Because that's what its called https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gendarmerie
Grant Shot at Ford's Theater
- Thread starter Sean McKnight
- Start date
Gendarmerie is used in English to spell the word or its equivalents when translating from other languages, and I don't know of Gendarmery being used, though it may very well have been, and that seems like a pretty American thing to do, but I think that the US was pretty ok with France in the 1860s, so there may not be a reason to avoid a commonly used French loanword.
Also, at the time, imitating France in some ways, or at least using a lot of French words was pretty common. Worldwide Francophilia rose to an all-time high during the reign of Napoleon III (I guess his foreign affairs incompetence prevented France from being a scary villain, but his relative internal success made it look like a shining example of a modern nation that others could look up to), though this wasn't that big yet in 1865, I'm pretty sure it was on the rise.
Gendarmerie - Wikipedia
I’m not knowledgeable on this sort of stuff, but I’d figure they’d just use the English version with maybe a slightly different pronunciation and the rise of “gendarms” as slang for them.
Gendarmerie - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
I’m not knowledgeable on this sort of stuff, but I’d figure they’d just use the English version with maybe a slightly different pronunciation and the rise of “gendarms” as slang for them.
Well, we can just wait and see what @Sean McKnight has to say about it I guess.
I'm no expert either, I'm just trying to explain it with what little I know.
The term Gendarmerie is used in multiple non-french speaking countries, and it stands today as just the standard term for a military run domestic police force. Americans however do pronounce it differently than the French do, they say "Gen-darmery" with a hard "ar" sound. But @Višeslav was right, average people call them Gendarms, but in the 19th century to about the 20s they were called "Pinkertons" or "Fucking Pinkertons" if you lived in a white southern community.
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Its meant to symbolize their investigation unit. I actually lifted it from one of the lesser used logos of the Military Police, the idea being that this symbol cropped up around the same time the MPs would have been established in OTL (around WWI), because the Gendarmerie would have been used for a similar purpose.
Still working on that, but I want to go in a more subtle direction. This timeline is more about people than geopolitics. I am thinking that because the US would have had a lot more experience with nation-building, war-crimes tribunals, and running a long term occupation on its own soil, the country would necessarily have a lot of strategic thinkers who would be experienced in applying those techniques overseas. So Versailles would probably have different border changes after WWI, the US would probably operate a similar anti-communist campaign as the British did in Burma (which we tried to do in OTL via the Strategic Hamlet Program, but it was a real half assed effort), so you might get a North-South Vietnamese divide lasting to present day. Little things like that.
Its a world where the US is still an Empire, still pursues its geopolitical interests, but does so without white supremacy always being in the background.
While I can certainly respect this kind of focus, I'd have to think this United States would have a different reaction to, for instance, the Congo Free State humanitarian crisis.
Haven't gotten too deep into the Cold War yet, but I have decided on the rough timeline till about the early 1950s. As its still a WIP I won't get into too much detail, but basically the Great Migration of former slaveholders/confederates leads to the Great Plains/Mountain West becoming a lot less stable. There are two "Uprisings" during World War I and World War II, the first being relatively small and with poor organization. The second one happens in the early 40s just as WWII is starting up, and is almost a proper sequel to the Civil War, with General Patton leading an army of pro-German white nationalists. The uprising lasts for just under 2 years and delays America's entry into the European theater long enough for the Brits to sue for peace. So the US builds an alliance of Colonies as it were, giving Canada and Australia much more important rolls in the war. When the fight is over, the US does not give the Europeans a say on decolonization, they're treated more like collaborators or conquered peoples. The US and Soviets maintain mostly positive relations until the early 1950s, and the Cold War itself sees the US adopt a less Eurocentric viewpoint.
Great Migration
The Great Migration, sometimes known as the Great Western Migration or the Southron Migration, was the movement of 6 million White Southerners out of the rural Southern United States to the American Interior, Mexico, central America, and South America that occurred between 1865 and 1940. During Reconstruction former Confederates and later generations of Southron Americans fled to Mexico, Central and South America, and the American Interior. The reasons most frequently cited were fear of persecution by freed slaves and the Union Army, or outright disdain for the new social order imposed by Reconstruction.
In every U.S. Census prior to 1890, the American South was majority white, and only 1/3 of African Americans lived in urban areas. By 1900 a majority of those living in the former-Confederate States were of African descent and a majority lived in urban areas. By the end of the Great Migration, just over 50% of the White population of the South remained there, while a majority of those descended from White Southerners lived in the American Interior and West. By 1940 less than 1/5 of Southron Americans living in the Interior lived in cities, compared to a majority of those who still resided in the American South.
