The Union Forever: A TL
- Thread starter Mac Gregor
- Start date
I'm back with another U.S. firearm, as well as some insight into the military history of the U.S., let me know what you think (and yeah, it's a boring choice 
)
Name: Winchester M1938 Machine Pistol
Designer: Winchester Armament Company
Type: Gas-operated short-stroke rotating bolt
Caliber: .35-35 Light Centerfire
Feed System: 15- and 30-round box magazines
Adopted: 1941
Notes: Lessons learned from the Great War showed the U.S. military establishment that there existed a place for a small-caliber automatic weapon (largely through experiences with Prussian troops' usage of automatic pistol-caliber weapons that could dispense high volumes of fire at short range). Furthermore, the M1910 service revolver was shown to be less than effective as a self-defense weapon at any distance beyond essentially point-blank range. With this in mind, the Winchester company decided to design a weapon that could fill both roles, and in 1939 a committee headed by Georgia's E. L. Travers resulted in the creation of the M1938 Machine Pistol.
Developed during the same period as the M1944 Winchester Rifle, the fact that it also ostensibly would replace large numbers of handgun stocks, as well as serve as a non-front line weapon for support troops, saw its adoption three years before the company's primary rifle. Interestingly, its mode of operation and overall look seemingly influenced the design of the M1956 Vicario; the fact that Nelson Vicario started designing firearms while working for Winchester was probably an influence on his design philosophy. The ammunition choice picked for the M1938 stemmed from a civilian small-game cartridge that could produce lethal wounds beyond 200 yards, and be easy to aim and shoot for most non-infantry troops at and past 100 yards while offering a cyclic rate of 800 rounds per minute[1]. Interestingly, its designation indicated a shift in U.S. ordnance terminology away from including powder grainage for a given cartridge.
Although intended as a support soldier's weapon (to include issuance of a semi-automatic only E1 modification for rear-line usage), the M1938 earned a special place in U.S. military history as the favored weapon for two very much combat-oriented units; the U.S.M.C. Commando Battalion[2], and the U.S. Army's "Dirty 3rd" Partisan Scout Unit[3]. The kind of combat that took place during the South American War very often took place in infantry terms at under 300 yards; while the War Department did consider that the maximum practical range for infantry combat in general, the M1938 was able to inflict lethal effect at the outside of that given limit, if not quite as effective as the M1944 for the same given distance. In any case, lessons learned from that campaign resulted in amalgamation of features from the M1938 into Vicario's rifle while also shifting back to issuing conventional pistols for close-range self defense, culminating in the M1950 Liberator. The M1938 Machine Pistol would be replaced in regular Army service as a self-defense weapon by the Vicario rifle, but continued as a mainstay of the State Militias until 1985.
[1] "But FleetMac", you say, "the OTL M-1 was semiautomatic only!" Well, the original carbine was meant to have select-fire capability from the start, but that requirement was dropped early (given that the Thompson submachine gun was in standard use, it was arguably redundant). ITTL, there is no Thompson nor any other submachine gun in standard issue for the American military, and thus TTL's "Carbine" gets select-fire capability.
[2] The 1st Marine Division, starting in 1932, began looking into developing a raiding unit within the Division that would focus on capturing or destroying key enemy emplacements along and adjacent to a given landing zone during the opening stages of an amphibious assault (based on shock troop tactics developed in the Great War and lessons learned from the costly Brittany landings). Operation Hippo would see this Commando Battalion tasked with taking a prominent stronghold on the Peruvian-held Morro de Arica, a nest of artillery emplacements and machine-gun bunkers atop a steep beach-side hill that offered a wide field of view north and south along the shoreline of the city. Rather than trying to flank the Morro (and risk traipsing over minefields on its flanks assessed to be in place by reconnoitering Naval aviation days before the landings), it was decided to have the Battalion's 2nd Company scale the front of the Morro using mortar-deployed grappling hooks at pre-dawn on 15 November and take the summit at close quarters. While the approach to the Morro went mostly undetected thanks to the Commandos' approach via submarine-deployed rafts, the 160-man team of Marines and Sailors did suffer considerable casualties during the scaling phase from grenade and sniper fire. Nonetheless, by 0845 the summit had been taken, and used by the Commandos to direct naval gunfire and air strikes on the main Bolivian forces arrayed behind and within the city of Arica proper, aiding the rapid capture of the city by U.S.M.C. and Mexican Naval Infantry forces. The Taking of the Summit (including planting the twin American and Chilean flags atop the primary command bunker), and the five Medals of Honor issued to participants in the raid, stand as a testament to the fighting prowess of the nascent Marine Commando (MaCo) community and the United States Marine Corps in general.
[3] Independently but largely drawing from similar lessons as the Marine Commandos, the U.S. Army had looked into developing an advance scouting and raiding force for usage behind enemy lines in preparation for a main assaulting force to exploit, leading to the establishment of the 3rd Partisan Scout Unit. Adding to this melange of experience and concepts was the combat record of the Santo Domingan San Cristobal Volunteers in French Guiana; being a multi-lingual force at the outset, and intimately familiar with fighting in jungles and adverse environments, lent themselves well to establishing cadre for a scouting and raiding unit away from reliable resupply or outside support (up to half of the PSU's inital manpower came from the Caribbean in general, and a third from the San Cristobal Volunteers in particular). Lastly, a surprising number of Native American volunteers had gotten wind of the unit during its five-year stand-up period (arguably a breach of OPSEC by modern standards, if for the right reasons), and by the time combat was met against the Peruvian-Bolivian menace, approximately one in ten PSU troopers were from the Nations. This diversity in experience and outlooks paid dividends during Operation Karma, where the 200-man 3rd Partisans had infiltrated the back-country of the Tumbes region of Peru from allied Ecuador by night on 10 October, and set about surveying Peruvian troop movements and booby-trapping roads, rail lines, and telecommunications wires to spread general disarray in support of the Free Americas offensive. While part of the offensive had bogged down after 6 November, the Partisans kept themselves busy harassing couriers and logistics shipments inland of the main combat zone. This experience in guerrilla warfare, augmented by operating alongside Ecuadorian militamen and Colombian Lancero troops penetrating the Peruvian rear, led to the development of the U.S. Special Operations community as we understand it today.
)Name: Winchester M1938 Machine Pistol
Designer: Winchester Armament Company
Type: Gas-operated short-stroke rotating bolt
Caliber: .35-35 Light Centerfire
Feed System: 15- and 30-round box magazines
Adopted: 1941
Notes: Lessons learned from the Great War showed the U.S. military establishment that there existed a place for a small-caliber automatic weapon (largely through experiences with Prussian troops' usage of automatic pistol-caliber weapons that could dispense high volumes of fire at short range). Furthermore, the M1910 service revolver was shown to be less than effective as a self-defense weapon at any distance beyond essentially point-blank range. With this in mind, the Winchester company decided to design a weapon that could fill both roles, and in 1939 a committee headed by Georgia's E. L. Travers resulted in the creation of the M1938 Machine Pistol.
Developed during the same period as the M1944 Winchester Rifle, the fact that it also ostensibly would replace large numbers of handgun stocks, as well as serve as a non-front line weapon for support troops, saw its adoption three years before the company's primary rifle. Interestingly, its mode of operation and overall look seemingly influenced the design of the M1956 Vicario; the fact that Nelson Vicario started designing firearms while working for Winchester was probably an influence on his design philosophy. The ammunition choice picked for the M1938 stemmed from a civilian small-game cartridge that could produce lethal wounds beyond 200 yards, and be easy to aim and shoot for most non-infantry troops at and past 100 yards while offering a cyclic rate of 800 rounds per minute[1]. Interestingly, its designation indicated a shift in U.S. ordnance terminology away from including powder grainage for a given cartridge.
Although intended as a support soldier's weapon (to include issuance of a semi-automatic only E1 modification for rear-line usage), the M1938 earned a special place in U.S. military history as the favored weapon for two very much combat-oriented units; the U.S.M.C. Commando Battalion[2], and the U.S. Army's "Dirty 3rd" Partisan Scout Unit[3]. The kind of combat that took place during the South American War very often took place in infantry terms at under 300 yards; while the War Department did consider that the maximum practical range for infantry combat in general, the M1938 was able to inflict lethal effect at the outside of that given limit, if not quite as effective as the M1944 for the same given distance. In any case, lessons learned from that campaign resulted in amalgamation of features from the M1938 into Vicario's rifle while also shifting back to issuing conventional pistols for close-range self defense, culminating in the M1950 Liberator. The M1938 Machine Pistol would be replaced in regular Army service as a self-defense weapon by the Vicario rifle, but continued as a mainstay of the State Militias until 1985.
[1] "But FleetMac", you say, "the OTL M-1 was semiautomatic only!" Well, the original carbine was meant to have select-fire capability from the start, but that requirement was dropped early (given that the Thompson submachine gun was in standard use, it was arguably redundant). ITTL, there is no Thompson nor any other submachine gun in standard issue for the American military, and thus TTL's "Carbine" gets select-fire capability.
[2] The 1st Marine Division, starting in 1932, began looking into developing a raiding unit within the Division that would focus on capturing or destroying key enemy emplacements along and adjacent to a given landing zone during the opening stages of an amphibious assault (based on shock troop tactics developed in the Great War and lessons learned from the costly Brittany landings). Operation Hippo would see this Commando Battalion tasked with taking a prominent stronghold on the Peruvian-held Morro de Arica, a nest of artillery emplacements and machine-gun bunkers atop a steep beach-side hill that offered a wide field of view north and south along the shoreline of the city. Rather than trying to flank the Morro (and risk traipsing over minefields on its flanks assessed to be in place by reconnoitering Naval aviation days before the landings), it was decided to have the Battalion's 2nd Company scale the front of the Morro using mortar-deployed grappling hooks at pre-dawn on 15 November and take the summit at close quarters. While the approach to the Morro went mostly undetected thanks to the Commandos' approach via submarine-deployed rafts, the 160-man team of Marines and Sailors did suffer considerable casualties during the scaling phase from grenade and sniper fire. Nonetheless, by 0845 the summit had been taken, and used by the Commandos to direct naval gunfire and air strikes on the main Bolivian forces arrayed behind and within the city of Arica proper, aiding the rapid capture of the city by U.S.M.C. and Mexican Naval Infantry forces. The Taking of the Summit (including planting the twin American and Chilean flags atop the primary command bunker), and the five Medals of Honor issued to participants in the raid, stand as a testament to the fighting prowess of the nascent Marine Commando (MaCo) community and the United States Marine Corps in general.
[3] Independently but largely drawing from similar lessons as the Marine Commandos, the U.S. Army had looked into developing an advance scouting and raiding force for usage behind enemy lines in preparation for a main assaulting force to exploit, leading to the establishment of the 3rd Partisan Scout Unit. Adding to this melange of experience and concepts was the combat record of the Santo Domingan San Cristobal Volunteers in French Guiana; being a multi-lingual force at the outset, and intimately familiar with fighting in jungles and adverse environments, lent themselves well to establishing cadre for a scouting and raiding unit away from reliable resupply or outside support (up to half of the PSU's inital manpower came from the Caribbean in general, and a third from the San Cristobal Volunteers in particular). Lastly, a surprising number of Native American volunteers had gotten wind of the unit during its five-year stand-up period (arguably a breach of OPSEC by modern standards, if for the right reasons), and by the time combat was met against the Peruvian-Bolivian menace, approximately one in ten PSU troopers were from the Nations. This diversity in experience and outlooks paid dividends during Operation Karma, where the 200-man 3rd Partisans had infiltrated the back-country of the Tumbes region of Peru from allied Ecuador by night on 10 October, and set about surveying Peruvian troop movements and booby-trapping roads, rail lines, and telecommunications wires to spread general disarray in support of the Free Americas offensive. While part of the offensive had bogged down after 6 November, the Partisans kept themselves busy harassing couriers and logistics shipments inland of the main combat zone. This experience in guerrilla warfare, augmented by operating alongside Ecuadorian militamen and Colombian Lancero troops penetrating the Peruvian rear, led to the development of the U.S. Special Operations community as we understand it today.
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So I know I said I'd lay off of gun-heavy guest updates, but I can't help wondering what the "bigger stuff" might end up looking like by the time the Asia-Pacific War rolled around. I won't speculate on what the ComNat/Portuguese would be using, let alone Japan or China or the URI. So I'll focus on the good ol' USN, with this entry being one of the quintessential missiles used during America's short foray against Japan (apologies for the length, wanted to get a "glimpse" of electronics development in as well). Enjoy!
Name: SAM-2 Dragon
Description: Long-range, multi-role naval Anti-Air Missile (AAM)/Anti-Surface Missile (ASM)
Length (w/ booster): 9.14m (30 ft)
Wingspan: 2.80 m (110 in) fully extended*
Diameter: 0.71 m (28 in); booster: 0.76 m (30 in)
Weight (w/ booster): 1,540 kg (7,800 lb)
Speed: S-2.5**
Ceiling: 24,400 m (80,000 ft)
Maximum Range: SAM-2B; 185 km (100 nm); SAM-2E: 314 km (170 nm)
Minimum Range: 9 km (5.85 nm)
Propulsion: MK 8 solid-fueled rocket booster; Allman Corp***. ramjet sustainer
Warhead: 136 kg (300 lb) continuous-rod HE warhead
Guidance: SAM-2B; initial Beam Riding, terminal Semi-Active Radar Homing (SARH)
SAM-2E; initial Autopilot, midcourse Command, terminal SARH
Adopted: 1959 (initial); 1974 (update)
Notes: After the combat debut of carrier-based Tachibana J86 jets by Japan at Hainan during the Second Sino-Japanese War, the United States Military began looking into developing a means of intercepting such high-speed aircraft at a respectable distance away from the fleet. Adding to this was the development by multiple navies around the world of a new weapon; the cruise missile. As such weapons, with their long range and ability to self-target enemy ships, began to be fielded by the Commonwealth of Nations, the German Empire, and others, the US opted to merge the requirements of an "anti-aerocraft missile" with those of a defensive weapon against cruise missiles. Given that the program start date followed the Army Air Corps' development of an Air-to-Air Missile (AAM), the number assigned to this project was SAM-2.
With design work starting in 1955 (mostly piggy-backed off of ongoing research into super-sonic aircraft and orbital launcher designs***), the materials science was largely present. The issue was how to guide a missile to hit another missile with sufficient accuracy to guarantee a kill (as well as at range and high-speed)? The solution was to mount two dedicated radar sets for each interception; one to "capture" outbound missiles (up to two per beam), and one to "paint" the desired target. These new missiles, dubbed the Dragon (because of its large size and huge flame plume produced upon firing), would be boosted off of dedicated launch rails into the guidance beam (typically putting them above 70,000 feet in altitude), then upon said beam's attenuation distance, actively begin "looking" for reflections of radar waves off the desired target, and dive vertically on top of it until its proximity fuse indicated a detonation. This not only helped extend the range of the missile (which, being ramjet-driven, operated well at high-altitude), but also made defense by aircraft difficult since pilots generally look down when dodging anti-aircraft fire. This also provided a secondary, but highly effective, role for the Dragon as an anti-ship ballistic rocket out to 25 nautical miles.
One downside of this guidance method is the limited number of targets that can be engaged at once by one ship; for all the range and heavy explosive power each missile had, only two enemy aircraft or missiles could be fired upon per ship, and often too close in (thanks to legacy search radar technology) before the distance closed too far for effective interception. Thankfully, the Navy's BuOrd and CNO concurred upon this fact as early as 1965. The fix would be found thanks to the Navy's Polaris system of navigation satellites****. By 1969, the circuitry package needed to guide a given airframe had shrunk by over three-fourths in size and bulk; this meant that the Dragon could have its beam-guidance package replaced by a high-accuracy autopilot with datalink (largely stemming from the Navy's still-under-development MEDUSA System*****) and tiny terminal guidance period. Thus, MEDUSA-compatible cruisers (the smallest class capable of shipping the plane-sized Dragons) could launch missiles as fast as mechanically possible without a solid lock yet, and paint desired targets only in the final, short stages of the salvo's intercept path (essentially juggling over three times the number of targets). It would initially be retrofitted gun cruisers (largely of the Henry Knox class) that started carrying this monstrous weapon, but it would be from the hybrid gas turbine-nuclear powered, MEDUSA-equipped Henry Lee-class battlecruisers****** that these missiles would earn their keep, and show their deficiencies.
While the situational awareness provided during the Iwo Jima landings by E-10 Eagle Eyes was quite exceptional despite so many simultaneous elements operating at once, even non-combat flight crews flying lazy orbits do get tired, especially when you have a billet of four AEW planes being filled by only two******* (effectively only one due to crew rest/safety requirements). It is under such conditions that a massive, 300-plus combined air, and long-range missile attack (along with a general surface assault comprising more than 12 Japanese ships) was launched against US and ComNat forces during the Battle of Iwo Jima on 06 November 1979 at approximately 0450, with relatively little warning. While the outer fighter screens from the Saratoga and Sundern scythed down over half of the total attacking fighters, the rest of the attack managed to break through the 100-mile barrier line, right into the jaws of the Dragon. Of the approximately 106 aircraft left at that point, less than 20 survived SAM-2 and defensive gun fire from the three missile cruisers assigned to Task Force Green (the U.S. component of the Bonin Islands campaign up to that point). However, seven ships were hit and sunk********by a new weapon unveiled during the battle: air-launched sea skimming missiles, often flying less than 20 meters above sea level (the SAM-2 only being rated to intercept targets at 50 meters and higher, the average minimum altitude of Japanese cruise missiles known at the time). This, combined with the Dragon's sluggishness (owing to its early design elements emphasizing aircraft interception more than missile), led to too many instances of SAM-2s completely over-shooting their targets or failing to lock on before they hit Allied shipping. This shortcoming is what led to the development of an all-purpose missile that could be used against long-range air targets or against short-range, low altitude threats at the horizon. It should be noted that, of the 12 Japanese vessels encountered during the battle, two of them were either sunk or sent listing by surface-targeted Dragons (and at least four being severely damaged or sunken during the Battle of Chichi Jima, not to mention the carnage wreaked on the Mimasaka's escorts during that skirmish which led to her sinking.).
* Unlike OTL's equivalent, the control fins here fold out upon start of guidance to target, they're not bolted on just prior to launch.
** Short for "Supersonic-factor", an alternative U.S. term for "Mach".
***ATL company, involved in making rocket components for the Columbus satellite and subsequent items for the USSA's Artemis program.
****Or rather, Inertial Guidance accuracy gained by autopilot technology as a result of Polaris' development
*****Muahahaha!
****** Picture an OTL Kiev in U.S. service that somebody slapped an SPS-48E/-49 suite onto, then said "we should swap out those SS-N-19s for NTU-compatible Not!Talos missiles as a super long-range air defense cruiser." And the Admiralty listened.
*******Such is life, going into combat with what you have and not what you need. I'm going with the E-10 being relatively new by this point, in limited numbers, and most carrier deck space during Iwo Jima optimized for land attack aircraft and fighter screens while neglecting early warning planes.
******** USS Valley Forge (CV-39), USS Mahetane (BB-61), USS Tampa (DDG-131/CG-31), USS Bayamon (DDG-119), USS Arroyo (LSD-3), RFA Wave King (A132), HMS Gibraltar (C23).
