"What Madness Is This?" - A Timeline

[Napoleon53]

What is the Union's view on Science and do they have any quibbles on Genetics and biology?

Since I haven't shown evolution being "invented," they probably still have science in agreement with the church in most countries, especially the Empire and other Catholic countries. Most of the nations ITTL think they still live in the "Age of Enlightenment," like era of Voltaire and Locke and such, so they're quite fond of science. Genetics I'm not sure about, but the Union might be for an equivalent of "eugenics."

 

[traveller76]

Science

I could see the Union being big on engineering, chemistry, metallurgy especially in the bigger is better school. Theorectial sciences may be suspect unless there are proven benefits for industry or the military. I could see the corporations funding 'civilian' research with the Union on military projects.

BTW: Old Uncle Joe had 2 sons and a daughter who died in 2011. Maybe the next Union First Consul could be a woman!

 

[Napoleon53]

I could see the Union being big on engineering, chemistry, metallurgy especially in the bigger is better school. Theorectial sciences may be suspect unless there are proven benefits for industry or the military. I could see the corporations funding 'civilian' research with the Union on military projects.

BTW: Old Uncle Joe had 2 sons and a daughter who died in 2011. Maybe the next Union First Consul could be a woman!

That sounds good to me. "Country first, frivolous research second." The Union is also going to begin dabbling with ideas about nuclear and atomic energy soon. That should be interesting...

I actually considered that! I decided to stick with a male, but you might see a high-ranking female Union official in the near future. I've also considered having the next German emperor in this be an empress, since there never was one OTL. "Kaiserin Wilhelmina I," or something along those lines.

 

[Deleted member 14881]

Could the Goodyear company invest in development of TVs?

 

[Zoidberg12]

Erich brings up a good point, especially considering that technology ITTL is, for the most part, give or take twenty years ahead of OTL. In that case I imagine this worlds analog to the television has been invented by 1930.

 

[Zoidberg12]

Napo will there be an expanded universe thread for this timeline like you had with American King II?

 

[Clandango]

Since I haven't shown evolution being "invented," they probably still have science in agreement with the church in most countries, especially the Empire and other Catholic countries. Most of the nations ITTL think they still live in the "Age of Enlightenment," like era of Voltaire and Locke and such, so they're quite fond of science. Genetics I'm not sure about, but the Union might be for an equivalent of "eugenics."

Could could try to spin it that highly lethal activities or things requiring a great deal of strength be used on Greeks, Slavs, Poles, and Irishmen with the strongest then having been 'discovered' to have Roman, Varangian, and British blood in them.

 

[Napoleon53]

Could the Goodyear company invest in development of TVs?

Erich brings up a good point, especially considering that technology ITTL is, for the most part, give or take twenty years ahead of OTL. In that case I imagine this worlds analog to the television has been invented by 1930.

I actually thought of this in the baseball chapter. You can fully expect to see TVs (or whatever they call them in this) sometime in the 1930s. They've probably been trying to make them since the 1910s. I'll give a full history of them when I finally introduce them.

Napo will there be an expanded universe thread for this timeline like you had with American King II?

Ah, very possible! I think it'd be quite fun to have all kinds of ministories and all the same things AKII EU had. I could also post all of the propagana posters made for this TL there (in case I can't include every single one in the TL, they can still be appreciated).

Could could try to spin it that highly lethal activities or things requiring a great deal of strength be used on Greeks, Slavs, Poles, and Irishmen with the strongest then having been 'discovered' to have Roman, Varangian, and British blood in them.

I'm already way ahead of you on this one. Who do you think they'll be testing the effects of radiation on, WASPs? *uppity Yankee laughter*

 

[Superman]

Maybe TVs could be called VSs. You know, for video screen.

 

[Zoidberg12]

Napoleon are we going to get more into the Manifest Destiny Party Zealots in the new edition to the last update?

What happens to children in the RU born out of wedlock between one deemed "superior" and the other "inferior"? What would the RU's racist government's stance on this be? You mentioned American soldiers in Korea having mixed race children out of wedlock, but only touched upon it.

Can't wait for the Winston Churchill chapter BTW.

