A USA British Dominion TL

So I just binged read, and your doing a top notch job. Why would a US tied to Britain be less inclined to come to their aid? If the King/Emperor is being bombed in the blitz I'd as an American be pretty pissed. Also its going to be interesting to see how the Anglo-Saxon nation family dynamic works out. I would think with the USA set to dominate economically, Australia and New Zealand would wise up and confederate themselves. Great TL, Subscribed!

Think about how the new wave of immigrants, Germans, Italians, East Europeans, Scandinavians, East Asians would feel still living officially in a country that was tied to the British crown, and de facto at least in an inferior relationship. These immigrants will vote as well. Also I think you overestimate the popular impact of fancy titles like Emperor. Historically Canada was pro-UK because of the US to the South, but without such a paradigm, many liberty-minded citizens (originating from other countries) would have much less loyalty. But yes there will be some who will take pride in the Emperor. In addition the US in this TL is a lot larger and as a result a lot less united and the states much less inclined to take orders from Washington. Washington and the federal govt have much less power than they originally did.
 
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A Nation Recognizes Itself
Rapid expansion continued throughout the 1870s, 1880s. In 1881, the US bought out the British commercial venture that had been attempting to build a canal in Panama for years. The massive amount of US investment, importation of US workers and immigrants, and the fact of US commercial ownership of the canal that they built, had the UK agreeing to allow Panama to join the confederation in exchange for perpetual canal rights where British vessels would never be charged tolls. Panama was also mostly english speaking as it had been under British rule since 1814.

Meanwhile a rapid succession of new states in the Great Plains and Pacific Northwest joined the confederation including Dakota (November 2, 1889) with its capital at Bismarck, Montana (November 8, 1889), Idaho (July 3, 1890), Wyoming (July 10, 1890). In addition, the US annexed Hawaii in 1893 after the monarchy had been overthrown by settlers who had originated from the United States. Cuba also agreed to join the confederation (February 24, 1895), in exchange for the US agreeing that Spanish would become the third Federal language, able to be used in all parts of the Federal government and in Parliament. (in addition to French and of course English) Utah joined the confederation soon after that (January 4, 1896) having resolved its polygamy issues with the federal government.

The fourth and final founding father of the United States is generally considered to be Theodore Roosevelt, prime minister from 1903-1913. He oversaw the final completion of the Panama Canal, quickly considered an icon of the nation in 1903. Not long after that Panama joined the confederation (November 3, 1903). However Roosevelt’s signature achievement has been considered the rebuilding of the US Navy that had been left to stagnate after the wars of the 1850s. It was the navy’s subsequent tour of the world that increased the world’s recognition and familiarity of the US as a nation, increasing its profile where it had previously been seen only as an extension of Britain or British North America. Countries in Europe, Asia, South America subsequently recognized US power and independence due to the power and impressive size and modernity of its Navy. Roosevelt’s charisma and showman attitudes also made him world famous and placed the US firmly on the map.

However it was not to last as Roosevelt’s successors as prime minister embraced isolationism once again as the US contrived to stay out of all wars, the Navy was left again to languish as a consequence. But there was still much lasting impact as a result of Roosevelt’s actions. The US soon established official diplomatic relations with many of the world's powers and opened up foreign embassies for the first time in numerous countries, and received numerous ones in Washington in return.

Roosevelt’s tenure also saw the admittance of Saskatchewan (September 1, 1905), Athabasca (September 1, 1905, the local residents having rejected Alberta as being too pro-British and not reflecting who they were), Oklahoma (November 16, 1907), New Mexico (January 6, 1912) and Arizona (February 14, 1912).

However Roosevelt’s successor Woodrow Wilson was a staunch isolationist, elected after public fears of an arms buildup in Europe would lead the US to war in support of Britain. Prime Minister Wilson had campaigned to do all he could to prevent the US from being dragged into an European war and had won in a landslide.

This victory came as a real shock to Britain and served to wake them up to the reality. Britain had always thought that Germany would not declare war on France and thus Britain due to the factor of the immense United States. But unknown to Britain and the United States, Germany had plenty of agents in the US who reported back convincingly that the country would not likely support involvement in an European war. And so they had ramped up tensions in an arms race while Britain had fallen behind, thinking to depend on the United States. In reality Wilson’s victory should not have been seen as unexpected. The demographics of the United States had changed immensely since the 1850s when the US had supported Britain in the Crimean War not to mention the 1810s for the Napoleonic Wars. Much of immigration since 1850s had been Germans, Scandinavians, Irish, then Italians and East Europeans, not to mention Chinese/East Asian in the Pacific Northwest and the new Spanish speaking populations of the Caribbean states and territories. And these new immigrants easily outnumbered English ones, or at least those who still regarded themselves as English or British in identity and were loyal to the Crown.

So this led to the shock of 1914 when the US at first announced its total neutrality in WW1. Being an independent nation that was only under personal union to a constitutional monarchy, it had every right to do so. However Britain immediately dispatched diplomats to Washington arguing and lambasting Wilson for all that Britain had done for the United States, they deserved a bit of loyalty, ect, ect. Constrained by democratic reality, Wilson adamantly refused to join the war against Germany even as the Atlantic seaboard states were protesting in favour of a war declaration. In the end the two sides came to an agreement. Britain would cede the Bahama Islands (which included the Turks and Caicos Islands), Bermuda, and the British Virgin Islands (folded into Porto Rico Territory). So the US gained two new territories in the Bahamas and Bermuda. In return the US agreed to supply massive WW1 aid with the expectation that it would not be paid back. US made artillery, shells, firearms, machine guns, ammunition would begin pouring in, in exchange Britain would supply the design blueprints as to what it wanted the massive US industry to make. In this way, the US would modernize its own military manufacturing process. This was in addition to non-military supplies like agricultural products, boots, uniforms, helmets, ect that the US would supply to Britain. The US would not participate in anti-submarine warfare to patrol the Atlantic as Britain wanted. Woodrow fearing being drawn into war with Germany over the massive aid to Britain demanded that the UK would have to ship the weaponry and supplies back to Europe themselves, on US built convoys and destroyers.

In all, Nova Scotia, New England, Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania were the most enthusiastic for war. New York, New Jersey were ambivalent and split due to a new influx of immigrants. The Midwest was opposed, their historic ties with Britain had been mostly informal and they embraced isolationism and local identity first. And there was the factor of the large ethnic German population who would prefer not to get involved in any war with Germany.

The South had its loyalists (particularly Carolina, Texas, Kentucky, Tennessee), including many African Americans, but there were also those who resented crown interference in the past decades with regards to the issue of slavery and indentured servitude. Cuba was staunchly opposed to the war. Florida and Panama were pro-war. Canada was mostly opposed due to its perceived historical ill-treatment at the hands of Britain, as well as its large French speaking population.

All of the Western states were completely opposed and warned of secession if the US government should think to impose conscription which it constitutionally had no right to do.

WW1 lasted 1914-1919. In those years, US industry greatly expanded to meet British demand, but it was also fuelled by a rapid increase in US debt to fund and supply Britain’s war. And although the US was officially neutral, Britain did recruit 620,000 men (volunteers) to fight for the old empire of which 67,000 ultimately were killed and 250,000 wounded. In the meantime, Porto Rico (which included all of the Virgin Islands) joined confederation (March 2, 1917).