Name: SAM-2 Dragon
Description: Long-range, multi-role naval Anti-Air Missile (AAM)/Anti-Surface Missile (ASM)
Length (w/ booster): 9.14m (30 ft)
Wingspan: 2.80 m (110 in) fully extended*
Diameter: 0.71 m (28 in); booster: 0.76 m (30 in)
Weight (w/ booster): 1,540 kg (7,800 lb)
Speed: S-2.5**
Ceiling: 24,400 m (80,000 ft)
Maximum Range: SAM-2B; 185 km (100 nm); SAM-2E: 314 km (170 nm)
Minimum Range: 9 km (5.85 nm)
Propulsion: MK 8 solid-fueled rocket booster; Allman Corp***. ramjet sustainer
Warhead: 136 kg (300 lb) continuous-rod HE warhead
Guidance: SAM-2B; initial Beam Riding, terminal Semi-Active Radar Homing (SARH)
SAM-2E; initial Autopilot, midcourse Command, terminal SARH
Adopted: 1959 (initial); 1974 (update)
Notes: After the combat debut of carrier-based Tachibana J86 jets by Japan at Hainan during the Second Sino-Japanese War, the United States Military began looking into developing a means of intercepting such high-speed aircraft at a respectable distance away from the fleet. Adding to this was the development by multiple navies around the world of a new weapon; the cruise missile. As such weapons, with their long range and ability to self-target enemy ships, began to be fielded by the Commonwealth of Nations, the German Empire, and others, the US opted to merge the requirements of an "anti-aerocraft missile" with those of a defensive weapon against cruise missiles. Given that the program start date followed the Army Air Corps' development of an Air-to-Air Missile (AAM), the number assigned to this project was SAM-2.
With design work starting in 1955 (mostly piggy-backed off of ongoing research into super-sonic aircraft and orbital launcher designs***), the materials science was largely present. The issue was how to guide a missile to hit another missile with sufficient accuracy to guarantee a kill (as well as at range and high-speed)? The solution was to mount two dedicated radar sets for each interception; one to "capture" outbound missiles (up to two per beam), and one to "paint" the desired target. These new missiles, dubbed the Dragon (because of its large size and huge flame plume produced upon firing), would be boosted off of dedicated launch rails into the guidance beam (typically putting them above 70,000 feet in altitude), then upon said beam's attenuation distance, actively begin "looking" for reflections of radar waves off the desired target, and dive vertically on top of it until its proximity fuse indicated a detonation. This not only helped extend the range of the missile (which, being ramjet-driven, operated well at high-altitude), but also made defense by aircraft difficult since pilots generally look down when dodging anti-aircraft fire. This also provided a secondary, but highly effective, role for the Dragon as an anti-ship ballistic rocket out to 25 nautical miles.
One downside of this guidance method is the limited number of targets that can be engaged at once by one ship; for all the range and heavy explosive power each missile had, only two enemy aircraft or missiles could be fired upon per ship, and often too close in (thanks to legacy search radar technology) before the distance closed too far for effective interception. Thankfully, the Navy's BuOrd and CNO concurred upon this fact as early as 1965. The fix would be found thanks to the Navy's Polaris system of navigation satellites****. By 1969, the circuitry package needed to guide a given airframe had shrunk by over three-fourths in size and bulk; this meant that the Dragon could have its beam-guidance package replaced by a high-accuracy autopilot with datalink (largely stemming from the Navy's still-under-development MEDUSA System*****) and tiny terminal guidance period. Thus, MEDUSA-compatible cruisers (the smallest class capable of shipping the plane-sized Dragons) could launch missiles as fast as mechanically possible without a solid lock yet, and paint desired targets only in the final, short stages of the salvo's intercept path (essentially juggling over three times the number of targets). It would initially be retrofitted gun cruisers (largely of the Henry Knox class) that started carrying this monstrous weapon, but it would be from the hybrid gas turbine-nuclear powered, MEDUSA-equipped Henry Lee-class battlecruisers****** that these missiles would earn their keep, and show their deficiencies.
While the situational awareness provided during the Iwo Jima landings by E-10 Eagle Eyes was quite exceptional despite so many simultaneous elements operating at once, even non-combat flight crews flying lazy orbits do get tired, especially when you have a billet of four AEW planes being filled by only two******* (effectively only one due to crew rest/safety requirements). It is under such conditions that a massive, 300-plus combined air, and long-range missile attack (along with a general surface assault comprising more than 12 Japanese ships) was launched against US and ComNat forces during the Battle of Iwo Jima on 06 November 1979 at approximately 0450, with relatively little warning. While the outer fighter screens from the Saratoga and Sundern scythed down over half of the total attacking fighters, the rest of the attack managed to break through the 100-mile barrier line, right into the jaws of the Dragon. Of the approximately 106 aircraft left at that point, less than 20 survived SAM-2 and defensive gun fire from the three missile cruisers assigned to Task Force Green (the U.S. component of the Bonin Islands campaign up to that point). However, seven ships were hit and sunk********by a new weapon unveiled during the battle: air-launched sea skimming missiles, often flying less than 20 meters above sea level (the SAM-2 only being rated to intercept targets at 50 meters and higher, the average minimum altitude of Japanese cruise missiles known at the time). This, combined with the Dragon's sluggishness (owing to its early design elements emphasizing aircraft interception more than missile), led to too many instances of SAM-2s completely over-shooting their targets or failing to lock on before they hit Allied shipping. This shortcoming is what led to the development of an all-purpose missile that could be used against long-range air targets or against short-range, low altitude threats at the horizon. It should be noted that, of the 12 Japanese vessels encountered during the battle, two of them were either sunk or sent listing by surface-targeted Dragons (and at least four being severely damaged or sunken during the Battle of Chichi Jima, not to mention the carnage wreaked on the Mimasaka's escorts during that skirmish which led to her sinking.).
* Unlike OTL's equivalent, the control fins here fold out upon start of guidance to target, they're not bolted on just prior to launch.
** Short for "Supersonic-factor", an alternative U.S. term for "Mach".
***ATL company, involved in making rocket components for the Columbus satellite and subsequent items for the USSA's Artemis program.
****Or rather, Inertial Guidance accuracy gained by autopilot technology as a result of Polaris' development
*****Muahahaha!
****** Picture an OTL Kiev in U.S. service that somebody slapped an SPS-48E/-49 suite onto, then said "we should swap out those SS-N-19s for NTU-compatible Not!Talos missiles as a super long-range air defense cruiser." And the Admiralty listened.
*******Such is life, going into combat with what you have and not what you need. I'm going with the E-10 being relatively new by this point, in limited numbers, and most carrier deck space during Iwo Jima optimized for land attack aircraft and fighter screens while neglecting early warning planes.
******** USS Valley Forge (CV-39), USS Mahetane (BB-61), USS Tampa (DDG-131/CG-31), USS Bayamon (DDG-119), USS Arroyo (LSD-3), RFA Wave King (A132), HMS Gibraltar (C23).
Last edited:
2020
Foreign and Domestic Developments
Flag of the Republic of Burma
Foreign and Domestic Developments
Flag of the Republic of Burma
In January, Burmese voted in a referendum to ditch the monarchy and become a republic within the Commonwealth of Nations. The elderly Asia-Pacific War hero and former Prime Minister Khin Hlaing was installed as the country’s first president later that year. While Burma continued to be plagued on its periphery by a number of chronic insurgencies funded by China, its close ties to the Coalition of South Asian States furthered the development of Mandalay and Rangoon into important urban commercial centers.
The XXI Winter Olympics are held in the Russian city of Ekaterinburg with Czar Alexander IV opening the games. A pet project of Rafail Ivanov, who had succeeded Mitya Kuznetsov as Prime Minister after his death in 2019, the athletic spectacle was meant to showcase the renewed Russian Empire to the world. However, the massive security presence and a boycott by the Turkic League and their rivals in the Organization for Mutual Development over perceived Russian provocations in the Caucuses, cast a pall over the event.
In April, the Norwegian company Horisont began a package delivery service using flying drones. While limited due to weight and range restrictions, other business and even some postal services began experimenting with autonomous delivery.
A study funded by the Fellowship of Nations estimated that aquaculture provides over half of all seafood consumed around the globe. With population pressure mounting and the effects of global warming contributing to dwindling fish stocks, the study advised that nations promote further responsible fish farming expansion.
During the spring, the United States Supreme Court failed to support a challenge to a Virginia law banning assisted suicide. The eight to three decision in Larsson v. Virginia effectively left such measures up to the state legislatures. Nevertheless, by the middle of the decade nine states would allow some form of assisted suicide.
In the German general election the coalition government of Chancellor Helmut Koch fell to the Conservatives after lasting far longer than most observers had thought possible. Despite Koch’s success in reaching détente with the Russians, voter concerns over the Netherlands withdrawal from the Association of European States and ongoing violence in Cameroon by pan-African militants paved the way for the KVD’s return to power. Uwe Boehler became the new Chancellor with a clear majority in the Reichstag vowing to “stand up for Germany.”
In late July, Germany’s Imperial Space and Aeronautics Commission (IRLK) dispatched Ausländer XIII their second manned mission to Mars. America’s Department of Space reluctantly cancelled the United States Space Agency’s (USSA) planned Voyager VIII after medical and safety concerns from the previous expedition prompted a mission redesign. China began construction on what it claimed would be the first permanent lunar settlement named Jìnbù with the first module landing near the moon’s south pole by the end of the year.
The Malayan capital of Singapore hosted the first Electronic Games World Tournament. Organized by a consortium of video and computer game companies, the annual competition soon became the premier venue for the globe’s top players across a wide variety of platforms and games. Despite some detractors bemoaning the often blatant commercialism, it is estimated that streamed match footage will reach nearly a billion viewers by 2035.
In October, The Technate of China’s Directorate of Economics announced a five year plan to dramatically increase efforts to extract natural resources in its Antarctic territory. Environmentalists feared damage to the ecosystem, while security analysts believed this could be a pretext to gain dominance on the world’s southernmost continent.
In the United States, President Navarro and Vice President Kuklinski won reelection by a slim margin, besting their Republican opponents Senator Troy Allerton of Rhode Island and former Colorado governor Debra Soule. This was the first American presidential election with a women on both tickets. Despite failing to retake the Whitehouse, Republicans did manage to capture the Senate by a one vote majority and closed the gap in the House of Representatives. In her victory speech, Navarro promised to “stand by our friends abroad, while concentrating on building prosperity at home.”
Last edited:
2021
Foreign and Domestic Developments
Nigerian soldiers in operation against pro-AAA insurgents
On February 13, the insurgency in the Union of Nigeria reached a new phase. For the first time in the eight year conflict, army units from the Republic of West Africa engaged government forces on Nigerian soil. Over the next several months, an estimated 48,000 West African troops would infiltrate across the border. Nigerian Prime Minister Kenneth Enwerem decried these and other hostile acts by the All-African Alliance (AAA). The Coalition for a Democratic Africa (CDA) and to a lesser extent the Commonwealth of Nations answered his calls for aid. Unfortunately, the Nigerian army struggled to maintain control over its northern and Biafran provinces as pro-AAA forces, many armed with Chinese munitions, took control of several cities. While the War in Nigeria gained the most international attention, intermittent clashes between AAA and CDA combatants occurred in numerous places throughout sub-Saharan Africa.
In the spring, the U.S. Department of the Interior, in its latest attempt at environmental restoration, started emplacing beds of ribbed mussels (geukensia demissa) in American waterways. While not tasty to humans, the mollusks filter out harmful elements such as mercury, lead, and arsenic from the water. In addition to cleaning up freshwater sources, the mussels once harvested are turned into fertilizer and animal feedstock. Assuming of course, they are not too heavily contaminated.
After nearly two years of negotiations, the Fellowship of Nations unveiled the Treaty Governing the Exploration, Utilization, and Colonization of Outer Space and Celestial Bodies more commonly known as the Space Colonization Treaty. Superseding several previous agreements, the Space Colonization Treaty outlined the process for states and private companies to settle and exploit extraterrestrial resources. Cis-lunar space was deemed a global commons while a state could lay claim to territory on the moon or other body “within 20 nautical miles of an occupied habituation.” Nations were barred from stationing or using nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons in space or maintaining any weapon system in orbit “for the purpose of striking targets within Earth’s atmosphere.” However the treaty did in theory allow armed spacecraft for engaging targets off-world. An international court for settling disagreements in space was established in The Hague.
Basundhara Bir Bikram Shah, the reformist Nepalese king, hosted a summit of regional leaders in Kathmandu. The conference brought together the leaders of India, Madras, Tibet, Hyderabad, and Kashmir and Jammu. While no formal treaty was created, a joint resolution outlined steps to ease trade restrictions and made loose commitments to peaceful coexistence and good governance. In addition, it warned foreign powers against “economic, military, or political encroachment into the Indian Subcontinent and Himalayan Plateau” words widely understood to be aimed at Persia, China, and Russia.
In the United Kingdom, voters returned Claudia Hunter to 10 Downing Street, although her coalition government of Liberals, Democratic Laborites, and Irish Democrats maintained a razor thin majority in parliament. Prime Minister Hunter strove to keep Britain out of the volatile situation in Africa, a policy some thought undermined confidence in the security guarantees of the Commonwealth of Nations.
Mokdad Abbas became an international sensation after his performance at a July concert in Marseille went viral on the globtrix. Originally from Oran in French Algeria, Abbas’s music blended French, Arabic, and English in a fast paced percussion laced delivery.
In August, Brazil announced the ambitious plan for 90% of automobiles to be electric by 2050. While many doubted whether this could be accomplished, improvements in battery life and charging technology gave environmentalist and ecoist politicians hope that the goal could be reached. The Brazilian government also announced several restrictions on aut-auts in order to protect certain jobs, a move deemed inefficient by many free market economists.
On September 3, the Helsinki-Reval Tunnel opened to the public. At 51 km in length, it became the second longest underwater tunnel in the world. Finnish King Kustaa Aadolf and Estonian State Elder Taavet Olev presided over the ribbon cutting ceremony.
During the fall, the private space company SolCo tested its Gran Volantes launch system, a reusable rocket capable of delivering 200 tons to low earth orbit. SolCo executive Jesús Zuarth Morales announced that construction of Aztlān, the world’s first commercial space hotel, would begin next year. Other corporations such as Orion Transportation, Astropulso, and Höhenlage increased efforts to break SolCo’s domination of the space tourism market.
Having been Dutch colonies for centuries, three Caribbean islands were granted independence as the Democratic Republic of Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao, more commonly known as the “ABC Republic” on December 1. While vowing to maintain close ties to the Netherlands, the nation’s new president Wilbert Alberink petitioned the League of American Republics for membership. The remaining colonies in the Dutch Antilles; Sint Eustatius, Sint Martin, and Saba, continued to operate as autonomous dependencies of the Netherlands.
Flag of the ABC Republic
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With the permission of Mac Gregor, I'm starting a series on the the various movies and television shows of TUF. Hopefully there will be more to follow!
Citizen Maverick
Citizen Maverick (2014-Present)
Citizen Maverick is an hour long television program produced by the Rockefeller Broadcasting Company. It is a modern day Western starring Benjamin Whitehorse as Texas Ranger Marcus 'Maverick' Ronan. Since 2015, it is the most watched show on American television with an average of 20-25 million viewers a week, although season finales easily beat those numbers.
Loosely based on the biography 'Black Ranger: The Story of Bass Reeves', Citizen Maverick takes place in Dallas, although many episodes have him traveling to other locales, and tell the story of Maverick, his partners, and their quest to enforce justice in the State of Texas. The show is notable for having a Native American star in the leading role, as Benjamin Whitehorse is half-Cherokee on his mother's side. Citizen Maverick has garnered near universal praise for its fair, honest, and provoking depictions of subjects such as homelessness, drug use, gang violence, and political corruption.
Notable for its use of stunt coordinators, the show spares no expense action choreography or design, even being honored by the American Mixed Martial Arts Association for the awareness it raises for combat sports. Many executives at the Rockefeller Broadcasting Company breathed a massive sigh of relief as Citizen Maverick’s popularity provides hope against the encroaching power of globtrix streaming giants. The show is so profitable, that RBC has even begun talks to create similar shows depicting law enforcement officers in other U.S. cities, in what inter-RBC reports have styled as a "shared universe."
Not only has the show been a major commercial success, but has become a critical darling as well, earning a Wilcox Award for Best Drama Series twice, Outstanding Writing in a Dramatic Series twice, Best Lead Actress once, and to the chagrin of other networks, Best Supporting Actor five times in a row, for Damian Handcox's portrayal of former Texas Ranger/reporter James Parker.
Although never receiving the accolades that Handcox has for his role on the show, Whitehorse has become an important figure in popular culture. Whitehorse uses his newfound fame and fortune to provide scholarships to impoverished children growing up on Native American reservation as he did.
Citizen Maverick
Citizen Maverick (2014-Present)
Citizen Maverick is an hour long television program produced by the Rockefeller Broadcasting Company. It is a modern day Western starring Benjamin Whitehorse as Texas Ranger Marcus 'Maverick' Ronan. Since 2015, it is the most watched show on American television with an average of 20-25 million viewers a week, although season finales easily beat those numbers.
Loosely based on the biography 'Black Ranger: The Story of Bass Reeves', Citizen Maverick takes place in Dallas, although many episodes have him traveling to other locales, and tell the story of Maverick, his partners, and their quest to enforce justice in the State of Texas. The show is notable for having a Native American star in the leading role, as Benjamin Whitehorse is half-Cherokee on his mother's side. Citizen Maverick has garnered near universal praise for its fair, honest, and provoking depictions of subjects such as homelessness, drug use, gang violence, and political corruption.
Notable for its use of stunt coordinators, the show spares no expense action choreography or design, even being honored by the American Mixed Martial Arts Association for the awareness it raises for combat sports. Many executives at the Rockefeller Broadcasting Company breathed a massive sigh of relief as Citizen Maverick’s popularity provides hope against the encroaching power of globtrix streaming giants. The show is so profitable, that RBC has even begun talks to create similar shows depicting law enforcement officers in other U.S. cities, in what inter-RBC reports have styled as a "shared universe."
Not only has the show been a major commercial success, but has become a critical darling as well, earning a Wilcox Award for Best Drama Series twice, Outstanding Writing in a Dramatic Series twice, Best Lead Actress once, and to the chagrin of other networks, Best Supporting Actor five times in a row, for Damian Handcox's portrayal of former Texas Ranger/reporter James Parker.
Although never receiving the accolades that Handcox has for his role on the show, Whitehorse has become an important figure in popular culture. Whitehorse uses his newfound fame and fortune to provide scholarships to impoverished children growing up on Native American reservation as he did.
With permission from Mac Gregor, here's a teaser from what many predict to be the biggest cinematic event of the decade!
Another great biography by Zoidberg12. Thanks for your support.
Alexander III (1871-1947)
Tsar Alexander III of Russia was born on June 21, 1871 in Peterhof Palace in Saint Petersburg. He was the eldest child of Tsesarevich Nicholas, the future Tsar Nicholas II (1843-1919) and his wife Princess Maria Feodorovna (Dagmar of Denmark), the future Empress Consort of Russia (1847-1926). As a child, Prince Alexander was educated privately by numerous tutors and Russian Orthodox Priests. Throughout his formative years, Prince Alexander gravitated towards the fields of Russian and European history, Orthodox theology, mathematics, and music theory.
