Jefferson's Anti-Slavery Crisis: Alternate History of the U.S.

Final fate of "British Columbia" by the end

  • 1. Eventual independence

    Votes: 18 51.4%

  • 2. Eventual merging with the US

    Votes: 17 48.6%

  • 3. Something else (post in thread for more details)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    35
  • Poll closed .
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Foretaste of Horror
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    Foretaste of Horror

    Some of the similar circumstances that occurred in Britain with the Black Legion also happened with a Vespasianist (far-right revanchist) government in France. This, however, was the doing of the Accion Francaise. This was another far-right group looking for revenge after the humiliation of the “Dreadful War”, especially after the previous government of France was unable to completely cancel the war reparations to Germany. The Accion Francaise swept into power in the various legislative elections of France occurred in the 1930s after the economic collapse had ruined the French Economy. This collapse was further exacerbated by the lack of relief from the ineffective, horribly divided French government. (Many historians would find that President Gaston Doumergue of France had downplayed the threat that Accion Francaise represented until it was too late.)

    The ascent of the Accion Francaise would later continue with the election of Philippe Petain in 1934 by a large margin. The main political parties in France at that time did not realize the threat, often squabbling amongst each other and taking away from each other’s constituencies. Besides, many of these factions did agree that the various humiliations, especially the “Dreadful War” done to France by Germany needed to be addressed somehow. The devil was in the details for many politicians, which is one reason why the Accion Francaise rose to power. In addition, the scapegoating that the Accion Francaise performed, gave people someone to blame for the horrific circumstances France found itself in.

    The Accion Francaise was led by Philippe Petain. He was a war hero of the Battle of the Somme, and was able to avoid most of the scapegoating of old generals due being part of the French rearguard—holding off parts of the German Army while everyone else was making the retreat. Miraculously, he survived the battle. He had a distrust for politicians of the old order, a sentiment shared by other members of his party and Vespasianists in general. Petain scapegoated often--he blamed the politicians of the “Dreadful War”, the “Engelists” (a type of extreme socialists named after Friedrich Engels), and above all, the Allied Powers—especially Germany.

    The rise of Kornilov caused similar issues in Russia. Russia faced an issue where Tsar Michael (ascended after the death of his brother Nicholas II) faced massive problems with the reparations to Germany, and the cessions of land to form new nations. Unsurprisingly, when the “Economic Calamity” hit, not even the parliamentary reforms performed in the early days of Tsar Michael were enough to save Russia. Kornilov was a rising politician of Russia at the time, and he took advantage of the “Economic Calamity” by promising relief. He also devised a plan to centralize media, ostensibly to make it more effective due to the weakness of Russian media in the “Dreadful War”, but this centralized media would soon become a tool of state control.

    (There will be a very short section on Italy because I have not covered that country since before the “Dreadful War”. Long story short: It goes to “Engelism”. Regular socialism appears primarily in the Nordic countries.)
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    So here's more content. Thank you for following!
     
  • Index
    • Quick Summary of the World in 1936
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    Quick Summary of the World in 1936

    Ever country tried to recover after the “Economic Calamity”. Such was the economic devastation that many countries, especially in South America, Asia, and the Middle East, took decades to recover. India, Japan, and China were the main players in Asia. They did not like each other to say the least. While not getting to the point of war, those nations seemed to be at edge. This would be called a “cold war”—perhaps similar to the US and Germany rivalry that would occur in the distant future.

    Japan had blamed China and India for funding rebellions in its newly conquered areas from the “Dreadful War”. While Japan eventually did root out most of the rebels, this blame caused India and China to start resenting Japan. Economic rivalry was another reason for resentment. A military coup attempt failed drastically in Japan in the 1930s, with most of the perpetrators committing suicide to avoid being captured. The date of this coup (The ultranationalist coup) was May 19, 1935.

    Africa was gutted of its natural resources in an attempt to pay off the reparation money, and also to get resources to sell to alleviate the “Economic Calamity”. This had largely occurred in North Africa by the French and southern Africa by the British. The Germans had abandoned their Central African colonies (which were not large in size) after extracting everything they could because it was simply too expensive to maintain them. (None of this excuses the rampant brutality performed by all these powers on the various peoples of different parts of Africa). Anti-colonial efforts started in Africa as well, some financed by India or the US. This onslaught of resource harvesting is one reason for the stunted growth of African economies after the colonialism period.

