Union and Liberty: An American TL

Thanks for the comments everyone. :) I liked doing this update, so I'll definitely be doing at least a few more cities.

Sweet update Wilcox! This type of detail has always made your TL quite realistic.

I'm trying to orient myself on the map (and using present day google maps as well). Just a few questions:

How far does into the Potomac does the National Mall go? According to the map, in OTL by 1900 it went all the way to 17th street, but you mention The Houston Memorial as being on 21st, so I reckon it goes quite further out in TTL by now.

Where is Lafayette Park, is it Laffayette Square just behind the White House? That would place the National War Memorial sort of in a place that is difficult to see. Unless the park is larger in TTL.

And finally how about architecture and style wise. I reckon Washington DC is keeping its iconic white American neo-classic look all around, but have plans on the expansion of The Capitol, or the style of these monuments changed? Any ideas on what the National War Memorial looks like?

Anyways keep it up. These detail bits are always awesome! Certainly looking forward to the next few.
The Mall after the land reclamation extends to 21st Street so the Houston status is at the far end, but the new river edge is still going southeast along the line so the statue is right up near Constitution Ave. Lafayette Park is Lafayette Square, but the memorial takes up a big area in the center of the park. For the memorial's design, I was thinking a marble tholos like the one at Delphi (I had to look up the name of the structure :D), with thirteen marble columns representing each of the original colonies in a circle. Atop the columns is a marble dome with a statue of Columbia at the top. Architecturally the Mall is still pretty much all Neoclassical like OTL. The Smithsonian Building (the Castle) is the same as OTL since it was built in 1847 and Renwick is still the designer of the building.

Lets sat te French support Quebec more and they do independent how would the US react to that would they support it or be on britians side
The US would support Quebecois independence.
 
Thanks for the comments everyone. :) I liked doing this update, so I'll definitely be doing at least a few more cities.

The Mall after the land reclamation extends to 21st Street so the Houston status is at the far end, but the new river edge is still going southeast along the line so the statue is right up near Constitution Ave. Lafayette Park is Lafayette Square, but the memorial takes up a big area in the center of the park. For the memorial's design, I was thinking a marble tholos like the one at Delphi (I had to look up the name of the structure :D), with thirteen marble columns representing each of the original colonies in a circle. Atop the columns is a marble dome with a statue of Columbia at the top. Architecturally the Mall is still pretty much all Neoclassical like OTL. The Smithsonian Building (the Castle) is the same as OTL since it was built in 1847 and Renwick is still the designer of the building.

The US would support Quebecois independence.

How about a map or two of Wilkinston and Tiptonville, Houston(you may remember those two cities as ones I created in my ATL Automobiles thread.....OTL Dallas and Fort Worth, respectively)?
 
I colored in TTL's changes to Washington DC on the map bellow just to have some visuals to the updated. I didn't realize the pool ended up in the opposite end of the park in TTL until I did the map, which is cool.

Wilcox, I hope I got everything right.

On an unrelated note; will everyone at MIT just call the Tesla-tech the "tit school?" Anyways, despite school rivalries it is good to see a higher level engineering school in the capital where it can influence some politics.

1864_Mitchell_Map_of_Washington_D.C._-_Geographicus_-_WashingtonDC-mitchell-1864.jpg
 
Time for another main update.

Part Seventy-One: Tipping the Scales


A Million Little Parties:
....

The Redback Party gained much of its support in the Old Northwest. It's main leaders were James B. Weaver of Iowa and Edward Gilette of Indiana.

....

I find this among the top 5 fascinating American/World history AH's on here.
And this might not be the normal thing to do in commenting on such an old post,... But even while speed reading to get the feeling for the overall I felt compelled to point out something that struck me immediately as out of place. No disrespect, BUT wouldn't James B. Weaver be of Demoine, and not Iowa? .... Thanks.
 
How about a map or two of Wilkinston and Tiptonville, Houston(you may remember those two cities as ones I created in my ATL Automobiles thread.....OTL Dallas and Fort Worth, respectively)?
Hmm, I probably won't get to those. For the city focus I have at least a few more cities lined up, and these updates will probably be spaced out more so I don't know how many of them I'll get to during the timeline. For that area Galveston would be more likely to get an update.

I colored in TTL's changes to Washington DC on the map bellow just to have some visuals to the updated. I didn't realize the pool ended up in the opposite end of the park in TTL until I did the map, which is cool.

Wilcox, I hope I got everything right.

On an unrelated note; will everyone at MIT just call the Tesla-tech the "tit school?" Anyways, despite school rivalries it is good to see a higher level engineering school in the capital where it can influence some politics.
That looks pretty much like the map I was making for this. :D Just one small thing is that the National War Memorial should have a circular shape. And yes, there will be jokes that it's the tit school. :p

I find this among the top 5 fascinating American/World history AH's on here.
And this might not be the normal thing to do in commenting on such an old post,... But even while speed reading to get the feeling for the overall I felt compelled to point out something that struck me immediately as out of place. No disrespect, BUT wouldn't James B. Weaver be of Demoine, and not Iowa? .... Thanks.
Yes it should be Demoine. I'm surprised that wasn't mentioned before now, usually those kind of mistakes get caught pretty quick.
 
