The Timeline of "The Disunited States of America"

Heres something I came up with about a year ago, essentially a full timeline of the events in the world of Harry Turtledove's "Disunited States of America", and I finally started working on again. Enjoy! :D Comments, criticism and the like are all welcome.

Timeline of the Disunited States of America
By Zoidberg12

Based on "The Disunited States of America" by Harry Turtledove
.

May 25th-September 17th, 1787: The United States Constitutional Convention; a new United States constitution fails to be ratified due to the failure of the convention to negotiate on the establishment of a bi-cameral legislature (POD). As a result, the Articles of Confederation remains the governing document of the United States of America.

Spring, 1799: Riots break out in Rhode Island due to the increasing federalist practices of the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, which includes a system generally favoring northern business interests. The riots soon evolve into all out rebellion.

Autumn, 1800: The Rhode Island Rebellion is temporarily suppressed by the armies under the authority of the Continental Congress. The first cracks begin to appear in the United States of America.

Summer, 1802: "The Farmer's Rebellion" occurs across Virginia, the Carolina's and Georgia. Many small farmers take up arms against the increasingly politically, economically and militarily weak federal government over taxes, tariffs and other similar issues.

September 22nd, 1802: In reaction to the Farmer's Rebellion and the increasing power of northern businesses, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina all vote on whether to secede from the United States or not.

September 29th, 1802: Georgia (including OTL's Alabama and Mississippi) votes to secede form the United States. Governor Josiah Tattnall Sr. becomes interim President of Georgia.

September 30th, 1802: North Carolina (including OTL's Tennessee) votes to secede form the United States. Governor Benjamin Williams becomes interim President of North Carolina.

October 2nd, 1802: South Carolina votes to secede form the United States. Governor John Drayton becomes interim President of South Carolina.

October 15th, 1802: Spain returns their portion of Louisiana to France (*). The Continental Congress is terrified of this new French expansionism, but with the country falling apart and with no way for the Congress to raise an army or a good amount of money, there is not much they can do about it.

January 1st (New Year's Day), 1803: Inspired by the developments in the south and with political instability and resentment towards the Continental Congress still strong in the state, the Republic of Rhode Island is declared by Governor Arthur Fenner, who becomes the first President of Rhode Island as a result.

1803-1804: Sporadic rebellions brake out all over the northern states over a number of state imposed taxes.

May 18th, 1803: The Napoleonic Wars begin (*).

January 25th, 1804: Virginia (including OTL's Kentucky) secedes from the Union due to increasing political tensions with the other states. Governor James Page becomes the first "Consul" of Virginia, Consul being the head of state, a position identical to that of a President in everything but name. The Northern states, minus Rhode Island, are all that remain of the weakened United States of America.

March 25th, 1805: Massachusetts secedes from the United States due to numerous political tensions between them and the state of New York.

August, 1805: Great Britain annexes some of the northernmost parts of the Northwest Territory into Upper Canada. The US government/Continental Congress in Philadelphia is furious, but there is next to nothing it can do about it.

January 15th, 1806: The Continental Congress takes a vote on whether to maintain the unity of the remaining states in the United States of America. The vote is taken to dissolve the Union, and New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Maryland, Delaware, and New Jersey all become independent republics as a result. As a result, the United States of America officially ceases to exist. Ohio, a new nation formed from part of the Northwest Territory, is also declared an independent republic, with Scottish-born former governor of the Northwest Territory Arthur St. Clair as the new republic's first president. The rest of the Northwest Territory is declared a neutral zone to be jointly occupied by Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York.

May, 1806: Due to political instability within the newly formed government of New Jersey, New York, under acting President Morgan Lewis, sends in the New York military to occupy the state.

January 1st (New Year's Day), 1807: New York, under their new President Aaron Burr, officially annexes New Jersey.

February, 1807: New York occupies and annexes Connecticut for much the same reasons as they did New Jersey, but also to prevent the nation from falling into the influence of Massachusetts. The seeds of the New York-Massachusetts Rivalry are first sown.

