Here's one of the first wikiboxes I ever made, featuring a William Walker that went to Hawaii as an American missionary after a near-death experience, ingratiated himself into the Royal Family (to the point where he married Kamehameha V's illegitimate daughter Keanolani), then led an uprising of white American immigrants and Hawaiian Christian converts with British backing to overturn the Kingdom and form a British-aligned Theocratic Republic modeled after the United States. Might turn it into a timeline at some point in the future, might not.
Alternate Wikipedia Infoboxes VI (Do Not Post Current Politics or Political Figures Here)
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The Unpopular Populist
Crucified on a Cross of Votes
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The 1896 United States presidential election was the 28th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 3, 1896. Former Congressman William Jennings Bryan, the Democratic candidate, defeated Republican William McKinley. The 1896 campaign, which took place during an economic depression known as the Panic of 1893, was a political realignment that ended the old Third Party System and began the Fourth Party System.Crucified on a Cross of Votes
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Incumbent Democratic President Grover Cleveland did not seek election to a second consecutive term, leaving the Democratic nomination open. Bryan, an attorney and former Congressman, galvanized support with his Cross of Gold speech, which called for a reform of the monetary system and attacked business leaders as the cause of ongoing economic depression. The 1896 Democratic National Convention repudiated the Cleveland administration and nominated Bryan on the fifth presidential ballot. Bryan then won the nomination of the Populist Party, which had won several states in 1892 and shared many of Bryan's policies. In opposition to Bryan, some conservative Bourbon Democrats formed the National Democratic Party and nominated Senator John M. Palmer. McKinley prevailed by a wide margin on the first ballot of the 1896 Republican National Convention.
Since the onset of the Panic of 1893, the nation had been mired in a deep economic depression, marked by low prices, low profits, high unemployment, and violent strikes. Economic issues, especially tariff policy and the question of whether the gold standard should be preserved for the money supply, were central issues. McKinley forged a conservative coalition in which businessmen, professionals, and prosperous farmers, and skilled factory workers turned off by Bryan's agrarian policies were heavily represented. McKinley was strongest in cities and in the Northeast, Upper Midwest, and Pacific Coast. Republican campaign manager Mark Hanna pioneered many modern campaign techniques, facilitated by a $3.5 million budget. Bryan presented his campaign as a crusade of the working man against the rich, who impoverished America by limiting the money supply. Silver, he said, was in ample supply and if coined into money would restore prosperity while undermining the illicit power of the money trust. Bryan was strongest in the South, rural Midwest, and Rocky Mountain states. Bryan's moralistic rhetoric and crusade for inflation (to be generated by the institution of bimetallism) alienated conservatives.
Bryan campaigned vigorously throughout the swing states of the Midwest, while McKinley conducted a "front porch" campaign. At the end of an intensely heated contest, one of the greatest political upsets in U.S. history occurred. While McKinley received over half a million more votes than Bryan did, Bryan received the majority in the Electoral College and won upset victories by extremely slim margins in pivotal regions on the Pacific Coast and eastern Midwest. Turnout was very high, in many locations passing 90% of the eligible voters in many places. With the Democratic Party's later schism and the divorcing of populists from the party in 1898, Bryan would become the first president to come from the Populist Party and the only president to switch party alignment while still in office. Bryan would also be the final Democratic president, as the party fell into disrepair during the 1900s and 1910s. This shift set the stage for the Fourth Party System.
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This was inspired by the recent series by @Osk. I also yoinked most of the paragraphs here straight from the Wikipedia page for the 1896 election, since basically everything that happened OTL happened ITTL, it's just that WJB made a few all-important but slim headways in key states to just about clench the win.
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@prime-minister can I point your attention at the title of this thread? It should save you some grief.
Sorry, I assumed because the POD was 2005 it would be OK. My mistake!
It might be fine, he's not involved in politics currently, either directly or tangentially as far as I can tell
Yeah, I thought considering that fact it'd be OK, but if the mods consider it too current and want to delete it I'll understand.
At age 24, Burt Reynolds is likely too young to be considered. Also, Broccoli insisted Bond be British; despite the hiring of Australian George Lazenby and Americans John Gavin and James Brolin (the latter two both had their contracts bought out and were replaced by Sean Connery and Roger Moore respectively. )
But, Reynolds was considered by Broccoli's American partners after Connery left the role again.