The negotiated Treaty of Versailles ended the war in 1920 after the ceasefire on November 11, 1919. Germany had forced the collapse of Tsarist Russia by late 1917, but their surge on the Western Front had ultimately failed to capture Paris, and by then Germany was on its knees due to the economic blockade leading to widespread starvation, there was famine and the growing menace of Communist revolution.
 
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TTL Treaty of Versailles will be essentially the same as OTL. Germany will actually be allowed to negotiate but in the end be forced to sign the treaty due to its deteriorating domestic situation. This is because Germany is not in such a (militarily) bad position as OTL (being further dug in in France), so the same provisions as last time, even without US influence. The French agreed because the military equation is not so far in the Allies' favour as OTL. And no League of Nations of course. Also Germany keeps its colonies.
 
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A Nation of Immigrants
In the long nineteenth century up to 1965, a vast and unprecedented migration of peoples, the likes of which history had never seen and would never see again, changed utterly the demographic makeup of North America. By the time it can be said to have finished, and new restrictions set in place, the population of the US had swelled past 200 million. They came from diverse and faraway parts of the globe.

Prior to the 1850s, British and Irish settlers were by far the largest cohort, but steadily an increasing number of Germans, Dutch, and Scandinavians trickled in. By 1860, they had become the dominant immigrants. Around this time, Chinese immigration began to pour into the Pacific Northwest mostly as indentured labourers at first, but when communities had been firmly established, as regular immigrants. While Italian, Polish, Jewish, and East European immigration too began to grow in steady numbers. By 1890, these had replaced the Germans as the dominant group. Around this time also, a great number of Christians from the Ottoman Empire (in what is now Lebanon, Syria, Egypt) saw great promise in the United States and immigrated. Japanese immigration also began to pour into the Pacific Northwest, Alaska, and of course Hawaii. Spanish immigration also grew strongly in this period, seeking to escape the poverty of an increasingly dysfunctional Spain, they settled in Cuba and the Spanish territories.

Immigration into the United States prior to 1965 was controlled by the states, so it was essentially free. The only thing states had been able to agree on was a ban on mentally impaired immigrants/one had to be sound of mind (1891), a ban on anarchists (1903), a ban on those deemed a menace to society in their mannerisms, appearance, or past known activities (1907), a requirement of literacy which included the ability to read and fill in an immigration form in the language of their choice (1917), a ban on immigrants entering as indentured labourers (1918), and a ban on those known to engage in subversive and radical politics of all sorts (1924).

But enforcement was always patchy and decentralized. Nevertheless, states that did enact harsh immigration laws were simply circumnavigated by immigrants entering a state with a much easier, or free immigration policy. Intra-migration between states was after all not subject to regulation at all. Cuba in particular made for a popular state of entry as it had very free immigration laws after it joined confederation in 1895. On the West Coast, New Columbia proved to be the most popular for immigrating East Asians who might have faced discrimination entering other states.

The new ethnic groups immigrating into the US often liked to migrate and cluster in particular regional parts of the country, populating it, and settling down roots together alongside familiar souls. While English eventually became the lingua franca in the country, it was not until the 1960s that this managed to occur, helped by the construction of ubiquitous interstate highways and airports that successfully linked the country.

The Spanish settled mostly in Cuba, Santo Domingo, Porto Rico, and Louisiana. The Chinese settled the Pacific Northwest including New Columbia and Oregon with some also into Northern California and the San Francisco Bay area. The Japanese were dominant in Hawaii and Alaska. The Scandinavians, Scots and Irish settled in Canada, Manitoba, areas around the Great Lakes. Germans were dominant in the Midwest, Texas, Saskatchewan, Athabasca, alongside East Europeans. Italians, the Dutch and Jews settled the Atlantic states, stretching as far south as Virginia. English immigration was strong throughout in Nova Scotia and New England, but also in Carolina and the Appalachian states, especially Tennessee. The Middle Eastern Christians preferred Florida, Carolina, and the Deep South. There was also Francophone immigration into Louisiana and Lower Canada from French Black colonies of the Caribbean. On the other hand the Mountain states were more hybrid (settled by a mixture of Germans, East Europeans, Poles, English, Irish), but with a relatively high concentration of religious groups immigrating west to found their own utopias (like in Utah). California as well, being one of the most attractive states to immigrate to, saw an extremely hybrid population.

As such many of the new states settled felt little attachment for Britain or the Crown, or even to Washington. National unity was still a long way off, the distances were vast, and political and cultural identities regional. Many states retained very strong cultural practices and customs similar to the countries where the immigrants had come from. Indeed, there was often chaos in the initial years, as some kind of government and authority was still being agreed upon, and old ethnic and sectarian tensions came to boil. This often forced authorities from other states or even Washington to arrive and mediate between the factions before a sufficient compromise was negotiated and a territorial government of sorts set up.

But ultimately those who arrived and immigrated were also the ones who cared least about such old relations back home, and so in a new country and territory, they were often able to set aside old and past differences, and create something new, a new kind of relationship with their fellow ethnic kin that led to the rapid development and building of communities, economies, and ultimately cities all in the great vastness of North America.
 
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Honestly I find it hard to believe that World War One and Two would both occur in a TL with such an early POD. You have to have a pretty big butterfly net to get such things. But its your TL.
 
Honestly I find it hard to believe that World War One and Two would both occur in a TL with such an early POD. You have to have a pretty big butterfly net to get such things. But its your TL.
Yeah I get what you mean totally. It makes no sense for many things to turn out exactly the same if the POD is 1774, random butterflies would change all the states and all the borders and all the eventual wars happening everywhere. But my focus is less on what realistically would have happened given a 1774 POD, and what plausibly could have happened. After all actual history could have turned out very differently as well, but somehow it all fitted together as it did plausibly. That's what my focus is on. Creating a series of events that could have plausibly happened like OTL, but with some important differences. After all the US was isolationist until WW2. My intention is to have an isolationist USA largely throughout and think out the (large) butterflies that happen post WW2.

But for that to work, the same stuff has to largely happen up to WW2. I also can't exactly start a POD in WW1 and expect an isolationist US. A superpower is going to play a large role in the world in some way or another. I contemplated starting in the 1860s and dismembering the union in the Civil War but that's been done way too many times already. But what about a TL where the US is so large, powerful, diverse, that it is both unable to act cohesively, find a consensus, and is more complacent about its position and less worried about the outside world? Or at least, the US finds it much more difficult to act decisively in any way because it's not united as in OTL. For that to happen, I needed to forestall American independence, and make the US only gradually find its national identity.
 
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Just caught up with this TL, nice work! What is the flag like? Union Jack with stars and stripes? And also, what happened to Central America in this TL and how was Panama acquired from Colombia?
 
Just caught up with this TL, nice work! What is the flag like? Union Jack with stars and stripes? And also, what happened to Central America in this TL and how was Panama acquired from Colombia?
It's officially union jack with thirteen red and white stripes. Except since US confederated in 1818, after Great Britain became the United Kingdom of GB and Ireland, the union jack has the red cross of St. Patrick too.

But unofficially the alternate "stars and stripes" flag has long been circulating among supporters of a republic and those who wanted to deemphasize ties with Britain.