May 20th, 1808: Due to fears of being eclipsed in power by the other former American republics, North Carolina and South Carolina both agree to merge into one nation, the Republic of Carolina. Charles Cotesworth Pinckney is made first President the new, united Carolina as part of a compromise between the two former governments of North and South Carolina.

May 16th, 1812: The War of 1812 begins between a coalition of New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, New Hampshire, Ohio and Virginia and Great Britain over the territorial status of the Northwest Territory.

October 19th, 1813: Napoleon Bonaparte is killed at the Battle of Leipzig. He was only 44 years old.

October 20th, 1813: A coup led by General Géraud Durocn is launched in Paris as a result of Napoleon's death. The two year-old Napoleon II is made Emperor under a regency of Durocn and other generals and politicians.

October 21st, 1813: Géraud Durocn makes peace with the Sixth Coalition. Plans for a peace conference in Berlin are made for the following year.

February-November, 1814: The Conference of Berlin is held, ending the Napoleonic Wars. The following terms of peace are agreed upon at the Congress.

  • The French Imperial crown passes to former Spanish king Joseph Bonaparte, the older brother of the late Napoleon, who becomes Emperor Joseph I of France. The Imperial Crown will go to Napoleon II after Joseph's death.
  • French control over the puppet states of Italy, Naples, Holland and the Swiss Confederation recognized.
  • The French Empire annexes Catalonia, Andorra and all Dutch land on the island of Sumatra.
  • The previous French annexations of parts of northern Germany, Etruria and Rome recognized.
  • The Grand Duchy of Warsaw is annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia.
  • The French Illyrian Provinces are returned to the Austrian Empire.
  • The formerly Swedish Finland is annexed by the Russian Empire
  • The Confederation of the Rhine is reorganized. A new "German Confederation" is established with each individual German state as sovereign nation and simultaneous member of the Confederation.
  • Joseph Bonaparte recognized as King of Westphalia.
  • Spain and Portugal declared independent with their respective, legitimist monarchs restored.
  • The British Empire is given sovereignty over all of Australia and annexes the formerly Dutch Cape Colony.
  • The Slave Trade is Condemned.

(*) referes to events that happened the same as in our timeline.
 
Last edited:
Map of the World in 1810. An 1814 map which be up soon.

DUSOA1810.png
 
Last edited:
December 30th, 1814: The Treaty of Copenhagen is signed, officially ending the War of 1812 between the American Coalition and Great Britain. The terms of the peace treaty are as follows;

  • Great Britain annexes most Northwest Territory land over the 42nd Parnell North into their colony of Upper Canada.
  • The Republic of Boone (named after famed pioneer Daniel Boone, OTL's Kentucky) is established due to the successful revolt of pioneers in the region against the Virginian government during the war.
  • The Northwest Territory agreed to be neutral zone jointly occupied by Great Britain, New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio.

The Republic Virginia is resentful that they were kicked out of the Northwest Territory by Great Britain and the northern American Republics at the treaty negotiations in Copenhagen. The seeds of the Ohio-Virginia Rivalry are first sewn as a result.

1820s: In North America/the American republics, the decade of the 1820s would become a part of the "Era of Good Feelings", an era called as such due to the lack of wars between and growth of industry and innovation in the American republics. The Era of Good Feelings began in 1815, the year after the War of 1812 ended, and ended in 1833 with the begging of the War of 1833, thus encompassing all of the 1820s.

November 7th, 1824: The Greek War of Independence begins after the mass arrest of suspected Greek nationalists in Athens, Salonika and other major Greek cities by the Ottoman Turkish government. Greek rebels begin attacking Turkish armies in the aforementioned cities and in other places across the country as a result.

August, 1828: Great Britain, Prussia and Russia begin lending support in the form of soldiers, navies and supplies to the Greek revolutionaries. France also asked the Greek rebels if they wanted their support, but they refused, not wanting to become another French puppet state.

April 6th, 1830: The Church of Ladder Day Saints is founded by Joseph Smith Jr. in Fayette, Republic of New York.

June 8th, 1832: The Greek War of Independence ends after almost eight years with the signing of the Treaty of London, forcing the Ottoman Empire to recognize the new Republic of Greece. Ioannis Kapodistrias becomes first President of Greece.

