Let The Eagle Scream Version 2: Star-Spangled-Boogaloo

[Murica1776]

A Very British Sort of Madness: The Ideology of Britannianism

An illustration about the Indian caste system
​

Britannianism is perhaps one of the most unintentionally ironic ideologies in human history. For while it touts the genius of the Anglo-Saxon race, it has been heavily influenced by the needs and society of India, and one of its great philosophers is a "Italian with Saxonic Blood and Spirit." It also engages in such mind bending contradictions as being simultaneously pro-industry and deeply agrarian. Despite this, it is inarguably British, especially English, in conception and content for the most part. To quote Ramsay MacDonald before his execution "It's a very British sort of madness."

There are three philosophers who have shaped the construction of Britannianism. The first is of course Oswald Mosley, war hero and Baronet. The Captain, as he was called, formulated a basic schema for the ideology, a combination of Merrie England nostalgia, imperialism, and High Toryism. There was once a time in England, long ago, where life was.... better. The countryside was green and verdant, full of bountiful crops and fruitful orchards. Villages and towns dotted the landscape. They were full of neat, well-maintained, charming thatched cottages, and centered around a church or cathedral. People prayed, worked hard, and went to church. After church, they'd gather in pubs for hearty Sunday roasts and good English ales. This paradise, this quintessentially English community, had been lost to industrialization done for the benefit of wealthy businessmen. It was impractical to give up industrialization, for "He who has the foundries wins the war," but it, and the strain of capitalism it produced, ought to be tempered by a nation moving back to its tranquil rural roots as much as possible while remaining "pragmatic in the English fashion." The (grudging) respect given to industry was tied to the Empire. The British Empire is "The noblest project to civilize the Earth that has ever been conceived, and the greatest fruit of our genius." Especially noteworthy were the White Dominions, "The greatest colonization scheme ever completed, and assurance of our racial survival." Mosley actually theorized that the "hardy stocks" of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa could help reinvigorate the bloodlines and culture of Britain proper. Finally, Mosley had become an ardent proponent of the High Tory belief system. The primacy of the aristocracy in society was paramount, and they were responsible for the care of all of society. They were suited for this role because their ancient roles as landowners and local officials made them uniquely suited to rule, or so the thought went. High Toryism was also ambivalent to capitalism, preferring a more aristocratic and communitarian system of economy, almost neo-feudal. However, business was again viewed at least as a practical necessity, and Communism wholly despised.

Mosley's initial vision was more moderate in comparison to what Britannianism would become. He basically envisioned a movement of aristocrats and their supporters maintaining and expanding the empire, while simultaneously tempering the more explosive aspects of capitalism in favor of noblesse oblige and rural idealism. Hardly liberal, but not terribly extreme. Arguably, Mosley's biggest sin was in being open to, and accepting, more extreme ideas. The first proponent of these more extreme ideas (and one very rational one) was Eric Arthur Blair.

Blair was also born of privilege, the grandson and later son (after grandpa died) of country gentlemen. He had served in Africa as a commander of African troops, and grew to despise his unit for their insubordination. After the war, he went to India on a quest to find ancient secrets, having been obsessed with the occult as a child. Blair grew to have an immense respect for Hindu culture, and became enamored with the caste system. He noticed the physical distinctions between the castes, and was convinced that the Indians had found a nigh foolproof method of racial control. Given his experience in Africa, he became convinced that Britain needed a true caste system of its own. He sailed back to London in 1921, and feverishly wrote the whole way there. When the ship arrived, he had completed the manuscript for The Feasibility and Necessity of a British Caste System under the nom de plume George Orwell. In it, Blair constructed an elaborate racial historiography and theory. In terms of historiography, he argued that Britain and India shared a common Aryan ancestry, an idea which had circulated in other circles. Thus, Britain and India were bound together by ties of race. Blair argued that with a concerted effort, the Indians could be elevated to the same level of strength and civilization as the British. However, the British ought to leave the caste system fully intact, and Hinduism at least partially. This synthesis was actually very popular in both India and in Britain, and wacky racialism aside, wasn't bad policy by any means. It encouraged a much greater degree of Hindu buy-in and participation, and would make the Raj far more loyal than it had been.

However, the rest of The Feasibility and Necessity was.... less balanced. In it, Blair created an elaborate racial caste system for Britain. At the top were, of course, the Royal Family. They were the purest of purebloods, the ultimate expression of Britain. Beneath them, the aristocracy and country gentry, the "great ruling stock of our sceptered isle." Beneath them, you had the Anglo-Saxon stock of the British Isles (sorry Ireland). They were the greatest colonizers and conquerors of all time! Beneath them, the Indians, who themselves ought to be arranged according to their own castes, although Muslims should automatically go to the bottom. With enough time, it was thought that the Indians could be elevated fully into the ranks of "Anglo-Saxon-Aryandom." Beneath the Indians (well, the non-Muslim ones) were the other Asian races, who were viewed as inferior but not too bad. Finally, at the bottom, one saw the Africans, Muslims, and Celts. The Africans were inferior because "Millennia of living off tropical abundance and warfare has degraded their instincts for civility and self control, and sapped their vigor." The Muslims because "The deserts and Mohammedanism have destroyed any mental or physical capacity for them to have civilization." Finally, the Celts were "A naturally drunken, savage, cruel, fecund, and despotic race." These "British Untouchables" must be tightly controlled. Later, after the start of the Second World War, mass murder of untouchables would be pushed by the government, as a method of maintaining control.

The final philosophical addition to this ideology were the writings and thoughts of one Julius Evola, Italian nobleman turned ardent British patriot (after the Britannianist takeover). Evola had also been fascinated with Roman paganism, Eastern mysticism, caste systems, and race science. His ideas weren't terribly popular in his native Italy, where the far-right was far more enamored with Croixism than anything else. Especially jarring was his anti-Christianity (which Evola would later tamp down while in Britain). Evola was perhaps closer to Nietzscheanism than anything, but his obsession with castes even among a ruling race didn't work with their more ruthlessly Darwinian world-view. However, when the Britannian movement took over Britain in 1929, Evola found a people he could work with. He moved to London and quickly ingratiated himself into the more occult circles of the Britannian elite, and began writing his penultimate treatise. In 1931, Restoring Olympus was published, and became an officially approved part of Britannian ideology. In the beginning, there were two races: the Olympic and the Tellurian. The Olympic Race was a patriarchal, militaristic, deeply spiritual caste society ruled by Warrior-Priest-Kings and dominated by a warrior aristocracy. They eschewed mere comfort, in favor of deep spirituality, heroic strife, and warfare. They also had the ability to create great and manly cultures. The Olympic Race was believed to have found its expressions in Ancient Greece, Ancient (pre-Christian) Rome, Ancient Hindu India, and Ancient Persia. Their rival was the Telluric Race. The Telluric Race was matriarchal, effeminate, savage, decadent, and obsessed with luxury. The Telluric Races were held to be the Ancient Phoenicians, Ancient Arabs, Ancient Celts, and the Ancient Slavic peoples. The Telluric Races were inherently weaker and lesser than than the Olympic ones, but their decadence and hedonism could corrupt the Olympic races spiritually and genetically.

In modern times, there were no pure Olympic races remaining, thanks to millennia of miscegenation. Instead, it was maintained that there were now four Olympic descended races, as well as three Telluric racial offshoots. The Olympic Race had become the Jovian, Neptunian, Dinoysian, and Aresian races. Each of these races was possessed of Olympic spirit, and could help rebuild the Olympic Race, but must first overcome the Telluric values and germplasm in their genes. The Jovians were the Germans, Northern Italians, Dutch, and Scandinavians. They still possessed the warrior spirit of Olympus, but Telluric neuroticism had made them obsessed with an orderly society, even if that order came at the expense of true greatness. The Neptunians were the Anglo-Saxons only, and were held to have a uniquely strong Olympic racial aspect, that had become diluted with avaricious commercialism thanks to Telluric corruption. The Dinoysian races, consisting of the Spanish, Southern Italians, and the Hindus, were the most degraded of the Olympic races. While possessed of noble Olympic spirit still, the constant induction of Telluric blood had made them decadent and obsessed with luxury and pleasure. Finally, the Aresian races, mainly your French, Russians, and Belgians, were held to be powerful empire builders (Evola included Belgium because he respected their Congolese conquests) but were closer to Dinoysian decadence and disorganization than the other sub-races (while still being in better shape).

The Telluric races were the Aphrodisians, Venusians, and Junovians, each of which corresponded to "racial enemies of Olympus." The Aphrodisians, consisting of the "Turko-Arab-Berber-Perisan Race" was derided as innately sensual and despotic, concerned only with power, wealth, and harems. Although it might seem contradictory to include the Persians when their ancient forefathers were held to be Olympian, this was because "thousands upon thousands of years of wealth and Mohammadeanism had corrupted their spirit and germplasm beyond repair." The Venusians, who the Africans were classified as, were held to be the closest to original Telluric stock; promiscuous, dominated by women, doomed to savagery, obsessed with personal comfort, and obsessed with primitve cults centering on fertility goddesses and the "Mother Luna." Finally, and most dangerously, were the Junovians. The term Junovians was interchangeable with the alleged Yankee Races. The Yankee Races, while less primitive and more capable of governance, were more dangerous because they were more competent. They were also said to be driven by a "racial spirit of negation" where they would destroy all greatness, cast down all ancient systems of caste and rule, and preside over a miscegenated Kali Yuga of despair and depravity. Either the Olympic Race would be recreated, or the Yankee Junovians would eventually annihilate any form of high culture.

So, what was the ultimate synthesis of these three disparate strands of thought? Economically, Britannianism borrowed concepts from Croixist Yellow Socialism and blended them with de facto aristocratic control over much of the countryside. Religiously, the Anglican Church, especially the High Church tradition was exalted, but other Protestant denominations as well as Hinduism (for India) and occult spiritualism/Roman paganism (mainly aristocratic) were all tolerated. In terms of social organization, Britannianism created a supercharged version of previous systems of class and racial rule. The Royal Family and the aristocracy ruled by the divine right of God, and the inexorable rules of racial history. The Anglo-Saxon-Aryan race was held to be direct descendants of the ancient ruling races, and naturally above all others in the Empire. In India, this meant a strange combination of imperial patriotism and Hindu supremacism. In the rest of the Empire, previous methods of racial control were amplified. Mixing of any kinds between castes, even within the Anglo-Saxon-Aryan race, was completely unacceptable, for down that path lie Telluric degeneration. Britain was held to be on a tipping point in world history. Either the Yankees and their racial cousins in Africa and elsewhere are destroyed and the Olympic hierarchy rightfully restored in a new Merrie England, or the world would become a degenerate, worthless, Star-Spangled hellscape. The choice lay in Britain's hands: do or die.

Julius Evola, Italian aristocrat, British Patriot, and race scientist

Eric Arthur Blair, war hero, Hinduphile, "Bard of the Party."

A propaganda postcard celebrating the ideal of Merrie England.​

 

[Murica1776]

Will to Power: The Many Faces of Nietzscheanism

Rosa Lübeck, Mother of Individualist Nietzscheanism
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Nietzscheanism was perhaps one of the broadest ideological schools to come out of post-war Europe, and later America. Depending on where one was and what school of thought to which a Nietzschean ascribed, they could be a radical anarchist, a capitalist libertarian, or a pagan ethno-nationalist. Regardless, all were inspired by the post-war turn to the works of German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Specifically, his conceptions of the Ubermensch, Will to Power, and Master-Slave Morality would become the key to the various schools of Nietzscheanism around the world. Before we focus on region specific variants of this ideology, lets examine the two broad schools of Individualist and national.

Individualist Nietzscheanism was primarily formulated by two people (who would later become lovers). They were Aleister Crowley and Rosa Lubeck, son of a wealthy English family turned individualist, and a Germanized Polish Jewish woman. Crowley was a Nietzschean and an occultist, and would combine the two in his work. He arguably founded the modern movement while living in Berlin following the war, publishing An Occultist's Journey Through Nietzsche in 1919. In this treatise, he maintained that Nietzsche had stumbled upon a greater, more powerful truth than he could have known while he was alive. His writings were the most eloquent, factual, and modern expression of an ancient truth: that the pure, raw expression of Will was what defined man, not his ability to keep his appetites in check. Crowley then weaved this idea with occult beliefs of the Left Hand Path and his own occultist thought system of Thelema. Nietzschean thought could help one realize the importance of their own will. Having realized the power of their own will, Nietzscheans could harness it into occult magick and reshape the world around them. This wasn't limited to purely spiritual endeavors: Crowley wrote of his vision of a Nietzschean World Freedom (order prevents the exercise of Will) where men and women of every creed and color applied Nietzschean principles to their life, and people rose to greatness (or fell from it) on their own merits. Furthermore, the application of Raw Will to Magick would mean that everyone could access different planes of being and commune with great forces, if they so chose. This unparalleled freedom would also mean the end of patriarchal monotheism and the rise of paganism and sexual liberation. Mrs. Rosa Lübeck embraced a more materialist vision of Nietzscheanism in her book A Brave New World, published in 1920. In her mind, the war and the trauma it induced had shattered any doubt about whether or not a beneficent God existed: he didn't. All that was left was a society going through the motions, pretending that he existed. They also worshipped the false gods of State and Family, which allegedly provide a moral good (order). These two had also been proven to be false idols. Faith, Flag, and Family were nothing more than empty ideas used by inbred elites (in Europe) or democratic mobs (America) to hold back the potential of the individual. If humanity wished to actually advance into a better tomorrow, all these values had to be destroyed so the individual could be unleashed. To do so, "men and women of superior bearing" would have to embrace the Übermensch principle and create a new society, either by charisma or force. Lübeck anticipated force being the more likely option, and actually included pointers on military tactics from a German field manual. Her vision of a new society was similar to Crowley's, but lacking the occult elements. Lübeck's "Brave New World" was also much more explicitly focused on the destruction of conservative norms and the creation of a world where the strongest thrive unhindered by morality. She advocated for the complete dismantling of the state, and the creation of loose new social structures based on "a natural hierarchy of will and strength." Lübeck envisioned an almost animal world, where race, culture, faith or gender lost their meanings as terms of division, and where the only divide was between Übermensch and Untermensch, strong and weak, vitality and decay, the forceful and the forceless. It was a rather bleak vision in some ways, and one heavily influenced by her hatred of conservative Prussian values. Crowley and Lübeck met in a Berlin cafe shortly after her book was published in October 1920, and the two immediately hit it off, having read one another's work. They argued passionately about the existence and power of the occult (Crowley pro, Lübeck against) as well as the role of the state (Crowley was a minarchist as opposed to Lübeckian anarchy). Despite these differences of opinion, the two had much in common, and Lübeck's own writing had been influenced by Crowley. They co-published a book in 1922 titled The Dawn of the Modern Übermensch, which further expanded and synthesized their worldview. It was a hit among the intellectual elite and the disaffected, and fully brought their vision into the political currents of the day, with groups of Individualist Nietzscheans popping up across Germany, the Tripartite Empire, and all of Mitteleuropa and Nordeuropa.

Ironically given their anti-national stance, Crowley and Lübeck's work inspired a new variety of ethnic nationalism. In 1922 Martin Braun, a German veteran disgusted by his aristocratic superiors but still an ardent German racial nationalist, wrote National Nietzscheanism: Reclaiming Germania. He borrowed the same Nietzschean concepts of Will to Power, anti-Christianity, and the Übermensch that enamored Crowley and Lübeck, actually building off their analyses. However, he arrived at a drastically different place than they did. The nation/race, far from being a source of degradation, was the only worthy community. After all, even Übermensch needed community. An alleged ongoing racial struggle was deemed a noble fight, and Braun maintained "If a race is to triumph, let it be the German one!" Part of the road to triumph was rejecting Christianity. Contrary to popular belief (and interpretation by some NN sects) Braun's beef with Christianity wasn't anti-Semitic in nature. Rather, he viewed Christianity's widespread adoption as an attempt by European elites to beat down the masses by teaching them that "tenderness, mercy, chastity, temperance, meekness, generosity, and humility are essential traits in a people." The pagan ancestors of the Germans knew better: one does not restrain their natural appetites and passions, much less show mercy to enemies. You indulge your desires, cast down your enemies, and use your own personal strength to glorify the Gods and Ancestors. As a result, Braun called for a revival of the ancient pagan traditions and faith, and even dedicated a shrine to Baduhenna in a secluded part of the Black Forest. Politically, Braun dreamt of a system that was both decentralized and militarized. Being Bavarian himself, Braun despised Prussian hegemony over Germany, and called on each division of the Empire to celebrate "their unique rituals and cultural peculiarities, like the Germanic tribes of old." He extended this to politics, arguing that the German Empire ought to be conceived of as a looser confederation of "modern tribes" as opposed to a centralized, Prussianized state. Coexisting somewhat uneasily with this desire for regional autonomy was a strident worship of militarism, as Braun believed that the world would only cease to know struggle when one race triumphed over the rest, and the Germans ought to triumph. Tied into this militaristic creed was an intense brand of military style meritocracy. The old aristocrats were inbred egomaniacs and/or old fuddie-duddies, incapable of leading the strong new German race. Instead, society ought to function like the military: he who is strongest and most competent rises. If the poor son of a farmer from Baden was better suited (or stronger) than the leader of the nation, he ought to become leader of the nation, no fuss, no muss, and no asinine elections. Strength is the only requirement. All of this, the rejection of traditional morals, the worship of strength, and the advocacy for a new social order made National Nietzscheanism fairly popular among certain segments of the veteran population. In fact, it would become the organizing ideology of several militias in the 1920's that would stir up trouble in Germany.

Having covered the main German schools of Nietzscheanism we can now evaluate two derivative branches, one American, the other Scandinavian. In America, Individualist Nietzscheanism met Wall Street to create Producerism. Producerism was codified by Ayn Rand, a Russian immigrant, in her seminal 1927 work The Producer's Struggle. Like other Nietzscheans, Rand took the same basic concepts of the Übermensch, Will to Power, and atheism as gospel. Being a Russian Jew fleeing a collectivist regime that would soon lean on nationalism of a sort, Rand had no intention of becoming some kind of pagan ethnic nationalist. However, while agreeing with portions of Crowley and Lübeck's work, she disagreed with their overall conclusions. Crowley's occultism struck her as being superstitious, while Lübeck was too militant, anarchistic, and ideologically fanatical. So, Rand took Nietzsche's work, some concepts from her Germany-based contemporaries, and made it all her own. Producerism held that through the pursuit of profit and production, man could become Overman. The steel worker could become the tycoon, if he were to be unshackled and had the necessary talent and drive. Christianity, while nice in theory, ignored natural law and encouraged the expenditure of valuable resources on sustaining the "wretched, poor, blind, deaf, dumb, and hopeless." Big government functioned the same way, especially after Teddy Roosevelt, who Rand would call both an American Lenin and American Stalin. Roosevelt retorted by calling her a "strange and hateful sort of woman with a peculiar case of borscht brain." Feuding aside, Rand created a vision of a libertarian society where the government fulfills basic functions (but no more) and the American worker/businessman (dubbed the Producer) is allowed to strive as vigorously as he can manage, and perhaps get wealthy. In so doing, he transforms himself into the modern Overman, the ultimate capitalist and the endpoint of human spiritual evolution.

