What if the French Revolution never happened? | Fraternité en Rébellion

[FeR_Sam]

The Fraternal American States (Part 6)​

Opportunity Far (1891-1910)

Hero’s Return:
In the aftermath of the Great NA War, the FAS economy did not suffer as much as the AR did during the war, and would bounce back rather quickly. The FAS navy was commended for its bravery and its heroic victory over the Mexican Navy without losing a single ship. The armies, however, didn’t all receive a hero’s welcome, Longstreet’s army was marched through New Orleans, Longstreet and Forrest were regarded as national heroes, while Pike was sidelined due to him never achieving the decisive victory out west. Veterans returned home and were regarded by many to be the shining example of the Knights of Liberation. The soldiers were given a severance bonus of $100 per soldier, and most of the soldiers went back to their normal lives, what they didn’t know was that this would be an age of change.

The election of 1892, came and went without much fuss where Gates ran unopposed for the first time in the FAS history due to some political quagmires in both major parties. The Democratic-Republican party was caught up in an embezzlement scandal where major people clamoring for war made thousands of dollars off of the war industry during the Great NA War. While the Union party was in political deadlock over who put forward as their candidate, Allen G. Thurman again, but most wanted to forward Albert Pike for the election, for his staunch anti-war policies as he was ridiculed for his failure to battle the Mexican Army. Neither was able to secure the majority vote which prompted a temporary split in the party, and neither one candidate went up against Gates.

Securing their Holdings:
With the acquisition of the Texas territory and the treaty port of Veracruz, and Aculpoco it was a huge boost to the FAS economy and gave them the edge to trade more with the world. Almost as soon as they got the two new treaty ports they had to find a way to connect them, so the FAS government commissioned the Fraternal Atlantic Rail Company to build a railway from Veracruz to Acapulco, construction was started on September 3rd, 1891. They had built approximately 415 miles of rail to link up these two ports and would be a time-consuming process, but the Fraternal Atlantic Rail Company knew that if they succeeded they would be getting a large profit for this railroad. In March of 1892, when the construction reached the town of Perote, the construction ground to a halt, due to people from the area raiding the workers on the railroad. Something had to be done to protect the railroad construction, the FARC had asked the government to use the National Army to put down these raiders, but they didn’t want to seem that they were breaking the treaty by deploying the National Army into Mexico proper.

So the Fraternal Atlantic Rail Company had hired The Knights of Protection, a security company founded in 1874, to protect important politicians, and businessmen and became the armed wing of the Knights of Liberation, by 1890. They were now a collection of retired soldiers who had recently served in the Fraternal-Mexican War, so they were deployed to protect the railroad workers in April of 1892. During the months of April and May, there were at least 37 attacks on their workers, of differing amounts of strength. By the end of 1892, raiders on the construction site had diminished greatly. On July 13th, 1895 the construction of the Veracruz-Acapulco railroad was completed and had finally opened the FAS to the Pacific trade region.

New Land, New Workers:
Immediately, the “Five Families” started buying up land in the newly acquired territory of Texas, and started to make new cotton plantations out there, though the land was not as well suited to the production of much cotton. So large ranches were being formed in the western most of the state, and with a large number of Mexicans in the region, they were able to buy up the land from them. They expanded the Reorganization of the Plantations Act (1834), to count the Mexican population in the Texas region as “Natives” this way they were able to round them up and ship them east. So on August 3rd, 1892, the Tennessee divisions of the National Army were called upon to round up the Mexicans. The Laredo area, who was still devastated from the Battle of Laredo, and for the second time soldiers had marched through the town. They rounded up around 8,000 Mexican natives and sent them to the east, the road to the plantation was known as El Rastro de las Lágrimas, to the Trail of Tears, thousands of natives died on the trail, due to poor living conditions and lack of food. One account form the trial was that of a Mexican man,

“We were displaced from our homes, by the war, how my farm was raided by the soldiers during the war on both sides. The Mexican Army had raided our farm for what food because we weren’t providing enough for their war effort. The FAS came through days later and demanded that we give them supplies, we told them they were stolen by the Mexican Army. They were incensed and raided the farm and burnt down our barn. At the end of the war, we saw these same soldiers who came through in `89, and they demanded that we gather up whatever we could carry and get ready to move. With that, we were marching across a foreign land and barely had any food to our name. As we walked through the land known as Louisiana, my wife and child were ripped from my hands, and as I tried to resist I was beaten with wooden clubs. When I came to, I was on a cart being hauled away to Ashland, a true hell on earth.” (Emilio Ruiz, 1892)

When they got to the plantation, they were forced to work on the main plantations back east most of them, because they wanted to make sure that it was harder for these people to flee to freedom. With these huge ranches popping up, they were able to have more stuff to sell on the global market, and this would be a huge thing for them in general. Cotton, Tobacco, and manufactured goods were being bought from countries around the world and became a hot commodity. Their biggest trading partner would become the British Republic, Gates saw this as an opportunity to have the British give up any control in the FR, which would lead to the eventual annexation of the FR, and reclaim their land. So on June 13th, 1893 the FAS and British republic representatives met in the same room that was used to negotiate the 1842 British treaty, which was abolished when the Republic of Britain was declared in 1862. When at the negotiation table, the FAS demanded the British withdrawal from the FR for exclusive rights to the tobacco market, as tobacco was a hot commodity in the British Republic. The British made the counteroffer of trading rights for them, and they would give them the ability to allow the FAS capitalists to build in the FR. This was an agreeable start for the conquest of the FR, if they controlled their economy, they could bring them down. The agreement was finalized three weeks later, and the effects were swift and drastic. This would prove to be a huge source of new revenue pouring in not only from the new western states and from their investments in the FR which made sure that they were able to keep pace with the expansion of the “Five Families”, but three things would take the FAS from a rich nation to a prosperous nation.

The Spark of Ingenuity:
Nikola Tesla was an immigrant who fled the Austrian Empire in search of an opportunity to change the world and to try his theory of electricity. When he arrived in North America in 1883 and worked with an inventor who was based out of New Jersey who was working on electricity as well, the man named Edison stole some of Tesla’s ideas and concepts while Tesla was working for him. In March 1885 Edison showed the people of the AR his electric lights, and was applauded as a pioneer, while Tesla kept telling the press that it was all his idea, but as there was no concrete evidence of this theft and was deemed as just an opportunistic employee. This persecution forced him to flee to the FAS in 1887, where he set up in a small warehouse in Atlanta. In 1891, he founded the Tesla Electric Company, which gave more power over a greater distance and was safer than its northern counterpart. This promoted a way to have longer hours for the factories and the expansion of the mining industry that would spur the expansion of the economy as a whole. Unfortunately, Tesla was being persecuted by the Native American Party members and was being chased out of Atlanta, and the FAS as a whole; as these people were pawns of Mellon’s, Southern Oil which made him into Standard Oil and Power. Tesla fled to the far north of the Native Confederation and set a company up there.

1896, the real election took place with a three-way fight, the Union Party put forward their candidate Williams Jennings Bryan. While the Democratic-Republican party put forward their candidate of Joshua Levering and the Federation Party candidate Richard P. Bland. With a strong rule of the Federation party for 24 years, the people elected Williams Jennings Bryan, who ran on a platform of making the nation into a trading nation, but who is having the corporations to give taxes to the government. The part of his platform that was appealing was that they were going to tone down the military. His presidency would be the one that helps the economy to be on an upward trend that would bring prosperity to the nation.

Trade in the Orient:
The Bryans administration would bring an idea of the Golden Circle to life when he noticed the situation in China in this time, a market long out of reach for the FAS. In 1898, the European powers were taking whole cities as treaty ports, and the FAS was determined to get in on the trade of the Orient. The FAS had bargained with the other powers to secure a portion of Shanghai, and by July of 1898, they would have the Fraternal Asiatic Trading Block. The FAS would see the benefits of the trade from China and the other foreign powers. Things would soon change in 1899 when 3 FAS merchants were shot in the block, the shooter was a member of the Boxer movement, and was to be tried by the FAS court and sentenced to death. Unfortunately, he was freed by sympathizers outside of the Fraternal Asiatic Trading Block and escaped punishment. This was concerning to the FAS people that their people might be in trouble, and many petitioned Bryan’s administration to send troops to bolster the defenses. Bryans instead sent weapons and some sparse volunteers to those living in the FATB to defend themselves. This would prove to help keep the block from falling initially to the Boxer Rebellion. With time though the concession would fall, and Bryan’s needed to move fast.