As for Panama, it was acquired by Britain in the Napoleonic Wars. After Napoleon invaded Spain and installed his brother on the Spanish throne, most of the Spanish colonies stayed loyal to the deposed Spanish Bourbon king at that time. However New Granada unilaterally declared independence, and since Britain was officially fighting on the behalf of the Bourbon king, the Royal Navy invaded Panama alongside the Continental Navy. In 1814 peace treaty, it was ceded to Britain as they wanted it for its strategic location.

Much later, when the Panama Canal was trying to be built (with great difficulty), the US bought the canal rights from the British commercial venture and finished the canal in 1903. Since the US owned the canal outright and plenty of US immigrants/workers had moved there to build it, Panama decided to join confederation. (It was mostly english speaking by then.) Britain allowed it in exchange for perpetual canal rights where British vessels would not be charged tolls.
 
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Splendid Isolation
Small update as we skip over quickly to WW2, as much of the buildup happens pretty much like OTL.


The interwar period started off with a great economic boom helped by the war stimulus of the previous decade which did a great deal to help pay back the massive debts incurred funding Britain in WW1. Noteworthy events include Santo Domingo’s entry into the confederation (July 12, 1924) and continued isolationism from Europe being the new norm for US foreign policy after the horrors of WW1 battlefields spooked the public.

The Great Depression hit in the 1930s and was a major factor for the renewed militarization and political instability rocking the world. Britain would escape the worst of it, as they were financially still in a relatively good position. The US on the other hand, who had carried Britain’s entire financial load for WW1 (and saw the introduction of a new income tax to help pay for it), experienced a severe financial crisis that led to economic depression. But ultimately it was Germany that was most badly affected. Having been forced to pay a huge indemnity for WW1, and with no reprieve or soft loans offered by the British or the Americans (as it was blocked by the French who wanted to continue weakening them), the German economy simply collapsed.

Hitler newly elected, began his aggressive actions around this time, and France alone was unable to hold him in check as Britain was noncommittal and wanted to appease Germany to secure the peace. Hitler also carried out systematic persecution of Jews that caused over half a million German Jews to immigrate to the US, the US still had essentially a free immigration system at this time with no caps to entry or ethnic quotas. By the end of WW2 more than a million additional refugees would have fled Europe for the US.

The main reason why the US did not intervene in Europe during WW2 (even though popular sentiment was much more favourable than in WW1) was because of resurgent Cuban nationalism. Because the Spanish-speaking Caribbean state was extremely against any intervention whatsoever, the federal government was afraid to budge to avoid fanning the flames of separatism. Despite official US neutrality however, 1.1 million did volunteer to join British expeditionary forces either in Europe as many despised Hitler and Fascism or to help defend the empire in Asia from the Japanese, but unlike the higher WW1 death tolls there were only 44,000 deaths and 54,000 wounded.

And similar to WW1, the Federal government gave massive war aid to Britain to help fight and stand up to Hitler. Having only just emerged from the last financial crisis supporting Britain, the decision led to unrest throughout the nation as various states protested. It was also done unconditionally this time with only British technical help being requested in military modernization. The US at this time was attempting to get out of the Great Depression by supplying Britain in WW2 and by modernizing and expanding its own armed forces in response to the threats posed by the rest of the world. In response to the restive ethnic Chinese populations of the Pacific Northwest, US placed oil sanctions on Japan for its invasion of China but that proved moot once Japan began its invasion of the Dutch East Indies that possessed ample reserves.
 
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The World at War
In Europe, Hitler’s successful conquest of France and his pact with Stalin’s USSR had left Britain struggling to survive in the midst of constant aerial warfare with the Luftwaffe. The US would covertly send thousands of pilots along with the latest US planes to help defend Britain in the air war, as a way of gaining aerial warfare experience and as a testing ground for new aircraft and tactics.

Hitler however broke off his pact with Stalin in 1941 to invade the USSR and despite making rapid advances, the Germans were turned back at Stalingrad. Stalin at this time approached the US for aid, but was refused, with the Americans pointing out that Stalin and Hitler were former allies. By early 1947 after brutal fighting for years, Berlin had fallen and the war in Europe was over. By 1945, Britain had launched a counterattack landing on the beaches of Normandy and by 1947 it had liberated all of France, Belgium, Netherlands, and Norway. All other countries including Italy and all of Germany surrendered to the USSR.

The US had been watching all this in trepidation. In addition to rearming and modernizing its military forces, it had been working on a secret, trump weapon in particular to ensure the final guarantee that no power would dare declare war on the country. In 1945, the US exploded the first atomic bomb in New Mexico.

Stalin however had numerous spies embedded in the project, and by early 1949 it had followed suit with its own test though Stalin chose to keep the news completely under wraps. East Asia by this time was under dominant Japanese control. The Japanese had largely conquered China proper (despite constant guerrilla attacks), and all of South East Asia except the Philippines/Spanish East Indies as the Japanese were still neutral with Spain. In 1942, stung by the US oil embargo, Japan had declared war on the Allies, including Britain, France, Netherlands and quickly captured all its colonies. By 1947, they had attempted an invasion of India and Australia and its forces were now mired in conflict there. Australia had nearly fallen and the Japanese were only being held at bay by hundreds of thousands of US and British expeditionary forces fighting alongside the Australians. In particular, one US general fighting under British colours would make his name renowned for desert and tank warfare in the Australian outback. Despite being outnumbered and with little chance of resupply, Patton had managed to keep the Japanese at bay for a period of nearly two years up until 1949 using captured enemy weaponry and supplies to sustain his troops. Another renowned general and later prime minister, Eisenhower reached the rank of Field Marshal in Europe and was instrumental in leading the retaking of France, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

(What the Japanese intended to do with Australia is a matter of contention for historians. Lenient interpretations say that Japanese documents specifying the “getting rid of the whites” simply implied deportation to Britain or the US. Clearly they intended for the mass settlement of Japanese in Australia to relieve the pressure of the crowded home islands. Harsher interpretations point to possible genocide or at the very least herding the whites into concentration camps, possibly reservations, similar to the existing Aboriginals that would gradually whittle down their numbers over time)

The Japanese campaigns in India started off well as they were joined by a large faction and contingent of Indian politicians who wanted to use this opportunity to throw off British rule. Japan declared its intention for an India free and independent of British rule and as a result it split the Indian political establishment. A minority were willing to side with Japan, despite their pressing for concessions, they would be allowed to annex Sri Lanka and various other European enclaves such as French Pondicherry, Portuguese Goa, ect. The majority however were skeptical of Japanese intentions pointing out that Japanese imperialism in Asia was far worse than anything Britain had ever done and instead wanted to cooperate with the British who had promised India independence following the end of their war against Hitler. As the country tinkered on the brink of civil war, Winston Churchill was persuaded to issue a unilateral telegram to Delhi where he specified India could become an independent constitutional monarchy immediately, with the British monarch remaining head of state. As a result, Japan lost support from all its previous supporters, but decided to proceed with the invasion anyway. They made little headway however due to the unfamiliar and frequently inhospitable terrain of the region, severe logistical challenges, and determined Indian resistance galvanized by their country’s recent declaration of independence.

Britain would follow suit by allowing Burma to become an independent constitutional monarchy (even though the country was still under de facto Japanese control) and General Slim was instrumental in maintaining a guerrilla force in the Burmese highlands that disrupted supply lines flowing into India as the Japanese had invaded through Burma into Assam and made naval landings in the Ganges delta.

