbulent on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line. In the North, the nation was in a period of fear and chaos. Losing half their territory struck a chord deep in the heart of northerners, and many of the population found it difficult settling back into their normal lives. President Buchanan was ousted after the surrender, and his Vice President, John Breckinridge, served out the rest of the term in relative silence and peace.
When the election of 1860 came, there was no contest. The Democrats had lost every bit of favor they once held in the North, and the Republican Party ran unopposed in the first election like it since George Washington. The Republicans, after some deliberation, ran John C. Fremont, a popular politician that had been instrumental in keeping Kansas in Union hands through the war. He was elected in 1861, and would serve as President until 1869.
President Fremont, born out of wedlock and chastised for it much of his life, knew what it was like to start from the bottom. He had pulled himself up to politics and military command, and he was determined that his beloved country could do the same.
The first policy President Fremont passed was, in 1862, complete freedom for slaves throughout the United States. He would also pass a number of laws expanding rights for people of color throughout the country, determined to make the nation free.
Fremont built much of his presidential career under one guiding value: American Supremacy. Built from the already-current idea of American Exceptionalism, the new policy posited that the United States was meant to be the supreme country on Earth, that its destiny was set in its founding principles of freedom and hard work. The policy gave many defeated Americans an ideal to rally around, and through the last decades of the 19th century, the United States would raise itself to a premiere world power.
This status was helped by an era similar to OTL's Era of Good Feelings, in which the Republican Party had no real competition for the Presidency, so Republican policies continued to be reinstated with each President. Fremont's successor, his former Vice President, Abraham Lincoln, did much to further cement these ideals
The United States embraced the Industrial Revolution when it picked up in the late 1870s and early 1880s, and quickly rose to prominence around the world. With a swelling population bolstered by high population growth and immigration, the Northeast United States resembled an unbroken string of factories. Indeed, it was said that the area from Maine to Madison, Wisconsin, was the most heavily industrialized region on Earth.
The Western areas of the United States, most especially Oregon and California, also received large boosts in population and industry, and the country was connected by railroads from coast to coast. The first of these, dubbed the Pacific Railroad, was personally opened by President Fremont.
The Republican Party at the closing of the 19th century began to grow emboldened and out of its shell. When Cuba rebelled against Spain with Confederate aid, the United States was quick to snatch up Puerto Rico. The United States had dealt with European powers earlier, as it had stood up to France's attempt to install a friendly king in Mexico. It had argued that Britain, France, Russia, and Spain recognizing the CSA as a sovereign nation would be hypocritical if they were willing to overthrow such governments on a whim. Fremont was successfully able to pitch the argument to Great Britain, who persuaded France to back down.
The United States clashed again with Spain in 1904 when Spain, supposedly acting on orders from the Dominican Republic itself, tried to invade Hispaniola. American troops kept the Spanish out, and the United States developed the Dominican Republic into a protectorate, and helped keep Haiti out of Dominican affairs.
Though the United States intervention in Nicaragua resulted in the building of the Nicaraguan Canal with American money, and swelling east coast markets, the American people had grown dissatisfied with American intervention in foreign affairs. Though the purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1871 and the annexation of Hawaii in 1895 had proven popular, the idea of American isolation took hold in the early 20th century.
In response to the rise in popularity of isolationism, the American Party was formed. They successfully elected their President, William Taft, in 1904, and he would serve from 1905 through 1913. It was under Taft that the United States would retreat into an isolationist shell, and by 1911 had removed itself from much of world politics.
In contrast to the North, the Confederate States faced an altogether different set of problems. Though they had successfully broken free of the United States and been recognized by Great Britain, France, Russia, and Spain by 1860, the CSA had no foreign or domestic allies to speak of, and the strength of its cotton industry was already on the decline with the increasing availability of Egyptian and Indian cotton.
The plantation aristocracy, initially, ran the country according to their interests. The Democratic Party dominated under the ministrations of President Preston Brooks for two terms. However, the power of the slave-holding planters would not last.
After a season of bad crops and drought in the late 1860s, the Confederate Congress raised taxes for the first time in their established history. Though the CSA ITTL had a looser constitution than OTL, low taxes were expected by Southerners.
In response to the increasingly-tight grip the aristocracy kept on the CSA, a new political party was formed from the remnants of the southern Whig Party: The Labor Party. Built on the "common man" and featuring progressive policies toward industrialization and free market capitalism. The Labor Party believed in working for the poor planters throughout the South, and proved popular enough to win the Presidency in 1868, and would keep their men there for the next consecutive five terms, in many ways mirroring their brothers to the north.
One of the most controversial, and later successful, policies of the Labor Party was the abolition of slavery. Slavery, the Labor Party argued, was key to the power of aristocracy, and held the CSA back from progressing as a nation. With an increasingly-powerful neighbor that believed in its supremacy, many in the Confederate States desires to begin catching up to the United States in industrialization and economics.
The Labor Party desired to free the slaves and allow them to attend special technical schools, where they would learn to work in factories, work on railroads, and do many other complicated tasks that had been impossible under slavery. Though they would be paid, the Confederates saw this as a progression toward CSA dominance.
