(1789-1793)--George Washington--(Washingtonian Republican) [1]
(1793-1802)--Alexander Hamilton--(Washingtonian Republican) [2]
(1802-1805)--Thomas Jefferson--(Madisonian Republican) [3]
(1805-1815)--Absalom Marsbury--(Revolutionary Whig) [4]
(1815-1822)--Nathaniel Wilkinson--(Republican) [5]
(1822-1825)--Murray Bushrod Washington--(Republican)
(1825-1833)--Volker Barbicane--(Revolutionary Whig) [6]
(1833-1840)--George A. Swanson--(Federal Republican) [7]
(1840-1841)--Frederick Kerensky--(Federal Republican) [8]
(1841-1845)--Jacob Haine--(Revolutionary Whig) [9]
(1845-1849)--Jacob Haine--(Radical Democrat) [9]
(1849-1852)--Henry Clay--(Radical Democrat) [10]
(1852-1856)--Jonathan Marsbury--(Radical Democrat)
(1856-1864)--Joseph Brown--(Radical Democrat) [11]
(1864-1872)--Simpson Clark Lincoln--(Socialist Republican) [12]
(1872)--Marcus Bishop--(Socialist Republican) [13]
(1872-1877)--Sherlock Quincy Eisenstein--(Socialist Republican) [14]
(1877-1882)--Alfred Howard Huett--(Socialist Republican) [15]
(1882-1890)--Quincy Ronald Hamilton--(New Whig)[16]
(1890)--Robert Jackson--(Socialist Republican) [17]
(1890-1900)--Jeffersonian Directorate[18]
(1900-1908)--Robert Jackson--(Socialist Republican)
(1908-1912)--Rudolph Randall Jones--(Socialist Republican) [19]
(1912-1916)--Rudolph Randall Jones--(Socialist Republican) [20]
(1916-1919)--Mercutio Bombarnac--(Marxian Federalist) [21]
(1919-1930)--Elton John Rhodes--(Coalition America) [22]
(1930-1932)--Frank Alvarson--(Traditionalist Party) [23]
(1932-1934)—J.J. Hertford—(Traditionalist Party)[24]
(1934-1938)--Jonah Kremp--(Dixie Democrat) [25]
(1938-1942)--Sean Roberts II-(Social Communists) [26]
(1942-1950)--Davis Randall Alberts (Federal Socialists) [27]
(1950-1975)--James Cartwright-Remington (American Coaltion) [28]
(1975-1980)--Paul O'Brian [29]
[1] George Washington was the first president of the U.S., he only served one term stating that good presidents only served that length of time so as to not remain permanent figures in that office. He was considered the founder of the Washingtonian Republicans, TTL's Federalists.
[2] Washington's "dauphin" is readily nominated by the Washingtonian Republicans in 1792 and wins the election, but ends up with his foe Jefferson as Vice President. Despite winning the elections of 1796 and 1800, his polarizing policies and personalities greatly hastened the development of a party system, with the Jeffersonians of this timeline, "the Revolutionary Whig Party" winning steadily in support. Hamilton's life comes to an unexpected end in 1802, when he challenges the Whig Speaker of the House, Aaron Burr, to a duel and is promptly killed. His Vice President promptly enters a building yet not known as the White House.
[3] Became president after the death of Alexander Hamilton by a duel with Aaron Burr. He was Pro-France and sent the American Legion to help the French in the Napoleonic Wars, during his presidency all the good relations built up between Britain the previous presidents was destroyed.
[4] First openly Deist President. Faithfully continued Jefferson's policy of support for the French Constitutional Empire under Napoleon, and assembled an entire navy to help Napoleon take Britain, whom the majority of Americans still considered their enemy, ruled as it was by the Mad Tyrant. Thanks to Marsbury's intervention, Napoleon "liberated" much of Ireland from British rule in 1809 and took Dublin in 1811. In the Treaty of Rotterdam, Great Britain ceded all her land in North America to the United States. Though re-elected for a third term in 1812, Marsbury fell ill with syphilis in 1813, and after two years of painful, though devoted service to his country, he died in 1815, mourned by his nation. The French Emperor Napoleon I himself crossed the Atlantic to attend his funeral in Washington D.C.
[5] The first of the modern Republicans. Nathaniel Wilkinson negotiated with Napoleon in 1818, for the sale of North Louisiana, and by his skill with speech, managed to get the south too for another 2 million. He got massive support and managed to win the next election. He was assassinated in 1822 by a lunatic young Irishman named James Coughlin. Many decades later, the very last of the states in the former Louisiana Purchase, would be named Wilkinson, in his honor.
[6] Boston industrialist who had gotten rich from extensive investments in machinery which made use of Jacquard looms and steam engines. A warm friend of France and he had travelled in the now stable Empire of Napoleon where he had gotten many impressions of the developments on the continent. As President, he implemented a programme focusing on developing the American infrastructure, taking with him from the French Empire an idea Napoleon was just beginning to explore: railroads and steam locomotives.
[7] An unlikely candidate due to his Swedish ancestry and connections with Great Britain, he took the presidency in a narrow victory against Jacob Haine, a Presbyterian politician from Pennsylvania. He presided over the beginning of the 'Whig Era', and greatly strengthened relations with Great Britain after the ascent of King Victor I to the throne in 1836, and also ensured that America adopted a more protectionist trade policy. He died in 1840 of pneumonia, and was succeeded by his Vice President Frederick Kerensky.