In late 1949 however, the Soviets declared war on Japan and invaded Manchuria swiftly driving out the Japanese forces there. They proceeded to the Korean peninsula and their rapid success forced the evacuation of 500,000 Japanese troops. Soviet land forces were vastly more experienced than their Japanese counterparts after eight gruelling years of warfare with Hitler and possessed much more modern weaponry. The Japanese however, knew they had a superior navy which they quickly used to knock out the tiny Soviet pacific fleet, and bomb Vladivostok. However with the bulk of the Japanese navy stationed off the Korean peninsula to oversee the evacuation, Stalin saw the opportunity to strike.

Three atomic bombs decimated much of the Imperial Japanese navy, sinking twelve carriers in total and all their escorts. The Soviets followed that by bombing Kokura, Niigata, and most devastating of all Yokohama, to show they were utterly serious and had a steady production supply of atomic bombs ready to be used. Stalin demanded that all Japanese forces return to the home islands or Kyoto and Tokyo would be bombed next. Stalin also threatened to wipe out Japanese civilization off the face of the earth for the benefit of mankind.

With that the emperor intervened in his cabinet for the first time in a generation. Peace talks between the Soviets and Japanese began, and by the end of it Japan was withdrawing all its troops from the rest of Asia. Japanese territory would be limited to the Home Islands, USSR would annex all of Sakhalin and the Kurils, but there would be no foreign occupation, no new constitution, no change in the divine status of the emperor, and no disarmament. Needless to say the Japanese were not at all satisfied with the terms and the swift reversal of fortunes, many burned with hatred and desire for vengeance in the future, and Japan immediately accelerated its still nascent atomic program. The Pacific War had ended by late 1950.
 
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Superpower (USSR)
Triumphant, Stalin took the moniker “Saviour of Eurasia” and promised to defend Asia in the case of further Japanese aggression with the use of atomic bombs. He declared that through the Soviet people’s victory over Hitler and Fascist Japan, the Soviet people had liberated Europe and Asia. Which meant that they were now the undisputed boss of all proceedings and the world’s entitled superpower. And indeed, the combination of this irresistible Soviet propaganda, and underhand Soviet power plays and push for influence, saw all of continental Europe, even the countries liberated by the UK (France, Belgium, Netherlands, Norway) vote for socialist/communist parties. These war torn countries were still suffering greatly economically, no country had yet come to their aid, and their populace was fed up with war which they blamed on the capitalist classes. The UK, itself badly damaged, was in no position to protest.

The USSR also annexed Baltic states, Finland, and a large tract of Eastern Europe including Poland, forming 17 Soviet republics in total. (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Byelorussia, Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kirghizia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldavia, Poland, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan)

Elated, Stalin encouraged (pushed) these newly elected Communist governments to immediately embark on decolonization. So by late 1951, all French, Portuguese, Dutch, German, Spanish, Italian colonies had achieved independence, including those the Soviets liberated from Japan. Franco too, pragmatically decided to appease Stalin by withdrawing from the Philippines and North Africa and in return Stalin allowed him to seize Gibraltar from the British. With one swift stroke, Stalin had redrawn the map and gained a whole host of sympathetic independent nations. Stalin then proclaimed the USSR to be the saviour of the Third World.

Britain of course was watching all this with trepidation on their little island. For all its history, its foreign policy had been predicated on preventing an European hegemon, and now the USSR was the hegemon of Europe. The UK had learned of the Soviet atomic bomb success in 1949 through expert code breaking machines, but they had failed to warn the Japanese because they had also wanted Japan defeated to relieve the pressure on Australia and India. In 1948, with the war in Europe over, and Stalin transferring his forces East, they approached the US with requests for a nuclear guarantee over Britain. The US fearful of nuclear conflict with Stalin, instead offered to aid Britain’s fledging nuclear program. In exchange, Britain would allow the crown colony of Newfoundland to join the confederation. Newfoundland at that time was in the midst of a financial crisis and the UK could no longer afford to keep subsidizing it. And so with additional perks negotiated (including the attaching of British Labrador to the new state) and the federal government taking over its debts, the renamed Newfoundland and Labrador agreed to confederation (March 31, 1949)

Seeing that this was still a golden opportunity to make his move, before the British could successfully get their hands on the atomic bomb, Stalin began his play of blackmail diplomacy with nuclear-armed strategic bombers taking off from Communist France and Germany and flying perilously close to London. The still formidable Royal Navy, essentially helpless to defend the island due to the fact that the atomic bombs would blow them to shreds in the Channel, backed off. Stalin continued his escalating threats by first allowing Communist France to seize and annex the Channel Islands. Argentina likewise annexed the Falklands. Then supplying advanced weaponry to the IRA, (in addition to about ninety thousand covert Soviet “volunteer brigades”) they successfully drove British forces out of Northern Ireland. Ireland had been reunified and liberated from British imperialism, Stalin claimed. This would set the stage for decades of unrest as the North Irish would attempt to repeatedly secede from the Catholic Irish Republican state.

With these threats and the constant menace of Stalin alluding to the nuclear destruction of London, USSR managed to coerce and secure the agreement for the decolonization of all British colonies using the threat of nuclear weapons from the new Labour government elected in 1950. This was in addition to India, Pakistan, Burma, ect which had already become independent. Winston Churchill, before his government had lost power, had beseeched the US to intervene for the sake of old friendship, for the sake of old ties, for the sake of your love for the old country and for the Crown, but the US had rebuffed his pleas. The US informed Britain coldly that they were supportive of the Soviets in principle because colonialism and imperialism were wrongs that should be righted, and Britain had no right to rule vast tracts of Africa or Asia without the consent of the people living there. Churchill stormed out, famously branding the Americans as incredibly naive with regards to Soviet intentions.

And as Churchill predicted, the USSR used its influence, aid and ideological power to gain virtual satellite states in many of the newly independent countries. The vast majority of these newly independent colonies became outright authoritarian communist states, whose leaders were sympathetic to the USSR and aligned with them to enhance their own authoritarian power, and also because the claims communism made about fighting imperialism and for the proletariat gave the perfect cover for their own authoritarianism and genocidal policies.

Britain finally exploded its bomb in 1952, but with still no means to deliver it to the USSR. To make amends over their admitted lapse of judgement, the US sold to Britain a hundred of their newest B-52 bombers that were better than anything the Soviets could yet make, and which could reach Russia flying from Britain.
 
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The Spanish States
The Spanish states, collectively referring to the states of Cuba, Santo Domingo, and Porto Rico were acquired as territories controversially in the 1850s and 1860s by the US and had since developed extensive economic ties with the mainland. The US since then had adopted a laissez-faire policy where they neither attempted assimilation with regards to language, culture, recognizing instead their rich heritage. At the same time the US gave them complete autonomy and promoted democratic representative self-rule.

Migration to and from other states had happened over the years and a great number of Cubans, Dominicans, and Porto Ricans had left in search for greater economic opportunity, while mostly entrepreneurs, intellectuals, and skilled workers had migrated to the islands in the opposite direction from the US. The islands also welcomed new immigrants from Europe, mostly poor migrants from Spain attracted there due to the shared language and much better economic prospects compared to back home.

