Ideas into the future...
Prime Minister John Sketchley of Great Britain has emerged from the American Civil War in a very interesting position. He and the British Radical Party have effectively steered British foreign policy away from alliance with France towards alliance with the USA. Whereas before anti-Americanism was a driving factor, at the Union victory in late 1871 it is principles which are lauded and not position.
The abolition of slavery across the USA occurs in the wake of the war, the Southern states are disenfranchised, they must reform and reapply for admission to the Union. As a balance, more states from the old West are admitted, and with the US Army giving grants of land to veterans to settle in Oregon, the Oregon Territory is admitted as North and South Oregon.
This influx of people will lead to another major event occurring in the mid 1870s which will once again change the geo-political landscape of the world - the Klondike Gold Rush. In the borderlands between American Oregon and Russian Alaska settlers locate gold, and by 1875 a major gold rush is under way.
By this time Charles Sumner is president, elected on a clean sweep of the eligible states in thew 1872 election. Charles F. Adams retires into History and the various contradictyory judgements that will be laid upon him. Catching the times from British politics, the Northern Democrats reform as the Reform Party. The South remains under military occupation, with new state boundaries under discussion, new names and Northern officials overseeing what has been split into Military Districts within certain broader territories.
Tensions with Texas, with Deseret and with Spain remain high throughout the 1870s but the Klondike refocuses the major national attention. President Sumner has little time for the Russians, believing them to be backwards, corrupt and anti-democratic. He pushes US settlers' claims to the brink of war.
Tsar Alexander II of Russia does not fear war. He has spent the last decade rebuilding Russia since its defeat in the General European War. On the one hand there have been liberal reforms - the emancipation of the serfs and the establishment of an assembly of village councils. On the other hand there have been military reforms. The lessons of the US Civil War have been avidly followed in Saint Petersburg and built upon there. The navy has been rebuilt; devastated by the mid 1860s war, it languished for several years but in the ironclad, Alexander and his ministers saw the chance to take Russia forward once again.
In Britain, the 1873 election sees the Radical-Reform coalition returned for a second term under Prime Minister John Sketchley, and also the virtual annihilation of the Whigs, the fourth party disappearing as its natural constituency split either towards Gladstone's Reform Party or Disraeli's Moderate Party.
Upper and Lower Canada are made independent by joint agreement of the USA and Great Britain, tself-determination for their populaces seen as the major factor, with both powers being the guarantors, and Britain reserving for itself some degree of paramount rights, mainly in the field of foreign affairs. Rupertsland continues to develop as a constitutional dominion, seeing some major expenditure in the far North-West as the Russo-American crisis gathers to a head, and Britain looks to strengthen its own border and forces facing off against Russian Alaska. Being posted to the Yukon enters English slang much as being sent to Outer Mongolia has in OTL.
Grey Wolf
Prime Minister John Sketchley of Great Britain has emerged from the American Civil War in a very interesting position. He and the British Radical Party have effectively steered British foreign policy away from alliance with France towards alliance with the USA. Whereas before anti-Americanism was a driving factor, at the Union victory in late 1871 it is principles which are lauded and not position.
The abolition of slavery across the USA occurs in the wake of the war, the Southern states are disenfranchised, they must reform and reapply for admission to the Union. As a balance, more states from the old West are admitted, and with the US Army giving grants of land to veterans to settle in Oregon, the Oregon Territory is admitted as North and South Oregon.
This influx of people will lead to another major event occurring in the mid 1870s which will once again change the geo-political landscape of the world - the Klondike Gold Rush. In the borderlands between American Oregon and Russian Alaska settlers locate gold, and by 1875 a major gold rush is under way.
By this time Charles Sumner is president, elected on a clean sweep of the eligible states in thew 1872 election. Charles F. Adams retires into History and the various contradictyory judgements that will be laid upon him. Catching the times from British politics, the Northern Democrats reform as the Reform Party. The South remains under military occupation, with new state boundaries under discussion, new names and Northern officials overseeing what has been split into Military Districts within certain broader territories.
Tensions with Texas, with Deseret and with Spain remain high throughout the 1870s but the Klondike refocuses the major national attention. President Sumner has little time for the Russians, believing them to be backwards, corrupt and anti-democratic. He pushes US settlers' claims to the brink of war.
Tsar Alexander II of Russia does not fear war. He has spent the last decade rebuilding Russia since its defeat in the General European War. On the one hand there have been liberal reforms - the emancipation of the serfs and the establishment of an assembly of village councils. On the other hand there have been military reforms. The lessons of the US Civil War have been avidly followed in Saint Petersburg and built upon there. The navy has been rebuilt; devastated by the mid 1860s war, it languished for several years but in the ironclad, Alexander and his ministers saw the chance to take Russia forward once again.
In Britain, the 1873 election sees the Radical-Reform coalition returned for a second term under Prime Minister John Sketchley, and also the virtual annihilation of the Whigs, the fourth party disappearing as its natural constituency split either towards Gladstone's Reform Party or Disraeli's Moderate Party.
Upper and Lower Canada are made independent by joint agreement of the USA and Great Britain, tself-determination for their populaces seen as the major factor, with both powers being the guarantors, and Britain reserving for itself some degree of paramount rights, mainly in the field of foreign affairs. Rupertsland continues to develop as a constitutional dominion, seeing some major expenditure in the far North-West as the Russo-American crisis gathers to a head, and Britain looks to strengthen its own border and forces facing off against Russian Alaska. Being posted to the Yukon enters English slang much as being sent to Outer Mongolia has in OTL.
Grey Wolf