Some African countries. The Central African Republic, Ethiopia, and DRC come to mind. Thailand, Bangladesh, any of the Oceanian island states, Paraguay, the Carribbean, etc. There's quite a few underserved places with regards to wikiboxes.
Anything in Africa? I'm thinking mostly election maps. I had a very cursed idea involving apartheid South Africa going along a... different path, but I think it's been overdone. I might do a modern map involving a post-apartheid election though.
Liberia could be an interesting one to cover, since as far as I know, it's not a nation covered a lot in wikiboxes and other AH stuff.
The Central African Republic, like I mentioned. Sudan and South Sudan. Somalia. Zimbabwe maybe. Or hell, Western Sahara/Sahrawi Republic.
Inspired by the same thread that created Fascist Leader Tolkien
Collaborations between American Horror Author H. P. Lovecraft and German Born Horror Author Adolph Hitler
Outsiders: The Problem of Adapting Cosmic Horror by Abigail Thorne (2018)Collaborations between American Horror Author H. P. Lovecraft and German Born Horror Author Adolph Hitler
The Cosmic Horror Genre is dominated by two personalities, Howard Phillips Lovecraft and Adolph Hitler. Both wrote many works that focus on the insignificance of the role of humanity in the Universe in the face of great cosmic beings. One problem though, the actual antagonists of their stories are not the giant cosmic beings, it's the minority groups that are often the focal points of their works, secondary to the horror of the unknown.
The Master Race and Cosmic Horror: Examining the Racist History of Cosmic Horror by Casey Campbell (2022)
The works of Adolph Hitler and H. P. Lovecraft is full of racist depictions of minority groups. From the depictions of immigrants in Lovecraft's Cool Air (1928) to the depiction of Jewish people in Hitler's The Iron City (1934) and its sequel Hearts of Iron (1938), cosmic horror is half fear of the unknown in the universe and half complaining about non-white or poor white people. It's inescapable. It's built directly into the heart of the genre. Something that doesn't bode well for other author's inspired by these works including George L. Rockwell, whose novel The Terror in Virginia (1968) is just as racist as Hitler and Lovecraft's works, with special mention towards the depiction of African-Americans in the work. Another Cosmic Horror Author whose work is thought of as influential to the genre is D. Ernest Duke. The Oklahoma author was inspired by George L. Rockwell's writings more than anything and released a similar series of short stories published under a collection titled The Grand Wizard of Texas and Other Tales (1976). Duke, Rockwell, Hitler, and Lovecraft are the essential authors of Cosmic Horror and related fictions.
Summary of the collaborative works between H.P. Lovecraft and Adolph Hitler
Ahnenerbe Society - A German Archeologist group digs up an ancient ruin in the Bavarian countryside that reveals the nature of Shub-Niggurath.
Zeitwaffen Division - A German Scientist and an American Historian team-up to build a time machine. Doing so causes both to go mad as the nature of the universe is revealed to them in full.
The Reich's Flag Ship - An alternative history work that examines what might have happened if the Central Powers lost in World War 1... Alongside the discovery of an ancient pre-human master race.
Beer Hall Petsch - A short story about a wannabe reactionary revolutionary in the United States who attempts a revolution to overthrow the government, it fails before it begins as the protagonist is followed by government agents before being shot.
Reforming Cosmic Horror by H. B. Guy (2017)
The only way that the genre can be redeemed is to change the perspectives of the text themselves. Instead of focusing on the "White Superior Race", telling those stories from the perspectives of the minorities that are cruelly depicted in the Cosmic Horror of Old. Some authors have already begun the work on this with such novels as Lovecraft County (2016) by Matt Ruff which examines Cosmic Horror from the perspective of African-Americans during Jim Crow, Get Out (1999) by J. H. Peele which examines Cosmic Horror from the perspective of African-Americans in the modern day, and The Salish Beast (2002) by Tlesla Adams which examines cosmic horror from both a Queer Studies perspective and a Northwestern Indigenous Canadian. Each one brings something different to the genre that helps to untangle it from its troublesome past. Or at the very least, it allows the horror to stop being the White fear of those who aren't like them.
