Very True. I was aware that "In God We Trust" or according to Wikipedia "...And this be our motto: 'In God is our trust'." was part of Francis Scott's Key's The Star Spangled Banner. Wiki says that "In God We Trust" didn't appear on U.S. coins until 1864. So I agree that it is possible for "In God We Trust" to be on U.S. Currency in the TL. However, with The Battle Cry of Freedom being the national anthem in TUF, The Star Spangled Banner, either the poem or song version, is probably not very well known. Therefore I would find it unlikely if "In God We Trust" made onto American money in the TL.
The Union Forever: A TL
- Thread starter Mac Gregor
- Start date
Very True. I was aware that "In God We Trust" or according to Wikipedia "...And this be our motto: 'In God is our trust'." was part of Francis Scott's Key's The Star Spangled Banner. Wiki says that "In God We Trust" didn't appear on U.S. coins until 1864. So I agree that it is possible for "In God We Trust" to be on U.S. Currency in the TL. However, with The Battle Cry of Freedom being the national anthem in TUF, The Star Spangled Banner, either the poem or song version, is probably not very well known. Therefore I would find it unlikely if "In God We Trust" made onto American money in the TL.
1930s: Domestic Developments
The 1930s
Part 1: Domestic Affairs
52 Star American Flag after the admission of the states of Puerto Rico and Hawaii
The 1932 Elections
After eight years in office and despite successfully bringing the nation out of the economic chaos caused by the Panic of 1923, President Abercrombie declined to stand for a third term. At the Democratic Convention in Minneapolis, Minnesota the party nominated Iowa congressman Zachary T. McKinnis after the heir apparent Vice President Bergstrom died of a heart attack during the primaries. To balance the ticket McKinnis was paired with Edgar D. Glover a former two term governor from Mississippi. The Republicans’ nominated the lackluster ticket of Jerry F. Dawson and Colby St. John notable only in that St. John was the first American Catholic to be selected for a presidential ticket. The campaign consisted of the Democrats relying on the booming economy while their Republican challengers tried to shift the focus onto foreign policy. In the end, the American public was not persuaded by the Republicans’ arguments and elected McKinnis and Glover by one of the widest margins in electoral history. Further compounding the Republican rout, the Democrats captured the Senate for the first time in decades.
The McKinnis Presidency
Zachary T. McKinnis
Democrat from Iowa
27th President of the United States
Upon assuming office, President McKinnis followed in the footsteps of his predecessor by cutting taxes on businesses and paying off the national debt which he never failed to mention was caused by “decades and decades of Republican domestic tampering and foreign meddling.” By the end of his term he had reduced the national debt to its lowest levels since the Hill Administration during the 1890s. Having often publically declared his “abhorrence” for government spending, federal projects were naturally rare during the McKinnis administration with the noticeable exception of the dam that would bear his name. Although plans had been drawn up for damning the Colorado River since the Roosevelt Administration it would be President McKinnis who presided over the ground breaking ceremonies in February of 1933. Even though it wouldn’t be completed during his time in office the dam would prove to be one of the longest lasting symbols of the McKinnis presidency.
Puerto Rico joins the Union
Flag of the State of Puerto Rico
In what proved to be the last major act of the McKinnis administration, Puerto Rico was admitted to the Union on November 3, 1936 after having spent nearly 58 years as a territory since its capture from Spain during the Spanish-American War. The reason for finally admitting Puerto Rico during the 11th hour of his presidency is not fully understood but it is believed by many historians to have been an attempt to improve the ailing chances of his Vice President’s 1936 presidential campaign. Along with Cuba and Santo Domingo, Puerto Rico became the third state in the Caribbean and like them used English as the language of government and taught it alongside Spanish in island’s public schools. Furthermore, like its Caribbean sister states, Puerto Rico had “Americanized” considerably since its liberation as seen when the San Juan Coquis joined the Professional Baseball League in 1939.
