The Sun Never Rises: If The Confederacy Won

[PGSBHurricane]

I was originally not going to post this at all until I completed it but then I gave in and decided to post parts of it as I went along. This is a revised version of a timeline I have on the Alternate History Wiki. So here it goes.
Note: I acknowledge this is simply an exercise in alternate history and while I may have been inspired by Turtledove at times, I've been trying to avoid many of the same cliches he ran into.

Part 1: Victory in Maryland

By the middle of the summer of 1862, United States President Abraham Lincoln had completed the Emancipation Proclamation (a document that declared the freedom for all Confederate slaves). The plan was to issue it later that year and for it to take effect on January 1, 1863. At first, crushing the Confederacy seemed like an easy task, as the Union had a much larger population and industry to go with it. But after several unexpected and demoralizing losses, including both Battles of Bull Run, it became clear the Confederacy would not go down without a fight. Because of the seemingly desperate timing, Lincoln’s cabinet feared to release the Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln decided to wait until another decisive Union victory to issue it.
Meanwhile, the midterm elections of November 1862 were coming up, and things were looking highly uncertain for the Republican Party. Frustrated with the course of the war and Lincoln’s policies that addressed it, Democrats attempted to launch an anti-war campaign in order to win control of Congress. As all of this unfolded, Confederate General Robert E. Lee also recognized dissent among Lincoln’s ranks. He hoped that a Confederate battle victory on Union soil might further erode the support towards Lincoln and his cause. In Europe, France and Great Britain were watching the conflict from the sidelines. As both countries were enduring cotton shortages at this time, while the South was gaining the upper hand, they considered recognizing the Confederacy and supporting its claim to independence.
After Lee thwarted the plans of Union General George B. McClellan to lay siege on Richmond in the spring and summer of 1862, a highly inept and demoralized McClellan retreated. Hoping to take advantage of McClellan's mental and emotional state, Lee chose to push his army across the Potomac into Frederick, Maryland, later that summer. On September 9, 1862, General Lee issued Special Order 191. This plan defined his “Maryland Campaign." The plan was to enter northern territories that bordered the South (mostly in Maryland and West Virginia) and divide his army by sending them to Boonsboro and Hagerstown in Maryland, and Harper’s Ferry and Martinsburg in West Virginia. After the Confederates, on September 13, abandoned their Frederick campsite around Frederick and McClellan’s army moved in, they left no trace of Special Order behind. Thus, Union Soldiers were not able to discover these plans.
McClellan remained in hot pursuit of the Lee until they gave up September 17, 1862, as the Confederates seemed to have vanished without any visible trace. By the end of the month, much of Maryland and western Virginia laid in Confederate hands. Ultimately, the Emancipation Proclamation was never issued, and the Confederate slaves would remain enslaved indefinitely, with the future bleak and uncertain.

 

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Part 2: Gettysburg and Washington

Lasting from November 24 to November 26, in 1862, the Battle of Gettysburg was perhaps the bloodiest in the entire war, 51,000 soldiers from both armies were killed, wounded, captured or missing in the three-day battle. After the successful Maryland Campaign earlier in the fall, Robert E. Lee led his high-spirited Army of Northern Virginia into the Gettsyburg Campaign, with the intent to collect supplies from the abundant Pennsylvania farmlands and weaken Northern appetite for war. Union Major Gen. George Gordon Meade moved northward with the Union Army of the Potamic in hot pursuit. The two armies collided to the northwest of Gettsyburg on November 24, 1862. Union cavalry under Brigade General John Buford slowed the Confederate advance until the Union 1st and 11th Corps arrived. Confederate reinforcements under generals A.P. Hill and Richard Ewell also arrived. Over 30,000 Confederates ultimately defeated 20,000 Yankees, who retreated to Cemetery Hill and Culp's Hill just to the south of town.

On the second day, the Union defended the hills and ridges south of Gettysburg with around 90,000 soldiers with 70,000 Confederate soldiers wrapped around them. That afternoon, Lee launched a massive assault on the Union left flank at Devil's Den, Little Round Top, the Wheatfield, the Peach Orchard, and Cemetery Ridge. On the Union right, full-scale assaults took place at Culp's Hill and East Cemetery Hill. Although the Confederates gained ground, the Union was in a stronger position to win than its opposition. It was the third day, November 26, that decided the outcome once and for all. The main event was none other than a dramatic infantry assault by 12,000 Confederates against the opposing ends of the Union line on Cemetery Ridge. Both sides sustained significant losses, although enough of the Confederacy soldiers survived to claim victory at Gettysburg. Meade led his army on a torturous retreat away from Pennsylvania to partake in the Thanksgiving Holiday.

With Gettsysburg won, France via Napoleon III and Britain under Queen Victoria officially recognized the independence of the CSA the next day. On December 6, French monarch Napolean Boneparte III and British Prime Minister Henry John Temple secretly extended diplomatic recognition to Richmond and Confederate President Jefferson Davis and they immediately entered the War for Southern Secession on the side of the Confederates. In a last-ditch effort to get more manpower on its side, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on December 22 and it would go into effect on March 1, 1863. Regardless, it was a case of too little, too late as the CSA universally considered the Proclamation to be void. Not to mention that most CSA slaveholders refused to give up their slaves and the majority of the runaway slaves were caught and severely punished.

After the winter recess, Confederate Major General Jubal A. Early pressed southward toward the Union capital in Washington, DC. British military equipment and warships were able to assist the Confederates. On July 11, 1863, Early reached the Washington outskirts near Silver Spring, Maryland. During the night, Union reinforcements from General Ulysses S. Grant's army disembarked and marched north through the streets of Washington to bolster the city's defenses. The next day, Early made a strong demonstration against Fort Stevens just to the north of the city, which was barely repulsed by the veteran Federal troops. In the afternoon, a Federal counterattack drove the Confederate skirmishers back from their positions in front of Fort Stevens and nearby Fort DeRussy. Recognizing that the Union capital was now defended, Early was about to abandon any thought of taking the city. During the night, the British planned to help the Confederates' campaign. With superior technology and more disciplined and professional troops, the British were able to break down Union defenses, and the Confederates took the city on July 13. Recognizing that their capital had fallen, the Union surrendered and requested an armistice. It was issued on September 3, 1863, but the peace treaty itself did not get finalized until the following year.

Meanwhile, the British Navy, stationed along the Pacific Coast near Seattle, captured the city and held it under siege for two weeks. With starvation imminent and constant skirmishes with the Union in Washington Territory, the British relented but not before they could let go of the upper hand.

 

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Part 3: The Treaty of Richmond

The Confederate Congress signed the final version of the peace treaty at Richmond on February 12, 1864. In the previous weeks, in November and December of 1863, the Union, Confederacy, Britain, and France, as represented by Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, Henry John Temple, and Napolean Bonaparte III respectively, negotiated in the White House of the Confederacy, which was also located in Richmond, Virginia. The primary terms that the Confederacy demanded from the Union with British and French assistance were the following: 1) The Confederacy shall annex claimed the Territories of Arizona and Indian Territory, 2) The Confederacy shall add the states of Kentucky and Missouri with the Confederate governments in exile, 3) The split of West Virginia shall be considered illegal in accordance to the Confederate Constitution and thus re-incorporated as part of the state of Virginia, 4) The Confederacy shall annex Washington DC as its capital.