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It's more the references to actual current politicians that I thought could cause problems rather than who you made PM.
Ellis MacVey
Donor
Inspired by the same thread that created Fascist Leader TolkienOutsiders: The Problem of Adapting Cosmic Horror by Oliver Thorne (2018)
Collaborations between American Horror Author H. P. Lovecraft and German Born Horror Author Adolph Hitler
The Cosmic Horror Genre is dominated by two personalities, Howard Phillips Lovecraft and Adolph Hitler. Both wrote many works that focus on the insignificance of the role of humanity in the Universe in the face of great cosmic beings. One problem though, the actual antagonists of their stories are not the giant cosmic beings, it's the minority groups that are often the focal points of their works, secondary to the horror of the unknown.
The Master Race and Cosmic Horror: Examining the Racist History of Cosmic Horror by Casey Campbell (2022)
The works of Adolph Hitler and H. P. Lovecraft is full of racist depictions of minority groups. From the depictions of immigrants in Lovecraft's Cool Air ( to the depiction of Jewish people in Hitler's The Iron City (1934) and its sequel Hearts of Iron (1938), cosmic horror is half fear of the unknown in the universe and half complaining about non-white or poor white people. It's inescapable. It's built directly into the heart of the genre. Something that doesn't bode well for other author's inspired by these works including George L. Rockwell, whose novel The Terror in Virginia (1968) is just as racist as Hitler and Lovecraft's works, with special mention towards the depiction of African-Americans in the work. Another Cosmic Horror Author whose work is thought of as influential to the genre is D. Ernest Duke. The Oklahoma author was inspired by George L. Rockwell's writings more than anything and released a similar series of short stories published under a collection titled The Grand Wizard of Texas and Other Tales (1976). Duke, Rockwell, Hitler, and Lovecraft are the essential authors of Cosmic Horror and related fictions.
Summary of the collaborative works between H.P. Lovecraft and Adolph Hitler
Ahnenerbe Society - A German Archeologist group digs up an ancient ruin in the Bavarian countryside that reveals the nature of Shub-Niggurath.
Zeitwaffen Division - A German Scientist and an American Historian team-up to build a time machine. Doing so causes both to go mad as the nature of the universe is revealed to them in full.
The Reich's Flag Ship - An alternative history work that examines what might have happened if the Central Powers lost in World War 1... Alongside the discovery of an ancient pre-human master race.
Beer Hall Petsch - A short story about a wannabe reactionary revolutionary in the United States who attempts a revolution to overthrow the government, it fails before it begins as the protagonist is followed by government agents before being shot.
Reforming Cosmic Horror by H. B. Guy (2017)
The only way that the genre can be redeemed is to change the perspectives of the text themselves. Instead of focusing on the "White Superior Race", telling those stories from the perspectives of the minorities that are cruelly depicted in the Cosmic Horror of Old. Some authors have already begun the work on this with such novels as Lovecraft County (2016) by Matt Ruff which examines Cosmic Horror from the perspective of African-Americans during Jim Crow, Get Out (1999) by J. H. Peele which examines Cosmic Horror from the perspective of African-Americans in the modern day, and The Salish Beast (2002) by Tlesla Adams which examines cosmic horror from both a Queer Studies perspective and a Northwestern Indigenous Canadian. Each one brings something different to the genre that helps to untangle it from its troublesome past. Or at the very least, it allows the horror to stop being the White fear of those who aren't like them.
Really interesting! I'm personally a fan of the rather obscure works of Russian Cosmic Horror authors K. Rodzaevsky and Valery Yemelyanov, though Rodzaesky, while he had a very favorable view of the Japanese, was almost as racist and antisemitic as Hitler and Yemelyanov was as well and was also kind of fucking insane. (OOC: Yes, I've been playing wayyy too much TNO - Also I should do something similar but for famous socialists writing pulp sci-fi)
Perharps Yemelyanov could be some Lovecraft with the serious problem of having William Luther Pierce-like madness. And i don't think his career would last long in the Soviet Union as such...
