Turkish Nationalism/Turanism exists (Enver (who lead the "Ottoman Nationalist Party" ittl)... also Ziya Gökalp and Nihal Atsız (thought the latter would probably still be in school at the current point of the timeline rather than in any way influential))
Osman Reborn; The Survival of Ottoman Democracy [An Ottoman TL set in the 1900s]
- Thread starter Sarthak
- Start date
Turkish Nationalism/Turanism exists (Enver (who lead the "Ottoman Nationalist Party" ittl)... also Ziya Gökalp and Nihal Atsız (thought the latter would probably still be in school at the current point of the timeline rather than in any way influential))
Indeed, the Ottomans will want to retain a formal presence in the region in return for aiding the domestic government.
As Enver Pasha showed, far-right people do exist. Nationalism hasn't been stamped down entirely and cannot be stamped out entirely. Alongside Moderate Nationalists in the OE, there are far-right nationalists, especially in the rural regions out of developmental zones in Anatolia and Arabia that are more far along the right. However due to population disparities far-right parties do not get enough vote to pass the threshold and most right-wing vote goes to the CUP as a result.
Eh, i was thinking on tangible returns, but that could also work.
Alternate Wikipedia Infoboxes VI (Do Not Post Current Politics or Political Figures Here)
Much like I feel that if Reagan beat Ford in the 1976 republician primary Carter would still win I believe that if Ted Kennedy beat Carter in the 1980 Democratic primary Reagan would still have became President
www.alternatehistory.com
I see no indication that he is presented as one. One can be on the Axis side without being a fascist (Molotov-Ribbentrop, Finland). Italy's interests simply aligned against the status-quo presented by Britain et al.
(Speaking of Britain and said WW2 wikibox, Henry IX? Oh no, I fear for the Yorks (OTL King George VI and his family including Elizabeth II))
Hey, it's alright. Good luck on your future endeavours!
Personally, I think showing further developments in Africa is really interesting.
Troubles seem to be brewing in East Africa alright. With Ethiopian irredentism seem to have larger support in its government now that Hailu I is the emperor (and he seem to be not really fond of French and British presence in the region, from how you describe him), it just seem logical that there would be future conflicts in the region between Ethiopia and those powers, and as such, if the Ottomans are going to be involved, it may make change things since it's just across the sea from their territories.
While it's certain that the Ottomans are going to back its European allies (if they are going to be involved, that is), I wonder if the Ethiopians are going to use the strategy of "but please consider that we used to host Muslim refugees during the early Islamic era" to plant doubts within the Muslims of the empire (since the strategy seems to be used in the Tigrayan conflict today).
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This is Why I am saying Bordiga is being potraied as a Semi Naz- Bol.
Why dies he even allies with Fascists while being a Hard Left?
Chapter 69: Land of the Unfree
Chapter 69: Land of the Unfree
Land of the Unfree: American Politics from 1912 – 1984 by Gideon Jackson
“President James Middleton Cox was sworn in as the President of the United States of America in early 1925 amidst turbulent times. America had undergone a very violent and unstable decade, and many hoped that Cox would be the one to turn things around, so to speak. But Cox himself had been elected through unorthodox methods. He had not won the electoral college and instead came to power through a contingent election that won only a plurality of the states. He had not received the majority of the vote, and many people – especially from the Republican and Progressive parties – refused to acknowledge Cox as a ‘democratically-elected’ President of the United States. Furthermore, whilst Cox had managed to take the Presidency, the stunning success of the Progressives during the 1924 elections had made the Senate flip as 1/3 Senators became Progressives, whilst the rest were Republicans and Democrats.
President James Cox
Cox had earned himself no favors from several immigrant communities in the United States of America either. Italian Americans were considered to be Italian communist spies, and the Italian community in America was isolated as a result. Furthermore, Slovenes, Croats (Dalmatians in particular), and even Portuguese Americans were isolated due to the similarities between the cultures. Cox had earned himself the unending opposition of Italian Americans when he decried Italianism and its influence in America as ‘the distinct menace to Americanism and a communist plot to take over the nation’. Furthermore, Cox held very dim views of Filipino Americans, not only due to their Asian origins but also because of the fact that Filipinos, in general, had rebelled against America twice in the matter of only two decades. Filipinos in America, who were often aligned with Chinese, and Japanese Americans also isolated the votes of the aforementioned communities to Cox as well.
In this atmosphere and situation, the belief and hope that Cox’s presidency would be something new that would bring the nation together once more was severely misplaced and ultimately a naïve belief. Italian Americans refused to cooperate with Cox’s government, and during his presidential ceremony, many if not most politicians of Italian descent refused to attend, signaling a grim outlook for the future of Cox’s presidency. The grievances of the Italian community were furthered by the fact that they believed that they had displayed their loyalty to America in all ways that were possible – especially considering the fact that 12% of American troops in the Second American-Filipino War had been Italian-Americans. And not only the Italians, but the Filipino community of America started to become restless as well. Most of them being unskilled laborers for American tycoons, most of the layman Filipino-Americans supported the efforts made by their countrymen in the Philippines to achieve independence at whatever legislative and military cost. Cox’s outspoken belief that American Filipinos had to be ‘Americanized at all costs’ only served to make them more radical as time passed on.