Hmm, I probably won't get to those. For the city focus I have at least a few more cities lined up, and these updates will probably be spaced out more so I don't know how many of them I'll get to during the timeline. For that area Galveston would be more likely to get an update.

That looks pretty much like the map I was making for this. :D Just one small thing is that the National War Memorial should have a circular shape. And yes, there will be jokes that it's the tit school. :p

Yes it should be Demoine. I'm surprised that wasn't mentioned before now, usually those kind of mistakes get caught pretty quick.

What did you have in mind other than just Galveston, exactly? :)
 
Hi i'm a new reader and this is an awesome time line. Also if your fixing Washington can you make the Jefferson memorial if there is one not look like a giant stone muffin
 
Hmm, I probably won't get to those. For the city focus I have at least a few more cities lined up, and these updates will probably be spaced out more so I don't know how many of them I'll get to during the timeline. For that area Galveston would be more likely to get an update.


What did you have in mind other than just Galveston, exactly? :)

I think, Wilcox, that if you do one or two cities per decade it be a great way to draw a picture of the TL. You would get a handful of cities in within a century, although slowly, but it would also be a good way to see tech and architecture evolve. Gaveston would be a good choice if it is not ravaged by a Hurricane in TTL, but before it wich would be a later city to deal with. New Orleans, New York, possibly Chicago, and whatever Seattle (likely to be much larger in TTL due to no San Francisco0 is in TTL would be awesome to know about.

Keep it up. Looking forward to the next update on the war.
 
What did you have in mind other than just Galveston, exactly? :)
I'm also planning on doing cities from all over the world. I have at least Paris, Vienna, Saint Louis, and New York planned for it so far.

Hi i'm a new reader and this is an awesome time line. Also if your fixing Washington can you make the Jefferson memorial if there is one not look like a giant stone muffin
At least that's better than the spiritual center at AU, which looks like a giant burning cupcake. :p
 
Just started reading this timeline. It's not generally one of the areas of history that grabs my interest, but you've done a great job drawing me in. Keep up the good work. :D
 
I'm also planning on doing cities from all over the world. I have at least Paris, Vienna, Saint Louis, and New York planned for it so far.

At least that's better than the spiritual center at AU, which looks like a giant burning cupcake. :p

I'd love to see Chicago at some point. As I understand it, it's a bit smaller than OTL due to the increased prominence of St. Louis.

Cheers,
Ganesha
 
Part One Hundred-Eight: The Eastern Front in 1907
Next update's done! I'll add the diacritics and footnotes tomorrow.

Part One Hundred-Eight: The Eastern Front in 1907

Polish Front:
Like the Italian front, the war in Poland continued to feature not much movement among either the Alliance Carolingien or the New Coalition. There was some movement in East Prussia during the winter months as the frozen temperatures allowed the Russians to advance across the Masurian Lakes. With the lakes frozen, Russia launched a large offensive across the entire Prussian front in January. The southern flank moved slowly; while the winter conditions made movement somewhat easier, the armies still had to contend with the German defenses and the hilly terrain between the lakes. Nonetheless, the more numerous Russian forces pushed the Germans back and reached the villages of Mragowo and Ketrzyn by the end of January and Biskupiec by the beginning of March. In north Prussia, the Russians crossed the Deime River and reached Eylau and Neuhausen[1] in a month. With the Russians directly threatening Königsberg and Allenstein, the Germans quickly diverted soldiers from Poland and Hungary to Prussia.

With over fifty thousand German soldiers en route to the two cities, the German forces there dug in. For two weeks beginning on March 14, the Russians hammered at the German defenses in the cities and tried to capture Braunsberg[2] to cut off Königsberg's rail connection with the rest of Germany. However, the German defensive positions held and with the arrival of fresh troops, the Germans launched a counterattack on the first of April. The Russians, fatigued and demoralized by the hard push through eastern Prussia that failed to take the two cities, retreated back through Prussia. By the middle of May, the Russians had retreated back to beyond the Masurian Lakes and their positions at the starting point of the Prussian winter offensive. By June the German army had made their first crossing into Russian territory in the area and had captured Suwalki and Augustowo.

In Poland, the combat front had been mostly confined to the stretch between Kalisz and Warta along the Warta River, but starting in 1907 the range of fighting became much more spread out. During the East Prussia offensive, the Russians pushed slightly into Germany proper. The brief Battle of Thorn in April resulted in the Russians holding the city of Thorn for a mere eleven days before being pushed back across the border. Further south, Germany brought in more men from Breslau to enlarge the Warta theatre. In April the fresh German army entered Russia from Kempno and captured Wieruszow and Wielun. Meanwhile, part of the German army in Warta moved south along the right bank of the Warta river and met with the Breslau army, overrunning the Russian defensive positions at Widawa on April 29th. During the next month, the Germans moved east from Widawa toward Warsaw, reaching Petrikau by the end of May.