    Note that the “Good Neighbor” policy in South America started to occur during the rise of Vespasianism and Legion governments. The US really did not want a hostile government type in South or Central America. As a result, the United States of America attempted to help get many South or Central American countries’ economies off the ground after the wholesale economic collapse. Keyword: attempt. Some foreign aid did arrive to those countries, but the fact is, America could have done much more than what it actually did—the foreign aid bill barely passed, and it was much reduced from the original blueprints in early 1935. More aid would arrive in 1939, but by then, many Latin American governments thought that the US was not as helpful as it should have been.

    A rearmament program began in Britain, France, and Russia, in violation of arms treaties formed shortly after the Treaty of New York. The Royal Navy increased in size again, and Russia created an Air Force. The citizenry of Germany, the US, and many other countries were very fearful of another “Dreadful War”; as a result, they were willing to ignore this rearmament program for quite some time. New doctrines of war also developed in the military academies of many countries, but especially in France—mechanized assault focused on tanks. The end goal of this kind of warfare was to avoid the trench-focused stalemates that typified the “Dreadful War”.
     
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    • Judgment War Part 1
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    • sampleswift

    Finally some new content (and 1000+ words this time).

    The World in the late 1930s was increasingly divided into two groups that were eventually going to declare war on each other. In the first column was the United States of America, Brazil, Germany, Portugal, Morocco, and Sweden. Minor participants included many Eastern European countries such as Poland, Hungary, and Romania. In the second column was Spain, Britain, France, Russia, Italy, and Bulgaria. Greece, unsatisfied with its gains in the “Dreadful War”, would join them soon after in 1938. These columns had names: The Allied Powers for the first and the Revanchist Powers for the second. The main reason why the two power blocs were opposed to each other was due to systems of government. Most of the Revanchist powers were not only trying to go for revenge for the “Dreadful War”, but were little better than dictatorships. Note that most of the Revanchist powers had Legion style governments which emphasized military primacy, such as the Vespasianists in France and the Black Legion in Britain. Russia was an exception due to its corporatist style of government. This happened because corporations took the leading role in the industrialization of Russia after its humiliating defeat in the “Dreadful War”. (While Russia in theory had a constitutional monarchy government structure, most of the seats in the Duma ended up being controlled by various corporations and their lobbying interests.) Most of the Allied Powers had been republics or constitutional monarchies, and they were very worried about the spread of Revanchism or Corporatism. This reflected in various legislation passed by Congress and signed into law by President Olson of the United States of America in the waning period of his Presidency. Similar legislation arrived in Germany due to a fear of a “Corporate Control” like in Russia.


    The military rebuilding of these countries would arrive in the mid-1930s, with all of the Revanchists building back militaries despite treaty regulations. The response from the Allied Powers was rather limited at first, considering of military buildup. By January 1937, the coup of the Belgian (October 9, 1937) and Bulgarian (December 18, 1937) governments had occurred, with little more than further military buildup in the Allied Powers and trade sanctions (neither of which had much impact on the Revanchist Powers.) There was even the demand for territory that Russia had made, getting back Ukraine (which Germany had admittedly made a cowardly decision by allowing it to happen.) Thankfully, other Russian demands for territory were not accepted, causing the Russian government and military to take it back by force if necessary.


    How to use that force would change in the late 1930s due to new styles of warfare. French military strategists came up with a “Attaque Rapide” (Fast attack) that used combined arms warfare with tanks, armored cars, and airplanes. These styles of warfare would mean that the trench warfare of the “Dreadful War” would soon become a thing of the past. The Allied Powers attempted to keep up in terms of doctrinal evolution, but they would have difficulty in doing so. Chemical and biological warfare were also considered, with the Germans even considering military applications of the atomic energy research done by the genius scientist Albert Einstein (much to Einstein’s dismay). Some experimental motorcycle troops appeared in Britain and in Germany, but neither was particularly successful. “Fifth columns” of saboteurs also started seeing use in many different countries. These would launch insurgent attacks or destroy factories or other industrial sites to weaken a country prior to its invasion. Most of these would be homegrown forces, to better blend in with the country they were trying to weaken.