Italian Immigrants to America in 1905
Despite this, Cox did try to reach a solution to the crisis in the occupied Philippines and attempted to pass a resolution in April 1925 that would gradually emancipate the Philippines into an independent nation by 1950. This was vigorously opposed by members of his own Democratic Party and the right-wing members of the Republican Party, whilst most Progressives and moderate members of the other parties supported the idea. The ‘Emancipation of the Philippines’ plan became very popular among Filipinos and most hoped that it would pass. The idea of independence in due time without further bloodshed was an idea that appealed to most Filipinos. The House of Representatives passed the bill with the support of the Progressives, and moderate Democrats and Republicans, but when the bill arrived in Senate, it was rejected soundly. Most of the Democrats in the Senate were right-wing and opposed their President’s idea, and combined with the right-wing Republicans in Senate as well, the Emancipation Bill was rejected soundly by the Senate.
Teresa Magbanua
The Joan of Arc of the Visayas
This sparked outrage in the Philippines when news filtered back. They had been occupied for nearly a decade with full military rule and though semblance of autonomy had returned in 1922, the re-established Filipino Assembly was essentially a rubber-stamp assembly for America to legitimize themselves in the region. Most Filipinos did not bother keeping up with the Assembly as a result. On April 27, 1925, Filipino communities and settlements throughout America, especially in Hawaii and Alaska began to riot, fed up with the continued occupation of their homeland, asking for a return to the pre-1915 status quo with the more radical ones asking for independence. These riots were destructive, especially in Alaska, where many Filipinos were concentrated, and soon the entire issue devolved into identity politics. Native Americans in Alaska alongside other Asian Americans supported the Filipinos whilst the majority American populace opposed the idea vigorously, and soon anti-Asian sentiments started to sky-rocket throughout America. In the Philippines itself, the restive guerilla forces that had been stamped down during the Second American-Filipino War started to spring back up again, and this time under the leadership of Teresa Magbanua. Known as the ‘Visayan Joan of Arc’, this 58-year-old woman led the charge of the Filipino Guerilla bands in the Philippines, and on July 12, 1925, barring the Mindanao Bands – who were acting under their respective Sultans – all the remaining Filipino guerilla forces still active declared allegiance to her as the ‘Lady President of the Philippines’.
Historians attribute the Declaration of July 12 to be the starting of the 3rd Filipino-American War – which came after a decade of continued civilian unrest in the Philippines, and the unwillingness of American politicians to find a proper compromise to the entire issue. By the end of 1926, the entirety of the Philippines, barring the main cities and their links to one another (railroads and highways) would be under guerilla control. Though Cox was unwilling at first, after multiple instances of escalation, Cox finally approved the redeployment of more and more troops to the Philippines to stamp down on the new rebellion in the Philippines once again.
A KKK Rally
Meanwhile, domestically the situation for the United States of America was not much better either. Racial relations were at an all-time low, and the Nadir of American Race Relations were at an all-time high. The Second Klan in particular benefited most from the growing breakdown in racial relations. The Second Klan was more focused and streamlined than the first, and as a result, began to attract much more followers than the first. It presented itself as an anti-Jewish, anti-Catholic, anti-Catholic and anti-Communist organization that would preserve the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant America. Furthermore, it depicted itself as a nativist and patriotic group, and its leaders supported various political movements in the USA – most successfully, the movement for prohibition. By the time of the 1924 American Presidential Election, it had become a powerful force, counting as many as 2 million Americans under its membership. With William Gibbs McAdoo as Cox’s Vice-President, and with his links to the KKK, the Klan became a powerful supporter of Cox’s presidency.
The rise of the Second Klan only exacerbated the present racial issues in America, and lynching’s and riots inherited from the Reconstruction Era continued unabated. As tensions mounted from the domestic unrest in America, the New Orleans Massacre of August 11, 1925 proved to be the deadliest race riot in the history of the United States of America. As tensions simmered in a black community next to a field in northern New Orleans where the KKK was holding a rally, belligerent members of the KKK and the black community confronted each other. Initially only trading vocal barbs against one another, the situation escalated as groups started to tussle one another, which led to gruesome fighting between the two groups. Records from 1925 state that 39 Blacks and 17 Whites were killed in the fighting in New Orleans that day whilst modern estimates believe that around ~450 people were killed in New Orleans that day. More than a thousand people – most of whom were innocent bystanders – were injured in the fighting, and many residential areas were destroyed. Coupled with the growing instability in America in other fields, the New Orleans Massacre was a grave and ominous sign for things to come, something that Cox wanted to avoid at all costs.
Aftermath of the New Orleans Massacre
Despite his base with the KKK, Cox began to legislate against racial lynching and fighting, and the survivors of the New Orleans Massacre were interviewed and perpetrators were punished heavily – regardless of race in that regard. Members of the Police and National Guard who had failed to uphold their duties were discharged as well, and investigations into them were ordered as well. Such rapid actions on part of Cox was morally correct, but his actions were politically inadvisable. The Democratic Party chaffed under their President, decrying his actions, and the KKK who were a solid base of support in Southern USA, began to act against Cox in their anger as well. The Democratic Party could absolute not afford to lose the excess of a million votes they received from the KKK. Cox’s anger at his own party soon became apparent as Cox wrote several letters lambasting members of his party for trying to stop him from stabilizing the race situation. In particular, Cox sought the aid of the Northern Democratic faction within the party, who were more anti-segregation than their southern counterparts. But as the Democratic Party transitioned into a center-right political party as Tripartisanship began to form in America, the Northern Democrats had become smaller and smaller every passing year, and by 1925, their influence in the party was minimal. Cox himself, a Northern Democrat, had been a compromise candidate, and found no wide support within his own political party as the race and domestic situation became ever more turbulent and violent as the days went by.