February 19th, 1833: The War of 1833 begins over a border dispute between Georgia, led by President George Troup, and the French in Louisiana over land between them and Spanish Florida.

February 23rd, 1833: New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Boone declare war on France in support of Georgia. Second American Coalition established as a result.

February 24th, 1833: The Republic of Carolina, under President Andrew Jackson and Vice President John C. Calhoun, side with the French and declare war on the Second American Coalition, Jackson's goal being to conquer Boone and Georgia, forming a hypothetical "Southern Confederacy" and a successor state to the old United States of America.

March 24th, 1833: French-Louisianan soldiers invade the Northwest Territory. Great Britain, one of the occupants of the region, declares war on France and joins the Second American Coalition as a result. Almost immediately fighting begins between Britain and France in the Caribbean, English Channel and Indian Ocean.

September 19th, 1834: The First Northeastern War begins when New York, still at war with the French and Carolinians but safe from invasion, under President Martin Van Buren declares war on Vermont over a border dispute and numerous trade disputes.

October 1st, 1834: New Hampshire joins Vermont in their fight against New York.

April 26th, 1835: The government of the Republic of Vermont in Montpelier surrenders to New York, their whole country occupied by the armies of said nation. Soon afterwards, new recruits from Vermont are sent to the Northwestern and Carolinian fronts of the War of 1833.

May 2nd, 1835: New Hampshire, under President Benjamin Pierce, begins invading the newly New Yorker annexed Vermont in a blatant land grab.

May 17th, 1835: New Yorker armies begin bombarding Concord, the capital of New Hampshire.

May 22nd, 1835: The First Northeastern War ends when Benjamin Pierce and the rest of the New Hampshirite government surrender to the armies of New York, not wanting to face annexation by the rising regional power. Treaty of Concord is signed later that same day, with New Hampshire recognizing the New Yorker annexation of Vermont.

June 1st, 1835: Virginia joins the Second American Coalition and declares war on France and Carolina after a number of trade, tariff and military disputes between Virginian Consul Henry Clay and Carolinian President Andrew Jackson. Virginian soldiers are then sent to the Carolinian and Northwestern Fronts.

April 6th, 1836: The Virginian Army under General Zachary Taylor besieges and invades the Carolinan Capital of Raleigh. President Andrew Jackson is killed in battle, and the new President John C. Calhoun surrenders to General Taylor and calls for a ceasefire. When the dying Jackson is told of Calhoun's surrender to the Second American Coalition, he is reported to have said as his last words; "If I could live and regain the Presidency, I would have that coward hung from the highest tree in this nation."

April 14th, 1836: Emperor Joseph I of France agrees to a ceasefire with the Second American Coalition nations after months of bombardment of New Orleans at the hands of the Georgian Army and the British Royal Navy.

September 20th, 1836: The Treaty of Boston is signed, ending the War of 1833. The terms of the peace treaty are as follows;
  • Georgia given all the land that it claimed in its territorial dispute with the French Empire.
  • Boone given land from Carolina and the Northwest Territory.
  • France annexes part of Northwest Territory to Louisiana.
  • The rest of the Northwest Territory becomes the new, independent Republic of Wabash.
  • Carolina forced to pay monetary reparations to Virginia and Georgia for ten years.
 
Last edited:
The POD is the failure to establish a bi-cameral legislature at the Constitutional Convention. Killing off Madison is unnecessary.

Your timeline of the USA's break-up about a decade too fast. One of the characters in the novel is a coin collector, and has a US quarter from 1801, remarking that 1801 was just prior to the successions. So having any state declare independence before 1801 contradicts canon (mostly).

Virginia didn't annex anything. Turtledove makes it clear that Virginia has its pre-1861 OTL borders: present-day Virginia and West Virginia. A state called Boone exists, which is Kentucky and about half of Tennessee.

Other than those matters, I think you present an interesting timeline, and I look forward to more.
 
The POD is the failure to establish a bi-cameral legislature at the Constitutional Convention. Killing off Madison is unnecessary.