 

[Superman]

Could we ever be getting a look at TTL's version of comic books? I'd imagine the R.U. version of Superman would look very different, since he was created by Jews IOTL. Also, since we know that the R.U. isn't afriad of expanding outside of North America with the Korean annexation, could we see the American states of England and/or Scotland?

 

[Zoidberg12]

Could we ever be getting a look at TTL's version of comic books? I'd imagine the R.U. version of Superman would look very different, since he was created by Jews IOTL. Also, since we know that the R.U. isn't afriad of expanding outside of North America with the Korean annexation, could we see the American states of England and/or Scotland?

I've actually been wondering about comic books in this world as well. The Columbian nations probably have "Captain Columbia", while the RU would have "Commander America", and would be much more propaganda related than a Southron superhero.

 

[Napoleon53]

Okay guys, there are a couple minor changes in the sections you read before, and then two new whole sections covering the Union Army and Navy, as well as the MDP Zealots. I'll answer all of your questions above as soon as I can. And as for comic books, it's "Colonel Union."

THE IRON STEELE
-"I TRUST NO ONE, NOT EVEN MYSELF"-

"The broad masses of a population are more amenable to the appeal of rhetoric than to any other force."
Joseph Steele, 1927
​

"It has made abundantly clear to us true God-fearing Christians that the End Times have come. Joseph Steele is the Antichrist! He is the Yankee Servant of Satan and he has come onto the world scene like a roaring lion, seeking out nations to devour. Beware of this man, for he is the spawn of Hell."

-Reverend Herbie Brant of the Virginian Saturday Family Hour talkiebox ministry


In 1927, William Jennings Bryan did not seek reelection. Bryan's Second Chief Consul Warren G. Harding went into a political freeze as he waited to see what would happen next. Joseph Steele, then 49 years old, would be the next First Chief Consul without doubt, but Harding wasn't sure what position he himself would get in a Steele government. The fiery orator went out campaigning for him, plugging Steele every chance he got. Harding might have been old, but he wasn't worn-out. In fact, Steele was so impressed he moved him up into his shortlist of possible Second Chief Consuls. Calvin Coolidge also went on this list, as well as Oshkosh mayor Robert Lafawlet II, State Consul Herbert Hoover of New York, and Teddy Roosevelt's cousin Franklin Martin Roosevelt, an industrialist who had recently founded a very successful autocarriage company. In the end, he chose Roosevelt. Harding went on to be Steele's successor as official head, "Chief Minister," of the Manifest Destiny Party, with Edward Martin of Pennsylvania as his Deputy Minister.

Edward Martin

​

Even though victory was assured and he was virtually unopposed (the only people who ran against him were off-brand local candidates and publicity stuntmen), Steele and Roosevelt went touring the nation, whipping up fervor for a new era of Union history. Steele's normally slow, soothing, father-like voice could reach a screaming pitch when he got to a topic of special interest. When he spoke about how the South was rightful American land by right of Manifest Destiny, for instance, his face grew red, his arms gestured angrily, and he shrieked. He was so intimidating, imposing, and attention-grabbing that many Southron preachers started calling him the Antichrist, especially Virginian Reverend Herbie Brant, who straight-up started an "Armageddon Preparedness League," which was essentially a doomsday cult. He claimed to have the power of prophecy, and he said he saw "Joe Steele, standing like a conquering king, treading on mankind's liberty, and fires consuming the land, with never-ending war until the Return of Christ" in his visions. Most wrote Brant off for the crackpot he was, but quotes like that hardly quieted Columbia's fear of the despotic lunatic about to become First Chief Consul.

On January 18th, 1927, 36 years to the day after Custer took over, Joseph Steele was sworn in by Bernard Svenson, the current Reverend-Colonel of the American Fundamentalist Christian Church, on an AFC-authorized Bible. Roosevelt followed suit soon after.

"I, Joseph Custer Steele, do solemnly swear to devote all my personal strength and abilities to the advancement and prosperity of the Republican Union, to always abide by the Union Constitution and the laws of our country, to defend democracy, the fundamental rights and freedoms of the American man, and our sovereignty, independence, unity, purity, territorial and religious integrity. So help me God I do swear these things upon the Holy Gospels, my personal honor, the honor of my beloved Manifest Destiny Party, and in the memory of Patriot Comrade Custer, hero of the most proletarian fascist American people. All hail."