Meanwhile, in Scandinavia, a new form of National Nietzscheanism was formed. In 1926, Henrik Ingolfson a Norwegian-Swede living in Oslo, published Nietzsche and Ancient Scandinavia. Borrowing aspects of Braun's text, Ingolfson theorized that while the Scandinavians had much blood in common with the Teutons, Anglo-Saxons, and Celts, they were still very much a distinctive Nordic race with a Nordic spirit. This Nordic spirit was best expressed by the pagan Vikings, before it had been tamped down by an imported Christianity. What made this brand of National Nietzscheanism unique was it's strange, almost contradictory mix of regionalism and pan-Scandinavianism. On the one hand Ingolfson, like Braun, supported the regional identities of the various parts of Scandinavia. On the other hand, Ingolfson fantasized about a future "Scandinavian Confederation" where all the Nordics of Greenland, Iceland, Finland, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden united in a common racial and national cause. This vision of unity, more than anything, brought Ingolfson a small but noteworthy following.

We cannot finish our discussion of Nietzscheanism without briefly going over how various authorities reacted to it. The Scandinavians were generally laissez-faire about their brand of National Nietzscheanism, letting it peacefully coexist with society. A great deal of this tolerance comes from the fact that Scandinavian Nietzscheans were both more palatable to the public and much less violent than elsewhere. In America, where Producerism was also non-violent, toleration varied by region. In the liberal, industrious North and West, Producerist literature could be read, discussed, and disseminated without fear. In fact, a minority of Wall Street types at least partially embraced Producerism (the atheism was a bit much for most) and would cling to it until the Crash. The South and the Territories in the Caribbean, Mexico, and Panama were a different story. Elites in the Territories, a mix of native elites and Americans, squelched out the atheistic creed to the approval of their fairly devout subjects. In the South, state legislatures banned Producerist literature, dubbing it "utterly appalling intellectual chicanery which aims to overturn the moral order and is wholly un-American in content." This was also in reaction to the ideology's materialistic atheism. In Germany, Austria, and various parts of Mitteleuropa, Nietzschean ideology was declared illegal by the late 20's, and literature was publicly burned by the authorities. This was in large part due to the militant nature of many Nietzschean groups in the region. Nonetheless, the ideology would endure and flourish well into the future.

Martin Braun, Father of National Nietzscheanism

Ayn Rand (1943)

German police detain a bookseller accused of selling Nietzschean materials (1929)​

 

[Murica1776]

The Golden Twenties Part I: Suffrage, Prohibition, and Flappers

Suffragettes campaign in New York (1919)
​

The 1920's, known to most as the Golden Twenties, were a rollicking, freewheeling, and raucous period not just of American history, but of world history. Figuring out where to begin evaluating such a decade is thus difficult. Nonetheless, one could do worse than women's suffrage and rights. The 1920's saw the first wave of women's liberation sweep the West. In America, this led to the phenomenon of flappers, as well as Prohibition.

Women's suffrage had actually been a goal of President Roosevelt's since 1912 (same as OTL). Part of his overall New Nationalism had been sweeping electoral reforms, including direct election of senators and women's suffrage. By 1917, every electoral reform he had wanted except suffrage had been passed into either law or the Constitution. Nonetheless, the crusading Rough Rider had never been one to accept anything less than total victory. The role of women in fighting the Canadian Flu gave him a perfect opportunity. As volunteer nurses succumbed to the Flu even as they desperately tried to ease the suffering of others, Roosevelt began railing in the press against "the decrepit and weak strain of so-called masculinity that would deny these guardian angels the right to vote." At first, when the Flu was in early stages, most Americans didn't really take the message that seriously. However, as newspapers from Manila to Bangor began filling up with the obituaries of mothers and young women who died tending to others while millions more worked their hands raw to answer the government's call for influenza masks, public sentiment turned. Further boosting public support for suffrage was the sight of women in full Red Cross uniform marching with signs saying "My fellow nurses died for our country. Votes for Women." By the end of the influenza, public opinion had essentially turned in favor of suffrage. On January 19th, 1920, the 18th Amendment was passed, granting women the right to vote.

This was not a universally lauded decision. In Old Dixie, opposition to suffrage was actually quite strident. Conservative men, both Black and White, marched against suffrage. In turn, Black and White women railed against their men. The fight for suffrage got downright ugly in Dixie. Over 100 suffragettes would be forcibly institutionalized for "a severe and debilitating outburst of female hysteric syndrome" and would only be released after the 19th Amendment passed. In turn, some rowdy suffragettes rioted in Atlanta and Tallahassee, prompting the police to turn nightsticks and bloodhounds on them. The Southern press was mostly conservative, and thundered against suffrage with great force proclaiming it something along the lines of a "threat to the manly vitality of the Republic." In fact, the South nearly blocked the 18th Amendment, with only the defections of Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina preventing it from failing. Although the South failed to prevent women's suffrage, the effort to resist it helped unify the races. Conservative men of both races began to see that they had more in common than typically thought. Other events driven by women in the Twenties would only further prove this point.

On February 16th, 1921, the 19th Amendment was legislated, prohibiting the manufacture, sale, transport, possession, and consumption of alcoholic beverages. This was in large part driven by a newly emancipated Northern female electorate. In the South, despite fears of women overpowering men, an enduring sense of conservatism meant most Southern women voted the way their men did, and the South was ardently anti-prohibtion. Much of the South, as well as the Caribbean territories with which they had much in common, had large industries around the distilling of liquor. Furthermore, the ancient traditions of the cookout, horse race, and wedding typically featured consumption of alcohol as a centerpiece. In the Appalachian Mountains, moonshine was even used as an item of barter. The 19th Amendment passed by an even slimmer margin, with Virginia's defection again proving the determining factor. While not entitled to vote on the matter, the governors of Cuba and Santo Domingo telegraphed messages of immense displeasure at the decision. Prohibition was favored by women's groups because they believed it would make men harder working, better fathers, and less abusive. Again, conservative Southern opinion was not amused. William Talbot Cooper, a Black Congressman from Alabama, gave his derisive take which made him a hero down South, "First we gave the dames the vote. Now they're taking our bourbon. Next thing you know, they'll be wearing men's pants and passing an Amendment mandating that the government devote part of the budget to the purchase of dresses." In 1924, when Ruth O'Connell of Vermont became the first woman elected to Congress and derided conservative Southern men opposed to Prohibition and suffrage as "hypocritical ignoramuses and uneducated Bible-thumpers" Cooper and other prominent Southerners led a mixed-race protest outside O'Connell's home in DC where hundreds of conservatives rhythmically thumped Bibles. Enforcement of Prohibition was lax across the country, but perhaps nowhere was more lax as the South and Caribbean. In North Carolina, the Democratic governor Matthew Dickinson was openly photographed sipping on mint juleps while watching horse races. Mayors, cops, and reverends would frequent barely hidden bars and openly kept liquor cabinets in their homes. In Cuba, the government essentially let rum distilleries continue operation unimpeded, charging unofficial taxes equivalent to what the distilleries used to pay, but with officials pocketing the funds instead of the government. The FBI stated in a 1924 memo that "The laxity of the Southern states towards the enforcement of laws pertaining to alcoholic beverages is perhaps the biggest example of states defying the federal government since 1861." Indeed, federal authorities attempting to enforce Prohibition in the South had mostly given up by 1927. The South and Caribbean would become the bootlegging epicenter of the nation, as illegal rum, bourbon, whiskey, and moonshine was moved North by large criminal organizations. This fascinating phenomenon will be explored more in depth elsewhere. Regardless, due to their vision of cultural conservatism, the people of the South (even large numbers of Southern women weren't thrilled by Prohibition) defied the federal government for the first time since Reconstruction.

The other large cultural movement driven by women in the Twenties were the rise of the Flappers and dating culture. This, more than suffrage and Prohibition, absolutely upturned the moral order. Historically, women wore ankle length dresses and skirts and covered much of their arms. When pursuing a man, they engaged in ancient courtship rituals regulated by parents. When Flappers came on the scene by around 1924, they demolished these ideals with the help of rising car ownership. Flapper dresses only went down to the knee or right below, and were often sleeveless. With the rise of cars, young men and women could go on dates unsupervised by parents or other authorities. This spread moral panic everywhere, but nowhere was it more pronounced than the South. Policemen patrolled areas where youths were known to park their cars on dates. They also busted up so-called "petting parties" (which mostly weren't that scandalous by modern standards) and in some locales, enforce dress length ordinances. They were supplemented by unofficial "Morality Militias" that would patrol towns, cities, and countryside alike harassing those "dressing or acting indecently." Georgia Governor Marcus Blackburn summarized popular opinion "These so-called Flappers display themselves more shamelessly than the most depraved Mohammedean sultan ever displayed his white slaves." Despite this, Flapper culture would continue to exist in the South, even thriving in Savannah, Charleston, and Havana. Other major cities across the country also saw Flapper contingents dominate youth culture, which were much more prominent thanks to a less intensive crackdown. The uplift and increasing power of women was a defining trend of the 1920's, and the backlash it inspired would have a great impact on future developments.

Congressman William Talbot Cooper outside his home church in Alabama (1927)

Women in Minnesota campaign for Prohibition (1920)

G-Men fighting the losing battle for Prohibition in Atlanta (1926)

Policemen and members of a Morality Militia in Wilmington round up women in "indecent swimming costumes" (1928)​

 

[Murica1776]

The Golden Twenties Part II: Bootlegging, Baseball, and Boxing

The "Havana Swashbucklers" bootlegging crew in 1926. Back row (L-R) William Morrison and Jack "Big Jackie" Cortez. Front row (L-R) Alexander "Alexander the Great" Smith and Herman Jefferson.​

The Golden Twenties saw the rise of a true popular culture in America. Although alcohol was illegal, bar culture flourished like never before. For those who didn't want to break the law, sports offered great thrills. Boxers pummeled each other in the ring like never before. Baseball offered a great way to entertain the family. Americans in the Golden Twenties were never short on entertainment.

Throughout the 1920's Prohibition was the law of the land. Unfortunately for the beleaguered authorities, Americans have never really had much respect for the law, especially when said law infringes on their pursuit of happiness (or drunkenness). This was especially the case in the South and Caribbean. Seeing an opportunity to make a fortune, many enterprising young folks began bootlegging. Appalachian rednecks, poor good ol boys from the bayou, immigrants, Cuban mestizos, and the grandchildren of slaves all began making, selling, or transporting liquor. The best among them would become legends. In New Orleans, James "Diamond Jimmy" Thornton ran Louisiana moonshine, Mexican tequila, and the sugar cane drink seco herrerano (often used like rum of vodka) from the Territory of Panama both into New Orleans proper, and up into Kansas City, Tallahassee, Miami, St. Louis, Omaha, and Chicago. Out of Havana, the legendary all-Black Havana Swashbucklers had complete control of the nation's supply of Cuban rum, one of the most sought after liquors across the whole country. Wilmington, North Carolina was home to the MacDougall Brothers, who supplied fine Cackalacky moonshine, Kentucky bourbon from the Louisville branch of the operation, as well as controlling the import of most Irish whiskey into the country. They mainly supplied Atlanta, Charleston, Richmond, New York, Baltimore, and even the nation's capital. The West Coast was kept inebriated by Julio Erikson, aka "The Swedo Bandito" a half-Mestizo half-Swedish gentleman who ran tequila, vodka, and the Filipino drink lambanog, aka coconut vodka, which was a hot commodity in the Filipino community in San Francisco, from his HQ in Los Mochis, Lincoln Territory. The sole Yankee contribution to this mythology was Abraham "Mean Abe" Bronstein, who supplied Detroit, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, New York and Boston with Canadian whiskey and scotch. However, New York and Philly also took in liquor from the Swashbucklers (every city did due to the rum situation) and the MacDougall Brothers. Other Northern outfits tried to get in on the bootlegging racket, but were unsuccessful. It was much easier for Southerners and folks in the Territories to hand a few dollars and/or a couple bottles of the good stuff to sympathetic American authorities who could stall the Feds than it was to deal with the militarized nightmare of the Canadian border (tensions remained high after the Flu). There was a couple years of confused fighting between everybody, which was eventually settled by the Savannah Agreement of 1923. This informal agreement between the various bootleggers, as well as Mafia families in New York and Chicago, established set markets for everyone, and established that in New York and Chicago, the mafia would get a cut of the profits. Since each bootlegger organization had been given a set market, and specialized in certain kinds of alcohol (mainly due to shipping concerns) the regions each group controlled would develop unique cocktails based on certain alcohols, which would become famous later.

With the Agreement in place, everyone involved got fabulously rich. Corrupt cops brought home furs to their wives, judges splurged on plane tickets for their families, and every single major player became a millionaire many times over. Herman Jefferson even became part owner of the newly founded Havana Rough Riders baseball team. If the bootleggers were merely insanely wealthy and had corrupted over half the cops and judges in the country, it would have been bad enough for the feds. However, the big bootleggers also became well-connected celebrities. The MacDougall Brothers became semi-regular guests at the Roosevelts' home in Oyster Bay, frequently bringing the ex-President Jameson whiskey free of charge (he had been an ardent opponent of Prohibition). One of the Brothers, Dick, even briefly carried on an affair Roosevelt's married daughter Alice, although that was shut down by her moralizing (and still terrifying) father. Julio Erikson rubbed shoulders with movie stars, and married Maria Gabriella Perez, a Cuban beauty who gained fame as "The Latin Rose," one of film's greatest female stars of the Twenties. In Havana, the Swashbucklers became a part of the nightlife circuit, regularly cavorting with politicians, musicians, movie stars, and athletes. Not even the Washington elite were beyond their grip. Ardent Prohibitionists in Congress, Yankee Republicans to a man (or woman in O'Connell's case) tried to repeal part of Roosevelt Era colonial legislation which mandated that Federal authorities had to notify Territorial authorities at least a week prior to any kind of large raid or arrest which might entail extraditing Territorial citizens to Homeland federal courts. While designed to prevent Federal authorities from casually arresting and removing critics of Washington, it was now being abused by a thoroughly corrupt and anti-Prohibition elite to help disguise things like Cuban rum distilleries. The repeal was proposed 8 times, and failed every time. We're sure that the appearance of bottles of liquor and wads of cash that wound up on the desks of Congressmen against the repeal were purely coincidental. Despite the best efforts of reformers, the bootleggers were protected by courts, cops, Washington, and public opinion. There were even a few cases of police officers getting into shootouts with revenue men trying to shut down various stills and distilleries. Alcohol would be a key part of American culture in the Golden Twenties.

Not all of the fun involved alcohol. Sports, particularly boxing and baseball, became explosively popular during this time. Tied to the number of great boxers, Latin machismo, the general prosperity of the period, and bootlegging came the culture of the prizefight. Big names, like Ricky "Fightin Irish" Walsh, Eli "Black Death" Harris, William Spooner, aka "The Connecticut Yankee," and Martin Lopez, aka "The Havana Reaper" were among a handful of great boxers who came about in this period. They elevated the sport into a battle royale, an art, and a gargantuan spectacle, and elevated themselves into demigods in the public eye. Thousands would turn out to see these alpha males of fighting duke it out with each other and with other fighters. Eli Harris became an especially famed fighter, being by far and away the biggest Black name in the game, winning 6 middleweight titles over the course of his career. Prize fights between these titans became more than mere entertainment: they were community events and social gatherings, especially for the working classes. Businessmen would make deals over cigars and hot dogs while watching fights. Politicians and aspiring politicians would gladhand constituents and try to get a picture taken with the champion. Couples would go to the fights as a nice date night. Due to the importance of these fights as social events, and thanks to some of the machismo of Cuba and Mexico rubbing off onto the general populace, men in both the stands and the ring would try and show off. Gangsters started showing up with their girlfriends, sometimes coming with two or three simultaneously, and both they and their women were dressed in finery. Gaudy rings, flashy suits, tie bars inlaid with jewels, diamond necklaces, and furs all became de rigeur first for gangsters, then for the young men who emulated them (ie most). It wasn't uncommon for men to be openly sporting guns at fights and challenging men who they felt disrespected them to fistfights. In fact, a prizefight where a fight broke out in the stands became known as "A double prize." One particularly rowdy Boston prizefight became a "Baker's Dozen Prize" according to the newspapers, when some 12 fights broke out in the stands.

Baseball was much less rowdy, and became more associated with the middle class family, while boxing's image would become more working class. Baseball had been around in one form or another since the Civil War, if not longer. The period from 1900-1930 is when the game fully evolved, and secured its spot in America's heart as the national pastime. It proved especially popular in the South, where many schools had implemented a form of baseball at the behest of Federal authorities during Reconstruction to "Fully Re-Americanize" the South. Similar efforts were undertaken in the Philippines and Caribbean, with President James Cox (elected 1920) remarking "Bats and gloves have done more to make the Territories American than almost anything else." Teams and leagues were formed as early as 1870, but the modern incarnation, known simply as Major League Baseball, was formed in 1905, and was restructured in 1922 to accommodate more teams. Below is the structure of the MLB circa 1928:

National League

Baltimore Orioles
Boston Red Sox
New York Yankees
Philadelphia Hawks
Pittsburgh Steelers
Cleveland Pioneers
Milwaukee Bears
Chicago Orange Sox
Detroit Jaguars
Washington Senators

Dixie League

Richmond Colonists
Havana Rough Riders
Charlotte Soldiers
Atlanta Eagles
Miami Minutemen
Kingston Filibusters
New Orleans Trailblazers
Austin Cowboys
Dallas Rangers
Panama City Conquistadors

American League

Seattle Mariners
Portland Lumberjacks
Zion Freedmen
Los Angeles Coyotes
Carson City Miners
San Diego Cobras
San Francisco Lions
Sacramento Bulls
Honolulu Pirates
New Canaan Pilgrims
​

These teams were insanely popular, and the stars they produced became even more famous. Baltimore's Babe Ruth, Havana's Timmy Sanchez, New York's Jordan Clyburn, and Zion's native son Ezekiel Carter all became legends in the Golden Twenties. They were even elevated above boxers because while the public enjoyed both sports, baseball was more respectable. The nation's obsession with baseball stars helped give birth to celebrity culture, with Ruth's playboy antics being especially notorious in the press. Players and teams would become symbols of the city they played for, and to disparage said team or player was to invite a scolding at best, a beat down at worst. Focusing back on the teams, one might notice that with the exception of Panama City, every team in the Dixie League has an ultra-American name. This is not some explosively patriotic coincidence: it was done by design. The South and the Caribbean had a bit of an image problem. The South was still derided for the Civil War, even though Southerners had overwhelmingly served and disproportionately died in every war since. Not even Southern Blacks were immune, as many Yankees felt a kind of condescending compassion towards them. The Caribbean was at once exoticized, and derided as too Hispanic and Catholic. Nevermind that many in the Caribbean were actually converting to Protestantism thanks to years of missionary work and the fact that just being Protestant would elevate one's status. So, to demonstrate their Americanism, the owners of the Dixie League teams made them "So All-American George Washington would ask us to ease off if he were still on this side of Glory" as Miami Minutemen founder Mark Miller put it. Not only did the teams have patriotic mascots, but the actual event of going to a game became intensely patriotic as well. While most teams outside the South and Caribbean (increasingly being lumped together as Greater Dixie) did not involve much patriotism in their games aside from throwing up flags and bunting on the stadium, the Dixie League made patriotic display into an art form. Since the United States did not yet have a national anthem, each team picked a patriotic classic to play before games, which was followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. During the first games between the Dixie League and others, teams from outside Dixie were noticeably confused by the ritual, and would get heckled until they complied. The sight of Southerners and people from the Territories enforcing patriotism on their fellows was immensely embarrassing, and teams outside of Dixie would begin adopting their patriotic traditions out of embarrassment, although this wouldn't become MLB standard till the 40's.