In April of 1900, the FAS called upon several Tennessee, Texas, Georgia, and Florida units to go to China. The 32nd Tennessee Infantry, 5th Georgia Infantry, 1st Texas Special Cavalry Division, the 19th Florida Calvary, and the 33rd Texas Artillery Company were being shipped off to reinforce the men in the FATB. The FAS navy sent several ships to escort the troops, and Bryan was hoping that this would be a swift victory to bring things to normal. They were sent with General Beaumont Bonaparte Buck and were sent with the Seymour Expedition and the infantry and cavalry to go and break the Boxer Army. They were unfortunately routed by the Boxer’s at the Battle of Langfang, and was able to escape the ambush with no casualties, to the people back in the FAS this was embarrassing, as their men ran instead of fought. Buck was determined to prove himself, so he took the cavalry, infantry, special cavalry division, and artillery company to storm the walls of Peking.

Buck had ordered the artillery to shell part of the wall to break a hole for the infantry, and the cavalry to exploit the hole and capture the Empress. With the artillery breaking a hole in the wall very quickly, these units stormed the city along with the coalition to secure any members of the imperial family. When they entered the Place, there seemed to be no one there, which led to the coalition to put the city on lockdown, with Buck placing the 1st Texas Special Cavalry Division to guard the gate. On the night of August 16th, 1900 a shabby looking carriage was exiting the main gate. Several soldiers approached the carriage and demanded that they pull back the curtain on the carriage. As a private from the armored division had pulled back the curtain, several shots were fired, and the carriage made a run for it, and ran over another soldier. The carriage was pursued by two armored cars and had taken off down the road, after one minute of a chase, the soldiers opened fire on the carriage. The carriage veered off into a ditch and was a pile of debris. When the soldiers approached the carriage, they saw a bloodied man crawl out of the wreckage and fired his pistol but was shot dead, and his bullet was futile. When they pulled out the bodies from the carriage they were able to identify the body of the Empress, or what was left of it. They did not participate in the fighting on the 17th, but had kept the city on lockdown, and was keeping the peace. Finally, the Boxer Protocols were finalized with the Qing giving the FAS the ability to build railways in the Qing and to get more space on the FATB. Bryan had secured a major victory for the FAS and showed the world their power first hand. The handling of the Boxer Rebellion was a key reason Bryan was reelected.

Commerce Booms:
In 1899, in Corsicana, Texas Territory (Current day New Limerick), a former AR industrialist named Andrew W. Mellon was living in the Texas Territory to escape the AR’s authority for prohibiting these employees from being in the reserves. He was prospecting outside of the town for a place to establish a mine, and all of a sudden while he and his group were digging they struck oil. While oil had been discovered in the AR earlier than this, it was always sold to the world at an exorbitant price, now oil was discovered in this spot that was more fruitful than any AR well ever could produce. Mellon, made his fortune quicker than any other factory owner in the FAS, and became a huge commodity around the world, and would be the most sought after resource from the FAS. With this new demand for resources came an unprecedented explosion of maritime expansion.

In 1900, a man by the name of John D. Spreckels, who had started a successful riverboat company that controlled the trade up and down the Mississippi, and Arkansas rivers. Now he was going to expand his monopoly of maritime trade, so he established the Fraternal Navigation Company, with the express goal of building a global monopoly. They based themselves out of the port town of Miami, which had been a sleepy port town, and by 1910 became a bustling port of South American, and European trade. The mining industry all over the country was booming due to the electric lights being implemented in the mines that made them safer and went deeper into the mines. Savannah, Miami, and New Orleans were becoming bustling places of cultures and ideas, ones that would threaten the Native American Party and for the workers.

Political Restructuring:
The Native American Party in the 1870s had their popularity slow down, this was due to Joseph Wilson being assassinated in 1872. While he was mayor of Savannah until 1868 when he came to the end of his term limit and persuaded a career in Congress. He was elected to a position in congress in 1870, he tried passing a law to limit the number of Irish Immigrants, called the Irish Exclusion Act (1870), but failed to gain sufficient traction in Congress. So to compensate, he decided to have his party run in the 1872 election, but this campaign would be short-lived. On August 22nd, 1872, Joseph Wilson was killed at a rally in Lexington, by a gunman named Sean O’Connor, an Irish immigrant who was tired of hearing Wilson bashing his Irish brotherhood. The Native American Party dropped out of the race, as they had no real candidate that could beat the other three parties, and with that, the party seemed to fade into obscurity, until Joseph’s son, Woodrow Wilson had taken up the helm of the party by 1896. He made the party into a force that his father never could, in the Election of 1900, he would run to be the candidate to finally bring the FAS and Golden Circle together and to bring a new era of American excellence.

The workers of the FAS were not happy with their lot in life, as being slaves to their bosses and being worked to the bone to make pitiful pay. The Liberation Party, while popular among the people, was barred from any official elections. This led to the worker’s voices falling on deaf ears of the politicians in congress, and it did not represent the people on the plantation. A man by the name of Eugene V. Debs, who had escaped the persecution of the AR against any socialist elements in their country had landed in the FAS in 1898 after escaping his long sentence after organizing a worker’s strike in Chicago. Upon seeing the conditions of the people in the FAS, he decided to form the Socialist Workers Party in 1899, which would adhere to the words of Marx rather than Lee.

The election of 1900 was the election to define the FAS as a whole, as it had the Union Party incumbent William Jennings Bryan, who was fairly popular among the people, the Federation Party candidate of Richard P. Bland, as no other suitable candidate for the party was found. The Native American party put up their first candidate for the presidency, who was Woodrow Wilson, and the Socialist Workers Party had Eugene V. Debs run for them. The Democratic-Republican party had put forth Thomas E. Watson, a fairly fresh-faced congressman, tried to try and show that the party had thrown out the old corrupt trash in 1893. William Jennings Bryan, with his master oratory skills, was able to sway voters in his nationwide tour during the election. With this, Bryan was able to try and chip away at the Knights of Liberation, and the Native American Party in a speech he gave 2 weeks after he was elected.

“My Fraternal Brothers, we have for too long been plagued by the scourge of the Know-Nothing justice that they carry out on the Irish, and Italians, these men are cancer on society. The Knights of Liberation are no better, they promote an outdated ideal. One that my new administration will leave on the ash pile of history.” (William Jennings Bryan, 1900)

With this sound declaration, Bryan began purging anyone with ties to the Native American Party, or Knights of Liberation out of his government. He was determined to discourage people from joining the Knights of Liberation, this seemed to be a huge misstep for his administration. While not being the thing that defined the administration, it did lead to the downfall of the Bryans administration, with tax cuts for the poor factory workers, and the expansion of the navy that would lead to them building their first dreadnaught known as the FSS Jackson which was launched in 1903.

On January 2nd, 1904, before the election, the nation stopped as tragedy struck. James Longstreet, the hero of the Florida Free Army, the hero of the putdown of the Atlanta Revolt, and the Hero of the Fraternal-Mexican War had died peacefully in Savannah, Georgia before he was to give a speech to support the Federation party. He had cancer of the right eye, and pneumonia, and died in the City Hotel in Savannah. The people of the nation turned out in droves to see this hero before he was laid to rest, he had been paraded around the country like Jackson was when he died. Longstreet would be seen as the next Andrew Jackson for his generation and was laid to rest in the Hermitage National Cemetery.

As when the election of 1904 came around, this worked against them and the Federation Party won the election, through some shady means of buying votes. The Democratic-Republican party again submitted to them and threw their lot behind them to keep the Knights of Liberation from being systematically eliminated. The Federation Party candidate was Andrew W. Mellon, who had built a small oil empire at this point forcing the small rule of the Union party to an end. FAS would expand its industry which seemed to be ad infinitum, but this would not last forever. The truth about the factories, mines, and plantations would be exposed and would bring back the Liberation party into mainstream politics starting in 1910.

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[FeR_Sam]

The Fraternal American States (Part 7)​

Age of Social Reform (1910-1925)

The Unions stand Defiant:
Social Reform was not a phrase that had ever pursed the lips of any FAS politician, except for the Red parties, the Union, Socialist Workers, and Liberation Parties were the only ones trying to get rights and benefits for the workers, but the rest of the nation was working against this. A book would come out in 1910, that would disgust the people enough to start the effort to change the way their factories were run. In 1910, an AR writer named Upton Sinclair who had written books about the conditions in the AR factories in the late 1890s, but he went to the FAS to report on the conditions down south, as he had read the conditions of the factories in If the Masters have No Rifles by Robert E. Lee. Sinclair wrote the novel The Swamp, it described the conditions on the factory floors, and in the slums of the major city. The descriptions of these places were disgusting and vile.