The Pan-African Tricolor
With the rise of the Second Klan, Black Communities throughout the USA banded together for protection as well. Amidst this reaction, prominent Black political figures rose to prominence on a national stage. Marcus Garvey, a Jamaican-African who lived in the United States of America wrote voracious articles, condemning the ideology of white supremacy and in line with his pan-African views, he began to write ever more serious black-separatist ideas, which were rather popular among the black community at the time. Though his black-separatist and pan-African views were not out of the ordinary for Black activists of the era Garvey’s other views were rather controversial. He envisioned the end of Colonial Africa, united under a one-party state governed by himself and believed that all African Americans not only in the US, but in Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean should migrate back to Africa for their eventual unification. This was a problematic position to hold. The Caribbean populace outright rejected this idea – many of whom still held loyalty to Britain – and the Mexican Africans simply did not care about American problems to be involved. Canadian Africans were interested, but they were so few that in the grand scheme of things, they did not matter at all. Garvey split up with the other major black activist communities and organizations in 1924, when William Edward Burghardt Du Bois found out that Garvey had been collaborating with the KKK in regards to racial separation and segregation. The KKK wanted to do nothing with the Black community and Garvey wanted nothing with the White community, and realizing their common goals, some members of the KKK had started to aid Garvey and his ideals of migrating back to Africa, with several funds from the KKK allocated to Garvey. The loosely united African American organizations began to split along pro-Garvey and pro-Du Bois lines soon after. Whilst Garvey supported Black Separatism, Du Bois supported Black Nationalism. Where Garvey supported Racial Separation, Du Bois supported racial integration. Where Garvey supported violent means of getting what he wanted, Du Bois supported legal and peaceful methods of colored advancement. Where Garvey hated mixed peoples and Jews, Du Bois wanted their support. This split, called the Garvey-Du Bois split broke the black community into two in America, as the foremost black activists in America collided with each other for their respective ideologies.
For his non-violent ideologies, and for the fact that Du Bois wanted reconciliation, Cox appointed Du Bois in 1925 as the chief envoy of America’s colored peoples to Liberia, a prestigious position for an African American to hold at the time. This move, however sparked outrage, not only due to the fact that Du Bois had a history of being a Black Nationalist, which made everyone wary of him, Du Bois had also been a member of the Socialist Party of America, and had visited the Italian Democratic People’s Republic in 1918 to view ‘socialism first hand’. Though Du Bois was an unapologetic leftist, he was also a pragmatic person, and often voted for whatever was best for the African American community, even if they went against his socialist outlook. Cox had appointed Du Bois on this basis, but the political elite of America remained wary, and the focus of the ‘Socialist Threat’ shifted slowly away from the Italian Americans towards the Black Community. This growing suspicion of America’s minorities led to the regrowth of support for Americanization, which had first started in 1910 under governmental legislation. Frances Kellor, the head of the National Americanization Committee handed over several proposals of Americanizing the Italian, German, Irish and other immigrant communities in America. Though Cox had been a supporter of Americanization in the past, as evidenced by his rocky relationship with various minorities in America, Cox was unwilling to shake the unstable box that was America in such a manner until stability returned.
Quebecois Immigrants taking 'Americanization' Classes.
Kellor and Americanization propagandists countered by pointing out that Americanizing could become a path towards stabilization, and the idea was popular among both Republicans and Democrats. Progressives on the other hand, held rather ambiguous views regarding the topic. The Assimilation of Immigrants Act 1925 was officially pushed to the House of Representatives and was soon passed to the Senate, where it passed with a good majority. Cox was unwilling to sign the act, but egged on by his vice-president, who was supportive of Americanization to a certain degree, Cox finally signed the bill on the 19th of October, 1925, making Americanization officially the law of the nation. Kellor’s new Americanization scheme over which she was given authority by Congress emphasized the need for American culture to penetrate all facets of Immigrant lifestyle. Not only was this limited to English Language, speech, clothing and recreation, but Kellor argued that Americanization needed to touch other facets of culture such as religion, cuisine, music and literature. This move was supported by Frederic C. Howe, ironically the grandson of immigrants, and had considerable support. But as Cox had believed, this idea only brought with it backlash. As the year ended in 1925, not only did the War in the Philippines and racial riots ramp up tensions, but multiple rallies held by Irish Americans, Italian Americans, British Americans, German Americans, Russian Americans, French Americans, Scandinavian Americans against Americanization also made inter-community tensions in America rise to levels that had previously been thought unimaginable.
In particular, the Americanization legislation also soured opinions of America in Europe. Considering that opinions of America were never really that high in Europe, this meant that relations took a turn for the worse. The British Empire watched with worry for Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Canadian and English Americans in America, whilst other European nations looked at its own diaspora in America with increasing worry. For dictatorial powers in Europe, it also drove home a propaganda point, as many European powers, such as Russia and Italy campaigned for a ‘Back-To-Home’ policy, encouraging their diaspora’s to return to the ‘homeland’ to escape cultural oppression. This idea sat well with many of them. The Great Recession of 1914 – 16 had wrecked the economy of America, and the following instability of the nation had made the American Dream very well and truly dead. Though not in great numbers, a noticeable amount of Italian Americans and Slavic Americans began to migrate back to Italy and Russia by the end of 1925 as a result.
Though Cox’s first year in office had been nothing short of unsuccessful, the last nail in the coffin came in early 1926 for the United States of America. A quarter of a century after the Assassination of President William McKinley, President James Cox became the fourth American President to be assassinated. On February 3, 1926, when Cox was meeting with Democratic Party leaders in Charleston, South Carolina – in regards to his ideas for racial integration, with members of the NAAC invited. After finishing some debates, and postponing the conference for another week, Cox and his entourage had barely exited the Party Hall when three gunshots were heard from the gathered crowd who had come to view their president. Two bullets grazed Cox but one managed to pierce him on the chest, killing Cox a few minutes afterwards. The assassin was never found, as the crowd erupted into a fury of fear, and panic. It is theorized today that a member of the jilted American minority community assassinated the President, but firm evidence has never been found for any theory regarding the assassination. Regardless of who was the assassin, the assassination prompted William Gibbs McAdoo to become the President of the United States. No one was envious of the situation McAdoo had landed himself in, but McAdoo decided to make the most of it.