[8] Born to Russian immigrants in Pennsylvania, Kerensky soon proved that despite his foreign-sounding name, he possessed a mastery of the English language few man can dream of aspiring of. Beginning as a highly successful lawyer, the advanced to State Attorney General, Governor of Pennsylvania, US Secretary of State under Murray Washington's administration, Senator and finally Vice President. Kerensky continued federal investment into the sciences that had begun under Barbicane and in December 1840, engineers at Hamilton University were proud to present the President with the first Mechaninater, which using a system of Jacquard looms would calculate extraordinary elaborate equations to perfect accuracy in a matter of seconds. Though Kerensky was mainly confused by the technological monstrosity, the engineers assured the statesman that the next decades would be greatly affected by this device. Kerensky failed to obtain the nomination of his party, which lost the 1840 election to the Revolutionary Whigs.
[9] Jacob Haine's election ended the so-called 'Whig Era', and marked the destruction of the old two-party system. As a Whig, he pressed for radical reforms in education and industry, as well as establishing America's position in world affairs as isolationist. Volker Barbicane, who had once met Haine at a party rally, described him as, "a radical young firebrand, who wishes for immediate action, and deems mere words useless". His rampant reformism and 'frank', rabble-rousing political speeches resulted in his party refusing to nominate him in the 1844 Whig Convention, where he famously declared, "I have no intention of running as a powder-cheeked, power-hungry Whig! I shall run as a Democrat for Democracy, as the Founding Fathers intended this nation to be!" With these famous words, he singlehandedly splintered the Revolutionary Whigs, and won a seemingly impossible victory in a three way race in 1844. As a Radical Democrat, his programme was even more radical, and in 1848 he quite publicly supported the revolutions that occurred in Germany, Russia, and several other European countries, calling them 'revolutions in the name of democracy'. He alienated both the British and the French, and chose to pursue closer relations with the newly created states the Republic of the Rhine and the Bavarian Freistaat. He chose not to run in 1848, and was succeeded in the party by his longtime political apprentice and associate Henry Clay. At the age of 44, Haine was (and remains to be) the youngest president the United States had ever had.
[10] Riding on the tremendous popularity of Haine, there was no doubt that Clay would win the 1848 Presidential Election, but his success in Southern States wasn't anticipated the least. Wishing to tone down the isolationism of his predecessor to appease his newfound electorate, while staying true to Haine's rhetoric, Clay begun to relax tariffs on goods from the newly formed European democracies. Mechaninaters begun to be more and more common during Clay's tenure, one soon being found at every major factory, university and in the employment of every state government in the country. In 1851, the Danish immigrant Ferdinandsen Brothers completed their famous Luftskib and flew across the continent in less than a week on it. Clay died in tuberculosis in 1852, succeeded by his Vice President, Jonathan Marsbury, a nephew of the late politician and no moderate himself.
[11] Joseph Brown will go down as one of the most controversial presidents in history. A true radical, Brown was immediately presented with a crazy idea in his opening months on the job: free the slaves. For years Congress had begun the process of debating the now-controversial issue, but Brown built on it by publicly calling for every state to free their slaves and if they wouldn't he would. Immediately Northern States banned slavery, but the South would not budge. Ultimately a Civil War erupted as South Carolina led the charge and most southern states (with the exceptions of Virginia and Maryland) seceded from the Union. The war was still the biggest issue when Brown sought reelection and the North was losing. Brown began the process of appointing new generals to lead the efforts; among them was Ulysses Grant who ended up winning the war in the final year of his presidency. Unfortunately a total of 555,000 Americans died in the war. Seceded by an old, experienced Senator of the opposing party, Brown's final days in office were spent wishing he hadn't drawn the country into a 6-year, bloody war. As such, his popularity experienced a great drop during his second term, and when election time came in 1864, he lost the nomination for Radical Democrat to a relatively obscure Irish journalist (and rumoured Fenian) Robert Murphy, who despite his initial popularity amongst the people, did not win the election.
[12] A charismatic figure that formed a splinter party off the old Revolutionary Whigs. The First of the Socialist Republicans slightly influenced by Marx and Dickens themselves. He began many welfare initiatives to make a more utopian Socialist Society.
[13] A successor to Lincoln, but without his predecessor’s charisma. He managed to upset both the right and the left with his hastily attempted programmes. Needless to say, both he and his vice president were quickly assassinated, prompting a governmental crisis.
[14] The Speaker of the House, Sherlock Quincy Eisenstein emerged as president after the governmental crisis, and readily won both the candidacy of the Socialist Republicans and the Presidential Election. Under his tenure as President, the French launched their first satellite, Marianne, into orbit from massive cannon in Egypt, and managed to receive and record the radio signals it sent out. This was the beginning of the Cosmos Race.*
[15] More moderate in social and economic matters than his colleagues, Huett is famous for the launching of the first American spacecraft (the U.S.S. Columbia) during his tenure, as well as his largely successful attempts at reconciliation with Austria, Great Britain, and America's old ally France. Considered a master of foreign policy, Huett reclaimed America's place in the world, and is generally regarded as one of the greatest presidents in history for both his 'reconciliation diplomacy' and his stressing of the need for international unity and peace, as well as his prominent anti-colonialism and social reforms.