Another issue we have to talk about in regards to baseball is race. To say baseball was fully segregated would be misleading. To say that the sport was integrated would be either cynical or naive, depending on one's intentions. The MLB in many ways essentially adopted the Cackalack Compromise to sport. Each constituent league had at least one Black owned team. In the National League, this role was fulfilled by the Chicago Orange Sox. The American League had the Zion Freedmen and the New Canaan Pilgrims. Down in the Dixie League, the Kingston Filibusters and Havana Rough Riders were Black owned. Furthermore, all of these teams were all-Black, while the other teams were either all-White or White-Hispanic. This was not a mandate from the League, but an understanding. Black teams were seen as an avenue to display Black excellence in sport without crowding out or being crowded out by the White man. Full integration wouldn't come until the late 40's. However, the teams generally treated one another equally, and racial animus between players and fans was kept to a minimum, although squelching it proved impossible. Regardless, baseball was here to stay.

The 1923 Kingston Filibusters pose in their old practice gear.

A song composed during the Second Mexican-American War, sung by the Richmond Colonists from 1922-25 before being replaced by "You're a Grand Old Flag."

The St. Patrick's Day Massacre (October 27th, 1927). Perpetrated by the Havana Swashbucklers against the Boston Irish O'Reilly Crew after they attempted to break the Swashbuckler's rum monopoly.

Santo Domingo Governor Ricardo Morales poses with his Tommy Gun. Tommy Guns, a favorite of mobsters and lawmen alike, would become a symbol of the era.

William Spooner, aka "The Connecticut Yankee."

Eli "Black Death" Harris engaging in what was known as "showing out" (putting on nice clothes and other activities to flaunt wealth).​

 

[Murica1776]

The Golden Twenties Part III: Travel, Beaconsfield, and Music

A movie palace in Pittsburgh (1926)
​

The American mass consumer culture of the 1920's was the envy of the world. Even the Germans, rulers of a vast empire and hegemons of Europe, were astonished by the American standard of living. For not only were many Americans better fed and clothed than the rest of the world, they had the time and money to purchase goods and services most couldn't dream of. This led to a flowering of popular entertainment. New rail, cruise, and plane services allowed Americans to see their vast empire and the world beyond. The dream factories of Lincolnwood produced films popular across the globe. And in the nightclubs of New York, Baltimore, Atlanta, Miami, Havana, and California, a new musical style was being born that took the country by storm.

In the aftermath of the Mexican War and the World War, travel exploded in popularity. The United States now stretched from Anchorage, Alaska, to Panama City, Panama, from Boston, Mass, to Hong Kong. This understandably gave many Americans an urge to see as much of their empire as they could. How much one could see was, of course, a function of wealth. However, a boom in cars, railroad travel, cruises, and even aeroplanes made it more accessible than ever. For the working man and his family, numerous railroads offered affordable travel packages in "coach only express trains." These packages were typically regional in scope: a Californian would be able to hit most of the continental West Coast, including Baja California (soon to be Cali proper), while a Southerner would be able to see a good portion of Old Dixie. These were "hop on, hop off" tickets where families could travel to set destinations along set railroads, hop off at a destination, stay a few days, then hop back on the next train to their next destination. Increasing numbers of ordinary Americans also used cars, but the relatively poor state of road infrastructure limited the utility of this option. For middle class and wealthy Americans, a flowering of cruise lines offered them the opportunity to see more far-flung regions of the empire. The ultimate expression of this was the proliferation of the so-called "Liberty Cruises" a multi-month cruise that would start on the East Coast, swing through the Caribbean, go onto Panama, stop off in California, visit Hawaii and Manila, and stop in Hong Kong. These were the province of the ultra-rich, mainly due to the amount of time involved to see all these places. Nonetheless, it was very much affordable for a middle class family who saved a little cash to take less glamorous, much more direct liners to a variety of exotic locales within the empire. For the ultra-rich, flying became the way to go. For those traveling to the far-flung corners of the nation, Hong Kong, Manila, and Havana all became the big tourist hotspots. Abroad, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, and Prague all saw noticeable upticks in American tourism, although foreign tourism was still mostly limited to the wealthy.

For those who wanted an escape closer to home, the American movie industry provided an answer. Although films were being made in the 1910's, the 1920's is when they took off. Silent films made a big splash first, with sound being provided by other means. Slapstick comedies and dramas were the main products of this period, as they could function more easily without sound. In 1924, Moses Williams, a Black man from Louisville, KY, invented modern sound pictures. With this, the film industry reached a whole new level. With the implementation of sound into movies, their popularity exploded. Dozens of studios popped up all across the country. Competition could get brutal, and it wasn't uncommon for some unscrupulous studio heads to hire mobsters to disrupt the production lots of their rivals. For the first half of the Twenties, the industry was decentralized, with major hubs in Los Angeles, New York, and Florida. However, none of them would be the ultimate center of the American movie industry. Instead, George Brown and Marty Aaronson, a Black real estate developer and a Jewish entrepreneur began attracting studios to a planned community they wanted to build outside of Havana. Drawing in studio bosses with cheap land to build studio lots, access to the luxuries of Havana (to keep stars happy), and the two magnetic salesmen even secured tax concessions from the governments of Cuba and Havana, both of whom wanted more Americans from the Homeland around so they could secure statehood more quickly. The first major studio, Goldstein Brothers Film Studio, moved to the new community outside Havana (dubbed Beaconsfield) in 1926. The other major remaining studios, Columbia Pictures, Juarez and Mayer Productions, and Golden Eagle Films, moved to Beaconsfield within a couple years. It really was the perfect setup. The climate in the region meant that filming could basically occur year-round, although hurricane season could be problematic. The easy access to Havana meant that the movie stars could blow off steam in the casinos, brothels, race tracks, and speakeasies, while also being close enough for the studios to monitor and control them. Speaking of stars....

With the rise of the film industry came the rise of movie stars, and America's intense celebrity culture. The biggest stars of the era, Greta Garbo, Maria Gabriella Perez, Anabelle Williams (the first Black female star) Marty Arbuckle, Clark Gable, and William Martinson, lived lives so charmed as to be unbelievable to most. They went to raging parties so wild, the term "Beaconsfield Pow Wow" became slang for a wild party. They drove fast, custom cars, not Fords (no offense to Mr. Ford). They wore tailored suits and dresses, and were never caught looking less than spectacular. Their dates weren't soda jerks from down the road: they cavorted with fellow stars, athletes, socialites, and even aristocracy. Finally, they were everywhere. Maria Gabriella Perez was twice as recognizable to the American public as the First Lady. Even abroad, movie stars were mobbed by fans. It was the prospect of having all this, the fame, the glitz, and the glamor, that drove thousands of young Americans and foreigners to flock to the sunny tropics of Beaconsfield, for much the same reasons their forefathers flocked West. The image of Beaconsfield was of a magical realm where the American Dream was supercharged into a reality warping force. Anyone could go there, reinvent themselves, get discovered, and get rich. The city came to represent the wildest dreams of the entire nation. The truth was decidedly less glamorous. In reality, the majority of the people who would flock to that golden paradise would never become famous. After all, stars only shine so bright because they're distant from others and comparatively rare. If they were lucky, they could settle down, get hitched, and carve out a piece of middle-class prosperity for themselves in Beaconsfield's less glitzy districts, one day looking back on their dreams as a crazy fancy that led to more. Many others would either become permanent members of the poor working class needed to sustain the luxury of the powerful, or would be forced to return home poorer and more cynical. Even if one did get picked up by a studio, the life was not exactly as advertised. The stars might have the fame, the luxury, and the hot dates, but the studio bosses had all the money and power. This group of six founders, Midas Goldstein, William Goldstein, Jack Willoughby (Columbia), Antonio Juarez, Leo Mayer, and William Greene (Golden Eagle, the sole Black man among their number) had total control of the entire film industry. They even controlled the box office, each studio having theaters who were beholden to it. If the movie stars seemed like Greek gods to the public, they were nothing more than chess pieces to the bosses. At best, you would be forced into an insane work schedule, with bosses procuring substances like cocaine and amphetamines to get em going, followed by barbiturates, tranquilizers, and whiskey to knock em out, if necessary. Stars were also practically property, most not being allowed to leave the island of Cuba without permission. Keep in mind, this is if you're fairly lucky. Sexual, physical, and psychological abuse were always an ever-present threat. The only one of the bosses to get a true comeuppance was Antonio Juarez. For years, he sexually abused Maria Gabriella Perez, a star his studio elevated to fame. She was dating and later married Julio Erikson, the "Swedo Bandito," one of America's most feared gangsters. When he learned of the abuse on March 11th, 1925, he made a telephone call. The next day, Juarez was found at his desk with 137 bullets in him. The funeral was closed casket. After public hysteria died down, corrupt Cuban authorities ruled the death a suicide. Despite the sordid underbelly of Beaconsfield, the impact of the industry can't be overstated. The musicals, dramas, and comedies it produced literally altered the world's psyche.

The final pop culture phenomenon we will explore is the world of music. In the 1920's, Hispanic and Black influences combined to create a whole new world of music. From the Black community came the genre of jazz. Drawing from a variety of influences, jazz and the ensuing big band and swing genres became a national sensation. Jazz clubs popped up across the country, and jazz records sold in huge numbers. However, jazz wasn't the only music to hit the American mainstream in the Golden Twenties. From Cuba and Santo Domingo came merengue and son cubano. These Latin styles of music were faster than most American music, with more energetic tempos and rhythms than even most jazz. They were combined with unique styles of Latin dance, which were far more sensual than anything America really would have entertained. This music also exploded across the nation, and learning the merengue became a must for any young city slicker trying to score a date.

Predictably, there were parts of the country that were.... unenthused by the spread of Latin dance. If you guessed that the part being referred to is the South, congratulations, you are correct. In a way, Southern apprehension was almost paradoxical: in most other regards, they were actually coming closer to the Caribbean/Latin territories (defined as the Hispanic Caribbean and Panama) in terms of political, social, and even cultural identity. However, this was mostly being done within the context of Anglo-Protestant cultural dominance. When Southerners went to the Caribbean, they didn't go to learn Spanish and convert to Catholicism: they went to teach English and spread Protestantism. The idea that the Hispanic Catholics might gain a serious cultural foothold among the mainland American populace was abhorrent. Furthermore, the more intimate and sensual nature of the merengue unnerved even most moderate Southerners. "There are certain protocols for public behavior, and the Babylonian merengue breaks them all" as Reverend Hezekiah Johnson of Atlanta First Baptist put it most famously. Several Southern states made the performance of merengue music a felony, and when this was overturned by the Supreme Court in 1926, police suddenly reported a massive uptick in disturbances that all seemed to coincide with the locations of merengue clubs, which of course would mean they would have to shut them down after each complaint, sometimes for months. However, despite these efforts, Latin music would remain popular in the South as well.

A film crew on Columbia Pictures' lot in Beaconsfield (1926)

One of hundreds of ocean liners fulfilling the middle class's desire for imperial tourism (1924)

A merengue club in Panama City (1924)​

 

[Murica1776]

The Golden Twenties Part IV: A Vast and Glorious Empire

Sailors unwind at a speakeasy in Havana (1923)​

America in the 1920's ruled over a vast domain. The distance from American Hong Kong to American Bermuda was approximately 10,318 miles. Remarkably, America controlled or dominated just about every region one would go through on this journey. The Philippines were American, and everything East of it, such as Hawaii and Guam, was essentially under American hegemony or wouldn't be difficult to put under American hegemony. North America, indeed the whole Western hemisphere, was an American playground. Across this gargantuan empire, Americans were reshaping the local economies and cultures with a vigor that quietly unnerved their European and Japanese counterparts. Ever since 1776, the Americans had seemed to overspread the Earth, or at least the parts they wanted to. What was the limit to their ambitions? While the world pondered those questions, the Americans continued the work of integrating the empire.

The Territories were America's pride and joy, proof of their nation's supremacy. However, if the sentiment they inspired was uniform, the manner in which they were run was very different, varying by region. This was in large part due to the fact that different territories were run by people from different parts of the Union. The Mexican regions were mostly run by people from the Western states, the Philippines and Hong Kong a mixture favoring Yankees, and the Caribbean territories by Southerners. Much of this was geographic: Mexico was closer to the West, the Caribbean to the South, while the Philippines were so far away that it didn't really matter and the sheer concentration of people in the North gave them an edge. However, in the case of the Mexican and Caribbean territories, there was also a great deal of cultural commonality that made governance easier. Much of the West had indeed been won from the Mexicans, and some of the "local flavor" had rubbed off on them, which made it easier for them to govern Mexico. The Caribbean, like the South, had been constructed as a bunch of conservative societies with plantation agriculture and racial hierarchies. These similarities made them uniquely suited for governance and settlement by people from these particular regions. This led to interesting developments in all of America's territories.

In the Caribbean and Panama, the South aggressively stamped itself on the region's identity. Even as early as 1870, Protestant missionaries from the South aggressively proselytized to the Catholics in Santo Domingo. The movement of tens of thousands of settlers from the South to Santo Domingo, and later Cuba, Panama, and Puerto Rico, helped to further stamp a Protestant religious identity on the region. In Santo Domingo, Panama, Cuba, and Puerto Rico, the African community latched onto Protestantism fairly quickly as a way to boost their social standing after centuries of racism. This worked for colonial authorities, who would put converted Africans into positions of power over Mestizos (but not Whites) to goad them into converting. Some Mestizos converted so they wouldn't have to listen to Africans, while others became resentful. Other Mestizos would be converted via marriage. Among the White elite, decades of intermarriage with Anglo-Saxon mainlanders produced a Saxon-Hispanic elite that was also plugged into mainland power structures. To help this process along, just about all native elites who married into the American population converted to one of the mainline Protestant denominations. After decades of rule, this made a significant difference in the religious demographics of the once overwhelmingly Catholic territories. Santo Domingo was 58% Protestant by 1930, and represented the largest numerical conversion. Puerto Rico was 67% Protestant, but had a much smaller population. Cuba was 35% Protestant by 1930. Panama was the least Protestant, only being 19% Protestant.

Aside from religion, White and Black southerners alike aggressively enforced English-language education. This did cause resentment among various parts of the population, but the possibility of better pay and proper voting rights (while everyone could technically vote, all the ballots were in English) swayed many. Although Spanish continued to coexist with English in the region, English had clearly taken the lead by the mid 20's. Some agitators in Cuba and Panama staged protests and riots in favor of Spanish, and in response the local authorities would rachet up the propaganda. More specifically they argued (not unpersuasively) that while both Spanish and English had been thrust on the region by colonizers, "One colonizer brought only slavery and despotism, while the other has brought liberty and the promise of citizenship." In short, the Spanish had been real bastards, so why not embrace the heritage of a country that treated you well? Given that the Spanish had been quite brutal (especially in Cuba) this worked better than one might think. For those not taken in by propaganda, the use of English became a status symbol, which encouraged many more to learn the language. Slight majorities of all people in the Caribbean territories defined as Spanish speaking could "fluently and expertly speak English" by 1930. The English territories in the Caribbean had a very different experience from the Spanish ones, given their English language and Protestant religion, and would actually receive statehood soon, while the Spanish territories would have to wait.

This cultural exchange between South and Caribbean wasn't just one way. The Territories gave much to the southern states. For one, they gave their food and drink. Cuban rum was popular across the nation, as previously mentioned, but it especially took off in the South. Caribbean barbecued and jerked meats became southern staples, thanks to both migration from the Territories, and from American cookbook writers discovering the recipes on vacations to the region. Although English by far predominated, it wasn't uncommon to hear people from New Orleans or Miami (the two biggest centers of Hispanic settlement) to pepper in a couple choice words of Spanish here and there. However, it wasn't just food and drink that the Spanish Caribbean exported: their political culture and attitudes around gender spread as well. Politically, many Southern settlers in the Caribbean, and later Southerners on the mainland, embraced a version of caudillo style rule. A caudillo was, as defined by University of Kingston lecturer William Timberland, "A particular kind of ruler. He was a military man, and a respected one at that. He had a powerful sense of masculinity. He had clients who depended on him. Above all else, he was an autocrat, or at least expressed autocratic urges." This idea was very useful for Washington's appointed Governor-Generals, as it reinforced their broad powers. When Roosevelt allowed Territorial citizens to pick their own Governor-Generals from 1920 on (having previously only been allowed to vote for local officials) caudillismo actually became further engrained. In the 1920 Elections, a slate of men were elected in Santo Domingo, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Panama. They all shared remarkable commonalities. They were all White men originally from the South who had married elite women who had since converted, and they all had distinguished military backgrounds, "big personalities," and a tendency towards semi-autocratic rule. They were also all Democrats. While still restrained by the rule of law, checks and balances, and American political mores, each of these "Anglo-Saxon Caudillos" had broad powers in excess of most state governors. They had no term limits, more control over local security forces than any Governor had, controlled local governments more closely, and had broad powers over censorship (which was used to shut up dissent on occasion).