Cox speaking with Franklin Roosevelt an hour before assassination.
Much like with Cox, many believed that McAdoo would bring a new life into the USA. He was handsome, and had a never-ending source of energy and was almost always enthusiastic, despite the circumstances. He presented himself as a maverick to the general populace, and was considered to be the middle ground between rural and urban America for his pro-compromise stance regarding the issue. He was also well liked by both the Republicans and Progressives as well. McAdoo was however caught in the cross-fire of his political party. Southern Democrats chaffed under the largely Catholic ‘wets’ from New York and other big eastern cities who believed that the urban population represented the political and socio-demographic future of the American nation. Rural v Urban attacks in the Democratic Party precluded any party-wide agreement, which was now only exacerbated by the assassination of the President. Prominent members of the party, such as William Jennings Bryan, even in their old age, fanned the flames of disunity by pursuing the growing divide in the Democratic Party at the time. Furthermore, the issue of giving Native Americans full citizenship started to flare up again as the Native American Civil Rights movement began to rise up again, using the instability in America as the perfect opportunity to further their goals.
McAdoo, who was relieved for the distraction, began to accept hearings on the topic. Though McAdoo was fiercely discriminatory in regards to Native American Rights, like most Western Americans of the time, he was also somewhat diplomatic, and was able to see the benefits of handing several key rights to the Native Americans. In particular, Native Alaskans and Native Hawaiians had not been amused by the growing instability in their homeland which they saw instigated by the United States of America. In order to partially distract the nation of its growing problems, McAdoo passed the Indian Rights Act of 1926 which gave all the ~320,000 Native Americans in the USA American citizenship. The right to vote in American elections was however left to the states to decide. Some states gave Native Americans right to vote, and some did not. Native Americans were however wary of the easy passage of the act, and though they did not question their fears aloud, many believed that this was a step in the direction of Americanization of the Native Americans, which had been supported by McAdoo in the past. Only the Onondaga Nation publically voiced its skepticism, by sending a letter to the White House, stating ‘the Nation protests the object of the bill for which the native populace of this great nation must give up their tribal association to become national citizens. This is treason made law and nothing else.’ Even among the more pro-Native politicians, there was a sense of ‘White Anglo-Saxon Protestant’ burden that put off Native Americans from the sudden rights they had gained. And much like McAdoo had expected, the sudden shift in narrative to the Native Americans gave him enough time to rebuild a semblance of the coalition of white evangelicals in the Democratic Party that had been so dominant under Woodrow Wilson. McAdoo also explicitly supported nativism, an endorse ‘strict public control of all the nation’s natural resources’, ‘curbing the excessive private contributions’, and creating a better wealth bracket that was a signature move of American nativism.
McAdoo’s efforts to curb the growing instability in America in regards to racial relations and the 3rd war in the Philippines brought with it little fruit, for McAdoos vague positions on both issues served to bring no support. McAdoo had to put up a careful and dangerous balancing act, trying to make sure that he did not lose support of the KKK whilst trying to resolve racial tensions. McAdoo, however, was a good economist if nothing else, a talent he had inherited from his days as Secretary of the Treasury. He removed America from the Gold Standard, which allowed America to free up cash to fund the war in the Philippines and commit to *some* developmental projects in the country, but this came as too little and a bit too late by the time the 1926 US House of Representative Elections started.
President McAdoo
As the parties of the nation began to jostle for more seats and representation in the House of Representatives, the three major parties – the Democrats, the Republicans and Progressives were all caught in the proverbial back foot on their campaign policy for the mid-terms. After all, America had become a deeply unstable nation in the past decade, and the parties were still trying to formulate a proper response to it. McAdoo selected his close friend and ally, Finis Garett to lead the Democratic Party. Though Garett was a good administrator, and an honest man in everything he did, he lacked a certain charisma and had no popular history in the US politics aside from being a simple congressman and a newspaper editor from Tennessee. Nevertheless, Tennessee, which seemed to be on the verge of flipping to the Republicans, stayed firmly Democratic as a result of Garett’s position. His Republican counterpart, Nicholas Longworth III was far more enthusiastic and flamboyant, and more in touch with the people. Debonair and aristocratic, wearing his iconic spats and carrying his iconic golden cane, he was always cheerful, and knew when to quip a witty joke or retort, and was flatteringly polite and friendly, even to his political enemies. He was known to make decisions with a sort of grace and tact that was rather powerful. His position as Speaker of the House had garnered him important political allies as well. The Progressives ran under the leadership of former Vice-President candidate Melville Clyde Kelly, who believed that the 1926 elections were the big ticket for the Progressive Party. And to this end, Kelly did the absolute best he could do.
Kelly had learned much from the failed 1924 Progressive bid for the presidency, and the continuing instability in America did a lot to aid his platform. Americans were tired of war – especially in the Philippines – and Americans wanted to have some sort of normalcy come back into America. Kelly, who had spent his time after the elections working in favor of progressive tax reforms and other legislations of such, knew that this mentality was spreading among Americans in the face of continued unrest and Kelly intended to make the most of it. Most Americans had become disillusioned with both the Republicans and Democrats over the inability over the past decade to solve the problems of the nation, and inevitably they started to lean to the Progressives, who showed themselves as the option that had not been properly explored by the American public. The plausible third party in a sense. Furthermore, Kelly’s idea of tactical voting to ensure Progressive gains was sound, and saw many districts swing to the progressives in some form or the other. Moderate communities, and labor unions all endorsed the Progressives, and Kelly’s earned and cultivated charisma showed as he conducted speeches with absolute vigor.
