AHC: A Dictatorship in the United States
- Thread starter thezerech
- Start date
My favorite answer to this question is Old Hickory himself... Just have Jackson be especially embittered by his loss after the 1824 election, and maybe toss in some conspiratorial atmosphere with his closest supporters, and perhaps we could end up with Jackson marching on the Capitol to claim the office that he "rightfully won."
Wasn't the US sort-of becoming an one-party state in the Era of Good Feelings? That could have devolved into a dictatorship quite easily.
My favorite PoD for this is having the Newburgh Conspiracy gain more traction than IOTL among the army, leading to a coup in the first years of independence.
You could also have Aaron Burr be elected by the house in 1800. Then, Jefferson successfully overthrows the government like he planned to. This would set a very bad precedent for the young nation, and, even if Jefferson isn't a dictator, it would be a good setup for one later.
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More of the US government is "decapitated" than OTL after the Civil War.
Kill off... say every target of the Booth Plot.
INSTANT military junta.
South will be wishing they could see Radical Republican proposals OTL.
Kill off... say every target of the Booth Plot.
INSTANT military junta.
South will be wishing they could see Radical Republican proposals OTL.
Lincoln is killed in early 1861 en route to inauguration. This puts Hannibal Hamlin in the White House leading to a peace deal as Hannibal, while capable, fails to keep up a United war effort and finds capable Union officers of Southern heritage untrustworthy. Confederate forces gain independence as a de facto satellite of the UK and France while an impoverished US loses a war to the UK ten years later resulting in an independent Republic of California (+OTL Nevada). California is ruled by a very wealthy elite out of San Francisco via the National Coordinator, the Confederate States by a planter oligarchy via a moderate President, and after 1880 the United States is ruled by a President for Life named by the General Staff with confirmation from the (corporate owned) Congress.
GeographyDude
Gone Fishin'
Or, no Civil War, South becomes more and more powerful, maybe because it's relatively monolithic compared to the North?
The planter class and their junior partners of northern industrialists, as well as southern industrialists around Birmingham and so forth, becomes de facto aristocrats and rulers. Oh, we'll still have the trappings of democracy, but the trappings only.
The planter class and their junior partners of northern industrialists, as well as southern industrialists around Birmingham and so forth, becomes de facto aristocrats and rulers. Oh, we'll still have the trappings of democracy, but the trappings only.
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Interesting idea. I think the American Civil War is all but inevitable after 1850 but few timelines explore what might happen had it been avoided.
The most likely idea I've always thought was the decapitation of the Union government.
A dictatorship by Andrew Jackson is certainly an interesting proposition. What would that look like? I imagine he'd probably not have absolute power, but it would set an interesting precedent indeed.
A dictatorship by Andrew Jackson is certainly an interesting proposition. What would that look like? I imagine he'd probably not have absolute power, but it would set an interesting precedent indeed.
Including Grant? Booth thought he would be with Lincoln (they had to cancel), though there are also reports of someone looking like Booth or a coconspirator who looked like him riding beside his carriage and staring inside, as well as someone trying to get onto his train car. The Secretary of War is incharge now I believe.More of the US government is "decapitated" than OTL after the Civil War.
Kill off... say every target of the Booth Plot.
INSTANT military junta.
South will be wishing they could see Radical Republican proposals OTL.
We can have those assassinations happen earlier in the war. Therefore we could allow for even the SecWar get killed, perhaps some generals too.
It would be far more difficult to plan in that case. Plus there wouldn't really be a good enough motive, as this would stain the Southern reputation. For what it was worth. Maybe serving generals start running for president?
samcster94
Banned
What if the American Civil War happened four years later(under President Fremont)??? The upper South stays in, but a pro-"Confederate" assassin from Virginia kills Fremont a few months into this war(he promises to end slavery at the start of the war) and there is a revolution by slaveholders. After this, a junta takes over. Although they do easily abolish slavery and win the war quicker than OTL, they do so more brutally, and do the land redistribution, and create new states like East Tennessee and North Alabama. Democracy does return a decade later, but a very different constitution(think the French Third Republic, elements of the Kaiser' Germany{which had a democratic lower house}, or any constitution written in the late 19th century OTL), and a leftward shift. Although still quite racist, there is no Lost Cause{ a weaker Jim Crow appears, but voting rights are left alone}, given there is little to romanticize given the North was divided and the South was extremely weak.