The constitutional amendment (the first of a total of eight the Labor Party would pass in 15 years) to free the slaves was passed in 1871. Though it was extremely controversial, freeing the slaves did indeed swell the Confederate industrial capacity, and by the turn of the century the CSA was on par with many powers in Europe. Though they would never quite match the United States in sheer output or size, the Confederate States would grow influential enough to claim Cuba as a protectorate in 1897, and, in 1906, was able to successfully join the Triple Alliance of Germany, Italy, and Russia.
South America
One of the most important changes to South America ITTL was the extended life of Paraguayan dictator Carlos Antonio López, who refused to join with the Blanco Party in the Uruguayan War. He did later die a few years after the war, in 1868, but by then the Colorado Party, backed by Argentina and Brazil, was dominant in Uruguay.
Paraguay remaining neutral through the Uruguayan War would prevent López's son from engaging in the disastrous Paraguayan War, and preserved a larger Paraguay through to the 20th century.
A liberal revolution in Colombia succeeded in the early 1860s, and, through a number of reforms, the United States of Colombia would rise to be a major regional power in South America.
The Chincha Islands War happens much as OTL except for, like Bleeding Kansas, much bloodier and costly. Spain, feeling more pressure to reestablish themselves on the South American continent after France's unsuccessful bid for the throne of Mexico, pushed harder on the nations of Bolivia, Peru, and Chile. However, this had the effect of binding the nations together much closer than OTL, and together they drove the Spaniards away in the first ironclad vs. ironclad battle in the world.
With an alliance forged in blood, the Pacific War is butterflied away and in its place emerges the "Little Entente," an alliance between the three regional powers.
Without a Paraguayan War, the alliance between Uruguay, Argentina, and Brazil slowly broke apart. Brazil, with a more liberal government than OTL due to a number of reforms, drifted closer to the United States of Colombia and its client state of Ecuador, while Argentina successfully attracted Venezuela to its sphere.
Europe
Norway, like OTL, breaks away from Sweden, though this time in 1903. Due to butterflies, there is no Prince Carl of Denmark, and the Norwegians that rebel instead choose to invite one of King Oscar II's children, Prince Oscar Bernadotte, to rule Norway. The prince was crowned King Oscar III of Norway in a special ceremony in 1904.
One of the big differences ITTL starts with the Austro-Prussian War. It occurs much like OTL, but the brutality of the war is more pronounced this time around. Prussia and Italy win the day, but at a far greater cost to better entrenched and led Austrians. Prussia in particular loses a discordant amount of its officer corps.
These losses would come back to bite Prussia in the Franco-Prussian War, occurring a year late ITTL, in which Prussia faces a well-prepared France with a smaller army and inexperienced corps of officers. The war still turns in Prussia's favor, but at a yet even greater cost than the previous war, and for less territory gained.
In the ensuing treaty, Alsace-Lorraine remains French, though France gives up any claims on German lands or opposition to German unification. However, Prussia's lack of major victories and perceived weaknesses in warfare does not lend to immediate unification under Prussia's authority.
Instead, the independent German states demand several concessions be made. For one, the capital of the new Empire of Germany is to be in Frankfurt am Main, not the Prussian city of Berlin, and for another the Reichstag is to be balanced toward greater representation of the German states, who are to be presented as equal to Prussia in the new government. Wilhelm, with little other choice, concedes.
The Empire of Germany is formed in 1873 as Wilhelm moves to Frankfurt and is crowned there in a large ceremony. One of his first moves is to begin attempts to woo allies to Germany's side. Austria's bitter defense in the war against Prussia alienated the two former allies, and Germany looks elsewhere for partners. Namely, to Italy and Russia.
Meanwhile, in the Balkans, the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austria-Hungary goes much as OTL, though some of the politics are different. Bosnia is first more or less passed to Austria-Hungary after the Congress of Paris gives independence to Romania, Serbia, and Montenegro.
France hosts the congress in 1879 after Germany refuses to do so, one of its efforts to grow relations with Russia. France is more than willing to host it, however, as they had grown closer to Austria-Hungary after the Franco-Prussian War, supported a check against Russian influence in the Balkans in favor of Austro-Hungarian influence.
The Russo-Turkish War still occurred, though dragged on for an extra year due to France pressuring the Ottoman Empire to dig in against the Russians. The end result was much the same, but France appeased the Ottomans by secretly guaranteeing them that Russia would have little influence in the Balkans after the Congress of Paris.
Due to further French influence to continue to prop up a more powerful state to check the Russo-German alliance that was forming, Abdul Hamid II of the Ottoman Empire restored the Ottoman Parliament via executive order to appease the people and keep revolutions down.
Wilhelm I of Germany still dies in the late 1880s, and Frederick III still succeeds him. Unlike OTL, however, he does not develop throat cancer and rules Germany until 1898. His policies help drive Germany down a more liberal path, and paint the German Empire as the force of good in Europe.
Frederick III is succeeded after his death not by Wilhelm II, but by Prince Henry. Wilhelm II was killed in an accident on a hunting trip in Africa in 1891, and so the crown passes to the new, and more liberal, Emperor Heinrich.