To the surprise of many in the American political establishment, and indeed, the Progressives themselves, the 1926 House of Representatives Elections was a splendid victory for the Progressives and heralded the start of the Age of Tripartisanship, ending the era of bipartisanship. The progressives won 221 seats, a bare majority of 3 seats, winning just over half of the popular vote. The west coast and the middle-west voted overwhelmingly in favor of the progressives as a protest third party vote, allowing the progressives to take the House of Representatives and allowing Kelly to become the Speaker of the House. The Democrats and Republicans were caught by surprise, especially the Democrats who were thrown down to become the third party themselves. With the checks and balances that the House had over the Presidency, McAdoo’s presidency had suddenly become infinitely harder.
But McAdoo fought back, and as the President and the House clashed over national policy in the coming two years, the Land of the Free entered another time of turmoil. As Kelly solemnly informed the Progressive Party members after their victory ‘this is the land of the unfree.’
The next few years in American politics were bound to be extremely unstable and insecure……”
Land of the Unfree: American Politics from 1912 – 1984 by Gideon Jackson
“President James Middleton Cox was sworn in as the President of the United States of America in early 1925 amidst turbulent times. America had undergone a very violent and unstable decade, and many hoped that Cox would be the one to turn things around, so to speak. But Cox himself had been elected through unorthodox methods. He had not won the electoral college and instead came to power through a contingent election that won only a plurality of the states. He had not received the majority of the vote, and many people – especially from the Republican and Progressive parties – refused to acknowledge Cox as a ‘democratically-elected’ President of the United States. Furthermore, whilst Cox had managed to take the Presidency, the stunning success of the Progressives during the 1924 elections had made the Senate flip as 1/3 Senators became Progressives, whilst the rest were Republicans and Democrats.
President James Cox
Cox had earned himself no favors from several immigrant communities in the United States of America either. Italian Americans were considered to be Italian communist spies, and the Italian community in America was isolated as a result. Furthermore, Slovenes, Croats (Dalmatians in particular), and even Portuguese Americans were isolated due to the similarities between the cultures. Cox had earned himself the unending opposition of Italian Americans when he decried Italianism and its influence in America as ‘the distinct menace to Americanism and a communist plot to take over the nation’. Furthermore, Cox held very dim views of Filipino Americans, not only due to their Asian origins but also because of the fact that Filipinos, in general, had rebelled against America twice in the matter of only two decades. Filipinos in America, who were often aligned with Chinese, and Japanese Americans also isolated the votes of the aforementioned communities to Cox as well.
In this atmosphere and situation, the belief and hope that Cox’s presidency would be something new that would bring the nation together once more was severely misplaced and ultimately a naïve belief. Italian Americans refused to cooperate with Cox’s government, and during his presidential ceremony, many if not most politicians of Italian descent refused to attend, signaling a grim outlook for the future of Cox’s presidency. The grievances of the Italian community were furthered by the fact that they believed that they had displayed their loyalty to America in all ways that were possible – especially considering the fact that 12% of American troops in the Second American-Filipino War had been Italian-Americans. And not only the Italians, but the Filipino community of America started to become restless as well. Most of them being unskilled laborers for American tycoons, most of the layman Filipino-Americans supported the efforts made by their countrymen in the Philippines to achieve independence at whatever legislative and military cost. Cox’s outspoken belief that American Filipinos had to be ‘Americanized at all costs’ only served to make them more radical as time passed on.
Italian Immigrants to America in 1905
Despite this, Cox did try to reach a solution to the crisis in the occupied Philippines and attempted to pass a resolution in April 1925 that would gradually emancipate the Philippines into an independent nation by 1950. This was vigorously opposed by members of his own Democratic Party and the right-wing members of the Republican Party, whilst most Progressives and moderate members of the other parties supported the idea. The ‘Emancipation of the Philippines’ plan became very popular among Filipinos and most hoped that it would pass. The idea of independence in due time without further bloodshed was an idea that appealed to most Filipinos. The House of Representatives passed the bill with the support of the Progressives, and moderate Democrats and Republicans, but when the bill arrived in Senate, it was rejected soundly. Most of the Democrats in the Senate were right-wing and opposed their President’s idea, and combined with the right-wing Republicans in Senate as well, the Emancipation Bill was rejected soundly by the Senate.
Teresa Magbanua
The Joan of Arc of the Visayas
This sparked outrage in the Philippines when news filtered back. They had been occupied for nearly a decade with full military rule and though semblance of autonomy had returned in 1922, the re-established Filipino Assembly was essentially a rubber-stamp assembly for America to legitimize themselves in the region. Most Filipinos did not bother keeping up with the Assembly as a result. On April 27, 1925, Filipino communities and settlements throughout America, especially in Hawaii and Alaska began to riot, fed up with the continued occupation of their homeland, asking for a return to the pre-1915 status quo with the more radical ones asking for independence. These riots were destructive, especially in Alaska, where many Filipinos were concentrated, and soon the entire issue devolved into identity politics. Native Americans in Alaska alongside other Asian Americans supported the Filipinos whilst the majority American populace opposed the idea vigorously, and soon anti-Asian sentiments started to sky-rocket throughout America. In the Philippines itself, the restive guerilla forces that had been stamped down during the Second American-Filipino War started to spring back up again, and this time under the leadership of Teresa Magbanua. Known as the ‘Visayan Joan of Arc’, this 58-year-old woman led the charge of the Filipino Guerilla bands in the Philippines, and on July 12, 1925, barring the Mindanao Bands – who were acting under their respective Sultans – all the remaining Filipino guerilla forces still active declared allegiance to her as the ‘Lady President of the Philippines’.