The US agreed to the first and second, and third terms with little to no hesitation. The third was one of two major headaches, though. Lincoln, Seward, and other Union representatives objected sending West Virginia back into Confederate hands as it "willingly and legally broke from its mother state in order to stay with the Union." But, Lincoln was willing to scrap plans to add sixteen new counties to West Virginia since those counties were overwhelmingly pro-Confederate. However, the fourth condition was very problematic in the eyes of the Union. Lincoln and Union representatives harshly objected to this demand and threatened to walk out of negotiations entirely. However, the British and French compromised on behalf of the Confederacy and proposed that Washington DC become a free city to be neutral from both the CSA and the USA. Resultantly, Washington could not be used as the capital city of either country. Subsequently, The United States relocated its capital to Philadelphia while the Confederacy maintained Richmond.

The British and French proposed two more stipulations to the Treaty. The first said that Britain and France would maintain a good partnership with the Confederacy as long as it did not re-open the Atlantic slave trade. If it dared tried to, then the clause made it possible for the British and French to suspend business indefinitely with the CSA at their discretion. The second was that the British were to annex all of Washington territory north and west of the Columbia River. USA representatives almost walked out but reluctantly agreed. On February 29, 1864, the United States government and Confederate States government exchanged their Congressionally approved and ratified versions of the Treaty of Philadelphia, formally completing the process of Southern independence from the Union. The War for Southern Secession finally came to an official close. At the exchange, Abraham Lincoln and Robert E. Lee tearfully shook hands in secret and had a rather somber conversation about what might be in the cards for both American nations.

 

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Part 4: The Aftermath of the Union

In the spring of 1864, disaster struck the United States. The Great Panic of 1864 hit the country hard. It was the worst economic disaster for the Union since the Panic of 1837. Part of the cause was massive borrowing and relying on paper notes or greenbacks in the form of Demand Notes, issued in 1861–1862, and United States Notes issued in 1862–1863. After the War for Southern Secession, not only was the US government unable to repay its loans to itself, it found itself less and less able to pay war reparations to the Confederacy. By the spring of 1864, confidence in the New York Stock Exchange dropped like a rock, and the economy sank into a harsh recession. The West Coast was affected the hardest as it was effectively cut off from the east until the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad at Promontory Summit Utah on May 10, 1869. Food Riots took place all across the USA, especially in major cities such as Boston, New York, and San Francisco.

This was one of two nails in the coffin for the Republican Party for the next several years. The other came in the form of the assassination of USA President Abraham Lincoln in mid-August 1864. It was about nine o’clock in the evening, and Lincoln was alone while riding his horse slowly on the road in the countryside in Maryland, just outside of Washington DC. He was traveling back to the United State’s Soldier’s Home. That night, a rifle was shot from approximately fifty yards away. Old Abe, his horse, was startled. Lincoln’s horse, took off as soon as it heard the gunshot. Lincoln lost control of the steed and fell off, giving himself a concussion. It was later discovered that the bullet hit Lincoln in the back of his head. Both of these contributed to his death that occurred only minutes later. It was only at about 11 o’clock that evening that Private John W. Nichols discovered something wrong. The next day, he went searching for Lincoln and found his dead body on the side of the road. The identity of the assassin would not be discovered for at least another century.

With the president now dead, Vice President Hannibal Hamlin was sworn in as president in his place. Hamlin was ultimately the Republican nominee heading into the presidential election of 1864. The Democrats, on the other hand, gained momentum starting in the 1862 mid-terms as they won both chambers of Congress and did not appear to be slowing down any time soon. Former General George McClellan was the initial front-runner for the Democratic nomination, but many of his constituents refused to accept a disgraced general as their nominee. Instead, former Connecticut governor Thomas Seymour was chosen as the Democrat nominee. In the general election, Seymour won every state except for Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. After the disaster, from the perspective of the Republicans, that was the 1864 presidential election. The Republican Party quietly disbanded. The moderates joined forces with the Democrats while the reaming half to two-thirds re-formed the Whig Party. This enabled what essentially amounted to a Democratic chokehold on government for the next several years.

With Britain and France now as enemies, an isolated USA needed someone else to turn to. The answer came in 1867 in the form of Russia. Before British and French entry into the War for Southern Secession, Russia had considered openly siding the Union. But their rivals’ entry into the War meant that the cause was lost. Russia had an interest in Alaska since 1725, as it was rich in natural resources and sparsely inhabited. By the early 1800s, however, the St. Petersburg-centered Russian Empire lacked the financial resources to support significant settlements or military presence along the North American Pacific coast of North America. There were never more than 400 Russian settlers in Alaska at any given time. Its defeat in the Crimean War further reduced Russian interest in Alaska. In 1859, Russia offered to sell Alaska to the United States in order to off-set Russia’s arch-rival in the Great Game: Great Britain, who was in control of Canada at the time. The United States was delayed by the War and Russia by the rather violent transition from serfdom, so no offer came onto the table in 1859. Eight years later, on March 30, 1867, the Russian Minister to Washington, Edouard de Stoeckl, noticed that the economy of the United States was beginning to recover from the War and offered Alaska for $7.2 million or two cents per acre. The Senate approved the Treaty of purchase on April 9 with a narrow majority. The Whigs were mostly opposed to the Treaty, while Democrats in the Senate embraced it. President Thomas Seymour signed the Treaty on May 28. Finally, Alaska was officially transferred to the United States on October 18, 1867. This purchase ended Russia’s presence in North America but began a long-lasting friendship between Russia and the USA.

Note: I am now looking for an editor or two to assist me with correcting Part 2 as it appears to be rather too lopsided in favor of the Confederates. I want to keep Part 1 as is, just perhaps a different Part 2 that is less ASB in nature. New York City will likely be eliminated but I'm still considering keeping a battle in Washington DC as the CSA in OTL came pretty close to capturing it without British or French support (see the battle of Fort Stevens). I've already began to make changes in Part 3.

 

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Part 5: The Start of Confederate Expansion

With Confederate backing and American opposition, the French propped up the newly-established Mexican Empire starting in 1864. While Americans were angry over French activity in Mexico, they did not have the means to enforce the Monroe Doctrine in the years immediately following the War for Southern Secession, and overall morale was at an all-time low. With the CSA taking advantage of the French presence in the Americas and Mexico needing assistance to survive the transition to monarchial rule, Confederate and Mexican relations thawed to the point where the two countries would almost be friends despite their previous histories and disagreements over slavery. Mexico was the Confederacy’s second-biggest trading partner in the Americas behind fellow slave power Brazil. In 1868, not long after the United States had allied with the Russian Empire, French-backed Mexico feared that the US and Russia would work together and try to regain the Arizona Territory and gain additional Mexican lands such as Baja California peninsula. Additionally, the Mexican Empire wasn’t in its financial prime, and Emporer Maximilian feared potential bankruptcy.