-1927 version of the R.U. First Chief Consul's Oath of Office

​

Joseph C. Steele taking the Oath of Office of the First Chief Consul of the Republican Union

Franklin Martin Roosevelt taking the Oath of Office of the Second Chief Consul of the Republican Union
​

"All hail! All hail! All hail!" chanted the throngs of onlookers. Fireworks went off over the Capitol Building, Consular Mansion, Independence Hall, the CYB Headquarters, and other government buildings in an elaborately choreographed light show. The bands struck up the new Consular March. Flags waved, people cheered, and all raised their hands in salute as Steele and Roosevelt walked down a long red carpet to their parade limousine. The Steele Era had begun...

All Hail to the Chiefs we have chosen for the nation,
All Hail to the Consuls! We salute them, one and all.
Hail to the Chief Consuls, as we pledge cooperation
In proud fulfillment of a great, noble call!

All Hail to the Chiefs, fathers of our nation,
All Hail to the Consuls! God bless their administration.
All Hail to the Chief Consuls, as we pledge cooperation
In proud fulfillment of a great, noble call!

Yours is the aim to make this grand union grander,
This you will do, that's our strong, firm belief.
All Hail to the two we selected as commanders,
Hail to the Second Chief Consul! Hail to the First!

***

When Steele officially started his duties the next day, film crews showed up in the so-called "Hex Room," the hexagon-shaped personal office in the Consular Mansion used by every past First Chief Consul for the past century, to get footage of Bryan and Steele shaking hands and exchanging well-wishes as the name plate on the desk was replaced and Steele's personal office paraphernalia was set up.

Thirty minutes after the filming stopped, things went back to business. Steele's advisers came pouring in and out in a never-ending line, briefing him on the matters at hand and government secrets, as well as his personal confidants making suggestions as to who should stay in their positions and who should go.

THE OHIO COUNTRY:
​

Even though the Old Republic had collapsed thanks to Adams and Hamilton trying to create a one-party state, Steele, a neurotic sociopath, intended on doing the same exact thing and wanted to make sure the Manifest Destiny Party would be the only party around. Though known only to a handful of high-ranking Union officials, one of the first things Steele did was to order the "handling" of several of his personal and political "problems." Some of these "problems" died in "car accidents," while others disappeared into the Ohio Country, never to be seen again, with nary an explanation given.

Pennsylvania's Ohio Country was quite secluded, and it had been used for decades for "reeducation camps." Only a few people were ever officially executed at these camps, and most where just held in miserable conditions for the rest of their natural lives. However, Steele approved plans for the construction of "ORRA Pacification Camps," where the most "worthless" Inferiors (those with families with a history of mental disorders, those who were sterile, and those who openly had expressed desire to act against the government), as well as Steele's personal enemies and sometimes those just suspected of being his enemies. Steele said to Joey Goebbels, one of his military advisers and an ORRA sky marshal at the Canadian border, "I trust no one, not even myself."

ECONOMIC AFFAIRS:
​

In the face of the foundation of CEMA, Steele wanted to strengthen the Union economy as much as possible to keep being competitive. He arranged for the end of the state-by-state currencies and the state-by-state treasuries as a whole. Instead, he moved all economic matters into the realm of the newly-created Department of the Treasury, spear-headed by none other than Colonel Charles Goodyear II (62 years old in 1927). Secretary Goodyear designed a new national currency, the decidedly federalistic Union Reserve Note. Ironically, the Union citizens had no problem with this Hamiltonian set-up, and they eagerly rushed to the banks to exchange their state-printed currency, which they saw as their patriotic duty to do. The Treasury set itself up in a brand new Roman-style complex in Philadelphia, unimaginatively called the Treasury Building.