Your timeline of the USA's break-up about a decade too fast. One of the characters in the novel is a coin collector, and has a US quarter from 1801, remarking that 1801 was just prior to the successions. So having any state declare independence before 1801 contradicts canon (mostly).

Virginia didn't annex anything. Turtledove makes it clear that Virginia has its pre-1861 OTL borders: present-day Virginia and West Virginia. A state called Boone exists, which is Kentucky and about half of Tennessee.

Other than those matters, I think you present an interesting timeline, and I look forward to more.

Thanks for your criticism. :) I edited both posts and maps just a while ago and fixed what was incorrect/against canon, adding an extra thing here and there along the way.

New map and update should be coming today or tomorrow, so stay tuned. :cool:
 
June 20th, 1837: Death of King William IV of Great Britain and ascension of his 18 year-old niece Queen Victoria to the British throne. The Victorian Era begins as a result.

July 23rd, 1837: The Second Northeastern War begins when Massachusetts, under President John Quincy Adams, declares war on Rhode Island.

October 27th, 1837: The Second Northeastern War ends. Massachusetts annexes Rhode Island. Those in the now disbanded Rhode Island government who do not collaborate with and/or swear loyalty to the government of Massachusetts are exiled to any one of the nearby American republics.

December 2nd, 1837: John Smith Stapleton, a 31 year-old enraged Rhode Islander, attempts to assassinate Massachusettsan President John Quincy Adams during a political rally in Cambridge. Stapleton shoots Adams twice in the right arm, missing his mark. Soon after making those shots, Stapleton is riddled with bullets by President Adams' bodyguards. Luckily, Adams survives the attempt on his life with only relatively minor injuries.

June, 1838: French conquest of Algeria begins.

April 5th, 1839: The First Opium War begins between Great Britain and the Chinese Empire.

July 21st, 1839: The Texan War of Independence begins when Texan rebels, mostly émigrés from the American republics, including many slave-owning southerners, begin taking up arms against numerous Mexican garrisons in a number of Texan towns.

October, 1840: French conquest of Algeria officially ends.

February 10th, 1840: The Republic of Texas is declared independent in the rebel-held city of San Antonio de Bexar. Stephen F. Austin is unanimously elected to be the nation's first President. Mirabeau B. Lamar is appointed by Austin to be his Vice-President.

September 1st, 1840: The Texan War of Independence ends, as almost all of Texas is in rebel hands. The Republic of Texas is then recognized by the Mexican government of President Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna.

September 1st, 1842: The First Opium War ends.

April 16th, 1843: The Republic of Yucatan is declared in Valladolid in reaction to the increasing centralization of the Mexican government under President Santa Anna, centralization which had also had a hand in Texas declaring its independence four years previously. Mexico declares war on the new republic as a result.

July 27th, 1844: After several failed invasions of the Yucatan, the Mexican government finally agrees to peace with and to recognition of the Republic of Yucatan.

July 28th, 1844: Emperor Joseph I of France dies in Paris at the age of 76. His 33 year-old nephew, Napoleon II, thus succeeds him as Emperor Napoleon II of France.

September 28th, 1844: The Third Northeastern War begins when Massachusetts declares war on New Hampshire, not wanting the republic to fall into the sphere of influence of or be annexed by the rising regional power of New York.

November 25th, 1844: The Third Northeastern War ends after almost two months. New Hampshire is annexed by Massachusetts, and like with Rhode Island, those in the former government who do not collaborate with and/or swear loyalty to the government of Massachusetts are exiled.

1845: Joseph Smith, Brigham Young and the followers of the LDS or Mormon Church move west from Wabash into French Louisiana. Not wanted by the mostly Catholic French Louisianans, the Mormons quickly move further west to Alto California in Mexico.

November 23rd, 1845: The first Mormon settlements spring up in and around what will one day become Salt Lake City. Tensions also begin to arise between the Mormons and Mexicans.

October 19th, 1849: Joseph Smith, the founder and leader of the Mormon church, dies of consumption at the age of 43.

October 27th, 1949: Brigham Young becomes the new leader of the Mormon church as a result of Joseph Smith’s death.