Emperor Maximilian then offered the Confederacy the Mexican states of Alamos, Arizona, Batopilas, California, Chihuahua, Huejuquilla, Mapimi, and Sonora. The deal was worth 6 million dollars. The CSA, as represented by John Breckinridge, who was elected as the second president of the Confederates States in 1867 on an expansionist platform, accepted the deal. Arizona and California were combined into the state of South California, Alamos and Sonora into New Sonora, Botapilas and Chihuahua into New Chihuahua and Huejuquilla and Mapimi into Coahuila. The outcry against this move in Mexico was noticeable. Still, neither the monarchy nor France was overly concerned about it, if only because the population and population density in those states were not very large. In 1870, the French monarchy was disposed of and replaced with a republic, and Napoleon III was executed. Despite this, France was as imperialistic and opportunistic as ever and desired to maintain a foot in the Americas via strong influence over the Mexican Empire. At this point, lines were being drawn in the sand, with the CSA and France on one side and the USA and Russia on the other. For now, Britain was staying neutral and focused most of its business elsewhere. This neutrality would be challenged, though, in the near future. Where the CSA focused next was the Spanish slave-holding colonies in the Caribbean of Cuba and Puerto Rico. After all, the Confederate elites always welcomed free slave labor wherever and whenever possible and sought a boost to the agricultural-based economy with Caribbean sugar plantations. All it needed was a reasonable catalyst to act on.

 

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Here's an early update. Kind of makes up for not updating in a week last week.

Part 6: The Cuba Question

The War of Independence in Cuba had been raging since 1868, but the Cubans always seemed to be near defeat. The tide changed for good in 1872 with the Virginius Affair. The Virginius was a small, high-speed side-wheel steamer built originally in Glasgow, Scotland in 1864, named as the Virgin. The Confederacy purchased it in August 1870, secretly using it for over two years to transport men, munitions, and supplies to aid the Cuban rebellion to realize the late Thomas Jefferson's dream of an American (Confederate) Cuba. Upon discovering this in 1872, the Spanish declared it an outlaw ship and aggressively tried capturing it. That October, Joseph Fry (who had served in the US Navy before aiding the Confederates in the War for Southern Secession) became the captain of the Virginius. As most of the previous crew deserted the ship, he recruited a new crew of 52 Brits and Confederates while moored in Kingston, Jamaica, none of whom were older than 13 years of age nor understood did that the Virginius was supporting the Cuban rebellion.

On October 30, the Virginius started toward Cuba from Jamaica. The Spanish figured this out and sent the warship Tornado to capture it. They spotted it over open waters the same day, just 6 miles off the shore from Cuba. The Tornado fired at the Virginius several times, causing the top deck to suffer from severe damage. Captain Fry surrendered the ship, knowing it could not outrun the rivaling Tornado. After securing the ship, the Spanish sailed the vessel to Santiago de Cuba, taking the entire crew prisoner and ordering them to be put on trial as pirates. The entire Virginius crew was found guilty of piracy and sentenced to death. Between November 4 and November 8, all 53 ship members were executed mostly by firing squad, including Captain Fry himself, plus an additional four mercenaries who were executed without trial.

With near-universal outrage among free white Confederates, the Confederate Congress declared war on Spain on November 11, 1872. Britain declared war the following day, under the condition that slavery is abolished by January 1, 1898. The president of the United States, Horatio Seymour (elected in both 1868 and 1872), responded on November 17 by declaring a statement of condemnation of the CSA and that it would target all Confederate ships within Union soil that attacked American ships or soldiers. Subsequently, the United States aligned itself with Spanish interests as a result. With British assistance, the CSA was able to gain complete control over Puerto Rico by February 1873. After another year of fighting, the Spanish surrendered and relinquished control of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the rest of its colonial empire. An armistice was signed on March 5, 1874, and the Treaty of Havana was signed six months later in September, granting Cuba its independence, making Puerto Rico a Confederate territory, and relinquishing control of the Spanish Pacific colonies to the British. Noticing this, Czar Alexander II of Russia approached President Seymour about the idea of forming an alliance with Germany, Russia's most powerful European ally. Considering Prussian military tradition, the Czar and President met with Kaiser Wilhelm I of the Prussian-dominated German Empire in October 1874 to form the League of Three Nations. In 1882, the European members would form the Triple Alliance with Italy and the US would later join to make it the Quadruple Alliance.

The CSA then asserted that it could intervene in Cuba with or without Britain. The heavy influx of Confederate intervention in Cuba in the mid-1870s caused Cuba to declare war on the CSA on August 26, 1878, with the Confederacy declaring war on Cuba back. Cuba officially surrendered in September 1879, and the Confederate Congress unanimously voted to annex Cuba as a territory in January 1880.

 

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Part 7: The Panic of 1873

Following the War for Southern Secession, there was a railroad construction boom across the North American continent, with 33,000 miles of new tracks being built between 1868 and 1873. Much of this boom was driven by government land grants and subsidies, especially in the Union. In the Confederacy, it was more so to show that it was industrializing to its European allies: Britain and France. It was no coincidence that the city of Birmingham, Alabama was becoming increasingly known for its steel production, albeit on a small scale compared to its northern counterparts. The railroad industry soon overtook agriculture as the United States’ largest industry and it became the third-largest industry in the Confederate States. Of course, this involved large amounts of money and risk. This large infusion of cash from speculators on the stock market caused abnormally high growth in the railroad industry and the overbuilding of docks and factories.

Coincidingly, the Black Friday Panic of 1869, the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, and the equine flu epidemic of 1872 worked together to slow down the economy. But the biggest setback developed in 1871 when the German empire discontinued minting Silver Thaler coins upon unification, causing reduced demand for silver and downward pressure on the value of silver. In turn, the United States Congress passed the Coinage Act of 1873, which moved the USA to a de facto gold standard, meaning that silver would no longer be bought at a statutory price or be converted into silver coins. The domestic supply of money was further reduced. Interest rates went up and hurt farmers and others who carried high levels of debt. People began shying away from long-term investments, including in railroads. In September 1873, the US economy was entering crisis mode. Multiple bank failures occurred and temporary closure of the New York stock market took place for 10 days starting September 20. Factories laid-off workers and unemployment rose dramatically. The effects were felt everywhere from New York to Chicago to San Francisco. By November 1873, 55 of the nation's railroads had failed, and 60 more went bankrupt within another 10 months. Construction of new rail lines plummeted from 7,500 miles of track per year in 1872 to just 1,600 miles per year in 1875. The industry would never completely recover.

