In the late 1930's, the slavery debate was entering the scene of American politics as the single most contentious issue. In order to pre-empt the rise of free states who might litigate abolition, Southern Democrats gave New England independence, along with Oregon. This resolved territorial tensions with the British, as now Oregon could be a neutral buffer state that would absorb immigrants who would otherwise populate the American northwest, which would lead to future free states.
Additionally, the US intervened in the war of Texan independence, defeating Mexico and forcing them to concede not just Texan independence, but California as well.
However, these actions did not go unnoticed by the northern liberals. In 1840, abolitionists began to boycott congress, with midwestern states forming the "Free States Alliance", a filibuster crisis movement that brought the government to halt. They then supported and organized a mass riot that turned into a full coup d'etat as anti-government demonstrators sieged the capitol building. They succeeded, forcefully ushering in a new congress that passed laws banning slavery. The Free States, having apparently succeeded, quietly restored order in the North.
However, these federal laws were seen as illegitimate in the south, so the "Confederate States" organized shadow governments, preparing for a Second Independence War where the South would be able to protect slavery.
In the mid 1840's, the South was ready. They mobilized and quickly destroyed the disorganized federal armies. Texas joined the confederacy as its largest state.
While Texas, California, and Oregon had received many immigrants and successfully expanded their economies, their cultures diverged. In Texas, many Irish quickly assimilated to the local Texan identity, later assimilating into the greater Dixie nationalism. In California, the many Irish, but also many others, were more connected the the northwestern Americans and adopted "Yankee" disposition. And to the north, the small American Oregoner population quickly turned towards their Canadian neighbors, assimilating with the immigrants as "Cascadian" nationality that had more in common with British-ruled Ontario than Ohio or New York.
At first, the rise of the Confederacy gave the country much prestige. They formed an alliance with the British in order to guarantee the independence of the various anglophone north american states. The British also must have thought the confederates would serve as a useful counterweight against the united states and their threat to Canada.
However, due to the large inefficiencies of slave society, the economy remained undeveloped while the North industrialized. Running out of revenue for the new armaments programs, particularly expensive modern steam ship building, new income would be needed. The answer was imperialism and colonies. In the independence war, the confederates had appropriated control of Liberia. This foothold in Africa turned into an important base for future conquest. The CSA established a colony in the Congo Basin to extract cheap resources on cheap african slave labour. Other outposts were founded in Cameroon and Zanzibar.
However, the home population remained desperately illiterate, so technology and development continued to lag. The white society began increasingly militarized, with states being required to field 5% of their working men in the standing confederate army. These social failings reduced Confederate standing on the international stage, and with the rise of Japan, Italy, and the Ottomans, the Confederacy was just losing relevance as a world power. This diplomatic failing reduced international trade, which in turn worsened the economic problems. Meanwhile, with New England rejoining the Union, the north's economy was flourishing.
To fix this, the confederacy decided that more imperial ambitions would boost the prestige of the nation. Strategic pacific island colonies would be needed. A deal was secured with the government of Colombia to build a canal in Panama, however the CSA lacked the technological know-how and the money, so the deal was on-hold indefinitely. Additionally, a port was needed on the American mainland on the West Coast. California, recently very successful due to its gold rush was a tempting target.
A surprise came when the Californians voluntarily joined the United States. At first, this was seen as bad, but would soon present opportunities. The Americans, lacking a good land connection to their pacific coast, offered to buy the texan northern panhandle territory, in order to build a transcontinental railroad. Desperately needing the cash, the CSA agreed, and quickly turned the money around into more military development to betray the USA. After making sure that the alliance with the British would support them, the CSA declared war on the USA to extend their border westwards to the pacific. While Britain did not fully declare war, allowing Canada to remain neutral, their naval support was invaluable, and the CSA's large professional army outnumbered the limited American federal army.
Ironically, the CSA had the same issue with railroad access their their new west coast ports, so a quick war was waged to wrestle some territory from Mexico. This bullying soured CSA reputation internationally. The British didn't like being used for this naked imperialist aggression either.
With the British backing off on their support for the CSA, the United States was able to annex Oregon. Along with their strong economic growth, they also had much larger population growth, and by the 1860's the northern population vastly outweighed the south's. While the South always had the larger standing army, the North was able to improve mass mobilization which turned it into a superior military power. Finally in 1870, the time for revenge had come. The North invaded the South, and although the South could win battles, the attrition quickly vaporized their armies with the north kept sending in fresh regiments. The British came to mediate, wanting to prevent complete confederate collapse, the United States, re-acquired the lost southern californian territories. Also, the Confederacy was forced to pay war reparations to the North.
This defeat sent the South into a downward spiral. Although the subjugation of African colonies was continuing, this was because Africa the only place where the confederate military was not woefully under-equipped compared to its aboriginal enemies.
A few years later, the British promised to support CSA independence, but in 1880 when the North came back for the final round, the British betrayed the CSA and instead played vulture on their east african and nigerian colonies, while the United States of America completely re-unified the states. At first, the government proposed Radical Reconstruction to ensure the emancipation of the slaves, however the southern democrats made electoral comebacks with popular country-wide support for conservatism and was able to implement Jim Crow laws that continued to repress african-americans...
Having lasted 40 years, the shadow of the confederacy runs deep in American society. The racism and series of major wars primed the American population to support what would soon become a world-spanning empire...
In the 1880s, the USA restored order on the old CSA colonies in Africa. Hawaii was annexed and the Panama canal built. In the 1890s, America defeated Spain, seizing Cuba and the Philippines.
And now, their sights are set on finally conquering Canada.
Meanwhile, the British had mismanaged their diplomatic game. The collapse of Russia into republican revolutions relaxed them into complacency, however, the Germans quickly rose to be the contender for next World Leader. One by one, Britain lost relations with allies, and was outmaneuvered in relations with the other European powers.
In June 1899, the final mistake came with a violent altercation in the poorly-defined border region between British Uganda and American Congo. This triggered an international crisis, where most of the worlds powers banded together into an alliance to take down the king of the hill. Japan, distracted by local asian affairs, abandoned the British, while the rest of the world rallied behind the Germans and Americans.
While the British had been safe behind their dominant fleet, this naval doctrine relied on outnumbering any one or two major powers, not all of them combined. With the French and Germans looking towards African ambitions, and Ottomans looking to take the Suez, and the Italians looking to take Venice from Austria, the stage is set and the complex web of alliances has drawn most of the world into a single Great War to decide the fate of nations.
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