UNION RESERVE NOTES:
1 Dollar - Willard Crawford
5 Dollars - Charles Goodyear I
10 Dollars - George Custer (bust portrait)
20 Dollars - Samuel Morse
50 Dollars - Benedict Arnold
100 Dollars - George Custer (battle portrait)
500 Dollars - Jonathan Edwards
​

1000 Dollars - Aaron Burr

UNION COINS:
​

1 Cent - George Custer
5 Cents - Charles Goodyear I
10 Cents - Aaron Burr
25 Cents - Eagle and Shield
50 Cents - Edward Everett
100 Cents/1 Dollar - Benedict Arnold

The Treasury Building 1930


THE AEROFORCE:

The Aeroforce had been under a fuzzy, confusing administration by the Union Army since its conception, and sometime the Navy also took charge of some matters, especially with airships. Steele saw this was a huge waste of time and effort and the Aeroforce was finally made a completely separate branch of the military. The new Chief of the Aeroforce was Manfred Steiner, a personal friend of Steele's one of the original crew members of the Edward Everett Airship Flight of 1885. The 62 year-old had won the Order of Patriotic Brethren Medallion for the flight, but since then he had won a chest full of medals in the First Mexican War, Missionary War, Occupation of Korea, Annexation of Texas, and the Second Mexican War, and had also been awarded the title of Colonel, like the Goodyears. Colonel Steiner set out to make sure the Aeroforce had enough money coming in to keep the thousands of planes and airships--and the land vehicles needed for the runways and such--in good working order. His other priority was coordinating the construction of enough airports in the country to handle the operations that would be necessary in the event of war.

THE OFFICE OF RACIAL AND RELIGIOUS AFFAIRS:

The ORRA was and remained under personal orders from the First Chief Consul. Nevertheless, Steele realized it would be useful to appoint an underling to manage the daily affairs. He knew it would have to be someone utterly loyal and willing to follow any order. He saw those traits in native Bostonian Joey Goebbels, who Steele later referred to as an "unquestioning tool of the highest degree but also of unwaveringly loyal to me." Sky Marshal J. Goebbels became the first figurehead leader of the Office of Racial and Religious Affairs.

Upon assuming office, the ORRA head legally changed the spelling of his name to "Gobells," because "I am sick of my men calling me a gerbil and constantly misspelling it." It was actually not unusual; many, many people changed or simplified complex foreign names in the Union during this era. Also upon assuming office, Gobells secretly hunted down all evidence that his immigrant father, Fritz Goebbels, had been Catholic. Fritz had never openly professed Catholicism, and Joey joined an AFC church in college, so all he had to do was find his father's diary, which belonged to his brother Hans. In September of 1928, Hans Goebbels experienced a "burglary." Hans was shot in the chest four times and the house was ransacked. The "burglars," of course, where Joey's private mercenaries. They found the diary and brought it to Joey. When the mercenaries asked for payment, Joey personally stabbed both of them, burned the diary, and then buried their bodies in his cellar. Dead men tell no tales, after all. And burned books tell no professions of Catholic faith.

ORRA had a all-seeing network of spies within the Union, tracking down Inferiors and disrupting plots. They also built massive fences costing millions of dollars at the borders and patrolled them in their airships. They also had elite combat units that were considered the best of the best of all the other branches of service. One such elite unit was the "Joseph Steele's Consular Legion," the personal bodyguards of Joseph Steele. It was formerly known as the "George Custer Regiment of Foot." By the mid-1930s, it had been renamed yet again to "Joseph Steele's Own Mechanized Consular Legion," or the "JSO-MCL," due to the advent of landships and armored troop carriers.

THE MILITARY POLICE:

​

The Military Police had essentially become the Union's version of the "national guard" sported by Virginia and Georgia. They not only fulfilled the duties of normal police officers, thereby taking most of the need for city and state police away, but they also were a military force, ready to "carry on the traditions of the Minutemen of Colonial Days" and fight with the borders of the Union if ever invaded. They were considered inferior to the normal Army soldiers and the ORRA units, both of which were ready to go on the offensive against any enemy in the enemy's own territory.

Steele put in Commander William J. "Wild Bill" Donovan of New York to replace the outgoing Samuel Brock as Chief of the Military Police. Chief Donovan was a hero of the Second Mexican War and had been with the 11th Legion at the Siege of Guadalajara, earning a total of 14 medals and decorations. In the late 1910s, he had joined the New York branch of the Military Police "because he was bored in peacetime" and had been shot twice in the line of duty against absinthe smugglers. He had gone up and up in the RUMP ranks since, and Steele knew he was the perfect choice for Chief.