Election of 1936
Although many expected McKinnis to be easily reelected for a second term, McKinnis declined re-nomination after being diagnosed with lung cancer during the spring of 1936. After a contentious convention in Baton Rouge, Louisiana the Democrats nominated Vice President Glover for President and Secretary of State Arlen Tucker as his running mate. In what should have been an easy campaign, the Democratic ticket soon ran aground due to a series of public relation blunders committed by Glover. With a thick southern accent, the portly and heavy drinking Vice President failed to connect with voters in the now all important medium of radio. The most damaging example of which was a September radio address in which it was widely perceived that Glover had slurred some of his words due to being drunk on the air. Furthermore, Glover was an ardent segregationalist and his recorded use of words such as “nigger-like” and “misceginated” to describe things he didn’t care for distanced himself from the American people, most of whom were perfectly content not to think about the country’s race relations. At the Republican National Convention in Boston, Governor Daniel E. Warburton of Pennsylvania and Travis B. Wingfield the senior senator from Maine where chosen to try and regain the White House for the Republicans. After a bitter campaign Warburton managed to beat Glover by one of the narrowest margins in American history. The Democrats however managed to hold on to both houses of congress with solid majorities.
Hawaii joins the Union
Flag of the State of Hawaii
Following only a few months after Puerto Rico, Hawaii was admitted into the Union on March, 28 1937 becoming the republic’s 52nd state. The Democrat controlled Congress’s decision to admit the archipelago was in part to further their majority in the Senate. Politically Hawaii had been dominated by Anglo-American businessmen since the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy and the islands annexation by the United States in 1893. After achieving statehood, Hawaii dutifully elected two Democratic senators to send to Washington to represent their state much to the pleasure of congressional leaders and to the chagrin of President Warburton.
“4 Damn Years as a Lame Duck”: The Warburton Administration
Daniel E. Warburton
Republican from Pennsylvania
28th President of the United States
Upon assuming office, President Warburton soon found his political agenda “mired up to the hip” by the Democratic congress. Again and again, Congress refused to hear or voted down matters that Republicans wished to see discussed such as a constitutional amendment to allow for the direct election of U.S. senators, a permanent international forum for nations in the Western Hemisphere, and an increase in the national minimum wage. Utterly flustered on tackling what he saw as the big issues of the day, Warburton turned his attention to accomplishing a multitude of lesser tasks. Warbutron is today remembered as a great conservationist having designated more national parks and wildlife reserves than any president in American history including Pico Duarte National Park in Santo Domingo, Everglades National Park in Florida, and Luquillo National Park in Puerto Rico. Warburton, a Great War veteran himself, also managed to secure funds from the ever frugal congress for the construction on the National Great War Memorial on the National Mall in Washington D.C. Designed by famed American architect Gary Godwin, the Great War memorial was constructed over the course of 4 years at the far end of the Washington monument reflecting pool. A prime example of Rationalist architecture, the monument took the form of a large white marble sphere nestled into a tiered pedestal. Measuring 176 feet in diameter, the sphere or globe was meant to represent not only the global scale of the war but also the new world which had been born out of the conflict.
American Culture in the 30s
While Ruckus and Delta continued to be popular throughout the decade, new music forms such as Sawmill, which was based off of Appalachian folk music, also started gaining time on the airwaves. In sports, Edwin Anderson would break the color line when he became the first black American to play Professional League Baseball outside of the Caribbean after signing with the Brooklyn Brawlers in 1930. The 30s would see the American film industry continue to grow as seen by the production of several large budget epics with the two most influential movies being Our Country (1935) and In Troubled Times (1937). Our Country, a historic drama set in eastern Tennessee during the Civil War, explored the interfamilial conflict of the Patterson family who were torn between loyalty to the Union and their native state. In the end, the eldest son Joseph persuades the Pattersons to stay loyal to the Union after showing them that the film’s villain Mr. Cain, the town’s wealthy slave owning mayor, really views the war as a way to save his property and not about protecting freedom. The movie is often cited today for encapsulating the growing belief amongst Americans, including Southerners, that the Civil War was a doomed enterprise bent upon protecting the wealth and position of the South’s antebellum elite. In Troubled Times was the first in a new genre of movies that would become known as “Alternate History”. Set in 1936 in a world where America stayed out of World War I, the victorious Second French Empire invades the American eastern seaboard. The most expensive film to date, the movie featured enormous battle scenes using over 2,500 human extras. Although often belittled on grounds of plausibility, In Trouble Times remains one of the most influential movies in American film history.