Historians attribute the Declaration of July 12 to be the starting of the 3rd Filipino-American War – which came after a decade of continued civilian unrest in the Philippines, and the unwillingness of American politicians to find a proper compromise to the entire issue. By the end of 1926, the entirety of the Philippines, barring the main cities and their links to one another (railroads and highways) would be under guerilla control. Though Cox was unwilling at first, after multiple instances of escalation, Cox finally approved the redeployment of more and more troops to the Philippines to stamp down on the new rebellion in the Philippines once again.
A KKK Rally
Meanwhile, domestically the situation for the United States of America was not much better either. Racial relations were at an all-time low, and the Nadir of American Race Relations were at an all-time high. The Second Klan in particular benefited most from the growing breakdown in racial relations. The Second Klan was more focused and streamlined than the first, and as a result, began to attract much more followers than the first. It presented itself as an anti-Jewish, anti-Catholic, anti-Catholic and anti-Communist organization that would preserve the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant America. Furthermore, it depicted itself as a nativist and patriotic group, and its leaders supported various political movements in the USA – most successfully, the movement for prohibition. By the time of the 1924 American Presidential Election, it had become a powerful force, counting as many as 2 million Americans under its membership. With William Gibbs McAdoo as Cox’s Vice-President, and with his links to the KKK, the Klan became a powerful supporter of Cox’s presidency.
The rise of the Second Klan only exacerbated the present racial issues in America, and lynching’s and riots inherited from the Reconstruction Era continued unabated. As tensions mounted from the domestic unrest in America, the New Orleans Massacre of August 11, 1925 proved to be the deadliest race riot in the history of the United States of America. As tensions simmered in a black community next to a field in northern New Orleans where the KKK was holding a rally, belligerent members of the KKK and the black community confronted each other. Initially only trading vocal barbs against one another, the situation escalated as groups started to tussle one another, which led to gruesome fighting between the two groups. Records from 1925 state that 39 Blacks and 17 Whites were killed in the fighting in New Orleans that day whilst modern estimates believe that around ~450 people were killed in New Orleans that day. More than a thousand people – most of whom were innocent bystanders – were injured in the fighting, and many residential areas were destroyed. Coupled with the growing instability in America in other fields, the New Orleans Massacre was a grave and ominous sign for things to come, something that Cox wanted to avoid at all costs.
Aftermath of the New Orleans Massacre
Despite his base with the KKK, Cox began to legislate against racial lynching and fighting, and the survivors of the New Orleans Massacre were interviewed and perpetrators were punished heavily – regardless of race in that regard. Members of the Police and National Guard who had failed to uphold their duties were discharged as well, and investigations into them were ordered as well. Such rapid actions on part of Cox was morally correct, but his actions were politically inadvisable. The Democratic Party chaffed under their President, decrying his actions, and the KKK who were a solid base of support in Southern USA, began to act against Cox in their anger as well. The Democratic Party could absolute not afford to lose the excess of a million votes they received from the KKK. Cox’s anger at his own party soon became apparent as Cox wrote several letters lambasting members of his party for trying to stop him from stabilizing the race situation. In particular, Cox sought the aid of the Northern Democratic faction within the party, who were more anti-segregation than their southern counterparts. But as the Democratic Party transitioned into a center-right political party as Tripartisanship began to form in America, the Northern Democrats had become smaller and smaller every passing year, and by 1925, their influence in the party was minimal. Cox himself, a Northern Democrat, had been a compromise candidate, and found no wide support within his own political party as the race and domestic situation became ever more turbulent and violent as the days went by.
The Pan-African Tricolor
With the rise of the Second Klan, Black Communities throughout the USA banded together for protection as well. Amidst this reaction, prominent Black political figures rose to prominence on a national stage. Marcus Garvey, a Jamaican-African who lived in the United States of America wrote voracious articles, condemning the ideology of white supremacy and in line with his pan-African views, he began to write ever more serious black-separatist ideas, which were rather popular among the black community at the time. Though his black-separatist and pan-African views were not out of the ordinary for Black activists of the era Garvey’s other views were rather controversial. He envisioned the end of Colonial Africa, united under a one-party state governed by himself and believed that all African Americans not only in the US, but in Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean should migrate back to Africa for their eventual unification. This was a problematic position to hold. The Caribbean populace outright rejected this idea – many of whom still held loyalty to Britain – and the Mexican Africans simply did not care about American problems to be involved. Canadian Africans were interested, but they were so few that in the grand scheme of things, they did not matter at all. Garvey split up with the other major black activist communities and organizations in 1924, when William Edward Burghardt Du Bois found out that Garvey had been collaborating with the KKK in regards to racial separation and segregation. The KKK wanted to do nothing with the Black community and Garvey wanted nothing with the White community, and realizing their common goals, some members of the KKK had started to aid Garvey and his ideals of migrating back to Africa, with several funds from the KKK allocated to Garvey. The loosely united African American organizations began to split along pro-Garvey and pro-Du Bois lines soon after. Whilst Garvey supported Black Separatism, Du Bois supported Black Nationalism. Where Garvey supported Racial Separation, Du Bois supported racial integration. Where Garvey supported violent means of getting what he wanted, Du Bois supported legal and peaceful methods of colored advancement. Where Garvey hated mixed peoples and Jews, Du Bois wanted their support. This split, called the Garvey-Du Bois split broke the black community into two in America, as the foremost black activists in America collided with each other for their respective ideologies.