“As I entered the factory floor, the pungent smell of the foul odor of a factory full of people who haven’t showered in weeks or months. As I walked to one of the machines, I saw that one worker there had one wooden leg. I asked him if he had lost his leg in the war, he told me he lost it 2 weeks ago to the same machine he was working at. When talking to the factory owner about that incident, he got angry and started shouting about how it set production back a week of work. This is what grips the minds of the bosses, not the well being of their workers.” (Upton Sinclair, The Swamp,1910)

Sinclair had exposed the dark underbelly of the factories and the slums that surrounded the factories. The Socialist Workers party was able to gain support from the regular working class and not just the absolute poor. So in Little Rock, Arkansas the first general strike was organized outside of the Little Rock Wire Mill Company on May 1st, 1910, they started a massive strike that caused the factory to work 1/10 its normal capacity. This forced the Little Rock Wire Mill Company to come to the negotiating table and strike up a deal, they beat the mighty LRWMC and had made them make the conditions and pay better for all. Upon seeing this display of bold defiance, unions across the country were organizing strikes in any factories that had a union, and these factories were negotiating with them until September of 1910 when the union of the Browning Arms Company in New Orleans had turned their protest into a bloodbath.

They had organized on September 3rd, 1910 and had protested outside of the factory for two weeks, but the board of the Browning Arms Company was fed up with this trend of workers organizing. They called in the Knights of Protection to try and bring the workers into line, and after their work in Mexico, they believed this job would be done with no fuss. On September 17th, 1910 the men from the Knights of Protection, had come in armed with Browning M97 shotguns, and Smith and Wesson Model 3s and had surrounded the worker’s protest camp. James McParland had stood at the head of this group and had pulled his revolver out of his holster, and fired it into the air to get the worker's attention. He had told the workers to disperse or they would be arrested, and one worker had cried out.

“If you arrest the workers, how will you get paid?” (Anonymous, 1910)

This had sent McParland into a frenzy, and he fired 5 more shots into the air, and this concerned some of the members at the end of the line. The men proceeded to aim their guns into the crowd which sent a panic all over the line of protesters who started to lash out at the Knights. Several of the Knights were disarmed and killed by the workers, several workers were killed in the opening minutes of this exchange. This disastrous strikebreaking operation had turned into a slaughter, and at the end of this 30-minute battle, 37 Knights lay dead, and 239 workers had been killed. The scene outside of the factory was that the metal gate was splattered with the blood of the workers, and had become the third-worst incident in the FAS’s history. This had made the workers see that the government had no interest in the people they were to represent, but this was far from the truth. In response to this massacre, Mellon had asked congress to make a law to bring the Liberation Party back, and to allow unions to operate and to protest. The Labor Union Protection Act (1910) was passed into law, and as they claimed that this would bring prosperity to the workers, but this was far from the truth. The unions had no bargaining power and had no true protections from them being persecuted by the companies, to make unions undesirable. With no real protections in place, this led to the Socialist Workers Party spearheading a campaign for the presidency in 1912, in which this election would turn ugly.

Know-Nothings in Power:
The Federation Party had kept the incumbent President Andrew W. Mellon as their candidate to keep the prosperity and industrial expansion going, in the hopes of making them a powerhouse that not even the Europeans could match. The Union Party had put forward their own candidate, William Jennings Bryan. Bryan decided to run due to there being no condition in the constitution that forbade him from running for another term. The Democratic-Republicans put forward their candidate James E. Ferguson, though he never actually got to the election due to the party not providing enough funding towards their candidate. The Native American Party had put Woodrow Wilson forward as their candidate to try and persecute immigrants and to bring jobs to the real Americans. The Socialist Workers Party had put forward Eugene V. Debs to try and help the workers by breaking up the monopolies, and the Liberation Party had put up a candidate for the first time in their long history as an organization, William Haywood, to achieve a socialist Utopia for the people of the FAS crying out in desperation.

This set the stage for a truly contentious election as the two Red parties were able to gain a sizable chunk of the popular support, while the Native American Party had resorted to intimidating their competition out of the race. Several Red Party rallies were broken up by Know-Nothing mobs, and violence always followed, leaving at least some members from both sides in the hospital. The Democratic-Republicans while having a sizable amount of support at the beginning of the campaign, had fizzled out come the summer, and they had shifted their support to the Native American Party. The Federation Party was trying to keep power, but it seemed that something was changing in New Orleans, the people were tired of big business and the plantations running the country and barely got any support throughout the election. The Union Party was mired in controversy for having William Jennings Bryan run again for president but still seemed to get a good amount of support. When the votes came in on that brisk November night, it was clear whom the people had chosen… the Native American Party.

Wilson Fumbles the Presidency:
Woodrow Wilson had done what his father only dreamed of, he had secured the presidency and would put his goals to work, or so he believed. While he secured the presidency, he failed to secure congress, who was won by a coalition of the Socialist Workers Party, the Liberation Party, and the Union Party. This would prove to make the Wilson administration a very unproductive one. His first course of action was to try and redefine the term “native” in the Reorganization of the Plantations Act (1834) to include the Irish population and other non-protestant immigrants. This was shot down immediately, as by definition immigrants weren’t natives, Wilson was not about to give up so easily. While he couldn’t change the law that way, he was able to make decisions about who served in the government and followed Bryan’s example of purging the Knights out of power, Wilson did that in 1913 to any immigrants who were serving the government in any capacity other than an elected official, he had made the government a place for “true Americans”. Wilson, also had another two problems to fix, the Temperance Movement, and the West.

When Wilson had come to power, people believed that he would follow the word of god, and help the workers through Temperance. Temperance was a movement that was started by the Jacksonian Church to help with the worsening conditions in the slums was to get the liquor out of the slums, and keep the workers in the factories to get better wages. This was to be perceived as a mission sent from God himself but was not an idea shared with the public at large. Only members of the Jacksonian Church had taken Temperance to heart and got prohibition passed in Arkansas, but this would not be widely adopted anywhere else, it was however embraced by the House of Washington, as they had adopted the Jacksonian Church as their future state church.

Taming the West:
When the FAS took control of the Texas territory, they did not foresee the amount of crime that would happen out there. Bandits, outlaws, and cowboys rule the outer edges of the territory, they would rob from California to Little Rock which had become a problem to the growth in the area. Investors were afraid to put any money into projects in the area, but Wilson decided to tackle this growing problem head on. In 1914, Wilson had called upon Congress to approve a bill that was being brought forward by a new congressman named John Nance Garner of the Democratic-Republican Party. Garner was fighting the outlaws in Texas from 1898-1910, but was only successful in bringing in “Shotgun” John Collins in 1907, after his string of robberies ended in a sting in Laredo, where his gang was killed in the ensuing gunfight, and Collins was arrested and hung for his crimes. Most of the notorious ones were still out there including the Dalton gang and the Jack Hall gang, but Garner had proposed a solution. The bill was to allow the government to build forts out in the western part of Texas, to divide the Texas territory into several states rather than one large one, and to give the National Army full control of the area, and allowing them to kill the outlaws.

While the plan seemed good, the Red parties decided that they would fight against using the National Army as they’re not heavily armed, and possess no military arms. They instead called for the issuance of more bounties with higher rewards that would be paid by the federal government, not the states. This was good enough to be passed as the Outlaw Act (1914) was passed, and in the coming years, you would start to see the decline of the outlaw population and crimes due to this law. While this was a win for the Wilson administration, it would be only one of two things that they would get passed, that and the Naval Expansion Act (1913). This act had given more funding to build more dreadnoughts, as their production was not going as fast as the European powers were, this gave a significant boost to the number of dreadnoughts being produced. In 1913, the FAS only had 10 dreadnoughts, by 1925 they would have 32. In 1915, he would oversee the creation of the states of Texas, New Limerick, Jefferson, and Franklin, with the territory to the north of these states being the state of Oklahoma, but would not be incorporated until 1925. The capitals of each of these states were to be named after an important figure in FAS history. Longstreet would be the capital of Texas, New Limerick’s capital would be Jackson, Jefferson’s capital would be Calhoun, and the capital of Franklin would be Wilson. This was due to there being some debate over the final city as the Red parties wanted it to be Lee, after Robert E. Lee, though most found it a disgrace to name something after a traitor. Others said Andrew Johnson, Albert Pike, Nathan Bedford Forrest, or even Collis Huntington. Wilson decided that it shall be named after him, and the Congress put up little resistance against the move. With his lackluster term coming to an end, Wilson had decided to run again, although this would prove to be his downfall.

The Red Parties in Power:
The 1916 election was fast approaching, and the problems of the workers still went unheard and were even suppressed under the Wilson administration. So the coalition of Red parties in congress had decided to rally their support behind the Union Party candidate, Oscar Underwood, with William Jennings Bryan as his vice president. The Federation Party had put forward William Randolph Hearst, of the massively successful Hearst Publishing Company, had used his business model as an example for the country as a whole. The Democratic-Republicans were unable to put forward a candidate as James Ferguson had died of a sudden heart attack in 1915, and went to support the Native American Party. In the end, the Union Party would secure power, not just the presidency, but of the Congress too, which meant they would be able to get things done. Woodrow Wilson was furious that he lost the office, and vowed that he would run again in 1920, but this never happened as in 1919 he had a stroke that put him out of working with the party as a whole and the party was left leaderless for a whole decade until one man would take the reigns in 1929.