After turning eighteen, Prince Alexander commissioned into the Imperial Russian Army. From 1889 to 1895, Prince Alexander served in the Cavalry of the Guard in Central Asia, western Russia, Ukraine and Finland. After the death of his grandfather Tsar Alexander II (1881-1895), Prince Alexander became the new Tsesarevich. At the coronation of Tsar Nicholas II on October 15, 1895, Tsesarevich Alexander, dressed in an elaborate cavalry uniform, made his first major public appearance as the heir to the throne of the Russian Empire. After he finished his military service in December of 1895, the new Tsesarevich became active in various social circles in St. Petersburg and Moscow.
On Saturday, June 24, 1892, Tsesarevich Alexander married Princess Victoria Louise of Hesse and by Rhine, the eldest daughter of Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse (1837-1892). After converting to Russian Orthodoxy a month prior, Victoria Louise has given the name Russified name of Viktoria Feodorovna.
With the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War in 1906, Tsesarevich Alexander returned to military service and joined the Army in Manchuria, although he did not personally see action. After the outbreak of the Great War in 1907, Alexander was transferred to Galicia to fight against the forces of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Throughout the war, Alexander gained a reputation for competently, if not always compassionately, leading his Soldiers. One interesting episode of Alexander’s service during the Great War came in June, 1908. After the capture of numerous Austro-Hungarian POWs, Alexander had the idea to take Slavic prisoners from the Austro-Hungarian Army and have them serve in special ethnically specific infantry battalions. Upon gaining approval from his relative Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich of Russia (1856-1930), the Chief of Staff of the Russian Imperial Army, Alexander oversaw Czech, Slovak, Rusyn, Croatian, Bosnian and Serbian prisoners, join the ranks of the Russian Imperial Army in what became known as Slavic Battalions (Славянские легионы/Slavyanskiye legiony). These battalions fought bravely in numerous battles, including Budapest, Pressburg and Vienna. After the end of the war, most of these men were repatriated to their respective nations. Throughout the 1910s, Tsesarevich Alexander continued to serve until leaving the Army in 1912, after which Alexander returned to his former life of luxury in St. Petersburg. On November 19, 1919, Tsar Nicholas II died of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 76. Hearing of the death of his father while on vacation in Sochi, Tsesarevich Alexander was reported to have broken down in tears on his bed. Soon after, the 48 year-old Tsesarevich Alexander became Tsar Alexander III of Russia with his coronation taking place in St. Petersburg on April 20, 1920.
The reign of Tsar Alexander III of Russia saw numerous important developments. Following the war, the ‘Great Game’ resumed between the Russian and British Empires in Central Asia. The Duma gained more of a say in government. A series of limited land reforms enacted in the early 1920s helped the kulaks and middle class at the expense of the nobility. The creation of Imperial Russian Air Force in 1925, and the passing of Army and Navy reforms in 1934 and1937 greatly modernized the military. By the 1940s, a slew of industrialization and infrastructure programs transformed the Russian economy.
While his years on the throne witnessed a curtailing of some harsh Russification policies in Poland, Finland and the Baltic, Tsar Alexander III was an avid and unabashed Pan-Slavist. Tsar Alexander III and his numerous governments tried to court Bohemia, Slovakia and Croatia away from the influence of Germany in an effort to create a Pan Slavic block. Ultimately, this plan failed, much to the frustration of Alexander. However, the Russian Empire did strengthen ties with other Slavic nations such as Serbia and Bulgaria. Relations also improved between Russia and the Kingdom of Greece, which, while not a Slavic nation, was an Orthodox country.
On September 17, 1933, Tsar Alexander III survived an assassination attempt outside of the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow by Nikolai Bezmenov (1901-1933), a member of the underground Russian Communist Party (Российская Коммунистическая Партия/Rossiiskaja Kommunističeskaja Partija). Bezmenov was immediately killed by the members of the Moscow Police. While this attempt led to a bloody crackdown on communist and socialist groups, it is thought to have spurred the passing of policies aimed at alleviating the plight of Russian workers and peasants.
On November 19, 1944, the Russian Empire celebrated Tsar Alexander’s Silver Jubilee. This proved to be the last significant event of his reign. On September 24, 1947, after complaining for weeks about stomach pains, Tsar Alexander III died at age 76, coincidentally the same age that his father Nicholas II had died almost twenty-eight years earlier. On his deathbed, his final words spoken to his doctor were; “My only regret was that I could not do more for Russia”. His 54 year-old eldest son Tsesarevich Peter, succeeded him as Tsar Peter IV of Russia (1893-1962). A lavish funeral of the late Tsar was held in St. Petersburg on October 1, 1947, the first to be filmed and shown on Russian newsreels. Most historians assess the reign of Alexander III as successful, though some detractors criticize the slow pace of reforms which left the Russian Empire still a largely illiberal and authoritarian nation.
Alexander III (1871-1947)
Tsar Alexander III of Russia was born on June 21, 1871 in Peterhof Palace in Saint Petersburg. He was the eldest child of Tsesarevich Nicholas, the future Tsar Nicholas II (1843-1919) and his wife Princess Maria Feodorovna (Dagmar of Denmark), the future Empress Consort of Russia (1847-1926). As a child, Prince Alexander was educated privately by numerous tutors and Russian Orthodox Priests. Throughout his formative years, Prince Alexander gravitated towards the fields of Russian and European history, Orthodox theology, mathematics, and music theory.
After turning eighteen, Prince Alexander commissioned into the Imperial Russian Army. From 1889 to 1895, Prince Alexander served in the Cavalry of the Guard in Central Asia, western Russia, Ukraine and Finland. After the death of his grandfather Tsar Alexander II (1881-1895), Prince Alexander became the new Tsesarevich. At the coronation of Tsar Nicholas II on October 15, 1895, Tsesarevich Alexander, dressed in an elaborate cavalry uniform, made his first major public appearance as the heir to the throne of the Russian Empire. After he finished his military service in December of 1895, the new Tsesarevich became active in various social circles in St. Petersburg and Moscow.
On Saturday, June 24, 1892, Tsesarevich Alexander married Princess Victoria Louise of Hesse and by Rhine, the eldest daughter of Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse (1837-1892). After converting to Russian Orthodoxy a month prior, Victoria Louise has given the name Russified name of Viktoria Feodorovna.
With the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War in 1906, Tsesarevich Alexander returned to military service and joined the Army in Manchuria, although he did not personally see action. After the outbreak of the Great War in 1907, Alexander was transferred to Galicia to fight against the forces of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Throughout the war, Alexander gained a reputation for competently, if not always compassionately, leading his Soldiers. One interesting episode of Alexander’s service during the Great War came in June, 1908. After the capture of numerous Austro-Hungarian POWs, Alexander had the idea to take Slavic prisoners from the Austro-Hungarian Army and have them serve in special ethnically specific infantry battalions. Upon gaining approval from his relative Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich of Russia (1856-1930), the Chief of Staff of the Russian Imperial Army, Alexander oversaw Czech, Slovak, Rusyn, Croatian, Bosnian and Serbian prisoners, join the ranks of the Russian Imperial Army in what became known as Slavic Battalions (Славянские легионы/Slavyanskiye legiony). These battalions fought bravely in numerous battles, including Budapest, Pressburg and Vienna. After the end of the war, most of these men were repatriated to their respective nations. Throughout the 1910s, Tsesarevich Alexander continued to serve until leaving the Army in 1912, after which Alexander returned to his former life of luxury in St. Petersburg. On November 19, 1919, Tsar Nicholas II died of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 76. Hearing of the death of his father while on vacation in Sochi, Tsesarevich Alexander was reported to have broken down in tears on his bed. Soon after, the 48 year-old Tsesarevich Alexander became Tsar Alexander III of Russia with his coronation taking place in St. Petersburg on April 20, 1920.
The reign of Tsar Alexander III of Russia saw numerous important developments. Following the war, the ‘Great Game’ resumed between the Russian and British Empires in Central Asia. The Duma gained more of a say in government. A series of limited land reforms enacted in the early 1920s helped the kulaks and middle class at the expense of the nobility. The creation of Imperial Russian Air Force in 1925, and the passing of Army and Navy reforms in 1934 and1937 greatly modernized the military. By the 1940s, a slew of industrialization and infrastructure programs transformed the Russian economy.
While his years on the throne witnessed a curtailing of some harsh Russification policies in Poland, Finland and the Baltic, Tsar Alexander III was an avid and unabashed Pan-Slavist. Tsar Alexander III and his numerous governments tried to court Bohemia, Slovakia and Croatia away from the influence of Germany in an effort to create a Pan Slavic block. Ultimately, this plan failed, much to the frustration of Alexander. However, the Russian Empire did strengthen ties with other Slavic nations such as Serbia and Bulgaria. Relations also improved between Russia and the Kingdom of Greece, which, while not a Slavic nation, was an Orthodox country.
On September 17, 1933, Tsar Alexander III survived an assassination attempt outside of the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow by Nikolai Bezmenov (1901-1933), a member of the underground Russian Communist Party (Российская Коммунистическая Партия/Rossiiskaja Kommunističeskaja Partija). Bezmenov was immediately killed by the members of the Moscow Police. While this attempt led to a bloody crackdown on communist and socialist groups, it is thought to have spurred the passing of policies aimed at alleviating the plight of Russian workers and peasants.
On November 19, 1944, the Russian Empire celebrated Tsar Alexander’s Silver Jubilee. This proved to be the last significant event of his reign. On September 24, 1947, after complaining for weeks about stomach pains, Tsar Alexander III died at age 76, coincidentally the same age that his father Nicholas II had died almost twenty-eight years earlier. On his deathbed, his final words spoken to his doctor were; “My only regret was that I could not do more for Russia”. His 54 year-old eldest son Tsesarevich Peter, succeeded him as Tsar Peter IV of Russia (1893-1962). A lavish funeral of the late Tsar was held in St. Petersburg on October 1, 1947, the first to be filmed and shown on Russian newsreels. Most historians assess the reign of Alexander III as successful, though some detractors criticize the slow pace of reforms which left the Russian Empire still a largely illiberal and authoritarian nation.
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2022
Foreign and Domestic Developments
Various undersea mining machines used by Triton Limited
Various undersea mining machines used by Triton Limited
In January, the New Zealand firm Triton Limited commenced regular undersea mining operations in the Bonaparte Sea. Operating at a depth in excess of 1500 meters, Triton Limited suffered a number of initial setbacks. However, by the end of the year, it reaped commercially viable quantities of copper, gold, and sulfides. Triton Limited’s success sparked a rush, as other companies endeavored to break into this growing industry.
After nearly one and half decades of intermittent negotiations, Bahrain became the ninth member of the Union of Gulf Emirates on February 26. This ended over 150 years as a British protectorate. Bahraini Emir Sheikh Isa bin Muhammad Al Kahlifa flirted with complete independence but concerns about Persian aggression had caused him to seek safety in the UGE.
In March, tensions flared between the Russian Empire and the Kingdom of Romania. In Jassy, demonstrations sponsored by the populist government of Ilie Albescu, loudly called for greater autonomy of Romanian speakers in Russian Bessarabia. In retaliation, Russian Prime Minister Rafail Ivanov closed several border crossings across the Prut River, and deployed additional troops to the region. German Chancellor Boehler struggled to defuse the situation. While Boehler did not wish for a confrontation between the Association of European States and the Orthodox Council, the recent loss of the Netherlands made him hesitant to castigate an ally.
In the spring, the Commonwealth of Madras launched its first satellite using a solid fuel autophagy booster. By consuming the booster casing as additional fuel, the rocket was able to carry a heavier payload than more conventional launch systems. The manufacturer, Srinivas Astrodynamics, widely publicized this success, marketing itself as an inexpensive launch alternative.
American retailer Harley’s began allowing customers to purchase goods by automated checkout. Consumers select their items, and upon leaving the store are automatically scanned and charged. Without having to stop and empty their shopping carts or open their wallets, the system decreased wait times and improved customer satisfaction. Although Harley’s was forced to admit later that theft increased by 10% during their third quarter.
Having settled a long running border dispute with Guatemala the previous year, the Dominion of British Honduras gained full independence from the United Kingdom on June 2 as the Republic of Belize. The Belizean government of President Cole Bradley remained divided on whether to stay in the ComNat or join the LAR, as it weighed the benefits of each alliance.
The XXVII Summer Olympiad was held in Mexico City. President Adela Maricruz Casal presided over the opening ceremonies.
During autumn, the Chinese Directorate of Health announced a successful kidney transplant using gene editing. The designer organ, harvested from a pig, was grown to be compatible with the patient Fen Yashu. While some heralded the process as a medical breakthrough, others fretted that this was only the latest step in China’s reckless advance in genetic technology.
In October, the film Undaunted debuted to massive commercial success. Directed by H. Arthur Neal, it used revolutionary special effects for both the spaceship and Martian surface, seamless blending actors and props with computer generated images. The film would go on to break Sacred Honor's record for the most Griffith wins with twelve. Jason Shadle, who played Damian Graham, would accept his award alongside the famous astronaut the following year.
In the American midterm elections, Republicans gained control of the House of Representatives for the first time since 2014. The Senate was effectively split down the middle, allowing Vice President Kuklinski to serve as the deciding vote. Most polls showed that concerns over the slowing economy, not foreign policy, motivated voters.
On November 20, troops from the Congo crossed the Lualaba River into the Independent Congolese Republic, under the guise of pursing ICR backed guerrillas. Léon Mihambo, who had succeeded his father Augustin as Congo’s leader earlier that year, sought to solidify his rule by military action. Invoking the collective defense clause of the Coalition for a Democratic Africa, ICR Premier Naasson Luneno called for aid. East African Prime Minister Wycliffe Ndugai was the first to declare war against Mihambo’s regime followed shortly thereafter by South Africa, Katanga, Gordonia, and Zambezia. In turn, Abyssinia, Umbangi, and Angola joined the fray on the All-African Alliance side, plunging the continent into war.
Troops of the All-African Alliance advance into the Independent Congolese Republic
December, 2022
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This bio was written by me, with edits by Mac Gregor.
Jacobo Chavarria (1906-1961)
Jacobo Chavarria was born in Puerto Cabello, Carabobo, Venezuela on April 28, 1906. His parents were both of criollo families that had resided in Venezuela for several generations. His father Elian Chavarria (1877-1946) was a high ranking general in the Venezuelan Army and a staunch opponent of Venezuelan President Juan Vicente Gómez (1857-1935), as General Chavarria saw President Gómez as a symbol of leftist foreign influence over Venezuela. His mother Christina Chavarria née Herrera (1883-1939) was a local school teacher. His parents were of the upper class, and moved to Caracas in 1915 when the young Jacobo was only nine years-old. As a child, Jacobo was educated in numerous different boarding schools in Caracas. After reaching adulthood, he left Venezuela for Spain and was educated at the Complutense University of Madrid from 1924 to 1928. In Madrid, Chavarria became enamored with corporatism and became a close student of corporatist theorists such as the French theorist Edouard Desrochers (1882-1949) and the Bohemian theorist Jan Karel Blommaert (1890-1937). After his return to Venezuela, Chavarria joined the Venezuelan Army where he began to serve as an infantry officer. After twelve years in the Venezuelan Army, he was promoted to the rank of general in 1940 when he was only thirty-four years old, largely thanks to favoritism and his father’s connections with members of the Venezuelan Armed Forces.
After President Juan Vicente Gomez died in 1935, Venezuela elected the left-leaning President Augusto Perez (1879-1943). In 1942, Perez was succeeded by Roberto Varela (1889-1955) of the center-left Liberal People’s Party of Venezuela. General Jacobo Chavarria, an increasingly influential member of the armed forces, saw President Varela, who during the 1942 elections ran on a platform of improving relations with the United States of America, the United Kingdom and Brazil, as a puppet of foreign imperialists and a sellout against the Venezuelan people. In 1947, General Chavarria and other coconspirators in the Venezuelan Armed Forces began planning for a coup against President Varela. Finally, after two years of planning, on June 14, 1949, General Chavarria and his supporters launched a successful putsch and took control of the central government in Caracas. The overthrown President Varela fled by private plane to Santiago, Chile, where he lived until he died of a heart attack in 1955.
Although an admirer of the regimes of Elbio Paz Armenta (1892-1949) in Peru and Celso Serrano (1895-1949) in Bolivia, Chavarria declared that Venezuela would remain neutral in the Second Atacama War in the weeks after appointing himself President of Venezuela. However, Chavarria allowed for the establishment of a volunteer unit, the Bolivar Division, to be sent to fight in the Bolivian Army against the forces of the United States of America and its allies. Seeing considerable action during the war, after the armistice in December, 1949, the Bolivar Division was withdrawn back to Venezuela.
Throughout the 1950s, President Chavarria continued to cement his control over all elements of Venezuelan society. Before long, Chavarria and his government completely dominated the Venezuelan government and public institutions, and soon after had control over many aspects of everyday life. Chavarria also proved himself to be a ruthlessly efficient and harsh ruler. He brutally suppressed any form of descent and jailed numerous political dissidents, journalists, comedians, actors and intellectuals. In 1953, Chavarria merged several organizations into the Partido de Unidad Nacional Venezolana (PUNV) or the Venezuelan National Unity Party, cementing his complete and total control over Venezuela and officially turned Venezuela into a corporatist police state.
Throughout his presidency, the economy of Venezuela was stringently regulated for the benefit of the state, all trade unions were state owned, and Venezuela’s growing oil revenues were used to fund the rapid expansion of the military. While not as prominent as the buildup of the armed forces, Chavarria did make an appeal to the mostly impoverished mestizo and indigenous peoples of Venezuela, funding public works projects such as, roads, airports, factories, schools, orphanages, and numerous Roman Catholic institutions.
Starting in the early years of his presidency, Chavarria began a long and lasting friendship with Bolivar Division veteran Colonel Vicente Saturnino (1920-2002). In 1955, President Chavarria promoted his friend Saturnino to the rank of general. Saturnino quickly became Chavarria’s de-facto deputy, and was then groomed to be his successor as the president of corporatist Venezuela.
After almost twelve years in power, President Chavarria died in Caracas of cancer on May 27, 1961 at fifty-five years of age. His funeral was held in Caracas on June 12, 1961. After his funeral, Chavarria was buried in a large mausoleum outside of Caracas. After a brief power struggle in the Venezuelan government, General Saturnino was swiftly installed as the new president of Venezuela. While hailed by many Venezuelan right-wingers as a hero at the time, after the end of corporatism in Venezuela in 1979, Chavarria’s body was exhumed and his mausoleum demolished. With the consent of his closest living relatives, his body was cremated and his ashes scattered over Lake Maracaibo. Today, Chavarria is largely remembered for the brutality of his regime and for setting Venezuela on the path towards defeat in the Asia-Pacific War.
Jacobo Chavarria (1906-1961)
Jacobo Chavarria was born in Puerto Cabello, Carabobo, Venezuela on April 28, 1906. His parents were both of criollo families that had resided in Venezuela for several generations. His father Elian Chavarria (1877-1946) was a high ranking general in the Venezuelan Army and a staunch opponent of Venezuelan President Juan Vicente Gómez (1857-1935), as General Chavarria saw President Gómez as a symbol of leftist foreign influence over Venezuela. His mother Christina Chavarria née Herrera (1883-1939) was a local school teacher. His parents were of the upper class, and moved to Caracas in 1915 when the young Jacobo was only nine years-old. As a child, Jacobo was educated in numerous different boarding schools in Caracas. After reaching adulthood, he left Venezuela for Spain and was educated at the Complutense University of Madrid from 1924 to 1928. In Madrid, Chavarria became enamored with corporatism and became a close student of corporatist theorists such as the French theorist Edouard Desrochers (1882-1949) and the Bohemian theorist Jan Karel Blommaert (1890-1937). After his return to Venezuela, Chavarria joined the Venezuelan Army where he began to serve as an infantry officer. After twelve years in the Venezuelan Army, he was promoted to the rank of general in 1940 when he was only thirty-four years old, largely thanks to favoritism and his father’s connections with members of the Venezuelan Armed Forces.
