Good question. The United States has sent unmanned probes to both Venus and Mars. The United States Space Agency has been working on plans for a Mars mission ever since the end of the Artemis Initiative (America's Lunar Program) but the Department of Space has yet to give it the green light. Most expect that Germany, the United States, and possibly event the IEF or China will soon find themselves in a space race to conduct the first Mars landing.
The Union Forever: A TL
- Thread starter Mac Gregor
- Start date
Good question. The United States has sent unmanned probes to both Venus and Mars. The United States Space Agency has been working on plans for a Mars mission ever since the end of the Artemis Initiative (America's Lunar Program) but the Department of Space has yet to give it the green light. Most expect that Germany, the United States, and possibly event the IEF or China will soon find themselves in a space race to conduct the first Mars landing.
Excellent question. I have never given a good definition for the TL ecoist movement. For comparison...
OTL's Green Politics is defined by Wikipedia as "a political ideology that aims to create an ecologically sustainable society rooted in environmentalism, nonviolence, social justice, and grassroots democracy."
The TL's Ecoism is defined simply as "a political ideology that aims to create an ecologically sustainable democratic society."
In other words, the TL's Ecoism is a more diverse movement than OTL's Green movement and while social justice is a more common theme most aren't associated with nonviolence . While many Ecoist parties present themselves as a third way/reform party, they run a wide range of political positions. Some are Socialist, others are capitalist. A plurality would be considered center-left. Ecoist have found themselves divided over other issues like genetically modified food and cloning.
That would be fun to see. Of course given the state of world affairs it's still very much in the balance and hard to predict. But by modern day would we necessarily have a more or less advanced space program than OTL? Developments in that field have taken longer to begin, but have caught up tremendously in the space of a decade.
Let's hope there won't be something like the Mark Watney incident. Speaking of which, has there been an Apollo 13-like accident?
If something akin to that happened in real life, the stranded astronaut would die 99 out of 100 times.
To answer your question regarding Arabia it is closer to OTL Jordan than OTL's Saudi Arabia.
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To be sure, The Union Forever does lack some of the nastier parts of OTL such as the Soviet Union, WWII, the Holocaust, and global Islamic terrorism. However, the Asia-Pacific War was pretty nasty, colonialism has lasted longer, and the spread of Technocracy has had some ugly characteristics such as the wide spread use of eugenics.
There have certainly been a number of space related accidents. The closest thing to OTL's Apollo 13 was the during the IEF's Venus flyby when faulty wiring almost proved fatal during the first week of travel but was able to be fixed. The world didn't learn about this until the cosmonauts had safely returned to Earth.
1996 Presidential Election
1996 Presidential Election
After eight years in office, President Abraham Lincoln IV could look back on an impressive list of achievements aborad and sustained economic growth at home. Many in the Republican party wished for Lincoln, only 51 years old, to following in his great-grandfather's footsteps and run for a third term. While Lincoln reportedly considered doing so, he eventually announced in January of 1996 that he would not be a candidate. Instead, he threw his considerable clout behind his Vice President, Franklin Blanton.
Franklin M. Blanton
Franklin Marion Blanton was born on January 30, 1933 to middleclass parents in Marietta, Ohio. When Blanton was 12 years old his father Bernard Blanton moved the growing family to Akron where he opened a successful chain of grocery stores. Franklin Blanton later won a scholarship playing Lacrosse at the Ohio Institute of Technology in Cuyahoga Falls and graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering. Blanton was only lightly involved in the second wave of the civil rights movement but did participate in a number of marches during his college years. For most of the 1950s and 1960s, Blanton worked at a variety of jobs in Cincinnati and Columbus where he was often lauded for his attention to detail. In 1969, Blanton met Beatrice Getty during a conference in Atlanta. After a long distance courtship, the two married in the summer of 1971. In 1976, Blanton was approached by the Fairfield County Republican Party to run for the Ohio General Assembly. Blanton ousted the Democratic incumbent in a surprising upset and would eventually go on to become a state senator. In 1982, Blanton was elected to the United States House of Representatives where he quickly befriended another freshman congressman Abraham Lincoln IV of Illinois. In 1988, Blanton was elected to the United States Senate and won reelection in 1994. In 1995, Vice President Palmer Lockwood resigned due to thyroid cancer. Blanton soon landed on President Lincoln’s shortlist of nominees and after a brief vetting process was confirmed by the Senate.