[16] More Isolationist then all his predecessors until Brown. The New Whigs were formed in response to the Age of Colonialism and the Filibustering in the Caribbean and Latin America. By the end of his two terms he was considered almost insane, but he was not assassinated. After the failure of the New Whigs they exited the national stage.
[17] Riding on the wave of pro-socialist sentiment left in the wake of Hamilton's presidency, a young army commander swept the Socialist national convention in 1888. Later that same year, he convinced the Radical Democrats to join his party. By 1889 he seemed unstoppable. Under Jackson, the Socialist Republican Party joined the Second Socialist International, which was hosted in New York as France becomes more repressive towards radical ideas, in a clear attempt to stem American influence in the region. Robert Jackson campaigned on a platform of radical reform, promising to hand workplaces over to worker's councils in the most industrialized pro-socialist regions while having the state take industry over in the rest of the country, paving the way for worker's self-management. Technically, he was an isolationist, though he considered himself an Internationalist who made no secret of his desire for a socialist world. Conservative and Liberals united in a "Liberty Covenant" to fight him. After a long, hard-fought, deeply polarizing battle, Jackson won with a respectable difference.
[18] This, of course, could not stand, and the ruling classes of North America conspired with the Third French Republic to stage an intervention. Jackson was out of the capital when the surprise invasion took it over, and retired to the West to raise an army. Meanwhile, the French army established a "Jeffersonian Directorate" made up of 40 respected opposition senators and intellectuals handpicked by the French government. However, the Directorate's inner bickering and lack of popular support made it into an ineffectual ruling body.
While Jackson prepared his army in the West, socialist agitators all over the countries organized strikes, riots, marches and demonstrations in support of the Legitimate President (one of his many titles). For ten years the French Army fought Jackson's Men (whose name would live in legend) across the Great Plains of middle America, while the Jeffersonian Directorate ran itself out trying to control socialist guerrillas, terror and sabotage both in rural areas as well as deeply inner-city. With the Socialist cause now a matter of national pride, it was only a matter of time before Jackson's Men marched into Washington D.C. To add insult to injury, the Jeffersonian Directorate had wanted to launch a small manned Cosmoship from the capital to establish its technical superiority. The ship was taken by the socialist army and was launched in 1900 as Robert Jackson was once again sworn in after being ratified in a landslide referendum.
[19] In 1908, Jackson, a true Socialist refused to run again stating that he would have too much power. Another member of his party, Rudolph Randall Jones, became president, the first African-American President.
[20] Jones follows Jackson's policies, which are by then already known as Jacksonism. As the years pass land and industry are progressively collectivized, with power gradually going into the hands of local worker's councils, who elect their congressmen and senators in plenary sessions through direct democracy. The role of the president becomes gradually more and more ceremonial, as the very concept of authority seems to erode over time. When the First World War breaks out, the USA stays firmly out of it, even as the French president fails to rescind his extraordinary powers and founds the Third French Empire, which dominates most of Europe thanks to an immense military capability and breathtaking technological achievement (difference engines and cosmocraft are common sights in Paris). When the Mexican Revolution breaks out in 1914, volunteer forces from many communes as well as what little remains of the official army intervene to stabilize the country after the revolution's political leader, Francisco I. Madero, is killed in a coup d’état attempt orchestrated by the French ambassador. There is some controversy over how best to communize Mexico, with southern caudillo Emiliano Zapata, along with his teacher Ricardo Flores Magón, advocating for a northern-styled Anarcho-syndicalist solution while northern strongmen Pascual Orozco and Pancho Villa vouch for a longer process beginning with mass state-run enterprise ownership. An agreement is made where the southern half of Mexico is to follow Zapata's idea, while the Northern one does as Villa says. Zapata is named Protector of South Mexico, while Villa is made Governor of the Northern Territories. In 1915 the Socialist Party of Canada wins a majority government after running on a strongly pro-American platform. Collectivization begins in Canada in the same way as in States, with the most industrialized regions gaining immediate self-management while underdeveloped zones are put under state control.
In the last year of the second Jones presidency he faces one of the most important challenges to American socialism: the Boston Crisis. The American economic elite, mostly in exile in Europe, once again conspire with the French to tackle the socialist agenda. This time, they form a mercenary army that, in a surprise attack, takes over Boston and declares a republic. Shortly thereafter (much too shortly, some say) it is backed by the fleet of the Third French Empire, which deploys near Boston harbor and declares itself its protector. The Republic of Boston receives a massive influx of French capital, as it becomes a propaganda-city for all the technological wonders and economic power of the world's major empire. Boston is full of auto-mobiles, airships, sub-mariners and, of course, many top-notch Mechaninaters, an invention whose progress is a staple of French power. American leftists point out Boston's return to capitalism has also brought back poverty, hunger and political repression, but it remains a tempting offer to those born before Collectivization...
