Agreed completely. To think that we've had four of the most badass figures in American history as President by now.
Union and Liberty: An American TL
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Agreed completely. To think that we've had four of the most badass figures in American history as President by now.
Very true. He'd be one of two presidents that personally lead troops into battle.
Great Thread thus far
Just finished catching up. A really long thread but a really good thread, I must say. My compliments to you, wilcoxchar; I've read about a dozen Turtledove books and in my opinion you're better at Alternate History than he is. I very much appreciate your attention to detailed things like architecture, culture, language, and, of course, Nikola Tesla. They really set you apart.
Furthermore, while you do let OTL important figures play significant roles in your stories, you aren't trying to backwards-engineer TTL to resemble our own; instead you're actually asking yourself, "What would happen next?" rather than asking, "So how would this change *insert future OTL event here*?" For instance, I've never seen WWI start pre-1914 in any TL.
That being said, your coverage of the war, while extensive, is very cursory and repetitive. Not sure how you could change that without making things even LONGER (so take this criticism with a grain of salt).
One suggestion I'd like to ask of you is that you better explain what things look like on the ground in this war. How has technology changed from OTL? Are machine guns very prevalent? How elaborate is the trench warfare in Hungary? What are the uniform colors looking like? Have steel helmets yet been adopted? If TTL is similar to OTL, the first poison gases should be in production right about now although mass-production would not be a possibility. However, war has a way of speeding up the development of military technology a few years so it might not be surprising to see 1914-era weaponry popping up by now.
As for who I'm rooting for, I'm always a fan of Britain so I'm not liking how TTL WWI is turning out
But I can hope for a super-conservative Britain to come around afterwards, perhaps. Russia is VERY unlikely to go Communist, but that won't stop me from hoping for a Soviet Union
Good job wilcoxchar
Just finished catching up. A really long thread but a really good thread, I must say. My compliments to you, wilcoxchar; I've read about a dozen Turtledove books and in my opinion you're better at Alternate History than he is. I very much appreciate your attention to detailed things like architecture, culture, language, and, of course, Nikola Tesla. They really set you apart.
Furthermore, while you do let OTL important figures play significant roles in your stories, you aren't trying to backwards-engineer TTL to resemble our own; instead you're actually asking yourself, "What would happen next?" rather than asking, "So how would this change *insert future OTL event here*?" For instance, I've never seen WWI start pre-1914 in any TL.
That being said, your coverage of the war, while extensive, is very cursory and repetitive. Not sure how you could change that without making things even LONGER (so take this criticism with a grain of salt).
One suggestion I'd like to ask of you is that you better explain what things look like on the ground in this war. How has technology changed from OTL? Are machine guns very prevalent? How elaborate is the trench warfare in Hungary? What are the uniform colors looking like? Have steel helmets yet been adopted? If TTL is similar to OTL, the first poison gases should be in production right about now although mass-production would not be a possibility. However, war has a way of speeding up the development of military technology a few years so it might not be surprising to see 1914-era weaponry popping up by now.
As for who I'm rooting for, I'm always a fan of Britain so I'm not liking how TTL WWI is turning out
But I can hope for a super-conservative Britain to come around afterwards, perhaps. Russia is VERY unlikely to go Communist, but that won't stop me from hoping for a Soviet Union Good job wilcoxchar
If we get a North American Irish nation what would it be called? I'm hoping that it dosnt have "New" in it, I'm sure there is some Land in Irish legends they could make it after
Tirnanog is a good possibility, or Mag Mell (Maghmeall for the old spelling?). Magmell probably makes more sense as one of the locations was an island far to the west of Ireland.
katchen
Banned
You didn't know this when you created the Republic of Rio Bravo, but you created a republic of the descendants of Jewish refugees from the Inquisition. And even ITTL, in our own time, many of them still remember that. In 1837, memories are that much stronger. And from that point on, there is religious freedom and no need for Jews to keep their Shabbat candles in the closet. How is that playing out, especially with antisemitism in Europe?