This proved attractive to mainland Southern elites, who were already more authoritarian than most other American elites. While the model couldn't be fully exported (part of the reason Governor-Generals had such wide discretion was to maintain control of the Territories) in 1924, caudillo inspired Democratic candidates won governorships in Louisiana, Florida, and Texas. Each of these governors centralized authority, removed term limits, and expanded state police powers. They also typically had to make political concessions to the Black GOP caucus in their state to alleviate fears that they were going to institute full-on white supremacy. This was never going to happen, as centralizing power wouldn't have done a lot of good for these men if they were (metaphorically) castrated or (literally) ousted by Washington. Still, concessions were made that helped to shore up the African-American community. Caudillo style governors would gain further traction in Alabama and Mississippi, but no other Southern states embraced them in the 20's. In fact, outside of these Gulf States, such governors would typically only be elected by particularly frightened or angry Southerners during crises, and when that moment passed, so too would the pseudo-strongman. Deeply intertwined with caudillismo was machismo. Machismo is a particular idea of manhood found in Latin America that values swaggering, domineering, braggadocios men who are willing to fight for their honor. This lined up very well with Southern ideas about being a man, and soon the words macho and cojones were frequently being tossed around by Southerners to talk about men. The introduction of machismo to the mainland also meant that the long dead art of the duel was illegally brought back to solve matters of honor. Politically, machismo helped unite the mainland with the Caribbean more strongly and also influenced the kinds of candidates that would run for office ("We don't want some Yankee egghead, we want a macho man with big ol' cojones"). The most aggressive strains of machismo were kept to the lower classes for the most part, such vulgar displays being considered uncouth by the middle class and wealthy, but more of that influence made it up the social hierarchy than most would admit. Regardless, the influence of the Caribbean was here to stay.

Out West in the Mexican Territories, the Westerners ran their territories in a much looser fashion. This was partly because the Territories were flooded with settlers and immigrants, meaning that long-term resistance to assimilation was futile. During the 1920's, some 300,000 immigrants, predominantly Chinese, Filipino, and Korean, settled alongside another 180,000 Americans, predominantly from Arizona, New Mexico, and California. For a region that had a pre-annexation population of 1.4 million, this was nothing short of a flood. In fact, it did inspire violent resistance in the Territories of Lincoln and Durango, which sparked federal intervention in the region no fewer than 4 times. However, for the most part, the Mexicans did not engage in any sustained campaign of resistance because most were much more content to make a fortune off the new arrivals as opposed to trying to kill them. High levels of intermarriage between White settlers and native Mestizos and Whites, as well as between White settlers and Asian immigrants, and between the Asian immigrants and the native population, further made violent resistance untenable. Intermixing became so common that ethnographers began studying the region, the news began reporting on things like "The Rise of a New Breed: Chinese-Mexicans aka Chexicans," and in the South, White and Black alike began calling people from the Mexican Territories "Muttsicans" (it was not a compliment). Aside from the odd riot and independence movement in the aforementioned territories, American rule in these parts was much less aggressive than in the Caribbean. Protestant missionaries weren't as active, although they did still show up in force. Anglicization wasn't pushed by the government at all aside from printing all ballots in English, as they figured that the waves of settlement would take care of that for them (they were pretty spot on). In fact, cultural fusion between Americans, Asian immigrants, and Mexicans became much more common than heavy handed assimilation.

Linguistically, although the trend was towards Anglicization, a great deal of so-called "Spanglish" became common among all. In the world of cuisine, there was a unique blending of American, Asian, and Mexican influences. Japanese sushi chefs began using Baja style fish in so-called "Lincoln Rolls," named after the Lincoln Territory in which they were created. Tacos and burritos with Korean bulgogi and Chinese char siu took the region by storm. Fried chicken fajitas were invented in New Canaan, and became the Territory's official dish in 1935. The region also adopted American Western clothing, especially in Durango and New Canaan, where it was not uncommon to see an Asian cowboy competing in a rodeo. Religiously, Confucian, Shinto, and Buddhist temples rose up alongside Protestant churches and the already extant Catholic churches. However, there was discrimination against Buddhists, whose belief in rebirth and semi-nihilist tenets (from a certain viewpoint) were seen as utterly alien to the American experience. Shintoists were also viewed with some suspicion due to their more animistic beliefs. Confucianism, by contrast, emphasized things like altruism, obedience to parents, and loyalty to one's country, which made it "As American a creed as any Oriental creed could hope to be," as New Canaan governor Moses Adams put it. There were concerns that Confucianist emphasis on obedience and loyalty could undermine democracy, but the activity of many Confucian citizens in the process helped alleviate those concerns. Many Asian immigrants would convert to Christianity, but Confucianism, Shintoism, and Buddhism would remain a part of the region's religious character to a greater degree than the main West Coast states, the other major concentration of Asians in America. Speaking of Asia...

Farther West (or East depending on where you are) lay the American territories of the Philippines and Hong Kong. These territories were not dominated by Americans from a particular region per se, but Yankees tended to be a plurality or slight majority of the settler population, giving them an edge. The Philippines and Hong Kong were run in very different ways. In the Philippines, the Americans fully pushed their vision of a civilizing mission. English-language schools and Protestant churches were established across the territory, and were complemented by extensive infrastructure and sanitation projects. Filipinos were incentivized by the prospect of statehood, and the Roosevelt Administration allowing each territory to begin picking its Governor-General (they still had no say in federal elections) was a concrete enough step to make Filipinos believe. However, not all Filipinos were willing to go along with this. In the north of the Territory, Muslim Filipinos continued to resist American rule by peaceful and violent means, with several terrorist movements arising in the region. The American government responded about as kindly as one would expect. While Catholic regions were governed fairly loosely, Muslim regions became semi-police states, with heavy military presence. Territorial authorities also undertook an aggressive campaign of eugenic sterilization against the Muslims because as one memo put it "It will be difficult for future Mohammedeans to resist if they are fewer and fewer of them." While never even on the scale of the Croixist campaigns of later years, to say nothing of the Britannianists, the American eugenics campaign against Muslim Filipinos was the most genocidal action the government had undertaken since the more brutal of the American-Indian Wars. To top it off, a de facto religious class system was established, with Protestants on top, Catholics in the middle, and Muslims on the bottom. Catholic Filipinos were more than happy to assist the American government in "keeping the jihadists in their place."

On the other hand, Hong Kong was ruled in an extremely laissez-faire fashion. Although there were some attempts at pushing Protestantism and English, these efforts were miniscule in comparison to those made elsewhere. Part of this was because years of British rule had already made English the lingua franca of the city, and the authorities were content to let other languages been spoken and used so long as most could understand at least some English. Aside from this, it was far more profitable for the American government and settlers to make money off of the vice and trade that the city was famous for rather than try and make it more "respectable." Hong Kong was instead the "Babylon of the Orient," a place where almost anything was for sale (the authorities did try and crack down on human trafficking). Casinos, brothels, bars, and opium dens operated openly, officials collecting bribes for themselves and Washington (the federal tax take was always higher than it should have been) in return for toleration. Not coincidentally, Hong Kong became an extremely popular tourist destination. Aside from that, the trade and financial activity the city produced meant it actually rivaled cities like New York, Havana, and Los Angeles (the largest shipping and manufacturing center on the West Coast) in terms of sheer economic activity. More than anywhere else, Hong Kong was a huge melting pot of traders, settlers, missionaries, prostitutes, smugglers, and sailors from across the empire and the globe. The city had a character all its own.

As the decade came to a close, American policymakers began plotting to fully integrate the Territories. Some could be made into states sooner than others, but that was the plan for every territory. That would turn American rule from something possibly ephemeral into a permanent fact. Many natives were actually enthusiastic about the idea. After all, independence didn't seem to be a viable alternative. In the Caribbean, people knew that they would either be American, or would be dominated by Americans, so why not pick the winning team. In Mexico, many found American rule preferable to the blood-soaked hellscape that the Mexican Civil War had been. In Asia, most agreed that either America would rule them or someone else would, and at least the Yankees let them vote. More than integration though, American planners were also looking at opportunities for expansion. Part of this was defensive; they wanted as much distance between themselves and other Great Powers as possible. However, much of it was also a product of confident expansionism. Everywhere you turned, America was getting stronger, and as the "most benevolent of the Powers" it was their right and responsibility to extend their power to the ends of the Earth.

George Columbus Barnhardt, NC-born General turned "Anglo-Saxon Caudillo" of Cuba. Governor-General of Cuba (1920-1936) Governor of Cuba (1936-1944)

Manila, Philippines Territory (1925)

The Jefferson Club (formerly the Hong Kong Club) in the Hong Kong Territory (1929)

A native-born member of the Cuban-American elite on her American husband's plantation in the Territory (1927)

A factory in New Canaan (1925)

Chinatown, Culiacan, Lincoln Territory (1928)​

 

[Murica1776]

We're getting ready to get chapters on Brazil, Liberia, and some other places.

The Golden Twenties Part V: Banana Wars, Rivalries, and Friendships

American Marines pose with the captured flag of the Nicaraguan Sandinistas (1925)
​

The 1920's saw an energetic American foreign policy that aggressively expanded Washington's influence and defended American interests. Critics of this policy say it was nothing more than the expression of mercenary self-interest on the part of the Americans. Washington maintained that they were merely protecting their basic national interest and forming mutually beneficial agreements with other states. In reality, the truth is a mixture of both, although whether it was more purely benign or evil is largely subjective. Regardless, America seemed to rampage across the Earth, offering friendship to those who were useful and war to those who were threatening.

In Mexico, Haiti, and Central America, the US maintained a strict, some might say stifling, level of hegemony. Mexico was in an era of relative peace, and was busy investing in itself with the help of Wall Street. Friendly politicians remained in power, and there were no major moves to overthrow the American client regime. While there was a sizable portion of the public that was agitated by American control, they remained silent. Part of this was because the country was busy prospering, and had no desire to sacrifice needed economic growth for a nationalist crusade. Another, unspoken aspect, was fear: many believed there was a very real prospect that if Washington felt the need to wage a Third Mexican-American War, they would just destroy Mexican sovereignty for good. This wasn't as unreasonable as some might think. Mainland Americans alone outnumbered Mexicans roughly 7:1, and they had proven themselves willing and able to do what was necessary to hold territory. In fact, Washington had actually drawn up the Top Secret Polk Plan, named for James K. Polk (POTUS during the First Mexican War) that was a blueprint to do precisely that. To further discourage unrest, the Americans had also stationed 7,500 troops in Mexico City, the largest permanent foreign deployment of American troops during this time. This had the additional benefit of keeping Mexican Presidents compliant, as they could be easily overthrown if they made a misstep. Moderating this was an unspoken belief that the United States should never be too aggressive in their demands upon client states. This was partly moral and partly practical; the Americans didn't desire to be overbearing conquerors, and they also didn't want to risk provoking an extreme reaction.

In Central America, things were a bit more violent. The United States invaded and occupied Nicaragua in 1923, Guatemala in 1925, and Costa Rica in 1926. Some jingos advocated the annexation of these territories, but majority political opinion correctly held that this would turn into a massive quagmire. Instead friendly caudillos, including a dual Guatemalan-American citizen in Guatemala's case, were installed and backed up with massive arms shipments. The Central Americans were less content with this state of affairs than Mexico, although investment in infrastructure did help a little. Aside from the government, massive corporations like the American Fruit Company would hire mercenaries or bribe the local governments to suppress angry workers. Some Americans had qualms about this, but the economic benefits were just too good for most to pass up, provided they were even fully aware of what was going on.

Beyond North America, the United States spent time forging actual alliances in South America. While Americans historically disliked any kind of foreign alliances, exceptions were made for three reasons. Their names were Brazil, Germany, and Spain. Germany, despite being friendly to America, was operating under the idea of Weltpolitik, and part of that idea entailed gaining a foothold of some kind in South America. Spain was desperately trying to use its soft power to regain some kind of power over its former Empire. Brazil was itself a would be burgeoning power, embracing a unique take on Croixism mixed with native authoritarian ideologies. The Brazilians aggressively expand their influence in South America, buying French and British Guiana after WWI and installing puppet dictators in Paraguay and Uruguay during the 20's. Fearing attempts by Brazil, Spain, and Germany to dominate the continent, Washington created the Pan-American Accords with Venezuela, Argentina, and Chile in 1924. The Accords established a mutual defense pact, gave all parties a right to use each other's military facilities, allowed for the holding of joint military exercises, lowered tariffs between members, and created a mechanism for dispute resolution. In practice, the US held the preponderance of power, but it was far more equal than the relationship between America and the Mexicans/Central Americans. The Accords were controversial in the United States. Firstly, they definitely violated the old tradition of "no foreign entanglements." Now, America was pledged to defend countries thousands of miles from her borders. Making issues worse, Venezuela and Chile were military dictatorships at the time of signing. Venezuela was under the de facto control of General Juan Vincente Gomez, who ran the country both inside and outside the Presidency. Chile was dominated by a junta that had come to power in 1923. Only Argentina was a democracy, and even they had issues with dictatorial rule in the past. Why was America aligning itself with a bunch of nationalistic military caudillos? To alleviate this issue, the Americans "convinced" the Chileans to hold an election in 1925 that was promptly won by Carlos Ibanez del Campo, himself a military man. American observers ruled the election free and fair (which it mostly was, Carlos was a popular figure) and the American public was satisfied for the time being. Venezuela would remain a dictatorship until Gomez died in 1935.

In Europe, America remained as aloof as ever. Ireland was probably the closest to America, and while there wasn't a formal alliance, the Americans did send over the odd shipment of guns. The Germans repeatedly campaigned for a formal alliance, and were shot down every time. While America and Americans liked Germany well enough, they didn't want to become embroiled in Berlin's rivalries, conquests, and wild schemes. This was proven when the Americans declared neutrality in the Scramble for the Near East. The Tripartite Empire was also friendly with America, but had no desire for a true alliance. The Americans were naturally suspicious of Stalinist Soviet Russia, but not as much as the Germans now were. However, there was real vitriol between America and the Spanish, British, and French. The Spaniards still weren't over the loss of 1898, and tried to meddle in Latin America as annoyingly as possible. While this irritated Washington, it also bemused them. With the exception of a brief period in Colombia between 1925-26, Spain never won real influence in the region. The French had been swept up in a wave of post-war anti-Americanism driven by their own fear of American expansion, while the Americans still weren't fully over the Alabama Claims. However, the worst hatred was reserved for Britain. The Brits viewed America as an imminent threat to the Empire, and the constant tensions between the Canadians only made things worse. The British were also especially disgusted by the more tolerant racial attitudes of the Americans. For their part, the Americans despised the Canadians, disliked Britain's belief that they were entitled to be the leading power, and still held a grudge over the Alabama Claims. There were several war scares between the two during the Twenties, although nothing ever came of this.

In Asia, the Americans were forced to deal with a rising Japan. Tensions were high. Japan had dreams of creating a massive empire in East Asia, with the Yamato Race as the supreme ruler of the continent. This naturally conflicted with America's desire to integrate the Philippines and Hong Kong into the nation proper. While relations were cordial throughout the 1920's, the two empires were constantly sizing one another up. The Americans heavily fortified Hong Kong as a result, an action which would pay off later. Aside from the rivalry with Japan, America enthusiastically engaged with China. The Republican regime of Sun Yat-Sen was absolutely adored by the American public, albeit in a somewhat condescending and imperialist way. Some Americans dreamed of teaching the Republican Chinese English and converting them to the Lord, then forming a "East-West Axis" where the twin republics could spread freedom across the globe. Others admired the Chinese attempt at a republic and also viewed a free China as a profitable one. Missionaries and traders flooded China. The American missionaries were viewed much more warmly than the others, as the Chinese hadn't forgotten the high level of restraint the Americans had shown during the Boxer Rebellion and how American diplomats fought against some of the more punitive measures favored by the Europeans and Japanese. American missionaries built hundreds of schools and hospitals in China, and helped educate many thousands of Chinese. There was also a large influx of American investment, which helped build a Chinese industrial base. Railroads, telegraphs, telephones, power plants, and modern farm equipment were all established thanks to American investment. Although China was still far from a modern power, American investment easily pushed it decades ahead.

Carlos Ibanez del Campo, President of Chile (1925-1948)

Presbyterian missionaries in China

A Liberian army under African-American command (1927)​

 

[Murica1776]

https://imgur.com/a/YHTUjgP

 

[Murica1776]

The Black Man's Republic: Liberia

The Flag of Liberia
​

The story of Liberia in the 20th century is an interesting one. The country rightly and proudly proclaimed that she had never been colonized. However, Liberia was still an offshoot of the United States. Their language, culture, political system, their flag, and even their genetics had borne the stamp of the American nation. Liberia viewed itself as America's little sister, and many Americans returned the favor. There was an inextricable bond between the two countries, and this could best be seen in American bankrolling of Liberia's rapid development and America's helping in wresting the Ivory Coast from France to form the first Liberian puppet state. There was also a new ideology developing in Liberia with heavy African-American influence that would become a driving force for Black people on both sides of the Atlantic.

As previously mentioned, African-American communities had invested in developing Liberia. Factories, roads, power stations, and plantations were all built with African-American dollars to profit African-Americans, as well as the Americo-Liberian elite. Furthermore, some 79,090 African-Americans left America for Liberia from 1870-1900, making it one of the largest places Americans as a whole immigrated too. These bonds led to further integration and ties between Liberia and America, which allowed for further economic and social development. At the behest of their new and large African-American bloc, the Americo-Liberians enacted universal male suffrage (if on were African and could read English) in 1889, and built a proper school system in 1892. While the old elite resisted this at first, the African-Americans had numbers, money, and even Washington on their side. The schools were designed for the explicit purpose of "Liberianizing" the "Africans." In this regard, it was remarkably successful. By 1920, Liberia boasted almost universal English-language literacy, and the elite had obliterated most ethnic divisions and cultures, aside from some native dress and cuisine that had survived. Even names that might have once been "African" became "Black" or "Liberian." The massive boost in literacy also spurred the development of a truly modern economy, and Liberia had a GDP per capita that rivaled and exceeded quite a few parts of Europe, to the continent's chagrin.

In fact, much of Europe desired to conquer Liberia, both to suppress the "uppity Africans" and to appropriate the nation's fairly strong industrial base. Fortunately for the Liberians, they had a very large and powerful friend. In 1899, the United States and Liberia signed the Americo-Liberian Trade and Defense Pact, committing the United States to defend Liberia in case of an invasion. To show how serious they were, the Americans stationed 6,000 troops and a small Navy squadron, dubbed the Africa Squadron, in the country. This deterred any European aggression, as they hardly wanted to give the Yankees an excuse to come take their empires from them. More than just defending Liberia, the Americans helped them build a modern Army, Navy, and even helped them build a small Airforce. Liberia's military soon became a "pint-sized powerhouse" because while it wasn't massive, it was incredibly effective. Military parades became a staple of National Unification Day (established 1893), Independence Day, Flag Day and Thanksgiving (established 1887) celebrations as the Liberians rejoiced in their might as a "Free Black Man's Nation on an Enslaved Continent." Particularly popular were the flyovers of the Executive Mansion by the Airforce, which began on Independence Day, 1922. Liberia's exultation of the military helped unify the country and create a powerful strain of Liberian Exceptionalism.

