Two Nations Apart: A History of North America 1864-2004

[Romulus Augustulus]

Chapter 1:​

Following the succesful seperation of the Confederacy from the Union in 1864, and their subsequent sucess in retaining it, and finally getting international reconginition, the North was more or less seperate from the South. Naturally, the Northerners were quite irritated at this; after all, the Union had lost a good bit of territory. But the Union was not entirely without resources. Although they had lost the South, the Union still maintained its growing industrial base in the large cities of New England and the Great Lakes, and it still had the southwest, northwest, most of the midwest, and the northeast. With time, it would recoup its losses in the southern states with territorial gains elsewhere. Following the war, the North began to industrialize rapidly, as it no longer had southern influence to retard industrial progress. Factory towns sprang up all over the north and the economy began to prosper, fueled by relatively light taxation of businesses and industry. The economy entered an industrial boom. Soon, the government had more money than it knew what to do with, so, it decided to dispose of a little of its surplus income by buying some land, more specifically, Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million dollars and all of Canada west of the 100th meridian from Britain for $30 million dollars. With this single action, the North more than made up for the territory it lost in the secession of the South. The trick was developing this wast wilderness...

 

[unsunghero]

Why would England sell the Dominion of Canada?! Considering that the citizens of British North America considered themselves subjects of the English monarch and wanted to remain such, you would have a very hard time convincing them to accept a republic. There were only ever two attempted revolts/revolutions in the Colonies - one in Quebec and one in Ontario (Upper and Lower Canada) but both were so badly organized and led and so lacking in popular support that they both fizzled out almost immediately. Many of the families in Upper Canada (Ontario) and the Maritimes were Empire Loyalists - those who had fled the original 13 colonies, and were in no hurry to become citizens of the Republic. Quebec would no more want to be part of US than the rest of the colonies, because they enjoyed priveleges retained from the time of New France (preservation of Catholicism and French law), which they would lose under the US.

 

[Leo Caesius]

He's talking about the 100th Meridian, so all of Canada north of the Dakotas up to the Atlantic Circle. This is probably the part of Canada which is most like the Midwest, with the exception of British Columbia, which is most like the West Coast. It's generally arid, rocky, and frozen further north, with the exception of the coastal parts in the west.

Now, whether they'd sell it or not is unknown to me. I suspect not.

 

[unsunghero]

I would say that you are right; even if the Americans only try to buy the West, they will still be out of luck. England felt a need for a new naval base on the pacific coast to guard her interests, and chose Vancouver Island, which already had a Hudson's Bay fur trading outpost (later to become Victoria). In later years subsequent governors of the Vancouver Colony would expand its territory precisely to forestall the Americans from getting it, and after Confederation in 1867, the new Dominion of Canada immediately decided they wanted to be 'from sea to sea' - which is our national motto. You could say that development of the West was like a giant chess game - each side maneuevered to get the best deal they could. Britain got BC (and eventually handed over to Canada), and Canada claimed the prairies. US got Washington state (and Oregon, I think).

 

[Grimm Reaper]

There is the alternate possibility. If the Union felt British aid had been instrumental in the CSA's success, a war of revenge would be extremely likely. Given the sheer size of the Union army and arms industry in 1864, most of Canada would likely be lost in the first few months of this war. Likely Great Britain would count itself fortunate to keep half of Canada, and blessed to lose only Alberta, British Columbia, and the Yukon Territory.

This was a bad period for Great Britain, between active wars, potential wars, and various rivalries. London simply could not afford a long-term conflict tying down most of its potential, and imagine the issue of grain. Once the US had blocked or occupied Canadian grain, the only source would be Russia, which had some bitterness over the Crimean War less than a decade earlier.

 

[FederationX]

How could the United States afford Alaska and parts of Canada after losing a 3 year war? Other then that, It's a good story. Please continue.

 

[JHPier]

Once the US had blocked or occupied Canadian grain,

Canadian grain: where is that coming from, considering that the Canadian Prairies weren't settled yet

 

[DuQuense]

Border

He also has to consider what happens with the Border states. Which side do Marysland, Kentucky, Missouri, Kansas, and New Mexico end up on after the treaty. Given a 1864 win, i'm expecting a Nov 8th [Today is 140th annivery] Lincoln Defeat. ?Just how does the Peace treaty read?

A northern Trans Continital RR Route ending in Seattle, would have impact on the NW devolopment and May influence the Vote in BC to join Canada. IIRC It was kinda close as it was.

Also a Independent CSA may take up the [almost successful] attemp to Buy Cuba that got Sidetracked in the 1850's.

But as has been pointed out before, GB wouldn't just sell away It's Territory.

Hollands saleing of the Virgin Island was due to WW1, absent something of that magitude,..................

 

[Romulus Augustulus]

What happened was the people of the North, PO'd at the rednecks, decided to go ahead and industrialize. Although it did seem a little improbable, the economy picked up, and even did better than it did before the war. The reason is simple. The southerners are no longer there to lobby to delay industrial progress. As for the pacific naval base...well...Vancouver is leased to Britain for 99 years. More soon to come.