Personally I think tirnanog makes more sense do to the meaning "land of the young". Both it and Magmell were lands to the west (according to wiki). Plus something like The Republic of Acadia Tirnanog sounds rather romantic for a country's styling.
While true, the Jewishness of the conversos had faded away. These are Catholics but they would remember the converso past and probably be friendly to Jewish immigration. Hell with the split in the Church in TTL, they Rep of Rio Bravo might take up its own version of the Maericanist heresy. Not declare in favor of the temporalist church who probably wouldn't tolerate it, and adopt some Jewish style rituals.
Part One Hundred Seventeen: War on the Home Front
It's done!
Part One Hundred Seventeen: War on the Home Front
America's First Moves:
After the declaration of war was signed by Congress, the first action in the United States' involvement were on the border with British North America. The fortifications that were established along the straits on the Great Lakes saw the first action, firing shells across the Niagara River and the Detroit River into Canada. The action spread along the border with New England and New York. American sorties into Canada began on June 1 at Wolfe Island and How Island on the far eastern end of Lake Ontario. The objective was to cross the Saint Lawrence River and make a quick capture of Kingston. But despite naval support based from nearby Sackets Harbor, the fortifications on the islands and the Canadian navy on Lake Ontario halted an immediate invasion of the Canadian capital. The parliament, however, left and later convened in York. The Battle of the Frontenac Islands also saw the first naval action of the war, with Sackets Harbor serving once again as an important naval station as it had a century before.
Elsewhere, diplomatic support was given to Acadia and Deseret during the first months of the war in support of the two dominions gaining full independence from Great Britain. While Roosevelt and several senators supported the idea, the passage of the bill through Congress was delayed due to the question of how to treat the western lands owned by the Hudson Bay Company. Technically the company and the land it owned were under British sovereignty and because of this many expansion-minded politicians desired the annexation of New Caledonia into the United States. However, other issues arose with the shareholders. During the 1890s and early 1900s, many prominent American financiers had acquired stakes in the Hudson Bay Company as it grew more independent of the British government, and did not want to lose their profits. Additionally, the company's governor Wilfrid Laurier[1] had mixed feelings about British authority and was seeking further control over New Caledonia. Finally in January of 1909, after clandestine talks with Laurier, a compromise act was passed. The Joint Resolution on the Governance of the Laurentine Countries specified that the United States would support efforts in British North America for independence, and would accept the results of referenda on joining the United States. In talks with Laurier, it was agreed that United States companies would gain some mining rights in New Caledonia and a peaceful purchase of land would be considered after the war.
Aside from the action on the northern border of the United States, there was little fighting during the first months of the war. The American navy quickly made a show of force in the Caribbean and established blockades on the Bahamas and Jamaica. While the blockade of the Bahamas lasted for much of the war, the British navy in Jamaica after only a few months. A later blockade of British Honduras in October was broken up after an even shorter period of time. There were deliberations on whether a similar blockade of Puerto Rico should go ahead as it was unclear if the United States had declared war on just Great Britain or if it was at war with the entire New Coalition. President Roosevelt ended any uncertainty in the scope of the United States' participation in the war in August in a message to Navy Secretary Talbott to order the blockade to go ahead, and American ships were soon parked off San Juan harbor.
British Raids:
After the American entry into the war, the British Navy began to step up its operations on both sides of the Atlantic. It was vital for Britain to keep both sides of the Atlantic separated. To accomplish this, the Royal Navy strengthened its blockade on the French Atlantic and Channel coasts and began to perform smaller raids into France to disrupt supply and harass the French on their own soil. In the spring and summer of 1908, the British navy undertook many raids into mainland France[2]. The first two were in the Channel, in an attempt to confirm British dominance over the channel and separate the France and German naval positions. A British raid that landed at the French town of Dieppe in April 1908 tried to capture Rouen and cut off the French supply to Le Havre. However, the two thousand marines that landed at Dieppe were able to establish a landing, but only reached halfway to Rouen before being turned back by the French in the battle of Auffay. Of the two thousand the British sent, only eight hundred returned to England after the raid. In June, another British raid was launched on Guernsey in the beginning of a campaign to recapture the Channel Islands. This raid, while more successful, only led to the British controlling the island for a few months before being forced off again before the year's end. The final British landing in France in 1908 took place in August at Concarneau in Brittany. The Concarneau landing was even less successful than the landing at Dieppe, and the French were victorious before the Royal Navy even entered the town.