While the Germans were making gains in Poland, the Siege of Krakow was still going nowhere and the city refused to surrender. Attempts to starve the city into submission were thwarted by the failure to capture the rail lines heading north and east of Krakow that connected it with the rest of Russia and Galicia. However, in the spring of 1907 the Germans achieved some gains toward fully cutting Krakow's supply lines off. In March, the German offensive north of the city launched another attack on Miechow. The Germans took Miechow on March 30th, at last severing the Russian supply line between Warsaw and Krakow. In April the Germans also moved to take more territory east of Krakow. The army under Conrad von Hötzendorf took the villages of Niepolomice, and set up an artillery placement twelve miles east along the southern bank of the Vistula in May. From there, the rail line along the northern bank of the Vistula was in range of the German artillery. Beginning in mid-June, Hötzendorf began shelling the railway line and hoped to end the Siege of Krakow after over a year.


Hungarian Front:
While the Prussian and Polish lines saw the most movement in the spring of 1907, the Hungarian section of the eastern front had its biggest moves in the first months of the year. From January to February, the German army made slight gains in the trenches of central Hungary. By the arrival of spring to the Danubian plain, the Germans had advanced to the hills around Tatabánya[3]. Meanwhile, the New Coalition was pushed back in the northern trenches to the Danube. In April, German forces in the northern trenches attempted a large push across the Danube at Sturovo and Esztergom. Over two hundred thousand men were involved on both lines on either side of the Danube, but after a month of attempted river crossings and artillery bombardments by both sides, the New Coalition still held firm on the right bank of the river.

On either side of the Danubian plain, there was also mixed movements along the fronts. On the southwestern edge of the Hungarian lines, Lake Balaton continued to pose a large natural barrier along the front. The Germans pushed the New Coalition forces back after breaking through to a position on the lake. In February, New Coalition armies pulled out of the town of Keszthely on the far western point of Lake Balaton and conceded the city to German troops. The fighting for the remainder of the northern edge of the lake lasted into May. However on the 18th of that month, the German army defeated the New Coalition in the battle of Veszprém, giving the Germans control over the full northern bank of Lake Balaton. To the west of the lake, the New Coalition was also pushed back as far as Bak and north of Lendava. While there was some movement in these parts of the Hungarian front, the Slovakian front remained largely static due to both sides' concentration on the other parts of the eastern front.

[1] Eylau is Bagrationovsk, Neuhausen is Guryevsk.
[2] Braunsberg is Braniewo.
[3] About 30 miles west of Budapest.
 
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I find it interesting that neither nation has not moved into Belgium or the Netherlands yet. Just of they are going for Continental supremacy, it is kinda shocking they haven't taken those nations yet?
 
Great post and great looking map mate. Couple of thoughts;

- Just looking at the map alone, the Alliance Carolingien looks to have been very successful so far, taking a good amount of territory and putting their adversaries on the run. Britain has remained absolutely untouched by all accounts, while Russia/poland/hungary and Spain/Italy are getting pretty dominated. Not really sure it could have gone any other way really, given the distinct advantages a combined France and Germany would have over their neighbors.

- Just as with questions regarding Corsica, I don't see the likelyhood in Benelux (just BeNe here i guess) being forced to switch sides, or the likelyhood in the NC invading through there. this TL Germany and France have plenty of coastline accessible to them, and whatever diplomatic entreaties to get either on the NC's side would seem essentially suicidal to either without immense support from Britain, which they'd have to be pretty foolish to believe in.

- However, the one caveat here would be a Zimmermann Telegram type of situation where the BeNes could get something from the NC, some territory somewhere that they coveted, in exchange for support. This does pose an interesting possibility for covert action on the part of the NC against the AC, if they could amass forces in the area in secret. I don't consider it likely, but it could make for an interesting 'battle of the bulge' kind of scenario.

- Curious lastly about the motivations in continuing the conflict much further on either side. What is driving the governments in Paris and Berlin to continue to fight? Are there specific land or resource gains they are hoping to obtain in Eastern Europe or in the Mediterranean? Is there some point where they would stop, or are they looking for an unconditional surrender from one of the parties?

-A broader question that I've been wondering about for a long time- not just in this TL, but generally, and also very much applicable to this TL- is the role of World-Systems analysis. Glossing quickly, Immanuel Wallerstein reads history since the sixteenth century as a contest for hegemony between several key states. He sees the Netherlands as the first Hegemon in the 17th century, and sees the next set of contests as between two aspirants; France and Britain fought to take over after the Netherlands, with Britain replacing them in the 19th century. So he sees the early 20th century as a long, continuous war from 1914-1945 between Germany and the US to take Britain's place as Hegemon.

There seems to be a real thread of world-systems analysis running through the U&L history, and it really seems to point to a very divergent result. Without going forward to where the TL ends up and just going off of what we have up to 1907, the Wallerstein of U&L would probably still see Britain as the victor for 19th century hegemony; but thinking about the differences between a Germany united with France and in control of the Continent, taking over for a declining Britain... and with the United States as its ally? Can the US and Germany essentially negotiate how to deal with Britain's (inevitable?) decline?

Not sure if anyone here is into this stuff, but it's very interesting to consider states and nations as part of larger structures- and more interesting to consider alt-historical ones such.
 
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