Upon his appointment as Chief of the RUMP, Donovan began using new tactics against absinthe and human smugglers at the border and brought the Port Authorities under the administration of RUMP. Absinthe smuggling plummeted, and human smuggling stopped almost completely. Donovan personally disliked Joey Gobells, but he worked in coordination with the Great Lakes ORRA Airship Squadron to combat the Canadian-American mobs. In a daring assault, on October 7th, 1928, RUMP armored patrol boats engaged a small fleet of smuggler submarines and armored yachts. After capturing them with heavy casualties on both sides, they managed to rough them up enough to learn where the smugglers were basing themselves. Two hours later, the Great Lakes ORRA Airship Squadron was opening up a hellish barrage on a multimillion-dollar Canadian yacht, and they ended up killing Frank Scalleta, and Italian-Canadian mobster who was one of the most wanted men in the Union. For these actions, both Gobells and Donovan were awarded Hero of the Union Medals, the highest possible decoration in the Union military, and were made Colonels.

Two RUMP vessels photographed from an ORRA airship over Lake Superior; to the far left can be seen part of Scalleta's yacht

RUMP Port Authorities posing with captured absinthe taken during the 1928 "Battle of Lake Superior"

RUMP Headquarters, Philadelphia, around 1930

THE CUSTER YOUTH BRIGADE:

"Bringing in the Sheaves, Bringing in the Sheeves..."

Calvin Coolidge was an excellent Headmaster-Marshal, was loyal, and was relatively young, so Steele made sure to keep him. The CYB considered changing its name to the "Steel Youth Brigade," but Steele vetoed it, saying having the deceased Custer's name attached to it made it sort of a memorial to his "father." The CYB was a branch of the military, and Steele and Coolidge decided to press that fact even further, giving more rigorous combat training starting in late 1927. The CYB became Coolidge's little project and private hobby, and he lobbied for more and more money and resources, and in the end the CYB even had its own vehicles and small airships.

In 1929, the CYB finally caught up to the fad in Europe of steel helmets and became the first Union branch to adopt them, creating the CYB M29 Pot. The Army and RUMP thought this was a very good idea, relegating juice squeezer and kepi hats for non-combat duties and adopting the RU M30 Pot. An oddity with the CYB were their "great buffalo hunts" on the Great Plains, which were originally held because of Teddy Roosevelt's idea of "field trip;" "Hey, kids love shooting animals!" Buffalo fur hand-made "Teddy hats" became a trademark of the CYB under Coolidge and later became a part of the regular Army cold weather combat uniform.

CYB troopers in a propaganda reel, circa 1932, wearing CYB M29 Pots

Depiction of Union troops wearing M30 pot helmets on exercises in Michigania, 1930

Female CYB troopers wearing buffalo "Teddy Hats"
​

Girls had always been a part of the CYB, but under Steele, their participation sky-rocketed. Taking a move from the playbooks of Russia, Greece, and Ireland, ironically all "Inferior" countries, the Union trained the girls aged 13 to 18 to fight. They were given the CYB M29 pots, Craig-Jordan M1901 rifles, and uniforms and trained to most of the same degree as the boys. Pants were a part of the combat and campaign uniforms, which was shocking by western standards, although skirts still were used for the dress uniforms. The female CYB regiments finally made it possible for the government to brainwash every child year-round, and not letting the little future housewives develop doubt in their summer vacation from public school. Now, every boy and girl would be a perfect little sockpuppet for the state. No parents in their right minds would try to preach subversive ideas to their children for fear of their own kids reporting them to "your friendly local ORRA office." Every non-Inferior Union child's life was surrounded by the CYB. From the time they got to the time they went to bed, every second of their day hinged on what Headmaster-Marshal Coolidge wanted. Most of the parents thought it was great, and many of them had been brainwashed by the CYB when they were young. From the pants, to the combat duties, to the arming of the women, nothing phased the public who looked at Steele almost like he was a god among them.
​

THE ARMY:

Union Stormsoldier

The Army went under a radical reconstruction as soon as Steele took office. Pershing was appointed Grand Marshal of the Army and he was the one who followed the CYB's lead of adopting metal helmets. The M30 Pot became the basic infantry helmet, but Union Stormsoldiers, like the one in the photos above, were equipped with M31 Liberty Bells and full torso and arm plate armor. The Stormsoldier were a totally new idea. The new Stormsoldiers were the toughest, strongest men, the elite of the Army. Instead of forming Legions, they formed "Cohorts" of 80 men each. The armor eventually was mostly phased out before long (though it was kept for ceremonial purposes) but M31 helmets stayed. The invention of landships later on in the 1930s saw the Stormsoldiers transition to a new role: mechanized infantry. The Stormsoldiers were disbanded in 1938, and were morphed into the Union Army Landship Corps.