Underwood had gone right to work; his first goal was to continue the Naval Expansion Act (1913), to keep the FAS’ trade safe, and to keep the citizens of the FAS safe. He also expanded upon the Outlaw Act (1914), to hire more deputies for the towns out in the West, and gave some sheriffs in the west access to armored cars. It was this action that truly caused the downfall of the large outlaw gangs, seeing as how by 1920, the big names of the west had either been killed, arrested, or disappeared. He also wanted to make the FAS Army stronger, and better equipped to fight a war. He fought for the Standard Army Act (1917) to be passed, but he failed to get the other Red parties to side with him until he passed legislation for the workers. So in 1917, the Underwood administration set about signing into law anything to help the common worker, first was the expansion of the Labor Union Protection Act (1910) to make it so the unions had some bargaining power, and that if the unions went on strike, companies could not fire them, unless the strike lasted more than 3 months. This made the factory owners worried about how their productivity would be hampered, but they were about to be even more scared. The Fair Labor Act (1918) was passed, setting the workday to the most hours being 10 hours a day, a minimum wage of $1.00/hr, and a federal fund for people who were disabled on the job, called Social Safety. This was the most comprehensive amount of worker’s rights, and betterment ever passed in the history of the FAS, which had made the Blue parties mad with this “internal revolution” in the government. Unfortunately, for Underwood, his Standard Army Act (1917) would never be brought up in the congress, as they were now in the role of making the worker’s lives better, though Underwood was able to expand the number of armored cars in the National Army, and State Militias. By 1920, Underwood vetoed 57 bills that the Red parties had passed in congress and had dismantled the Red party coalition in congress, which led to a chaotic election of 1920.

The Union party had kept their man Underwood on the ticket, to have him continue to bring the country to the democracy that the founding fathers would have wanted. The Federation party had put their candidate William Randolph Hearst again to try and make the business feel represented in the government again. The Democratic-Republicans had put forward John Sharp Williams, to expand the power of the agricultural base in the FAS. The fracture of the Red party coalition in 1920 led to the Socialist Workers party putting Eugene V. Debs forward for the presidency with the Liberation Party backing them to beat the Union Party, and the Native American Party had no candidate to lead them as Woodrow Wilson had died the year before. The Union Party managed to squeeze out a victory, and secured a second term. The Union Party would have two things that would define the administration, like Stephens before him.

Tulsa Burns:
When the FAS acquired the Texas territory, they didn’t know what to make of the part near Ozark as the land was not largely profitable to the common man. So they decided to relegate much of this land to the African-American population that had been held deep on rundown plantations in Alabama and Mississippi. They were moved there by 1893, and had set up many communities along the frontier, under the governance of white FAS appointed politicians. One such town that was founded, was Tulsa, Oklahoma. A decent town with some farmland, and grazing land. By 1910 the dynamic of the town had changed when oil was discovered in the area, Standard Oil and Power had moved into the small white part of the town and expanded it. Many of the white citizens were wary that the black citizens were able to bear arms, this was of course to ward off the bandits and outlaws that plagued the frontier. There was tension between the two populations that would boil over in 1921.

On May 30th, 1921 a white woman who had been riding an elevator with Dick Rowland, an African American shoe shiner, had accused him of raping her. While the story varied wildly everytime it was told, the police arrested him and brought him in for questioning. The white population had formed a mob to take Rowland from the jail and lynch him for the crime he was alleged to have committed, but the black population would not sit quietly and watch this happen. Several black militia members had marched to the courthouse jail to protect Rowland in custody, where they soon met with the lynch mob. An intense standoff had started, and while no one will ever know who fired the first shot, it will echo throughout history. Chaos ensued. Within minutes both white and black men lay dead, the streets of Tulsa ran red with blood, but the violence would continue into the night.

On May 31st, barricades would go up in the Greenwood side of town, as a defense against the white gangs. They wrote a letter to the Mayor W. Tate Brady to tell him to call in the State Militia to put down this violent lynch mob. Instead, Mayor Brady had called in the Knights of Security to try and put down the “uprising” in the Greenwood district. The Knights of Security wanted to solve this peacefully or with little bloodshed, as they still had a tarnished reputation from the Browning Arms Company Massacre in 1910. The Knights told the white mob to go home, and that they would handle this, but unfortunately their calls for calm were ignored, as later that day men from the State Militia had come of their own volition to put down the “Greenwood Revolt” as it was now being dubbed. The black population was unsettled by this as it appeared that not only were the Knights of Security gathering outside their defences, but also an independent force of white men led by the Mayor to assault their positions. This only strengthened their resolve to fight should the white mob attack, with the backup of the Knights of Security.

At exactly midnight on June 1st, 1921 the white mob made their way towards the barricades and proceeded to open fire on the armed black men standing guard on the barricades.This then prompted the rest of the line to open fire, with them believing that the Knights of Security were going to attack too. After a 30 minute firefight the shots subsided, as the white rioters endeavoured to use their cars and break down the barricades. At 12:43 am, 2 trucks rammed through the barricades and they were soon followed by 5 more cars full of rioters with rifles, pistols, fire bottles, and a handful of grenades. The rioters started setting fires to the southside of Greenwood on Archer Street at 1:00 am, and allegedly had men guarding the fire stations so that no firemen would respond to the blaze. This was a calculated plan to kill as many black Tulsans as possible, and the Knights of Security were helpless to stop it as they were caught in a rain of fire from the black residents of Greenwood, still under the assumption that the Knights were the ones behind the attack. Throughout the night and into the early morning hours, Greenwood had been transformed into a warzone, and things would get much worse. Some farmers who had cropdusters, and other privately owned planes had flown over the Greenwood section of town, and were dropping makeshift explosives on the populace below. They targeted the Mount Zion Baptist Church, as it was believed to be where they were storing the munitions, and supplies for this ‘uprising’. They also targeted the Stratford Hotel with fire bombs as they knew that it was a popular meeting spot in the Greenwood district. Finally at 9:15 am, Governor James B. A. Robertson had called in the National Army from Arkansas as he believed that the State Militia would partake in the pillaging of Greenwood. Two hours later the city was placed under martial law by the Governor, and he told the commanding officer of this operation, Major General Douglas McArthur, to supersede and ignore what the Mayor says, as it appears that he was ambivalent toward or possibly complicit in the violence. The National Army had moved on the city, but by that point most of Greenwood was ash, and the rioters had scattered. Only some stragglers led by the mayor himself were actually detained for their actions. Along with that nearly 6,000 black residents were detained by the National Army, and many Knights of Security were too. The Tulsa Race Massacre was the worst massacre in the history of the FAS, and would be a stain for the Underwood administration, but they were able to convict Wyatt Tate Brady to the death penalty, and life for the rest of the stragglers. Only 5 people were convicted of the Massacre, and there was never any true justice for the victims. Dick Rowland would later move to the FR, and write a book about the Tulsa Race Massacre titled Bullets and Torches; How One Night changed Tulsa, it was a bestseller in both the AR and the FR, but in the FAS it was never well perceived.

Monarchist Sympathies are stopped:
By 1910, the House of Washington had a web of supporters that were from the Federation Party to the Native American Party and had grown into a large serpent that lurked in the shadows of New Orleans. The Age of Social Reform would anger the dormant beast, as they wanted to bring the order of Europe to the FAS, and proclaim the American Kingdom, but social reform made this more difficult, as liberating the workers made subjugation harder. The end of the line was the Union Party’s reelection, in 1920 which led them to consider a coup to overthrow the congress. As General Beaumont Bonaparte Buck had written in his journal on November 4th, 1920

“Seeing as how this government is not living up to its “ideals”, we must institute the ideals that work for those monarchies of Europe” (Beaumont Bonaparte Buck, 1920)

This was the justification that they needed to plan a coup against the Union Party, and it must be done before the 1924 election to make sure there is no chance of them gaining support. General Buck had recruited Generals Percy Poe Bishop, Henry Pinckney McCain, and Admiral Hugh Rodman to the plot, which would be launched on February 9th, 1923 to bring a monarchy to the North American continent.