For his non-violent ideologies, and for the fact that Du Bois wanted reconciliation, Cox appointed Du Bois in 1925 as the chief envoy of America’s colored peoples to Liberia, a prestigious position for an African American to hold at the time. This move, however sparked outrage, not only due to the fact that Du Bois had a history of being a Black Nationalist, which made everyone wary of him, Du Bois had also been a member of the Socialist Party of America, and had visited the Italian Democratic People’s Republic in 1918 to view ‘socialism first hand’. Though Du Bois was an unapologetic leftist, he was also a pragmatic person, and often voted for whatever was best for the African American community, even if they went against his socialist outlook. Cox had appointed Du Bois on this basis, but the political elite of America remained wary, and the focus of the ‘Socialist Threat’ shifted slowly away from the Italian Americans towards the Black Community. This growing suspicion of America’s minorities led to the regrowth of support for Americanization, which had first started in 1910 under governmental legislation. Frances Kellor, the head of the National Americanization Committee handed over several proposals of Americanizing the Italian, German, Irish and other immigrant communities in America. Though Cox had been a supporter of Americanization in the past, as evidenced by his rocky relationship with various minorities in America, Cox was unwilling to shake the unstable box that was America in such a manner until stability returned.
Quebecois Immigrants taking 'Americanization' Classes.
Kellor and Americanization propagandists countered by pointing out that Americanizing could become a path towards stabilization, and the idea was popular among both Republicans and Democrats. Progressives on the other hand, held rather ambiguous views regarding the topic. The Assimilation of Immigrants Act 1925 was officially pushed to the House of Representatives and was soon passed to the Senate, where it passed with a good majority. Cox was unwilling to sign the act, but egged on by his vice-president, who was supportive of Americanization to a certain degree, Cox finally signed the bill on the 19th of October, 1925, making Americanization officially the law of the nation. Kellor’s new Americanization scheme over which she was given authority by Congress emphasized the need for American culture to penetrate all facets of Immigrant lifestyle. Not only was this limited to English Language, speech, clothing and recreation, but Kellor argued that Americanization needed to touch other facets of culture such as religion, cuisine, music and literature. This move was supported by Frederic C. Howe, ironically the grandson of immigrants, and had considerable support. But as Cox had believed, this idea only brought with it backlash. As the year ended in 1925, not only did the War in the Philippines and racial riots ramp up tensions, but multiple rallies held by Irish Americans, Italian Americans, British Americans, German Americans, Russian Americans, French Americans, Scandinavian Americans against Americanization also made inter-community tensions in America rise to levels that had previously been thought unimaginable.
In particular, the Americanization legislation also soured opinions of America in Europe. Considering that opinions of America were never really that high in Europe, this meant that relations took a turn for the worse. The British Empire watched with worry for Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Canadian and English Americans in America, whilst other European nations looked at its own diaspora in America with increasing worry. For dictatorial powers in Europe, it also drove home a propaganda point, as many European powers, such as Russia and Italy campaigned for a ‘Back-To-Home’ policy, encouraging their diaspora’s to return to the ‘homeland’ to escape cultural oppression. This idea sat well with many of them. The Great Recession of 1914 – 16 had wrecked the economy of America, and the following instability of the nation had made the American Dream very well and truly dead. Though not in great numbers, a noticeable amount of Italian Americans and Slavic Americans began to migrate back to Italy and Russia by the end of 1925 as a result.
Though Cox’s first year in office had been nothing short of unsuccessful, the last nail in the coffin came in early 1926 for the United States of America. A quarter of a century after the Assassination of President William McKinley, President James Cox became the fourth American President to be assassinated. On February 3, 1926, when Cox was meeting with Democratic Party leaders in Charleston, South Carolina – in regards to his ideas for racial integration, with members of the NAAC invited. After finishing some debates, and postponing the conference for another week, Cox and his entourage had barely exited the Party Hall when three gunshots were heard from the gathered crowd who had come to view their president. Two bullets grazed Cox but one managed to pierce him on the chest, killing Cox a few minutes afterwards. The assassin was never found, as the crowd erupted into a fury of fear, and panic. It is theorized today that a member of the jilted American minority community assassinated the President, but firm evidence has never been found for any theory regarding the assassination. Regardless of who was the assassin, the assassination prompted William Gibbs McAdoo to become the President of the United States. No one was envious of the situation McAdoo had landed himself in, but McAdoo decided to make the most of it.
Cox speaking with Franklin Roosevelt an hour before assassination.
Much like with Cox, many believed that McAdoo would bring a new life into the USA. He was handsome, and had a never-ending source of energy and was almost always enthusiastic, despite the circumstances. He presented himself as a maverick to the general populace, and was considered to be the middle ground between rural and urban America for his pro-compromise stance regarding the issue. He was also well liked by both the Republicans and Progressives as well. McAdoo was however caught in the cross-fire of his political party. Southern Democrats chaffed under the largely Catholic ‘wets’ from New York and other big eastern cities who believed that the urban population represented the political and socio-demographic future of the American nation. Rural v Urban attacks in the Democratic Party precluded any party-wide agreement, which was now only exacerbated by the assassination of the President. Prominent members of the party, such as William Jennings Bryan, even in their old age, fanned the flames of disunity by pursuing the growing divide in the Democratic Party at the time. Furthermore, the issue of giving Native Americans full citizenship started to flare up again as the Native American Civil Rights movement began to rise up again, using the instability in America as the perfect opportunity to further their goals.