Along with numerous attempted landings on the French mainland, British forces also made several incursions into American territory in 1908 during the first months of American involvement in the war. The major actions where the United States was confronting Great Britain was at sea, in both the Caribbean and the Pacific. On June 2, 1908, the British attacked a United States squadron heading for Puerto Juarez[3] in Mesoamerica. In the resulting battle, the British destroyer HMS Badminton was sunk, but the British won the overall battle, sinking an American escort ship and three merchant ships. Later in the summer after the American blockade of Jamaica broke up, the British West Indies squadron launched their own raid, this time on Cuba. In late July, British ships set forth from Jamaica and began patrolling the area near Cienfuegos. The British attempted a landing at the city of Jagua to cut off the approach to Cienfuegos harbor, but valiant American marines stopped the invasion. With the support of the navy, the British were repelled from Cuba within two weeks.
In the mainland United States, the Oregon Country also saw major action during the first months of the war. On the border of Champoeg and California, there were small skirmishes as Champoeg border forts attempted to raid into northern California and provoke an uprising among the Anglo settlers in the area. During this stage of American involvement in the Great War, this was the only action taken by the United States against California. The British Navy, meanwhile, established a brief blockade of the Columbia River mouth and shelled Astoria from June to August, 1908. The largest action in the northwestern front, however, was further inland. As news of the American entry into the war spread west across the continent, some small groups in the sparsely populated American and Canadian plains were eager to participate. The largest of these was a group of British from the coal mining town of Lethbridge. A group of thirty men started south from Lethbridge in July. Their aim was to eventually reach Bannack and the capital of Washington, but after weeks of gathering more men from the area and marching through the Washington wilderness, they became lost. The raiders, which swelled to over seventy men by the time they actually entered the United States, reached their first lucrative target, Cobbstown[4], in late July. From there, the men followed the course of the Missouri River, believing that Bannack was on the river. However, after a while of following the river upstream, they broke off and headed straight south after attacking Three Forks. The seventy men finally were stopped at the Battle of Ponyville[5] after they had been found at last by an American army regiment and attempted to sack the town. The Battle of Ponyville lasted for barely the day on September 12, 1908. Ten of the raiders died, and the rest were imprisoned.
[1] Laurier was OTL Prime Minister of Canada from 1896 to 1911.
[2] Raiding the French coast is a longstanding British pastime, and it hasn't stopped yet.
[3] La Ceiba, Honduras.
[4] Helena, Montana. Cobbstown is named after Howell Cobb because it was founded by ex-Confederates. There is an OTL comparison in Virginia City, whose Southern founders wanted to name the town after Jefferson Davis's wife.
[5] OTL Pony, Montana, in OTL a ghost town about 40 miles west of Bozeman.
Part One Hundred Seventeen: War on the Home Front
America's First Moves:
After the declaration of war was signed by Congress, the first action in the United States' involvement were on the border with British North America. The fortifications that were established along the straits on the Great Lakes saw the first action, firing shells across the Niagara River and the Detroit River into Canada. The action spread along the border with New England and New York. American sorties into Canada began on June 1 at Wolfe Island and How Island on the far eastern end of Lake Ontario. The objective was to cross the Saint Lawrence River and make a quick capture of Kingston. But despite naval support based from nearby Sackets Harbor, the fortifications on the islands and the Canadian navy on Lake Ontario halted an immediate invasion of the Canadian capital. The parliament, however, left and later convened in York. The Battle of the Frontenac Islands also saw the first naval action of the war, with Sackets Harbor serving once again as an important naval station as it had a century before.