On the morning of February 9th, 1923, 2 dreadnoughts the FSS Jackson, and FSS Skeered O' Nothin’ had blockaded the port of New Orleans which was under the amount that Rodman said he could get. Buck, Bishop, and McCain were on the outskirts of New Orleans, with only 3,000 men, it consisted of 20 artillery pieces, including the experimental 14”/50 caliber railway gun. About 300 cavalry units, including 50 armored cars, and nearly 2600 infantry, with the new M1907 Browning rifles, and the Smith and Wesson Model 3s at their side. The cavalry was sent in first to secure the city quickly, but this plan was thwarted when several police units were able to keep control of the telegraph, and telephone centers, and contact the rest of the National Army. By 9:30 am, the coup leaders saw that it wasn’t going well, and decided that they would use desperate measures and ordered the artillery to shell the city, at 9:35 am the first shells fell into New Orleans. This proved to be a good move, and a bad move at the same time. On one hand, the local resistance had scattered from the communications posts, leading the coup army to take the city, but the bad news was that there was an exorbitant amount of friendly fire, and had destroyed his cavalry units in that action. The cavalry was ordered to cover the rear, while the infantry secured the city proper, just to finally put the House of Washington in power. This move proved fatal for the coup, units from the area had converged on the rear of the coup army, they captured the damaged cavalry units, and the artillery pieces. Rodman had abandoned the coup seeing as how they were shelling the city, and Buck assured him they would not fire on civilians. By 3:00 pm the coup had been put down, Buck, and Bishop were arrested, while McCain was killed when the National Army had ordered him to surrender the artillery but refused. The coup was an abysmal failure, but they had a plan to say that they were pulling the coup to make the Army more powerful, and to declare war on the AR, to hide the true nature of the coup.

Election of 1924:
With this coup, it had become clear to the Underwood administration that something had to change, that some shadowy cabal was running the show in the FAS, and they needed to be purged from power. Underwood would make the same fatal mistake that Bryans had made in 1903, by running on a campaign of purging the government of the Knights of Liberation, and whatever other powers lurk in the shadows.

In the election of 1924, the Union Party went for a third term, to try and root out the unelected power in New Orleans, and to make the FAS a democracy that can be trusted by the people. The Federation Party ran with William Randolph Hearst again, as they had no other viable candidates to put forward. The Democratic-Republican party decided to put John Nance Garner, the writer of the Outlaw Act (1914) that tamed the West. The Socialist Workers Party had a split as Eugene V. Debs had died peacefully in his home in Atlanta due to heart failure in 1923, and Bill Haywood had died in 1924, due to a stroke from alcoholism. A man named Earl Browder would take the reins of the Socialist Workers Party, while the Liberation Party would be leaderless for the time being. The Native American Party was still without a defining leader and had devolved into regional chapters of the party, only holding 2 seats in congress. The Union Party managed to get a third term in the presidency but would lose the congress meaning that Underwood’s third term would be unproductive like Wilson’s before him. And as this era came to a close with the election of 1924, the nation would be thrust into the modern era.

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The Fraternal American States (Part 8)​

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A Nation of Opportunity (1925-1933)

Political Crisis in FAS:
As 1925 dawned on the nation, people were wondering if the founders would like what the nation had become, how nearly 100 years ago they were a part of the USA, and now they were a powerhouse. Unfortunately for some, they would not live until the 100th anniversary of the nation’s birth. William Jennings Bryan, a leader of the Union Party and its ideals died at the age of 65 while giving an impassioned speech in Atlanta. While the nation did not have a large period of mourning for Bryan like Jackson or Longstreet received, there were still ceremonies and communities in mourning. This came much to the dismay of Underwood as he now had no vice president and his health was failing him; he suffered a stroke in 1925, and in 1926 would die of a second stroke. This caused some panic in the country as Underwood did not appoint a Vice President before he passed, so an emergency election was held for 1926. The Union party had put forward Huey Long, governor of Louisiana, who was pushing for some radical ideas for the nation. The Federation party put William Randolph Hearst up again for the presidency, and the Democratic-Republicans had John Nance Garner try to win the presidency, as this whole election was not normal at all. The Red parties and the Native American Party didn’t get the chance to throw together a campaign and sat out the election. The Federation Party would win this impromptu election of 1926, and William Randolph Hearst would do what he could to bring stability to the country.

Politics isn’t Publishing:
State funerals were organized for both Underwood, and Bryan, there was a one week of national mourning. Their deaths seemed to not carry the same weight that Jackson or Longstreet did when they died, so the nation moved on. With that taken care of Hearst set to work on accomplishing three things in his presidency. One, expand the industry to the west, two, get an alliance with a European power, and three, teach the Mexican Empire a lesson for their incursions into the treaty port territory.

To accomplish his first task he had passed an expansion to the Industrial Interest Act (1844), where it gave an economic incentive to those who invested in the West. The Fraternal Atlantic Rail Company and the Standard Oil and Power were the first companies to invest in the area, but this investment was very sparse. Hearst wanted more industry out there but didn’t know how to get the companies out there, so he considered that goal accomplished for now. Next, he set his sights on trying to branch the FAS onto the global stage, not just trade wisely, but diplomatically too. He tried to send diplomats around the world in a sort of reaching out tour in 1928, and the results were very mixed. Spain had rejected the diplomats, due to the loss of Florida and the Golden Circle idea that directly threatens their interests. France was laissez-faire about it, where they talked to the diplomatic mission, but made no serious progress with them. Prussia said that they would only talk with them if they abolished the remaining vestiges of slavery in all forms and dismantle the plantations as a whole, this was not something they could do without angering the populace at large. Finally, the British Republic was the only nation that seemed open to a possible alliance, but they saw no need for an alliance in 1928, but they had made a pact of friendship, that they would ally if the need should arise. Goal two was slightly accomplished, but the last goal would be difficult to achieve.

They couldn’t launch a true military incursion into Mexico without sparking a war, so they wanted to do what the British Empire did to them, and activated Operation Boa. Hearst sent the FAS Navy to blockade the Mexican Empire, and from April 1928 - April 1929, they had done this to force them to the negotiation table, but public opinion at home was at an all-time low to what President Hearst was doing. This meant that Hearst had barely accomplished his goals in his administration, which meant that he didn’t have much to show in the 1930 election.

The 1930 election came and went without too much trouble, as it was the most civil election in modern history. The Federation Party stuck with Hearst, the Democratic-Republicans had stuck with Garner, and the Union Party had stuck with Huey Long. Hearst was barely able to squeeze out a victory in this election and seemed like he was losing his progressive ideals through this second term, and was starting to sound like the Native American Party. The Native American party had put forward a candidate too, an unknown political figure named William Dudley Pelley. Pelley seemed to emerge out of nowhere but gained national recognition in 1926 when he decided to unite the Atlantic Native American Party regional chapters with the Gulf Chapters. This led him to re-establish the party as a whole in 1928 and had decided that in the next election the Native American Party would have national recognition once more.

Hearst had decided to keep the status quo going in the nation, he saw that anything he tried was meaningless, nothing could be done in the nation to him. The only thing he could do was plan the national ceremony for the FAS’s 100th birthday. Hearst was determined to make this his crowning achievement of his administration.

The Big Centennial:
On the week of April 14th, 1931 it was a week of national pride and celebration. On that day a new state was admitted to the nation, the state of Clayton named after influential congressman, and failed presidential candidate Henry Clay. Everyone around the country was given April 14th off, every major city had arranged a parade to show off what made them special. The Hermitage National Cemetery was swarmed by people from the Jacksonian Church, as a mass service was held in honor of Jackson. In New Orleans, there was a massive parade of every uniform throughout the nation’s history, so men with muskets were in the same line as men with bolt-action rifles. There were even armored cars rolling down the street as a show of pride, as these vehicles won a war. The Navy had put on impressive displays of power along the coasts, and showing off all of the ships they had. Parks around the nation had people picnicking everywhere. Even the overseas territories had joined in the fun, as they had their celebrations. The FAS’s 100th birthday was something to be beheld as one British man put it.

“It was clear from the people around me that this was a time for celebration, a time of peace and joy. While the bars are full, and the people are happy. I wonder if this is the true representation of a proper democracy?” (Nigel Pemberton, 1931)

It seemed that for one day of this nation's history the people were happy, and were celebrating a common thing in their way.

Crisis of 1931:
This would be short-lived however, the nation’s euphoria of celebration as on April 18th, 1931, the stock market started to fall, while in the morning it was nothing of major concern. By the mid-afternoon, the stock market had to close suddenly due to a sudden collapse of several major stocks. This caused panic in the populace, and among the industrialists, what little investments were going into the west had dried up, the FATB was losing money, the Mexican treaty ports were nearing the point of accumulating debt, and the bloated bureaucracy of the Fraternal Congo State was starting to show cracks. People were scrambling to withdraw all money from the banks, several stockbrokers had committed suicide, and the streets were crowded with people desperate to get to the stores. The Hearst administration had to act quickly to bail out the big businesses and to try to mitigate the effects of the Crisis on the colonial provinces. This was much to the dismay of the workers who were being laid off, were losing their property to the banks, and some were being arrested for their racking debts. This was stopped by July, but the damage was done.