[21] Bombarnac's Marxian Federalist made great gains in the November 1915 elections, scoring a great victory in the wake of the Socialist Republicans inability to handle the Boston Crisis. Promising to purge the French Navy from American waters, he sent Emperor Charles II of France an ultimatum via telegram to retreat from Boston within 24 hours or to open fire. The Emperor sent no reply. Soon enough war was raging. Bombarnac's administration was soon to discover how determined the French Empire was to win it. By 1917, the Boston Republic had taken control of most of New England and Nova Scotia, the year that was to prove the beginning of the end of the American Socialist Republic. The Great Mechaninaters of Washington D.C., upon which the Republic relied to manage its planned economy, was struck by the first great Mechaninater virus recorded in history, and soon, they were all inoperable. Trying to manage the economy without them proved impossible, and 1918 was a year of massive famine and economic chaos, as nobody knew how resources were to be distributed. In 1919, people arose in open armed revolt, and supplied funding and artillery by the French Empire, took Washington D.C. on April 14th. Mercutio Bombarnac had two days previously fled the capital with most of the administration and his family in a small, anonymous flightship, heading to the Constitutional Theocracy of Tibet, the Dalai Lama and his First Minister, a strong supporter of democratic socialism, having invited him. Here Mercutio Bombarnac planned to set up his government in exile. Mercutio had taken a final look at the capitol before leaving, and though he recognized that it would most likely take decades, he swore to himself to one day be sworn in again as President on those steps.
[22] The Head of a new party designed to all Americans needs, a very basic general central party. Also known as the Social Democrats in Europe. He was assassinated by a Communist Extremist known as "Bushwhacker".
[23] By the new constitution, a special election was held immediately to determine the next President, however not until the Congress had passed a special act banning people with a history of Marxist affiliation from voting with reference to the assassination. Consequently, the ardent and vocal anti-Communist Frank Alvarson was elected. Scandal plagued his regime, and from Lhasa in Tibet, revolutionary propaganda was smuggled in, arguing for the government in exile to return and for the people to rise against the new administration. To counter this, Alvarson began issuing orders and acts limiting the freedom of speech, such as the Federal Sedition Act, which mandated that every printing press needed a federal license for their activities. He died in heart failure less than two years after taking office.
[24] Alvarson's vice president, Hertford was a deeply unpopular conservative Catholic lawyer from Tennessee. To make matters worse, he continued Alvarson's so-called 'Freedom Defense' policies, crushing dissent from all blocs of society. As a result, four candidates ran for president in 1934: Hertford as a Traditionalist, Jonah Kremp, a firebrand preacher and politician from Missouri as a 'Dixie' Democrat, Harold Tweed for New Whig, and most controversially, a young second generation Spanish immigrant by the name of Francis B. Franco for Socialist Republican. To nobody's surprise, Hertford lost the election, and Jonah Kremp handily won, placing a preacher in office for the first time in history.
[25] Jonah Kremp led a policy of reconciliation, as the last twenty years had seen the rise of many forms of anti-government (and therefore anti-French) resistance, such as motorized bandit raider gangs, guerrilla armies in mountains, forests and the bayou, commune-fortresses that would rather starve than open their doors to the invaders, not to mention straight-out terrorism of all forms. Kremp worked hard to revoke separation of church and state, believing that preachers and other ministers of faith would use their existing authority to reign in a country that had become violent and mostly lawless outside of the upper east coast. However, his strategy backfired as political divisions only became deeper with religion thrown into the mix. Violent resistance fighters, who used to be either socialists or bandits or a mixture of both, now grew as sectarian warfare started to break out throughout the region. Liberal Lutherans hated on the Monarchist Baptist Congregation who did everything in their power to make life impossible for Autonomist Episcopalians and so forth. By the end of his term, Kremp had to be heavily escorted by an entire French Imperial battalion everywhere he went, as the Emperor still considered America a French responsibility. But, as political turmoil starts brewing in Europe (something to do with the stubbornness of past-century nationalisms) the 1934 presidential election kicks off with a mind-bogglingly divided American electorate and a largely outlaw country ruled by demagogues and warlords. Industrial progress never did seem to grow, and right-wing economists dream about what could have been as the shadows of French industry looms ever larger and unattainable. It should be noted that around this time France completed its Pacification of Mexico, establishing a bloody regime that would rule with an iron fist for decades to come, as would become customary throughout the underdeveloped world, so far from god and so near the French Empire.
[26] A hardcore communist from Boston, he attempted to undermine the capitalist system, he failed and was not reelected. Interestingly he went to the Shetlands and founded a communist republic there.
[27] He combined the Socialist and Federalist ideologies without becoming an extremist, he was elected many times until he stepped down during and election, and refused to run.
[28] A member of a party, like the former Coalition America, he banned French influence and attempted to reunite the states, he was assassinated during the aftermath of the Battle of Cleveland by a Outlaw.
[29] The first Irish president. He continued the pacification of the south, west, and cities , campaigning against the Rancher Lords on the Plains, mini-dictatorships in the South, and the Gang Lords and Political machines that dominated the cities. Towards the end of his administration, the Federalist, Socialist, and Syndicalist factions of the Coalition fell out, and new elections were called for the Senate and House of Representatives. The Democratic and Jeffersonian Partys got many seats. Loyal to the Federalists, who were out of the ruling coalition, he lost the 1980 election.