After President Juan Vicente Gomez died in 1935, Venezuela elected the left-leaning President Augusto Perez (1879-1943). In 1942, Perez was succeeded by Roberto Varela (1889-1955) of the center-left Liberal People’s Party of Venezuela. General Jacobo Chavarria, an increasingly influential member of the armed forces, saw President Varela, who during the 1942 elections ran on a platform of improving relations with the United States of America, the United Kingdom and Brazil, as a puppet of foreign imperialists and a sellout against the Venezuelan people. In 1947, General Chavarria and other coconspirators in the Venezuelan Armed Forces began planning for a coup against President Varela. Finally, after two years of planning, on June 14, 1949, General Chavarria and his supporters launched a successful putsch and took control of the central government in Caracas. The overthrown President Varela fled by private plane to Santiago, Chile, where he lived until he died of a heart attack in 1955.
Although an admirer of the regimes of Elbio Paz Armenta (1892-1949) in Peru and Celso Serrano (1895-1949) in Bolivia, Chavarria declared that Venezuela would remain neutral in the Second Atacama War in the weeks after appointing himself President of Venezuela. However, Chavarria allowed for the establishment of a volunteer unit, the Bolivar Division, to be sent to fight in the Bolivian Army against the forces of the United States of America and its allies. Seeing considerable action during the war, after the armistice in December, 1949, the Bolivar Division was withdrawn back to Venezuela.
Throughout the 1950s, President Chavarria continued to cement his control over all elements of Venezuelan society. Before long, Chavarria and his government completely dominated the Venezuelan government and public institutions, and soon after had control over many aspects of everyday life. Chavarria also proved himself to be a ruthlessly efficient and harsh ruler. He brutally suppressed any form of descent and jailed numerous political dissidents, journalists, comedians, actors and intellectuals. In 1953, Chavarria merged several organizations into the Partido de Unidad Nacional Venezolana (PUNV) or the Venezuelan National Unity Party, cementing his complete and total control over Venezuela and officially turned Venezuela into a corporatist police state.
Throughout his presidency, the economy of Venezuela was stringently regulated for the benefit of the state, all trade unions were state owned, and Venezuela’s growing oil revenues were used to fund the rapid expansion of the military. While not as prominent as the buildup of the armed forces, Chavarria did make an appeal to the mostly impoverished mestizo and indigenous peoples of Venezuela, funding public works projects such as, roads, airports, factories, schools, orphanages, and numerous Roman Catholic institutions.
Starting in the early years of his presidency, Chavarria began a long and lasting friendship with Bolivar Division veteran Colonel Vicente Saturnino (1920-2002). In 1955, President Chavarria promoted his friend Saturnino to the rank of general. Saturnino quickly became Chavarria’s de-facto deputy, and was then groomed to be his successor as the president of corporatist Venezuela.
After almost twelve years in power, President Chavarria died in Caracas of cancer on May 27, 1961 at fifty-five years of age. His funeral was held in Caracas on June 12, 1961. After his funeral, Chavarria was buried in a large mausoleum outside of Caracas. After a brief power struggle in the Venezuelan government, General Saturnino was swiftly installed as the new president of Venezuela. While hailed by many Venezuelan right-wingers as a hero at the time, after the end of corporatism in Venezuela in 1979, Chavarria’s body was exhumed and his mausoleum demolished. With the consent of his closest living relatives, his body was cremated and his ashes scattered over Lake Maracaibo. Today, Chavarria is largely remembered for the brutality of his regime and for setting Venezuela on the path towards defeat in the Asia-Pacific War.
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So I got kinda carried away with my first profile for this timeline. Here, with Mac Gregor's edits and blessing, is the E Pluribus Unum Society...
Historical Background
After the Civil War and nationwide emancipation of slaves, many of the antebellum social movements searched for ways to organize themselves and advocate for social change in the postbellum era. Movements that had been united by the anti-slavery issue found themselves at odds in the late 1860s and early 1870s, as activists split over differing priorities. As the last enslaved African-Americans were emancipated on New Year’s Day 1868, the dominant activist force in the North was the American Anti-Slavery Society. It found itself increasingly disunited as activists argued about whether to focus on political rights for Black Americans or for women. Some rejected the need for further activism at all with the stain slavery now eliminated. Eventually, three new organizations emerged out of the AASS.
The American Freedmen’s Foundation was created in 1865 by Lewis Tappan, Martin Delany, and the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. Its mission was to provide funding and support for freedmen moving to the west in the First Migration to take advantage of the Homestead Act of 1865 as well as securing property for those who remained in the South.
The Society of American Patriotic Ladies was created in 1867 by the leading participants of the Seneca Falls and Worcester women’s rights conventions of 1848 and 1850. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Lucy Stone, and Susan B. Anthony served as co-chairs of the society, which had a mission of providing more political rights and independence to American women, including financial emancipation, property rights, suffrage, and parental rights.
The National Association for Negro Advancement was founded in 1871 by Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison and marked their reconciliation from the antagonism between both men during the 1850s. Its mission was the advancement of political rights for African Americans across the United States.
Founding the Society
In the spring of 1876 representatives from a variety of social and political movements met in Rochester, New York to discuss a way to coordinate their efforts in the future. Activists at the Rochester Convention hammered out common goals and understandings. On May 11, 1876, the delegates signed a charter officially creating the E Pluribus Unum Society. According to their first publication, the Common Declaration of the Rights of People, the Society “makes our mission the tireless support and encouragement of our powerless, unfortunate, and dispirited compatriots,” and that “we will demonstrate to the nation and to the world that the union of our people is at its strongest when we mold ourselves into one out of the many.”
The E Pluribus Unum Society was designed to be an alliance of social movements rather than a replacement for them. A board of governors ran the Society and it was among the first national organizations to allow both interracial and mixed-sex leadership. Throughout the last third of the 19th-century the leadership of the Society read like a dramatis personae of antebellum activists; including the likes of Susan B. Anthony, William Wells Brown, Frederick Douglass, Henry Highland Garnet, William Lloyd Garrison, Thomas W. Higginson, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone, Sojourner Truth, and Harriet Tubman, among others. In the 1880s, former president Abraham Lincoln was named the honorary head of the Society’s Board of Governors, Lincoln exchanged several letters with Society board members, which remain treasured artifacts of American post-war thinking.
The Early Years and First Wave Civil Rights (1876-1913)
The Society’s early work focused on expanding suffrage rights and education for all Americans. Many women’s and black colleges received support from the Society and many graduates became Society members. As the turn of the century approached, the Society increasingly also took on the cause of orphans, veterans, and the mentally ill. While the Society became well regarded in the Northeast and much of the West, it was often afforded pariah status in the former Confederacy. As such, in the late 19th centuries, the Society was generally associated with the Republican Party.
At the turn of the century, the Society began to make inroads across the nation regarding voting rights and ending legal discrimination by federal and state governments. One of the leading figures in the Civil Rights Movement of the early 1900s, black Atlanta businessman George Washington Harley, became a leading member of the Society’s Board of Governors in 1904. Harley’s personal friendship with white Methodist preacher Reverend Samuel G. McGuffey turned Atlanta into a southern bastion of civil rights activism. Under Harley’s long stewardship, the Society became one of the major proponents of the 14th Amendment in 1905 and the 15th Amendment in 1913. The Society leveraged the patriotism of black soldiers returning from the Great War and women who flooded the workforce to keep America’s economy robust tipping the balance for passage and ratification. Many of George W. Harley’s innovative organizing tactics are still used today in Society training manuals.
The Post-War Years (1910-1940)
Following the Great War, the E Pluribus Unum Society increasingly looked beyond the United States. Coordinated by controversial businesswoman Victoria Woodhull, international chapters of the Society and affiliated pro-democracy organizations sprung up in Berlin, St. Petersburg, Paris, Rome, Budapest, and Prague during the 1910s and 1920s. These chapters often became affiliated, explicitly or otherwise, with liberal political parties and were typically led by local activists rather than Americans. The Society dedicated a portion of its proceeds to support the activities of their international chapters and affiliates. Unsurprisingly, the international chapters were frequently denounced by reactionary and authoritarian elements as tools of American influence. During the Red Terror in Hungary, the American liaison to the Budapest chapter of the Society, Rose Poliquin, was horrifically executed as a foreign agent by a Communist mob. In 1924, the Society began issuing the Poliquin Medal of Freedom to Society members who demonstrated dedication and sacrifice to the mission of the organization.
The Society was honored to have former president Robert Todd Lincoln served on the Board of Governors from 1916 until his death in 1926. Under RTL, the Society dedicated its resources to the enforcement of the 14th and 15th amendments. While implementation went smoothly in most states, the Old South erected numerous legal barriers to full implementation, especially with regard to suffrage. In addition, racial segregation laws were strengthened after the war in response to the First Wave of the Civil Rights Movement.
In the 1920s and 1930s the E Pluribus Unum Society largely lost its supporters in the federal government, as segregationist Democrats and corrupt, risk-averse Republicans alternated power. Society members worked strenuously to make inroads with Democrats in Washington, but their labors produced little action to change the segregationist policies that ruled in the South and parts of the North. As the Second Migration of blacks out of the South began in the late-1910s, the Society poured resources into integration and cultural exchanges between Black Americans and the various white cultures in northern cities such as Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, and New York. State governments were lobbied to support inclusive job training and hiring practices for all working class job seekers. The Society was deeply divided on economic questions during this period. Some strongly favored advocating for improved conditions in factories and worker rights, while others feared that common cause with socialist or communist elements would undermine the Society’s effectiveness on other issues.
The Society also increased its outreach in the Caribbean. By the mid-1930s, an increasing proportion of new Society members hailed from the island region. One of the most well-known activists to come out of the Caribbean in this era was Thomas Reynoso from Santo Domingo. By 1940 the Havana and Santo Domingo Society chapters rivaled the New York City and Boston chapters in membership.
Second Wave Civil Rights (1940-1952)
In the 1940s the Society continued their strong focus on the segregationist policies in the South. In 1942 the Society’s national headquarters moved to Atlanta. In 1943 the Society was instrumental in organizing the conference which led to the October 19 Atlanta Declaration in the halls of the Atlanta Baptist Church. The following Sunday the white Reverend Zachary Templeton and black Reverend Carlton Robertson, both leaders of the local Society chapter, announced the permanent merger of their congregations. The Declaration was well received throughout the United States excluding the South, which in some states saw even harsher measures passed into law.
Throughout the 1940s the Society sponsored the so-called “Cry of Freedom Rides” in which activists from across the country converged on the South by ship, autobus, and train to participate in sit-ins, marches, and other forms of protest against the prevailing racist laws. Reynoso became one of the leading figureheads of this movement along with such famous names as Corinne Reid, Anthony Masterson, and Emma Mendes Stephen. Society organizers received plaudits for the protesters' universally peaceful actions, even in the face of very public acts of violence by local governments.
Upon the election of Georgia governor Leroy R. Conner as president, the Society found a staunch ally in the White House for the first time since Theodore Roosevelt nearly thirty years earlier. Conner had stunned southern politics when he endorsed the Atlanta Declaration and participated in Society-sponsored forums throughout his terms as governor. The Society had several members elected to the new Congress, among them the future political dynamos Emmanuel Crespedes (R-CU), Charles Francis Adams III (R-MA), and Wilmer Brown (R-NE).
After the Columbia, South Carolina race riot in 1950, the Society rapidly expanded around the nation. The Civil Rights Act of 1951 was viewed as a triumph for the Society, with the tireless efforts of activists and organizers as the driving force behind its passage. By 1952, Society chapters had organized in every state. Some states, like Massachusetts, New York, and California, each claimed over half a dozen chapters within their borders.
Decentralized Era (1952-1969)
Seeing themselves as largely victorious on the home front, the Society turned its attention to Latin America in the 1950s. E Pluribus Unum Society chapters popped up in Mexico City, Bogota, Santiago, Rio de Janeiro, and Buenos Aires. Peru and Bolivia sought out the Society’s input as they rebuilt their governments in the aftermath of the South American War. Corporatist Venezuela was less receptive and banned Society outreach. The late ‘40s into the ‘50s also saw the Society lobbying the United Kingdom over the war in India, with Senator Adams declaring the United Kingdom “has let its imperial ambitions overshadow its long commitment to safeguarding the rights of the people. A people, currently denied a voice in their own governance, will surely react with revolution, as history has demonstrated time and again. It is long past the time for Britain to learn this lesson.” In the 1950s the Society worked strenuously to provide political and economic opportunities for Chinese refugees from Hainan, who had resettled by the tens of thousands across the Pacific and western states. Chih-Ping Soong became the first Chinese-American to serve on the Society’s Board of Governors in 1954.
The late 1950s through the early 1970s were trying for the E Pluribus Unum Society. As the Second Civil Rights Era successes faded, disagreements developed about what to focus on next. Factions increasingly developed within the organization and its affiliates. Internationalists wanted to push the Society’s efforts abroad to the next level, pushing pro-democracy, women’s rights, and racial equality across the globe, especially winding down colonialism in Africa and Asia. The internationalists were led by Bulloch “Bully” Roosevelt and Martin Del Rio. Domestic progressives saw new frontiers of social change that the Society could enter, including women’s health issues like birth control and abortion, the growing Uranian Movement which fought for recognition and freedoms for those attracted to the same-sex, and the rights and restoration of American Indians. They were themselves often divided against one another. Honora Weld, Theresa Rossi, Lily Foster, Iacobo Fernandez, Rona Heydinger, John Paul LeMay, Joseph Blackfeather, and Melody Niitouu were among the leadership of the different progressive factions. Other members supported a focus on reconciliation to solidify the gains made in the first half of the century by promoting anti-racist cultural exchanges within the United States. Gabrielle Appella, Arthur G. Wilson, and Shanaya Fontaine led this faction. This fracturing of affiliates led to this decentralized era for the Society. The Board of Governors produced few notable leaders as more single-issue-based organizations took the lead throughout the 1960s.
A New Mission (1969-1981)
1969 was a watershed year for the E Pluribus Unum Society. That year Martha B. Denger rose to prominence in the Society’s leadership. On September 24, Denger released The Moral Prerogative, a treatise and guiding principle for the E Pluribus Unum Society moving into the 1970s. The Moral Prerogative reframed the mission of the Society by clearly linking its founding Common Declaration with the burgeoning Religious Left movement. This linkage more explicitly brought the Society into left-wing economic politics, a realm it had previously avoided taking much of an advocacy role. Under Denger’s stewardship, the Society pushed policies promoting economic justice, not merely political access. While this change in focus was applauded in some quarters, it proved to be highly controversial. Many traditional elements of the Society’s membership were linked to more economically conservative elements in the business community, some of whom were alienated by Denger’s rhetoric against “the injustices of unfettered capitalism.” Denger pointed to the Society’s early work furthering education, helping widows, orphans, and the mentally ill as clear evidence for the path forward.
In 1972, one of Denger’s allies in Congress, Senator Rupert Stubbs (D-UT), was nominated for Vice President by the Democratic Party. His signature issue was a labor and business reform package that would require labor representation on corporate boards, sectoral bargaining, and shared security accounts. Although Stubbs lost the election, Denger used the campaign to introduce the new face of the Society to Americans. The campaign also marked the first time the Society had campaigned on behalf of the Democratic presidential ticket.
Another effect of Denger’s ascendency was the fracture of the progressive faction from the Society. While Denger embraced the internationalist and reconciliation factions, many socially progressive movements ran afoul of Denger’s moral scruples. “The family is the core of our union,” she said. “The surest way to build up those who are most in need is to strengthen families so that each generation grows up on stronger footing than their parents.” This platform involved limiting abortion and a general rejection of nonconformist sexual orientations, such as homosexuals. Some organizations that split from the Society in the early 70s include the Women’s Action League (1969), the Pink Wave (1970), and the Uranian Association of the Americas (1970).
Despite the loss of the more socially radical progressive factions, the Society continued to have a preeminent role in activist culture. While relations between Denger and President Sterling Gavin were relatively frosty, progress was made in the push for a family leave policy. The Society campaigned hard for the historic candidacy of Margaret L. Stewart (D-CA) in the presidential campaign of 1976. Stewart’s Forward Together campaign borrowed extensively from the Society’s platform. After her election, Stewart heaped praise on the organizational efforts of Martha Denger and the Society and pledged to be “a partner and friend” to the Society and its initiatives.
Stewart’s words were not empty. Even in the face of mounting foreign challenges President Stewart opened up her term with a massive push on infrastructure projects and economic reform in her first 100 days in 1977. Senators Stubbs and Skyler Almassy (R-IL) worked to build a bipartisan coalition in support of the Forward Together initiative. The Society’s Legislative Director Roberta Spencer lobbied Congress furiously, organizing chapters nationwide to get lawmakers from both parties to commit to the final policy package. The Economic Recovery and Reform Act (ERRA) was signed by President Stewart on May 26, 1977. This massive legislative package accomplished an enormous amount, including a number of priorities of Denger, the Society, and the Religious Left, including paid family and medical leave, corporate board reform, sectoral labor bargaining, shared security accounts, grants for school and hospital repairs and construction, and job training programs for displaced workers. Upon the passage of the ERRA, the Society notched another win on their belt for “American unity and progress,” as Denger put it in her farewell address.
The Society largely backed the administration during the Asia-Pacific War but pushed for greater refugee aid and anti-imperialist policies. As the 1970s turned into the ‘80s, the E Pluribus Unum Society shifted its focus again, this time led by the internationalists.
Defenders of Democracy (1981-1995)
In the early 1980s, the global order underwent a series of shifts. With the Technate of China increasingly flexing its muscles in Asia, popular rebellions against the monarchies in Iberia, and the gradual decolonization of Africa, the perception in the United States was that global democracy faced a crossroad. As Archibald Roosevelt declared at the Society’s Global Conference in San Juan in November 1984, “we stand at a moment in time in which the forces of democracy have dozens of bright paths upon which to travel. Should we fail to follow these paths to glory, we can be assured that our adversaries will eagerly cast these paths into darkness.”
With his rousing oratory, Roosevelt led the charge for the Society to embrace a more international role in pro-democracy advocacy. Chapters were opened across the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, and independent Africa, with the stated aim of developing democratic culture and institutions, fostering political equality, and fighting the corruption that made developing countries vulnerable to anti-democratic forces. Following the Iberian conflicts, the Society established a presence in both Portugal and mainland Spain to prevent both countries from backsliding into autocracy. The Society had mixed results and their resources were spread increasingly thin by the late 1980s. Portugal’s former colonies in Africa proved to be perplexing challenges for democracy-building. Likewise, Society efforts in Commonwealth nations in Africa were met with cool responses, as governments hampered Society operations. Iberia was seen as a relative success in comparison, but Asia proved to be the crown jewel of the Society’s foreign campaigns. With the growing threat of China and its satellites, the Society helped Burma, Siam, Malaya, and Japan design cultural and institutional bulwarks against technocratic aggression. In Japan, in particular, the Society was credited for the growing support for democracy throughout the 1980s.