Its southern neighbor was not faring any better. While it was not quite as hurt by the popping of the railroad bubble as the North, it did not go unnoticed either. The New Orleans Stock Exchange, just like in New York, was shut down for 10 days beginning September 20, 1873. Unemployment reached its highest levels in Confederate territory since 1837 (more than two decades before the CSA even existed). Railroad construction per year was barely less than 500 miles by 1875. To make things worse for them, Great Britain, its primary trading partner, was suffering from the Panic arguably worse than anyone else in the world. On an international scale, the 1869 opening of the Suez Canal was a cause of the Panic of 1873. This was because goods from the Far East (especially the British Raj in India) had previously sailed around the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa to get to Britain. Sailing vessels were not adaptable for use through the Suez Canal and new ships had to be built, this British trade suffered until 1897. This period was known as the Long Depression in Britain because of high levels of bankruptcies, unemployment, and halting public works in addition to the trade slump. Even France was suffering similarly (although not quite as badly).

All of this meant that southern cotton was less viable to the European (and even the USA) market. Cotton prices fell domestically and shipments across the world plummeted. With the depression, ambitious railroad building programs crashed across the CSA, South, leaving most states deep in debt and burdened with heavy taxes. Between this and the reduced viability of slavery, a common response to this was retrenchment, with spending at record lows. In the Upper States of Kentucky, Missouri, and Virginia, where cotton was not as prosperous to start with and slaves were seen as luxury items, there were even debates about emancipating slaves entirely. Also in those states, cuts in wages and bad working conditions led to a Great Railroad Strike in 1877 beginning in Martinsburg, Virginia. However, this was brutally put down by government troops and was characterized in the press as an insurrection rather than an act of desperation. Similar strikes happened to its northern neighbor. By 1878, the damage the Panic had caused was done and would shape the country and its institutions (including slavery) for decades to come. By 1880, five states - Arizona, Coahuila, New Chichuaha, New Sonora, and South California - had abolished slavery entirely and two more (Kentucky and Missouri) plus Indian Territory had just passed gradual emancipation acts. These states stood alone with their futures in the air. Would they be the new leaders of an industrialized tomorrow or would they be shunned by the rest of the agrarian Confederacy?

 

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By the way, here are the Mexican territories previously annexed by the Confederacy in earlier chapters. Those territories are in red.

 

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Part 8: The end of Confederate Slavery

In 1880, Seven states and an additional territory were in the process of abolishing slavery when no one else looked like they were going to. Rumors about seceding from the CSA swirled through the 1880s. Meanwhile, the CSA was torn between its two alliances: one with Britain and the other with Brazil, who represented the opposite ends of the abolition spectrum. Further complicating the crisis was the pledge to abolish slavery by January 1, 1898. Nevertheless, the Confederacy and Brazil became each other's top trading partners in the Americas. Despite only abolishing the Atlantic Slave Trade in 1850, Brazil seemed to be abolishing slavery faster than the Confederacy, in part due to international pressure. In 1871, the passage “Law of the Free Womb” declared all children of slaves born after the law was passed as free, and the 1885 Sexagenarian Law freed slaves over 60 years of age. At the same time, relatively few slaves had been emancipated in the Confederacy. Those emancipated from former Mexican territories were small in number, most Indians in Indian Territory didn’t own slaves, and the Upper South (especially Kentucky and Missouri) had smaller slave populations compared to other Confederate states. Additionally, it was starting to feel the pressure to abolish slavery from the British and other European powers. Fewer countries were willing to do business with the CSA. In spite of British assistance, its debts were mounting and the risk of default was also increasing.

Puerto Rico abolished slavery in 1885 in response to the Brazilian Sexagernarain Law, and Cuba in 1886. It wasn’t until after Brazilian emancipation in 1888 did the original eleven Confederate states do anything. The first two to act were North Carolina and Virginia. In the former, it passed the Slave Codes in 1872, meant to further tighten owners’ grasp on their slaves. The Panic of 1873 and large numbers of escaped slaves in the 1880s showed how ineffective the codes actually were. In Virginia, not only were there a high number of escaped slaves but brutality against slaves was stronger than ever and was responsible for many slave deaths. This served as a wake-up call for a large number of Virginian whites about the horrors of slavery, with even president Stonewall Jackson (elected in 1880), as a native Virginian, addressing this. In both states, industrialization was underway and there was second-hand embarrassment about Brazil modernizing faster than the Confederacy. In 1888 and 1889 respectively (100 years after each became states), Virginia and North Carolina did what was thought as impossible: emancipated all their slaves. The public reaction was mixed. Some thought it was a step towards modernization with the abandonment of an archaic practice. Others feared this would create competition for jobs between poor whites and freed slaves. Yet others, although not as many as in the first two groups, were outraged because they saw nonwhites as worth nothing except slavery for whites.

As Indian Territory was renamed Oklahoma and opened to white settlement in 1889, a condition was the prohibition of importing slaves. In neighboring Arkansas, the economy deteriorated to the point that it was one of the poorest states in the Confederacy by 1893. The Panic of 1893 only made things worse for the agriculture-dependent state. Slaves were becoming expensive to maintain, let alone purchase. It didn’t help that next-door Missouri was greatly benefiting from industrialization thanks to Kansas City and especially St. Louis. With attitudes towards slavery gradually changing, the Arkansas state legislature passed a gradual emancipation act that would liberate all Arkansas slaves by 1913, 20 years after passage. Texas passed a similar act in 1895, allowing 15 years for emancipation, but the reasons were entirely different. Texas was far more economically prosperous than Arkansas, but in no small part from diversification. The city of Galveston was known as the Wall Street of the Confederacy due to its port location and strong financial market. The 1894 discovery of oil in Corsicana was the start of a major oil boom that would last for fifty years and be one of the most profitable industries in Texan history, more so than slavery. Manufacturing was also starting to take hold in Texas, particularly around Dallas. Abolishing slavery was inevitable.

It was ultimately Tennessee that put that nail in the coffin. That can be traced back to 1875 with the passage of the Zebra Law, which put slaves in chains and sent them to jail for crimes as minor as stealing a one-cent fence rail. Treatment of slaves got so bad in some areas of the state (i.e. using them in coal mines) that widespread slave revolts took place in 1892, prompting a debate about slavery. The importation of slaves into Tennessee from other states was banned in 1893 plus additional measures such as sexagenarian and free womb laws. Public pressure to improve conditions that slaves toiled in resulted in the abolition of slavery in Tennessee in 1896. By now, fifteen states and territories were in the process of abolishing slavery or had abolished it, one more than required to ratify the Gold Amendment which abolished slavery nationwide in 1896, effective on January 1, 1897 despite resistance from the other six states. This did not mean that slavery would end overnight but rather that interstate slave trading was banned and all newborn blacks were not enslaved. Once again, the Confederacy’s future remained divided and uncertain.

