The Birth of People's Republic of the New Dawn in Florida (often shortened to PRF) is due in large part to the excesses of the previous post-Confederacy regime. The Collapse of the Confederacy in 1881, just twenty years after it's formation would lead to the independent Second Republic of Florida (1886-1904). The Floridian regime was quick to receive attention in Europe, both as a popular tourist destination and for its abundant fruit and cattle. The influx of capital to build structures to efficiently get resources out of Florida would see a Golden Age arise, when it seemed the 'Empty State' was filling with treasure and jewels. Expanding plantations quickly found the newly emancipated slaves were too few for the increasing demand for fruit from Europe, and with German credit, Florida would import 1.7 million Chinese laborers to shore up the labor reserve. These laborers also toiled away on the Jacksonville-Gulf Canal, and built a myriad of railroads across the state. Though the majority would leave after their contracts were up, around 200,000 stayed, often forming a bridge between the black and white populations. The fruit-picking was seasonal work, and often laborers would be share-croppers for the rest of the season, seeing themselves indebted to the plantation owners. The gulf between the elites and the poor grew rapidly, and eventually out of this would arise an educated man whose name in history is Doctor Martin Schooler.
According to legend, Schooler is the son of a carpenter, whose mother would get pregnant under suspicious circumstances. He was raised on a farm to be gentle but stern with his flock, and went to see the big city in Birmingham. There he quickly self-educated, and would become a pastor in the Southern Baptist Church. He was granted the wisdom of what we would associate with his communism from a talking mockingbird, who sang to him his destiny. What many historians believe is more likely is that Martin Schooler is actually Bernard Fordham, a black intellectual who went missing from Tulsa after being struck by a kicking horse. He was sent to a resort in Florida to heal by his wealthy patrons, but disappeared with the money. Fordham was a known communist sympathizer and familiar with its tenants, and descriptions of Schooler match closely with Fordham in photographs. This is however disputed by Newdonners today, and even by more credible sources. The New Dawn in Florida movement was started by workers in an orange plantation near Jernigan calling for land reform, and there Schooler would rise in prominence. He quickly co-opted the movement as his own, and used his charisma to amass wealth and influence.
The end of the Second Republic and beginning of the Third Republic would kickstart the revolution when the scientific minds behind the Third Republic allowed the New Dawn Movement to be the 'designated N*gro party'. There Schooler attained nationwide influence, coalescing many labor, civil rights, and christian leftist groups under his banner. He turned up the rhetoric of an apocalyptic battle in the New World, and began gathering stockpiles of weapons. When Dr. Tanner, the third President, decided to turn towards an industrialized economy, he faced immediate backlash from the fruit community. With international backing, the Lemon County conspiracy overthrew the third Republic, installing a constitutional monarchy under Prince Ludwig III of Bavaria. Ludwig quickly barred voting for anyone without property, and specifically targeted share-croppers, immediate possible threats to the plantation owners whose support he needed to rule.
The Revolution began when police forces fired upon demonstrators in Okeechobee. The demonstrators quickly brought to bear their own weapons, and fought back. The conflict that would result would destroy the Florida countryside as German troops became drawn in slowly. The Germans initially simply supplied technical support, particularly with chemical weapons. However, as repression increased, so did hostilities, and with German assets in the country under threat, eventually German troops would enter on the ground. The United States began to fund the New Dawn group via the Schooler trail, through the malarial swamps of Georgia and South Carolina, supplying weapons, Intel, and personnel that would prove critical to the fight. Three years of stalemate would eventually grind on the German resolve, and encourage a retreat in 1919.
The actual reign of Schooler was avoided, as it is believed he died during the course of the war, but was not publicly acknowledged as such till after the war. However, his successors would bring some of the most bizarre and wild politics to the American shores.
