The Eight Nations of America
The Civil War in the United States, fought 1861 – 1870 and the division of that former nation into 6 nations was the critical event of the second half of the 19th Century. Those six nations along with Canada and Mexico formed the community of nations in North America well into the 20th Century.
Decision point: Lincoln is defeated in 1864
In 1864, the Confederacy found itself on the defensive and Lincoln faced a difficult task of conquering the South. Although the North had won important victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, the South still had strong armies in the field and the South had won an important victory at Chickamauga in the fall of 1863. As the battle reached its crisis, General Thomas, commander of the Union XIV corps is killed and this led to the collapse of the entire Army of the Cumberland after the other two corps of that army were already in full scale retreat, and the timely death of General Bragg left General Longstreet in command of the Southern Army of the Tennessee at a decisive moment. His ruthless pursuit managed to bag the entire Army of the Cumberland, along with its commander General Rosecrans. The disaster, which cost the Union 16,000 casualties plus 40,000 prisoners (at the cost of 18,000 Confederate casualties) offset in part the defeat at Vicksburg and forced Lincoln to leave Grant in the West.
The start of 1864 saw Grant in the West with 2 armies, the Army of the Tennessee (named after the river, while the Southern one is named after the state) under the command of Sherman operating in the Mississippi Valley, and the Army of the Ohio under Grant himself operating in Kentucky. Longstreet remained in command of the Southern Army of the Tennessee now dug in at Chattanooga, while General Johnson began to organize a new Army of Mississippi to defend Mississippi and Alabama from Sherman, while Lee remained in the East facing Meade (Army of the Potomac), Butler (Army of the James) and Sigel (Army of West Virginia).
In Louisiana, Admiral Porter and General Banks suffer catastrophic defeat as the Southern Army under General Kirby Smith prevent them from completing the critical engineering effort needed to get the ironclad fleet downriver and the force Admiral Porter to scuttle his entire fleet (and his career along with Banks). The destruction of this fleet and 10,000 Union prisoners is the opening fiasco of the summer.
The spring and summer of 1864 saw offensives by Grant and Sherman against Johnson and Longstreet. At Chattanooga, Grant found himself locked in an effective deadlock with Longstreet as that master of defensive warfare had converted his position into an impregnable fortress and Grant was plagued by cavalry raids by Bedford Forrest in his rear that forced him to leave large numbers of troops to guard his rear. A siege developed and by October Grant had managed to make little headway. Meanwhile, Sherman had managed to take most of Mississippi, but had failed to force Johnson into battle and although much of Mississippi and parts of Alabama had been fought over, had not managed to reach Mobile. A Navy attack of Mobile Bay failed when the USS Hartford, carrying Admiral Farragut (commander of the attack) hit a mine and was destroyed with most of its crew, resulting in the attack being called off.
In Virginia, Lee and Meade sparred in a series of inclusive battles in the Wilderness before Lee managed to outflank Meade, forcing him to pull back to Washington. This set the stage for Lee sending Early to deal with Sigel (whom he promptly embarrassed at New Market and sent retreating to West Virginia) and Lee was free to advance on Butler and savage the Army of the James and force its evacuation at the Bermuda Hundred.
By late October, the Union is facing stalemate in Northern Virginia, Georgia and the Mississippi Valley, and has suffered disastrous defeat in Louisiana and eastern Virginia. Lincoln is turned out of office in November and McClellan is elected President of the United States. Realizing the McClellan will give them better terms, Davis continues to stall when Lincoln starts negotiations. With little choice, Lincoln orders Grant and Meade to hold in place, appoints Grant commander of all US Armies (who leaves McPherson in command at Chattanooga), and orders Grant to have Sherman reinforced in order to try one last time for a victory. Sherman, reinforced massively, drives on Mobile and manages to drive Johnson out of Alabama and Mississippi (and incidently frees a great many slaves) and takes Mobile Bay by Christmas.
But it is too late. Support for the war collapses in the North, and Lincoln has been forced to suspend conscription after the November election. Many veterans of the Union Army, whose 3 year enlistments are coming to an end begin going home in November and Union Army morale is at a nadir. Lincoln calls off further advances as 1865 begins and agrees to an armistice in place until negotiations can begin with the new McClellan Administration.