The Campaign
Most political scientists agree that the Republicans went into the 1996 elections with the odds stacked heavily in their favor. President Lincoln campaigned hard for Blanton who kept nearly all of Lincoln’s policies and vowed to lead America into the 21st century. Blanton quickly secured the Republican nomination after seeing off only a handful of unimpressive challengers. For his running mate Blanton selected Governor Lenny Rutledge of Alabama. The Democrats fielded Trevor Jeffries of New Mexico and Chase Moynihan of Dakota, a lackluster ticket that failed to persuade voters that the Republicans strong stance against the Technocrats and penchant for budget deficits were a serious threat to national stability. The Ecoist Alliance nominated Ken Chavez of Panama and Sally Deignan of New Jersey.
The Results
Franklin M. Blanton
Republican from Ohio
37th President of the United States
On election night the Democrats suffered their third presidential loss in a row, winning only 19 states. The Ecoist performed better than expected capturing nearly 3% of the vote. The Republicans cruised to victory scoring 54.2% of the popular vote and 427 electoral votes making Franklin M. Blanton the first African American to be elected president.
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Good to see TTL society advancing towards de facto equality in politics.
Keep it up, Mac Gregor!
Glad yall enjoyed the update. Yes, I think it is very fitting that the first black president ITTL is a Republican. What we call the Great Migration is considerable less ITTL although there is greater migration of African Americans to the American West during the 19th Century. ITTL Georgia has a strong Republican history thanks to the legacy of President Leroy Connor. Alabama went Republican because Lenny Rutledge the VP candidate is a very popular Governor.
1997: Foreign and Domestic Developments
1997
Foreign and Domestic Developments
Rocket Launch by the Technate of China
Rocket Launch by the Technate of China
The Technate of China's Sub-directorate for Space Exploration launched the first module of Jìnzhǎn the nation’s first space station. Although it would not be fully completed until 2003, it served as a powerful reminder that in space China was catching up with their American, German, and IEF rivals.
On April 18, the anniversary of the coronation of Poland’s first king Boleslaw the Brave, massive demonstrations for greater autonomy and political freedoms took place in Warsaw and Lodz. While these sorts of protests were nothing new, the fact that similar demonstrations broke out in Finland, the Baltic, and Central Asia seized media headlines around the world. As had become usual, Empress Elizabeth II urged calm while Prime Minister Bronislav Mihoylev and his military supporters sent in the troops to restore order. While the official death toll of 46 appears to be far too low, the exact number may never be known due to government censorship.
Sphinx, an advanced computer developed by the Danzig based Dimendberg Corporation, beat Lubomierz Alkaev the highest ranking chess grandmaster at the time. The well-publicized series of matches highlighted the progress that computers had made over the last few decades.
The year saw an especially severe hurricane season in the Caribbean. The American states of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Santo Domingo, and Guadeloupe and Martinique suffered significant damage, as did the British dominions of the Bahamas and the West Indies Confederation. President Blanton, and to a lesser extent Prime Minister Lever, were blamed for the slow response to aid the islanders.
On October 2, the aged Shah Hamid Hassan Qajar stepped down after 31 years as Persia’s ruler in favor of his son and groomed successor Naser Ali Qajar in what turned out to a remarkably smooth transition. Naser Ali’s father had returned Persia to a position of power it had not enjoyed since the Safavids. With an empire won by war, financed by petroleum, and armed with nuclear weapons, Persia was a force to reckon with. As the new Shah took his seat on the Sun Throne in Isfahan, Naser Ali stated in a televised address that Persia “had yet greater heights to reach.”
The Atlanta Goobers won the 1997 Professional Baseball League Championship against the Panama Canaleers. This marked the Goobers’ 6th consecutive championship a new record in American baseball. When Goobers manager Pablo Cruz was asked by a reporter what the plan was for the next season Cruz simply stated “get better.”
Although repeatedly delayed for further consideration, the Von Hassel Commission finally published their much-anticipated plan for the political status of German Cameroon. By the end of the year, the sprawling colony was divided along the Ogooel and Ivinda Rivers into two states with the same political rights as the other parts of the German Empire. South Cameroon with its capital in Fredrickstadt had the oil wealth of the Kabinda region. Douala served as the capital of North Cameroon and due to its position along the equator hosted the majority of Germany’s space launch facilities. Needless to say, many Conservatives were upset that Cameroon was put on equal status with the likes of Prussia and Bavaria. However, Chancellor Ernst Osterloh had finally come to the realization that if a solution was not arrived at soon Cameroon stood a good chance of falling into the hands of African nationalists as had seized power in the neighboring Congo. As such he convinced enough of his own party and the Democrat opposition to approve the proposal.
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Sounding good
Less so. More and more IEF news each update...
Quite the butterfly; OTL the hurricane season was pretty light. Wonder if this will lead to calls for secession in any Caribbean states. What are the demographics like in these compared to OTL?
Greater heights... Building height race?
Well that's one way to keep the empire together.
Well fuck those guys.