Liberian Exceptionalism was most fully articulated in "A Guide to Black Civilization," published by future President Charles King in 1912. In it, he stated what he thought made Liberia unique and exceptional. He believed that Liberia, and African Americans, had not only successfully blended English-speaking civilization with African civilization to create "Black Civilization," but their struggles had made them uniquely tough. This combination of vigor and high civilization meant that the Black Man had a unique opportunity and burden. The opportunity was to wage war on the imperialist powers of Europe (America was held to be a benevolent Empire of Liberty, and parent of Black Civilization) and create a new domain in Africa for the Africans. However, they would also be burdened with "making Africans Black." The Liberians were destined to liberate Africa from European domination. However, they would then be forced to liberate them from "paganism, superstition, tribalism, and authoritarianism." Only Liberia could do this. The "Africans" were held to be incapable of governing themselves in a free and equal manner without proper guidance from men "similar in appearance, but enlightened in ideology." There was also a very strong religious component to this. God had established Liberia that the Liberians might spread his (Protestant) word to a people who had been denied it. In short, Liberia was destined by merit of her race, culture, might, and religion to become an African hegemon of some kind. This strain of thought became incredibly popular, and helped to elevate King to the Presidency in 1916. He oversaw the creation of the Republic of the Ivory Coast, and made Liberian Exceptionalism part of the national curriculum. Another notable policy of his administration was the Positive Eugenics Program (PEP) which encouraged Liberian women to bear more children. The Order of Mama Liberia was instituted in 1919 to this end, awarded to women who bore 8 or more children. The Order was a circular gold medal with the image of Mama Liberia's face embossed on it, attached to a blue ribbon with white stripes down both sides and a Lion (Liberia's national animal) on it. More notable than the eugenics program was the Ivory Coast.

When WWI ended, the French were broken and bankrupt. In order to pay their war debts, the French gave up land to the United States. Among the territories ceded was the Ivory Coast, a rich territory in West Africa bordering Liberia. Many thought that the Americans were going to form a colony in the region. Instead, the United States announced that free and fair elections ought to be held, and that the Ivory Coast would be a joint protectorate of the United States and Liberia. This was done at least in part at the behest of Monrovia. The Republic's first President, Yacouba Koffi was elected in 1920. However, the real powers were the Inspector-General of Economic Affairs (an African-American) and the Supreme Chief of National Security (a Liberian) who could essentially dictate policy as needed. However, it was determined that policy shouldn't be too skewed, so as to prevent rebellion. Further helping things was the creation of a national school system in 1919, paid for by the Liberian and American governments, and staffed by young Liberian and African-American women. They taught the children math, science, civics, and English. English was the exclusive language of instruction at the school, and helped bring the next generation more in line with what their unofficial masters desired. Protestant missionaries from Liberia came in and began trying to dislodge Catholicism and Islam. This did spark a great deal of trouble, especially among the Muslims. The Liberians responded with ruthless efficiency. Throughout the 1920's, there were over 21 small revolts related to missionary activity or Anglicization of language. It always ended the same: an overwhelming Liberian response that crushed resistance. Liberian officials also began mandating a limited policy of sterilization against particularly restive Muslim populations. The Americans were either indifferent or openly applauding the harsh measures of the Liberians, citing it as proof of their American roots and national vigor. Despite these issues, there were a great deal of people in the Ivory Coast and across Africa who admired Liberia. They were a powerful nation proud of their African/Black heritage in a world run by white men. A beacon of liberty on a dark continent.

The flag of the Ivory Coast, despised among most Muslims for featuring a cross.

Liberian soldiers (1932)

Charles D.B. King, President of Liberia (1916-1928)​

 

[Murica1776]

A Force for Reaction: The Second Empire of Brazil

The Flag of the Second Empire of Brazil
​

Newton's third law states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. This played out in the politics of the Western Hemisphere during the 20th century. In the North, the Protestant Yankee Colossus was democratizing, elevating racial minorites, gobbling up land as fast as possible, and energetically spreading Protestantism through mission work, political benefits, and intermarriage. In the South, Brazil emerged as a somewhat dysfunctional, if still mighty, Catholic counterweight to all of these trends. To examine how this happened, we have to look at the Brazilian reaction to American expansionism.

Many of the Catholic states of Latin America had elements who were alarmed by rampant Yankee expansion. However, most them were either irrelevant or bought off. Not so Brazil. It wasn't just the Protestantism or aggression of the Yankees that threw them off either. The Brazilian elite were also deeply disturbed by the universalist creed being spouted by the Americans, and their movement towards racial equality. Brazil had long been a very conservative place, and was the last country in the hemisphere to abolish slavery. While some lower class Brazilians, especially Afro-Brazilians, admired the US, Brazilian society as a whole was disdainful. This fed into extremism and nationalism, which the corrupt Republican government was ill-equipped to handle. Under pressure from nationalist military men in 1917-18, the Brazilian government taxed its already strained coffers to buy British and French Guiana, so as to prevent the Americans from moving in. Those regions immediately broke out into insurgency, which the military did eventually crush. However, the incompetence of the President and the Republic generally grated on the military to no end. It was perhaps inevitable that a coup would occur.

On June 5th, 1922, Colonel Lucas Barbosa and 12 other members of the brass arrested the President and his family. They were escorted to a ship, that thrust them into an Italian exile. Across the country, the military purged the very small number of Republicans from their ranks, and asserted control over the regional governors. The entire process took 13 hours. The Republic had been overthrown. Colonel Barbosa was a powerful young officer (only 39) from an elite family, who made a name for himself as a war hero in Guiana. The coup plotting had begun in January, and the unpopularity of the regime made it easy to execute. There was a brief power struggle, as several older generals tried to unseat the young Colonel, but they lost and either pledged fealty or were shot. The world watched with bated breath to see what would happen next. They needn't wait long. On June 11th, Colonel Barbosa announced the creation of the Second Brazilian Empire. On July 1st, he was coronated Emperor Lucas I of Brazil by a Brazilian cardinal. The Pope never officially endorsed the regime, but unofficially backed the ardently Catholic Emperor. From the coronation, the new imperial regime began installing "The New Imperial Thought" as the official ideology of the state.

The New Imperial Thought was arguably the first croixist ideology ever enacted. However, it was also distinct in several ways. First and foremost, the role of the aristocracy was prominent, whereas croixists didn't have any fondness for an aristocracy. The old elite of Brazil were put back into their former state of nigh total power, and the democratic movements that did exist were swiftly eradicated. The White aristocracy was held to be the country's "natural ruling class." The strident monarchism of the regime also set it apart from typical Croixism, as did the more laissez-faire and oligarchical economic setup. The final difference between the Brazilians and the Croixists was their racial ideology. The Brazilians didn't privilege any particular "branch" of Europeans, instead saying they were all equally noble and ought to mix to create a new "Brazilian Race." Whitening of the African and Native populations (and the Mestizos to a lesser extent) was also encouraged. Brazilian whitening policies soon took on a nasty tone. In order to create a gender imbalance in the African population especially, the Imperial regime began drafting Afro-Brazilian men en masse and using them as cannon fodder to deal with ongoing issues in Guiana, and later in the wars in Paraguay and Uruguay. This would force Afro-Brazilian women into marriages with White men, and reduce the security risk from potential uprisings. The policy was fairly effective, and was joined with other methods later.

Abroad, the Brazilian regime led a massive push from 1922-23 to reconvert the Catholics of the American territories. In response, the US banned Brazilian visitors and immigration, and ratcheted up tariffs on the country to over 30%. The Brazilians backed off and the tariffs came down, but the travel restrictions would remain in place for decades. Although the push did convert a few thousand Americans, Protestant organizations more than made up the difference with a renewed push in the Territories to convert Catholics, and this was backed by a government campaign to denigrate the Brazilians as fanatics. When the Pope issued pronouncements that were vaguely pro-Brazilian and anti-American without being formally so, conversions to Protestantism (some made fearfully) spiked across the US, as a wave of vitriolic anti-Catholicism rollicked the nation. Catholic immigrants to the US from Europe were required to swear that they wouldn't serve the Pope over Washington before being let into the country (a simple oral oath was sufficient). Aside from unsuccessfully waging religious cold war on the US, the Brazilians formed an anti-American alliance with Colombia in 1927, shortly after installing puppet dictators in Paraguay and Uruguay. In response to this and the growth of a corresponding American alliance system, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia banded together to form the Pact of Non-Aligned Powers. Aside from their empire-building in Latin America, Brazil signed the Lusophone Accords with Portugal in 1930, creating tight bonds between the two Portuguese speaking nations. The alliance would last for decades, and gradually become a Brazilian dominated affair.

Brazilian officers in Guiana (1923)

A Bolivian soldier with the flag of the Non-Aligned Powers (1929)

Rio in 1925. The city rapidly modernized under imperial rule

Emperor Lucas I in custom military uniform (1937)​

 

[Murica1776]

Scramble for the Ottoman Empire

German troops look out on Baghdad, June 1928​

In 1925, the Ottoman Empire collapsed after a series of political assassinations decapitated the government. It was a long time coming. The Empire had been tottering on the brink for decades, and when it collapsed, it collapsed completely. In the aftermath of the collapse, a massive power vacuum emerged. Into the breach marched a coalition of Germany, Italy, Bulgaria, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and Spain.

As the Empire crumbled, the Bulgarians made the first move. 379,000 Bulgarian soldiers stormed into European Turkey on May 9th, 1925, crushing remaining Ottoman forces, bandits, Islamist militants, and would be warlords. They quickly marched onto Istanbul, where their advance stalled. The Bulgarians would remain stalled outside Istanbul for the remainder of the Scramble. Shortly afterwards, the Italians launched an invasion from Italian Somaliland, landing in Aden on July 29th. From here, the Italians employed armored cars to great effect in the desert terrain, swiftly covering vast tracts of land. Fearing that the Italians would gobble up the entirety of Arabia, a coalition force of Germany, Spain, and the Scandinavian countries all rushed into the Holy Land via sea, launching from Spain and the Tripartite Empire (who volunteered their ports). They landed in the Holy Land on August 17th. The coalition's forces, a mix of infantry, tanks, armored cars, and airplanes, quickly fanned out across the Holy Land and Arabia. Bulgaria called upon its allies for help taking Istanbul, but received only token aid. Privately, the Germans didn't want the Bulgarians to take Istanbul, as they feared that a Bulgaria that controlled access to the Black Sea could hold Ukraine and Crimea hostage if relations broke down, not to mention the fact that it would inevitably spark a massive wave of Turkish resentment, which could spark another war.

Fighting was intense and confused for about a year. In the Holy Land, Germans and Spaniards not only had to subdue the locals, they had to stop them from killing each other, especially in Jerusalem. Istanbul continued to hold out against the Bulgarian onslaught, and the Germans or other allies were not about to contribute hundreds of thousands of troops to the cause. The Soviets attempted to invade Turkey proper, but weren't yet prepared for a real war and were repelled as a result. The Germans quickly annexed Lebanon and Syria before moving into Mesopotamia and Arabia. These were tougher, especially Mesopotamia, which was home to multiple conflicting ethnic groups. In Arabia, Germano-Scandinavian forces encountered the Italians, and for a period between December 1925 and July 1926, an unofficial war was fought between the two as the Italians sought to annex the entirety of the Arabian Peninsula. As fighting intensified, many feared that the Germans were going to invade Italy, or that the Italians would invade the Tripartite Empire, sparking WWII. This didn't happen, as fighting between the two sides remained fairly minor all things considered, and neither side was willing to take the war outside of the Middle East.

On July 1st, 1926, the United States State Department offered to mediate the dispute as a "wholly disinterested party." Wanting to end the quagmire and focus on consolidation, the parties agreed. The Treaty of Havana was signed a month later, after much haggling. Italy got most of the Arabian Peninsula, which they established a protectorate kingdom in. A joint Scandinavian trust was established over Bahrain, Qatar and the Trucial States of Oman (UAE), which had fallen into chaos after Britain de facto abandoned them after WWI. Spain kept the Holy Land, but didn't get Jordan like they had hoped. Germany annexed Mesopotamia, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and part of the Arabian Peninsula. The Germans also installed a client regime in Turkey proper. Bulgaria annexed European Turkey aside from Istanbul. The dismemberment of the Old Ottoman Empire was complete. The Sick Man of Europe was dead.

In the aftermath, each nation established their rule in different ways. Germany directly annexed Mesopotamia, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan, organizing them into colonies. Turkey became a nationalist dictatorship that answered to Berlin. The Germans would also later buy off the Persians to form a buffer between them and the increasingly bellicose Soviets. German rule wasn't harsh, but it wasn't liberal either. The Scandinavian countries established the Pan-Scandinavian Near Orient Company (PSNOC), which was skewed in favor of the Swedes but which was run by men from all the Scandi countries. Scandinavians as a group were privileged in the colonies, and some 40,000 would move there to enjoy the privileges available to them. The Italians ruled through a collection of kings and tribal leaders, being fairly relaxed and indirect. In the Holy Land, the Spanish were nothing short of the Second Coming of the Conquistadors, brutally suppressing the population and energetically pushing Catholicism on the locals. Thousands of Spaniards flooded in as well, particularly to Jerusalem. Not coincidentally, the territory would be eternally restive. Finally, in the small gains made by the Bulgarians, the Turkish population was gradually deported to Turkey proper to make way for Bulgarian colonization. The failure to take Istanbul would remain a sore point for years to come. Resistance died down for the most part after the Partition of the Empire, but the region would remain contentious for years to come.

Bulgarian troops pose in Turkey (1927)

A furniture showroom in Scandinavian Qatar (1930)

Spanish forces on the West Bank (1925)​

 

[Murica1776]

Russian in Character, Socialist in Content: Stalin's USSR

Propaganda poster glorifying Stalin (1935)
​

In the aftermath of the Russian Civil War, Vladimir Lenin began laying the foundation for a new Soviet state. Foreign intervention had nearly toppled his regime, but a lack of German support for the intervention prevented the Whites from beating the Reds. In the aftermath, Lenin established the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and took an internationalist approach to Communism and suppressed Russian chauvinist behavior. This was designed to reshape the entire culture of most of the old Russian Empire into a revolutionary state hellbent on making the globe Communist. However, this didn't change the fact that many Russians were feeling very revanchist over the loss of much of their European dominion, especially Ukraine. When Lenin perished in 1923 after a debilitating stroke, one Josef Stalin capitalized upon this resentment.

List of Union Republics in 1923:

1. Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
2. Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic
3. Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic
4. Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic
5. Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic
6. Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic
7. Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic
8. Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic
9. Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic
10. Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic
​

Although Stalin was himself an ethnic Georgian, he was culturally Russified and had embraced the imperial mission of the Russians. Furthermore, Stalin knew that embracing a kind of Red Russian Chauvinism would be a great way to make himself the supreme power in the state. After consolidating power in 1924, Stalin ended Lenin's "indigenization" programs and returned Russians to a position of hegemony. As part of this program, he purged thousands of native leaders who resisted the return of Russian dominance. It was the first of several purges. Resistance to this move wasn't limited to the elites either. In Armenia, tens of thousands of Armenians in Yerevan protested the removal of Armenian Communist officials in 1927. In response, Stalin brutally cracked down. Some 72,000 Armenians were rounded up and deported to Kazakhstan throughout the year. In the same year, another 46,000 Uzbeks were shoved into a newly expanded Gulag system for protesting the installment of Russian officials. These would be the first of several ethnically targeted deportations.

Stalin's purges weren't just targeted at ethnic minorities. He purged hundreds of generals and officials who supported different visions of Soviet Communism via the secret police. This was quite stupid in a way, as demonstrated by the disastrous attempt to invade Turkey in late 1925. Nonetheless, it did solidify Stalin's hold on power at home. By 1929, he was an unquestioned dictator. He turned the Soviet propaganda machine to the creation of an unprecedented personality cult. The news media proclaimed him Father of the Nation, Unquestioned Leader of All the Russias, Guiding Luminary of the Revolution, The Most Exceptional Socialist Artist and Engineer, and The Extraordinary All-Union Athlete. Portraits of Stalin were placed in every public building and every home, with some homes placing portraits in every room. Even history was altered to make Stalin Lenin's most trusted lieutenant, excluding those who Stalin viewed as rivals. Suspected enemies of Stalin were monitored at all times, and those accused of "anti-Soviet behavior" had a nasty habit of disappearing. Stalin's word was law.

Having established that Stalin made himself supreme dictator of the USSR, it's time to evaluate his ideology. Stalin believed in collectivization of agriculture and industrialization, which he forcibly instituted while consolidating power. This sparked famines in 1923 and 1926-1928, as the disruption caused by the forced collectivizations resulted in plummeting crop yields. The refusal of aid by Stalin made the famine worse. Some 1.2 million people died of starvation, even as the Soviet regime blared that there was merely a "disruption, not a collapse" in food production. A lockdown was placed on the borders with the outside world to prevent emigration from starving peasants who might reveal the severity of the situation. However, the food situation stabilized by 1929, and industrial output did begin to skyrocket. The fact that Stalin legitimately modernized the country has made his legacy very ambiguous. Aside from economic policy, Stalinism married two different concepts together to produce their nationality policy and foreign policy. The first of these was the Eurasian Communist Principle. According to Stalin, while Marx, Engels, and Lenin had "perfected" the Communist ideology, it's origins lie in the communalist traditions of Russia and Asia. The West had been far too individualist to truly develop a collectivist ideology. This interlocked with the Brother Russia Principle. The Russians were held to be the "big brother nation" of Eurasia, destined to liberate the others from superstition, capitalism, imperialism, and primitivism. The Russians were extolled as "big brothers" who would guide their more primitive brethren to a glorious future. This ideology first got major use when, in 1930, Stalin used a new and reformed military to annex Mongolia to "prevent the violence in China from spilling over." In 1933, he would invade Xinjiang on similar pretexts. Both Xinjiang and Mongolia would be directly integrated to the USSR as Soviet Socialist Republics. Ethnic Russians began colonizing both regions to secure the grip of the Communist Party. Russia clearly had imperialist designs, whatever the proclamations of Moscow.

The foreign relations of the USSR were almost universally dicey. The Russians still bore massive resentment against the Germans for stealing "their land" in Europe, and the Germans viewed the Soviets as a massive threat to their Eastern clients. The paranoia was bad enough that Ukraine and Crimea were discreetly equipped with chemical weapons by Berlin. The Croixists derided the Soviets as damnable Communists, and the Communists responded in kind. The same goes for the Britannianists. Relations with Japan were incredibly tense, as both desired to carve up China. Perhaps the only major nation that wasn't unambiguously against the USSR was the United States. While American conservatives were horrified by Communism, many progressives noted the rapid modernization made by Stalin's regime (the world was largely ignorant about the famine) and pointed out that they had no interest in harming the United States. Stalin's harsh methods were chalked up to the "naturally despotic character of the Russian." The United States and USSR actually traded quite a bit, and American machinery helped build Soviet infrastructure. Stalinist aggression dampened enthusiasm a bit, but even this seemed less like anything particularly dangerous and more typically European Great Power striving. Some observers sounded the alarm about Stalin's totalitarian regime, but were mostly ignored. The USSR was also notably friendlier to the US than the other major powers. American mass prosperity was viewed less as the product of vicious imperialism (as similar economies were in more hostile states) and more of a benchmark for the Soviets to engage in friendly competition with. The (relative) friendliness between the two powers didn't go unnoticed by the rest of the world, and fears of a Soviet-American alliance drove German efforts to court Washington. Other events related to this fear would also help drive the course of history.