(1793-1802)--Alexander Hamilton--(Washingtonian Republican) [2]
(1802-1805)--Thomas Jefferson--(Madisonian Republican) [3]
(1805-1815)--Absalom Marsbury--(Revolutionary Whig) [4]
(1815-1822)--Nathaniel Wilkinson--(Republican) [5]
(1822-1825)--Murray Bushrod Washington--(Republican)
(1825-1833)--Volker Barbicane--(Revolutionary Whig) [6]
(1833-1840)--George A. Swanson--(Federal Republican) [7]
(1840-1841)--Frederick Kerensky--(Federal Republican) [8]
(1841-1845)--Jacob Haine--(Revolutionary Whig) [9]
(1845-1849)--Jacob Haine--(Radical Democrat) [9]
(1849-1852)--Henry Clay--(Radical Democrat) [10]
(1852-1856)--Jonathan Marsbury--(Radical Democrat)
(1856-1864)--Joseph Brown--(Radical Democrat) [11]
(1864-1872)--Simpson Clark Lincoln--(Socialist Republican) [12]
(1872)--Marcus Bishop--(Socialist Republican) [13]
(1872-1877)--Sherlock Quincy Eisenstein--(Socialist Republican) [14]
(1877-1882)--Alfred Howard Huett--(Socialist Republican) [15]
(1882-1890)--Quincy Ronald Hamilton--(New Whig)[16]
(1890)--Robert Jackson--(Socialist Republican) [17]
(1890-1900)--Jeffersonian Directorate[18]
(1900-1908)--Robert Jackson--(Socialist Republican)
(1908-1912)--Rudolph Randall Jones--(Socialist Republican) [19]
(1912-1916)--Rudolph Randall Jones--(Socialist Republican) [20]
(1916-1919)--Mercutio Bombarnac--(Marxian Federalist) [21]
(1919-1930)--Elton John Rhodes--(Coalition America) [22]
(1930-1932)--Frank Alvarson--(Traditionalist Party) [23]
(1932-1934)—J.J. Hertford—(Traditionalist Party)[24]
(1934-1938)--Jonah Kremp--(Dixie Democrat) [25]
(1938-1942)--Sean Roberts II-(Social Communists) [26]
(1942-1950)--Davis Randall Alberts (Federal Socialists) [27]
(1950-1975)--James Cartwright-Remington (American Coaltion) [28]
(1975-1980)--Paul O'Brian [29]
[1] George Washington was the first president of the U.S., he only served one term stating that good presidents only served that length of time so as to not remain permanent figures in that office. He was considered the founder of the Washingtonian Republicans, TTL's Federalists.
[2] Washington's "dauphin" is readily nominated by the Washingtonian Republicans in 1792 and wins the election, but ends up with his foe Jefferson as Vice President. Despite winning the elections of 1796 and 1800, his polarizing policies and personalities greatly hastened the development of a party system, with the Jeffersonians of this timeline, "the Revolutionary Whig Party" winning steadily in support. Hamilton's life comes to an unexpected end in 1802, when he challenges the Whig Speaker of the House, Aaron Burr, to a duel and is promptly killed. His Vice President promptly enters a building yet not known as the White House.
[3] Became president after the death of Alexander Hamilton by a duel with Aaron Burr. He was Pro-France and sent the American Legion to help the French in the Napoleonic Wars, during his presidency all the good relations built up between Britain the previous presidents was destroyed.
[4] First openly Deist President. Faithfully continued Jefferson's policy of support for the French Constitutional Empire under Napoleon, and assembled an entire navy to help Napoleon take Britain, whom the majority of Americans still considered their enemy, ruled as it was by the Mad Tyrant. Thanks to Marsbury's intervention, Napoleon "liberated" much of Ireland from British rule in 1809 and took Dublin in 1811. In the Treaty of Rotterdam, Great Britain ceded all her land in North America to the United States. Though re-elected for a third term in 1812, Marsbury fell ill with syphilis in 1813, and after two years of painful, though devoted service to his country, he died in 1815, mourned by his nation. The French Emperor Napoleon I himself crossed the Atlantic to attend his funeral in Washington D.C.
[5] The first of the modern Republicans. Nathaniel Wilkinson negotiated with Napoleon in 1818, for the sale of North Louisiana, and by his skill with speech, managed to get the south too for another 2 million. He got massive support and managed to win the next election. He was assassinated in 1822 by a lunatic young Irishman named James Coughlin. Many decades later, the very last of the states in the former Louisiana Purchase, would be named Wilkinson, in his honor.
[6] Boston industrialist who had gotten rich from extensive investments in machinery which made use of Jacquard looms and steam engines. A warm friend of France and he had travelled in the now stable Empire of Napoleon where he had gotten many impressions of the developments on the continent. As President, he implemented a programme focusing on developing the American infrastructure, taking with him from the French Empire an idea Napoleon was just beginning to explore: railroads and steam locomotives.
[7] An unlikely candidate due to his Swedish ancestry and connections with Great Britain, he took the presidency in a narrow victory against Jacob Haine, a Presbyterian politician from Pennsylvania. He presided over the beginning of the 'Whig Era', and greatly strengthened relations with Great Britain after the ascent of King Victor I to the throne in 1836, and also ensured that America adopted a more protectionist trade policy. He died in 1840 of pneumonia, and was succeeded by his Vice President Frederick Kerensky.