Mexico and Central America 1862-1870
While the United States was fighting its war, critical events were happening in Mexico as well. In 1862, Spain and France decide to punish Mexico for the decision by the Juarez government to suspend debt payments. The British too initially consider action but decide that events in North America are too uncertain to risk angering the United States. On May 5, 1862, French troops wreck the Mexican Army at the Battle of Puebla and through the rest of 1862 and 1863 proceed to conquer all of Mexico except for mountain regions held by forces loyal to Juarez. By 1864, Napoleon has installed Maximilian as Emperor of Mexico and also solidified an alliance with the Hapsburgs and Austria. This alliance was to be crucial to events in Europe in a very short time. With the defeat of Lincoln in the November 1864 election, France grants the Confederate government recognition in exchange for it renouncing the Monroe Doctrine as it applies to Mexico. Spain, eager to regain territory, assembles an army financed by the French, and joins in on the conquest of Mexico, and proceed to conquer all of Central America north of Panama from 1865-1870. With North America continuing to split apart, neither France nor Spain need fear action by the Americans, and only the British threat to intervene saves Colombia from losing Panama.
This does however keep the French Army busy in Mexico as reinforcements are sent in to finally defeat Mexican forces (and kill Juarez) in 1868.
A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand: The Civil War continues 1865-1870
In March 1865 McClellan becomes President of the United States and Lincoln leaves office and moves to California to start a new life. A wave of resignations hits the Union Army as well as Sherman quiets and moves back to California. Most of the wartime army goes home as well, leaving only a relatively small Regular Army which is soon ordered to key points along the border with the Confederacy and the United States to stem the mass migration of former slaves seeking to escape the Confederacy. McClellan agrees to give pull Union troops out of all occupied Southern states, but holds firm on keeping Missouri and Kentucky as both have very large Unionist populations. However, rioting in Baltimore and an extreme shortage of troops eventually convinces him to give up eastern Maryland including Baltimore and Washington DC after a reasonable period of time to evacuate government records and other valuables such as the Library of Congress and contents of the Patent Office. The US capital is provisionally moved to Philadelphia, while the Confederacy debates moving their capital too.
The Democratic Congress and President find themselves with a nation discouraged and with huge debts. Funding measures to build the Transcontinental Railroad are defeated, and in reaction, the western states of California, Washington, Oregon and Nevada secede from the Union in the fall of 1865. A government is formed in San Francisco and the Pacific Union is formed with all four states. The territorial governments of Colorado (which includes Wyoming at this point), Montana, Idaho, and Arizona also send representatives to San Francisco and consider joining In the end New Mexico and Arizona join the Pacific Union along with Idaho, while Colorado and Wyoming remain part of the US. Discussions over Montana between the US and Pacific Union result in it remaining a US Territory. The British Government immediately recognizes the new nation in exchange for a commercial treaty and McClellan is forced to accept the disaster in his first year in office. Taking advantage of the situation, the Mormons in Utah declare their independence as well and since neither the Pacific Union nor the US Government is willing to try to conquer them, both nations grant recognition.
The McClellan Administration limps through the next three years facing harsh criticism before being voted out of office in 1868. The Democrats dump McClellan for selling out the West and Winfield Scott Hancock, a hero of Gettysburg, wins the Democratic nomination and defeats Schuler Colfax with ease. Hancock works closely with General Grant, who remained in the Army post war and between them and the assistance of General Sheridan crush the Sioux and other Plains tribes (thus keeping the British and Pacific Union from expanding any further east) and work to improve relations with the other nations of North America. Hancock also improves the Navy, recognizing that the United States must become a trading nation to survive as it will have to compete for the minerals of western North America and the agricultural products of Texas.
Meanwhile, the Confederacy has its own problems. The end of the war is a Southern victory, but only of sorts. Although nearly 400,000 Blacks managed to either reach the North or already lived there after the Civil War, the South still had 4 million Blacks in its territories. Of these, 250,000 live in Texas (out of a population of 800,000 not counting Indians), and another 400,000 in Louisiana (out of 750,000 people, and nearly 1/3 are Free Blacks), and a mere 100,000 (out of 700,000) living in Arkansas. In all, nearly 1 million Blacks have been freed by Union military action and as the Union Army leaves Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Alabama it simply hands over most of its weapons to the former slave population. In addition, nearly 180,000 Blacks served in the Union Army during the war, and most of them (nearly 100,000 in all) promptly head to Louisiana to help their brethren.