Elsewhere, diplomatic support was given to Acadia and Deseret during the first months of the war in support of the two dominions gaining full independence from Great Britain. While Roosevelt and several senators supported the idea, the passage of the bill through Congress was delayed due to the question of how to treat the western lands owned by the Hudson Bay Company. Technically the company and the land it owned were under British sovereignty and because of this many expansion-minded politicians desired the annexation of New Caledonia into the United States. However, other issues arose with the shareholders. During the 1890s and early 1900s, many prominent American financiers had acquired stakes in the Hudson Bay Company as it grew more independent of the British government, and did not want to lose their profits. Additionally, the company's governor Wilfrid Laurier[1] had mixed feelings about British authority and was seeking further control over New Caledonia. Finally in January of 1909, after clandestine talks with Laurier, a compromise act was passed. The Joint Resolution on the Governance of the Laurentine Countries specified that the United States would support efforts in British North America for independence, and would accept the results of referenda on joining the United States. In talks with Laurier, it was agreed that United States companies would gain some mining rights in New Caledonia and a peaceful purchase of land would be considered after the war.
Aside from the action on the northern border of the United States, there was little fighting during the first months of the war. The American navy quickly made a show of force in the Caribbean and established blockades on the Bahamas and Jamaica. While the blockade of the Bahamas lasted for much of the war, the British navy in Jamaica after only a few months. A later blockade of British Honduras in October was broken up after an even shorter period of time. There were deliberations on whether a similar blockade of Puerto Rico should go ahead as it was unclear if the United States had declared war on just Great Britain or if it was at war with the entire New Coalition. President Roosevelt ended any uncertainty in the scope of the United States' participation in the war in August in a message to Navy Secretary Talbott to order the blockade to go ahead, and American ships were soon parked off San Juan harbor.
British Raids:
After the American entry into the war, the British Navy began to step up its operations on both sides of the Atlantic. It was vital for Britain to keep both sides of the Atlantic separated. To accomplish this, the Royal Navy strengthened its blockade on the French Atlantic and Channel coasts and began to perform smaller raids into France to disrupt supply and harass the French on their own soil. In the spring and summer of 1908, the British navy undertook many raids into mainland France[2]. The first two were in the Channel, in an attempt to confirm British dominance over the channel and separate the France and German naval positions. A British raid that landed at the French town of Dieppe in April 1908 tried to capture Rouen and cut off the French supply to Le Havre. However, the two thousand marines that landed at Dieppe were able to establish a landing, but only reached halfway to Rouen before being turned back by the French in the battle of Auffay. Of the two thousand the British sent, only eight hundred returned to England after the raid. In June, another British raid was launched on Guernsey in the beginning of a campaign to recapture the Channel Islands. This raid, while more successful, only led to the British controlling the island for a few months before being forced off again before the year's end. The final British landing in France in 1908 took place in August at Concarneau in Brittany. The Concarneau landing was even less successful than the landing at Dieppe, and the French were victorious before the Royal Navy even entered the town.
Along with numerous attempted landings on the French mainland, British forces also made several incursions into American territory in 1908 during the first months of American involvement in the war. The major actions where the United States was confronting Great Britain was at sea, in both the Caribbean and the Pacific. On June 2, 1908, the British attacked a United States squadron heading for Puerto Juarez[3] in Mesoamerica. In the resulting battle, the British destroyer HMS Badminton was sunk, but the British won the overall battle, sinking an American escort ship and three merchant ships. Later in the summer after the American blockade of Jamaica broke up, the British West Indies squadron launched their own raid, this time on Cuba. In late July, British ships set forth from Jamaica and began patrolling the area near Cienfuegos. The British attempted a landing at the city of Jagua to cut off the approach to Cienfuegos harbor, but valiant American marines stopped the invasion. With the support of the navy, the British were repelled from Cuba within two weeks.