[8] Born to Russian immigrants in Pennsylvania, Kerensky soon proved that despite his foreign-sounding name, he possessed a mastery of the English language few man can dream of aspiring of. Beginning as a highly successful lawyer, the advanced to State Attorney General, Governor of Pennsylvania, US Secretary of State under Murray Washington's administration, Senator and finally Vice President. Kerensky continued federal investment into the sciences that had begun under Barbicane and in December 1840, engineers at Hamilton University were proud to present the President with the first Mechaninater, which using a system of Jacquard looms would calculate extraordinary elaborate equations to perfect accuracy in a matter of seconds. Though Kerensky was mainly confused by the technological monstrosity, the engineers assured the statesman that the next decades would be greatly affected by this device. Kerensky failed to obtain the nomination of his party, which lost the 1840 election to the Revolutionary Whigs.
[9] Jacob Haine's election ended the so-called 'Whig Era', and marked the destruction of the old two-party system. As a Whig, he pressed for radical reforms in education and industry, as well as establishing America's position in world affairs as isolationist. Volker Barbicane, who had once met Haine at a party rally, described him as, "a radical young firebrand, who wishes for immediate action, and deems mere words useless". His rampant reformism and 'frank', rabble-rousing political speeches resulted in his party refusing to nominate him in the 1844 Whig Convention, where he famously declared, "I have no intention of running as a powder-cheeked, power-hungry Whig! I shall run as a Democrat for Democracy, as the Founding Fathers intended this nation to be!" With these famous words, he singlehandedly splintered the Revolutionary Whigs, and won a seemingly impossible victory in a three way race in 1844. As a Radical Democrat, his programme was even more radical, and in 1848 he quite publicly supported the revolutions that occurred in Germany, Russia, and several other European countries, calling them 'revolutions in the name of democracy'. He alienated both the British and the French, and chose to pursue closer relations with the newly created states the Republic of the Rhine and the Bavarian Freistaat. He chose not to run in 1848, and was succeeded in the party by his longtime political apprentice and associate Henry Clay. At the age of 44, Haine was (and remains to be) the youngest president the United States had ever had.
[10] Riding on the tremendous popularity of Haine, there was no doubt that Clay would win the 1848 Presidential Election, but his success in Southern States wasn't anticipated the least. Wishing to tone down the isolationism of his predecessor to appease his newfound electorate, while staying true to Haine's rhetoric, Clay begun to relax tariffs on goods from the newly formed European democracies. Mechaninaters begun to be more and more common during Clay's tenure, one soon being found at every major factory, university and in the employment of every state government in the country. In 1851, the Danish immigrant Ferdinandsen Brothers completed their famous Luftskib and flew across the continent in less than a week on it. Clay died in tuberculosis in 1852, succeeded by his Vice President, Jonathan Marsbury, a nephew of the late politician and no moderate himself.
[11] Joseph Brown will go down as one of the most controversial presidents in history. A true radical, Brown was immediately presented with a crazy idea in his opening months on the job: free the slaves. For years Congress had begun the process of debating the now-controversial issue, but Brown built on it by publicly calling for every state to free their slaves and if they wouldn't he would. Immediately Northern States banned slavery, but the South would not budge. Ultimately a Civil War erupted as South Carolina led the charge and most southern states (with the exceptions of Virginia and Maryland) seceded from the Union. The war was still the biggest issue when Brown sought reelection and the North was losing. Brown began the process of appointing new generals to lead the efforts; among them was Ulysses Grant who ended up winning the war in the final year of his presidency. Unfortunately a total of 555,000 Americans died in the war. Seceded by an old, experienced Senator of the opposing party, Brown's final days in office were spent wishing he hadn't drawn the country into a 6-year, bloody war. As such, his popularity experienced a great drop during his second term, and when election time came in 1864, he lost the nomination for Radical Democrat to a relatively obscure Irish journalist (and rumoured Fenian) Robert Murphy, who despite his initial popularity amongst the people, did not win the election.
[12] A charismatic figure that formed a splinter party off the old Revolutionary Whigs. The First of the Socialist Republicans slightly influenced by Marx and Dickens themselves. He began many welfare initiatives to make a more utopian Socialist Society.
[13] A successor to Lincoln, but without his predecessor’s charisma. He managed to upset both the right and the left with his hastily attempted programmes. Needless to say, both he and his vice president were quickly assassinated, prompting a governmental crisis.
[14] The Speaker of the House, Sherlock Quincy Eisenstein emerged as president after the governmental crisis, and readily won both the candidacy of the Socialist Republicans and the Presidential Election. Under his tenure as President, the French launched their first satellite, Marianne, into orbit from massive cannon in Egypt, and managed to receive and record the radio signals it sent out. This was the beginning of the Cosmos Race.*
[15] More moderate in social and economic matters than his colleagues, Huett is famous for the launching of the first American spacecraft (the U.S.S. Columbia) during his tenure, as well as his largely successful attempts at reconciliation with Austria, Great Britain, and America's old ally France. Considered a master of foreign policy, Huett reclaimed America's place in the world, and is generally regarded as one of the greatest presidents in history for both his 'reconciliation diplomacy' and his stressing of the need for international unity and peace, as well as his prominent anti-colonialism and social reforms.