In short order Davis finds himself fighting a new Civil War, this time White against Black, and practically everywhere in the South. Texas, dealing with a serious problem with Comanche and other Indians, acts promptly. When Davis is unable to send troops to help defend the Texas Frontier, the Texas Government decides to rid itself of two problems at once. First, it is facing a serious lack of money, and secondly it has a serious internal security problem. Texas secedes from the Confederacy in 1867 when Davis asks for troops to fight the war back east, and then makes a deal with Louisiana and France. France will pay all debts owed by the Texas government and provide weapons and a few ships. In exchange, Texas will act against Mexican Rebels using Texas as a base, close its ports to the Central American governments, allow the Blacks in Louisiana to have a secure border with Texas. In exchange for British recognition and money, Texas also ends slavery, using the British money to reimburse owners and those who chose to remain in Texas are given free land in the Rio Grande Valley and basic tools and seed. Texas laws make life difficult for former slaves everywhere but in the former Indian Territory and Rio Grande Valley which strongly encourages movement.
Louisiana takes in 150,000 Blacks that Texas expels (most of whom had been sent there during the Civil War to prevent them fleeing to Yankee forces). Texas promptly uses the French money to expand its Army and proceeds over the next year to wipe out the Comanche and Apache (those in New Mexico) Indians by wiping out the Buffalo and launching several winter campaigns when the Indians are vulnerable while annexing Indian Territory (Oklahoma) and secure the border with Louisiana and Mexico.
Meanwhile, Davis finds himself fighting a war even more ruinously expensive then the last one. Robert E. Lee and Joseph E. Johnson both decline to serve in a war to crush a servile rebellion, leaving P.G.T. Beauregard as commander of the Army. He assigns Longstreet to watch the Yankees, while sending Bedford Forrest to deal with the rebellions in the Mississippi Valley. A horrific slaughter rages across the CSA throughout 1866-1868 as rebellions outside of the Mississippi Valley are brutally crushed, and nearly 1 million blacks are locked up into camps. Another 1 million flee to Louisiana (where nearly 600,000 Whites flee Louisiana, Mississippi and parts of Alabama and Arkansas, and another 20,000 are killed) and by 1867 the Confederate government is fighting a semi conventional war against Blacks defending Louisiana and parts of Alabama and Mississippi and Arkansas.
Seeing an opportunity to get even, Abolitionists in the United States funnel money, arms and a considerable number of former Union officers to help the Blacks and the war continues in an uncommonly harsh fashion for the next two years. Although Forrest manages to drive Black forces out of Alabama, Arkansas and northern Mississippi by 1868, the Confederate government finds itself exhausted economically and the British government (which is facing serious pressure at home) is threatening a blockade and economic embargo. With little choice, Davis agrees to a peace treaty with the new nation of Louisiana and sends Vice President Stephens and retired General Robert E. Lee to negotiate with the President of Louisiana, Frederick Douglas and in May 1869 the Treaty of Lena is signed. Louisiana gets to keep all of the state of Mississippi plus Louisiana, in exchange, the Confederate States of America deports nearly 2 million blacks still living in its territory to the new nation. The United States and Texas both promptly recognize the new nation and money begins pouring in from the United States, principally from Abolitionist groups and companies who realize that Louisiana controls the mouth of the Mississippi. At the end of the war, Arkansas, with some bribes by railroad companies in the United States and irritation at the Confederate government leaves the Confederacy and joins the Republic of Texas. As part of that deal former general Cleburne is made President of the Republic of Texas and Arkansas, which is formally known as the Lone Star Republic.
By the end of 1870 the long Civil War is over. The nations of the United States, the Pacific Union, Texas, Deseret, Louisiana and the Confederacy have emerged as successors to the old United States, and the issue of Slavery has destroyed the continental nation dreamed of by the Founding Fathers. The awful war is finally over, at the cost of nearly 2 million lives from all the various nations (including Indians killed in Texas, New Mexico and in the Great Plains) and the map of North America has changed forever. The Confederacy seceded to keep slavery and finds that it has its independence and no longer has slavery. Many in the Old South wonder if it was worth it.