Soviet troops in Mongolia (1931)

Propaganda extolling Soviet agriculture (1926)

Armenians are loaded onto trains during a second wave of deportations (1934)​

 

[Murica1776]

Presidents of the United States of America

16. Abraham Lincoln (R) (1861-1865)
17. Andrew Johnson (D) (1865-1868)
18. Schuyler Colfax (R) (1868-1876)
19. Ulysses S. Grant (R) (1876-1884)
20. William B. Washburn (R) (1884-1888)
21. James G. Blaine (R) (1888-1896)
22. William McKinley (R) (1896-1904)
23. Theodore Roosevelt (R) (1904-1920)
24. Calvin Coolidge (R) (1920-1928)
25. Charles Dawes (R) (1928-1932)
26. William Talbot Richardson (D) (1932-1948)​

 

[Murica1776]

Strongman or Savior? The Election of WTR

WTR rally in Indianapolis (1932)​

The 1929 Stock Market Crash was the worst financial catastrophe in modern history. In the third week of June, the Dow Jones lost 13% of its value. The decline continued for another week, shaving off more points, before stabilizing somewhat. Life savings and huge portfolios were wiped out in a few days. Lives were irrevocably ruined. On June 29th, the Wall Street Journal ran the headline "It's Raining Men: Jumpers on Wall Street Damage Cars, Hotdog Cart." Bank runs occurred across the country, bankrupting many institutions. Unemployment skyrocketed with every report. The Golden Twenties had just lost their sheen.

The federal government, under banker turned President Charles Dawes, refused to help. Dawes, like many Yankee financiers, subscribed to an almost worshipful belief in the invisible hand of the market. He viewed the Crash as an inevitable result of "morally bankrupt avarice, funded on credit." So strong were his beliefs in this that he almost forcibly dispersed the so-called Bonus Army, composed of veterans of the Mexican War who wanted their government promised bonuses. When word got out that Dawes nearly used force on them, the public was infuriated. This most publicly came to a head when Dawes went to Lexington, Massachusetts, to honor one Hezekiah Johnson, an 86 year old Civil War veteran, on July 4th, 1931. Johnson was invited to speak, live on newsreels and radio. What happened next was unprecedented in American history.

"Thank you Mr. President, esteemed guests, fellow citizens of our great Republic. I have words ready for all of you to hear, which I believe most of you will agree with. I must preface my remarks by reaffirming my utmost respect for the Presidency as the highest office in the land. That being said, I must strongly condemn President Dawes as a President, for his anti-American thoughts concerning the Bonus Army. Abraham Lincoln, may Almighty God rest his soul, once said of our troops, "To care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan." The Great Man of our Republic knew the importance of caring for those who have borne the burden of protecting American liberty. As Christians, we believe that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a wealthy man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Instead we are faced with a government neglecting our veterans and soldiers to protect the interests of industry. If things do not change, I fear for the future of the Republic. Thank you, God Bless you all."

The optics of having your administration eviscerated by a Civil War veteran in full Union Blues were.... bad. "For Old Man Johnson" quickly became a rallying cry for any number of anti-administration forces. Dawes essentially became a lame duck President from this point. To top off the humiliation, he was successfully primaried by one Herbert Hoover, and wasn't even on the GOP ticket. The Republicans were on the verge of falling apart. On the other side of the aisle, a very unconventional candidate would emerge.

Ever since Reconstruction, the Democrats were essentially a zombie party. The Republicans had kept control of the House, Senate, and Presidency since Andrew Johnson's impeachment. They barely even bothered with the Presidential side of things, instead being content to function as a vessel for the interests of White Southerners. That too was starting to deteriorate. The Party of Jackson was only a couple decades away from going the way of the Federalists. Until WTR, that is. WTR, or William Talbot Richardson, was a colorful character. Born the 3rd son of a shopkeeper in Wilmington, NC, in 1882, he lied about his age to enlist in the Spanish-American War. He was shipped to the Philippines where he remained for six years (1898-1904) helping tamp down insurgencies, winning a Purple Heart and Distinguished Service Cross for bravery. He met his first wife, a pretty blonde girl from Minnesota named Suzanne Erikson, while she was in the Philippines on a mission trip. After the war, they took advantage of veteran's benefits to acquire a sugar plantation in Cuba. WTR was by all accounts a firm but fair boss, who treated all his workers with respect regardless of race. His time in the Philippines had shook him of most of the racial ill will that still festered in the South, albeit at much lesser levels than in the old days. Suzanne and him lived in Cuba for 10 happy years, during which she gave him 4 children. Unfortunately, in 1914, tragedy struck. Suzanne fell ill with tuberculosis and died. WTR fell into a deep depression, sold the plantation, and moved back to Wilmington to be closer to the family.

Trying to get her son out of his funk, and remembering his childhood obsession with Washington and Jefferson, WTR's mother Anna Mae urged him to run for mayor in 1916. A wealthy war hero certainly wasn't a bad brand. He campaigned enthusiastically as a "New School Democrat" and won a convincing victory. He would quickly become famous in state Democratic politics for his charisma, booming voice, and excellent managerial skills, which helped make Wilmington become one of the fastest growing cities in the South. He won re-election in 1920, as his deft management of the Canadian Flu made him even more popular. In 1922 he was tapped to run for the US House, which he again did well in. Finally, in 1924, with the old Senator retiring, WTR won the open NC Senate seat. In the period between his senatorial win and inauguration, he vacationed in his old Cuban stomping grounds where a peculiar thing happened: he fell in love. Maria Gonzalez was the daughter of a prominent old Cuban family and 12 years his junior. Although accusations would swirl that she only married him because he was a budding Senator or because her family was having money troubles, the reality is that by all accounts, Maria deeply loved her new husband. They would go on to have 3 children as well. She was extremely beautiful and media savvy, and greatly helped her husband deal with the national media. WTR quickly got a reputation as dealmaking firebrand in the Senate, and for being surprisingly chummy with the Black Republican Caucus in the House, which was overwhelmingly Southern. He also befriended jingoistic newspaperman William Randolph Hearst, one of the most powerful media tycoons in the country. In 1930, he cruised to re-election in a crushing landslide, but he wanted more. In 1931, he entered the ring for the Democratic nomination. Deflecting criticism that he was a power-hungry climber, WTR gave the party something it desperately needed: vision and enthusiasm. His platform was nationalistic, economically populist, and surprisingly unfocused on narrowly White Southerners. As he put it to a critic arguing he should focus on the White South "We're running for the Presidency of the United States, not the South." WTR won the Democratic nomination in a landslide thanks to his ability to fire up voters and bosses alike. To show his thanks to the NC Party, which had unilaterally pushed for him from the beginning, he nominated ex-NC governor Angus Wilton McLean as his running mate, marking it as the first ticket where both of those running were from the same state.

When it came time for the general election, WTR called his good friend William Randolph Hearst. Hearst had been expecting it for sometime and was already prepared. Virtually overnight, the entire Hearst newspaper empire became a de facto arm of the campaign. Hearst papers from sea to shining sea exalted WTR as "the man we need to save the Republic." WTR's wife Maria became famous for her great skill in playing off the newsreels and cavorting with Beaconsfield it girls. WTR himself had thundering, roaring rallies and gave interviews to every radio station that would have him. This was a totally new way of doing politics, and caught the Hoover campaign off guard. They tried to punch back with the oldest trick in the book: call WTR a white supremacist closet Confederate. This line, cliche as it was, had proven remarkably effective. The fact that the Democratic Party was still mostly a vehicle for White Southerners didn't exactly help disprove this stereotype. WTR shattered it forever. He requested and received an invitation to the First African Baptist Church in Savannah, Georgia, the oldest Black church in the country. In a 90 minute speech, WTR laid out a vision of a Democratic Party that embraced Black people, supported Jamaican statehood, hammered his economic message, and utterly eviscerated the Confederacy and Redeemers, declaring his belief that most involved were burning in hell. After he finished speaking, the church erupted into a standing ovation.

When the votes were counted, it was clear that WTR had obliterated the GOP. He won in a landslide 475-56 electoral college victory. A breakdown by demography also shows that WTR won 1/3rd of the Black vote: no Democrat had ever polled higher than 1-2% previously. The 1932 Election completely altered the political dynamics of the country. However, not everyone was overjoyed by this victory.

There were concerns by many folks, including some Democrats, that WTR was a budding strongman. His close relationship with the Hearst empire, and the media savvy both he and his young wife exhibited, helped him build a cult of personality of sorts. In his attacks on the GOP and his nationalist rhetoric he often flirted with demagoguery. Some of his campaign centered around being willing to do whatever it took to get his agenda through, including packing or ignoring the Supreme Court. Although history would judge WTR well, the debate over whether he was an authoritarian of some sort would linger.

WTR in an airplane (1931)

WTR at the DNC (1932)

Maria Richardson (nee Gonzalez) stumping for her husband in Texas (1932)​

 

[Murica1776]

Republic of the Dragon: China Before Civil War

Flag of the the Republic of China
​

In June of 1912, the Qing Dynasty of China was overthrown by a republican revolution lead by Yuan Shikai, a powerful official in the Dynasty who had been radicalized against the regime by the slow, agonizing decline of China. With the help of leading members of the military, he stormed the Forbidden City and slaughtered the Qing Dynasty. After consolidating power around himself (not difficult given his powerful personality and the unpopularity of the Qing by this point) he announced a reorganization of the Chinese government on August 6th. Most were expecting Yuan to declare himself Emperor of a new dynasty. That is, after all, the way the system is supposed to work. However, that is not what happened.

Yuan had spent a lot of free time over the years reading political theory, and had become enamored with aspects of American style governance. He discarded most checks and balances and the idea of a weak executive, but did take away an admiration for republicanism, a strong judiciary, America's progressive bureaucracy, and protections on minority rights. All of these ideas could help bring China into the future. It is with this in mind that he declared a November 9th election. In practice, the election was a formality, as he was the only person with any kind of political machinery across the country, and the literacy required to produce and read ballots limited votes to the intelligentsia and bureaucracy. Nonetheless, it set a precedent for the future: elections matter. Some were skeptical of the electoral process, viewing it as un-Chinese. To silence these concerns, Yuan began to paint elections as "the Mandate of Heaven by Other Means." If the people chose good leaders, Heaven smiled on them and China. If they didn't, they deserved what came to them. While this didn't totally alleviate concerns, it did help convince many to at least accept the process in this case.

After winning the election, Yuan assembled an American styled Constitution of China. However, the President (him) was far more powerful as opposed to the American system, with the legislature being fairly weak. The judicial system was preserved as is, as Yuan actually saw a great deal of both Confucianism and Legalism in an independent judiciary and the rule of law. Is it not just to hold rulers accountable to the standards they set, and is it not practical to establish a judicial system that will efficiently mete out punishment regardless of who rules? Aside from government structure, Yuan embraced several rights from the Bill of Rights, albeit watered down. Certain religions (mainly Christianity and Buddhism) would be tolerated by the majority so long as they didn't get too loud. Provisions were made for freedom of speech and press, albeit limited by concerns over national unity and Confucian obedience. Forced quartering of troops was banned. Surprisingly, Yuan also wholeheartedly embraced the Second Amendment, copying it almost word for word. His reasoning was much the same as others in America: if you're armed enough, no one will invade you. On minority issues, Yuan issued some Reconstruction style protections for "the Other Four Races of China," defined as the Manchu, Mongols, Hui, and Tibetans.

This became a strong point of contention within Yuan's Chinese National Party, the de facto ruling party of the country for his whole Presidency. There were three broad schools of thought regarding minority issues among Chinese nationalists. The smallest group, dubbed the "Chinese Rainbow School," embraced all minority races and cultures in China, arguing they could thrive under a powerful state that unified their ambitions and talents while protecting what made them unique. This group wasn't that important, but did gain some traction, especially among minority groups. The largest group, known as the "Unity of All Under Heaven School" which Yuan himself favored, was premised on the idea that while some unique cultural flavorings could be preserved, minorities should generally assimilate to the Han majority culture. To this end, the ROC began funding schools across the nation to teach Mandarin Chinese from the Beijing Dialect, in order to standardize communication. However, local religions were mostly let alone, and other customs survived. The final school, led by Sun Yat-Sen, was the so-called "The East Must Be Han School." This school of thought was explicitly Han supremacist, and said that minorities must be "gradually washed away" through assimilation, intermarriage with Han men, and even sterilization, deportation, or worse. The Han Chinese were held to be the rightful rulers of "The Yellow Race" and they must assert themselves at home before taking on the foreigners in Asia. Each of these schools took inspiration from different foreign sources. The Chinese Rainbow School embraced the Tripartite Empire as a model, noting that although relations could be "tense and rambunctious" the Tripartite Empire was actually fairly functional and was beginning to build a pan-Imperial identity that embraced its various groups without sublimating them to a hegemonic group. Why couldn't China do it, and do it better? The Unity of All Under Heaven School explicitly looked to the United States as their model, stating that "The success of the imperial races of America, those being the White and African races, in creating a unified imperial culture without resort to constant brutality is reminiscent of Our China during her most glorious years." Finally, those who subscribed to The East Must Be Han School embraced Japanese, German, and Croixist models of homogeneous and powerful states.

Much as they disagreed on domestic issues, the Three Schools of Chinese Nationalism (as they were increasingly known) disagreed on China's place in the world. The Rainbowmen (proponents of Chinese Rainbow) believed that rather than attempting to return to the world stage with brute force, China should strive to become the picture of a prosperous, harmonious, and sophisticated culture. This would prove Chinese supremacy, and provide an example to all the world. The Unitists (those who believed in the Unity of All Under Heaven School) believed that China should project power in its "near abroad" (defined as Korea, Mongolia, and Indochina) but should generally find a powerful ally and build a massive military for defensive purposes. The Han Chauvinists believed in a much more grandiose vision of Chinese power. They championed an aggressive foreign policy that actively sought to make China the Eastern counterweight to the West, maybe even a global hegemon. Korea, Japan, Mongolia, Central Asia, India, Indonesia, and more were to either be part of a sphere of influence or annexed directly, and China was to once again receive tribute from all corners of the world as befitting it's rank as The Middle Kingdom. These divisions would stay under control while Yuan was alive, but would later erupt.

Throughout the Yuan Administration, three trends became apparent. First of all, he very successfully courted American support and investment for the regime. The American people were remarkably proud that one of humanity's oldest and greatest civilizations was embracing their method of rule, and lavished investment on the country. They also informally took on the job of protecting the country from further dismemberment, to the annoyance of the Japanese and Soviets. Missionaries and teachers established schools and hospitals in droves, which also correlated to increased literacy and even a small but notable upsurge in the number of Christians in the country. This tied into the second trend of the Yuan Administration, which was a massive movement towards industrialization and modernization. Factories sprung up in major cities, and China began truly mass producing industrial and consumer goods for the first time. Railroads started to connect the country in a way it had never experienced before. In short, things looked up for China. However, beneath the surface, dark clouds were emerging.

The third notable trend of the Yuan Administration was increasing polarization. While the Unitists and Rainbowmen had found a home in his Chinese National Party, the Han supremacists felt increasingly isolated, resulting in the splintering of the party as Sun Yat-Sen founded the Party for Great Han Rejuvenation in 1920. Despite this splintering, President Yuan was such a force of personality that the country continued to function. Although he respected democracy, in many ways President Yuan was seen as a latter day Emperor by his people and fealty to him was nigh universal. The Party for Great Han Rejuvenation was stuck in permanent minority status in The Congress of All Under Heaven, an American style legislature established by Yuan. However, no man, no matter how great and powerful, can live forever. While campaigning for his 1932 re-election in Shandong Province, the Great President had a heart attack and died at the age of 72. His running mate, Xu Shichang, was popular enough but was himself old and did not have the same kind of force of personality as President Yuan. Capitalizing on this, Sun Yat-Sen ran a fearsome campaign against Xu, calling him weak and unfit to take on the Great President's legacy. When the votes were tallied after the raucous and increasingly violent election cycle, Xu Shichang was declared the winner of an election he won by less than 13,000 votes. Sun Yat-Sen cried fraud and refused to accept the results. After Xu was inaugurated in January, 1933, China exploded into open warfare. Sun Yat-Sen declared he wouldn't stop until he "reclaimed" the Presidency that he "won." President Xu declared he would defend the rule of law at all costs. In other areas of the country, local governors took the opportunity to declare themselves regional strongmen, answering to neither power. In the North, a small but violent Communist insurgency began with full Soviet backing. And around the flailing China, Japan and Russia began circling the warzone, ready to carve up new empires. The Chinese Civil War, also known as the Second Warring States Period, or simply The Calamity, had begun.

President Yuan Shikai (1920)

An American officer trains the forces of President Xu Shichang (1934)​

Japanese forces overwhelm Manchuria (1934)​

 

[Murica1776]

Liberty in Retreat

The Sons of Britannia Women's Corps salutes Prime Minister Mosely (1930)​

The 1929 Crash sent shockwaves across the globe. America had become the center of global finance in the aftermath of World War I, and if America caught the financial equivalent of the flu, the rest of the world came down with pneumonia. This was especially true in the defeated Entente powers in Europe, whose economies were fragile to begin with. The reaction to this catastrophe was nothing short of a turn to autocracy. In America, an ailing President Roosevelt wrote to his daughter Alice "The light of Liberty is being snuffed out across Europe. I doubt I shall see it come roaring back before I die." He would be remarkably accurate.

