AH Challenge: Emperor Sun Yat Sen of the USA
- Thread starter Abdul Hadi Pasha
- Start date
Keenir
Banned
US Vice President Sun Yat Sen, who becomes President when Congress and the House realize that nobody in the immediate line of succession is as qualified to fill the space left by the just-killed President.
Abdul Hadi Pasha
Banned
This thread is distinctly linked to another one that is active, so I would have to say that I meant Emperor of the USA.
Hendryk
Banned
There could be a way to fulfill the letter if not the spirit of this challenge. In OTL, young Sun Yat-sen went to Hawaii in 1879, because he had relatives there. Had his relatives been living in San Francisco instead--hardly implausible considering it was one of the main destinations for Chinese immigrants to the US in the 19th century--that's where he would have gone. You see where I'm going with this: Emperor Norton died in 1880.
So let's have the teenage Sun, one day in the streets of San Francisco, chance upon the aged Norton. The latter, in one of his delusional bouts, see in Sun his successor to the imaginary throne of America. Sun, intrigued, plays along, and is formally crowned as Norton's successor upon the latter's death a few months later. Voilà!
So let's have the teenage Sun, one day in the streets of San Francisco, chance upon the aged Norton. The latter, in one of his delusional bouts, see in Sun his successor to the imaginary throne of America. Sun, intrigued, plays along, and is formally crowned as Norton's successor upon the latter's death a few months later. Voilà!
DISSIDENT
Banned
Sun assumes the title Emperor of these United States and Protector of Mexico, writes proclamations in newspapers, most notably one in which he commands General Pershing to forcibly remove Woodrow Wilson from the White House, walks around San Francisco (don't you dare call it "Frisco" around him!) inspecting public utilities, gets free tables at restaurants, and tries to avoid being put in an insane asylum. He writes a pamphlet called "The Three Principles of Monarchy" that is distributed in San Francisco and Oakland until his death in 1925, where city leaders pay for his burial next to his mentor, His Majesty Joshua Norton, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico.
China remains under a moribund Manchu Dynasty until the Japanese invasions in the 1930s occur and China divides between Japanese occupied puppet states and local warlords with the occasional communist area, albeit a very different Chinese Communist Party without the KMT to contend with and Mao Tse Tung probably butterflied away along with Chiang Kai Shek.
China remains under a moribund Manchu Dynasty until the Japanese invasions in the 1930s occur and China divides between Japanese occupied puppet states and local warlords with the occasional communist area, albeit a very different Chinese Communist Party without the KMT to contend with and Mao Tse Tung probably butterflied away along with Chiang Kai Shek.
Hendryk
Banned
The first part sounds good, but not the second one:
The early years of the Republic of China wouldn't be very different either, as the central figure was Yuan Shikai. So we would still probably see a half-hearted republican regime put in place in 1912, which would swiftly devolve into a corrupt dictatorship and, after Yuan's death in 1916, warlord rule. I agree that Jiang Jieshi's rise might be butterflied away, and in his stead, we could see someone like Li Zongren. After that, however, it's possible to imagine more serious divergences from OTL: perhaps a more thorough Northern Campaign that decisively defeats warlords instead of coopting a number of them into an unstable alliance? Better Communist/*Nationalist relations? No Central Plains War in 1930, keeping China in better shape to resist Japanese encroachment in Manchuria?
Sun was hardly the only revolutionary around, and his role in the 1911 revolution was indirect at best. Even without him around, the Qing dynasty would have been deposed more or less on schedule. The leader of the revolutionaries might have been Huang Xing, or perhaps Cai Yuanpei, founder of the Guangfuhui (Restoration Society, a subversive organization that in OTL merged with Sun's own Xingzhonghui in 1905 to become the Tongmenghui).
The early years of the Republic of China wouldn't be very different either, as the central figure was Yuan Shikai. So we would still probably see a half-hearted republican regime put in place in 1912, which would swiftly devolve into a corrupt dictatorship and, after Yuan's death in 1916, warlord rule. I agree that Jiang Jieshi's rise might be butterflied away, and in his stead, we could see someone like Li Zongren. After that, however, it's possible to imagine more serious divergences from OTL: perhaps a more thorough Northern Campaign that decisively defeats warlords instead of coopting a number of them into an unstable alliance? Better Communist/*Nationalist relations? No Central Plains War in 1930, keeping China in better shape to resist Japanese encroachment in Manchuria?
At the very least, have 'Emperor' be a nickname as a reference to the land his ancestors came from if he somehow is born here and becomes President.
David S Poepoe
Banned
The New Horde forces of the Great Khan, following the Sino-Japanese War, which witnessed the capitulation and annexation of both Korea and Japan, declare war upon the United States of America because of the treatment of Chinese in California. Chinese forces easily defeat the US Asiatic Squadron and move across the Pacific to land forces south of San Francisco.
After many months of steady warfare the US Army, under Generals Miles Nelson and Arthur MacArthur are able to fight the Chinese to a standstill near Reno. The Armistice ending the war leaves the Celestrial Empire in control of Northern California, Oregon and Washington. Sun Yat-sen is dispatched from Peking to serve as Emperor of America answering to the Dragon Throne in the Forbidden City.
After many months of steady warfare the US Army, under Generals Miles Nelson and Arthur MacArthur are able to fight the Chinese to a standstill near Reno. The Armistice ending the war leaves the Celestrial Empire in control of Northern California, Oregon and Washington. Sun Yat-sen is dispatched from Peking to serve as Emperor of America answering to the Dragon Throne in the Forbidden City.
One of the military expeditions in Congo, the relife expedition for Emin Pasha?, carried the flag of the New York Yatch Club for financial reasons. Due to unspecified legal reasons, the club end up ruling a small country in the middle of Africa. Sun lose some kind of power struggle and have to leave China by boat. He takes interest in boats and join NYYC. The money he have hidden away make him head of it, hence, he is is Emperor of the US colony.
If the thread is distinctly linked to the TR thread, it should be "President Sun Yat Sen of the USA."
Good thread none the less!
Hendryk
Banned
A little-known fact about Sun Yat-sen: in order to circumvent the Chinese Exclusion Act, which became applicable to Hawaii in 1898 and would have prevented him to return there after leaving back for China, he got himself a bogus birth certificate stating that he was born in Hawaii.
I am not making this up.
Abdul Hadi Pasha
Banned
If the thread is distinctly linked to the TR thread, it should be "President Sun Yat Sen of the USA."
Good thread none the less!
That wouldn't be ridiculous enough.