The Civil War in the United States, fought 1861 – 1870 and the division of that former nation into 6 nations was the critical event of the second half of the 19th Century. Those six nations along with Canada and Mexico formed the community of nations in North America well into the 20th Century.
Decision point: Lincoln is defeated in 1864
In 1864, the Confederacy found itself on the defensive and Lincoln faced a difficult task of conquering the South. Although the North had won important victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, the South still had strong armies in the field and the South had won an important victory at Chickamauga in the fall of 1863. As the battle reached its crisis, General Thomas, commander of the Union XIV corps is killed and this led to the collapse of the entire Army of the Cumberland after the other two corps of that army were already in full scale retreat, and the timely death of General Bragg left General Longstreet in command of the Southern Army of the Tennessee at a decisive moment. His ruthless pursuit managed to bag the entire Army of the Cumberland, along with its commander General Rosecrans. The disaster, which cost the Union 16,000 casualties plus 40,000 prisoners (at the cost of 18,000 Confederate casualties) offset in part the defeat at Vicksburg and forced Lincoln to leave Grant in the West.
The start of 1864 saw Grant in the West with 2 armies, the Army of the Tennessee (named after the river, while the Southern one is named after the state) under the command of Sherman operating in the Mississippi Valley, and the Army of the Ohio under Grant himself operating in Kentucky. Longstreet remained in command of the Southern Army of the Tennessee now dug in at Chattanooga, while General Johnson began to organize a new Army of Mississippi to defend Mississippi and Alabama from Sherman, while Lee remained in the East facing Meade (Army of the Potomac), Butler (Army of the James) and Sigel (Army of West Virginia).
In Louisiana, Admiral Porter and General Banks suffer catastrophic defeat as the Southern Army under General Kirby Smith prevent them from completing the critical engineering effort needed to get the ironclad fleet downriver and the force Admiral Porter to scuttle his entire fleet (and his career along with Banks). The destruction of this fleet and 10,000 Union prisoners is the opening fiasco of the summer.
The spring and summer of 1864 saw offensives by Grant and Sherman against Johnson and Longstreet. At Chattanooga, Grant found himself locked in an effective deadlock with Longstreet as that master of defensive warfare had converted his position into an impregnable fortress and Grant was plagued by cavalry raids by Bedford Forrest in his rear that forced him to leave large numbers of troops to guard his rear. A siege developed and by October Grant had managed to make little headway. Meanwhile, Sherman had managed to take most of Mississippi, but had failed to force Johnson into battle and although much of Mississippi and parts of Alabama had been fought over, had not managed to reach Mobile. A Navy attack of Mobile Bay failed when the USS Hartford, carrying Admiral Farragut (commander of the attack) hit a mine and was destroyed with most of its crew, resulting in the attack being called off.
In Virginia, Lee and Meade sparred in a series of inclusive battles in the Wilderness before Lee managed to outflank Meade, forcing him to pull back to Washington. This set the stage for Lee sending Early to deal with Sigel (whom he promptly embarrassed at New Market and sent retreating to West Virginia) and Lee was free to advance on Butler and savage the Army of the James and force its evacuation at the Bermuda Hundred.
By late October, the Union is facing stalemate in Northern Virginia, Georgia and the Mississippi Valley, and has suffered disastrous defeat in Louisiana and eastern Virginia. Lincoln is turned out of office in November and McClellan is elected President of the United States. Realizing the McClellan will give them better terms, Davis continues to stall when Lincoln starts negotiations. With little choice, Lincoln orders Grant and Meade to hold in place, appoints Grant commander of all US Armies (who leaves McPherson in command at Chattanooga), and orders Grant to have Sherman reinforced in order to try one last time for a victory. Sherman, reinforced massively, drives on Mobile and manages to drive Johnson out of Alabama and Mississippi (and incidently frees a great many slaves) and takes Mobile Bay by Christmas.
But it is too late. Support for the war collapses in the North, and Lincoln has been forced to suspend conscription after the November election. Many veterans of the Union Army, whose 3 year enlistments are coming to an end begin going home in November and Union Army morale is at a nadir. Lincoln calls off further advances as 1865 begins and agrees to an armistice in place until negotiations can begin with the new McClellan Administration.