    The Judgment War started with the invasion of Portugal by Spanish, French, and British forces on March 19, 1938. Portugal fell quickly because of the overwhelming force deployed against it. The US and Brazil were simply not capable of saving Portugal in time, and it fell in barely two weeks. Morocco would be important for the United States of America and Brazil since it permitted their troops to land there. Germany and America, and the rest of the Allied Powers, declared war on France and Britain. Russia then declared war on Germany and its Eastern European allies, and started an immense army moving westwards, conquering anything in its way.


    The initial battles went badly for the Allied Powers, especially Germany. The French Army started slowly cutting through the German fortifications in the western border, including a risky maneuver through forests in the Ardennes to cause a German defeat there. The German Army in the east also faced problems when the Russian Army groups started their almost inexorable attacks. The main issue here was that the German commanders at the beginning of the war were outmatched initially by the advances of the Russian and French commanders, especially the Russian General Zhukov, known for his mastery of war strategy. General Guderian, the main German general in the East, was repeatedly outmatched despite his best efforts, and was in great danger of being sacked. Respite came primarily when the Russian tanks had outrun their supply train, causing the advance to slow down.


    Here is a scene of the devastation that occurred in Portugal in the beginning of the war, although similar scenes occurred across Eastern Europe.

    The Portuguese 20th Regiment had just been called, alongside dozens of similar regiments, to defend its country from invasion. Many of these troops had no experience of war, with a failed coup being some of the only action that the Portuguese had seen in recent memory. Now uncounted numbers of enemies swarmed the small nation.

    Trucks, tanks, and armored cars roared as they drove at the Portuguese lines and fired away. The morale of the new Portuguese troops, never very high, started deteriorating as the war machines started wreaking havoc into their lines, crossing the hastily-made trenches, and blasting apart the fortifications. No mercy was expected or shown, as hundreds of the Portuguese soldiers fell in battle, leaving the road to Lisbon open. What was even worse was the bombing raids, as many cities simply went up in smoke with hardly any survivors.
     
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    • Final Roadmap
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    Final Roadmap

    Here is the final roadmap before this timeline probably closes, and I do a many worlds project.
    That many worlds project will most likely consist of a pop-culture timeline, an alternate Collapse of Rome, and probably some others.
    Judgment War Part 2
    Judgment War Part 3
    Judgment War Part 4
    Judgment War Finale

    Cleaning up loose ends 1
    Cleaning up loose ends 2
    Civil Rights: The Next Frontier
    Conclusion
     
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    • sampleswift

    The Home Front in the United States

    As American soldiers landed in Morocco and were trying to attack Spain, liberate Portugal, and create a second front to help the Germans and Eastern Europeans, the home front was quite different.

    The soldiers would not be home for Christmas. This would be a lean series of years, with rationing of supplies to get more for the military effort. These supplies were not only in food, but in other important supplies like gasoline. There was a rise in public transportation and carpooling to deal with theMany foreigners thought that the American public would be unable to cope with the rationing, but these Americans were toughened by the “Dreadful War” and the “Economic Calamity”. While violations of rationing certainly did occur, this was not very frequent. Americans by and large were willing to make the sacrifices necessary to commit to the grandest and most lethal war in history. One of the most interesting repercussions of the “Judgment War” was the greater acceptance of marginal groups. While most of the racial justice had been decided in the 1890s and early 1900s, there would still be other forms of discrimination such as the gender gap that still had not been fixed despite progress since the era of Susan B. Anthony in the late 1800s.

    The lesson from the “Dreadful War” that “there is no color in the trenches” would be further solidified in the “Judgment War”. This would serve the purpose of completely sweeping away the old racist culture of the former “British Columbia”. More important to civil rights during this era would be the further reducing of the gender gap. There was an even greater presence of women in the workforce now that so many of the men were off fighting in the “Judgment War”. The importance of the war effort meant that workers often had to work longer hours. While the war had once and for all eliminated the unemployment problem, there were other problems. There were labor shortages in agriculture, but some of this was solved by greater immigration from Latin America.