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Yay! The Cenotàphe à Newton lives!
I didn't foresee a Boullèe-inspired Rationalist Architecture but I can't say I'm not pleased: a "pure forms"-centered Modern Movement will keep geometric buildings away from the greasy hands of the Post-Moderns and that's a good thing! (Seriously, you'd think CUBES can't be ruined, and nevertheless...)
Am I smelling TTL version of the Unmentionable Seamammal in the cinema update?
(By the way, did you receive my PM?)
I didn't foresee a Boullèe-inspired Rationalist Architecture but I can't say I'm not pleased: a "pure forms"-centered Modern Movement will keep geometric buildings away from the greasy hands of the Post-Moderns and that's a good thing! (Seriously, you'd think CUBES can't be ruined, and nevertheless...)
Am I smelling TTL version of the Unmentionable Seamammal in the cinema update?
(By the way, did you receive my PM?)
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I did not. Pease send it to Mac Gregor not MacGregor. Thanks.
Some Thoughts
Hey Everybody,
I have been thinking about this TL’s future and I would like some feedback. Let me first say that I have enjoyed restarting this timeline and filling in the gaps from the Great War to the present. I also greatly appreciate everyone’s help, comments, and attention. However it appears to me that the reactivated TUF is generating less interest than it used to, possibly because we know how it is going to turn out and that none of the TL’s characters are from OTL. Not trying to start a pity party, I just want to see what people are interested in reading. My question for the board is which of the following options would ya’ll most like to see.
1) Keep on with the original plan with 1 to 2 posts per decade until the present day and then continue into the 21st Century (Yes I have had some ideas about a new large scale war to take place in the TL’s future).
2) Skip ahead to 2012 and start writing new material on the TL’s future.
3) Post installments filling in the TL’s blanks until the modern day and then move on to something else
4) Leave well enough alone, end TUF, and start another TL. Truth be told though I don’t have any ideas or plans for a new TL at the moment.
Thanks for the feedback, and any critiques on writing style or what this TL is or isn’t covering are more than welcome. Cheers!
Hey Everybody,
I have been thinking about this TL’s future and I would like some feedback. Let me first say that I have enjoyed restarting this timeline and filling in the gaps from the Great War to the present. I also greatly appreciate everyone’s help, comments, and attention. However it appears to me that the reactivated TUF is generating less interest than it used to, possibly because we know how it is going to turn out and that none of the TL’s characters are from OTL. Not trying to start a pity party, I just want to see what people are interested in reading. My question for the board is which of the following options would ya’ll most like to see.
1) Keep on with the original plan with 1 to 2 posts per decade until the present day and then continue into the 21st Century (Yes I have had some ideas about a new large scale war to take place in the TL’s future).
2) Skip ahead to 2012 and start writing new material on the TL’s future.
3) Post installments filling in the TL’s blanks until the modern day and then move on to something else
4) Leave well enough alone, end TUF, and start another TL. Truth be told though I don’t have any ideas or plans for a new TL at the moment.
Thanks for the feedback, and any critiques on writing style or what this TL is or isn’t covering are more than welcome. Cheers!
I vote for option 1, but if you don't feel like filling in the blanks then option 2. Keep this timeline alive!
It's hard to give you feedback because I already know where it's going, but that doesn't mean by any means I'm not anxiously awaiting every update!
It's hard to give you feedback because I already know where it's going, but that doesn't mean by any means I'm not anxiously awaiting every update!
havent been on the forums in months, and am posting to say good job on continuing.
I pick option #4. As a matter of fact, I have another idea in the works that I'd be willing to collaborate with you on if you're interested.