Mexico and Central America 1862-1870
While the United States was fighting its war, critical events were happening in Mexico as well. In 1862, Spain and France decide to punish Mexico for the decision by the Juarez government to suspend debt payments. The British too initially consider action but decide that events in North America are too uncertain to risk angering the United States. On May 5, 1862, French troops wreck the Mexican Army at the Battle of Puebla and through the rest of 1862 and 1863 proceed to conquer all of Mexico except for mountain regions held by forces loyal to Juarez. By 1864, Napoleon has installed Maximilian as Emperor of Mexico and also solidified an alliance with the Hapsburgs and Austria. This alliance was to be crucial to events in Europe in a very short time. With the defeat of Lincoln in the November 1864 election, France grants the Confederate government recognition in exchange for it renouncing the Monroe Doctrine as it applies to Mexico. Spain, eager to regain territory, assembles an army financed by the French, and joins in on the conquest of Mexico, and proceed to conquer all of Central America north of Panama from 1865-1870. With North America continuing to split apart, neither France nor Spain need fear action by the Americans, and only the British threat to intervene saves Colombia from losing Panama.
This does however keep the French Army busy in Mexico as reinforcements are sent in to finally defeat Mexican forces (and kill Juarez) in 1868.
A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand: The Civil War continues 1865-1870
In March 1865 McClellan becomes President of the United States and Lincoln leaves office and moves to California to start a new life. A wave of resignations hits the Union Army as well as Sherman quiets and moves back to California. Most of the wartime army goes home as well, leaving only a relatively small Regular Army which is soon ordered to key points along the border with the Confederacy and the United States to stem the mass migration of former slaves seeking to escape the Confederacy. McClellan agrees to give pull Union troops out of all occupied Southern states, but holds firm on keeping Missouri and Kentucky as both have very large Unionist populations. However, rioting in Baltimore and an extreme shortage of troops eventually convinces him to give up eastern Maryland including Baltimore and Washington DC after a reasonable period of time to evacuate government records and other valuables such as the Library of Congress and contents of the Patent Office. The US capital is provisionally moved to Philadelphia, while the Confederacy debates moving their capital too.
The Democratic Congress and President find themselves with a nation discouraged and with huge debts. Funding measures to build the Transcontinental Railroad are defeated, and in reaction, the western states of California, Washington, Oregon and Nevada secede from the Union in the fall of 1865. A government is formed in San Francisco and the Pacific Union is formed with all four states. The territorial governments of Colorado (which includes Wyoming at this point), Montana, Idaho, and Arizona also send representatives to San Francisco and consider joining In the end New Mexico and Arizona join the Pacific Union along with Idaho, while Colorado and Wyoming remain part of the US. Discussions over Montana between the US and Pacific Union result in it remaining a US Territory. The British Government immediately recognizes the new nation in exchange for a commercial treaty and McClellan is forced to accept the disaster in his first year in office. Taking advantage of the situation, the Mormons in Utah declare their independence as well and since neither the Pacific Union nor the US Government is willing to try to conquer them, both nations grant recognition.
The McClellan Administration limps through the next three years facing harsh criticism before being voted out of office in 1868. The Democrats dump McClellan for selling out the West and Winfield Scott Hancock, a hero of Gettysburg, wins the Democratic nomination and defeats Schuler Colfax with ease. Hancock works closely with General Grant, who remained in the Army post war and between them and the assistance of General Sheridan crush the Sioux and other Plains tribes (thus keeping the British and Pacific Union from expanding any further east) and work to improve relations with the other nations of North America. Hancock also improves the Navy, recognizing that the United States must become a trading nation to survive as it will have to compete for the minerals of western North America and the agricultural products of Texas.
Meanwhile, the Confederacy has its own problems. The end of the war is a Southern victory, but only of sorts. Although nearly 400,000 Blacks managed to either reach the North or already lived there after the Civil War, the South still had 4 million Blacks in its territories. Of these, 250,000 live in Texas (out of a population of 800,000 not counting Indians), and another 400,000 in Louisiana (out of 750,000 people, and nearly 1/3 are Free Blacks), and a mere 100,000 (out of 700,000) living in Arkansas. In all, nearly 1 million Blacks have been freed by Union military action and as the Union Army leaves Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Alabama it simply hands over most of its weapons to the former slave population. In addition, nearly 180,000 Blacks served in the Union Army during the war, and most of them (nearly 100,000 in all) promptly head to Louisiana to help their brethren.