Economically, Cuba had experienced a boom from the 1880s onwards, while Santo Domingo and Porto Rico remained relative backwaters compared to the rest of the US. Nevertheless railroads, telegraph lines, ports, roads, and other essential infrastructure was quickly built due to US investment. Sugar, fruits and precious minerals flowed into the US while US manufactories, capital and investment flowed back into the Caribbean territories.

Nevertheless the question of identity was always at the heart of the Spanish territories, soon to be turned states. But it did not arise immediately, rather the question emerged as following the economic success of the Caribbean islands, and as its populace became increasingly educated and literate.

At its heart was the Spanish language question, and whether that afforded Cuba, Santo Domingo, Porto Rico a national identity, distinct from the US (and by extension Britain). The US had brought wealth, accountability, an end to slavery, and democracy to these territories, there was no question about that, something that no other power had ever done. But could these territories ever really be a part of the US, or would they forever remain to be ruled by the US, that is from the mainland. In mentality at least, the intellectuals asserted that as distinctive islands, the mainland could never be anything other than the rulers and the islands subordinate in an unequal relationship, essentially a colonial one. And so the islands needed to break free to recover their own dignity and political identity.

On the other hand, Cuba’s accession into the Confederation was agreed upon by the populist party that was in power at that time, who were pro-statehood. But it was bitterly resisted by the intellectuals of the opposing party. This was of course the inexorable cosmopolitan metropolitan hubs vs the peripheral regional areas divide. The former were in favour of a Spanish republic and were composed of secular intellectuals, the well-educated, the urban industrial workers and unions once Cuba industrialized. The latter (comprising rural workers, religious folk, capitalists and business owners, former slaves, and landowners) were in favour of statehood.

By this time, Havana had developed into one of the world’s great metropolitan hubs of sophistication, culturally world renowned, and as a bohemian destination and hot spot for cultured, privileged travellers who hopped around the world’s brightest cities. It’s increasingly multicultural population was one of the most diverse in the world attracting immigrants from all over Europe, the rest of Latin America, Jews, Middle Eastern Christians, Africans from British colonies, and even Asia. It soon became a rite of passage of sorts for young, rich, freshman Americans from well-known families to make a trip to Havana to see some “civilization.” This was in addition to the European Grand Tour of course. Santo Domingo was also an important port and secondary place of attraction for visitors and immigrants. Culture from the Caribbean states was also beginning to affect the mainland too, especially the equally cosmopolitan Atlantic seaboard states.

To try and satisfy the intellectuals of Havana and elsewhere who asserted an independent Spanish political identity, the Federal government made Spanish the third federal language. All federal languages were equal at least nominally under the law, and none were set above another. All federal statutes agreed by states for example were written in all three languages, as were all government documents and civilian passports. Translators at Parliament allowed for any of the three languages to be spoken and used for debate and discussion. The United States was formally proclaimed as a confederation with three languages, trilingual in its very essence and being but the intellectuals dismissed this as political fiction. After all it was the case that absolutely nobody spoke Spanish on the mainland, while English was little used in Cuba, Santo Domingo, or Porto Rico (though actually growing rapidly).

Santo Domingo and Porto Rico were not so nationalistic as Cuba however. In particular Santo Domingo had received a great many immigrants over the years, that diluted its original inhabitants and their desire to recover the territory’s former independence. There was also the factor of Haiti that the Dominicans always wished to contrast themselves from, and being a part of the United States was sufficient in emphatically making that point. Porto Rico’s nationalism was tempered by the island’s relatively small size which made its inhabitants accept that they were a local identity within a greater one, that was somewhere else faraway that they had little practical contact with. The US had also folded the Virgin Islands into Porto Rico proper, and thus Porto Rican inhabitants were somewhat flattered and mollified by this.
 
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The Great American Republic
To solidify their status as the world’s preeminent superpower and overlord of Eurasia, the USSR had created the first ever League of Nations, as an international body with representatives from all nations to settle disputes and deliberate about world peace. Stalin even invited Britain and the US to join. It headquarters was in Leningrad (formerly St. Petersburg) Stalin also moved the capital of the USSR to Leningrad to distinguish it from Moscow, which remained the capital of Russia Soviet Republic. At the height of his success, and having purged all his rivals imagined or real, Stalin died in 1953.

Legend has it that the United States attended the first meeting of the League of Nations in 1952, and had been roundly lectured by the Soviet Union and its numerous like-minded nations (newly independent former colonies, now communist states) for being an illegitimate state, forged by British colonialism and the conquest and genocide of Native Indians, that did not have the right to exist and should be broken up just like how the British Empire was broken up and its colonies made independent. Unsurprisingly the Americans never attended another meeting again and withdrew. Britain stayed as they viewed the organization as a worthwhile link to the Soviets in terms to diplomacy that was worth numerous, lengthy tongue-lashings of their “historic crimes.”

To gain further support and influence over some of the newly independent countries of the Middle East (Iraq, Syria, Egypt, ect), the Soviets had forced the British to give up its plans for a Jewish homeland in Palestine, and opted for an all-Arab Palestinian state. Deliberate persecution and state-inflicted violence and appropriation of property soon persuaded hundreds of thousands of Jews to emigrate from Palestine, mostly to the United States. The Palestinian government claimed they were merely reclaiming majority Jewish areas for the Palestinians as the Jews had immigrated illegally during the years of British rule. The minority that would remain would engage in a vicious guerrilla war with the Palestinians, targeting and killing many Palestinian civilians in the process. Many Jews would also carry out terrorist attacks against other Middle East and European countries and occasionally against the US as well for having failed the Jewish people and taken part in a global conspiracy to kill and persecute Jews everywhere from Europe and the Middle Ages to the Holocaust, to Palestine. So the (secular) Jews were striking back against their oppressors of history, while the religious conservatives remained pacifist and accepting of the Jewish fate prior to the coming of the Messiah. So anti-semitism remained rife in the Middle East and in the West in response to Zionist terrorism, despite the vast majority of moderate Jews condemning such activities.

The spread of Communism throughout the 50s continued unabated in the wake of decolonization and Soviet influence. By 1960, Communism was dominant in Africa, South and Central America, all of Asia except India and Japan, and continental Europe (except Spain). India while a democracy was also heavily pro-Soviet and socialist. Ireland pursued socialist-like policies but rejected the label officially because it was anti-religion. US trade and offshoring of manufacturing on the other hand prevented leftist elements from taking power violently in Mexico and Haiti.

By 1960, Japan too had exploded its atomic bomb, but they lacked the ability to deliver it where it really mattered, namely Moscow and European Russia. Also the fact that none of the now Communist nations of Asia were trading with Japan, meant that Japan lacked the natural resources to really build up and sustain a massive military or a massive arsenal of nuclear weapons as they had little access to uranium. Japan also knew that trade with the US was conditional on them not engaging in military aggression abroad. They had managed to develop nuclear weapons only with the uranium the US had sold them, ostensibly to be used for civilian nuclear energy purposes.

The republican movement in the US had a long history. From the earliest days in 1774 and then repeated delays to Britain allowing self-rule by the colonies, to the Southern states’ resentment of British enforcing an end to slavery in 1833, to 1837 over anger of the British treatment of Canada (then Quebec), the movement had been pacified somewhat due to Lincoln’s negotiations with the British crown over the status of the United States following a surge of jingoistic patriotism in the 1850s that had seen the US engage in three wars of expansion. In WW1, the movement was revived as a means to stay disengaged from European wars, and by WW2 it was clear that unless the US became free of the British crown entirely, Cuban separatism would not be easily suppressed.