Alongside Archibald Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln IV rose into prominence in the 1980s in both US politics and the Society’s Board of Governors. While the tag-team of a Roosevelt and a Lincoln was beloved by the news media, critics in the Society’s left-wing viewed the leadership as hawkish and anachronistic. Technocracy was frequently cast as a global bogeyman and the rhetoric employed by the Society throughout the 80s and 90s was surprisingly harsh for a non-violent organization. The Board of Governors was accused of sidelining prominent female voices like Shanaya Fontaine and Georgia Westwood, who wanted to keep the Society in a more explicitly pacifist role, focused more on building on successes in the United States rather than “missionary work across the tumultuous world,” in the words of Westwood. Contrary to the critics, Fontaine, Westwood, and their allies were important contributors to the 1994 establishment of Democracy Day as a federal holiday, making the act of voting more convenient to millions of American voters.
The internationalist faction hit several stumbling blocks in the mid-’90s. First, in 1993 the conservative Motherland Party of the Imperial Eurasian Federation banned E Pluribus Unum Society chapters within the federation. Chapters in St. Petersburg, Kiev, Warsaw, Helsinki, and Tallinn were raided by federal police and shut down. Society Director for Eurasia Kasper Zajak was jailed in Krakow for trumped up charges of “disturbing the peace”. Zajak was awarded the 1994 Poliquin Medal of Freedom in absentia by the Board of Governors. In spite of overtures made by the Society, the United States, and the League of American Republics, the IEF refused to release Zajak. The IEF crackdown on the Society’s pro-democracy, and allegedly pro-separatist activities in Eurasia led the other countries in Orthodox Council to shutter Society chapters, greatly weakening the Society’s activity in the least democratic areas of Europe.
More damaging to the Society’s international involvement was the Stoler Arms Scandal. In December of 1994, the regional Society Director of Bangkok, Joshua Stoler, was revealed to have assisted gun-runners for the Commonwealth, smuggling arms to groups fighting against the Technocratic Union in northern Siam and Burma. Stoler had been a rising star within the Society’s internationalist wing and was sent to Southeast Asia with much fanfare as “the vanguard of democracy.” While no governors of the Society were implicated in the scheme, the reputation of the internationalists was sullied by the knowledge that the non-violent tenets of both the Common Declaration and the Moral Prerogative had been compromised. In 1995 the internationalists lost their control of the Board of Governors, with the liberal faction of Morgan Guzman seizing the reins of the Society.
The Liberal Order (1995-Present)
The liberal takeover readjusted the outlook of the E Pluribus Unum Society as the new millennium approached. The focus went from aggressive advocacy of democracy around the world to advocating for the rights of people to live in accordance with their conscience free from intervention from government manipulation. Guzman did avoid completely retrenching the Society from foreign engagement. The release of Kasper Zajak remained a top priority for the Society, and publicity efforts had led to varying levels of unrest across the western regions of the IEF, especially in Poland, Ukraine, and Finland. Ultimately, in 1996 Zajak was released from custody, stripped of his citizenship, and deported to the United States. Zajak was hailed a hero for Polish self-determination upon his arrival to Society headquarters in Atlanta.
In addition to the recovery of Zajak, Guzman increasingly turned the Society’s muscle towards the plight of American Indians. Cherokee leader and Society Governor Frank Semissee had been a student of Joseph Blackfeather and took the lead in the 1990s campaign to remove federal oversight of native peoples, repeal laws suppressing native language, culture, and self-determination. Guzman and Semisee highlighted sympathetic native stories in the mass media. In June 1999 Congress passed the American Indian Liberty Act and President Franklin M. Blanton signed the measure stating that it “heralds a new era for the relationship between American natives and the United States government.”
Guzman also turned attention back toward cultural progressives. She had seen for years that the rejection of the feminist and uranian factions of social activism in the late 20th-century had driven those movements into the arms of technocratic parties. Guzman was determined to leverage the clout of the Society to highlight the differences between an individual women’s right to regulate her own body and the government eugenics-based abortions in the Technocratic Union. For the first time, the Society lobbied state governments to relax their abortion laws. Gifted orators and debaters like Jean Kowalski and Hanna Singh led the public relations and lobbying efforts. By 2007 twenty-three states had, in one way or another, liberalized their abortion laws.
The liberals also emphasized the implicit liberty of uranians to follow their hearts to loving relationships within the construction of the American family. While the liberals stopped short of endorsing the radical “free love” movement, their very public campaign in the early 2000s opened the door to a gradual sea change in American attitudes toward uranian love. The Society made history by electing John Paul LeMay, longtime leader of the Uranian Association to the Board of Governors in 2003. As with abortion, the Society’s clout was instrumental in mainstreaming the uranian rights movement. By 2015 fifteen states recognized same-sex relationships and the Supreme Court ruled 8-3 in Gadsby vs Alabama (2012) that the criminalization of homosexual conduct was unconstitutional.
Events abroad continued to draw the Society’s attention across the ocean. The outbreak of the IEF Civil War in 2001 could not escape comment by the Society. While the Society reluctantly followed the directive of the federal government and refused to favor the Reformers or the Conservatives in the conflict, Guzman jumped on the opportunity to reestablish the Society’s presence in the newly independent states of Finland, Poland, and the Baltic. Kasper Zajak was repatriated to Poland where he led the Democracy First movement in eastern Europe throughout the 2000s. The Society used its network of global chapters to help coordinate the international response to the millions of refugees fleeing the violence in Eurasia. At the end of the war, it was instrumental in the resettlement process for over a million displaced Ukrainians, Reformist Russians, and others.
Additionally, the Society hosted the Dutch evangelist reformer Arend Beulens at the Global Faith Conference in Seattle in 2006. While Beulens never formally became a member of the Society, his Rainbow Revival movement shared several goals that the Society held for the globe, even as he emphasized liberal Christianity more than the modern Society, which by the late 2000s was deliberately non-denominational. The amity between Beulens and the Society led to new tensions between German chapters of the Society and the conservative elements in the Reich.
When Guzman retired in 2013 the stewardship of the Society fell to Alexander Graziani. Graziani had strongly supported the liberal order established by Guzman over nearly two decades. Under Graziani, the Society became a sponsor of the annual International Ecoist Convention, where it sits firmly in the liberal wing of the fractious ecoist movement. Graziani has become a strong force lobbying the US government on “green” initiatives, saying at the 2017 Ecoist Convention in Brussels, “the cause of liberty and freedom for humanity dies with the death of our planet. Over 140 years ago, the E Pluribus Unum Society was founded on the principle that we can become one out of many, but our forebears could hardly imagine the challenges that our own progress towards that goal would create. For the last century, we have proven that humanity, whether free or oppressed has the capacity to destroy our world. We must now prove that we can save it.” Graziani’s focus on environmental issues has generated criticism from numerous quarters that think that he is leading the Society far from its original mandate.
The 2022 outbreak of war in Africa has led the Society to galvanize its global network to pressure governments to prepare for a wave of refugees fleeing the fighting. Nora Vanderwaal the Society Director for Sub-Saharan Africa was forced to evacuate Society organizers from a number of All-African Alliance nations. Other recent developments include the Society Director for Germany Ernst Boehm’s overtures in Berlin to diffuse the simmering tensions with the Dutch Republic.
Society Headquarters
The headquarters of the E Pluribus Unum Society resides in Atlanta, Georgia. Recently rebuilt in 2008, the Society Headquarters is a major attraction for visitors to the “Capital of the South.” The famous statues of G. W. Harley and Rev. McGuffey welcome visitors to the adjacent Society Museum of the American People. Cast in bronze in 1958, their inward hands are joined over their heads as they gaze up at an obelisk on which is engraved the Battle Cry of Freedom, excerpts of the Declaration of Independence, the Common Declaration, and the Atlanta Declaration. Since its grand reopening in 2012, the Society Museum has expanded on its reputation as an equal partner to any of the Smithsonian National Museums. Through its origins, struggles, triumphs, and controversies, the E Pluribus Unum Society will undoubtedly remain an important player for human rights and democracy on the global scene for years to come.
The E Pluribus Unum Society
The E Pluribus Unum Society was founded during the Reconciliation Era and has since grown into one of the world’s premier human rights and pro-democracy organizations.
Historical Background
After the Civil War and nationwide emancipation of slaves, many of the antebellum social movements searched for ways to organize themselves and advocate for social change in the postbellum era. Movements that had been united by the anti-slavery issue found themselves at odds in the late 1860s and early 1870s, as activists split over differing priorities. As the last enslaved African-Americans were emancipated on New Year’s Day 1868, the dominant activist force in the North was the American Anti-Slavery Society. It found itself increasingly disunited as activists argued about whether to focus on political rights for Black Americans or for women. Some rejected the need for further activism at all with the stain slavery now eliminated. Eventually, three new organizations emerged out of the AASS.
The American Freedmen’s Foundation was created in 1865 by Lewis Tappan, Martin Delany, and the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. Its mission was to provide funding and support for freedmen moving to the west in the First Migration to take advantage of the Homestead Act of 1865 as well as securing property for those who remained in the South.
The Society of American Patriotic Ladies was created in 1867 by the leading participants of the Seneca Falls and Worcester women’s rights conventions of 1848 and 1850. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Lucy Stone, and Susan B. Anthony served as co-chairs of the society, which had a mission of providing more political rights and independence to American women, including financial emancipation, property rights, suffrage, and parental rights.
The National Association for Negro Advancement was founded in 1871 by Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison and marked their reconciliation from the antagonism between both men during the 1850s. Its mission was the advancement of political rights for African Americans across the United States.
Founding the Society
In the spring of 1876 representatives from a variety of social and political movements met in Rochester, New York to discuss a way to coordinate their efforts in the future. Activists at the Rochester Convention hammered out common goals and understandings. On May 11, 1876, the delegates signed a charter officially creating the E Pluribus Unum Society. According to their first publication, the Common Declaration of the Rights of People, the Society “makes our mission the tireless support and encouragement of our powerless, unfortunate, and dispirited compatriots,” and that “we will demonstrate to the nation and to the world that the union of our people is at its strongest when we mold ourselves into one out of the many.”
The E Pluribus Unum Society was designed to be an alliance of social movements rather than a replacement for them. A board of governors ran the Society and it was among the first national organizations to allow both interracial and mixed-sex leadership. Throughout the last third of the 19th-century the leadership of the Society read like a dramatis personae of antebellum activists; including the likes of Susan B. Anthony, William Wells Brown, Frederick Douglass, Henry Highland Garnet, William Lloyd Garrison, Thomas W. Higginson, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone, Sojourner Truth, and Harriet Tubman, among others. In the 1880s, former president Abraham Lincoln was named the honorary head of the Society’s Board of Governors, Lincoln exchanged several letters with Society board members, which remain treasured artifacts of American post-war thinking.
The Early Years and First Wave Civil Rights (1876-1913)
The Society’s early work focused on expanding suffrage rights and education for all Americans. Many women’s and black colleges received support from the Society and many graduates became Society members. As the turn of the century approached, the Society increasingly also took on the cause of orphans, veterans, and the mentally ill. While the Society became well regarded in the Northeast and much of the West, it was often afforded pariah status in the former Confederacy. As such, in the late 19th centuries, the Society was generally associated with the Republican Party.
At the turn of the century, the Society began to make inroads across the nation regarding voting rights and ending legal discrimination by federal and state governments. One of the leading figures in the Civil Rights Movement of the early 1900s, black Atlanta businessman George Washington Harley, became a leading member of the Society’s Board of Governors in 1904. Harley’s personal friendship with white Methodist preacher Reverend Samuel G. McGuffey turned Atlanta into a southern bastion of civil rights activism. Under Harley’s long stewardship, the Society became one of the major proponents of the 14th Amendment in 1905 and the 15th Amendment in 1913. The Society leveraged the patriotism of black soldiers returning from the Great War and women who flooded the workforce to keep America’s economy robust tipping the balance for passage and ratification. Many of George W. Harley’s innovative organizing tactics are still used today in Society training manuals.
The Post-War Years (1910-1940)
Following the Great War, the E Pluribus Unum Society increasingly looked beyond the United States. Coordinated by controversial businesswoman Victoria Woodhull, international chapters of the Society and affiliated pro-democracy organizations sprung up in Berlin, St. Petersburg, Paris, Rome, Budapest, and Prague during the 1910s and 1920s. These chapters often became affiliated, explicitly or otherwise, with liberal political parties and were typically led by local activists rather than Americans. The Society dedicated a portion of its proceeds to support the activities of their international chapters and affiliates. Unsurprisingly, the international chapters were frequently denounced by reactionary and authoritarian elements as tools of American influence. During the Red Terror in Hungary, the American liaison to the Budapest chapter of the Society, Rose Poliquin, was horrifically executed as a foreign agent by a Communist mob. In 1924, the Society began issuing the Poliquin Medal of Freedom to Society members who demonstrated dedication and sacrifice to the mission of the organization.
The Society was honored to have former president Robert Todd Lincoln served on the Board of Governors from 1916 until his death in 1926. Under RTL, the Society dedicated its resources to the enforcement of the 14th and 15th amendments. While implementation went smoothly in most states, the Old South erected numerous legal barriers to full implementation, especially with regard to suffrage. In addition, racial segregation laws were strengthened after the war in response to the First Wave of the Civil Rights Movement.
In the 1920s and 1930s the E Pluribus Unum Society largely lost its supporters in the federal government, as segregationist Democrats and corrupt, risk-averse Republicans alternated power. Society members worked strenuously to make inroads with Democrats in Washington, but their labors produced little action to change the segregationist policies that ruled in the South and parts of the North. As the Second Migration of blacks out of the South began in the late-1910s, the Society poured resources into integration and cultural exchanges between Black Americans and the various white cultures in northern cities such as Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, and New York. State governments were lobbied to support inclusive job training and hiring practices for all working class job seekers. The Society was deeply divided on economic questions during this period. Some strongly favored advocating for improved conditions in factories and worker rights, while others feared that common cause with socialist or communist elements would undermine the Society’s effectiveness on other issues.
The Society also increased its outreach in the Caribbean. By the mid-1930s, an increasing proportion of new Society members hailed from the island region. One of the most well-known activists to come out of the Caribbean in this era was Thomas Reynoso from Santo Domingo. By 1940 the Havana and Santo Domingo Society chapters rivaled the New York City and Boston chapters in membership.
Second Wave Civil Rights (1940-1952)
In the 1940s the Society continued their strong focus on the segregationist policies in the South. In 1942 the Society’s national headquarters moved to Atlanta. In 1943 the Society was instrumental in organizing the conference which led to the October 19 Atlanta Declaration in the halls of the Atlanta Baptist Church. The following Sunday the white Reverend Zachary Templeton and black Reverend Carlton Robertson, both leaders of the local Society chapter, announced the permanent merger of their congregations. The Declaration was well received throughout the United States excluding the South, which in some states saw even harsher measures passed into law.
Throughout the 1940s the Society sponsored the so-called “Cry of Freedom Rides” in which activists from across the country converged on the South by ship, autobus, and train to participate in sit-ins, marches, and other forms of protest against the prevailing racist laws. Reynoso became one of the leading figureheads of this movement along with such famous names as Corinne Reid, Anthony Masterson, and Emma Mendes Stephen. Society organizers received plaudits for the protesters' universally peaceful actions, even in the face of very public acts of violence by local governments.
Upon the election of Georgia governor Leroy R. Conner as president, the Society found a staunch ally in the White House for the first time since Theodore Roosevelt nearly thirty years earlier. Conner had stunned southern politics when he endorsed the Atlanta Declaration and participated in Society-sponsored forums throughout his terms as governor. The Society had several members elected to the new Congress, among them the future political dynamos Emmanuel Crespedes (R-CU), Charles Francis Adams III (R-MA), and Wilmer Brown (R-NE).
After the Columbia, South Carolina race riot in 1950, the Society rapidly expanded around the nation. The Civil Rights Act of 1951 was viewed as a triumph for the Society, with the tireless efforts of activists and organizers as the driving force behind its passage. By 1952, Society chapters had organized in every state. Some states, like Massachusetts, New York, and California, each claimed over half a dozen chapters within their borders.
Decentralized Era (1952-1969)
Seeing themselves as largely victorious on the home front, the Society turned its attention to Latin America in the 1950s. E Pluribus Unum Society chapters popped up in Mexico City, Bogota, Santiago, Rio de Janeiro, and Buenos Aires. Peru and Bolivia sought out the Society’s input as they rebuilt their governments in the aftermath of the South American War. Corporatist Venezuela was less receptive and banned Society outreach. The late ‘40s into the ‘50s also saw the Society lobbying the United Kingdom over the war in India, with Senator Adams declaring the United Kingdom “has let its imperial ambitions overshadow its long commitment to safeguarding the rights of the people. A people, currently denied a voice in their own governance, will surely react with revolution, as history has demonstrated time and again. It is long past the time for Britain to learn this lesson.” In the 1950s the Society worked strenuously to provide political and economic opportunities for Chinese refugees from Hainan, who had resettled by the tens of thousands across the Pacific and western states. Chih-Ping Soong became the first Chinese-American to serve on the Society’s Board of Governors in 1954.
The late 1950s through the early 1970s were trying for the E Pluribus Unum Society. As the Second Civil Rights Era successes faded, disagreements developed about what to focus on next. Factions increasingly developed within the organization and its affiliates. Internationalists wanted to push the Society’s efforts abroad to the next level, pushing pro-democracy, women’s rights, and racial equality across the globe, especially winding down colonialism in Africa and Asia. The internationalists were led by Bulloch “Bully” Roosevelt and Martin Del Rio. Domestic progressives saw new frontiers of social change that the Society could enter, including women’s health issues like birth control and abortion, the growing Uranian Movement which fought for recognition and freedoms for those attracted to the same-sex, and the rights and restoration of American Indians. They were themselves often divided against one another. Honora Weld, Theresa Rossi, Lily Foster, Iacobo Fernandez, Rona Heydinger, John Paul LeMay, Joseph Blackfeather, and Melody Niitouu were among the leadership of the different progressive factions. Other members supported a focus on reconciliation to solidify the gains made in the first half of the century by promoting anti-racist cultural exchanges within the United States. Gabrielle Appella, Arthur G. Wilson, and Shanaya Fontaine led this faction. This fracturing of affiliates led to this decentralized era for the Society. The Board of Governors produced few notable leaders as more single-issue-based organizations took the lead throughout the 1960s.
A New Mission (1969-1981)
1969 was a watershed year for the E Pluribus Unum Society. That year Martha B. Denger rose to prominence in the Society’s leadership. On September 24, Denger released The Moral Prerogative, a treatise and guiding principle for the E Pluribus Unum Society moving into the 1970s. The Moral Prerogative reframed the mission of the Society by clearly linking its founding Common Declaration with the burgeoning Religious Left movement. This linkage more explicitly brought the Society into left-wing economic politics, a realm it had previously avoided taking much of an advocacy role. Under Denger’s stewardship, the Society pushed policies promoting economic justice, not merely political access. While this change in focus was applauded in some quarters, it proved to be highly controversial. Many traditional elements of the Society’s membership were linked to more economically conservative elements in the business community, some of whom were alienated by Denger’s rhetoric against “the injustices of unfettered capitalism.” Denger pointed to the Society’s early work furthering education, helping widows, orphans, and the mentally ill as clear evidence for the path forward.