A Conservative leadership election was held on 11 March 1926 at the Winnipeg Amphitheatre in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The election was held to choose a new leader of the Conservative Party following the resignation of John Weeks on 13 October 1925. This was the first time the Conservatives used a leadership election to choose a keader. Previous leaders had been choosen by Conservative Representatives, the Conservative frontbench, or by the Governor General of America.
John Weeks had succeeded Charles Clark as Prime Minister and Leader of the Conservative Party after Clark was forced to resign under pressure from his cabinet in 1915.
As premier and party leader, Weeks was seen as a competent, honest, and respected administrator, who guided the ship of state through World War I and much of the roaring twenties. Weeks's hard work and long hours led to a stroke in April 1925, which led in turn to his resignation as prime minister and party leader on 13 October. The Deputy Leader of the Conservative Party, Nicholas Longworth, served as acting leader until a new leader was choosen.
The candidates were:
- Charles Curtis, 66, Representative for West Kansas, served as Chief Whip in the third Weeks cabinet and served as Minister of the Navy and Assistant Minister of Finance in previous Conservative administrations.
- Mitchell Palmer, 53, Representative for East Pennsylvania, served as Minister of the Interior in the third Weeks cabinet and served as Attorney General of America in previous Conservative administrations.
- Carter Glass, 68, Representative for Lynchburg, served as Minister of Finance in the Weeks administration and served as Minister of Commerce during the premiership of Charles Clark.
- Richard Bedford Bennett, 55, Representative for Calgary West, served as Minister of Justice in the third Weeks cabinet and been the first Leader of the Alberta Conservative Party.
- Arthur Meighen, 51, Representative for Portage la Praire, served as Minister of the Interior and Minister of Defense in previous Conservative administrations.
- Hugh Guthrie, 59, Representative for Wellington South, was a former Liberal who defected to the Conservatives in 1916. He served as Minister of Defense in the third Weeks cabinet and served as Assistant Minister of Defense in previous Conservative administrations.
Heading into the convention, Curtis, Glass, Gurhtie and Palmer were considered the front-runners. Curtis enjoyed popularity among Red Tories and Representatives. Curtis was a hard-working and efficient Chief Whip who very popular among fellow Conservative representatives and much of the Eastern establishment and delegates from the Midwest. Palmer was popular among anti-communists, Glass enjoyed the backing of Southerners. Guthrie's candidacy was hurt when the former Liberal absent-mindedly declared in his speech to delegates that the meeting was the "greatest Liberal convention in history".
Resolutions were passed favouring preferential tariffs throughout the British Empire but not if it hurt farmers or workers, social legislation to support the unemployed, ill, and elderly "so far as it is practicable" and an immigration policy that supported settlers from Britain and excluded "such races... as are not capable of ready assimilation." The party also committed itself to maintaining the American National Railway as a "publicly owned and operated utility" and affirmed the "traditional adherence of the Conservative Party to the principle of loyalty to the Crown, and the maintenance of that integral connection of America with the British Empire". The convention also approved the construction of a St. Lawrence canal, maintenance of a maximum freight rate for grain products, construction of interprovincial highways, implementation of the findings of the Duncan Commission investigating grievances of the Maritime provinces, as well as resolutions on the development of mining, the fisheries, and agriculture, and for legislation giving the Western provinces powers over natural resources within their territory.
While there had been some expectation that the close race would involve Guthrie, the his bungled speech at the convention proved severely injurious to his chances, and resulted in Guthrie finishing last on the first ballot. Glass finished first, narrowly ahead of Palmer and Curtis, followed by Bennett, Meighen and then Gurthie. The three main candidates maintained their positions on the second ballot, which eliminated Meighen. On the third ballot, Curtis finished first, Glass finished second, Palmer finished third and Bennett finished last. Curtis surged on the fourth ballot, obtaining a 6 point lead over Palmer. In a surprising turn of events, Glass was eliminated and Curtis and Palmer were the two remaining candidates. It was believed that victory was now assured for Palmer, as most delegates who voted for Glass would vote for Palmer on the final ballot. However, Curtis won by 827 votes to Palmer's 823 in a huge upset.
No candidate dropped out or endorsed any other candidate during the leadership election.
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