In short order Davis finds himself fighting a new Civil War, this time White against Black, and practically everywhere in the South. Texas, dealing with a serious problem with Comanche and other Indians, acts promptly. When Davis is unable to send troops to help defend the Texas Frontier, the Texas Government decides to rid itself of two problems at once. First, it is facing a serious lack of money, and secondly it has a serious internal security problem. Texas secedes from the Confederacy in 1867 when Davis asks for troops to fight the war back east, and then makes a deal with Louisiana and France. France will pay all debts owed by the Texas government and provide weapons and a few ships. In exchange, Texas will act against Mexican Rebels using Texas as a base, close its ports to the Central American governments, allow the Blacks in Louisiana to have a secure border with Texas. In exchange for British recognition and money, Texas also ends slavery, using the British money to reimburse owners and those who chose to remain in Texas are given free land in the Rio Grande Valley and basic tools and seed. Texas laws make life difficult for former slaves everywhere but in the former Indian Territory and Rio Grande Valley which strongly encourages movement.
Louisiana takes in 150,000 Blacks that Texas expels (most of whom had been sent there during the Civil War to prevent them fleeing to Yankee forces). Texas promptly uses the French money to expand its Army and proceeds over the next year to wipe out the Comanche and Apache (those in New Mexico) Indians by wiping out the Buffalo and launching several winter campaigns when the Indians are vulnerable while annexing Indian Territory (Oklahoma) and secure the border with Louisiana and Mexico.
Meanwhile, Davis finds himself fighting a war even more ruinously expensive then the last one. Robert E. Lee and Joseph E. Johnson both decline to serve in a war to crush a servile rebellion, leaving P.G.T. Beauregard as commander of the Army. He assigns Longstreet to watch the Yankees, while sending Bedford Forrest to deal with the rebellions in the Mississippi Valley. A horrific slaughter rages across the CSA throughout 1866-1868 as rebellions outside of the Mississippi Valley are brutally crushed, and nearly 1 million blacks are locked up into camps. Another 1 million flee to Louisiana (where nearly 600,000 Whites flee Louisiana, Mississippi and parts of Alabama and Arkansas, and another 20,000 are killed) and by 1867 the Confederate government is fighting a semi conventional war against Blacks defending Louisiana and parts of Alabama and Mississippi and Arkansas.
Seeing an opportunity to get even, Abolitionists in the United States funnel money, arms and a considerable number of former Union officers to help the Blacks and the war continues in an uncommonly harsh fashion for the next two years. Although Forrest manages to drive Black forces out of Alabama, Arkansas and northern Mississippi by 1868, the Confederate government finds itself exhausted economically and the British government (which is facing serious pressure at home) is threatening a blockade and economic embargo. With little choice, Davis agrees to a peace treaty with the new nation of Louisiana and sends Vice President Stephens and retired General Robert E. Lee to negotiate with the President of Louisiana, Frederick Douglas and in May 1869 the Treaty of Lena is signed. Louisiana gets to keep all of the state of Mississippi plus Louisiana, in exchange, the Confederate States of America deports nearly 2 million blacks still living in its territory to the new nation. The United States and Texas both promptly recognize the new nation and money begins pouring in from the United States, principally from Abolitionist groups and companies who realize that Louisiana controls the mouth of the Mississippi. At the end of the war, Arkansas, with some bribes by railroad companies in the United States and irritation at the Confederate government leaves the Confederacy and joins the Republic of Texas. As part of that deal former general Cleburne is made President of the Republic of Texas and Arkansas, which is formally known as the Lone Star Republic.
By the end of 1870 the long Civil War is over. The nations of the United States, the Pacific Union, Texas, Deseret, Louisiana and the Confederacy have emerged as successors to the old United States, and the issue of Slavery has destroyed the continental nation dreamed of by the Founding Fathers. The awful war is finally over, at the cost of nearly 2 million lives from all the various nations (including Indians killed in Texas, New Mexico and in the Great Plains) and the map of North America has changed forever. The Confederacy seceded to keep slavery and finds that it has its independence and no longer has slavery. Many in the Old South wonder if it was worth it.
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