The stock market crash came mere months ahead of the UK's 1929 General Election. The Sons of Britannia, who had already been ascendant as Britain struggled to get over the malaise wrought by their defeat, got a massive boost from the collapse of the economy. Railing against Yankee financiers and boosting wild conspiracy theories that the Crash was a prelude to an Irish-German-American invasion of Britain, Mosley pulled off the unthinkable. When the votes were tallied in October, the Sons of Britannia had won a clear mandate to govern. While not getting a majority of the popular vote, the electorate had been split between the Tories, Labour, the Socialists, the Liberals, and a rival nationalist party. Mosley won a majority of Parliament with a plurality of the vote. Shortly after he was officially named Prime Minister, riots broke out in the East End. Using this as an opportunity to flex muscle, the Sons of Britannia's paramilitary Knights of Arthur marched in and massacred over 3,000 rioters. Using the rioting as a pretext, the Sons passed the Emergency Powers Act of 1930. The Knights of Arthur were transformed into His Majesty's Extraordinary National Police, and answered directly to Mosley. The independence of the BBC was ended, and the organization became a mouthpiece for the Mosley government. Freedom of the press, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and the freedom to petition were essentially done away with. The Socialist Party was outlawed, it's leaders rounded up and shot. Given the tensions that had been building in British society for years, this act inspired a short outburst of violence by radicals, which led to violent repressions by the Mosley government, and widespread acceptance of said repressions by the people at large. Revolts in the African colonies also spring up as educated native elites lashed out at the viciously racist Mosley, and were promptly bombed, shot, or hit with gas. By the end of 1930, Mosley had completely consolidated power. Opposition politicians who dared question Mosley in PMQ's were disappeared. Although opposition would never be technically outlawed, Mosley's Britain was a de facto one party state, and would remain so until the end of WWII. The Commonwealth states of Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa soon followed.

Across the Channel in France, the consistently unpopular liberal government was overthrown on Bastille Day, 1931. The Crash hurt France more than most, with the country suffering from a collapsed currency and a decimated banking system in the aftermath. Thanks to a run on gold by those holding Francs, the country left the gold standard and the currency became worthless overnight. Orphans and the homeless actually used barrels of money as fuel for their fires, as it was cheaper than coal or wood. In response, the Croixists and a sympathetic French military brass organized the Bastille Day Coup. The President and his most ardent supporters were executed, and the legislature disbanded. Francois de la Rocque was declared Dictator of the French National State on July 21st. He took decisive action to stabilize the economy, creating a New Franc and coordinating with the Catholic Church to feed the hungry. He also shuttered newspapers that were against his regime and began instituting military control over areas of Communist agitation. Thousands of Communists and other dissenters would be shot in the opening phase of what some would later call the Second Reign of Terror.

Spain and Portugal fell to Croixism in their own ways. Portugal endured a coup in March of 1933 by a junta of Croixist generals. There was a large scale rebellion in response, which saw Brazilian intervention in their colonial motherland until fighting stopped in 1935. The two authoritarian regimes signed the Pact for Lusophone Unity on June 13th, 1936, which was an extensive mutual defense treaty and trade agreement. Although they technically signed on as equals, the rather doddering Portuguese Empire would, overtime, become a de facto client state of their continent straddling Brazilian offspring. Another notable fact about the Portuguese treaty was that it declared neutrality in world affairs. Brazil and Portugal were sufficiently different from other Croixists to not feel much overt sympathy for them, and had no interest in fighting a war against Germany. The Pact would become a non-factor in the coming war. Nextdoor to Portugal, Spain saw a peaceful transition of power from the ancient strongman Valeriano Weyler to General Francisco Franco, a Croixist who had served nobly in the Holy Land. General Franco broke Spain's treaty with the Germans, feeling that they had stiffed Spain in Africa, but did not align with the French. He instead focused on what would become known as the Spanish Crusade, a comprehensive process of colonization in the Holy Land a la Latin America.

In Greece and Serbia, resentment over their brutal defeats at the hands of Bulgaria and the Tripartite Empire fueled the rise of Croixist parties and military cliques. In Greece, Croixist inspired demagogue Ioannis Metaxas seized control of Parliament in a heated election in 1935. The year afterwards, a Serbian military junta overthrew the government and established a Croixist state. The two powers entered negotiation with each other and France to form a new alliance in late 1936.

Beyond Europe, Japan soon fell to its own brand of right-wing totalitarianism. The Japanese were an ambitious and cramped people, who resented their loss of face in WWI, the overweening presence of America and Germany, and the beginnings of modernization in China. In 1931, a clique of hyper-nationalist military officers de facto seized control of the Japanese state under the leadership of Hideki Tojo. The Emperor Hirohito never commented on the issue, but it seems likely that the officers had his support. The Japanese government was soon cranking out massive amounts of propaganda about Japan's imperial destiny and the evils of American and German hegemony. Behind the scenes, plans were drawn up to bring most of Asia under Japanese dominance. To that end, a surprising marriage of convenience would emerge, and set in motion the events that would lead to the outbreak of humanity's deadliest war.

Hideki Tojo, de facto dictator of Japan (1932)

Portuguese strongman Antonio Salazar (1936)

Spanish dictator Francisco Franco offers a Roman Salute to his followers (1935)​

 

[Murica1776]

The Molotov-Matsuoka Pact

Japanese Foreign Minister Matsuoka signs the Pact (1934)
​

Geopolitics makes strange bedfellows out of sworn enemies. Whether it's Greek city-states, medieval kingdoms, or modern Entente alliances, the common interests of powers can bridge any divide. Perhaps no alliance is a greater example of this principle than the Japanese-Soviet Alliance. Both of these powers were natural enemies: competing for influence in the same region, with diametrically opposed ideologies and a history of conflict. Nonetheless, as China collapsed into Civil War, representatives of the two nations met in Vladivostok to discuss a secret alliance. Before we delve into the actual alliance, let us first evaluate the driving factors behind it on each side.

From the Soviet side, reasons both ideological and practical came into play. Ideologically speaking, the Soviet Union was increasingly going down an unexpected path. Stalin had become increasingly enamored with Eurasianist literature, which was technically illegal until he decided to lift restrictions in 1928. Although there were many different interpretations of Eurasianism, the basic premise was that as an empire on both the European and Asian continents, Russian civilization represented a "Third Path" for civilization, combining Christianity and classical virtue with Asian collectivism and order. Stalin excised Christianity from the equation and replaced it with rationalism and Marxism, but otherwise stuck to the formula. Even more than this, he began to develop his own Eurasian worldview. Russia would become the core of a new civilization formed on the Eurasian continent, educating and uplifting the non-Russian masses in the arts of civilization. Elements from native cultures could be included if beneficial. In his mind this was not a class project, or a national project, but a civilizational project. The Soviet government would reengineer the human soul and create an entirely new Marxist-Eurasian civilization that would bring order and egalitarianism to the world. It would take time and careful planning, but this great mission would be achieved. Naturally, for such a civilization to emerge, Moscow would need to gain control of Eurasia. Acquiring Chinese territories wasn't the worst solution to that conundrum. From a geopolitical standpoint, there were two important reasons to annex parts of China. Firstly, a unified, modernized, large China was an immense threat to Soviet interests. They would be able to project power across Asia and stifle Soviet designs, and should things come to blows, any war would be immensely bloody. Making matters worse, China's friendliness with Washington gave them a powerful ally who was a short and icy boat trip from Russian territories. Breaking up the country while it was divided was an easy way to mitigate that. Another important incentive for Soviet planners was the fact that Chinese lands could be used to compensate for the loss of the Eastern European empire. As much as they might have fantasized about reclaiming the European territories, as a practical matter that was a non-starter. The Germans had built industry in the countries that could easily be turned to war making and had equipped their puppets with fairly advanced weapons. The Crimean Tatars even managed to secure a surprisingly large stockpile of poison gas. Native resistance would be fierce because while German domination wasn't exactly popular, it was much preferred to having national cultures sublimated by Russian dominance again. Any war there would be expensive, bloody, and end in a stalemate at best. No, that would have to wait. However, rich Chinese lands, ripe to grow crops and supply raw materials and labor could serve as an adequate compensation for the Soviets. Yes, Chinese expansion would suit them just fine.

The Japanese also had ideological and geopolitical reasons for an alliance. Ideologically, the Japanese had begun to see themselves as the strongest race in Asia, who were tasked to lead the continent into the future. Once they had secured leadership of Asia, they could repel the Western barbarians and create a beautiful new world order, where the Japanese race could be the "father" of happy international family. If China outstripped them in power, both the justifications for this worldview (Japanese dominance and industry) and any hope of achieving said program would be destroyed. However, successfully subjugating China and breaking Han dominance forever would be a massive show of force, and might incline other Asian races to align with them in their struggle against the West. Geopolitically, China was useful as, in the words of some Japanese officials "Our India." Specifically, a large, heavily populated territory with immense natural wealth that could feed, clothe, and house ethnic Japanese to such a level that their standard of living rivaled Germany and America's, while also providing huge quantities of resources for the war machine and nigh endless labor for industry and agriculture. If Japan secured these resources in China, they would become a real world power.

It was with these interests in mind that negotiations took place throughout 1933 after China collapsed into civil war. Both governments were amenable to the idea of teaming up to claim part of the Chinese pie. There were intensive negotiations about who should get what, but eventually, a general agreement was struck upon. Japan would claim the lion's share of Manchuria, and annex most of China's Eastern and Southern regions, especially along the coast. The Soviets would get part of Manchuria, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, and some more northern territories. Beyond that, Tibet, long part of China's sphere of influence, was to be set up as a Soviet puppet state. Between the two nations, there was to be a neutral Chinese buffer state that both could freely exploit, but neither could station forces in. Finding this agreeable, Japanese Foreign Minister Matsuoka flew to Moscow to meet Stalin and Molotov to officially sign a "non-aggression pact and binding statement of friendly neutrality" on December 19th, 1933. The more imperialistic designs were put in secret clauses hidden from the world. Arrangements were made to begin campaigning in the Spring of 1934. At approximately 6AM, March 8th, 1934, a telegram was sent to Soviet and Japanese forces on the border with China. "The Dragon's Wings Have Been Clipped." Within the hour, Japanese and Soviet forces were marching into a divided China. Although no one knew at the time, the largest war in human history had just begun.

Japanese forces mobilize to invade Manchuria

Soviet troops shortly before meeting their Japanese allies in Manchuria

https://imgur.com/7Qk2PHf

The approximate division of China as laid out in the Pact.​

 

[Murica1776]

Chaos in China

Enraged Chinese-Americans call for war against Japan (March, 1934)
​

The Chinese Civil War and ensuing Soviet-Japanese Invasion sparked a massive scramble both in China and outside of it. As wave after wave of Soviet and Japanese troops swarmed China's borders, the various warlords formed an alliance with the forces of Xu Shichang to resist the foreign invaders. Sun Yat-Sen on the other hand, unofficially aligned with the Japanese in return for the promise of a larger Chinese buffer state and free reign to deal with ethnic minorities as he saw fit. The Soviets attracted support from ethnic Mongols in Inner Mongolia, who were tempted by the prospect of reuniting with their ethnic countrymen and getting back at the Chinese for years of cultural oppression. Making matters even more confused, the United States, Germany, the Tripartite Empire, Britain, and France soon all got involved in varying capacities.

When the Japanese and Soviets invaded at the same time, the world at first thought that it was just a bizarre coincidence, or perhaps an aggressive reaction on the part of one side towards the imperialism of the other. Instead, on March 22nd, two weeks after the invasion, the world was stunned to see pictures and newsreels of Soviets and Japanese shaking hands on the border between Soviet Manchuria and Japanese Manchuria. Military bands honored their co-belligerents, and friendly contests and toasts abounded. The world was stunned: the Japanese and the Soviets had teamed up to carve China apart. Then, reactions poured in. The Germans and the Tripartite Empire offered measured denouncements and announced that troops from German Indochina would be sent to European concessions to protect the lives and property of their citizens and their allies'. Britain and France had the opposite reaction, publicly praising the Japanese for "doing what is necessary to restore order on the Yellow Continent." Shortly afterwards, negotiations between the three powers would begin. The Americans were by far the most furious. WTR took to the airwaves to denounce in the strongest possible terms "the violent and aggressive expansionism of Imperial Japan and the Soviet Union, whose sick fantasies of dominance will kill millions of innocent Chinese." On March 23rd, both houses of Congress unanimously passed resolutions condemning Japan and the USSR. In the streets of American Hong Kong and the West Coast, tens of thousands of Chinese-Americans would take to the streets calling for war against Japan and the Soviets. In San Francisco, mounted police had to break up large scuffles between Japanese and Chinese Americans on the 24th, and the Governor threatened to send in the National Guard. After a few weeks of deliberation, the United States announced embargoes against Japan and the Soviet Union. These were very limited in the beginning, but as horror stories continued to emerge out of China, they would gradually grow. That being said, there would be no official military action. The bulk of the American people might have been disgusted by the events in China, but most were much more focused on getting help to end the Depression rather than waging an expensive crusade on a foreign continent. WTR was himself ready and willing, but he obeyed the will of the people. However, what they didn't know wouldn't hurt them....

By May of 1934, grizzled veterans of the Second Mexican War had begun showing up in the camps of Republican forces. They brought with them years of experience, and crates of surplus weapons and supplies. Although it wasn't enough to train and equip a large number of the truly huge Republican Army, it was enough to create three crack divisions of Chinese Minutemen, as they became known. These elite forces were led by American commanders, and became the terror of the Japanese and Soviets. Supplementing these crack units, some 5,000 Chinese-Americans who somehow acquired military training and weapons appeared to bolster the Republican forces. These men were invaluable to the Chinese cause, and slowed down a once lightning quick Soviet and Japanese advance. They were also useful in maintaining discipline when the ancient Xu Shichang died in July, to soon be replaced by renowned general and Republican Chiang Kai-Shek. Beyond this, many starving Chinese were kept from dying by huge Red Cross donations by the American people, many of whom donated in spite of their own personal hardships. The Americans did everything short of actually fighting a war to help the Chinese, and their efforts would never be forgotten by the Chinese people, especially when compared to the apathy of the rest of the world.

Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to halt the invaders, especially given the treachery of Sun Yat-Sen. While a number of his men defected to the Republic over his cooperation with the Japanese, he still commanded the second largest force of armed Chinese in the country. When the Japanese annexed most of Manchuria, they let the fanatic Han supremacists stay behind while others marched ahead aiding the Japanese. The fanatics in Manchuria were given free reign, and many took the opportunity to vent their rage at centuries of Manchu domination on the locals. Tens of thousands of Manchurians were killed, tortured, or displaced, and thousands more were enslaved by the invaders and their puppets. A few thousand were able to escape to the relative safety of Soviet Manchuria, where they were often conscripted as cannon fodder against the Chinese. Given how many of them were radicalized by the violence they had endured, this was a fairly easy sell, and the "Manchurian Brigade" would be one of the most fanatical units fielded by the Soviets in their war against China. With such violence and concentrated military might being brought to the fore, nothing short of direct American intervention would turn the tide. Since this was not yet forthcoming, the Japanese and Soviets had a relative field day.

Once Manchuria was secured, the co-belligrents continued to cooperate. The 98,000 Soviet troops in Manchuria swung West alongside their Japanese allies and marched into Inner Mongolia, joined by a separate Soviet army of 177,000 from the North. Inner Mongolia, along with Xinjiang, were lightly defended and fairly primitive. While the native people put up a fierce resistance, in the face of a relatively modernized and utterly ruthless enemy, they stood no chance. Inner Mongolia fell in December of 1934, with intermittent resistance into mid 1935. Xinjiang fell in February, 1935, with resistance continuing into 1936. Starting in June of 1935, the Soviets waged war in Tibet to establish a puppet state. Native resistance was unusually fierce, and the mountainous terrain difficult, but the Soviets soldiered on. The new Red Airforce began deploying airships and planes to scout and bomb mountain hideouts, and Moscow began a strategy of food warfare. They seized most of the nation's food, and would control distribution. This would have the effect of starving disloyal areas, and it's estimated some 178,000 people starved due to this policy. Despite the fearsome effort put up by the Soviets, Tibet wouldn't be truly pacified until 1941. Further North, Soviet forces were slowed down as they punched into Gansu and Qinghai. Being more centrally located, Republican forces had more of a presence in these regions as opposed to the fringes. The presence of half a division of Chinese Minutemen in the region didn't help things. However, as the Chinese were increasingly absorbed by the genocidal Japanese offensive along the much more densely populated coast, resources began to be recalled from the region as the Soviets continued to hammer away. By Christmas of 1937, resistance in these regions began to collapse. The Soviets would take full control by March of 1938, at which point they stopped their offensive outside of the ongoing war in Tibet. They were content to sit back and consolidate control over their Pact promised lands while selling Japan the oil and steel she desperately needed.

Japan's offensive against the rich and highly populated coast was much more slow-going. In response, the Japanese got ugly. Thousands of gas shells were deployed against Beijing in December of 1934, after the Japanese advance stalled outside the city. When the Japanese did finally break through in January, the Rape of Beijing occurred as angry soldiers inflicted unimaginable atrocities on the city. The foreign legations remained the only safe areas in the whole city. A squad of Japanese soldiers was shot and killed by two American businessmen after they wandered into the American Concession pursuing a young woman they intended to rape. The incident inflamed both sides, but did not result in concrete action by either. In March of 1935, all foreigners and their servants were ordered to leave Beijing or lose legal protection. Ships loaded up the Westerners and their "servants" many of whom were Chinese that had Western families sponsor their escape. Many of these refugees would wind up in Hong Kong or California, although a surprisingly large number also fled to Budapest. The Japanese continued their relentless advance along the Eastern provinces, arriving in Nanjing by February, 1938. Atrocities similar, but not as large, as what occurred in Beijing became par for the course, outraging the world. Despite fearsome resistance, the fanatical Japanese war machine, kept fairly well supplied by the Soviets, ground the country down. It wasn't until the larger Second World War broke out that the Japanese advance would be slowed, then gradually reversed.

Now seems as good a time as any to discuss the methods by which the Soviets and Japanese ruled their Chinese empires. The Japanese quickly established a brutal variety of colonial rule in their provinces. Farms, mines, and other valuable assets were seized and sold at fire sale prices to Japanese zaibatsu. They would then modernize these assets and scale them up for the most extraction possible, send over Japanese managers and their families, and essentially enslave the Chinese to work in them. The lives of workers were of little import, as even with the destruction caused by war and genocide, there were enough Chinese that workers were easily replaceable. Japanese colonists and officers quickly formed a ruling class in these areas, and instituted a variety of racist laws. All Chinese were compelled to kowtow to any Japanese they encountered, regardless of age or sex. Segregated living areas were established. Chinese men were forbidden from interacting with Japanese women, even as Chinese women were rounded up like cattle for use as military sex slaves. Chinese children were compelled to learn Japanese, and could be beaten for speaking Chinese in public. Chinese artifacts were pillaged en masse and sent to Japan. It was a remarkably brutal and efficient machine of plunder and destruction. The Soviets took a somewhat different route. All farms and mines were nationalized, and in the case of farms, collectivized. After a couple years of disruption, these regions were integrated fairly well into the Soviet system. Many anticipated the creation of new SSRs, or perhaps the absorption of some territories into existing SSRs. This did not happen, as China remained under military rule until the conclusion of the Second World War, at which point Stalin created a new governing arrangement for the Union as a whole. Although Soviet rule was totalitarian, it was thankfully not as racist. Race based genocide didn't really occur aside from isolated incidents in China perpetrated by the Manchurian Brigade. However, Soviet rule was not racially egalitarian. In Soviet Europe, there were thousands of unmarried Russian men who had been recently deported from Poland, Ukraine, Crimea, Finland, and the United Baltic Duchy in a fit of anti-Soviet hysteria. Stalin sent them to the recently annexed Chinese territories as managers and policemen, supplemented by Russian party members. The authorities began a propaganda campaign alleging that "So-called ethnic purity is an invention of the capitalist bourgeoisie." These unmarried male colonists were encouraged to marry native women. Female colonists, on the other hand, were generally forbidden from marrying native men, although exceptions occured. Russian culture was generally pushed onto the natives with the notable exception of cuisine. In this realm, China influenced the Soviets more than vice versa. All in all, Soviet rule was less brutal, and would prove much more durable.