Union Army Landship Corps on exercises, circa 1940

Another unique deviation from normal Union Army units came in the form of the Manifest Destiny Party Zealots. They had been around as a volunteer fighting force since the late 1890s, but around the 1920s, they really came into their own. Many of them were the most radical of radicals, willing to blow themselves up or get shot for the good of the nation. Sporting MDP flags around tied around their heads, prayed to a portrait of Jesus, and with the "Divine Will of Manifest Destiny" supporting them they pledged to fight to the bitter end for the Union, no matter what the cost. Their first action under Joe Steele was crushing a small rebellion in southern Korea in 1932. The MDP Zealots landed and crushed the revolt in days, butchering whole villages and showing no fear whatsoever at charging autogun nests at point-blank range. By 1935, Steele was so pleased with their performance in the field that he took them out of the regular army and put them under ORRA's administration. They went on to glory in the crushing of several revolts in the Pacific, and became known as Steele's Fist. From 1928 onward, the English-made "roundhead helmet" was a signature of the MDP Zealots, so much so that the Virginian National Guard, who had used them since the 1910s, dropped them and adopted their own "M30 Pot" (not to be confused with the Union helmet of the same name), a popular Helvetic-made helmet similar to the Prussian stahlhelm.

MDP Zealots land on Philadelphia Island, South Pacific; they put an entire tribal civilization the sword in weeks during the bloody yet unremarkable Philadelphia Island War of 1939.

An MDP Zealot sporting a juice-squeezer hat walks along train tracks in Hawaii sometime in 1939


THE NAVY:

William Sims, Grand Admiral of the Union Navy

The Union Navy had been fairly pathetic compared to Europe during Custer's rule. True, the Panama Canal and the defeat of the Mexican Navy had gone well, but if a war came, Steele and Roosevelt knew it would not go well unless the Navy was modernized. Beginning in 1931, Steele let Grand Admiral William Sims have free-reign on the restructuring of the America's naval might. By 1936, the world was growing increasingly nervous about the build-up. Cape Cod, Massachusetts had become a metropolis, with crews working day and night on warships. In 1939, the year of Sims death and replacement by Jethro Powell as Grand Admiral, the RUS Custer was unveiled. It was the biggest battleship ever built up to that point. The Custer was an astonishing 823 feet long and carried 2000 men, and could fire shells up to 10 miles away. This terrified every navy in the world, and everyone immediately started building their own versions. In 1940, the Tripartite Empire finished construction on the HMS Marie Louise, which was about the same size as the Custer. A sister ship, the HMS Marseilles, went into service the next year.

The RUS Custer

By 1940, Steele was fully confident that the Union would be able to at least hold at bay naval attacks, but still, a naval invasion remained on his list of things to watch out for. The entire coast of New England had been outfitted with shore defenses by the mid-1940s, including massive guns that could destroy whole warships in just one or two shots, as well as innumerable static fortifications and a pillbox bunkers. Everyone knew th Union was gearing up for war. The question was not if, but when...
​

​

 

[Napoleon53]

Maybe TVs could be called VSs. You know, for video screen.

Or perhaps PSs, for picture screens. I'd have to look up the origin of the word "video" to make up my mind for sure.

What happens to children in the RU born out of wedlock between one deemed "superior" and the other "inferior"? What would the RU's racist government's stance on this be? You mentioned American soldiers in Korea having mixed race children out of wedlock, but only touched upon it.

Can't wait for the Winston Churchill chapter BTW.

Any kid like those half-Koreans will be considered race-mixed Inferiors. Oddly enough, the government probably doesn't have much of a problem with that. It's not like the soldiers who fathered them actually were married to the mother after all, and a continual polluting of the Korean people will eventually make a crapload percentage of them at least part Caucasian. And the Union isn't like the Nazis in that they want to exterminate other races, they want to use them as workers, and a half-American Korean would be much less independent-minded than a full-blooded Korean.