The 1950s were also a traumatizing time for Britain. With the loss of their empire and Ireland, the British felt surrounded by enemies and Communist fanatics on all sides. Until 1952, Britain also had no means of defending themselves against a preemptive Soviet nuclear attack. The Labour government had tried adopting a policy of appeasement to the USSR with regards to decolonization, enacting quasi-socialist economic policies and not daring to speak out against Stalin’s purges and Communist atrocities worldwide as they sought to expand and eliminate the “bourgeois.” This led to popular dissatisfaction and the reelection of Conservative and Winston Churchill as prime minister in 1951.

It was Churchill who first proposed giving in to the demands of the republican movement. The US he declared, needed to be emancipated so that it could take a more active role in world affairs. That so long as the United States felt burdened under the yoke of British rule or dominion, imagined or otherwise, it would not be so inclined to take up the weight of the world either.

Secret negotiations began in earnest, and even though Churchill was replaced as prime minister in 1955, they continued. In 1959, an agreement had been reached. Alaska (January 3, 1959) and Hawaii (August 21, 1959) became the final states (49th and 50th) and a referendum was held soon after in all 50 states. To the surprise of all, every state voted with a majority for a republic, even Newfoundland and Labrador who had joined confederation only 10 years earlier and had close historic ties with Britain. (by a margin of 50.4% to 49.6%) The fact of British decline and the perception of its demise of power contributed greatly to how the vote turned out. In any case the date of July 4th was chosen again due to its historical significance as the day confederation had been originally established (July 4, 1818). So on July 4, 1960 the United States became a republic and Queen Elizabeth the Second officially and willingly renounced and abdicated her title as Empress of the United States of America. In exchange, the US would sign a military treaty guaranteeing Britain, Australia, and New Zealand against the USSR.
 
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The Cross Atlantic Relationship
The cross atlantic relationship between the US and Britain of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries has been a subject of fascinating study by scholars and historians who debate both the intentions and motivations of both parties, which led to the positions and decisions each would end up taking. The relationship to be considered of course was one in constant flux and change as both parties reinterpreted the other and shifted their positions and expectations as a result. However historians identify several turning points in the history which are usefully seen as markers or watershed moments.

In the early nineteenth century in the immediate aftermath of the US confederation, Britain’s attitude towards the US was essentially still viewing the relationship as a colonial one, with Britain solidly seeing itself as the mother country of the fledgling United States to whom obedience was expected. Although Britain was careful not to intervene in US internal affairs with the exception of the Slavery Legislation of 1833, the relationship was very much a case defined by Britain’s generosity and granting of privileges, as if they needed to be granted in the first place. In this sense Britain saw itself as a benefactor and as a enlightened ruler. Although Britain had only agreed to confederation under duress in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars, it was still the case that the US had to concede this particular form of flattery to Britain in exchange for concessions. And in return, Britain received its obedience.

A turning point is often considered to be the 1837 Rebellions of Canada, and the US intervention on their behalf. This particular subordination displayed quite clearly to Britain that they were losing control and power over their colonies and that their ability to inspire awe was clearly in decline. Thus Britain turned to the strategy of concessions and more concessions to reestablish its majesty and the dependency of its dominions. This was successful until the US wars of expansion in the 1850s, when an entirely new strategy was required to pacify the enthusiastic, prideful spirits generated by victorious wars.

Lincoln’s agreement with Britain would set the tone and official laws and rules of the relationship for nearly a century thereafter. It is often considered as one of the greatest achievements of international law in history, a reworking of the mechanics of sovereignty that nevertheless preserved nominally at least, Britain’s preeminence in the relationship, while at the same time satisfying American desires for official autonomy as their "own nation."

As we can often seen there is a common trend between victorious wars and concessions or renegotiations made to the official “relationship”. The first was the Seven Years War that led to Britain’s agreement to self-rule in the colonies. The second was the Napoleonic Wars that led to agreement on Confederation. The third was unrest in Canada. The fourth were the wars of New Imperialism in the 1850s. The fifth was the World Wars that devastated Britain, changed the geopolitical landscape of Europe, and thus led to a renegotiation of the “relationship”.

Acknowledging British weakness in the aftermath of the World Wars, especially the second, the British government was willing to offer further concessions to the US in exchange for their support. Here the change is often considered to be more symbolic, than substantial. However Britain knew that to the public, the change was far more than mere symbolism, but meant really the new birth of a nation, or the rebirth of a nation. Realizing that real power, Britain was willing to exercise it. In the face of anti-war movements, isolationists, and republicans, Britain was able to silence those voices to gain what it wanted, an American commitment to their security in the face of the Soviet threat. So by allowing the US to become a republic, it was able to achieve what it needed for itself, an exchange of British concessions for American commitment that already had long precedent before this.

Interpretations of the American side of the relationship generally focus on the hidden resentment, passive resistance towards Britain, in conflict with the awe and loyalty that Britain attempted to inspire. This was due to the real, genuine shared cultural, historical links that tied the US to Britain. These links were only gradually eroded during the long course of the nineteenth century that saw tens of millions of non-British immigrants flooding into the states. But they left an important legacy that would not be so easily forgotten. In the context of the 20th century, the US’s repeated inability to act in the aid of Britain against Germany or Japan, led many to interpret these as acts of fighting back against such a legacy, as a reiteration of US independence and sovereignty.

The cross-atlantic relationship does not merely refer to the history of relations between these two countries but also US relations with the rest of Europe, as ostensibly a British dominion. US resentment towards Britain in the late nineteenth century was further solidified by Britain’s support of fellow European powers in their attempt to establish protectorates and spheres of influence in Latin America. This was something that the US political establishment and public were very much against, but these concerns were brushed away. Thus we have Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala falling under the sphere of influence of Germany, with the latter two becoming outright protectorates. Brazil, Venezuela, Peru was given over to Britain with Honduras becoming a protectorate. Chile, Ecuador, Uruguay fell under the French sphere of influence with Nicaragua a French protectorate. And Paraguay and El Salvador falling under Italian sphere of influence. Over US protests, the Europeans divided Latin America between themselves.

Such moves by European colonial powers is often cited as an explanation to why the US wars of expansion in the 1850s happened. US was attempting to push back against Spanish attempts to regain its former influence in the Caribbean (bringing slavery along with it). It’s invasion of Mexico was an attempt to demonstrate to European powers that Mexico was off-limits to their influence, and indeed fell under the US sphere of influence. Similarly, the annexation of Santo Domingo in 1869 effectively placed Haiti as out of reach to European powers.
 
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A New Constitution
It had been a matter of contention for the third Continental Congress as to what type of government the United States of America should have once it became a republic.

The United States for all this time had been a Parliamentary Constitutional Monarchy. It had a Parliament with two houses, the Upper House was the Senate and each state had two representatives. The Lower House was called Congress and seats were apportioned to states based on the population of each state. How the state then divided those seats was of no concern to the Federal government, some used proportional representation while others preferred first past the post single member constituencies.

