Shattered World

The World in 1877
The Great War in Europe is over, but the world is a precarious jumble of competing alliances and irreconcilable ideologies. On every continent, tensions fester. In places, 'minor' conflicts continue, as of yet unnoticed by the great powers in their constant dance of shifting Balance of Power.

North America.
Shattered by civil war, the old United States is still reeling from the aftermath. Though Victorious over the Confederates, subsequent British and French intervention had forced them to let the Confederates States of America secede much to their Humiliation. Renewed American Nationalism has taken root. One rooted in industry, Revanchism, and Radicalism. Allied towards Prussia and Russia

The Confederates States of America has turned inward, lashing out against Abolitionist, Union sympathizers, and Runaway Slaves real or imagined. Its economy is only kept alive by foreign investors since it has yet to recover from the scorched earth policy of Union generals and falling cotton prices. Attempts to centralize the Confederacy has failed every turned with states proclaiming secession whenever the issue is brought up. Talk of war with Mexico is in the air. Allied towards Britain, France.

Imperial Mexico, Under the benevolent guidance of Maximilian I, Mexico has for the longest time in its history been (somewhat) stable and prosperous; bringing in European investors in order to efficiently mine silver and coal, creating jobs for the poor displaced by war and lawlessness, build the railroads, and develop the infrastructure. The assassination of Benito Juarez in Monterrey of 1864 fractured the already waning rebels. With none to lead them, the majority of the rebels simply turn to banditry in the rural areas.
 
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Wait, so the North wins the war but the South is still able to secede? I get there is British and French intervention but why and how? Why would Britain choose to get involved when in this timeline they were so loath to do so for many reasons? France wasn't able to prop up Maximilian in OTL when that was their only focus in North America, now they have somehow pulled it off while also getting involved in the Civil War? How did this happen? What's the POD?
 
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Wait, so the North wins the war but the South is still able to secede? I get there is British and French intervention but why and how? Why would Britain choose to get involved when in this timeline they were so loath to do so for many reasons? France wasn't able to prop up Maximilian in OTL when that was their only focus in North America, now they have somehow pulled it off while also getting involved in the Civil War? How did this happen? What's the POD?
The short and Honest answer is that I posted this accidentally and now I'm deciding whether or not I should continue. Long answer is that there are several POD that I wanted to tell separately.
 
"I believe the Union General Sherman said it best when we seceded from the union. 'You people of the South don't know what you are doing. This country will be drenched in blood, and god only knows how it will end.' Prophetic words from a man that at the time was deemed insane for saying the war would not be a short one. If only we had listened, now here we are. A broken nation, teetering on the brink of annihilation, and for what? Independence? State's rights? To keep the negroes shackled? You do me a favor in killing me, for unlike you, I will not live to see it all crashing down nor will I suffer from it!

-Unknown Confederate citizen before being executed.

"And who are you to demand anything? Before me, I see nothing more than deluded old men, who refuse to face the reality of their situation, as everything crumbles around them. We are not the Mexicans of old whom you defeated before. Should our two nations come to war, it is us, not you, who would prevail."

-Imperial Mexican diplomat reaction to Confederate Demands.

"Sons and daughters of America our destiny awaits us! Stand with your brothers and sisters, stand with me, and together we will be victorious. Down with these copperheads who stab us in the back to save their Southern brethren! Down with those who wish to preserve the treaty of Havana! Down with those who spit upon our deceased veterans graves and those who make a mockery of our plight! Down with the British! Down with the French! And down with the Confederacy!"

-Presidential Republic nominee for the 1876 election.



CHAPTER ONE:
"Confederacy after the war: The fall of the planter aristocracy " by Henry David

"
From the onset, the Confederate States of America was on its death throes after winning its independence. No amount of support from Britain and France could change that. Its nascent Industrial capacity along with its transportation infrastructure was destroyed during the war, supplies of food and essentials were scarce and difficult to distribute, hundreds of thousands were homeless and many more impoverished. It's plantations, the backbone of the cash crop economy, are in ruination with the lucky few finding no reprieve from falling cotton prices due to Egyptian and Indian cotton entering the market...

...And yet with all of these domestic problems, the planter aristocracy refuse to change their ways. Though not without reason mind you, their capital is already heavily tied up and can't be liquidated very easily, either practically or socially. What's worse is that the Confederate government cannot open up market to give her nascent industry space to grow without bumping up against the landed elite who refuse to be toppled from the social pyramid they've entrenched themselves in."
 
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