Could we ever be getting a look at TTL's version of comic books? I'd imagine the R.U. version of Superman would look very different, since he was created by Jews IOTL.

Also, since we know that the R.U. isn't afriad of expanding outside of North America with the Korean annexation, could we see the American states of England and/or Scotland?

I'm definitely going to do that. By the 1950s in this TL, we'll have an overload of pop culture updates and among them will be comic books.

If I hadn't already made plans for Scotland and England, I'd totally use your idea. But sadly, no, S & E will remain independent but close allies of the RU.

I've actually been wondering about comic books in this world as well. The Columbian nations probably have "Captain Columbia", while the RU would have "Commander America", and would be much more propaganda related than a Southron superhero.

Captain Columbia sounds awesome in every way. The R.U. version I already thought up would be "Colonel Union," a masked patriot who pummels Inferiors in the ghetto. "WHERE WAS THE REST OF THE ABSINTHE GOING?!" *holds Irishman off roof Christian Bale-style*

 

[Napoleon53]

Here we go! This chapter actually covers a European-centered war, which is interesting as a change of pace.
​

WINSTON THE BEAR
-THE RISE OF THE ENGLISH CUSTER-

"The Twentieth Century will be known as the Century of Fascism!"
-Winston Churchill

The cigar-chomping "Bear of England," Winston Churchill, was born on November 30th, 1874, in Woodstock, Kingdom of England. He was born just in time to see the Royal Family finish its spiral into the loo of history, thanks to the Prince Victor debacle. Winnie's mother was an American, Jennie Jerome, and his father, Randolph Churchill, had been the one to declare the Commonwealth of England in 1892. Randolph was a moderate aristocrat, but Jennie was a fascist sympathizer. In an effort to make sure her son got a proper Protestant education away from the unrest and violence of the decaying Kingdom, she sent Winston to colleges in the Union in 1890, where he stayed until the abolishing of the monarchy in 1892 and the ensuing return to law and order that made England hospitable again.

Young Winston's roommate during his stay at Shicagwa University was, as mentioned before, none other than future Custer Youth Brigade Headmaster-Marshal Calvin Coolidge. It had been "Cool Cal" who had convinced Winston to go to the Shicagwa Coliseum to hear key members of the MDP speak about the glory of fascism. That was the day when the young Englishman knew he wanted to become a politician.

Upon getting back to England, Winston joined the Army, and he was among the first English troops to march in the 1902 Cornwall Reclamation, when Imperial troops finally gave back the occupation zone they had held since the Napoleonic Wars. By 1920, Churchill had become a major and had participated in an English volunteer brigade during the Second Mexican War, fighting under his old classmate Calvin Coolidge. By 1925, he came out in public as a fascist and pushed for a fascist government like Scotland was adopting at the time. His father had died in 1918, and the economy had stagnated since. He remarked in late 1925, "The people are ready in England. Ready for fascism. All they need is one good push." In 1926, he formed the British League of Fascists, headquartered in Oxford. Once the 1930 elections rolled around, the hugely unpopular Scottish-born Ramsay MacDonald lost in a landslide to Churchill. Churchill took power as President of the Commonwealth with Jeffrey Shepherd, a high-ranking officer in Colonel Goodyear Enterprises English branch, as his Vice-President. Almost immediately, they dissolved the National Congress and, backed up by their most loyal followers, declared the Commonwealth Constitution to be null and void.This was not done without protest. Europe panicked, and the Empire backed Austen Chamberlain, a wealthy English aristocrat who was assembling an army in Cornwall. Austen was a monarchist who secretly desired to conquer Scotland and England and become the first "Emperor of Britannia." However delusional, he was considered a better alternative than Churchill and Scotland's Greer. Thus, the Second English Civil War began.