It would be a hard thing to claw out of as the three main parties were bickering in Congress over their economic relief plans. The first was the Union Party’s Long Plan, a plan to assist the working man, and a plan to restructure the FAS colonies under proper federal management rather than private/state management. The Federation Party’s Curtis Plan was put forward by a senator from the newly formed Oklahoma state, this would provide some relief to the working class, but as a bailout of the merchants and factory owners. The Democratic-Republican plan known as the Garner Plan, it was a plan to bailout only the at-risk factories, give subsidies to the plantations and the farmers, finally restructuring the colonial administration to fit a private model, and giving the “Five Families” control of the colonies to be run as they see fit.

Where we are Now:
As the new year of 1933 rolls around, President Hearst must choose either of the economic plans before the election of 1934 if he hopes to keep power. The Red parties see this period of an economic downturn as a possible avenue for the revolution that the FAS needs, while Pelley wants to conquer the territory of the Golden Circle, and assert Fraternal dominance over the Western Hemisphere. The Union Party is hoping that they can convince the nation to centralize the government and restructure the Army like the Navy. The Federation Party sees the course of the nation as an example of a good democracy, the Democratic-Republicans seemed tired of them being relegated to the sideline for most of history, and if they don’t win this election might do something drastic. There are rumors that the top Field Marshals have been holding meetings at Patton’s country estate in Clayton since the Crisis of 1931, they talk of overthrowing anyone whom they see as a threat to their security. The House of Washington lurks in the shadows ready to overthrow the government and solidify control over the whole of the Americas and become one of the biggest empires in the world. With the Election of 1934 looming, it is up to the people to decide how they will go forward as a nation.

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The American Republic (Part 1)​

Forged from Bitter Defeat (1831-1842)

After nearly a decade of war, the Betrayal of the Continental Monarchs in 1830 sealed the fate of the United States of America. Filled with vengeful fury, the entire might of the British Empire fell upon the divided Americans. Unlike the war five decades prior, this time the British were determined to remove their former subjects as a threat forever. Washington D.C. burned to the ground, every city from Philadelphia to Buffalo pillaged by roaming redcoats. The exhausted remnants of the US Army offered what little resistance they could, but the outcome had already been decided.

Although nominally negotiated by the administration of President John Quincy Adams, the Treaty of Boston was little more than a rubber stamp for Britain's demands. On its knees, the USA could only watch in horror as the treaty irrevocably broke the once promising nation. New England was lost, Virginia and the Carolinas stolen in the name of freedom. Even worse, the remaining southern states seceded in protest for the abolition of slavery and the creation of the new Freedmen's Protectorate under the treaty. By the end of 1832 the rump United States government had collapsed under the weight of thousands of refugees fleeing east and rampant famine sweeping the country. The remaining federal officials in Philadelphia couldn't even control the city, let alone hold elections or stop the chaos. President Adams' himself disappeared somewhere on the roads between New York and Philadelphia after signing the treaty, having refused the Royal Navy’s offer of safe passage by sea.

“With this scrap of paper, our democracy dies” -Andrew Jackson (1831)

The only light for America was Lieutenant General Winfield Scott. The organizer of the first Colored Regiments (including the famous 5th and 4th Massachusetts Colored) and the Commander of the famous Army of New England; Scott had proven his value in every aspect of the conflict. Although in the end futile, Scott's strategic and tactical genius engendered devotion from his men and popularity amongst the people. In the hungry winter of 1832, he made a fateful decision in the face of the chaos - declaring the United States Constitution suspended and himself Dictator (inspired by Roman tradition). At the head of his remaining soldiers, probably the only organized force left in the country, he met little resistance. The people were desperate and fearful, willing to accept any authority that could ease the suffering. In response, Scott would remake the nation to ensure they would never again lose a war. His first act was to preserve Washington D.C. as it existed now, a burnt husk of a city once filled with promise. In his wisdom, he knew that the city was more valuable as a martyr now - it should never be rebuilt until the national promise was restored.

Over the next decade he tirelessly reorganized and centralized the national government around Philadelphia to establish order and stability. Military and civilian functions became interwoven. Reborn as the newly declared American Republic (1834), Scott's military efficiency saw refugees resettled in the interior to rebuild. Farms were protected from lawless bands, and food distributed to the starving masses; earning Scott the eternal loyalty of the people. Unemployed men were conscripted into the 'Reserve' of the Army and tasked to rebuild and expand roads and rail. As the available locals dwindled, Scott ensured his ranks kept swelling to ever greater numbers with gracious offers of family citizenship and land to any immigrant willing to come in exchange for two years service. Initially just a stop-gap to ease the labor shortage, the Service for Citizenship idea would come to define the American Republic. For actual military operations, Scott would always rely on his personally trained Regulars; he never forgave the state militias for their repeated failures in the Great War (9 Year’s War to Europeans).

As basic needs were met over the years, the dollar returned as a safe replacement for barter. Fledgling factories reopened in the west, industry stunted by war but now protected by stiff protectionism and government support. Yet, despite the improvement of living standards and peace afforded by the next decades, it would become increasingly clear the American Psyche had been irrevocably changed. The New American had learned that the world was not safe for the Republic, but instead filled with monstrous powers who would take advantage of any weakness. The New American was dedicated to service above all, as only strength of arms could keep Lady Liberty’s flame alight.

The Phoenix Rises (1842-1860)

In the bars and inns of the Republic, people often wondered how long Scott would remain in power; or if he would ever loosen his grip. Many were actively in favor of declaring Scott a 'Caesar' or ‘Augustus’. During his annual address to the nation in January 1846, the answer was finally revealed. Scott announced he was stepping down as dictator (met with irrepressible chants of 'Cincinnatus'), in favor of the return of an elected President and unicameral legislature under a limited, centralized constitutional form. However, any citizen who ran for office was required to have served at least four years in the military; representing the influence of the military in the new nation. Known as the American Republic speech, it came to encapsulate the American identity.

“I must recognize that this American Republic was founded on liberty and equality. It is nigh time for this old soldier to step aside for the phoenix to fly anew.” -Dictator Winfield Scott (1842)

Expected to run for the Presidency himself, Scott instead contented himself to his post as General of the Army. In the void, several candidates came forward, including the New Yorker Martin Van Buren and the Cavalry General Stephen W. Kearny. However, one dark horse candidate embodied the new national values more than any other - a young man from Illinois named Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln had served with Scott's Army of New England, initially as a Lieutenant in the 20th Colored Volunteers Regiment after their formation. After gaining valorous distinction at the Battle of Green Mountain in 1829, he was forwarded to Gen. Scott's Command Staff. Eventually reaching the rank of Colonel despite his age, in the final campaigns of the war he led his Brigades to repeated successes against far superior forces. Nonetheless he resigned his commission shortly after Scott declared the Dictatorship. A self taught lawyer, Lincoln immediately headed back to the west where he tirelessly served the new government in resolving the refugee resettlement crisis. When Lincoln spoke, it was matter-of-fact, calm, and concise. Combined with his history of military-civil service and connection to the popular ex-Dictator, he surprisingly won in a landslide with nearly 59% of the popular vote. As the first President in decades, Lincoln was keenly aware his example would be used for all further Presidents. He was determined not to fail.

With the desperation of the previous decade now passed, Lincoln saw his role as a liberalizer. Within his first year, he proposed the reenactment of several Rights from the previous USA's Constitution. These included the free press (previously censored), free speech, freedom of religion, and the right to organize. Most controversially, he included the right of all citizens, of any color or creed, to equal representation and protection under the law. While already nominally true, in practice racism was rampant across the AR. The effort required to pass the last Right would require Lincoln's concerted efforts throughout his two terms - before finally being passed in 1854.

Internally, Lincoln saw education as the key to the future success and survival of the American idea. A radical idea at the time, Lincoln's administration enacted compulsory education in 1848 for all children to fifth grade with free options to the eighth. New colleges and universities were opened and subsidized across the country, and educators from abroad were even enticed to teach with the promise of citizenship while waiving the service requirement (a policy so controversial it was repealed a year after he left office). Perhaps most influential was the expansion of the military academy system. During his first year, Lincoln personally ensured the enrollment at the Philadelphia Military Academy tripled, his goal to use the surplus officers to found new Army institutions in each American state. The best and brightest of America's students were to be sent to these institutions to learn for their compulsory service term, free of charge. Upon the end of their term, they had the choice to either remain an officer and make a career or exit to civilian service as a reserve officer (training once a year). By the end of his second term, only three states still lacked an academy.

Lincoln also directed the American Republic's first tepid steps onto the international stage. Initially little more than reestablishing international embassies and conservative trade agreements; the Lincoln Administration began encouraging links with the British controlled Freedmen’s Dominion inhabiting the former states to the southeast. By promoting the legacy of the African Volunteer regiments who served honorably in the final years of the Great War and earned their freedom, the measures became surprisingly popular. Eventually, Lincoln was able to establish a free-trade agreement with the Freedmen’s Dominion. A trade back door, it allowed the American Republic to export its copious natural resources in exchange for industrial equipment from unscrupulous businessmen without making any unpopular agreements with a European power. The major diplomatic move was also the key instrument that enabled Lincoln to finally force through his Right of Equality and the eventual recognition of the Freedmen’s Republic when it broke away from the British following their own revolution in 1862,

As the Lincoln reforms continued to pay dividends years down the line, the American Republic became a melting pot of industrial and technological innovations. The population continued to grow, housing and clothing the unwanted and unwashed of Europe. By 1870, the American Republic was no longer seen in the Halls of Europe as a broken bird, but a Phoenix rose from the ashes, preparing to threaten their interests on the continent.