I would most emphatically advocate Option No. 1, or maybe No. 2. I have enjoyed this TL immensely, as have many others, and would like to see just how things shake out both across the remainder of the 20th. century as well as into the 21st
I just finished reading this timeline, it is amazing!!! Definitely one of the better written ones on the site, and I love how you portrayed the Great War. I'd like to pick option one, but maybe use OTL people. The fictional characters are nice, but we don't really know anything about them and they don't grab interest as much as historical figures. But hey, its your timeline, and I'm gonna keep reading no matter what
havent been on the forums in months, and am posting to say good job on continuing.
I would most emphatically advocate Option No. 1, or maybe No. 2. I have enjoyed this TL immensely, as have many others, and would like to see just how things shake out both across the remainder of the 20th. century as well as into the 21st
I just finished reading this timeline, it is amazing!!! Definitely one of the better written ones on the site, and I love how you portrayed the Great War. I'd like to pick option one, but maybe use OTL people. The fictional characters are nice, but we don't really know anything about them and they don't grab interest as much as historical figures. But hey, its your timeline, and I'm gonna keep reading no matter what
Thanks guys for all the support. It appears that option 1 is the preferred way forward and that’s what I am going to do. I'm not sure how far forward into the 21st Century this TL will ultimately go but as let’s give it a try. Cheers!
I've been lurking for quite some time now, but I'd like to voice my opinion for choice 1 even though the voting is done.
1930s: Foreign Developments
The 1930s
Part 2: Foreign Developments
The Italian Miracle
During the 1930s the Italian Republic underwent a sort of economic and cultural renaissance with Italian films and fashions becoming the toast of Europe and Italian manufactured goods competing with American, British, and German products on the world market. Italy during this time saw a massive period of industrialization which in a few decades time would make it one of the leading economies in Europe. Since the abolition of the monarchy, Italy has continued to remain a stable and vibrant democracy with the center-right Democratic Republican Party of former President Brancaleone Lucchesi and the center-left People’s Party of Italy competing for the votes of the Italian electorate. In foreign policy, the Italian Republic has distanced itself somewhat from its German allies and drawn closer to other republican governments like France and the United States. Furthermore, since the end of the Great War the Italian government has encouraged nearly 100,000 Italian citizens to immigrate to its sole colony on the African coast. While this has led to some skirmishes with nomads in the desert interior the Republican Army has so far been able to squash any serious resistance.
South America
Flag of the Federal Republic of Brazil
In the decades following the Great War, the nations of Latin America saw more liberal minded governments come to power as the influence of the now defunct French Empire was replaced by that of the United States. The region’s most powerful state continued to be the Federal Republic of Brazil who since the fall of the monarchy in 1909 has made impressive gains in industrialization and education. The United States of Columbia is one of the continent’s most prominent success stories having grown by leaps and bounds since the return of democracy in 1910. Although some Columbians still resent the selling of the Panamanian isthmus to the United States, few doubt the good that has resulted from the massive amounts of American aid and investment that have flowed into the country. Argentina and Chile have also continued their climb towards industrialization and modernization and as such are the chief destinations in Latin America for emigrants from Central and Eastern Europe.
All however is not well in South America. Domestic progress in the nations of Venezuela and Ecuador has been turbulent as military coups during the 20s and 30s have undermined the nations’ stability. Lain America has remained relatively peaceful since the Great War with the only near exception being the Chaco crisis of 1930 when the dictatorial governments of Bolivia and Paraguay almost came to blows over the disputed Gran Chaco region. In the end, Brazilian and Argentine arbitration prevented the crisis from escalating into a war. The result provided an enormous boost of support for the rightwing Serrano regime in Bolivia but ended up toppling the Paraguayan government leading ultimately to a democratic takeover in 1934.
Blue nations are functioning democracies, Yellow nations are flawed democracies, and Maroon nations are dictatorial states.