The Great Migration marked a cultural shift between the white residents of the South and the Southron Americans who left for the Interior. The 1940 Census indicated that only 30% of White Southerners self-identified as Southron Americans, compared to 50% of whites polled in Arizona, Colorado, and Dakota. Of those polled, only 10% of White residents of the South indicated they had a strong connection to the Confederacy, while in the Interior 39% answered in the affirmative. The 1940 census saw the peak of Southron identity in the US; with the death of the last Confederate veterans every successive census showed fewer and fewer Americans identified with Southrons. By the turn of the Millenium, less than 5% of all Americans identified as Southron-Americans, with the highest number being in Wyoming at 15%.
Confederados
Of the 6 million White Southerners who fled the South, the majority of the South's aristocrats who lost their land fled to Latin America, with Brazil being the largest single destination. Over 300,000 former Confederates settled in Brazil, the overwhelming majority in Sao Paulo, and established new slaveholding plantations and in many cases entire communities known to local Brazilians as Confederados. Brazilian Emperor Dom Pedro II actively encouraged former Confederate rebels to immigrate to Brazil, providing land and financial assistance in the hope that the Confederados would help grow the Brazilian economy. By the 1880s the then unrecognized "New Texas" colony was making a serious push for recognition, partly to oppose the growing push to abolish slavery outright. When Isabel, Princess Imperial of Brazil, promulgated the Lei Áurea ("Golden Act") in 1888, a group of Confederados led by the 88 year old former colonel of the Confederate Army, William Hutchinson Norris, declared the independence of New Texas and raised an army of 12,000 men with the intent of taking the city of Sao Paulo and securing the creation of a neo-Confederate slaveholding nation. The Army of New Texas lived only to fight a single battle at Campinas before being driven back by the Brazilian army who proceeded to burn their capital of Americana to the ground, killing around 70,000 people.
In every U.S. Census prior to 1890, the American South was majority white, and only 1/3 of African Americans lived in urban areas. By 1900 a majority of those living in the former-Confederate States were of African descent and a majority lived in urban areas. By the end of the Great Migration, just over 50% of the White population of the South remained there, while a majority of those descended from White Southerners lived in the American Interior and West. By 1940 less than 1/5 of Southron Americans living in the Interior lived in cities, compared to a majority of those who still resided in the American South.
The Great Migration marked a cultural shift between the white residents of the South and the Southron Americans who left for the Interior. The 1940 Census indicated that only 30% of White Southerners self-identified as Southron Americans, compared to 50% of whites polled in Arizona, Colorado, and Dakota. Of those polled, only 10% of White residents of the South indicated they had a strong connection to the Confederacy, while in the Interior 39% answered in the affirmative. The 1940 census saw the peak of Southron identity in the US; with the death of the last Confederate veterans every successive census showed fewer and fewer Americans identified with Southrons. By the turn of the Millenium, less than 5% of all Americans identified as Southron-Americans, with the highest number being in Wyoming at 15%.
Confederados
Of the 6 million White Southerners who fled the South, the majority of the South's aristocrats who lost their land fled to Latin America, with Brazil being the largest single destination. Over 300,000 former Confederates settled in Brazil, the overwhelming majority in Sao Paulo, and established new slaveholding plantations and in many cases entire communities known to local Brazilians as Confederados. Brazilian Emperor Dom Pedro II actively encouraged former Confederate rebels to immigrate to Brazil, providing land and financial assistance in the hope that the Confederados would help grow the Brazilian economy. By the 1880s the then unrecognized "New Texas" colony was making a serious push for recognition, partly to oppose the growing push to abolish slavery outright. When Isabel, Princess Imperial of Brazil, promulgated the Lei Áurea ("Golden Act") in 1888, a group of Confederados led by the 88 year old former colonel of the Confederate Army, William Hutchinson Norris, declared the independence of New Texas and raised an army of 12,000 men with the intent of taking the city of Sao Paulo and securing the creation of a neo-Confederate slaveholding nation. The Army of New Texas lived only to fight a single battle at Campinas before being driven back by the Brazilian army who proceeded to burn their capital of Americana to the ground, killing around 70,000 people.
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I'm trying to find more info on how the settlement of Confederates to Latin America went in OTL, but its pretty thin on the ground. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederate_colonies
Part of me thinks they and/or their descendants might end up becoming an underclass in Latin America. Which would be fairly karmic all things considered.
