AHC: Totalitarian American Superpower

America is supposedly the land of truth, justice, and the American way. But what if it wasn't? Can it be a nation of lies, injustice, and the totalitarian way? You have a POD of 1900. America must:

1: Be totalitarian (the actual ideology doesn't matter, but it must be totalitarian, at least at PRC levels). Bonus points for being DPRK-level totalitarian.

2: Be a superpower. Rivals are acceptable. Bonus points for being the undisputed hyperpower of the world, with no rivals.

3: Expand its territory. At a minimum it should control all of North America. Bonus points for controlling all of the Americas and even more.

4: Last. It should last a minimum of 50 years. Bonus points if it can last 100+.
 
A successful North American Technate meets those specifications, but as discussed in the other thread, that is very difficult to achieve.

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Best way might be even worse Depression. But even then it is very difficult get totalitarian USA. There is quiet strong support for constitution. Authotarian is easier and more plausible.

And it is pretty difficult expand USA very much. Perhaps it could annex Northern Mexico, Cuba and Philippines but hardly more.
 
Here's a rough outline of a scenario that might do it:

Firstly have the First World War drag on for several more years, with the US becoming more heavily involved militarily. A US intervention in Mexico in 1918 results in several Latin American countries coming to Mexico's defence and joining the Central Powers, opening up an American theatre and resulting in the US occupying Mexico.

In the 1920 US Elections, where Wilson attempts to run for a third term, the Democrats are defeated in a massive landslide by the Republicans who campaign on a pro-peace platform, resulting in the US pulling out of the war, with the US establishing a puppet government in Mexico. With the US out of the war the Central Powers win the Great War. In the aftermath of the War Britain and France both experience radical socialist revolutions similar to Kaiserreich, and as a result Canada falls into the US's orbit and later becomes integrated into it, whilst France and Britain's Caribbean possession become territories and protectorates of the US.

Over the course of the 20s things go pretty much like they do in Ruins of an American Party System, with the Democrats steadily collapsing and the Republicans becoming dominant, whilst the country goes to hell in a handbasket, only this time there are a bunch of demobilised soldiers running around adding considerable fuel to the fire.

When the depression hits the Republicans prove incapable of adapting to the situation and mishandle spectacularly. As a result the military steps in and declares a state of emergency in a coup. Whilst many support the move in the name of bringing stability and the belief that desperate times call for desperate measures, there are also plenty of pro-democracy/anti-coup factions, and sooner or later the US is bogged down in a Civil War. In order to bolster their support the military government forms an alliance with the various right-wing militias in the country. The military government eventually wins, and with the various progressive and democratic factions in the country purged, and the far-right in ascendency, the government develops a para-fascist ideology to shore up its legitimacy, blending elements of fascism, American exceptionalism, manifest destiny, anti-socialism, populism, and technocracy.

The military government responds to the problem of the Depression and post-civil war reconstruction through mass militarisation and rearmament, similar to OTL Nazi Germany. National Service is introduced and the unemployed are mobilised for public works projects, industries owned by anti-coup businesspeople are siezed by the government or given to coup supporting businesses, anti-coup trade unions are shut down and independent labour organisations are turned into institutions for disciplining workers that combine the scientific management principles of Taylorism and Fordism with military discipline, and the armed forces are greatly expanded.

In terms of foreign policy the USA's short-term goals involve establishing total dominance over the Caribbean, Central America, and Northern South America (basically the proposed American Technate), for the purposes of establishing total autarky and self-sufficiency as well as ensuring total domination in the Atlantic and Pacific, whilst their long-term goals include countering the rising power of Japan, destroying European socialism, and securing America's rightful place as the dominant world power.
 
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How does WWI last for several more years? Germany does not have resources to last that long. They broke down in OTL when they pretty much ran out of manpower, money, food, and materials.

Why is Mexico so stupid as to join them?

I would imagine that an earlier victory against Russia allowing the CP to consolidate their position and put up a stronger fight, which then leads to minor Entente allies pulling out of the war. With the CP in a much stronger position the only thing that keeps the Entente in the war is the US joining, which provides them with the manpower and economic support to keep on fighting. Mexico doesn't just join the CP, but is drawn into the war as a result of a US intervention. OTL Wilson wanted to send troops to seize Mexican oil rigs to prevent them from supplying Germany, but was talked out of it due to a mixture of the Mexican President threatening to destroy the rigs if the marines landed and the rest of the Entente telling him that it was unnecessary at this stage. With the CP in a much stronger position and the Entente desperate to hit them they would be more willing to give him the go ahead. In response, however, a number of Latin American countries use the invasion as an excuse to declare war on the US and ally with the CP. Colombia and/or Panama might want to claim the Panama Canal, Venezuela has claims on British Guyana, Argentina has claims on the Falklands and could use the war as an excuse to diminish British influence in their country etc. With an alliance of regional powers willing to back them up Mexico would be more willing to fight back, especially when it looks like the CP are winning. The main reason for this is to ensure that the US has a reason to mobilise more of its population and get more heavily involved in the fighting, because generally speaking having a load of pissed-off demobilised soldiers running around is usually a prerequisite for a country becoming a dictatorship, barring a foreign invasion.
 
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