In 1972, one of Denger’s allies in Congress, Senator Rupert Stubbs (D-UT), was nominated for Vice President by the Democratic Party. His signature issue was a labor and business reform package that would require labor representation on corporate boards, sectoral bargaining, and shared security accounts. Although Stubbs lost the election, Denger used the campaign to introduce the new face of the Society to Americans. The campaign also marked the first time the Society had campaigned on behalf of the Democratic presidential ticket.
Another effect of Denger’s ascendency was the fracture of the progressive faction from the Society. While Denger embraced the internationalist and reconciliation factions, many socially progressive movements ran afoul of Denger’s moral scruples. “The family is the core of our union,” she said. “The surest way to build up those who are most in need is to strengthen families so that each generation grows up on stronger footing than their parents.” This platform involved limiting abortion and a general rejection of nonconformist sexual orientations, such as homosexuals. Some organizations that split from the Society in the early 70s include the Women’s Action League (1969), the Pink Wave (1970), and the Uranian Association of the Americas (1970).
Despite the loss of the more socially radical progressive factions, the Society continued to have a preeminent role in activist culture. While relations between Denger and President Sterling Gavin were relatively frosty, progress was made in the push for a family leave policy. The Society campaigned hard for the historic candidacy of Margaret L. Stewart (D-CA) in the presidential campaign of 1976. Stewart’s Forward Together campaign borrowed extensively from the Society’s platform. After her election, Stewart heaped praise on the organizational efforts of Martha Denger and the Society and pledged to be “a partner and friend” to the Society and its initiatives.
Stewart’s words were not empty. Even in the face of mounting foreign challenges President Stewart opened up her term with a massive push on infrastructure projects and economic reform in her first 100 days in 1977. Senators Stubbs and Skyler Almassy (R-IL) worked to build a bipartisan coalition in support of the Forward Together initiative. The Society’s Legislative Director Roberta Spencer lobbied Congress furiously, organizing chapters nationwide to get lawmakers from both parties to commit to the final policy package. The Economic Recovery and Reform Act (ERRA) was signed by President Stewart on May 26, 1977. This massive legislative package accomplished an enormous amount, including a number of priorities of Denger, the Society, and the Religious Left, including paid family and medical leave, corporate board reform, sectoral labor bargaining, shared security accounts, grants for school and hospital repairs and construction, and job training programs for displaced workers. Upon the passage of the ERRA, the Society notched another win on their belt for “American unity and progress,” as Denger put it in her farewell address.
The Society largely backed the administration during the Asia-Pacific War but pushed for greater refugee aid and anti-imperialist policies. As the 1970s turned into the ‘80s, the E Pluribus Unum Society shifted its focus again, this time led by the internationalists.
Defenders of Democracy (1981-1995)
In the early 1980s, the global order underwent a series of shifts. With the Technate of China increasingly flexing its muscles in Asia, popular rebellions against the monarchies in Iberia, and the gradual decolonization of Africa, the perception in the United States was that global democracy faced a crossroad. As Archibald Roosevelt declared at the Society’s Global Conference in San Juan in November 1984, “we stand at a moment in time in which the forces of democracy have dozens of bright paths upon which to travel. Should we fail to follow these paths to glory, we can be assured that our adversaries will eagerly cast these paths into darkness.”
With his rousing oratory, Roosevelt led the charge for the Society to embrace a more international role in pro-democracy advocacy. Chapters were opened across the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, and independent Africa, with the stated aim of developing democratic culture and institutions, fostering political equality, and fighting the corruption that made developing countries vulnerable to anti-democratic forces. Following the Iberian conflicts, the Society established a presence in both Portugal and mainland Spain to prevent both countries from backsliding into autocracy. The Society had mixed results and their resources were spread increasingly thin by the late 1980s. Portugal’s former colonies in Africa proved to be perplexing challenges for democracy-building. Likewise, Society efforts in Commonwealth nations in Africa were met with cool responses, as governments hampered Society operations. Iberia was seen as a relative success in comparison, but Asia proved to be the crown jewel of the Society’s foreign campaigns. With the growing threat of China and its satellites, the Society helped Burma, Siam, Malaya, and Japan design cultural and institutional bulwarks against technocratic aggression. In Japan, in particular, the Society was credited for the growing support for democracy throughout the 1980s.
Alongside Archibald Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln IV rose into prominence in the 1980s in both US politics and the Society’s Board of Governors. While the tag-team of a Roosevelt and a Lincoln was beloved by the news media, critics in the Society’s left-wing viewed the leadership as hawkish and anachronistic. Technocracy was frequently cast as a global bogeyman and the rhetoric employed by the Society throughout the 80s and 90s was surprisingly harsh for a non-violent organization. The Board of Governors was accused of sidelining prominent female voices like Shanaya Fontaine and Georgia Westwood, who wanted to keep the Society in a more explicitly pacifist role, focused more on building on successes in the United States rather than “missionary work across the tumultuous world,” in the words of Westwood. Contrary to the critics, Fontaine, Westwood, and their allies were important contributors to the 1994 establishment of Democracy Day as a federal holiday, making the act of voting more convenient to millions of American voters.
The internationalist faction hit several stumbling blocks in the mid-’90s. First, in 1993 the conservative Motherland Party of the Imperial Eurasian Federation banned E Pluribus Unum Society chapters within the federation. Chapters in St. Petersburg, Kiev, Warsaw, Helsinki, and Tallinn were raided by federal police and shut down. Society Director for Eurasia Kasper Zajak was jailed in Krakow for trumped up charges of “disturbing the peace”. Zajak was awarded the 1994 Poliquin Medal of Freedom in absentia by the Board of Governors. In spite of overtures made by the Society, the United States, and the League of American Republics, the IEF refused to release Zajak. The IEF crackdown on the Society’s pro-democracy, and allegedly pro-separatist activities in Eurasia led the other countries in Orthodox Council to shutter Society chapters, greatly weakening the Society’s activity in the least democratic areas of Europe.
More damaging to the Society’s international involvement was the Stoler Arms Scandal. In December of 1994, the regional Society Director of Bangkok, Joshua Stoler, was revealed to have assisted gun-runners for the Commonwealth, smuggling arms to groups fighting against the Technocratic Union in northern Siam and Burma. Stoler had been a rising star within the Society’s internationalist wing and was sent to Southeast Asia with much fanfare as “the vanguard of democracy.” While no governors of the Society were implicated in the scheme, the reputation of the internationalists was sullied by the knowledge that the non-violent tenets of both the Common Declaration and the Moral Prerogative had been compromised. In 1995 the internationalists lost their control of the Board of Governors, with the liberal faction of Morgan Guzman seizing the reins of the Society.
The Liberal Order (1995-Present)
The liberal takeover readjusted the outlook of the E Pluribus Unum Society as the new millennium approached. The focus went from aggressive advocacy of democracy around the world to advocating for the rights of people to live in accordance with their conscience free from intervention from government manipulation. Guzman did avoid completely retrenching the Society from foreign engagement. The release of Kasper Zajak remained a top priority for the Society, and publicity efforts had led to varying levels of unrest across the western regions of the IEF, especially in Poland, Ukraine, and Finland. Ultimately, in 1996 Zajak was released from custody, stripped of his citizenship, and deported to the United States. Zajak was hailed a hero for Polish self-determination upon his arrival to Society headquarters in Atlanta.
In addition to the recovery of Zajak, Guzman increasingly turned the Society’s muscle towards the plight of American Indians. Cherokee leader and Society Governor Frank Semissee had been a student of Joseph Blackfeather and took the lead in the 1990s campaign to remove federal oversight of native peoples, repeal laws suppressing native language, culture, and self-determination. Guzman and Semisee highlighted sympathetic native stories in the mass media. In June 1999 Congress passed the American Indian Liberty Act and President Franklin M. Blanton signed the measure stating that it “heralds a new era for the relationship between American natives and the United States government.”
Guzman also turned attention back toward cultural progressives. She had seen for years that the rejection of the feminist and uranian factions of social activism in the late 20th-century had driven those movements into the arms of technocratic parties. Guzman was determined to leverage the clout of the Society to highlight the differences between an individual women’s right to regulate her own body and the government eugenics-based abortions in the Technocratic Union. For the first time, the Society lobbied state governments to relax their abortion laws. Gifted orators and debaters like Jean Kowalski and Hanna Singh led the public relations and lobbying efforts. By 2007 twenty-three states had, in one way or another, liberalized their abortion laws.
The liberals also emphasized the implicit liberty of uranians to follow their hearts to loving relationships within the construction of the American family. While the liberals stopped short of endorsing the radical “free love” movement, their very public campaign in the early 2000s opened the door to a gradual sea change in American attitudes toward uranian love. The Society made history by electing John Paul LeMay, longtime leader of the Uranian Association to the Board of Governors in 2003. As with abortion, the Society’s clout was instrumental in mainstreaming the uranian rights movement. By 2015 fifteen states recognized same-sex relationships and the Supreme Court ruled 8-3 in Gadsby vs Alabama (2012) that the criminalization of homosexual conduct was unconstitutional.
Events abroad continued to draw the Society’s attention across the ocean. The outbreak of the IEF Civil War in 2001 could not escape comment by the Society. While the Society reluctantly followed the directive of the federal government and refused to favor the Reformers or the Conservatives in the conflict, Guzman jumped on the opportunity to reestablish the Society’s presence in the newly independent states of Finland, Poland, and the Baltic. Kasper Zajak was repatriated to Poland where he led the Democracy First movement in eastern Europe throughout the 2000s. The Society used its network of global chapters to help coordinate the international response to the millions of refugees fleeing the violence in Eurasia. At the end of the war, it was instrumental in the resettlement process for over a million displaced Ukrainians, Reformist Russians, and others.
Additionally, the Society hosted the Dutch evangelist reformer Arend Beulens at the Global Faith Conference in Seattle in 2006. While Beulens never formally became a member of the Society, his Rainbow Revival movement shared several goals that the Society held for the globe, even as he emphasized liberal Christianity more than the modern Society, which by the late 2000s was deliberately non-denominational. The amity between Beulens and the Society led to new tensions between German chapters of the Society and the conservative elements in the Reich.
When Guzman retired in 2013 the stewardship of the Society fell to Alexander Graziani. Graziani had strongly supported the liberal order established by Guzman over nearly two decades. Under Graziani, the Society became a sponsor of the annual International Ecoist Convention, where it sits firmly in the liberal wing of the fractious ecoist movement. Graziani has become a strong force lobbying the US government on “green” initiatives, saying at the 2017 Ecoist Convention in Brussels, “the cause of liberty and freedom for humanity dies with the death of our planet. Over 140 years ago, the E Pluribus Unum Society was founded on the principle that we can become one out of many, but our forebears could hardly imagine the challenges that our own progress towards that goal would create. For the last century, we have proven that humanity, whether free or oppressed has the capacity to destroy our world. We must now prove that we can save it.” Graziani’s focus on environmental issues has generated criticism from numerous quarters that think that he is leading the Society far from its original mandate.
The 2022 outbreak of war in Africa has led the Society to galvanize its global network to pressure governments to prepare for a wave of refugees fleeing the fighting. Nora Vanderwaal the Society Director for Sub-Saharan Africa was forced to evacuate Society organizers from a number of All-African Alliance nations. Other recent developments include the Society Director for Germany Ernst Boehm’s overtures in Berlin to diffuse the simmering tensions with the Dutch Republic.
Society Headquarters
The headquarters of the E Pluribus Unum Society resides in Atlanta, Georgia. Recently rebuilt in 2008, the Society Headquarters is a major attraction for visitors to the “Capital of the South.” The famous statues of G. W. Harley and Rev. McGuffey welcome visitors to the adjacent Society Museum of the American People. Cast in bronze in 1958, their inward hands are joined over their heads as they gaze up at an obelisk on which is engraved the Battle Cry of Freedom, excerpts of the Declaration of Independence, the Common Declaration, and the Atlanta Declaration. Since its grand reopening in 2012, the Society Museum has expanded on its reputation as an equal partner to any of the Smithsonian National Museums. Through its origins, struggles, triumphs, and controversies, the E Pluribus Unum Society will undoubtedly remain an important player for human rights and democracy on the global scene for years to come.
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With permission and help from Mac Gregor, I have some new entries in the series on Entertainment in the universe of The Union Forever!
Samuel Clemens (1835-1912)
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, publisher and political columnist. Often credited as one of the great writers in American literature, Twain was instrumental in establishing a distinct American style of writing and storytelling, and is often heralded as the 'Father of American Literature'.
Raised in Hannibal, Mississippi, which served as the setting for some of his later novels, the early portions of his life was spent doing everything from working as a printing apprentice to piloting a riverboat down the Mississippi. Although briefly serving in the Confederate militia at the start of the Civil War, Twain was never fond of the ideas espoused by the Confederacy, and quit after only two weeks. Soon after, the call of the West proved too great for Clemens to ignore, and he set out for San Francisco to make his fortune in Nevada as the year 1861 came to a close.
Working as a miner on the Comstock Lode until 1863, Clemens soon discovered that he had no knack for mining, nor any taste for that sort of labor. To make ends meet, he wrote a series of short, humorous stories about life on the frontier under the pen name 'Mark Twain', which he would use for the rest of his life. His first major success came with the publishing of the short story 'The Celebrated Jumping Frogs of Cavaleras County', which brought him national attention. The San Francisco Chronicle, who had taken the risk and published his story, soon hired him on as a columnist where he perfected his trademark wit and relaxed writing style.
As hostilities broke out between Spain and America over Cuba, Twain was sent by the Chronicle to be their political correspondent. In Cuba, he was shocked and appalled at the state of affairs on the island. Becoming much more political after what he witnessed, Twain was a lifelong advocate against colonialism and racism, including themes of tolerance, acceptance, and equality in most of his works.
After the war, a series of poor financial decisions caused Twain to suffer under massive amounts of debt. With few options, and encouraged by those who knew him, Twain decided to write novels in order to make ends meet. His very first one, The Good Intentions of Mason Abernathy (1887), was a massive commercial and critical success, propelling him to beloved heights that none of his previous work had. Set in a dystopian world a hundred and fifty years in the future, the story revolved around a Yankee engineer transported into the future where he encounters the incompetent, bumbling, yet kind-hearted bureaucrat Mason Abernathy. Attempting to educate him on the virtues of democracy and American beliefs while attempting to correct or alter the comical ineptitude of his protegee, the engineer eventually establishes a conclave of liberty in the midst of a totalitarian society. Although equal parts comical and cautionary, the main thrust of the book is a satire upon the 'do-gooder' nature of politicians, and a love letter to the ideals of the American Dream.
After the success of Good Intentions, came more universally beloved books such as Homesteadin', Personal Recollections from the Middle Ages, and The Mysterious Letter. But undoubtedly his magnum opus is the Charles Russell Trilogy. Consisting of three books about the life of the titular character, Charles Russell, they chronicle his early life through his service in the Spanish-American War (Adventures of Charles Russell), his return from the war and his quest to start a business and family (The Maturation of Charles Russell), to his political career and his efforts to leave the world a better place than when he found it (The Legacy of Charles Russell). The three novels are universally praised and lauded as some of the greatest works of early American literature, with Robert Wilcox once remarking "Although great books had existed before, the birth of great American Literature arrived with Charles Russell."
Clemens spent most of his later years at his estate in San Francisco, spending time with his wife and his three daughters. During the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, he used a great deal of his fortune to help assist those who needed aid in recovering from the disaster. Breaking from his usual disdain for government control and assistance, he lauded the relief efforts and d federal response to the disaster. In typical Twain fashion, he commented "You'd have to move mountains to get the government to be efficient in their actions. Turns out that's exactly what happened". After several years of peace and quiet, Clemens died in 1912 due to complications from pneumonia, surrounded by family and loved ones.
In 2012, his autobiography was finally released, as Twain was adamant in his will that it not be released for a hundred years after his death so that "those vultures masquerading as reviewers, who have feasted on the carrion of my works, and savaged them greatly, will get no pleasure, no opportunity, and no income from doing the same to my legacy". Favorable reviews greeted the book, with the New York Times saying "displaying all of the wit, impudence, and soft criticism that was his hallmark, Twain proves just as adept at critiquing himself as he was with Charles Russell. A fitting bookend to the life of one of the greatest American authors of all time".
Samuel Clemens (1835-1912)
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, publisher and political columnist. Often credited as one of the great writers in American literature, Twain was instrumental in establishing a distinct American style of writing and storytelling, and is often heralded as the 'Father of American Literature'.
Raised in Hannibal, Mississippi, which served as the setting for some of his later novels, the early portions of his life was spent doing everything from working as a printing apprentice to piloting a riverboat down the Mississippi. Although briefly serving in the Confederate militia at the start of the Civil War, Twain was never fond of the ideas espoused by the Confederacy, and quit after only two weeks. Soon after, the call of the West proved too great for Clemens to ignore, and he set out for San Francisco to make his fortune in Nevada as the year 1861 came to a close.
Working as a miner on the Comstock Lode until 1863, Clemens soon discovered that he had no knack for mining, nor any taste for that sort of labor. To make ends meet, he wrote a series of short, humorous stories about life on the frontier under the pen name 'Mark Twain', which he would use for the rest of his life. His first major success came with the publishing of the short story 'The Celebrated Jumping Frogs of Cavaleras County', which brought him national attention. The San Francisco Chronicle, who had taken the risk and published his story, soon hired him on as a columnist where he perfected his trademark wit and relaxed writing style.
As hostilities broke out between Spain and America over Cuba, Twain was sent by the Chronicle to be their political correspondent. In Cuba, he was shocked and appalled at the state of affairs on the island. Becoming much more political after what he witnessed, Twain was a lifelong advocate against colonialism and racism, including themes of tolerance, acceptance, and equality in most of his works.
After the war, a series of poor financial decisions caused Twain to suffer under massive amounts of debt. With few options, and encouraged by those who knew him, Twain decided to write novels in order to make ends meet. His very first one, The Good Intentions of Mason Abernathy (1887), was a massive commercial and critical success, propelling him to beloved heights that none of his previous work had. Set in a dystopian world a hundred and fifty years in the future, the story revolved around a Yankee engineer transported into the future where he encounters the incompetent, bumbling, yet kind-hearted bureaucrat Mason Abernathy. Attempting to educate him on the virtues of democracy and American beliefs while attempting to correct or alter the comical ineptitude of his protegee, the engineer eventually establishes a conclave of liberty in the midst of a totalitarian society. Although equal parts comical and cautionary, the main thrust of the book is a satire upon the 'do-gooder' nature of politicians, and a love letter to the ideals of the American Dream.
After the success of Good Intentions, came more universally beloved books such as Homesteadin', Personal Recollections from the Middle Ages, and The Mysterious Letter. But undoubtedly his magnum opus is the Charles Russell Trilogy. Consisting of three books about the life of the titular character, Charles Russell, they chronicle his early life through his service in the Spanish-American War (Adventures of Charles Russell), his return from the war and his quest to start a business and family (The Maturation of Charles Russell), to his political career and his efforts to leave the world a better place than when he found it (The Legacy of Charles Russell). The three novels are universally praised and lauded as some of the greatest works of early American literature, with Robert Wilcox once remarking "Although great books had existed before, the birth of great American Literature arrived with Charles Russell."
Clemens spent most of his later years at his estate in San Francisco, spending time with his wife and his three daughters. During the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, he used a great deal of his fortune to help assist those who needed aid in recovering from the disaster. Breaking from his usual disdain for government control and assistance, he lauded the relief efforts and d federal response to the disaster. In typical Twain fashion, he commented "You'd have to move mountains to get the government to be efficient in their actions. Turns out that's exactly what happened". After several years of peace and quiet, Clemens died in 1912 due to complications from pneumonia, surrounded by family and loved ones.