Emperor Heinrich is the driving force behind the formation of the Triple Alliance consisting of Italy, Russia, and Germany. The Alliance formally comes together in 1904 after a meeting in St. Petersburg. The three states pledge to defend each other in the event of war, and to back each other up in an offensive war.
On the other side, France has continued to grow closer to Austria-Hungary over the years in an aggressively anti-German alliance. After the Congress of Paris, the Ottoman Empire is unofficially included in the alliance as well, in a bid to gain back the Balkans and more Russian territory. The Triple Entente is solidified in Prague in 1909.
Across the English Channel, the British see the French aggressiveness in a bad light, and public opinion turns against forming alliance with either the Entente or Triple Alliance. Great Britain, instead, remains in "splendid isolation" well into the 20th century.
After the Americans express interest in a mutual profession of isolation, Britain and America form the so-called Isolation League in 1908, which includes the British Empire, the United States, the United Mexican States, the Empire of Brazil, the United States of Colombia, and the Republic of Ecuador.
Due to Britain not engaging in a war-oriented alliance system, the British expand their control over the various territories throughout the Empire, most especially the Raj. The British move to further incorporate India, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada into a more tightly-bound commonwealth for mutual trade, economics, and industry. The Indians are initially wary about the move, but generally support it as a step toward independence.
Africa
The Frankfurt Conference is held in Frankfurt am Main in 1884-1885. The Conference would have many outcomes different than OTL, and some the same. Slavery was still banned outright, and many of the rivers in Africa were made open to trade between all the major powers.
One of the largest changes was in West Africa. Frederick III wanted to coalesce German power overseas, and saw the colonies and claims around OTL Cameroon and Lake Chad as a liability. France sought after them hungrily, as they did with the British possessions in Nigeria.
A compromise was reached, in which Germany would take French possessions and claims near the Belgian Congo (nationalized by the conference and taken out of Leopold I's direct control) in exchange for French dominance of Lake Chad and the surrounding basin.
Britain would also give its territories around Lake Chad, predominantly Muslim as it was, in exchange for recognition of British control over Egypt. Britain still kept southern Nigeria, which they wanted more anyway.
Egypt was nominally independent, a move made by the British to get Egypt's claims on Sudan and calm the Ottomans down from their claim on Egypt. The British goal for the Conference was, after all, their famed boast of reaching from Cape to Cairo.
Shrewd negotiation with the French, Portuguese, Italians, and Germans payed off in the end, however, and post-conference Britain held an empire that indeed stretched from coast to coast.
The Germans were more than willing to give up inland OTL Tanzania in exchange for more coastline in Portuguese Mozambique and uncontested control of Southwest Africa, around OTL Namibia.
Italy, despite German backing, was not able to pick up Ethiopia from the Conference. Their brief war with the native had gone even worse than OTL, with Ethiopia expanding its territory to the coast. To calm the Italians and set up a friendly native state, Britain negotiated with France to give Tunisia to the Italians. France was more than happy to give it away the province that had been racked with recent violent uprisings.
Overall, France dominated West Africa and the northern Congo, while Britain dominated the east. Germany, for its part, gained less than the other major powers, but condensed its holdings in Africa to easily-managed and patrolled states that it would move colonists to in the coming decades.
Asia
An analogue to the Great Game happens between Russia and Britain as OTL, but with different results. The British Empire still manages control of India, but is turned away from Afghanistan by locals and their friendly Russian troops. Once the Russians left, however, the Afghanis turned on the Russians and drove them out. Afghanistan afterward was left alone as a tentative border between the two powers, and both were satisfied as long as the other didn't take it.
An uprising in Tehran in the early 20th century drove out the Russian influence in Iran/Persia, and the British quickly stepped in to take their place. British and Russian forces never officially fought, but held a proxy war against each other in which Britain won. For the Empire, it was more than enough compensation for Afghanistan.
In Thailand, a more expansionist Britain was eager to gain control of the country, and did so earlier than OTL. Their influence on the country kept France from expanding their Indochina territory, which they accepted begrudgingly. French and British relations would remain strained afterward, and never fully recover in the early years of the 20th century.
With the loss of any chance of gaining land from Thailand, France pushed harder into China, gaining economic and industrial control over much of the south. In a similar move, Russia moved into Xinjiang, a province already in a rocky relationship with the new Republican government. Russian "peacekeepers" occupied the main city of Ürümqi, and had effective control over the city by 1910.
The Qing Dynasty, under heavier foreign influence and attack than OTL, fell to a Republican movement in 1906, when the rebel forces took Peking and stormed the Forbidden Palace. The new government, though resentful of the foreign powers occupying their country, were willing to at least work with the Europeans to stabilize the countryside.
Alliances
The Triple Alliance (with associated states): Empire of Germany, Kingdom of Italy, Russian Empire, Republic of China, Confederate States of America
The Triple Entente (with associated states): Empire of France, Austro-Hungarian Empire, Ottoman Empire, Empire of Japan
Isolationist League: Empire of Great Britain, United States of America, United Mexican States, Empire of Brazil, United States of Colombia, Republic of Ecuador