“I fear that what was shattered long ago shall return with vengeance.” -British Politician (1870)

As his two terms came to an end, Lincoln’s popularity meant he could have kept his power for decades to come. Always a man of principle, he instead chose to pay homage to Washington's legacy and not seek a third term. Upon retirement, he spent several years writing and traveling the country - he would never lose his popular touch. Eventually, in 1860 he returned to Army service, being 'assigned' as Superintendent of the Illinois Military Academy in Springfield at the rank of Brigadier General: settling down to raise his three sons - until the nation called on him again.

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The American Republic (Part 2)​

Reforged and Planning Revenge (1860-1880)

During Lincoln's two terms, multiple political parties had formed to contest legislative seats. Only three managed to contest the highest office during the 19th Century: the New Whigs, Constitutionalists, and the Republicans. The New Whigs claimed their inspiration from Lincoln (although he never approved of any political party), of social policies as free and equal as possible, but tempered by the overwhelming need to strengthen and defend the state. The Constitutionalists demanded the return of the old USA's Constitution, arguing that the National Crisis was over and it was time to return to a purely civilian government, unencumbered by military service requirements. Finally the Republican Party derived its inspiration from Dictator Scott, believing in expanding the military focused, centralized, government to protect the nation from its many surrounding threats. There was one thing that all agreed on however, the Lost Territories were to be reclaimed from the British and the American Destiny restored (a rather vague concept).

Over the next two decades, the new Parties' tug of war would ensure never-ending stalemates in the Halls of Philadelphia. All three parties managed to get at least one President elected, but the proportional representation in the Legislature ensured no President ever commanded an absolute majority. As such, no Presidential Administration stayed on for two terms, nor was ever able to enact any major changes to Lincoln’s domestic system - with one exception.

On May 29, 1866 General Winfield Scott passed away in his home in New York. Although never officially giving up his overall military command, by 1860 Scott had gradually sidelined himself to make room for the next generation. Remembered as the ‘Second Father’ after George Washington for taking charge in the aftermath of the Great War his death immediately sparked a period of national mourning. Within the Army however, many had made extensive preparations for his passing. Once Scott was gone they could push for enormous military reforms over the next decade. Luckily for the reformers, one of these voices was none other than now-General Lincoln and the Presidential Residence was occupied by the receptive ears of Rutherford B. Hayes.

Based largely on Lincoln’s prolific writings (especially 1855’s Lessons from the War Across the Globe), the first reform would come to the national conscription system. Lincoln pointedly opposed General Scott’s division of the army between Regulars and Conscript forces (known colloquially by Regulars as “blue bellies' ' for essentially being used as free labor). Lincoln believed that the next war against Britain was coming soon, and national survival would require the American Republic to have a massive, ready source of trained men. The conscription requirement was to be increased to three years service, and the time spent in service would exclude the old national labor force idea in favor of only military training. Additionally, each able bodied man was required to maintain reserve status of four different classes based on age. How, in times of National Emergency (when all men were called up simultaneously), those not in service were expected to bring up the slack at the factories and farms was not specifically described.

Following this, Lincoln and his allies sought to create a doctrine of ‘metal over men for an industrial age,’ believing that the keys in the next war would be firepower as the limits of any man's possible endurance were met. New innovations such as breech-loading Colt-Spencer Rifles, rapid fire explosive artillery, and finally the Gatling Gun should be adopted at the earliest opportunity. Although facing stiff opposition from Scott loyalists, the arsenals dotting the country were largely reequipped by 1875.

Finally, the Reformists managed to create the Military Command Staff, a concept that would spread to every major power in the following years. Each of these officers would be hand-picked for their abilities to serve at the National Headquarters in Philadelphia. There they competed in exercises simulating war conditions, compared new technologies and tactics, and above all ceaselessly planned every exigency for the coming War of Liberation against the detestable British Imperialists. The Reformists were going to ensure that the American Republic would never lose another war.

E Cineribus Resurgemus (1880-1901)

Better armed and prepared than ever before, now all the Army Staff had to find was a casus belli. New England was filled with British colonists and defensive works, so surprise was a necessity. Long a battleground of intrigue filled with spies, infomants, and rebel organizations; New England provided a tinderbox ready to ignite. Starting in 1882, the Army Staff began increasing the funds directed toward intelligence operations in New England. Guns, explosives, even British pounds destined to bribe officials. Coordinating with several pro-American rebel groups, the goal was a simultaneous popular uprising to allow the immediate enactment of War Plan Green when the opportunity arose - the immediate invasion of New England by regular forces and mobilization of Reservist Class A (in total 2.5 million fighting men).

In the late summer of 1885, then Chief of Army Intelligence Maj. General George A. Custer took it upon himself to spark the war, sending infiltrators to place the code phrase "John has a long beard" in papers throughout the occupied 'Republic of New England.' Exactly one week later, multiple uprisings seared the Republic in locations such as Boston, Portland, and Hartford. Many were quickly put down by a combination of local police, loyalist militias, and Foreign Legion Troops, but not before sowing chaos and cutting lines of transportation and communication between the New England Republic and British New Brunswick.

The uprising came as a surprise to those outside Custer's clique, sending political leaders scrambling. Nonetheless, the American military machine immediately began to operate with activation notices being sent out across the country within 24 hours. Regular units were already in motion, racing their neighbors to arrive at the pre planned invasion locations. Yet they couldn't move across the border without a Declaration of War from the President - who was the Constitutionalist Grover Cleveland. The new President found himself in exactly the opposite position he wanted, unprepared and unready for the reclamation against the hated British. Never more than a mediocre military man who had barely skated through his service, Cleveland was singularly unready for the current situation. After nearly a week of procrastination watching all but the most devoted rebel cells brutally put down Cleveland finally acted, submitting a declaration of war to the British Republic. On May 13th, 1885 the American Republic finally had a chance for revenge.

Successful throughout the first year of the war, the American juggernaut overwhelmed even the most heroic British or British Canadian resistance, driving through the old New York State to cheering crowds. Reinforcements from the Home Isles finally began to slow the American juggernaut as early snows fell that October. For the next four years, the war of movement would change into a cold, muddy war of attrition grinding inexorably northward.

In the west the Columbians would prove far more successful, using movement and ambush to successfully prevent any American advance through the Rocky Mountains until the spring of 1889, when a major American push was planned at the so-called South Pass. However, the entire war in the west was about to change. Watching the instability and strain on the AR, the FAS smelled an opportunity. They launched a surprise attack on the Mexican Empire on April 17th, 1889 with the goal of securing all of Alta California.

Long rivals with the AR, neither side had yet attempted to take the western land despite the large numbers of American (of both flavors) settlers illegally continuing across the international border. Under a mutual non-aggression pact signed by Dictator Scott and the first FAS President Andrew Jackson to ensure both could focus on the British threat (due to expire in 1900) the two sides did little more than glower at each other. Several secret agreements had previously been attempted to make a joint attack and split Alta California, but neither side could ever agree to terms. Now, the FAS saw its chance to become a Pacific power without worrying about interference from its northern neighbors.

That outcome was unacceptable to both the American Republic and the Commonwealth; and for the same reason. Neither power could allow the FAS to become a two-ocean nation, able to export and import directly from the valuable parts of the East AND Europe simultaneously, gaining enormous economic power. In response, both sent large troop numbers west, further slowing the American advance in Maine and preventing the British from planned raids on the American coast. Under the guise of "protecting" the defenceless from aggression Columbian and British troops occupied western Alta California and 'supported' the beleaguered Mexican forces in an undeclared war against the FAS. The American Republic shortly declared their own war against Mexico, and attempted to seize their own chunk of Alta California in a race against the FAS.

In the chaos, the American Republic called up its final class of reservists, further reducing the domestic population supporting the war effort. The winter and spring of 1889 would see a bank run, economic dislocation, food shortages and even famine across some states as farms were left unattended. Evoking the horrible crises of the 1830s, skyrocketing food prices had cities such as Baltimore and New York in near panic conditions. When the food riots expanded to Philadelphia, and threatened the legislature itself, the representatives responded by declaring a National Emergency. Over the next few days, the legislature debated furiously over whether a Dictator was required to solve the current crisis between those supporting and those against the current Cleveland administration.