The Senate was presided over by the Governor General acting in the Monarch’s place, who had been appointed by the Queen/Monarch herself on the advice of the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister was elected out of the party or coalition of parties that held a majority in Congress. Senators held office on six year terms divided into two classes with elections being held every three years. Congress and the Prime Minister on the other hand had five year terms though Congress could be dissolved early.

The states themselves had wide ranging democratic governments. Some had a parliamentary system similar to the US as a whole, while others had a strong executive system. Premiers would be elected through any kind of democratic system, and they would be approved and formally appointed into office by the Lieutenant Governors of the state. The Lieutenant governor was the Monarch’s representative for each state and served a symbolic purpose. They were appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister. Term lengths for political office in states ranged from anything between two to four years.

Now that the US was to become a republic however, there were two competing groups. The US at this time had five major political parties, the Republicans who were centrist and strongly favoured the republican cause, this being their only unifying creed. The Democratic Party was protectionist and pacifist and railed against corporatism and the influence of tycoon industrialists who they felt had too much sway in government. They found support from intellectuals and the highly educated. The Liberal Party was supported by the working class, industrial workers and trade union types. The Conservative Party found support from the gentile class and rural landowners. They were the only party actively in favour of keeping the status quo rather than embrace republicanism. And lastly the Federalist Party was in favour of a greater centralization of power to Washington. In later years after the US became a republic, the Republicans would move to centre-right.

The Third Continental Congress formed in early 1960 was divided between a presidential and a non-presidential parliamentary system. Now that a new head of state had to be elected, a president, rather than the Queen/King, there was serious debate as to how this was going to happen. The Federalists, Republicans supported an executive presidency. While the Liberals, Democrats, and the Conservatives favoured a symbolic presidency with all power remaining in the hands of the Prime Minister and Congress with the Prime Minister continuing to be totally accountable to Congress and Parliament. The executive presidency supporters on the other hand wanted executive power to be given over to the President who would be elected by a separate electoral college.

In the end a compromise was achieved. The US would become a semi-presidential republic. It would remain a Federal country, there was absolutely no question of that, with a weak federal government that prioritized the protection of state rights. Much remained the same, for example the three federal languages marking the trilingual status of the country. The supremacy of Parliament and Congress would be maintained. The Third Continental Congress aimed to emphasize continuity and as little disruption as possible.

What would change was that a new electoral college would be formed to elect the president. Each state would be given a number of votes in that college equal to the number of representatives that they were apportioned in Congress (lower house) plus their two Senators in the Senate. (upper house) That way the less populated states would have greater say in the Federal system.

The President would appoint a Prime Minister who would be the head of his government, but it would first have to be approved by Congress. In this way the President was essentially dependent on Congress, his power was conditional on his/her party controlling Congress. If an opposition party controlled Congress the President would have no choice but to appoint a Prime Minister from the opposite party that Congress would agree to approve. In such a situation, cohabitation becomes the norm where the Prime Minister and Congress controls domestic and economic policy while the President focuses on defence and foreign policy. Otherwise, when the President’s party controls Congress, the Prime Minister defers to the President and becomes his liaison with the friendly Congress. The prime minister would also no longer be a sitting member of Congress unlike a parliamentary system where the prime minister was elected out of Congress as a sitting member.

Congress would also see its length of a term decreased to four years from five. In addition it would now have a fixed term length similar to the Senate.

Presidents would be elected on five year terms and be limited to two terms in office. The Prime Minister would serve for as long as he retained the confidence of Congress, the President would have no right to dismiss the Prime Minister. Nor would the president have veto power over legislation passed by Congress and Parliament

The Senate no longer headed by the Governor General would be headed by the president. Congress would continue to be presided over by the Speaker. Impeachment of the president would require two thirds of Parliament (Senate and Congress). Supreme Court justices would continue to be appointed by the Senate alone. States would continue with the model of having elected premiers as head of government with lieutenant governors being officially the head of their states swearing them into office. Instead of the Governor General, Presidents now would appoint Lieutenant Governors on the advice of Premiers and they would serve a longer (single) eight year term.

The stars and stripes flag long a mainstay among circles that pushed for a republic was made the national flag replacing the old union jack with stripes. After some debate, the popular hymn America the Beautiful was made the national anthem. And so a republic was finally born.
 
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The Cold Peace
The era known as the Cold Peace was one fraught of tension and disturbing military buildup by the two acknowledged superpowers, the USSR which had emerged triumphant in the second world war and the fledging United States. However both superpowers did not confront each other directly, each being immersed with other problems.

For the USSR at first, it was the heavy burden and difficulty of managing their enormous sphere of influence, allies, of trying to keep and hold it all together in a way that preserved its preeminence. For the USSR soon found that while many third world countries, ostensibly under their thumb, looked to it for early guidance and advice, many soon came into nationalistic conflicts with one another. Soviet interventions in these intra-Communist conflicts provoked resentment and were costly, but without such, the USSR risked drifting into irrelevance in the eyes of these countries.

The real problem was that the USSR had no real girding system that tied all the countries together other than lip service about advancing socialism. There were geopolitical interests of course, but these inevitably pitted some countries against each other as well as with each other. These considerations were often also temporary by nature and did not suffice to establish lasting friendly ties.

For the US it was domestic problems that took precedent. The 1960s saw an explosion of social unrest due to the civil rights racial equality movement, many colourful social movements emerged out of the decade and it brought forth a new wave of idealism, as well as youthful attachment to elements of popular culture in society. In addition there was the Indian rights movement that sought to secure land and reservation rights as well as the right to preserve aspects of their indigenous culture. Indians would look to the federal government for help against states in legal cases. The federal government decreed that the tribes were sovereign and thus relations between them were the matter of the federal government to decide, as the federal government had exclusive rights to maintain relations with other sovereign entities. Thus the states could not intervene on their affairs or the administration of tribal lands as designated in the treaties.

Then there was the controversial expansion of the federal govt post 1960 to combat social inequality, with many new social programs being set up that bypassed state governments that expanded access to health care, higher education, and old age pensions. The extent of the federal government and its level of power vs states, saw a gradual expansion in this period, with many states resenting such. Nevertheless the US would remain the most decentralized country in the world by a large margin. People’s immediate loyalty, identification, point of reference, interest in politics remained with their state.

Then there was the issue of Cuban independence movement. In the aftermath of the US becoming a republic, Cuba began to assert a right to their own independent Spanish speaking republic claiming that the arrangement previously had been one tied to the British crown and that the new state of affairs meant that Cuba owed no automatic loyalty or allegiance to the new republican authorities. The US had gained its independence from Britain now it was the turn of Cuba. A referendum was prompted by organized violence, strikes by industrial workers. So in 1962 Washington granted a non-binding referendum, and the Cuban independence referendum was defeated 59.6% to 40.4%. Fear of Communism and uncertainty in the face of the Soviet threat and its allies undoubtedly persuaded many to vote to stay. Presumably Soviet threats and rhetoric to break up and force the decolonization of the United States aided the relatively new nation in maintaining its national unity

There was also the problem of lingering tensions between so-called French and English Canada in the Great Northern State as Canada was known. The Canadian state government finally offered Lower Canada who made up nearly 37% of the population, a French Language Community status modelled on the one from Belgium, in contrast to the English Language Community of Upper Canada, with Ottawa being the neutral state capital. This was done at the urging of the Federal government who backed the legitimate grievances of French Canada who complained always of being outvoted by their more numerous English counterparts, but also did not want to see the state split into two states which would affect Federal representation in the Senate. Unique to states, much political power in the aftermath would be wielded from Toronto and Quebec as the two language communities operated as autonomous regional governments rather than in the state capital of Ottawa. Thus the state government in Canada actually had much less power than in all the other states. (Although the Northwest Territories had a similar arrangement that devolved power to regional Inuit and Yukon authorities.)