 

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Part 9: Politics And Economics in the North American Gilded Age

The three final decades of the nineteenth century, collectively known as the Gilded Age in the Americas, was a very turbulent time in the Union and Confederacy alike. The Democrats held onto the presidency for every term until 1888 with the election of the New Republican Party (formerly Whig Party) candidate Benjamin Harrison. Many in this time period were describing the USA as a one-party regime. In many ways, they were correct. Aside from the presidency, it was impossible for New Republicans to gain a majority on either the Supreme Court or in Congress and even being elected was difficult. Outside of New England, almost all the governorships were held by Democrats. This political period would last until the Panic of 1893, which was in many ways worse than the Panic of 1873. Unlike the latter which was felt worldwide, most of the former’s impact were restricted to the United States and, to a lesser extent, the Confederate States. After the Panic of 1873 and into the 1880s, the United States had experienced rapid economic growth and expansion that depended on high international commodity prices. This was exposed when wheat prices crashed in 1893. On February 20 of that year, things got worse with the appointment of receivers for the greatly overextended Philadelphia and Reading Railroad.

When Cleveland took office, he convinced Congress to repeal the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, which he felt was mainly responsible for the economic crisis, in order to prevent the depletion of the government's gold reserves. Nevertheless, silver prices continued to drop to as low as $0.60 in December 1894. People rushed in record numbers during this time to withdraw their money from the banks, causing widespread bank runs. Meanwhile, gold reserves in the U.S. Treasury fell to dangerously low levels, forcing President Cleveland to borrow $65 million in gold from Wall Street banker J.P. Morgan and the Rothschilds of England. Cleveland was blamed for this mess as he was effectively the head of the Democratic party. The Democrats became seen as keeping the United States behind the rest of the world. This caused a big shift in the political arena. The People's Party, an agrarian-populist political party in the United States, was founded in 1891. In the 1890s it was a major left-wing force in American politics. Especially popular in the West, it was highly critical of banks and railroads and allied itself with the labor movement. It peaked in popularity in 1892 when its ticket won five states in the presidential election (Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Nevada, and North Dakota), and won nine seats in the House in the 1894 midterm elections. The populists eventually merged with the New Republican, leading to a landslide victory for William McKinley in 1896. His main success, though, was in foreign policy. With a naval base established at Pearl Harbor in 1887 and US sugar interests, encouraging the overthrow of the monarchy in 1893, McKinley annexed Hawaii in 1898 before becoming an official US territory in 1900. In 1899, the US negotiated for the purchase of Guam, the Midway Islands, Samoa, and Wake Island with the British and Germans. The Caribbean would not be a prime area of focus until the 20th century.

Meanwhile, the Confederacy also somewhat suffered from the Panic of 1893. Most of this was manifested when US purchases of cotton took a nosedive. After the Panic of 1873, the Confederate government negotiated cotton quotas with USA business leaders to aid each other with industrialization despite opposition from the latter’s government. Without the purchase of cotton from the Union, the still-largely-agricultural-dependent CSA lost money quickly. Not helping things was that when the New York Stock Exchange crashed, Confederate citizens were panicking that it would ripple beyond US borders and thus many in Galveston and New Orleans were withdrawing their investments from the stock market. This effectively became a self-fulfilling prophecy. Like in the USA West, farmers in the Confederate Deep were pushing for greater checks on a capitalist system that was hurt the working-class whites and provided little to no labor protections. By 1897, the two major parties - the pro-industrial Constitution Party and the pro-Old South (now minus slavery) Dixiecrats were challenged by the populist Liberty Party especially in Alabama, North Carolina, and Texas. Nevertheless, the Liberty Party failed to win the presidency but made third parties much more viable in future elections.

Note: The next part will focus on society in the USA and CSA up to 1900.

 

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Part 10: North American Society During the Gilded Age and Turn of the Century

Immigration to the United States from 1880 all the way to the breakout of the Great War in 1914 occurred in almost unprecedented numbers. From southern Europe came 4 million Italians. This was fueled by Southern Italy, including Sicily and Sardinia, where peasants suffered from severe hardship (bad soil, illiteracy, disease, malnutrition, exploitation, and violence). Initially, the number of Italians going to the USA and CSA was in line with each other’s population. But the lynching of 11 Italians in New Orleans 1891 largely ended Italian immigration to the CSA, with the vast majority (80-85%) entering the North American continent via Ellis Island in New York Harbor. They were greeted by the Statue of National Pride, as gifted by the German Empire in 1886. Most settled in urban centers such as New York where they arrived. In contrast, a much higher proportion of Jews (40-45%), went South due to Union alignment with Russia. Beginning in 1881, after the assassination of Alexander II, the Russian government placed harsh restrictions on the rights and mobility of Jews in its territory, restricting them to the Pale of Settlement. Anti-Semitic violence known as “pogroms” sanctioned by the czar drove two million Jews out of the Russian Empire and into North America. Approximately 60% entered via New York while 40% entered in Charleston Harbor in South Carolina, greeted by the Statue of Liberty (which was gifted by France). For Jews heading to the Union, New York City was the top destination and they often learned German alongside or before learning English. For those heading to the Confederacy, cosmopolitan centers such as Charleston (historically one of the largest Jewish communities in the Americas), Galveston (courtesy of the Galveston movement from 1907 to 1914), New Orleans, and South Florida, along with industrial centers in St. Louis and Richmond.

To a lesser extent, but nevertheless a highly visible one, German and Irish immigrants provided roughly one million immigrants apiece in this time period. Almost all of these groups went to the Union as the German Empire and the USA had close ties to each other - to the point where German was the second most commonly spoken language after English - and the Irish were seeking to get away from their British oppressors, who largely influenced the CSA. Immigrants from elsewhere in southern and Eastern Europe were proportionally split between the CSA and USA as their destinations, although those who intended to stay temporarily leaned more towards the Union due to perceived greater economic opportunity. While actively excluded from the Union under the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the CSA government was relatively welcoming towards Chinese, whom they sought after for labor in the Mississippi Delta region. Despite frequent casual racism from Confederate whites, most Chinese laborers (which only numbered a few thousand) ultimately stayed in the country.

By 1890, the majority of states and territories in the Union had passed compulsory education attendance laws, with the last four states being New Mexico (1891), Pennsylvania (1895), Indiana (1897), West Virginia (1897), Maryland (1902), and Delaware (1907). In contrast, only Cuba (1895), Kentucky (1896), Arizona (1899), and Puerto Rico (1899) had enacted compulsory school attendance laws before 1900. Missouri and Tennessee only followed in 1905, North Carolina and Oklahoma in 1907, Virginia in 1908, Arkansas in 1909, and Louisiana in 1910. Nowhere else had enacted such laws before the Great War broke out in 1914. The remaining holdouts were, except for the states created from Mexican territory in the 1860s, were states that failed to liberate their slaves before 1898 and were among the least industrialized in the country.