 

[General_Paul]

Actually, the burlington-northern railroad's terminus was IN seattle, and that was transcontinental, there was a smaller terminus for it in tacoma, washington, where I live. That was completed in the mid 1890's...maybe a bit of an earlier finishing of it might have some impact on the northwest, but not too much, we're pretty set in our ways up here in washington... But, I do see Prince William Island and sound becoming american pretty damn fast. Victoria will get occupied within...nine months after the eod of the war. Vancouver, within a year, BC, in one way or an other, WILL end up under american occupation. I see mass invasions of canada, fast. The brits will loose canada, maybe the virgin islands, due to the USA navy. Greenland will get purchased by the USA after canada falls, same with iceland. Alaska will have been purchased. Even with a Southern win, the Union's economy is going to burgeon pretty fast. The immigrants from ireland might actually go back, with US backing, to try to start a rebellion. Maybe, an early irish rebellion, using US made weapons, and financial backing? If they win, we're looking at a US client state in Europe by 1900. Goodie!

 

[Romulus Augustulus]

Eventually, Canada will go balkanized. There will be a Republic of Canada, a Republic of Quebec, a Maritime Confederation, and a Newfoundland Republic, not to mention a Metis Republic. Things aren't going to go very well for the southerners, though...Mexico is tough to conquer...

 

[DuQuense]

A slightly quicker industrialazation, A CS intervention in Cuba [Buy or Invade] as this was a dream back to 1800. A 1869 TC RR ending in Seattle [Utah route being out] sending lots more americans into the NW with knock off effects on California. and BC. these are Possible.

But it was the Bankruptcy of the south over the canals in 1820's that prevented development, By 1850-60 the south had recovered, and was just as interested in building RRs and Factories, as the North.

Also It was the South that was most opposed to invading, and Absolutly oppesed to Annexxing Mexico. I don't see all these CSA turns around and invades Mexico, Mexico isn't going to invade the CSA. ?So why would the CS attack.? It has enuff problems with a 40% black population. it doesn't need more minorities.

 

[Romulus Augustulus]

Ahh...I forgot to explain. Basically, the Southerners began to embark on a campaign of territorial expansion, because they could handle it. They didn't really conquer Mexico as much as kill or displace everyone and settle whites in the area. Later on, a league of Latin American nations will be organized to deal with the Confederate menace.

TL: 1864: Confederacy gets independence, invades and annexes Northern Mexico. US begins industrial boom.
1865: US purchases Alaska and western Canada. Oklahoma granted independence as the Lakota Republic; occupies Oklahoma and a good part of the border around Oklahoma. Many natives move there. Vancouver leased to British for 99 years.
1866: Dominion of Canada granted independence. Quebec splits off, Canada balkanizes rapidly. New nations are Dominion of Canada, Maritime Confederation, Republic of Quebec, Dominion of Newfoundland.
1867: Latin American league formed to counter Confederates. Confederates begin Confederate Pacific railroad to link Richmond with San Luis Potosi. Confederate advance into Mexico halted at Battle of Mexico City. Latin American League includes Central America, most of South America, and Mexico. Those South American nations who aren't members are allies.
1868: Union Pacific railroad completed. Columbian Pacific, linking Union Pacific to Alaska, sometime in future, begun. Slave population in South begins explosion.
1869: Soil exhaustion becomes a problem in some regions of the South. George Washington Carver never comes along to help out using things like soybeans and peanuts to rejuvinate soil, so the problem gets worse. Peanut butter is also never invented. (= I hate that damned accursed stuff.
1870: Black population, including infants, numbers 60% of Southern population. Series of vicious hurricanes hit Florida and Cuba. A surprise storm destroys a Confederate invasion fleet attempting to invade Cuba. Confederacy is defeated once more at the Second Battle of Mexico City.
1871: Latin American league and Confederacy begin bloody war. Confederacy manages to gain control of rest of Mexico, but at a terrible cost. Economy takes downturn, inflation gets even worse. News of horrible Confederate abuses in Mexico reach Europe; everyone gets PO'd at the rednecks. Union begins sending aid to Latins.
1872: Confederacy has nasty year. Erosion becomes serious problem. Violence erupts in the large ghettos erected in cities for black slaves used in factories. Slave population now numbers 75% of the total Confederate population.
1873: Southerners, feeling very nervous, abolish slaves and enact strict apartheid instead. They even plan to grant regions of heavy black settlement independence, o_0. Union buys most of Northwest Territory for twenty million, Greenland for ten million. Washington and British Columbia, which has grown to include the Yukon Territory, is admitted to the Union as a state.
1874: Confederates have extended their borders to Nicaragua. Defeated at battle of Lake Nicaragua, though. San Luis Potosi admitted as a state.
1875: At this point, Miami is a stinking hellhole. It is filled with angry African Americans, who riot regularly. On one particularly nasty riot, the whole city is burned to the ground and over five hundred thousand are killed. The revolt spreads quickly. By the time the army has restored order, most of the African American population is dead, as is most of the Caucasian population. The southern economy takes a downturn, and Florida, incensed at the lack of protection provided by the Confederate military and such, secedes. Because secession is the principle the CSA is built on, there is nothing the CSA can do about it. Before long, the CSA has completely dissolved. The only remainer is Texas, busily conquering itself a Latin American empire.
1876: The Union, seeing the current turmoil as a golden opportunity, begins the Reintegration War. Texas has promised aid to its neighbors in case of an emergency, so Union troops conduct a repeat of the Franco-Prussian war, with the Texans playing the role of the proud, but nonetheless vanquished Gallic warriors. The southern states are reconsolidated by July the fourth, and Texas loses a good deal of its territory to the Union. The Texan front in Panama collapses, and the Latins regain their lost territory. Although the Civil War was won in the short term by the South, in the end, it was the South that lost.