Doing some research I found that the majority of those who left the US made their way to Brazil, where Emperor Don Pedro II was actively recruiting them (he even gave them land grants which many of them used to create new slave plantations). So I'm gonna say that instead of tens of thousands a few hundred thousand would move into the country, attempt a second rebellion when slavery is abolished there in the late 1880s, and be brutally put down with their remnant population becoming a minor underclass as you said.
Westward expansion was, if anything, accelerated by this from all the White Southerners fleeing to "virgin territory" in the great plains and mountain west. And yes there was still a Chinese Exclusion Act, because contrary to popular belief, racism was not limited to the South.
Benjamin O. Davis
Field Marshal Benjamin Oliver Davis Sr. (May 1880 - November 26 1970) was a senior officer of the United States Army who commanded the U.S. Seventh Army in the Mediterranean theater of World War II, and later during the Allied invasion of Germany. After the war, Davis became the first Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and oversaw the U.S. military's policy making in the Korean War.
Born in Washington, D.C., Davis lied about his age and enlisted in the Cavalry at the start of the Spanish–American War, and came under the tutelage of Charles Young. During World War I, Davis was stationed at Fort D. A. Russell, Wyoming. In 1914 he first saw action after being deployed with the 9th Cavalry Regiment to support the United States Gendarmerie in putting down the Arizona Rebellion, America's first military action using motor vehicles.
After the war, Davis became a central figure in the development of the Army's armored warfare doctrine, serving in numerous staff positions throughout the country. At the American entry into World War II, he commanded the 2nd Armored Division.
Davis led U.S. troops into the Mediterranean theater with an invasion of Casablanca during Operation Torch in 1943, and soon established himself as an effective commander by rapidly rehabilitating the demoralized U.S. II Corps. He commanded the U.S. Seventh Army during the Allied invasion of Italy and became the first allied commander to reach Rome. Davis would continue to lead the Seventh Army during the combined allied invasion of Metropolitan France. After the breakout from Savoy, Davis was appointed to the rank of Field Marshal and took command of the Twelfth United States Army Group, which ultimately comprised forty-three divisions and 1.3 million men, the largest body of American soldiers ever to serve under a single field commander. Davis conducted a highly successful rapid armored drive across France. Under his decisive leadership, the forces of the twelfth army group drove deep into Nazi Germany by the end of the war.
During the Allied occupation of Germany, Davis was named military governor of the Rhineland and took an aggressive stance on denazification. He was appointed as Chief of Staff of the United States Army in 1948 and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1949. He was the senior military commander at the start of the Manchu War, and supported President William L. Daweson's policy of containment. Davis left active duty in 1953 (though remaining on "active retirement" for the next 17 years). He continued to serve in public and business roles until his death in 1970.
Born in Washington, D.C., Davis lied about his age and enlisted in the Cavalry at the start of the Spanish–American War, and came under the tutelage of Charles Young. During World War I, Davis was stationed at Fort D. A. Russell, Wyoming. In 1914 he first saw action after being deployed with the 9th Cavalry Regiment to support the United States Gendarmerie in putting down the Arizona Rebellion, America's first military action using motor vehicles.
After the war, Davis became a central figure in the development of the Army's armored warfare doctrine, serving in numerous staff positions throughout the country. At the American entry into World War II, he commanded the 2nd Armored Division.
Davis led U.S. troops into the Mediterranean theater with an invasion of Casablanca during Operation Torch in 1943, and soon established himself as an effective commander by rapidly rehabilitating the demoralized U.S. II Corps. He commanded the U.S. Seventh Army during the Allied invasion of Italy and became the first allied commander to reach Rome. Davis would continue to lead the Seventh Army during the combined allied invasion of Metropolitan France. After the breakout from Savoy, Davis was appointed to the rank of Field Marshal and took command of the Twelfth United States Army Group, which ultimately comprised forty-three divisions and 1.3 million men, the largest body of American soldiers ever to serve under a single field commander. Davis conducted a highly successful rapid armored drive across France. Under his decisive leadership, the forces of the twelfth army group drove deep into Nazi Germany by the end of the war.
During the Allied occupation of Germany, Davis was named military governor of the Rhineland and took an aggressive stance on denazification. He was appointed as Chief of Staff of the United States Army in 1948 and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1949. He was the senior military commander at the start of the Manchu War, and supported President William L. Daweson's policy of containment. Davis left active duty in 1953 (though remaining on "active retirement" for the next 17 years). He continued to serve in public and business roles until his death in 1970.
1) What do US Gendarmerie uniforms look like?
2) Possible insignia of American field marshal?
2) Possible insignia of American field marshal?