In 2012, his autobiography was finally released, as Twain was adamant in his will that it not be released for a hundred years after his death so that "those vultures masquerading as reviewers, who have feasted on the carrion of my works, and savaged them greatly, will get no pleasure, no opportunity, and no income from doing the same to my legacy". Favorable reviews greeted the book, with the New York Times saying "displaying all of the wit, impudence, and soft criticism that was his hallmark, Twain proves just as adept at critiquing himself as he was with Charles Russell. A fitting bookend to the life of one of the greatest American authors of all time".
Cinavision
One of America's first premium cable and satellite television networks, Cinavision was started by Colin Moylan, a former executive for the Rockefeller Broadcasting Company who grew tired of the stale programming gripping the television channels of the day.
While originally limited to showing movies produced by the major companies and sporting events such as boxing, Moylan was eventually able to secure funding to pursue his dream: original programming.
Dragons (2000-2005)
Image from Season 5 of Dragons
Based on the biographical book of the same name and set in San Francisco's Chinatown, Dragons follows five generations of Chinese Immigrants. It centers around thier dealing with the Chinese triads first established during the early days of Sino immigration to America. Each season follows a different generation of the Huang, Chen, and Fong families, chronicling such events as the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad, the influx of refugees from Formosa, new crime families fleeing the Technate, and the eventual crackdown on organized crime by federal authorities.
Taking full advantage of the lack of censorship on cable television, several concerned parental groups campaigned to have the show removed from the air, but Cinavision was resolute in their conviction and viewership increased every season. It was hailed as the start of the cable television revolution, and the sheer amount of diversity and quality that exists in the so called Golden Age of Television is a testament to its legacy.
Men of Iron (2002)
Scene from the episode 'Warrenton' in the Cinavision miniseries Men of Iron
Emboldened by the critical and commercial success of Dragons, Cinavision released their critically acclaimed miniseriesMen of Iron. Based off of the journal of Captain Rufus Dawes, Men of Iron is a ten episode miniseries chronicling the war through eyes of the 6th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment in the famous Iron Brigade, the only infantry regiment to see heavy action in every major engagement in the Army of the Potomac. Still considered one of the best reviewed shows of all time,Men of Iron was definitive proof that Dragons was not a stroke of luck for Cinavision, but rather the level of quality that could be expected from the company in their future endeavors.
The series earned several awards, including Best Dramatic Limited Series, Best Directing in a Dramatic Limited Series, Cinematography for a Dramatic Limited Series, and Best Screenplay for a Dramatic Limited Series.
Men of Iron's popularity led to an increase in attention for the Civil War, leading to many more documentaries, books, and scripted shows about that terrible conflict. To this day, it is one of Cinavision's most beloved programs, and still reaches the Top 10 Most Streamed Shows on its globtrix site twenty years later.
One of America's first premium cable and satellite television networks, Cinavision was started by Colin Moylan, a former executive for the Rockefeller Broadcasting Company who grew tired of the stale programming gripping the television channels of the day.
While originally limited to showing movies produced by the major companies and sporting events such as boxing, Moylan was eventually able to secure funding to pursue his dream: original programming.
Dragons (2000-2005)
Image from Season 5 of Dragons
Based on the biographical book of the same name and set in San Francisco's Chinatown, Dragons follows five generations of Chinese Immigrants. It centers around thier dealing with the Chinese triads first established during the early days of Sino immigration to America. Each season follows a different generation of the Huang, Chen, and Fong families, chronicling such events as the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad, the influx of refugees from Formosa, new crime families fleeing the Technate, and the eventual crackdown on organized crime by federal authorities.
Taking full advantage of the lack of censorship on cable television, several concerned parental groups campaigned to have the show removed from the air, but Cinavision was resolute in their conviction and viewership increased every season. It was hailed as the start of the cable television revolution, and the sheer amount of diversity and quality that exists in the so called Golden Age of Television is a testament to its legacy.
Men of Iron (2002)
Scene from the episode 'Warrenton' in the Cinavision miniseries Men of Iron
Emboldened by the critical and commercial success of Dragons, Cinavision released their critically acclaimed miniseriesMen of Iron. Based off of the journal of Captain Rufus Dawes, Men of Iron is a ten episode miniseries chronicling the war through eyes of the 6th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment in the famous Iron Brigade, the only infantry regiment to see heavy action in every major engagement in the Army of the Potomac. Still considered one of the best reviewed shows of all time,Men of Iron was definitive proof that Dragons was not a stroke of luck for Cinavision, but rather the level of quality that could be expected from the company in their future endeavors.
The series earned several awards, including Best Dramatic Limited Series, Best Directing in a Dramatic Limited Series, Cinematography for a Dramatic Limited Series, and Best Screenplay for a Dramatic Limited Series.
Men of Iron's popularity led to an increase in attention for the Civil War, leading to many more documentaries, books, and scripted shows about that terrible conflict. To this day, it is one of Cinavision's most beloved programs, and still reaches the Top 10 Most Streamed Shows on its globtrix site twenty years later.
Arthur MacArthur Jr. (1845 - 1920)
Arthur MacArthur was born in 1845 in Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts. His father, a Scottish born lawyer, moved the family to Wisconsin and set up what became the preeminent legal practice in the state. During the Civil War he served in 24th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment, originally lying about his age in order to enter the army. After the war, MacArthur considered following in his father's footsteps, but realized that he had no passion for a legal career, and elected to stay in the Army. After receiving permission from his father, MacArthur studied at West Point and after graduation, served in the Indian Wars as an infantry officer.
In 1874 MacArthur married the love of his life, and the couple were blessed with three children: Arthur MacArthur III (1875 - 1953), William MacArthur (1877 - 1957) and Bruce MacArthur (1879 - 1962). All three of MacArthur's sons would serve in the Army. His grandson Frank MacArthur (1914 - 1970) became President of the United States from 1965 - 1970.
During the Great War, newly promoted Lieutenant General MacArthur acted as commander of the American V Corps in Germany. He successfully led his corps in Bavaria and then to Austria employing modern mobility tactics that confounded the French and allowed the Fifth Army to rapidly gain ground, making V Corps the spearhead of the American Army.
After the war, MacArthur became commandant of West Point, educating students in the same mobility tactics that had served the Army so well in Europe. Much of the United States’ success in later conflicts is credited to the strategies that he pioneered whilst facing the French along the Rhine.
Although content with his new position, a severe heart attack resulted in an honorable discharge from the Army, and retirement at his estate in Milwaukee. Despite the best efforts of his doctors, a second heart attack occurred just weeks after his arrival in Milwaukee, and he passed away in early 1920.
He lies buried with honors in the United States Soldiers' Cemetary in Washington D.C. Today MacArthur is renowned as a national war hero, and a dearly beloved American figure, responsible for the creation of one of the United States’ most powerful military and political families
Arthur MacArthur was born in 1845 in Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts. His father, a Scottish born lawyer, moved the family to Wisconsin and set up what became the preeminent legal practice in the state. During the Civil War he served in 24th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment, originally lying about his age in order to enter the army. After the war, MacArthur considered following in his father's footsteps, but realized that he had no passion for a legal career, and elected to stay in the Army. After receiving permission from his father, MacArthur studied at West Point and after graduation, served in the Indian Wars as an infantry officer.
In 1874 MacArthur married the love of his life, and the couple were blessed with three children: Arthur MacArthur III (1875 - 1953), William MacArthur (1877 - 1957) and Bruce MacArthur (1879 - 1962). All three of MacArthur's sons would serve in the Army. His grandson Frank MacArthur (1914 - 1970) became President of the United States from 1965 - 1970.
During the Great War, newly promoted Lieutenant General MacArthur acted as commander of the American V Corps in Germany. He successfully led his corps in Bavaria and then to Austria employing modern mobility tactics that confounded the French and allowed the Fifth Army to rapidly gain ground, making V Corps the spearhead of the American Army.
After the war, MacArthur became commandant of West Point, educating students in the same mobility tactics that had served the Army so well in Europe. Much of the United States’ success in later conflicts is credited to the strategies that he pioneered whilst facing the French along the Rhine.
Although content with his new position, a severe heart attack resulted in an honorable discharge from the Army, and retirement at his estate in Milwaukee. Despite the best efforts of his doctors, a second heart attack occurred just weeks after his arrival in Milwaukee, and he passed away in early 1920.
He lies buried with honors in the United States Soldiers' Cemetary in Washington D.C. Today MacArthur is renowned as a national war hero, and a dearly beloved American figure, responsible for the creation of one of the United States’ most powerful military and political families
The African War
2023
Although a variety of names were used, the African War, as the conflict was most commonly known, quickly became the largest armed conflagration in over four decades since the end of the Asia-Pacific War. Some observes described it more as a collection of separate conflicts as not all participants were either legally at war or actively fighting each other. While true, an abject hostility between the members of the liberal Coalition for a Democratic Africa (CDA) and the authoritarian pan-Africanist All-African Alliance (AAA) was a clearly discernable reality. Across the continent, a plethora of militant and terrorist groups conducted innumerable bombings, ethnic cleansing, targeted killings, and cyber-attacks. However most of world’s attention focused on the battlefields which soon coalesced into three major theaters of operation.
Nigerian Theater
With the outbreak of a continental war, the decade long insurgency in the Union of Nigeria merged into the greater conflict. West African forces, already operating inside of Nigeria since 2021, swarmed across the border, although no official declaration of war was issued by Isatou Camara’s government in Africana. Nigerian Prime Minister Kenneth Enwerem authorized a full mobilization to reassert federal control over the northern and Biafran provinces many of which were already overrun. In February, Enwerem narrowly missed an assassination attempt by an exploding aerial autocraft (AAC) near his official residence in Lagos. AAC and missile attacks soon became common features in the Nigerian capital. By mid-summer CDA troop strength swelled to nearly 790,000 although many were lightly armed and hurriedly trained. Unfortunately for Enwerem, AAA forces still made impressive gains, with Soldiers from the Republic of the Umbangi conquering much of the eastern portion of the country. Nevertheless, a frontline running roughly along the Ouémé and Niger rivers was established after a West African drive along the coast was beaten back, incurring horrendous casualties. During the second half of the year, neither side made lasting headway against the other as each new offensive was largely repulsed in a corresponding counterattack. West Africa also saw itself distracted as an anti-AAA uprising in Guinea siphoned off forces.
Great Lakes Theater
With the invasion of the Independent Congolese Republic (ICR) in December, 2022 the region running form Lake Turkana in the north to Lake Tanganyika in the south erupted in violence. Troops from the Congo pushed quickly to the outskirts of the ICR’s capital Goma before the arrival of East African forces solidified a defensive perimeter. Fighting soon spread to Katanga as infantry columns sparred with each other under the dense triple canopy jungle. A CDA counteroffensive under Field Marshal McWilliams was postponed indefinitely, as an attack by Abyssinian troops pierced into the East African province of Kenia. Abyssinian armored vehicles pushed to within sight of Mount Kenya before logistical restraints and stiffening resistance forced them to halt. In the east, Somalia and Puntland professed their continued neutrality wishing to avoid the growing bloodshed. In Gordonia, Prime Minister John Aldo Majok found himself beset on three fronts by the AAA, with the Umbangi to the west, Abyssinia to the east, and the Congo to the south. As such, he could do little except try and preserve the nation's small defense force around his stronghold in Gondokoro.
Southern Theater
In January, an AAA thrust into western Zambezia initially meet with great success, accomplishing a longtime aim of Angolan despot Paulo Wanga. However, an advance from Damaraland by the more formidable South African Army necessitated a withdrawal a few months later. Air raids on installations in Angola and parts of western Congo by South African pilots began to have a telling effect before the arrival of new Chinese patented TY-17 surface to air missiles dramatically curtailed their operational range. The South Africans made slow but steady progress for most of the year, until November when the arrival of Congolese reinforcements halted them at the vicious Battle of the Cuanza sparing Luanda, the Angolan capital.
Mozambique enters the War
After the South Africans’ defeat along the banks of the Cuanza, the ruling Junta in Mozambique made the fateful decision to enter the war on the side of their AAA allies. While their ageing leader Oscar Mocumbi had dithered on joining the fray, younger more belligerent generals seized the opportunity after a stroke left Mocumbi all but incapacitated. Moving west into Zambezia and northeastern South Africa, Mozambican troops battered the already overstrained CDA forces. However by years end, a lack of adequate airpower forced Mozambique to switch to the defensive and consolidate their gains.
International Reaction
Most of the world looked on in horror as the globe’s poorest continent spiraled into chaos. Organizations such as the Global Health Association (GHA) and the International Humanitarian Association (IHA) were immediately swamped by the millions of displaced individuals who fled the fighting. Billions of dollars of aid were raised throughout the developed world although delivering it to needy civilians often proved devilishly difficult if not utterly impossible.
Although some expected at the start of the conflict for the Commonwealth of Nations to join their allies, the ComNat ultimately decided not to directly intervene. Its reasons were manifold. Many of its members flatly refused to be drawn openly into the conflict. This include British Prime Minister Claudia Hunter and her shaky coalition government of Liberals, Democratic Laborites, and Irish Democrats. Others, such as Madras and Canada, cited the complicated nature of the war’s origins as a reason to not send troops. For example, it was East Africa which had declared war on the Congo, albeit in defense of the non-ComNat ICR, and was therefore not guaranteed military assistance. Many of the belligerent ComNat members decried this waffling as a great betrayal. Still, collectively the ComNat members did provide vast quantities of aid to the CDA, as well as authorizing cut-rate arm sales. Significantly, Hunter’s government insured that the latest satellite and signal intelligence found its way to friendly CDA governments.
The Technate of China and its satellite states were the principle advocates for the AAA. Not only did they provide the latest in munitions, thousands of officially civilian “contractors” provided much need technical expertise for AAA governments. Moreover, the Technocratic Union (TU) gave crucial diplomatic cover for the AAA and effectively prevented the Fellowship of Nations (FoN) from uniting against them. Chinese Executive Yang Zhanshu viewed the war as the perfect testbed for new military technologies. As such AACs, anti-aircraft missiles, underwater mines, and many other weapons found their way to the AAA who otherwise would never have been able to procure them.
Besides the TU, most countries favored the CDA although some were sympathetic to the AAA’s anti-colonial rhetoric. German Chancellor Uwe Boehler deployed an additional 52,000 security forces to North and South Cameroon to help keep order. The German Empire was also rumored to be covertly supplying Nigeria with weapons, not wishing to see the pan-Africanists triumph. The Turin Pact found itself running an increasing number of refugee camps as millions fled to the relative safety of their North African territory or that of their allies in the Sahel. American President Carla Navarro clamored for an end to the fighting. Congress had pressed her to issue a security guarantee to Liberia, but the move was defeated in the Senate. Navarro made clear however, that any direct intervention by the TU in Africa would be grounds for war. As a result, Africa would enter its second year of war intractably locked in conflict as some foreign powers tried to stymie the bleeding while others deepened the wound.
Political map of Africa at the start of the war
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2023
Foreign and Domestic Developments
Der Golem Automaton
Foreign and Domestic Developments
Der Golem Automaton
The Belgian city of Antwerp hosted the 2023 World’s Fair. Arguably one of the most impressive displays was made by Bohemian based developer Levinsohn Systems which unveiled Der Golem a bipedal humanoid automaton capable of carrying on basic conversation and accomplishing a number of household tasks. The prototype was considered so revolutionary that the term “golem” soon became industry slang for any humanoid automaton.
Nabih Abu Zayad agreed to respect Syria’s new constitution and not seek another six year term as president, illustrating his laudable commitment to democratic governance. Having been largely successful with its ambitious reform platform, Zayad’s Taqadam Party easily won national elections later that year. Its victorious presidential candidate, Farouk Al-Hourani vowed to continue moving Syria forward but warned that the ongoing Turkish-Persian rivalry threatened to destabilize the region.
In June, the genre known as razer burst into the musical mainstream with the hit “Dying to Breathe” from the album Suffocation by the Canadian band Moosehead. Making extensive use of the electric violin, razer’s angst filled lyrics struck a proverbial chord with many young people in North America and Europe, becoming one of the most profitable music types of the decade.
Ausländer XIV became the third manned mission to Mars by the German Empire. The Imperial Space and Aeronautics Commission stated that when the crew returned to Earth the following year it would signify the end of their Martian program, with a total of thirteen men and two women having visited the Red Planet since 2016. In one of his last acts, Kaiser Wilhelm III issued a statement declaring the exploration of Mars as one of the Reich’s greatest achievements. Many hoped that the conclusion of the single most expensive project in human history, would free Germany to pursue other ventures. Scrapping any immediate plans for a return to Mars, the United States Space Agency began construction of Liberty Base on the moon to counter China’s growing Jìnbù facility at the lunar south pole.
The Siamese film Phra Aphai Mani became one of the highest grossing foreign language films yet made, after its premiered in Bangkok. Based on the national epic of the same name, Phra Aphai Mani was immensely popular with audiences throughout Asia, although it was banned in China for promoting, as the Sub-directorate of Culture put it, “backward and superstitious thinking.”
Avant, a subsidiary of California Electric, announced a new line of wearable computers. Ranging from bracelets to belts, these devices provided a myriad of services including monitoring fitness-related metrics and health parameters, globtrix connectivity, and data recording.
For five days in August, Americans were riveted by near continuous coverage of the abduction of starlet Renata dePaola’s four year old daughter, from her home in San Jose, California by estranged lover Taro Tillman. Authorities apprehended a heavily disguised Tillman attempting to board a flight in Seattle, and reunited dePaola with her daughter.
A team of scientist at Seoul’s National Technocratic University tried to send messages to nearby stars through x-ray based communications. While many derided these attempts to contact extraterrestrial intelligence as pointless, others fretted that it was unwise to draw attention to ourselves in case of the presence of malevolent aliens.
The Sultanate of Arabia opened a new visitor center and expanded airport near the Nabatean ruins of Mada’in Saleh. These improvements were the latest steps by Sultan Faisal to attract foreign tourists. Despite these and other efforts, Arabia continued to lag far behind neighboring Egypt and Syria in generating tourism revenue.
Mada'in Saleh
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Zachary T. McKinnis (1874 - 1937)
Born in Dale City, Iowa to a poor farming family, Zachary McKinnis was a gifted child who excelled in primary school. Not wanting her son's talents to be wasted toiling on a farm like his father, McKinnis' mother urged him to pursue collegiate education. Much to the dismay of his father, McKinnis agreed, and attended the University of Iowa in the fall of 1892, where he met his wife Blanche Lepore. While in the midst of pursuing a degree, McKinnis' fraternity brothers urged him to enter into student politics. He took to it immediately, and served as a political organizer for the Democratic Party on campus. After graduation, he worked in the state’s party office until 1902, when he ran for the 2nd District seat in the Iowan General Assembly. He served there with distinction for several years. In 1914, he was elected to the state senate and quickly earned a reputation for fierce, persuasive as the majority whip. As a state senator, McKinnis was known for his fiscal conservatism cutting both taxes and spending. The only major infrastructure project he sanctioned was a road from Des Moines to Sioux City, to facilitate the growing number of automobiles. His support for the workers of the state helped solidify the Democratic Party's dominance over the labor union vote, and they would serve as a cornerstone of the party's political machine.
Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1920, McKinnis made a name for himself as a moderate Democrat that tolerated no nonsense, from either his Republican opponents, or his own party. His reputation grew as a usually quiet, effective congressman, but one who would harbor a grudge if crossed. During the Donner administration's scandals, he favored impeachment of the president, and was consistently critical of Donner's handling of the Panic of 1923. When Harold Abercrombie won the next presidential election, McKinnis was one his most ardent supporters in Congress, including backing the failed motion to abolish the Bank of the United States. He consistently clashed with the more puritanical members of the Democratic Party and voted against prohibition.
In 1932, McKinnis became the Democratic nominee for president as a compromise candidate during the contentious party convention in Minneapolis. McKinnis would likely never have been nominated had the heir apparent, Vice President Kenneth P. Bergstrom, not died during the primaries. After a hard fought campaign against Republican Jerry F. Dawson, McKinnis won the presidency. He proceeded to follow his predecessor's policies in cutting taxes and paying off the national debt. Under his strict guidance and using skills perfected over his political career, he decreased the debt to its lowest level since the late 1890s. Although abhorring government spending, McKinnis did back a plan for greater electrification, including the construction of the McKinnis Dam on the Colorado River. McKinnis’ belief in small government, states rights, and non-interventionist foreign policy encapsulated the thinking of most Democrats, if not most Americans, at the time. Although eager to run for a second term, a lung cancer diagnosis made him realize that it would be a disservice to the country. He publicly stated the reason for his refusal in a widely listened to radio address. In one of the last major events of his presidency, Puerto Rico joined the Union on November 3, 1936. It is now widely thought that Ruerto Rico’s admission was intended to improve Vice President Edgar D. Glover’s ailing prospects in the 1936 election.
McKinnis died eight months later at his home in Iowa. Today, McKnnis remains a little remembered president outside of his home state. However in recent years, some historians have reevaluated his standing based on his administration's sound handling of the economy and lack of foreign policy missteps.
Born in Dale City, Iowa to a poor farming family, Zachary McKinnis was a gifted child who excelled in primary school. Not wanting her son's talents to be wasted toiling on a farm like his father, McKinnis' mother urged him to pursue collegiate education. Much to the dismay of his father, McKinnis agreed, and attended the University of Iowa in the fall of 1892, where he met his wife Blanche Lepore. While in the midst of pursuing a degree, McKinnis' fraternity brothers urged him to enter into student politics. He took to it immediately, and served as a political organizer for the Democratic Party on campus. After graduation, he worked in the state’s party office until 1902, when he ran for the 2nd District seat in the Iowan General Assembly. He served there with distinction for several years. In 1914, he was elected to the state senate and quickly earned a reputation for fierce, persuasive as the majority whip. As a state senator, McKinnis was known for his fiscal conservatism cutting both taxes and spending. The only major infrastructure project he sanctioned was a road from Des Moines to Sioux City, to facilitate the growing number of automobiles. His support for the workers of the state helped solidify the Democratic Party's dominance over the labor union vote, and they would serve as a cornerstone of the party's political machine.
Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1920, McKinnis made a name for himself as a moderate Democrat that tolerated no nonsense, from either his Republican opponents, or his own party. His reputation grew as a usually quiet, effective congressman, but one who would harbor a grudge if crossed. During the Donner administration's scandals, he favored impeachment of the president, and was consistently critical of Donner's handling of the Panic of 1923. When Harold Abercrombie won the next presidential election, McKinnis was one his most ardent supporters in Congress, including backing the failed motion to abolish the Bank of the United States. He consistently clashed with the more puritanical members of the Democratic Party and voted against prohibition.
In 1932, McKinnis became the Democratic nominee for president as a compromise candidate during the contentious party convention in Minneapolis. McKinnis would likely never have been nominated had the heir apparent, Vice President Kenneth P. Bergstrom, not died during the primaries. After a hard fought campaign against Republican Jerry F. Dawson, McKinnis won the presidency. He proceeded to follow his predecessor's policies in cutting taxes and paying off the national debt. Under his strict guidance and using skills perfected over his political career, he decreased the debt to its lowest level since the late 1890s. Although abhorring government spending, McKinnis did back a plan for greater electrification, including the construction of the McKinnis Dam on the Colorado River. McKinnis’ belief in small government, states rights, and non-interventionist foreign policy encapsulated the thinking of most Democrats, if not most Americans, at the time. Although eager to run for a second term, a lung cancer diagnosis made him realize that it would be a disservice to the country. He publicly stated the reason for his refusal in a widely listened to radio address. In one of the last major events of his presidency, Puerto Rico joined the Union on November 3, 1936. It is now widely thought that Ruerto Rico’s admission was intended to improve Vice President Edgar D. Glover’s ailing prospects in the 1936 election.
McKinnis died eight months later at his home in Iowa. Today, McKnnis remains a little remembered president outside of his home state. However in recent years, some historians have reevaluated his standing based on his administration's sound handling of the economy and lack of foreign policy missteps.
Daniel E. Warburton (1881 - 1962)
Daniel E. Warburton was born in the small town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania in 1881 to a prominent local family. Growing up, Warburton wished to escape the quaint, quiet life of Southern Pennsylvania, and joined the army upon America's entry to the Great War, but saw no active combat. Following the war, Warburton took advantage of various government scholarships available to veterans and earned a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania. After graduating, he earned a reputation as an aggressive and successful prosecutor. Warburton was eventually tapped as the Republican candidate for governor. Though it was a hard fought campaign, Warburton was victorious, and served as Governor of Pennsylvania from 1927 to 1935. During his governorship, he focused on civil service reform in the state, which had begun to earn an unsavory reputation for graft and corruption. Though improving the quality of governance in the state, he was little loved for his efforts, and when he announced that he would be seeking the Republican nomination for President in 1936, many were glad to see him off.
In the summer of 1936, President Zachary T. McKinnis announced that due to his recently diagnosed lung cancer, he would not be seeking re-election and would instead throw his full support behind his Vice President, Edgar D. Glover (1877-1943). Warburton was secretly thrilled, as Glover was reputed to have secretly been involved in several scandals in his home state of Mississippi. Declaring that he was the best candidate to "teach Pennsylvanian virtue to the folks on Pennsylvania Avenue", Warburton narrowly won the Republican nomination and turned his sights towards beating the Democrats in November.
Even with a good message against a back-up candidate, Warburton had an uphill battle. McKinnis had been a popular president, and Glover ran on a message of maintaining the bountiful status quo. But in addition to a dirty reputation, Glover had several racist outbursts fueled by a burgeoning problem with alcoholism. It was enough to turn off swing voters towards the Republicans, and Daniel Warburton became the next President of the United States by a narrow margin.
Though Warburton had won the Presidential race, the down ballot seats in both the House and Senate had gone for the Democrats. Warburton soon found himself faced with and obstinate and occasionally hostile Congress, who took great delight in stonewalling any of the president's policies they could. As he was questioned on the issue of conflict between Congress and the White House at a press conference, he glumly stated that he had been a Lame Duck president from the moment he came into office, giving rise to the nickname 'Ducky', which he bore for the rest of his life.
When his signature pieces of legislation were defeated and the Senate refused to entertain his arguments on the merits of a more interventionist foreign policy, Warburton resigned himself to his fate, and focused on small pieces of legislation that would not be as controversial. These including the construction of several national monuments, the establishment of a great number of national parks, and designating federal holidays. Chief among these were the Great War Memorial in Washington D.C., Pico Duarte National Park in Santo Domingo, and Armistice Day on December 9th.
The Democrats rejoiced that they were able to thwart the President’s agenda. The Speaker of the House glibly remarked "perhaps if we raise enough of a fuss during the next election, he'll give us the White House as well!" Republicans were also furious at his resigned demeanor, with many of the top members of the party considering whether or not they should run someone else in the 1940 election. Though able to stave off any contenders from his own party, Warburton was a damaged nominee and when the Democrats nominated the young and amiable Vernon Kirkman (1898-1981) of Massachusetts, many saw the writing on the wall.
Kirkman dominated the sitting president during the race, and on election day, the result was never in doubt. After Kirkman's inauguration, Warburton returned back home to Gettysburg and resumed his legal practice with his son Thomas for several years before retiring.
Today, Warburton's presidency is often overlooked. Arguable, his greatest legacy may be the many national parks he helped create, which are still found throughout the country.
Daniel E. Warburton was born in the small town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania in 1881 to a prominent local family. Growing up, Warburton wished to escape the quaint, quiet life of Southern Pennsylvania, and joined the army upon America's entry to the Great War, but saw no active combat. Following the war, Warburton took advantage of various government scholarships available to veterans and earned a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania. After graduating, he earned a reputation as an aggressive and successful prosecutor. Warburton was eventually tapped as the Republican candidate for governor. Though it was a hard fought campaign, Warburton was victorious, and served as Governor of Pennsylvania from 1927 to 1935. During his governorship, he focused on civil service reform in the state, which had begun to earn an unsavory reputation for graft and corruption. Though improving the quality of governance in the state, he was little loved for his efforts, and when he announced that he would be seeking the Republican nomination for President in 1936, many were glad to see him off.
In the summer of 1936, President Zachary T. McKinnis announced that due to his recently diagnosed lung cancer, he would not be seeking re-election and would instead throw his full support behind his Vice President, Edgar D. Glover (1877-1943). Warburton was secretly thrilled, as Glover was reputed to have secretly been involved in several scandals in his home state of Mississippi. Declaring that he was the best candidate to "teach Pennsylvanian virtue to the folks on Pennsylvania Avenue", Warburton narrowly won the Republican nomination and turned his sights towards beating the Democrats in November.
Even with a good message against a back-up candidate, Warburton had an uphill battle. McKinnis had been a popular president, and Glover ran on a message of maintaining the bountiful status quo. But in addition to a dirty reputation, Glover had several racist outbursts fueled by a burgeoning problem with alcoholism. It was enough to turn off swing voters towards the Republicans, and Daniel Warburton became the next President of the United States by a narrow margin.
Though Warburton had won the Presidential race, the down ballot seats in both the House and Senate had gone for the Democrats. Warburton soon found himself faced with and obstinate and occasionally hostile Congress, who took great delight in stonewalling any of the president's policies they could. As he was questioned on the issue of conflict between Congress and the White House at a press conference, he glumly stated that he had been a Lame Duck president from the moment he came into office, giving rise to the nickname 'Ducky', which he bore for the rest of his life.
When his signature pieces of legislation were defeated and the Senate refused to entertain his arguments on the merits of a more interventionist foreign policy, Warburton resigned himself to his fate, and focused on small pieces of legislation that would not be as controversial. These including the construction of several national monuments, the establishment of a great number of national parks, and designating federal holidays. Chief among these were the Great War Memorial in Washington D.C., Pico Duarte National Park in Santo Domingo, and Armistice Day on December 9th.
The Democrats rejoiced that they were able to thwart the President’s agenda. The Speaker of the House glibly remarked "perhaps if we raise enough of a fuss during the next election, he'll give us the White House as well!" Republicans were also furious at his resigned demeanor, with many of the top members of the party considering whether or not they should run someone else in the 1940 election. Though able to stave off any contenders from his own party, Warburton was a damaged nominee and when the Democrats nominated the young and amiable Vernon Kirkman (1898-1981) of Massachusetts, many saw the writing on the wall.
Kirkman dominated the sitting president during the race, and on election day, the result was never in doubt. After Kirkman's inauguration, Warburton returned back home to Gettysburg and resumed his legal practice with his son Thomas for several years before retiring.
Today, Warburton's presidency is often overlooked. Arguable, his greatest legacy may be the many national parks he helped create, which are still found throughout the country.
The African War
2024
2024
Flag of the State of Islamic Nigeria
As the new year dawned, both the Coalition for a Democratic Africa (CDA) and the All-African Alliance (AAA) found themselves increasingly taxed by the onerous requirements of modern war. Medicine, food, and fuel were in desperately short supply, as the nations of sub-Saharan Africa battled for the fate of the continent. Infrastructure, in many regions already inadequate and poorly maintained, crumbled under the stress of military use, the influx of millions of refugees, and sporadic bombings. It is no exaggeration to say that the war only continued by the steady infusion of foreign money and equipment, which as it increased, threatened to draw the great powers in to the maelstrom.
Nigerian Theater
In January, West Africa resumed the offensive towards Lagos, trying to breakthrough Nigerian lines. After some initial success, the Nigerians counterattacked. Two Nigerian army corps, armed with newly arrived British made AV91 Fitzpatrick cataphracts, succeeded in pushing the West Africans back across the Ouémé River. In the north, CDA forces met with less success and failed to exploit their gains, in part due to logistical and transportation shortages. On July 3, the pro-AAA militant leader Usman Bankole declared the independence of the northern provinces as the State of Islamic Nigeria in a globtrix streamed message from his headquarters in Sokoto. In the east, things remained relatively quiet, until Chad joined the fray in October on the side of the CDA. While Chad was far from a democracy, it harbored long running grievances against the Republic of the Umbangi, and flushed with foreign cash, sought to even the score. Chadian troops, largely mounted in armed civilian trucks, crossed the border into Umbangi and northeastern occupied Nigeria. The lack of armored vehicles and a proper air force limited their advance, but did relieve considerable pressure off of the Nigerians.
Great Lakes Theater
Field Marshal McWilliams, commander of the East African Army, sought in February to envelope and destroy the invading Abyssinian forces in a sweeping pincer move labeled Operation Black Rhino. However, a renewed push by the Congo towards Goma and incursions by Mozambique in the south, forced him to drastically weaken his left wing. As such, the Abyssinians managed to conduct an organized withdraw to the north with heavy casualties suffered by both sides. By the end of the year, East Africa began making inroads into Abyssinia’s southern territory despite fierce resistance, and had largely pushed AAA forces out of the Independent Congolese Republic. Only in Katanga, did the CDA fail to make appreciable headway, as rooting out AAA infantry units in the dense jungle proved incredibly difficult.
Southern Theater
Intense political pressure on South African Prime Minister Frans Ngcobo forced him to divert resources from the Angolan front and concentrate on Mozambique. By spring, forces were in place for a major counteroffensive dubbed Operation Shaka. As the largest economy on the continent, South Africa had by this stage of the conflict developed an impressive military machine, which over the following months advanced deep inside Mozambique. The Royal South African Navy suffered terribly at the hands of Chinese supplied mines and lost its only aircraft carrier, the HMSAS Mbete, to what was likely an attack by underwater autocraft (UWAC). Despite these losses, Mozambican forces proved wholly outmatched by the CDA. In December, the capital of Chiveve finally fell after horrific street-to-street fighting, with the ruling junta capitulating soon after. Celebrations for knocking the first AAA country out of the war were tempered however, by news of another costly defeat in Angola at the Second Battle of the Cuanza.
International Reaction
Despite massive fundraising, the Global Health Association (GHA) struggled to meet the medical needs of the tens of millions of displaced persons many of which languished in makeshift camps in the neutral nations in northern Africa. The GHA regrettably reported that polio, nearly eliminated in the years before the war, had made an unwelcomed resurgence in several locations, along with deadly outbreaks of cholera, typhus, and malaria. The International Humanitarian Association (IHA) lobbied heavily for non-belligerent states to take larger number of refugees, but many placed restrictions exacerbating the refugee crisis. Still some nations such as Brazil and Australia opened their doors, albeit suffering a backlash from some nativist elements for their troubles. In a conference held in Zurich in November, IHA president Matleena Lehtonen advised that if the war didn’t end soon millions risked dying from starvation and disease.
While China and the Technocratic Union (TU) continued to funnel weapons to the AAA, most of the rest of the world closed ranks. By autumn, disparate groups such as the League of American Republics, Commonwealth of Nations, Turin Pact, Association of European States, Orthodox Council, Coalition of South Asian States, and the Pacific Treaty Organization had arrayed themselves against the TU’s support for the AAA. Other power blocs such as the Turkic League and Persia’s Organization for Mutual Development, not to mention nearly all of the non-aligned members of the Fellowship of Nations, advocated for ending the fighting. As the year came to an end, China’s increasingly isolated leaders met in Peking to discuss their next move.
A refugee camp in Ghana
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2024
Foreign Developments
Foreign Developments
Flag of the Irish Republic
On February 17, Ireland became a republic ending more than eight centuries of ties to English royalty. Debates of severing the last vestiges of the British monarchy had resurfaced periodically since achieving home rule in 1919 and only intensified after gaining full sovereignty in 1960. Former prime minister Cathleen Ó Domhnaill was elected as the nation’s first president, a largely symbolic post. It was widely interpreted that this final transition to republicanism, was messaging by the Irish government of its hostility towards ComNat’s growing involvement in the African War .
While aerial autocraft (AAC)were busily being used for belligerent ends in Africa, an increasingly wide array of peaceful applications for flying drones were utilized elsewhere. In the Alps, AACs dropped supplies and medicine to stranded hikers, and served as lifeguards on Floridian beaches. Unfortunately, 2024 saw a number of incidents involving AACs near airports, resulting in several delays but luckily no accidents. In addition to a growing number of package delivery services, several companies experimented with developing AAC for human transport.
Throughout Europe and the Americas, religious organizations redoubled their efforts in a massive relief fundraiser for Africa. While united by a desire to ease the suffering, a schism between leaders of the religious left deepened. Some such as Norris Topolansky gave explicit support to the CDA while others, including Arend Beulens and Sheila McDermott, demanded a swift end to the fighting. Many were concerned that politicization over the African War threatened the spiritual message of the waning Rainbow Revival.
After years of speculation and searching by astronomers, a team from the Turin Pact’s European Space Research Organization (ORSE) led by Dr. Marjolaine Faucheux discovered an 11th planet in our Solar System. It was the first non-exoplanet to be discovered since Niflheim in 1990. Estimated to be slightly more than five times Earth’s mass, this distant world’s highly elliptical orbit takes it 25 times further away from the Sun than Neptune. As of the end of the year, a name for the new planet had not been decided upon, though suggestions abounded.
The small Ciscaucasian nation of Dagestan was rocked by deadly riots after an online Turkish news service unveiled a massive oil smuggling operation by government officials and Russian crime syndicates. The embattled regime of Abdulkhakim Umalatov managed to quell the unrest, but only after calling for Persian aid. The incident highlighted the complicated battle for influence that Persia, Russia, and the Turkic League waged in the volatile region.
In August, Brazilian researchers announced a breakthrough in desalination technology. A significant improvment in reverse-osmosis membranes allowed for fast and more efficient means of turning seawater into freshwater. While still energy intensive, it was hoped that further development would help combat the growing water scarcity affecting many areas of the globe. The result of poor water management and global warming.
Pope Gregory XVIII died after 28 years as pontiff. While notable for being the first non-Italian pope in centuries, and for his assertive stance against the persecution of non-Christian groups, the recent outbreak of several sex scandals involving Catholic clergy marred his reputation. After a lengthy debate, the College of Cardinals elected Filipino bishop Carlos Joseph Guingona as Pope Stephen X. It was hoped that Pope Stephen’s reputation as a reformer would help shore up the Church’s image.
Completed in November, Canton’s 1005 meter high Diānfēng Tower became the tallest building in the world, surpassing the previous titleholder Jayakarta’s Asian Financial Center. As the first building to surpass a kilometer, it was trumpeted by the Chinese government as yet another sign of the Technocratic Union’s technological and engineering prowess.
Diānfēng Tower
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