[16] More Isolationist then all his predecessors until Brown. The New Whigs were formed in response to the Age of Colonialism and the Filibustering in the Caribbean and Latin America. By the end of his two terms he was considered almost insane, but he was not assassinated. After the failure of the New Whigs they exited the national stage.
[17] Riding on the wave of pro-socialist sentiment left in the wake of Hamilton's presidency, a young army commander swept the Socialist national convention in 1888. Later that same year, he convinced the Radical Democrats to join his party. By 1889 he seemed unstoppable. Under Jackson, the Socialist Republican Party joined the Second Socialist International, which was hosted in New York as France becomes more repressive towards radical ideas, in a clear attempt to stem American influence in the region. Robert Jackson campaigned on a platform of radical reform, promising to hand workplaces over to worker's councils in the most industrialized pro-socialist regions while having the state take industry over in the rest of the country, paving the way for worker's self-management. Technically, he was an isolationist, though he considered himself an Internationalist who made no secret of his desire for a socialist world. Conservative and Liberals united in a "Liberty Covenant" to fight him. After a long, hard-fought, deeply polarizing battle, Jackson won with a respectable difference.
[18] This, of course, could not stand, and the ruling classes of North America conspired with the Third French Republic to stage an intervention. Jackson was out of the capital when the surprise invasion took it over, and retired to the West to raise an army. Meanwhile, the French army established a "Jeffersonian Directorate" made up of 40 respected opposition senators and intellectuals handpicked by the French government. However, the Directorate's inner bickering and lack of popular support made it into an ineffectual ruling body.
While Jackson prepared his army in the West, socialist agitators all over the countries organized strikes, riots, marches and demonstrations in support of the Legitimate President (one of his many titles). For ten years the French Army fought Jackson's Men (whose name would live in legend) across the Great Plains of middle America, while the Jeffersonian Directorate ran itself out trying to control socialist guerrillas, terror and sabotage both in rural areas as well as deeply inner-city. With the Socialist cause now a matter of national pride, it was only a matter of time before Jackson's Men marched into Washington D.C. To add insult to injury, the Jeffersonian Directorate had wanted to launch a small manned Cosmoship from the capital to establish its technical superiority. The ship was taken by the socialist army and was launched in 1900 as Robert Jackson was once again sworn in after being ratified in a landslide referendum.
[19] In 1908, Jackson, a true Socialist refused to run again stating that he would have too much power. Another member of his party, Rudolph Randall Jones, became president, the first African-American President.
[20] Jones follows Jackson's policies, which are by then already known as Jacksonism. As the years pass land and industry are progressively collectivized, with power gradually going into the hands of local worker's councils, who elect their congressmen and senators in plenary sessions through direct democracy. The role of the president becomes gradually more and more ceremonial, as the very concept of authority seems to erode over time. When the First World War breaks out, the USA stays firmly out of it, even as the French president fails to rescind his extraordinary powers and founds the Third French Empire, which dominates most of Europe thanks to an immense military capability and breathtaking technological achievement (difference engines and cosmocraft are common sights in Paris). When the Mexican Revolution breaks out in 1914, volunteer forces from many communes as well as what little remains of the official army intervene to stabilize the country after the revolution's political leader, Francisco I. Madero, is killed in a coup d’état attempt orchestrated by the French ambassador. There is some controversy over how best to communize Mexico, with southern caudillo Emiliano Zapata, along with his teacher Ricardo Flores Magón, advocating for a northern-styled Anarcho-syndicalist solution while northern strongmen Pascual Orozco and Pancho Villa vouch for a longer process beginning with mass state-run enterprise ownership. An agreement is made where the southern half of Mexico is to follow Zapata's idea, while the Northern one does as Villa says. Zapata is named Protector of South Mexico, while Villa is made Governor of the Northern Territories. In 1915 the Socialist Party of Canada wins a majority government after running on a strongly pro-American platform. Collectivization begins in Canada in the same way as in States, with the most industrialized regions gaining immediate self-management while underdeveloped zones are put under state control.
In the last year of the second Jones presidency he faces one of the most important challenges to American socialism: the Boston Crisis. The American economic elite, mostly in exile in Europe, once again conspire with the French to tackle the socialist agenda. This time, they form a mercenary army that, in a surprise attack, takes over Boston and declares a republic. Shortly thereafter (much too shortly, some say) it is backed by the fleet of the Third French Empire, which deploys near Boston harbor and declares itself its protector. The Republic of Boston receives a massive influx of French capital, as it becomes a propaganda-city for all the technological wonders and economic power of the world's major empire. Boston is full of auto-mobiles, airships, sub-mariners and, of course, many top-notch Mechaninaters, an invention whose progress is a staple of French power. American leftists point out Boston's return to capitalism has also brought back poverty, hunger and political repression, but it remains a tempting offer to those born before Collectivization...