In the mainland United States, the Oregon Country also saw major action during the first months of the war. On the border of Champoeg and California, there were small skirmishes as Champoeg border forts attempted to raid into northern California and provoke an uprising among the Anglo settlers in the area. During this stage of American involvement in the Great War, this was the only action taken by the United States against California. The British Navy, meanwhile, established a brief blockade of the Columbia River mouth and shelled Astoria from June to August, 1908. The largest action in the northwestern front, however, was further inland. As news of the American entry into the war spread west across the continent, some small groups in the sparsely populated American and Canadian plains were eager to participate. The largest of these was a group of British from the coal mining town of Lethbridge. A group of thirty men started south from Lethbridge in July. Their aim was to eventually reach Bannack and the capital of Washington, but after weeks of gathering more men from the area and marching through the Washington wilderness, they became lost. The raiders, which swelled to over seventy men by the time they actually entered the United States, reached their first lucrative target, Cobbstown[4], in late July. From there, the men followed the course of the Missouri River, believing that Bannack was on the river. However, after a while of following the river upstream, they broke off and headed straight south after attacking Three Forks. The seventy men finally were stopped at the Battle of Ponyville[5] after they had been found at last by an American army regiment and attempted to sack the town. The Battle of Ponyville lasted for barely the day on September 12, 1908. Ten of the raiders died, and the rest were imprisoned.
[1] Laurier was OTL Prime Minister of Canada from 1896 to 1911.
[2] Raiding the French coast is a longstanding British pastime, and it hasn't stopped yet.
[3] La Ceiba, Honduras.
[4] Helena, Montana. Cobbstown is named after Howell Cobb because it was founded by ex-Confederates. There is an OTL comparison in Virginia City, whose Southern founders wanted to name the town after Jefferson Davis's wife.
[5] OTL Pony, Montana, in OTL a ghost town about 40 miles west of Bozeman.
I think that in a few more months the U.S. should have built up enough troops to start making serious gains against the Canadians. The British are just too tied down in Europe.
Great update. Please post more soon.
Great update. Please post more soon.
Minor nitpick: Congress does not sign things, it passes them, and in the case of bills, the President then signs them. Declarations of war do not require presidential signature.
An unrelated thing that strikes me is that Judah P. Benjamin might not have been eligible for the CSA's presidency ITTL; since he was born in the Virgin Islands as a British subject, I'd assume the Natural Born Clause prevents him from holding that office.
An unrelated thing that strikes me is that Judah P. Benjamin might not have been eligible for the CSA's presidency ITTL; since he was born in the Virgin Islands as a British subject, I'd assume the Natural Born Clause prevents him from holding that office.
Next update will be up tomorrow or Saturday. I'm also hoping to have another update done next week before I go on vacation for a few weeks.
I'm also hoping to have another update done next week before I go on vacation for a few weeks.
Part One Hundred Eighteen: The 1908 Election
Update's done. I'll put the map and footnotes up later today.
Part One Hundred Eighteen: The 1908 Election
Election of 1908:
With the United States now entered into the Great War, the war became an ever bigger issue during the 1908 election campaign. After the assassination attempt, there was speculation that President Roosevelt might not run for reelection, but the President soon dispelled those rumors. In a special message sent out to all the national newspapers, the President affirmed his running for reelection, and that with the country embroiled in a conflict on its own soil, it needed strong leadership. Roosevelt won renomination by the Progressive Party with little contest. However, at the President's urging, William Hope Harvey was replaced as the candidate for Vice President. The Progressives chose War Secretary William Howard Taft, thought to be a strong replacement.