Austen Chamberlain
​

In early December, 1930, the first skirmishes broke out, and on Christmas Day Chamberlain's 8,000 forces started a march to London. Imperial troops made up at least 50% of his forces, and almost all of his equipment was straight from Paris. Churchill countered, bringing 10,000 fascists to meet them, including several Union regiments. On January 3rd, 1931, the Battle of Farnham took place. Over 2,000 died before Chamberlain withdrew to Basingstoke. But just as he thought he had escaped to regroup, his tired forces were attacked from the north by a Union army 3,000 strong, including several airships. The monarchist army was torn to bloody shreds as the remaining men ran for the hills. The conflict would go on for another year, but everyone knew Chamberlain's cause was hopeless. One May 1st, 1932, surrounded by enemy forces, Chamberlain threw himself into a gunfight in the streets of Taunton, in which he was riddled with bullets and then hanged upside down at a gas station, where all could come and desecrate his body. Churchill had won.

Citizens of Cornwall, the hotspot of monarchist sympathy, return home to find their village leveled by fascist artillery as payback for their support of Chamberlain

American troops advance through no man's land near Bristol, mid-1931

Scottish gunners fire on monarchist positions near Devizes, March, 1931

Churchill supporters on the march near Taunton, 1932

In the end, over 100,000 soldiers and civilians died in the Second English Civil War, but when the smoke cleared, the survivors clearly supported Churchill (most Englishmen outside of Cornwall already did, and regarded Churchill's enemies as foreign invaders). In fact, it has been said that had Chamberlain and the Empire not tried to overthrow him, Churchill might not have been nearly as successful as he was. The war made him a hero.

Riding on the wave of his victory, he offered Wales a chance to join the new English Republic. Wales had been socialist for decades, and had also been struggling to make it in recent years, with one economic recession after another. In 1936, they finally agreed, and English Lion landships came rolling over the Welsh border in a peaceful annexation and securing of the country. Several hundred Chamberlain supporters had fled to Wales years earlier, and now Churchill's State Security (SS) tracked them down and executed them for treason. Welsh citizens partied in the streets with English soldiers and burned the flags of theTripartite Empire and its allies, especially Ireland. Across the waters, King Dominic III of Ireland brought his parliament into an emergency session to discuss the breaking news. Ireland deployed its navy and did several exercises with the Imperial fleets around the Isle of Man and Fort Scotia. Scotland fumed, and almost demanded the Bonapartes leave their border fort between Scotland and Ireland. In the end, things cooled down a bit and everyone accepted the current situation, but the Imperial fort on Scottish soil would prove a source of future headaches.

SS men arrest monarchists in Wales, 1936

An English sailor kisses a Welsh woman during the Annexation of Wales

In the end, Churchill had solidified his control over England and Wales, and his close friend Greer supported him in the south whilst their mutual friend Joseph Steele supported them both. By the end of the 1940s, the Union, England, and Scotland were making plans for something... big.

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First Chief Consul Steele and Second Chief Consul Franklin Roosevelt meet with President Churchill in London, 1947

English troops march in the 1945 Remembrance Day Parade in Philadelphia. It was this parade that supposedly put an end to any remaining hard feelings the Union had toward England from the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812
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[Zachanassian]

A war better break out before somebody invents the Bomb and we all end up dead.

 

[Petike]

Oh, the poor Welshmen.

Churchill as a warmongering RU ally. Brilliant.

Loved the Mosley photo modified to Steele's head too.

 

[Napoleon53]

Okay, next chapter should be the first bio chapter of JFK. Chapter after that should be something to catch us up on all the things happening in Europe and such through to the 1940s.

A war better break out before somebody invents the Bomb and we all end up dead.

Ouch, that's a scary way of putting it!

Oh, the poor Welshmen.

Churchill as a warmongering RU ally. Brilliant. Loved the Mosley photo modified to Steele's head too.

You mean the monarchist Cornish people living in exile in Wales who got arrested. Wales, for one, welcomes their new fascist overlords.

Thanks, Petike!

 

[Antony444]

All hail Churchill !

Will we see De Gaulle , Franco , Mussolini and Hitler , or their equivalents ITTL ? I just imagine a "good" Hitler in Vienna telling " we shall fight them in the mountains ,..., we will never surrender !"

 

[Zoidberg12]

Great additions to the Iron Steele update, and great new update. I was hoping Wales wouldn't go fascist, but I kinda saw it coming. Oh well, tis a dystopia after all.

Can't wait for the JFK update. Will it be in the same character based narrative like the Joe Steele bio chapter was?

Who else will be involved in this Fascist English government? Mosley definitely, but who else.