Racism was rampant in the North American continent. In the Union, blacks were not the prime targets after slavery was abolished nationwide in 1865. Segregation was visible, but blacks more or less had the same rights as their white counterparts. Casual racism from whites was instead directed at Asians, including frequent beatings and slurs being thrown around especially on the West Coast. On top of that, they could not become citizens, much less vote. Even more heavily targeted were Italian and Slavic immigrants who were deemed as an “inferior race of whites.” Casual and institutional racism by Anglo-Saxon Protestant Americans was noted in every aspect of life. Down South, the situation towards nonwhites was various. Whites were in control, but in Catholic dominated areas (California, Coahuilla, Cuba, New Chihuahua, New Sonora, and Puerto Rico), the hierarchy pit minorities against each other with half-whites (colored) receiving the most rights while those of half-native and half-black descent were at the bottom with next to no rights and were often sent to Indian reservations. In Texas and Louisiana, where Catholics didn’t hold a majority, but still held significant presence, mixed-raced or “colored” people were in the middle of three layers and while receiving many of the same rights as whites, faced some travel restrictions and segregation. All other minorities were at the bottom with a limited right to vote and could not travel out of state without a passbook. The Upper South (Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Virginia) cut out the middle but restrictions at the bottom were less harsh. It was in the Deep South (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Mississippi) where minorities, especially blacks, received the harshest treatment. Even after the national abolition of slavery, it was basically slavery in all but name for them as they could not vote, attend school, decide their own careers, or travel without passbooks. While Jews faced casual racism across the South, they did not face nearly as many legal restrictions.

 

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Part 11: The USA Becomes the North American Power

The year 1901 was when the world began turning a corner. In the United States, it marked the start of a new era. This era began when President William McKinley was assassinated on September 6, 1901. Theodore Roosevelt, the acting vice president, took his place. McKinley had intended to keep William Jennings Bryan as his vice president heading into the 1900 election, but the two split on too many issues, such as silver coinage, for McKinley to reconsider him. They almost got into a physical altercation during a White House Dinner in 1899. In response, Thedore Roosevelt, who McKinley saw more eye to eye with, was chosen as the vice presidential candidate. He did not expect to fill such big shoes on March 4, 1901. But it took six months for him to realize that would not be the case.

After McKinley's assassination, Roosevelt promised to continue his policies of increasing American influence in foreign affairs, reflected with the following statement in 1905, "We have become a great nation, forced by the face of its greatness into relations with the other nations of the earth, and we must behave as beseems a people with such responsibilities." Roosevelt thought that the United States should uphold an international balance of power. He was also adamant in upholding the Monroe Doctrine to spite Confederate wishes, explicitly calling out the French Empire for its influence in Mexican affairs. Meanwhile, he viewed the British Empire as the biggest potential threat to the United States, fearing that the British would attempt to establish more bases in the Caribbean (with Montserrat already existing). Given this fear, Roosevelt pursued even closer relations with Britain’s arch rival Germany. Meanwhile, Roosevelt aimed to reform and expand the US military. The United States Army, with 26,000 men in 1890, was the smallest army among the major powers. By contrast, France's army had 542,000 soldiers. Secretary of War Elihu Root enlarged West Point, established the U.S. Army War College and the general staff, changed promotion procedures, organized schools for special branches of the service, devised the principle of rotating officers from staff to line, and increased the Army's connections to the National Guard. Roosevelt also made naval expansion a priority. The United States had the eighth largest navy in the world in 1904 and the sixth by 1907.

In December 1902, an Anglo-German-Italian blockade of Venezuela began over Venezuela owing money to European creditors. As the U.S. began to take notice and called for the Europeans to leave Venezuela, Roosevelt was soon able to come to an understanding with the Germans and Italians, but not the British, despite assuring the U.S. that they would not conquer Venezuela. Roosevelt remained suspicious of Britain’s ambitions and feared war with Great Britain. As a result, Roosevelt mobilized the U.S. fleet under the command of Admiral George Dewey in order to convince the British to arbitrate Venezuelan debts. Through American efforts, in order to keep the Confederacy out of the conflict, Venezuela reached a settlement with Britain in February 1903. In late 1904, more than a year after the Venezuela Crisis, Roosevelt announced the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, which stated that the U.S. exclusively would intervene in the finances of unstable Caribbean and Central American countries if they defaulted on their debts. This was meant as a warning to the British, French, and even Confederates (who were less interested in imperialism at the time). Soon after, the Dominican Republic was struggling to repay its debt to European creditors. Roosevelt reached an agreement with Dominican President Carlos Felipe Morales to take temporary control of the Dominican economy until the economy was stabilized.

In 1850, the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty between the United States and Britain, prohibited either from establishing exclusive control over a canal built in Central America. By the time fifty years had passed, American business, humanitarian and military interests were pursuing greater global involvement and a canal seemed of more importance than ever. McKinley pressed for a renegotiation of the treaty. The British were distracted by the Second Boer War, but relations between the two countries were as frosty as ever. Secretary of State John Hay and British ambassador, Julian Pauncefote, amazingly, agreed that the United States could control a future canal, provided that it was open to all shipping and was not fortified. McKinley was mildly satisfied with the terms, but the Senate overwhelmingly rejected them, demanding for US allowance to restrict use against enemies and to fortify the canal. Hay was embarrassed and immediately resigned. Negotiations under Roosevelt were much rockier and an embarrassed Roosevelt gave up on a Canal by the end of the first term. The British asked their close (but not as close as previously) allies, the CSA, if they wanted to pursue the canal, but the Confederate turned it down knowing that the canal was not a primary focus for their policy nor could they afford it. Thus, there was no Central American canal built until after the Great War.

 

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Part 12: The Rise of the Entente and the Deconstruction of the Confederacy

While the USA went largely on the offensive in the early 20th century, the CSA was mostly on the defensive. The Franco-Austrian alliance was formally cemented on January 4, 1894, after a series of exchanges of letters between both governments. More important, though, was the Entente Cordiale signed between Britain, and France on April 8, 1904. The agreement was a major change in policy for both Britain and France. The aftermath of the Franco-Prussian war left France isolated from other European powers sans Austria due to mutual bitterness over being defeated by Prussia. At the same time, Britain had maintained a period of "splendid isolation" from the European continent for nearly a century, only intervening to maintain the continental balance of power and when British interests were actively threatened. This change had its roots in a British loss of confidence after the Second Boer War and an increasingly aggressive Germany. The first discussion of an anti-German alliance between Britain and France occurred in March 1881. The Scramble for Africa put this on hold as competition over colonial empires in America was underway. Talks were revived in 1898 on the initiative of Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain and again in 1901.

Upon the eruption of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, France and the UK found themselves almost being dragged in but on opposite sides: France with Russia and Britain with Japan. To avoid war with each other, both France and Britain ended their rivalry and resolved their differences over their colonial empires. The resulting entente had three documents. The first document declared that was in return for the French promising not to "obstruct" British actions in Egypt, the British promised to allow the French to "preserve order … and assist" in Morocco. This also guaranteed free passage through the Suez Canal. The second document said that the French would give up their non-fishing rights over the western coast of Canadian Newfoundland, and the British gave the French the African towns of Yarbutenda and the Iles de Los in exchange. An additional provision dealt with the border between French and British possessions east of the River Niger. The third and final document dealt with Siam, denouncing formal annexation of the territory but instead recognizing a French sphere of influence east of the River Menam and British influence to the west.