For bot the Democrats and the Republicans, the feeling going into the 1908 election was a new one. They had now both had four years with a new party occupying the presidency, and were now looking at how to recapture it. With the war becoming an even greater issue among the public, the Democratic Party was seeking ways that it could express its support for the war while appearing separate from the Progressives. The party accomplished this through once again focusing its efforts on the more rural and conservative South. The bid for the Democratic convention was held in New Orleans. The main contenders for the nomination were Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts, Calvin Brice of Ohio, George Oliver of Pennsylvania, and Nelson Aldrich of Rhode Island. Aldrich, who was instrumental in crafting the Tariff of 1902, soon saw his support dry up. Following him was Lodge, as while Lodge's support for the war gained him a following, the memory of his candidacy for the National Democrats in 1896 and the influence of Southern conservatives prevented his nomination. On the 9th ballot, Brice finally received a majority of votes and was announced the Democratic nominee. The winner of the Vice Presidential nomination was James D. Richardson, a longtime Representative from Tennessee.
The Republicans, on the other hand, were the main opposition to American participation in the Great War and remained so in the 1908 election. However, even on this position there was divided sentiment within the Republican Party. At the party's convention in Saint Louis, Illinois senator Lawrence Yates Sherman had a strong showing on the first three ballots, while the majority of the votes were divided between senator Albert Cummins of Demoine and frontiersman and former Congressman Thomas Custer. While it was clear Sherman was never going to gain the nomination, there was enough continued support for him that neither Cummins or Custer would be able to gain the nomination by siphoning votes from Sherman. On the 12th ballot, Custer and Cummins achieved a compromise that finally allowed Cummins to win the nomination. Custer conceded in exchange for receiving the vice presidential nomination.
The general campaign saw major support for Roosevelt early on, but as the year went on and the effects of the entry into the war started to be felt, the support for Roosevelt waned. Support for Progressives had deteriorated in the South with the concerted efforts of the Democratic Party in those states, and the region became a solid Democratic voting region once again. Opposition to the economic effects was greatest in the rural areas in the North. Compared to the relative landslide in the electoral vote that Roosevelt had received in 1904, the 1908 election was a close run. Many of the Great Plains states moved away from the Progressives and toward the Republicans as farmers on the upper Mississippi were hurt by the loss of trade with the north. Cummins and Custer's opposition to the entry effectively countered the support for the war from Pulitzer's Post-Dispatch in Saint Louis to give Missouri to the Republicans. Isolationist Vermont and Maine, which Roosevelt had barely won in 1904, also flipped to the Republicans. However, support for the President overall was still high, and Roosevelt actually won a greater popular vote in 1904. With the Democrats' seeming retreat to the South, Roosevelt claimed victory in Ohio and Pennsylvania, giving him reelection. Meanwhile, Socialist candidate Moorfield Storey gained three percent of the popular vote.
The Congressional elections, meanwhile, painted a more diverse picture of the nation. Despite the Democratic lean of the 1908 elections in the South, Marion Butler retained his seat in the senate for North Carolina. However, the Republican senators who had been elected in Georgia and Louisiana were ousted and replaced by Democrats. In the House, the anti war stance of the Republicans in staunchly Progressive or Democratic areas resulted in the Republicans occasionally working together with the American Socialist Party with fusion candidates. Through fusion candidates with the Republicans, the socialists gained two Representatives in the House; Ernest Crosby of New York, and King Camp Gilette in Chicago. A further shakeup of the American party system started forming in Cuba during this time as well, as the first of the Cuban state parties gained members in the House. The Partido Conservador, started in 1905 by Cuban conservatives as a regionalist party against the underrepresentation of Cuban issues on the national stage, picked up two seats from Cuba's rural hill country. Mario Garcia Menocal became the first person to serve in the House from one of Cuba's statewide parties.
Part One Hundred Eighteen: The 1908 Election
Election of 1908:
With the United States now entered into the Great War, the war became an ever bigger issue during the 1908 election campaign. After the assassination attempt, there was speculation that President Roosevelt might not run for reelection, but the President soon dispelled those rumors. In a special message sent out to all the national newspapers, the President affirmed his running for reelection, and that with the country embroiled in a conflict on its own soil, it needed strong leadership. Roosevelt won renomination by the Progressive Party with little contest. However, at the President's urging, William Hope Harvey was replaced as the candidate for Vice President. The Progressives chose War Secretary William Howard Taft, thought to be a strong replacement.