McAdoo, who was relieved for the distraction, began to accept hearings on the topic. Though McAdoo was fiercely discriminatory in regards to Native American Rights, like most Western Americans of the time, he was also somewhat diplomatic, and was able to see the benefits of handing several key rights to the Native Americans. In particular, Native Alaskans and Native Hawaiians had not been amused by the growing instability in their homeland which they saw instigated by the United States of America. In order to partially distract the nation of its growing problems, McAdoo passed the Indian Rights Act of 1926 which gave all the ~320,000 Native Americans in the USA American citizenship. The right to vote in American elections was however left to the states to decide. Some states gave Native Americans right to vote, and some did not. Native Americans were however wary of the easy passage of the act, and though they did not question their fears aloud, many believed that this was a step in the direction of Americanization of the Native Americans, which had been supported by McAdoo in the past. Only the Onondaga Nation publically voiced its skepticism, by sending a letter to the White House, stating ‘the Nation protests the object of the bill for which the native populace of this great nation must give up their tribal association to become national citizens. This is treason made law and nothing else.’ Even among the more pro-Native politicians, there was a sense of ‘White Anglo-Saxon Protestant’ burden that put off Native Americans from the sudden rights they had gained. And much like McAdoo had expected, the sudden shift in narrative to the Native Americans gave him enough time to rebuild a semblance of the coalition of white evangelicals in the Democratic Party that had been so dominant under Woodrow Wilson. McAdoo also explicitly supported nativism, an endorse ‘strict public control of all the nation’s natural resources’, ‘curbing the excessive private contributions’, and creating a better wealth bracket that was a signature move of American nativism.
McAdoo’s efforts to curb the growing instability in America in regards to racial relations and the 3rd war in the Philippines brought with it little fruit, for McAdoos vague positions on both issues served to bring no support. McAdoo had to put up a careful and dangerous balancing act, trying to make sure that he did not lose support of the KKK whilst trying to resolve racial tensions. McAdoo, however, was a good economist if nothing else, a talent he had inherited from his days as Secretary of the Treasury. He removed America from the Gold Standard, which allowed America to free up cash to fund the war in the Philippines and commit to *some* developmental projects in the country, but this came as too little and a bit too late by the time the 1926 US House of Representative Elections started.
President McAdoo
As the parties of the nation began to jostle for more seats and representation in the House of Representatives, the three major parties – the Democrats, the Republicans and Progressives were all caught in the proverbial back foot on their campaign policy for the mid-terms. After all, America had become a deeply unstable nation in the past decade, and the parties were still trying to formulate a proper response to it. McAdoo selected his close friend and ally, Finis Garett to lead the Democratic Party. Though Garett was a good administrator, and an honest man in everything he did, he lacked a certain charisma and had no popular history in the US politics aside from being a simple congressman and a newspaper editor from Tennessee. Nevertheless, Tennessee, which seemed to be on the verge of flipping to the Republicans, stayed firmly Democratic as a result of Garett’s position. His Republican counterpart, Nicholas Longworth III was far more enthusiastic and flamboyant, and more in touch with the people. Debonair and aristocratic, wearing his iconic spats and carrying his iconic golden cane, he was always cheerful, and knew when to quip a witty joke or retort, and was flatteringly polite and friendly, even to his political enemies. He was known to make decisions with a sort of grace and tact that was rather powerful. His position as Speaker of the House had garnered him important political allies as well. The Progressives ran under the leadership of former Vice-President candidate Melville Clyde Kelly, who believed that the 1926 elections were the big ticket for the Progressive Party. And to this end, Kelly did the absolute best he could do.
Kelly had learned much from the failed 1924 Progressive bid for the presidency, and the continuing instability in America did a lot to aid his platform. Americans were tired of war – especially in the Philippines – and Americans wanted to have some sort of normalcy come back into America. Kelly, who had spent his time after the elections working in favor of progressive tax reforms and other legislations of such, knew that this mentality was spreading among Americans in the face of continued unrest and Kelly intended to make the most of it. Most Americans had become disillusioned with both the Republicans and Democrats over the inability over the past decade to solve the problems of the nation, and inevitably they started to lean to the Progressives, who showed themselves as the option that had not been properly explored by the American public. The plausible third party in a sense. Furthermore, Kelly’s idea of tactical voting to ensure Progressive gains was sound, and saw many districts swing to the progressives in some form or the other. Moderate communities, and labor unions all endorsed the Progressives, and Kelly’s earned and cultivated charisma showed as he conducted speeches with absolute vigor.
To the surprise of many in the American political establishment, and indeed, the Progressives themselves, the 1926 House of Representatives Elections was a splendid victory for the Progressives and heralded the start of the Age of Tripartisanship, ending the era of bipartisanship. The progressives won 221 seats, a bare majority of 3 seats, winning just over half of the popular vote. The west coast and the middle-west voted overwhelmingly in favor of the progressives as a protest third party vote, allowing the progressives to take the House of Representatives and allowing Kelly to become the Speaker of the House. The Democrats and Republicans were caught by surprise, especially the Democrats who were thrown down to become the third party themselves. With the checks and balances that the House had over the Presidency, McAdoo’s presidency had suddenly become infinitely harder.
But McAdoo fought back, and as the President and the House clashed over national policy in the coming two years, the Land of the Free entered another time of turmoil. As Kelly solemnly informed the Progressive Party members after their victory ‘this is the land of the unfree.’
The next few years in American politics were bound to be extremely unstable and insecure……”
Glad to see you are continuing this timeline.
The Americans seem to have been cursed to live in interesting times.
The Americans seem to have been cursed to live in interesting times.
american history is going to be radically divergent ittl, stemming back to the 1914 depression that took place ittl, so yeah.
Seems like America will not be all equal for everyone. Glad to see you update and can’t wait for more updates from for your other timelines and stories!👍
Hope that the Philippines gets it's independence, especially it's first president is a female and a national hero
We will see! But it will be interesting to delve into Teresa's guerilla capabilities.