    Labor unions could be another concern in that period. The US Government was trying to get a no-strike pledge, which was a possibility considering most of the labor unions that belonged to the Federation of Industrial Organizations (major labor group during the early 1900s USA)

    Price fixing was a contentious policy during this time. The intent of this policy was to prevent inflation. Olson had been term-limited, but his successor, Harry Truman, had largely continued similar economic policies. Besides price control, wage control would also occur as a compromise measure due to many corporations fearing that wages would outrun the now-fixed prices. War bonds became a common measure for citizens to contribute to the war effort, and this fostered a greater sense of patriotism.

    Perhaps the most dramatic changes happened in the South. This area would quickly industrialize due to the need to make more factories for making war materials. Many new US Armed Forces training camps were built there (joining the military infrastructure originally used to clamp down on rebels). Urbanization had occurred in droves due to the influx of urban jobs. Shipyards also were repaired from the “Dreadful War”. Now that the last vestiges of rebellion in the South had ended several years ago, the region would actually receive greater prosperity than in the past due to the industrialization and increased job efforts
     

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    Happy Holidays, everyone!
     
    Judgment War Part 2
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    Campaigns in the Atlantic



    Attempts were made to try and get Japan to fight Russia, but Japan had enough of war against major powers for now. It had just finished digesting its vast territorial gains from the “Dreadful War”, and the Japanese war machine was reduced in size after a failed military coup. As such, the Japanese government was unlikely to offer any military support.

    One of the major campaigns in the war would occur in the North Atlantic Ocean. The US Navy and Royal Navy were battling in the ocean for naval supremacy. The North Atlantic Campaign was one of the largest campaigns in 1938. One of the major reasons why the British forces held an initial edge over the US ones was the greater experience of British ship crews. This, combined with slightly better British commanders and officers, caused problems for the Americans. The tide started to shift when the US, realizing it could not fight the British with conventional sea craft, focused more on submarines and aircraft carriers. While the first aircraft carrier was built in France in the early 1930s, it was the United States of America that would be known for them. Aircraft carriers were very expensive undertakings due to their large size. Naval ships often ended up being very vulnerable to aircraft attacks, and this was often a big reason why many smaller British vessels ended up at the bottom of the Atlantic.

    Equally as important as aircraft and aircraft carriers were submarine warfare. Submarines were crucial in cutting off the resources from the British dominions from reaching the Home Islands, and also in taking down battleships and battlecruisers. Anti-submarine warfare was still very much in its infancy, often using early depth charges or other submarines as the defense, or trying to attack a submarine when it surfaced. While the submarines of the Judgment War era needed to surface for air due to their diesel-powered systems (unlike later era submarines), they were still largely effective at their task of taking down enemy ships and convoys. The Battles of the Atlantic were largely an attritional war—especially since the US Navy could rebuild faster than the Royal Navy. While the Germans and their European allies were attempting a dogged defense against the French and Russians, among others, the US was trying to find a way to cause a second front in Europe. Some troops did land in Morocco and Iceland, after receiving the permission to do so. The US bases already in Iceland, Greenland, and one built in Morocco were only done so after their host nations received generous amounts of money and resources to allow a US military presence of any kind (Morocco was also persuaded due to the Franco government in Spain, so it was easy for the US to persuade Morocco that Spain could be a threat to it). The German Navy helped out too, especially with the production of U-boats (a type of submarine) which further assisted in the attempted naval blockade of Britain.
     
  • Index
    • Naval Vessels of the Judgment War
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    • sampleswift

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    A Gato class submarine. This type of submarine was important in taking down British ships and cutting the dominion supply lines

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    A British J-class Destroyer. These ships were often modified due to the greater threat of US and German submarines in the Judgment War.
     
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    • sampleswift

    New Years' Announcement.
    It was a nice run. Sorry for the complete lack of content. I'm thinking of doing a different project, perhaps on a different time. I'm putting this on hiatus.

    I might use this as a lore thread for some alternate history short stories tbh. I think that's where this is going. This thread is almost dead anyway.
     
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