The Birth of Krulikism
The brainchild of Slovenian academic and engineer Jurcek Krulik, the socio-political philosophy of Krulikism gained considerable attention and spread throughout the world during the 1930s. As described by his 1931 book Man and the Technocratic World, Krulikism is, in its most basic form, a call to place the decision making powers of society in the hands of those best qualified to solve society’s problems which Krulik claims are the world’s scientist, engineers, and doctors. However unlike other proposals for Technocracy, Krulikism does not call for the abolition of the state. In these new states known as “technates” the learned professionals would select the best amongst their number to govern society. At over 700 pages, Man and the Technocratic World espoused ideas on a variety of other subjects which further differentiated Krulikism from more mainline technocratic theories. These ideas resonated with many different groups around the world for different reasons. Many socialists and dishearten communists were attracted to Krulikism due to Kurlik’s emphasis on using the state’s wealth on the construction of massive engineering projects for the betterment of society. Large numbers of academics supported Kurlik’s call for universal higher education and nationally subsidized research and development in order to create a smarter and therefore better run state. Others sympathized with Krulikism due to its harsh stance towards religion which Kurlick, much like Marx, believed “curtailed the intellectual and productive potential of society.”
Jurcek Krulik
1931
The Ottoman Civil War
Since its defeat in the Great War, the Ottoman Empire has been racked by near incessant political instability. With the loss of its territory in the Balkans, Mesopotamia, and Arabia, the Turks’ once great empire is by the 1930s a mere shadow of its former glory. Tensions between the empire’s two largest ethnic groups the Turks and Arabs have been on the rise for decades but began to boil over in 1937 when General Fareed Bakri Kattan an Arab member of the Ottoman Parliament openly called for the independence of the empire’s remaining Arab territories. General Kattan, who had fought valiantly for the Sultan during the Great War, was forced to flee Istanbul for his life when he was denounced as a traitor by Sultan Murad VI. For the rest of the decade, in what would become known as the Ottoman Civil War, General Kattan would wage a guerrilla war against imperial forces from the hinterland of his native Syria. Kattan and his rebels were aided by arms shipments and volunteers from the neighboring Sultanate of Arabia who wished to see the Turkish Sultan’s claims on title of the Caliph of Islam ended. Further compounding the Ottomans’ problems was an ever-growing faction of Turkish officers and intellectuals who wished to see the monarchy toppled and the establishment of a modern and secular Turkish state.
The international community was bitterly divided on whom to support in the conflict with each Great Power rooting for either the Arab rebels, Ottomans, or Turkish nationalists. To avoiding the conflict sparking a wider war, the British called for a summit on Malta in June of 1938 where the nations of Britain, Germany, Russia, Italy, and France agreed not to send troops, sell munitions, or annex Ottoman territory for the duration of the conflict. The United States was conspicuously absent during these negotiations due to a congressional resolution by the isolationist Democratic congress which bared the State Department from becoming involved. This was much to the annoyance of President Warburton who had initially voiced support for the Arab rebels.
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Very nice update!
So it appears that Communism ITTL has largely been replaced with Krulik's neo-Technocrat movement. This is awesome, I can't even remember any other ATL that included Technocracy as part of it (it IS a pretty whacked-out philosophy of course).
Also WRT the apparent jump in European settlement of North Africa, what consequences will this have later on down the line in terms of religious and ethnic makeup of that region? I seem to recall that OTL colonization of NA was pretty light, but this may not be the case anymore.
Also, am I to assume this USA won't be partaking in any Banana War shenanigans, given its more isolationist, peace-loving outlook (as well as the overall more successful foundation of democracy in Latin America)?
So it appears that Communism ITTL has largely been replaced with Krulik's neo-Technocrat movement. This is awesome, I can't even remember any other ATL that included Technocracy as part of it (it IS a pretty whacked-out philosophy of course).
Also WRT the apparent jump in European settlement of North Africa, what consequences will this have later on down the line in terms of religious and ethnic makeup of that region? I seem to recall that OTL colonization of NA was pretty light, but this may not be the case anymore.
Also, am I to assume this USA won't be partaking in any Banana War shenanigans, given its more isolationist, peace-loving outlook (as well as the overall more successful foundation of democracy in Latin America)?
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