June 20th, 1851: The Rocky Mountain War begins after years of tensions between the Mormon and Mexican settlers in Alto California, when Mexican settlers get into a fire fight with Mormon settlers not far from Salt Lake City. When rumors are heard that the Mexican army is coming to the area of Salt Lake City to quell the violence, the Mormon leadership decides that the time has come to act and to take up arms against the Mexican Army.

October 21st, 1853: The First Ohio-Virginia War begins over a series of heated disputes between the two countries over trading, travel and ownership rights in regards to the Ohio River. Zachary Taylor, now pushing seventy, comes out of retirement to lead the Army of Virginia.

May 4th, 1855: The Rocky Mountain War ends after almost four years of bloodshed, with Mormon rebels controlling a good amount of Alto California and Mexican settlers losing the will to fight. As a result, Mexico recognizes the new Mormon nation of Deseret, a "Theodemocracy" led by the leaders of the LDS faith.

November 2nd, 1856: The Ohio-Virginia war ends in a stalemate.

November 9th, 1856: The Treaty of Pittsburgh is signed between President Salmon P. Chase of Ohio and Consul Jefferson Davis of Virginia. The Treaty resolves a number of the disputes which triggered the war in the first place, and both leaders seem satisfied with the terms. While the war was short, it saw the rise to fame of many famous men, men such as Robert. E Lee, Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson and J.E.B. Stewart in Virginia, and William Tecumseh Sherman, Hiram Ulysses Simpson Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes and a young drummer boy by the name of George Armstrong Custer in Ohio.

September 29th, 1857: After years of political instability in Mexico exasperated by the wars with Texas, Yucatan and Deseret, the Republic of the Rio Grande is declared independent in the city of Saltillo and thus officially secedes from Mexico. President Santa Anna immediately sends in the Mexican Army to conquer the new republic, which will only prove to make things worse.
 
Last edited:
Ok, another continuity bit--by the time of the novel (2097 or so), Virginia's highest office is the "consul", not president. Now nothing in the novel says they didn't have a presidency at some point, but somewhere along the line, well, that's a thing for you to address.

There are other off-the-cuff references to other offices. California is a parliamentarian system with a prime minister, for example. So you don't need to be wedded to the presidential system.

EDIT: And, actually, after a quick review, we learn most of the states have consuls.
 
Last edited:
I heartily approve of this thread. Disunited States is in my opinion the best of the Crosstime Traffic series.
 
Ok, another continuity bit--by the time of the novel (2097 or so), Virginia's highest office is the "consul", not president. Now nothing in the novel says they didn't have a presidency at some point, but somewhere along the line, well, that's a thing for you to address.

There are other off-the-cuff references to other offices. California is a parliamentarian system with a prime minister, for example. So you don't need to be wedded to the presidential system.

EDIT: And, actually, after a quick review, we learn most of the states have consuls.


I fixed the Consul thing in my last post. Also, thanks for the info.

New updates should be coming up by the end of the month!
 
I'm liking how this timeline is going, but Georgia, Mississippi and Alabama were all separate nations in the book, so you might want to break them up at some point.
 
It's been a long time since I've update this timeline, but I've decided to update on some of my old works again.

I plan on continuing this story up until the 22nd century. Hope you enjoy!

October 5, 1857: The Mexican Army, led personally by President Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, besieges the city of Laredo in the Republic of Rio Grande.

October 6, 1857: On the second and last day of the battle, President Santa Anna is killed in battle by a stray bullet from the Rio Grandese Army. When word reaches Mexico City of this turn of events, large-scale rioting begins.

October 10, 1857: General Martín Carrera, a moderate liberal, launches a coup in Mexico City and declares himself the President of Mexico.

October 14, 1857: As a result of the Liberal coup in Mexico City, Mexican conservatives, led by Félix María Zuloaga, as well as other factions begin to rise-up and revolt all throughout Mexico, with some opportunistic local officials seeking to carve out their own nations. The Mexican Civil War begins.