 

[Romulus Augustulus]

And here's the map. Originally, it was from here:
http://www.sciences-po.fr/cartograp...es/fonds_ensreg/ameriques_ensreg/amnoinfr.gif

Sorry for the sloppiness. I'm in a hurry, you see...

 

[FederationX]

Pretty cool timeline and nice map.

 

[unsunghero]

Pretty good TL You just have to explain a bit more as to why, for example, Quebec decides to leave Canada as soon as the ink on the Articles of Confederation is dry. Louis Riel, who began the Metis rebellion in Manitoba was seen as a national hero in French Canada, and an absolute traitor in English Canada. You might say Canada's French - English difficulties really began there. So Louis Riel is executed, there's lots of resentment in Quebec and the PM sends in the army to maintain order. Quebecois nationalists see it as an attempt to culturally dominate them, maybe organize some kind of resistence? If Quebec City (good luck in Montreal - it's half English already, so the Feds could hold it easily) issued a 'declaration of independence' maybe Nova Scotia and New Brunswick rethink their decision. One thing to note is that prior to Confederation Nova Scotia had a thriving ship building industry - after Confederation is withered and died. This was not due to Confederation, but rather the shipyards in NS put out schooners and such, while the rest of the world was turning to steel, etc. Someone could be found to try and convince Nova Scotians otherwise - then NS and NB sign on with Newfoundland/Labrador which was a distinct political entity? Then you pretty much have your balkanization of Canada.

 

[Romulus Augustulus]

Ultimately, it leads to US rule over everything from Greenland to Panama, excepting the other independent states.

1877: A revolt in Texas's Mexican provinces results in a Latin invasion. Texas, now little more than a small, weakened rump state with a ruined economy and several hundred thousand embittered war veterans on the brink of drinking themselves to death, is quietly annexed by the Union.
1878: The Latin American Union votes to federate, renaming itself the Organization of American States.
1879: A group of Confederates settle in South Africa, determined to set up another xenophic tyrant republic.
1880: The Union realizes that the Southern states are much more trouble than they are worth. They are filled with stupid, arrogant rednecks and they are a shambles. After having resettled the African Americans in the northern states, the North secedes from the South and then defeats it, then invades it and destroys everything. Whatever population is left in the South, that is Caucasian, moves to South Africa. The western prarie states and the Canadian provinces are granted statehood. The south is now a desolated, uninhabited and uninhabitable waste. The same goes for Texas. The union now sells this surplus territory to the Lakota Republic for five dollars. President Crazy Horse of the Lakota Republic would later say, "I realized at that point that the white man could in fact learn the true values of the various things in life. Although I felt guilty at having done the purchase, I realized, upon inspecting the newly gained territory, that the five dollars were way too much and the real value was closer to twenty-five cents. Those (expletively deleted)!"

 

[David S Poepoe]

This is an altogether unrealistic timeline. There are events happening way too quickly. Industrialization of the South will take years. The population 'explosion' of African in the South won't be '60% of Southern population' in 1870 and '75% of the total Confederate population' in 1872, unless theres fertility drugs widespread in the South.

Judgemently statements like 'The Union realizes that the Southern states are much more trouble than they are worth. They are filled with stupid, arrogant rednecks and they are a shambles.' certainly don't help it. One could consider this to be a Blue State Wetdream.

 

[DuQuense]

I Realized this is his first TL. Lets be Gentle ,
No need to point out things like 1870 Fort Miami had a population of less than 25,000, Or the population of Mexico in the 1860's was greater than the white population of the CSA.. And that he has completly forgotten the French Army in Mexico.
Like I said Be Gentle.

 

[Romulus Augustulus]

I Realized this is his first TL. Lets be Gentle ,
No need to point out things like 1870 Fort Miami had a population of less than 25,000, Or the population of Mexico in the 1860's was greater than the white population of the CSA.. And that he has completly forgotten the French Army in Mexico.
Like I said Be Gentle.

This is alternative history. As for the French in Mexico, well, there was a revoltuion in France, and the French were either called back or else deserted.
There was a famine in Mexico. Many Mexicans moved south. Finally, the Confederates fought well. As for the population boom, well, it's just one of those weird demographic flukes. Finally, the last few entries were jokes.