1965 saw the first restrictions against immigration that heavily capped entries and based entry requirements on valuable skills. This was however a moot point as immigration had drastically fallen since the 1950s, with the exception of Palestinian Jews and those from Mexico or Haiti. That was because with the rest of the world turning Communist, such governments placed heavy restrictions on emigration in a bid to retain their skilled and educated classes, despite enacting policies that severely disadvantaged and persecuted them. US and British raised concerns over the treatment of the Bourgeois saw the Soviets sneering that the capitalist classes were being far more concerned with the Marie Antoinettes (who was executed for being an Austrian spy) of history than the millions oppressed by them (in response to mass Communist atrocities across Asia, Africa, Central/South America)

The Cold Peace for the US can be characterized as one of continued isolationism since WW2, with no participation in (Soviet) multilateral organizations such as the League of Nations or the World Socialist Development Bank. US and British military strategy against the USSR prioritized maintaining a stronger navy and air force with a tiny army or ground force by comparison. The rationale for that was for the Soviets to make war on the British island or the US or Australia and New Zealand, they would have no way of doing so other than crossing tracts of ocean. And therefore so long as Britain and the US maintained a superior navy (600 ship fleet) and air force, an invasion was next to impossible except with nuclear weapons. Therefore the two allies also strove to maintain a nuclear arsenal that was at least half the size of the USSR. This reached a peak of 31,000 for the USSR and 22,000 for US and Britain combined. Various nuclear arms agreements decreased stockpiles from the 1980s onward, and by the twenty first century the US stockpile had fallen to 540, Britain had abolished theirs, while Russia maintained 1550 nuclear weapons. Britain’s predicament also became less problematic after France left the Soviet orbit in 1966 and all Soviet troops were persuaded to withdraw. France thereafter while remaining nominally Socialist, neutral, and pursuing an independent foreign policy, would gradually reopen itself to US/British capital investment, trade, and markets.
 
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A New Era
The main tensions between the USSR and the US was the Soviet attempt to place ICBMs all across Latin America and the Caribbean in sympathetic countries, however a backlash in the region soon led to their withdrawal. The USSR was primarily preoccupied with affairs of the third world, and managing its sprawling collection of socialist allies, satellite states, and “mandates” (former European colonies/islands that were too small for independence). So for the most part the US, Britain was able to escape much attention.

The reason for the rapprochement of Western Europe and the US/Britain was simple economics. Communism had produced economic stagnation and misery on a wide scale and the polities of Western European countries were fed up with it by the 1970s. By contrast US and Britain had just seen a Golden Thirty years of economic growth. Socialist countries saw no reason why they could not blend robust social welfare and safety net systems with market, wealth inducing policies that clearly worked as a replacement for state command economies that clearly didn’t.

In 1979, France became the seventh country to test an atom bomb in a gesture of defiance to the USSR. The test and the development had been previously kept secret, and it demonstrated the Soviet’s inability to keep track of everything that was happening within their empire, as their various satellite states became more defiant of challenging Soviet power and preeminence. They joined the US (1945), USSR (1949), Britain (1952), Japan (1960), China (1964), India (1974). Pakistan (1998) and Korea (2006) would later join to become the world’s established Group of Nine nuclear powers.

By the 1980s, after decades of nationalistic conflict, Communist social experiments that produced millions of deaths, Western Europe, East Asia, South East Asia, Latin America, South Asia were opening up to US trade and investment after decades of economic and social stagnation. Mexico and Haiti by this time had become essentially developed countries with first world living standards which showed the potential of capitalist policies, previously derided as imperialist. While Western Europe quickly turned democratic in the aftermath, East Asia remains autocratic. South East Asia, South Asia and Latin America evolved into hybrid regimes. Middle East and Africa continues to be ruled by strongmen, sometimes masquerading as “socialists,” but they too turn capitalist to a degree. (These states would completely implode in the early years of the 21st century). The USSR, overstretched and declining economically in comparison was forced to gradually let these countries (even Germany) leave their satellite sphere of influence.

By the late 1980s, Eastern Europe too began its revolt demanding that Soviet forces leave their territory. This included states like Yugoslavia, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece that the USSR traditionally regarded as being in their core sphere of influence, being fellow Slavs in many cases or adherents to the Orthodox Church. It was no surprise that in a bid to retain their empire and in the wake of the losses worldwide and in Western Europe dealing a severe blow to their pride, that the Soviets chose the hard path.

War properly began in 1980 when Yugoslav militants began waging a guerrilla war against Soviet forces in their country. This quickly spread like wildfire across Eastern Europe and the Soviets found themselves withdrawing from one country after another. Gorbachev staunchly ruled out the use of tactical nuclear weapons against the rebels. Their already strained economy, weakened by state control and repeated attempts to match the US and Britain in defence spending, broke down. Inflation spiralled. Shortages in basic goods became common. The death toll mounted. US, Britain, and Western Europe gave plenty of advanced military aid to East European militants worsening the Soviet predicament. Then authorities in the Soviet Socialist Republics of Finland and Poland revolted. They were followed by the Baltic States, Central Asia, Caucasian states, and finally even Ukraine. The Soviet empire was no more.

By 1992 the collapse was complete, and seventeen independent countries emerged from the rubble. These countries too would turn to capitalism although many retained corrupt and authoritarian governments, vestiges from the Soviet era. But a new age of globalization and neoliberalism had begun. And even though nationalist and sectarian conflicts would endure worldwide, the world had truly learned its lesson from Communist rule and it would never engage in something so utterly insane ever again.

The military pact binding the US, Britain, Australia, and New Zealand had automatically dissolved upon the dissolution of the USSR in 1992, as the pact’s stipulations only held for a common defence against the specific country of the USSR. But there was a greater consensus in these countries at this time for a closer union, in light of historic ties and their status as the only english speaking majority countries in the world. Various other quirks bound them. They were the only countries in the world that drove on the left side of the road, and they used imperial rather than metric. They had a shared love for rugby, cricket, association football. Indeed the five major sports leagues of the US was in this order association football, cricket, basketball, rugby union, and ice hockey. Britain and the US was also linked by common spelling that was distinguished from Australian/New Zealander spelling.

Great Britain, the US, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland joined together in what is called the Commonwealth of Nations, starting in 1993. The Queen and the British monarchy was its head. The commonwealth established a permanent military and intelligence alliance between its members as well as a common market. The US had even managed to persuade Ireland to join. Ireland had always been favourably disposed to the US due to the large number of immigrants historically from Ireland, as well as US aid efforts (defying Britain) during the 1850s that mitigated the Great Famine considerably. Also joining the Commonwealth was part of the peace process with North Ireland, a series of promises that also included granting Belfast and surrounding counties autonomy with its own Assembly, ending decades of sectarian unrest. This also ended decades of negotiation with Britain who at last dropped its claims to Northern Ireland and acknowledged the Irish Republic’s claim to the whole island.
 
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