January 10, 1858: King Joachim I of Naples dies in Naples at the age of 90. His second oldest son Lucien, 3rd Prince Murat becomes King Lucien of Naples.

May 11, 1858: William Walker, an adventurer from Boone, takes over the Mexican state of Sonora and declares the independence of the Republic of Sonora, with Walker declaring himself Caudillo of Sonora and renaming himself Guillermo Walker.

July 9-July 24, 1858: Guatemala invades and annexes the Mexican state of Chiapas.

September 20, 1858: The Republic of Baja California declares independence from Mexico.

March 9, 1859: As a result of widespread poverty and discontent with the Murat dynasty, Sicilian Republicans revolt throughout the island of Sicily in the Kingdom of Naples. The War of Sicilian Independence begins.

July 15, 1859: The independence of the Sicilian Republic is officially declared in Palermo with Ruggero Settimo as First Consul (Head of State) and Francesco Crispi as First Minister (Head of Government).

November 30, 1859: The governments of the Kingdom of Naples and the Sicilian Republic make peace with each other. The war of Sicilian Independence ends.

March 20, 1860: The Republic of Jalisco declares independence from Mexico.

June 14, 1860: As a result of the revolts in “Old Mexico” and long-standing grievances against the government in Mexico City, the Republic of California, led by Californios of Spanish and Mexican descent and Anglo-American settlers, declares independence from Mexico, with Romualdo Pacheco becoming the first President of California and William B. Ide the first Prime Minister of California, with Sacramento being made the capital of the new country. The Californian War of Independence begins.

August 18, 1860: The government of the Republic of the Rio Grande moves its government from Laredo to Monterrey, fearing an invasion from Texas.

October 10, 1860: The Republic of Oaxaca led by Benito Juarez declares independence from Mexico.

May 31, 1861: Inspired by the Mexican and Sicilian revolutions, the Spanish colony of Florida, inhabited mostly by Anglo-American and Spanish descended settlers, rebels against Spanish rule.

June 10, 1861: The independence of the Republic of Florida is declared in St. Augustine, with Edmund Kirby Smith as the first President of Florida and Vicente Martinez Ybor as the first Vice-President of Florida.

September 12, 1861: Inspired by the Mexican, Sicilian, and Floridian revolutions, and after years of discontent with the French Imperial government, republican Louisiana Creole revolutionaries led by P.G.T. Beauregard launch a revolt in New Orleans. The Louisiana War of Independence begins.

October 1, 1861: As New Orleans falls to the Louisiana revolutionaries, and the French colonial government flees to Cayenne in French Guiana, P.G.T. Beauregard declares the independence of the Republic of Louisiana with himself as first Consul of Louisiana.

May 24, 1862: With the Mexican Civil War and the Mexican separatist evolts raging on, the Mexican government realizes that it cannot hold onto to Alta California and calls for a ceasefire with the Californian government.

June 29, 1862: The Californian and Mexican governments sign the Treaty of San Francisco, with the Mexican government recognizing the independence of California. The Californian War of Independence ends.

November 14, 1862: Inspired by the ongoing Louisiana Revolution, the Republic of Missouri, led mostly by White-Anglo-Saxon-Protestant settlers from the American Republicans and led by President Benjamin Gratz Brown, rebels against the French colonial government. The Missourian War of Independence begins.

January 20, 1863: The Republic of the Rio Grande is officially renamed to the Republic of Monterrey.

April 15, 1863: President Martin Cerrera is deposed and imprisoned by the forces of Conservative general Leonardo Márquez. Immediately, afterwards sends peace feelers to the Mexican separatist republics.

June 6, 1863: The Mexican Civil War ends after almost six years of brutal warfare. The Treaty of Mexico City is signed with the rump Republic of Mexico under President Leonardo Márquez recognizing the independence of the new Mexican separatist states. The New Mexican republics include the following;

Republic of Baja California (Capital: La Paz)
Republic of Sonora (Capital: Hermosillo)
Republic of Jalisco (Capital: Guadalajara)
Republic of Rio Grande/Republic of Monterrey (Capital: Monterrey City)
Republic of Oaxaca (Capital: Oaxaca City)
 
Top