For bot the Democrats and the Republicans, the feeling going into the 1908 election was a new one. They had now both had four years with a new party occupying the presidency, and were now looking at how to recapture it. With the war becoming an even greater issue among the public, the Democratic Party was seeking ways that it could express its support for the war while appearing separate from the Progressives. The party accomplished this through once again focusing its efforts on the more rural and conservative South. The bid for the Democratic convention was held in New Orleans. The main contenders for the nomination were Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts, Calvin Brice of Ohio, George Oliver of Pennsylvania, and Nelson Aldrich of Rhode Island. Aldrich, who was instrumental in crafting the Tariff of 1902, soon saw his support dry up. Following him was Lodge, as while Lodge's support for the war gained him a following, the memory of his candidacy for the National Democrats in 1896 and the influence of Southern conservatives prevented his nomination. On the 9th ballot, Brice finally received a majority of votes and was announced the Democratic nominee. The winner of the Vice Presidential nomination was James D. Richardson, a longtime Representative from Tennessee.
The Republicans, on the other hand, were the main opposition to American participation in the Great War and remained so in the 1908 election. However, even on this position there was divided sentiment within the Republican Party. At the party's convention in Saint Louis, Illinois senator Lawrence Yates Sherman had a strong showing on the first three ballots, while the majority of the votes were divided between senator Albert Cummins of Demoine and frontiersman and former Congressman Thomas Custer. While it was clear Sherman was never going to gain the nomination, there was enough continued support for him that neither Cummins or Custer would be able to gain the nomination by siphoning votes from Sherman. On the 12th ballot, Custer and Cummins achieved a compromise that finally allowed Cummins to win the nomination. Custer conceded in exchange for receiving the vice presidential nomination.
The general campaign saw major support for Roosevelt early on, but as the year went on and the effects of the entry into the war started to be felt, the support for Roosevelt waned. Support for Progressives had deteriorated in the South with the concerted efforts of the Democratic Party in those states, and the region became a solid Democratic voting region once again. Opposition to the economic effects was greatest in the rural areas in the North. Compared to the relative landslide in the electoral vote that Roosevelt had received in 1904, the 1908 election was a close run. Many of the Great Plains states moved away from the Progressives and toward the Republicans as farmers on the upper Mississippi were hurt by the loss of trade with the north. Cummins and Custer's opposition to the entry effectively countered the support for the war from Pulitzer's Post-Dispatch in Saint Louis to give Missouri to the Republicans. Isolationist Vermont and Maine, which Roosevelt had barely won in 1904, also flipped to the Republicans. However, support for the President overall was still high, and Roosevelt actually won a greater popular vote in 1904. With the Democrats' seeming retreat to the South, Roosevelt claimed victory in Ohio and Pennsylvania, giving him reelection. Meanwhile, Socialist candidate Moorfield Storey gained three percent of the popular vote.
The Congressional elections, meanwhile, painted a more diverse picture of the nation. Despite the Democratic lean of the 1908 elections in the South, Marion Butler retained his seat in the senate for North Carolina. However, the Republican senators who had been elected in Georgia and Louisiana were ousted and replaced by Democrats. In the House, the anti war stance of the Republicans in staunchly Progressive or Democratic areas resulted in the Republicans occasionally working together with the American Socialist Party with fusion candidates. Through fusion candidates with the Republicans, the socialists gained two Representatives in the House; Ernest Crosby of New York, and King Camp Gilette in Chicago. A further shakeup of the American party system started forming in Cuba during this time as well, as the first of the Cuban state parties gained members in the House. The Partido Conservador, started in 1905 by Cuban conservatives as a regionalist party against the underrepresentation of Cuban issues on the national stage, picked up two seats from Cuba's rural hill country. Mario Garcia Menocal became the first person to serve in the House from one of Cuba's statewide parties.
- Status