So where did this leave the Confederacy? In 1898, just after formally abolishing slavery nationwide, the Confederacy then sought an official alliance with Britain. In the event of a future conflict occurring in Western Hampshire, Britain (via Canada) would support the Confederacy and vice-versa. This was signed in early 1899 and would last up to 100 years. The closest to this happening before the Great War was the Venezuelan Crisis of 1902-1903. The USA may have been public enemy number one to the Confederacy but its own greatest enemy was ultimately itself. The states struggled to agree with each other on, well, anything. While the Constitution of the CSA emphasized states' rights, initially emphasis was on the founding reason for the CSA: slavery. Ironically, that may have been one of the few things holding it together. As slavery dwindled, a conflict of interests between states was exposed. Differences in the rights and residency status of newly freed slaves (with many white politicians desiring blacks to return to Africa), immigration policy, religion, taxation and tariffs, industry, and education had state representatives in Congress engaging in altercations with each other. Some states, such as Kentucky, Missouri, and Oklahoma, had large minorities favoring returning to the Union. Others such as Cuba , Texas, Puerto Rico and the western territories desired independence to vary degrees. Its debts to Britain and France were surmounting faster and was struggling to keep up paying them. The old planter aristocracy was effectively the ruling class into the 21st century with a small middle class of whites and blacks and an overwhelmingly poor majority of all races (especially in the Deep South). Only so much could be done before the supervolcano known as the Confederate States of America would erupt once and for all.

In 1907, an agreement between Britain and Austria-Hungary would shape the affairs of Europe by agreeing to contain Germany. The agreement was signed on August 31, 1907, in Vienna. This would complete the web of alliances that formed the Triple Entente between Britain, France, and Austria-Hungary in the Great War. The Confederacy would later join the trio upon the outbreak of the war when it would be renamed as the "Quadruple Entente.”

 

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Part 13: The Hapsburgs and The Beginning of The End

What ultimately sent the world into the biggest war ever seen on Earth at the time? Or who rather? The answer is the Hapsburgs. Not only in Europe, but in North America too. After the confederate purchase of much of northern Mexico in 1867, there was a bad taste in most Mexican citizens’ mouths. Maximilian was confirmed to be in the minds of the average Mexican: a foreigner who would be willing to sell out the country he ruled for any price. But, this was only the top of the iceberg. After Maximilian's death, his son Maximilian II took over the throne in 1880. By this time, Mexico was transformed into a solid French puppet state with strong Confederate economic ties. Many were outraged due to the pro-slavery stance of the CSA as opposed to the anti-slavery stance of Mexico as it had been abolished in 1829. Additionally, exploitation and otherwise poor treatment of Mexican factory and agricultural workers and a great disparity between the rich and poor only grew more prominent with time. By 1910, he had ruled the country for thirty years, essentially as a dictator. Resentment among the Mexican people grew and often boiled over in protests which were put down rather brutality.

The tipping point, though, came in 1910 when candidate for Prime Minister, José María Pino Suárez, beat Porfirio Diaz on an anti-monarchist, anti-imperialist (against the French and Confederates) platform in a parliamentary election for Prime Minister. Upon seeing the results, the king had Madero imprisoned and declared Diaz the winner. Soon, Suarez called for the Mexican people to rise up in arms against the government beginning November 20, 1910. In May 1911, six months of battles ended with Suarez being exiled to France and Diaz maintaining power. This allowed Maximilian II to continue using the Prime Minister as his mouthpiece until Diaz was overthrown by anti-monarchy revolutionaries in mid-July 1914. By October, the differences between the revolutionary groups came to the forefront. The first was the group defending the interests of the upper class who, despite being conservative, wanted political reforms but not necessarily agrarian and social reforms. They were supported militarily and economically by the United States. The second group wanted agrarian and social reforms on top of political reforms. The monarchists, though, were backed by France and the Confederate States. Months of fighting took place until April 15, 1915 when the monarchy de facto overthrown following the Battle of Celaya. It would not be de jure until February 5, 1917 when the new Mexican Constitution was enacted a liberal republic was set up. The upper class faction of the revolutionaries ultimately won but they adopted pro-democratic political reforms along with some social and agrarian reforms. The king fled back to Europe soon after.

The European Hapsburgs were witnessing similar turmoils. The Austro-Hungarian Empire was a multinational empire created in 1867 as a way to keep the Hungarian Magyars from breaking away from German-dominated Austria. The empire had two halves, each with its own government and control of internal affairs. Nevertheless, both halves were ruled by the Hapsburgs under the "Dual Monarchy" via Franz Joseph I until 1916. What held together the empire was loyalty to the Emperor, as he was popular due to being able to speak nearly all the empires’ languages. Additionally,90% of the population of the Austrian half and 60% of the Hungarian half were Catholic. Lastly, every ethnic group was equally suspicious towards each other. By 1900, the growth of south Slav nationalism among the Slovenes, Croats and especially the Serbs became prominent. Serbian power in the Balkans encouraged the movement. This was seen by both the Hungarians and Austrians as a major threat to the unity of the Empire and needed to be quashed. In 1908, both Austria and Hungary wanted to annex Bosnia and Herzegovina to keep Russia and the Ottoman Empire, the latter which Bosnia and Herzegovina was previously part of, in check. The Slavic populations of those two provinces had nationalistic ambitions while Serbia further encouraged pan-Slavism. The region soon became a hot spot for central and eastern European countries, culminating in two Balkan wars in 1912 and 1913. The boiling point took place when Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand was shot and killed in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina on June 28, 1914 by Gavrilo Princip, a member of Serbian terrorist group Black Hand. This unleashed Great War throughout Europe as Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia the following month.

A/N: This took quite some time to right out, partly due to having quite a bit of schoolwork lately. As a result, it might not be the best written chapter of the bunch. Feel free to ask any questions you may have and I hope to address them soon. Some details, such as how the USA was involved, will be addressed in the Great War.

 

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Part 14: The Beginning of The Great War

July 28, 1914 was the day the world exploded. Exactly one month after the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, the Austro-Hungarian Empire declared War on Serbia. In response, France came to Austria’s defense and Russia to Serbia’s defense. Both powers began mobilizing. Britain, on the other hand, decided to stay out of the conflict for the time being as it was less committed to its alliance than either Austria-Hungary or France. Germany, noticing Russian mobilization, declared war on Austria-Hungary and France on August 1 and August 3 respectively. With its plans in full effect, Belgium issued an ultimatum towards Germany that war should be declared if it was invaded. It was only with the invasion of Belgium that Britain entered the war with the Entente on August 4, 1914. Austria declared war on Russia on August 6. Later in the month, on August 23 and August 25, Japan (a British ally) declared war on Germany and Russia declared War on Japan in return. Japan’s entry into the war marked the first non-European power to enter. While all this was going down, Italy declared itself neutral and sought negotiations with both sides. Meanwhile, a faltering Ottoman Empire saw favor with overtures made from the French. France and Turkey secretly concluded an anti-Russian military alliance on August 2, although the Ottomans Turks did not officially join the war until October 29 when its navy attacked Russian ports in the Back Sea. No declaration of war was made until November 14.