[21] Bombarnac's Marxian Federalist made great gains in the November 1915 elections, scoring a great victory in the wake of the Socialist Republicans inability to handle the Boston Crisis. Promising to purge the French Navy from American waters, he sent Emperor Charles II of France an ultimatum via telegram to retreat from Boston within 24 hours or to open fire. The Emperor sent no reply. Soon enough war was raging. Bombarnac's administration was soon to discover how determined the French Empire was to win it. By 1917, the Boston Republic had taken control of most of New England and Nova Scotia, the year that was to prove the beginning of the end of the American Socialist Republic. The Great Mechaninaters of Washington D.C., upon which the Republic relied to manage its planned economy, was struck by the first great Mechaninater virus recorded in history, and soon, they were all inoperable. Trying to manage the economy without them proved impossible, and 1918 was a year of massive famine and economic chaos, as nobody knew how resources were to be distributed. In 1919, people arose in open armed revolt, and supplied funding and artillery by the French Empire, took Washington D.C. on April 14th. Mercutio Bombarnac had two days previously fled the capital with most of the administration and his family in a small, anonymous flightship, heading to the Constitutional Theocracy of Tibet, the Dalai Lama and his First Minister, a strong supporter of democratic socialism, having invited him. Here Mercutio Bombarnac planned to set up his government in exile. Mercutio had taken a final look at the capitol before leaving, and though he recognized that it would most likely take decades, he swore to himself to one day be sworn in again as President on those steps.
[22] The Head of a new party designed to all Americans needs, a very basic general central party. Also known as the Social Democrats in Europe. He was assassinated by a Communist Extremist known as "Bushwhacker".
[23] By the new constitution, a special election was held immediately to determine the next President, however not until the Congress had passed a special act banning people with a history of Marxist affiliation from voting with reference to the assassination. Consequently, the ardent and vocal anti-Communist Frank Alvarson was elected. Scandal plagued his regime, and from Lhasa in Tibet, revolutionary propaganda was smuggled in, arguing for the government in exile to return and for the people to rise against the new administration. To counter this, Alvarson began issuing orders and acts limiting the freedom of speech, such as the Federal Sedition Act, which mandated that every printing press needed a federal license for their activities. He died in heart failure less than two years after taking office.
[24] Alvarson's vice president, Hertford was a deeply unpopular conservative Catholic lawyer from Tennessee. To make matters worse, he continued Alvarson's so-called 'Freedom Defense' policies, crushing dissent from all blocs of society. As a result, four candidates ran for president in 1934: Hertford as a Traditionalist, Jonah Kremp, a firebrand preacher and politician from Missouri as a 'Dixie' Democrat, Harold Tweed for New Whig, and most controversially, a young second generation Spanish immigrant by the name of Francis B. Franco for Socialist Republican. To nobody's surprise, Hertford lost the election, and Jonah Kremp handily won, placing a preacher in office for the first time in history.
[25] Jonah Kremp led a policy of reconciliation, as the last twenty years had seen the rise of many forms of anti-government (and therefore anti-French) resistance, such as motorized bandit raider gangs, guerrilla armies in mountains, forests and the bayou, commune-fortresses that would rather starve than open their doors to the invaders, not to mention straight-out terrorism of all forms. Kremp worked hard to revoke separation of church and state, believing that preachers and other ministers of faith would use their existing authority to reign in a country that had become violent and mostly lawless outside of the upper east coast. However, his strategy backfired as political divisions only became deeper with religion thrown into the mix. Violent resistance fighters, who used to be either socialists or bandits or a mixture of both, now grew as sectarian warfare started to break out throughout the region. Liberal Lutherans hated on the Monarchist Baptist Congregation who did everything in their power to make life impossible for Autonomist Episcopalians and so forth. By the end of his term, Kremp had to be heavily escorted by an entire French Imperial battalion everywhere he went, as the Emperor still considered America a French responsibility. But, as political turmoil starts brewing in Europe (something to do with the stubbornness of past-century nationalisms) the 1934 presidential election kicks off with a mind-bogglingly divided American electorate and a largely outlaw country ruled by demagogues and warlords. Industrial progress never did seem to grow, and right-wing economists dream about what could have been as the shadows of French industry looms ever larger and unattainable. It should be noted that around this time France completed its Pacification of Mexico, establishing a bloody regime that would rule with an iron fist for decades to come, as would become customary throughout the underdeveloped world, so far from god and so near the French Empire.
[26] A hardcore communist from Boston, he attempted to undermine the capitalist system, he failed and was not reelected. Interestingly he went to the Shetlands and founded a communist republic there.
[27] He combined the Socialist and Federalist ideologies without becoming an extremist, he was elected many times until he stepped down during and election, and refused to run.
[28] A member of a party, like the former Coalition America, he banned French influence and attempted to reunite the states, he was assassinated during the aftermath of the Battle of Cleveland by a Outlaw.
[29] The first Irish president. He continued the pacification of the south, west, and cities , campaigning against the Rancher Lords on the Plains, mini-dictatorships in the South, and the Gang Lords and Political machines that dominated the cities. Towards the end of his administration, the Federalist, Socialist, and Syndicalist factions of the Coalition fell out, and new elections were called for the Senate and House of Representatives. The Democratic and Jeffersonian Partys got many seats. Loyal to the Federalists, who were out of the ruling coalition, he lost the 1980 election.