Piled up corpses from the Ravaging of Nanking, the second deadliest atrocity committed by Japan in China (1938)

Newsreel footage of the Japanese advance (1937)

A Soviet soldier in Inner Mongolia (1935)

Soviet soldiers pose in Gansu (1936)​

 

[Murica1776]

Britannia Rules the Waves

British planes en route to gas Ethiopian soldiers (1936)​

The British Empire under Mosley took on it's final, and most inhuman form. The ideology of Britannianism was exported to the White Dominions under different names, and would mutate into different forms in each Dominion. India would also embrace the ideology of their imperial master, forming the largest branch of the Party by number. The Empire would rearm in a few short years on his watch, and would engage in a short war of conquest against Ethiopia. All the while, plans were being laid for a global conflagration.

Shortly after taking power, Mosley discreetly pushed the Dominions into having snap elections. They dutifully complied, not in the least because Britannian inspired parties had skyrocketed into popularity. There were elections in each Dominion in 1930, and without fail, pro-Mosley parties won. In Canada, Richard Newcastle and his Sons of the Maple Leaf took power. Australia saw the rise of Charles Griffiths and the Anglo-Saxon Australia Party. Neighboring New Zealand witnessed the election of Harold Brown and the Kiwi Party with a walloping 68% of the popular vote. Rounding out the assortment, Martin Aaronson and the White Africa Party (WAP) took power in South Africa. All of these parties were aligned with the Britannianist movement. However, they were not mere clones of Mosley's party. They each had a unique flavor to them that distinguished them from the others and from the SofB. Examining these differences in detail is important to understanding future events.

The Sons of the Maple Leaf, Anglo-Saxon Australia Party, and Kiwi Party are all immediately distinguishable for their rejection of Evolian thought and a general refutation of aristocracy. Being overwhelmingly White British and possessed of a relatively egalitarian class structure, the aristocracy was neither relevant nor popular. Furthermore, Evola's ideas were seen as too strange and Italian. Instead, each party adopted a unique ethos and aesthetic according to region. In Canada, the Sons of the Maple Leaf idolized the still fairly recent conquest of the frontier, with propaganda lionizing the "bearded, tough, patriotic, Protestant, and pure-blooded Canuck, trapping, logging, farming, and maple tapping on a frontier he and his fellows won with their hands and rifles." They wanted to bring back that feeling of national purpose and adventure, with many hoping that if the Yankees were defeated in a war they might win Alaska to recreate the frontier. Aside from that, the Sons were aggressively natalist, stating that Canadians should have large families as a matter of national security, for "we occupy a large country, and if we do not people her, the Yankees will." The Sons of the Maple Leaf were also the most ardently anti-American of the various Britannianist parties, feeding on already extant anti-American sentiment in Canada. From 1930-1935, the Canadians deported most of their Asian population to Japan or the United States (Chinese-Canadians opted for America instead of China) and began a mass sterilization campaign against the First Nations peoples, as outright genocide was viewed as too expensive and risky given how close they were to the world's largest media producer. In Quebec, Anglicization programs began, and would be fiercely resisted until the fall of the Canadian regime.

Down under, Australia was busy rewriting history. Their nation's sordid origins among the criminals of Britain was rewritten to be something much more heroic. The criminality of the founding stock was downplayed, and instead early Australia was painted as a "racial laboratory" where the major (Welsh, Scotch, and English strains) of the Anglo-Saxon race melded and blended to form a new Australian Race who had the best qualities of all of them, and developed a very pure Anglo-Saxon culture uniquely suited to colonization. Despite being loyal imperial subjects, the Australians began laying groundwork for a negotiated independence from the Empire "once our racial enemies are defeated" and building their own Empire encompassing Indonesia, New Zealand (peacefully annexed), New Guinea, and Malaysia. On a more practical (and depressing) note, in 1936 the Australians began the process of rounding up their Aboriginal population and putting them into the concentration camps, where many would perish. Next door in New Zealand, the Kiwi Party was perhaps the most traditionally Britannianist party, but one that leaned much more heavily into the Merrie England style agrarianism of the ideology. They too would begin rounding up Aboriginal people, actually starting before the Australians in 1935.

In South Africa, the WAP actually took an opposite tack to their fellow Dominions and leaned much more heavily on the aristocratic and Evolian themes present in Britannianism. This is because the WAP, composed predominantly of British South Africans, saw the Whites and Honorary Whites (a designation they gave to mid-high caste Hindus in the country) as the seed of a new aristocracy in Africa, with the Africans being the eternal Telluric serfs/slaves. An even harsher racial caste system formed in the country, dedicated to this ideology. Furthermore, the South Africans began theorizing about recreating the Olympian Race. To this end, Prime Minister Aaronson founded the Lion Regiment under General William MacQuoid, which had extremely strict physical (6ft height, good vision, blue or green eyes, fit) and ideological requirements for membership. These men became a feared elite force, who behind closed doors increasingly embraced Anglo-Saxon and Roman paganism as they marched towards the recreation of the Olympic Race. Towards this end, the Lion Regiment participated in a eugenics program with willing White and high caste Hindu Indian women to "improve the stock." The South African government theorized that these programs would elevate the general genetic standing of the population. Rounding out the insanity of the Party, South African planners began drawing up war plans to create "A new Dominion encompassing the entire African continent." That such a plan was utterly absurd except perhaps on a 500 year time frame, if not more, was never mentioned.

The White Dominions didn't have a monopoly on insanity. In India, one Mahatma Gandhi founded the Aryan Empire League (AEL), a movement combining Britannianism, Hindu supremacism, and British imperial patriotism. The AEL never achieved quite the same level of power as the other branches due to the enduring reign of the British officials. However, they did form an increasing percentage of native government officers, as the Mosley government willingly turned over power to them. The Mosley government issued a plan to have India become an "Aryan Dominion" by 1955 at the absolute latest. This bolstered the ranks of the AEL immensely, who numbered some 80 million at their peak. Once India was an Aryan Dominion, the plan of the AEL was going to thrust all the Muslims into a new Untouchable caste, and "forever undo the damage wrought by the Mogul barbarians." The AEL also supported the institution of a modified caste system to accommodate Europeans and Anglo-Indians as co-rulers alongside the high caste Indians. The AEL would have the longest lifespan of any Britannianist movement, as we shall see.

Political upheavals aside, the British and their Dominions quickly remilitarized under the Britannianist governments, reclaiming British naval dominance, rebuilding the Aeroforce, and strengthening the Army with new troops, guns, and tanks. In the deserts of Sudan, the newly forned Royal Experimental Corps built 5 secretive research facilities where new weapons were tested on hapless colonial subjects. This militarization, expensive as it was, helped give the economy a temporary boost. A massive public works program, including the world's first high-speed rail system being built in the UK, helped boost things further. With a seeming economic recovery, a powerful military, and a restless population, it was a matter of time before the Mosley government turned its aggression on the world. On April 3rd, 1936, they did just that. Ethiopia, long one of Africa's two independent states, was shocked to learn that British troops were pouring across their borders, while planes dropped bombs and chemical weapons from the sky. The still fairly primitive Ethiopian armed forces were bulldozed in time for the end of summer. While the world issued halting condemnations, the majority of nations were still too focused on the ongoing wars in China to offer much.

The final project of the Mosley government before the outbreak of World War Two was the creation of the Grand Imperial Alliance. The GIA, signed in 1937, created a military and economic alliance between Britain, France, and Japan, with Greece, Spain, Brazil, and Portugal signed on as non-binding observers. When war did break out, all of the observers except Greece would break their commitment to the GIA. Nonetheless, the Alliance would be a powerful force, and represented the solidification of one of the two blocs that would be represented in the coming conflict.

The Banner of the Sons of the Maple Leaf

Picture of Mahatma Gandhi during his time at Oxford, in which he became an ardent Empire Patriot

Lion Regiment members in Sudan (1938)​

 

[Murica1776]

A bit of a flash forward, but here's a light hearted Christmas special:

Christmas in Quebec:

Quebecois children sit in front of their bombed out home (December, 1939)

December 25th, 1939, 10 AM EST, Quebec City, Quebec​

Jean-Luc Brodeur wandered the streets of Quebec City aimlessly. Today started like every day of the past week: he had woken up cold and hungry to the sound of shelling. The 16 year old boy had been separated from his family a week ago, when they were forced to flee their apartment as fighting slowly enveloped the city. In the chaos, Jean-Luc, oldest of five, had gotten turned around, went down the wrong street, and now here he was. He spent his days scrounging for food and dodging the Canucks, who would probably stick a gun in his hands and order him to fight. The Anglos wouldn't admit it, but he could see the desperation on their faces. The September 11th attacks by the GIA had been coordinated to try and knock out the Yankees with firepower and fear. Instead, they were just mad as hell. They came crashing into Canada with a fury that reminded him of Old Testament Bible study with Father Labeaume. Jean-Luc frowned at the memory of the kindly old priest. Another victim of the Canucks and their obsessive desire to stamp out his people and their culture. They didn't even get to properly bury him.

The teen was snapped out of his melancholy by the sound of an engine. Quickly ducking behind a fallen column, he waited for whatever vehicle he was hearing to move on. Instead, the sound got closer, and closer, and closer. He could hear wheels, and men talking. Jean-Luc clutched his rosary and prayed that God would please, just this once, have mercy on him and let him go undetected by whoever it was going by. He could feel the vibrations of the vehicle as it came very close. He closed his eyes as tight as he could, as if that could make him invisible. Instead, he felt the vehicle stop. He heard a door open and shut. Then a voice.

"Hey kid, you alright?" Jean-Luc didn't open his eyes or say a word, instead opting to try and stop breathing. Given his level of panic, this didn't work as well he would have hoped. "Hey kid, are you deaf?" Another male voice, "Well if he was deaf, he probably couldn't fucking hear you ask him if he was deaf, now could he?" The first man said "Yeah, yeah, look at you, the Corporal is becoming the comic." Then, something unexpected: "Kid's got a rosary. Hey kid, Ave Maria! Ave Maria, Ave Maria! Ya know that? Those nuns, they beat that shit into ya." Jean-Luc opened his eyes in surprise at hearing the ancient Latin Hail Mary. Looming over him, he saw a pale, brown eyed man in fatigues. "Look, the kid's eyes work! Hey kid, you speak English? Parlez-vous anglais? That's how you say it, right?" The other man replied, "Jack I'm from Zion and I don't know if you know this, but the good Negroes of Zion don't exactly speak French." The white man, Jack, was about to make a cutting reply when he was startled by Jean-Luc asking "Negro? Black?" Jack nodded and motioned for his partner to get out. Soon, Jean-Luc saw a tall, barrel-chested Black man come into view. He blinked a few times to confirm, and then let out a whoop that startled his interrogators. No self-respecting Canuck would be caught dead on patrol with a Black man, but an American in one of the experimental mixed units would! They weren't Canucks!

Jean-Luc bolted upright and began communicating in fast, broken English. The men, a Sargent Jack O'Hannigan and Corporal Abraham Jefferson, told him to slow down several times with varying levels of profanity. Within about 10 minutes, he was in the back of their Jeep, hollering as they drove through the bombed out streets of the city. About 40 minutes later they were on the outskirts of town and arrived in what can only be described as a prefabricated metropolis. Barracks, tents, a giant mess, and, in the back, a fenced off area with a few hundred miserable Canucks inside. Jean-Luc extended two fingers in a V shape at them, knowing they would recognize the ancient British gesture and its intended meaning. When the car came to a stop he jumped out and kissed the ground. Corporal Jefferson said "Someone's officially even more excited to be out of that shithole than me. That's impressive!" Sargent O'Hannigan asked if he had eaten, and after some rough translation, Jean-Luc found himself in a mess hall surrounded by Americans and fellow Quebecoise, eating a massive Christmas feast. He had actually forgotten it was Christmas, and said a few Hail Marys to hopefully make up for it. While he was eating, the adults suddenly called for quiet as loudspeakers crackled. "Ladies and gentlemen, please show respect as we broadcast this Christmas message from the President of the United States." Radios were turned on throughout the hall, all playing the same speech.

"Good afternoon my fellow Americans, and my fellow free men. It is noon, Eastern Standard Time, here in Washington, DC. More importantly, it is Christmas Day, one of the most sacred days of the year on our calendar. This Christmas is unlike any other faced by our nation. Over 70,000 of our fellow citizens are celebrating it at the right hand of the Lord beyond the pearly gates of the Glory. Tens of thousands more must go on with the knowledge that they have lost a parent, a spouse, a sibling, a child, or a friend. I myself lost a dear friend... Millions more of our citizens, in the Philippines and Hong Kong, must do all they can to celebrate under the occupation of a despotic oriental regime of tremendous cruelty. This Christmas will be a difficult one, perhaps the most difficult in our nation's history. However, even in the darkness, the light shines. I am pleased to announce that in a fortunate turn of events, all Canadian resistance in Quebec has been neutralized."

The speech was interrupted by a loud cheer here, especially among the Quebecoise who had translators on hand.

"Almighty God has tested us this year. However, America has responded as I knew she would. We have rallied in an unprecedented national effort to defeat the forces of tyranny. Every person of every conceivable race, faith, and creed has been giving their all for our Country. For that, I express my eternal gratitude. Through your efforts, we almost have the Canadian Front licked. The Liberation of Quebec is an important part of that. The people of Quebec have suffered much at the hands of the Sons of the Maple Leaf, even more than we. However they have endured, and we will endure. Together, we will triumph. To my fellow Americans, I wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. To our liberated Quebecoise friends I say this: Joyeux Noël. Aujord'hui, nous sommes tous du Québec!"*

There were more cheers at the end of the speech. Although Jean-Luc didn't understand everything the man was saying he caught the gist, and something about the man's booming voice made him feel safe. Almost like his father's voice. He frowned again, and went to grab dessert. He hoped that they were alive. He tried something he heard the Yankees call flan, specifically the browner ones, and found it extremely good. As he went for his third plate (hey, it's Christmas) he heard a yell of "Jean-Luc! Jean-Luc! C'est toi, mon fils?" Shell shocked, he turned around and saw his mother, father, and all 4 of his siblings. There was a brief pause, and then he took off running. After about 15 minutes of hugging and crying, they began talking excitedly. Apparently, they had actually gotten here yesterday after being picked up by the Red Cross. They already had a nice, warm part of the refugee barracks reserved for the family, and a bed for Jean-Luc. The family would be staying in the camp for awhile, and Jean-Luc's father Pierre had already gotten a job helping the Americans rebuild the city, while his mother Amélie would take up a job as a cook for the refugees. The children would be educated by the nurses of the Red Cross. Unbeknownst to the Canadians, their Yankee enemies were about to accomplish with kindness what they couldn't do with force: teach most of the Quebecoise English. The excited chattering of the Brodeur clan was interrupted by a bunch of men in fatigues and what he would later learn were Santa hats, coming into the hall with large sacks. Among them were Sargent O'Hannigan and Corporal Jefferson. The troops opened their sacks, and what spilled out was incredible. Toys, clothes, chocolate, dime novels, and more came spilling out. A surly looking man in a general's uniform came out and said in a thick Boston accent: "Christmas, courtesy of the government and people of the United States. Gifts will be distributed to you, please restrain yourselves!"

Sargent O'Hannigan and Corporal Jefferson took responsibility for his family. His youngest sister Marie got a few dolls and a spinning top. His twin younger brothers got marbles, jacks, and a few baseball cards. His eldest sister Josephine got makeup, books, and a sewing kit. When it was his turn, he was a little disappointed. All he got were socks and shirts, which he was really thankful for, but he was hoping to at least get a book. However, the Corporal and the Sargent pulled him aside and gave him a pair of long, lumpy looking wool socks. Corporal Jefferson said, "Look inside these when your parents aren't around, ok?" Although he still didn't fully understand, he knew enough. He slipped away for a second and reached inside the socks. What he found was a treasure trove. A pack of cigarettes, another pack of cigarillos, a very small bottle of brandy, a few American dollars, and two packs of playing cards, one regular, the other with pin up pictures of beautiful women from every race he knew of and a few he didn't. A little note said "To the young men of Quebec, courtesy of the 10th Mixed Regiment. Hope you know how to play cards better than the Canucks." Stashing away his treasures, he rejoined his family. Just in time as well, as he saw a choir of men and women gathered. They began to sing the most beautiful thing he had ever heard:

Hark the Herald Angels Sing
Glory to the Newborn King
Peace on Earth and Mercy mild
God and Sinners, reconciled
Joyful, all ye nations, rise;
Join the triumph of the skies;
With th’angelic host proclaim
Christ is born in Bethlehem!

Hark! the herald angels sing
Glory to the newborn King!

Hail the heav’n-born Prince of Peace!
Hail the Son of Righteousness!
Light and life to all he brings,
Ris’n with healing in his wings.
Mild he lays his glory by,
Born that man no more may die;
Born to raise the sons of earth,
Born to give them second birth.

Hark! the herald angels sing
Glory to the newborn King!
​

*Translates to: Merry Christmas. Today, we are all from Quebec.

Author's Note: Jean-Luc Brodeur would go on to become the Quebecoise Ambassador to the United States from 1980-1995. He would remain lifelong friends with Sargent O'Hannigan and Corporal Jefferson, and would eulogize both men when they died in 1998 and 2001 respectively. Ambassador Brodeur was made an honorary American Citizen in 2002. Ambassador Brodeur would pass away in 2004, and one of Sargent O'Hannigan's and one of Corporal Jefferson's sons would join his children as pallbearers. He and his wife are laid in eternal rest at The Lady of Perpetual Salvation Church in Quebec City, Quebec, a church his father helped build after the Liberation of Quebec.

One of many kinds of pin up playing cards distributed to American troops. President Richardson insisted that they have women from all races, including Native American and African, to ease racial tensions among the troops. According to the man himself "The best way to eliminate race hatred is to show our boys that God blessed all races with curvy, long legged broads."

The Red Cross distributes donuts to soldiers and civilians in Liberated Quebec (1939)

Canuck POWs receive Christmas rations (1939)​