Across the Atlantic, neither the United States or Confederate States declared war that summer. On August 4, 1914, CSA President Champ Clark of Missouri declared official neutrality from the war in Europe “impartial in thought as well as in action.” There were pushes from Great Britain, who controlled Canada to the North of the USA, and France, who still had a sphere of influence in Mexico, for the CSA to enter the war so the two European powers could further entrench their influence in North America. Still, CSA officials noted that while the USA was not an ally of the CSA, there was no reason to declare war as the Union had not yet provoked the Confederacy. Furthermore, solving its internal issues was more important to Clark as there were still divisions between blocks of states with Missouri having decently strong pro-Union sympathies along with Kentucky and Oklahoma. When questioned in public by the media, “Clark frequently answered, Only at the right time will war be necessary.” Privately, he wondered if war against its arch enemy would provide morale, especially with a probable victory with Britain and France on its side. The same day that Clark declared neutrality, US president Theodore Roosevelt (the first president to ever serve three terms) simultaneously declared neutrality. In his own speech, he assured the American public that they would not reduce themselves to the levels of the barbaric continental Europeans by going to war. But that wasn’t to say they didn’t get involved. They sent food, money, and equipment to their European allies, particularly Germany. With the economy still in a recession three months later and Europe still at war, Roosevelt sat down with his cabinet. During this meeting, they secretly decided that “a little war never hurt anyone” and would prepare themselves to declare war when necessary, effective immediately.

All doubts came to an end when the Von Jagow Telegram was issued in early 1915. In the form of a coded telegram, Gottlieb von Jagow sent a message to the German ambassador in the United States (Johann Heinrich von Bernstorff) on January 15, 1915. Von Jagow proposed an alliance between Germany, the US, and Mexico against the CSA to help the two North American partners regain their lands from the Confederacy. Just a few days later, on January 19, it was intercepted by the British. Champ Clark was made aware of this on February 1 via his Secretary of State (Bainbridge Colby, also of Missouri) who in turn got the news from British intelligence. Stunned President Clark went before the Confederate Congress on February 3 to announce the suspension of diplomatic relations with the Union. However, he refrained from asking for a declaration of war because of the lack of physical evidence that the US planned to attack the Confederacy without warning. Clark left open the possibility of negotiating with Roosevelt. Later in February, the British decided to use the note to help sway Confederate officials and public opinion towards joining the war. The British forwarded the inception to Clark on February 24. The American press carried the story the following week, on March 1 when the telegram was published in Confederate newspapers. On March 3, 1915, von Jagow publicly acknowledged his plan but argued it wasn't hostile because the US had to declare war on the CS or vice versa for it to be effective. Despite the shocking news, Clark still hesitated to declare war. He waited until March 19 to convene a cabinet meeting on the matter, nearly a month after seeing the telegram. The result of the meeting was that Clark appealed to the Confederate Congress to declare war on the Union on April 2. On April 5, the Senate voted with 87% approval to declare war and the House of Representatives voted with 77% approval in favor adopting a resolution of war against the United States. Over fifty years after the War for Southern Secession, the two nations were officially at war with each other for the second time.

 

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Part 15: Culture of the Early Twentieth Century

American society (Union and Confederate) in the first two decades in the twentieth century was ever evolving. Immigration was peaking at this time. While German, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, and Russian immigrants generally traveled to the Union, Chinese, English, French, Jewish, and Polish, immigrants found themselves heading to the Confederacy. By 1915, the USA had a population of 65 million while the CSA had 40 million people in it. The cities were industrializing at a rapid pace. In the north, this meant businessmen negotiating with the South for cotton deals for making textiles and garments. As urbanization increased due to industrialization, new problems came into being. Congestion, pollution, crime, and disease were increasingly prevalent. Living conditions on both sides of the border were atrocious, especially for the working class who crowded into tenement apartment buildings with terrible ventilation and substandard plumbing and sanitation. An average family of six, with two adults and four children, had at best a two-bedroom tenement. By 1900, there were nearly fifty thousand tenement houses in Manhattan alone. Diseases like typhoid and cholera were common. For instance, Memphis, Tennessee experienced waves of cholera (1873) and yellow fever (1878-1879) which killed over ten thousand people.

Reforms, beginning in the late 1880s, made it so tat efficient sewage systems were in place in Baltimore, Chicago, New York, and even New Orleans. Other reforms came about through the efforts of reformers like Upton Sinclair. He wrote the book The Jungle (1906), exposing the awful sanitation and working conditions in Chicago’s meatpacking industry which led to federal laws which placed stricter regulations on the industry. The US Supreme Court upheld an Oregon law in 1908 which prohibited women from working more than ten hours a day and it soon became a precedent across the Union. In the Confederacy similar laws were passed (albeit typically favoring white women over their black counterparts). While there was overlap with else reforms, there were differences in other reforms. With regard to child labor, the Union had a mixed response by 1900 with the Northeast (New England plus New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania), Upper Midwest, and California placing strong restrictions on the minimum amount of school-time required by students and the maximum amount of hours possible for children to labor. The further west one went, the weaker the protections got. But they were still stronger than the near nonexistent protections in the South with the exception of Louisiana. This could be explained by Confederate resistance to labor regulation and the goal to deny power to black workers over their white bosses. Same could be said about the right for women to vote. Women’s suffrage was arguably the biggest reform of the twentieth century. By 1915, ten states (California, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington in the United States allowed for women to vote at all levels and only five states (Kanawha, Maine, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island) prohibiting it entirely. In the Confederacy, only Arizona allowed for full suffrage in 1915 with Kentucky, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas granting partial suffrage and every other state completely banning it.

Pop culture was rather fascinating. In the Union, German operas and Russian ballets were popular among the upper classes of society. For the Confederacy, the French arts were more appreciated instead. In the Union, German and Russian were often taught as second languages in schools while it was usually French and Spanish in the South. German newspapers were frequently published in the Midwestern part of the United States while Spanish counterparts were popular in the Caribbean and the Desert West. For pastimes, baseball was the most popular sport in the USA while football was the most popular sport in most of the CSA. Silent movie theaters called nickelodeons were built throughout both countries through the Great War. When the war did break out, cartoon characters such as Southern Belle and America the Beautiful were popular in comics and helped promote the war effort in both countries by encouraging buying bonds and growing food for soldiers.

A/N: Don't worry I have not abandoned this, I was just struggling to develop this chapter and focusing on schoolwork.