Just as the vitriol was turning truly bitter late on a frosty evening, and political deadlock seemed imminent - a rookie legislator from New York named Roosevelt (he had entered politics after being severely wounded in the first offensive in 1885) suggested they recess for several days in order for the members of the various military committees to visit the front lines and return with more accurate information. Most went to the ruins of Portland, Maine - the site of a recent seven month siege. The Commonwealth attempt to relieve the city had only been called off when the increasing casualties of winter grew unsustainable for both sides. With the battle fresh enough that bodies were still left unburied on the frozen ground, many legislators used the opportunity to speak with the press of the victory. However, as night began to close on the proceedings, an unmistakable figure strolled up to the podium. Many legislators were initially incredulous at an intruder attempting to speak at their event, but once they recognized the unmistakable visage the protests ceased. Despite his now silver mane and the thick greatcoat protecting him from the wind, Abraham Lincoln's long limbs and awkward gait were instantly recognizable. Having retired three years before the war began, Lincoln had fallen completely out of the public eye. Shorter than any of his previous speeches, it received little applause from those present (although the injured Roosevelt famously recognized it's quality at the time). However, the papers reprinted the speech in every corner American Republic. Written with depth yet consideration for the common man's understanding, his Portland Address soon became the most famous speech in American history.

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The American Republic (Part 3)
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E Cineribus Resurgemus (1880-1901) - Continued

Five score and thirteen years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

*Against the tide of empire, that nation's flame was nearly extinguished, it's national body torn asunder - *

Now we are engaged in another great war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of this field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Within a week, popular pressure resulted in Lincoln being summoned directly before the Legislature in Philadelphia. After a few hours of that summit, the Legislature of the American Republic made two unanimous, momentous votes. The first was to consecrate the ground of the siege creating a National Cemetery after the conclusion of hostilities. The second was to fully execute the National Emergency Clause of the American Republic's Constitution: they voted for their own power and that of the President be given over to a new Dictator - Abraham Lincoln.

Lincoln was a masterful organizer and proceeded to do everything he could to first alleviate the crisis at home and then finish the war on the battlefield. He saw the solution in three phases: Solve the economic crisis and food supply shortage - to do so, he immediately canceled the frontline service orders of the D class reserves and instead organized them by occupation to help out where they were most needed domestically. Additionally, all offensive action at the front was indefinitely delayed unless the enemy presented an opportune target. Remove the Dead Weight in the Command Staff - Lincoln and his associates reshuffled the staff, removing those who were slow in reacting to the changing nature of war. For example CiC McClellan and Custer (his duplicitous act discovered) were sacked. Reunite the Nation Under Common Cause - Panicked by the food prices and gridlocked government, Lincoln blanketed the papers with propaganda to distract and remotivate the general population (he actively hired those who ran business ads before the war).

By fall of 1890, it was obvious Lincoln's quick actions avoided a greater crisis. The economy was returning to war production in earnest (barely influenced by British blockade due to the long years of protectionism). Now, he gave his field commander's approval to begin planning spring offensives in the Northeast and West, to finally break through and end the war with all of the lost American territories returned to the Union. It was not to be however.

In another geopolitical surprise, on February 1st, 1891 Canada (French) launched an unsanctioned assault across the St. Lawrence onto the undefended western shore of New Brunswick. Their objective was to retake and avenge the The Great Expulsion of the Acadians a century before. Well supplied and equipped with winter gear (including skis), they met essentially no opposition and quickly established a fortified port with heavy guns to prevent any incursion of the Republican Navy. Reacting quickly, the Americans immediately launched a general offensive across the entire front in the East, resulting in the collapse of British resistance all the way back to the peninsula of Nova Scotia by the end of March. Under threat of Franco-Spanish involvement, Britain chose to come to the table and signed the Treaty of Bordeaux on April 14th. Known as Redemption Day for the American Republic ever since, they gained territory in lower Ontario, all of New England, and some sections of Alta California. The FAS gained huge western lands, and Canada gained all the remaining British Canadian holdings except Newfoundland. In order to gain popular acceptance, the British were granted a mandate over south-western Alta California as a consolation prize. Then thought of as a beautiful but barren land, it would become a critical strategic location within a decade. Mexico, embarrassed and abandoned by its European guardians, was sent into a spiral of chaos that would last decades.

While it was a victory, and the one Lincoln had toiled decades to achieve, he saw before his contemporaries how shallow a victory it truly was. While he was showered with acclaim, he recognized the nearly million souls lost to industrialized war. Lost to the ideals of revenge and restoring national honor. In his final speech to the people, he addressed the loss, and his hope for the future. He declared his belief that the Republic had to change its ways, turn away from Militarism, and return to the ideals of the United States(implicit support for restoring the Constitution). Anything less wouldn't deserve the sacrifice of so many for so long in the face of foreign tyranny. In his final act as dictator, he declared that Washington D.C. should be rebuilt before stepping down.

Lincoln died alone in his train car three days later on the way home to his beloved Illinois. The short lived national triumph, already tempered by Lincoln's final speech, was turned to ash as one more body was dropped amongst the endless lines of graves at the new national cemeteries.

The Euphoria Wears Off (1901-1914)

The election of 1902 proved to be a turning point for the nation; the Republicans had held the Presidency ever since the 1890 election during the Great War despite Lincoln's warnings. Better than any other party they doubled down on the surging national confidence after the victory over the British. Largely continuing the prewar policies of their forebears (Laissez-Faire, Protectionism, Military Spending), the economy came crashing down in the 1899 Stock Run. Without strong exports or global connections, the insular American economy was helpless to weather the downturn. Thousands across all industries lost their jobs, sparking a huge rise in union activity. Largely suppressed over the past decades in the name of greater national goals, they were now increasingly radical and anti-government. Strikes began to spread through the industrialized cities as resentment built up. In New England the unrest was even worse, as when government spending fell so did the reconstruction efforts.

As the chaos spread, the political dominance of the Republicans began to crumble. For the first time, the Constitutionalists began to supersede the New Whigs as the primary force for liberalism since the disastrous Cleveland administration. Led by a relatively radical candidate, Theodore Roosevelt, he appealed to the people by directly referencing the liberal values of Lincoln’s final speech. Managing a close victory, Roosevelt organized a coalition of New Whigs and Constitutionalists in the legislature to rapidly pass his reforms. Known as the 99 Days, he immediately opened the economy to exports (massively helping farmers), and limited imports of consumer goods to reduce the price of key staples. To combat unemployment, a massive expansion in government spending went toward rebuilding New England and expanding infrastructure west. To pay for it, he temporarily reduced government spending on the military (but still ran an enormous deficit).

After eight years and two elections, by 1910 Roosevelt and his coalition had dramatically changed the fabric of the nation. Restored economically and increasingly assertive on the world stage, the American Republic was entering a new era. While still far short of his personal dream of achieving a reformed Constitution and an American flag stretched across the continent - he entered his expected final term an accomplished President. Perhaps only superseded by the two great Dictators. He had no intention of passing quietly into the night however.

In a surprise move, Roosevelt rallied to a slim presidential victory in 1910 for a third term. Having increasingly sidelined and absorbed the New Whigs, the 1910 legislature was the first in AR history to have a majority of a single party giving Roosevelt an enormous political mandate. With a booming economy, Roosevelt decided to spend it on the ideas of an obscure American theorist - Alfred Thayer Mahan.

Long the unwanted step-child of America, the United States Navy actually had a prolific history of winning despite long odds. Never able to compete directly with it's perennial opponent across the Atlantic, it instead trained to an elite level to raid and outmaneuver its larger opponent. In both previous wars fast, heavy cruisers were the vessel of choice (both times the USS Constitution was particularly successful). Mahan, a cruiser captain of some success during the Great War, wrote two forgotten tomes titled The Influence of Sea Power Upon History. Largely ignored by contemporaries, nonetheless Roosevelt had acquired both and read them multiple times. He believed that was the path to bring the American Republic from regional power to Great Power status.

Being far too cagey to directly broadcast his radical intent, for the first two years Roosevelt instead focused on building up naval infrastructure such as civilian shipyards and Navy Leagues to begin spreading the idea to everyday Americans. Only in 1912, after the full onset of the Dreadnought Race became apparent between France/Spain and the Commonwealth did the American Republic make a surprising entry. Although rumors had abounded, many didn't believe until Roosevelt made an announcement from the steps of the rebuilt White House. Two new American dreadnoughts had been built, the USS New York and Massachusetts (which were simultaneously being sailed into New York and Boston harbor respectively). All of the events, including Roosevelt's speech and the sailings, were immediately compiled into a patriotic short that played in cinemas nationwide. Receiving far more support than he possibly expected, by 1914 the American Navy Leagues Association had quintupled it's membership - and the American Republic officially entered the Dreadnought Race.

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The American Republic (Part 4)
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Realpolitik and Upheaval at Home (1914-1930)

In 1914, Roosevelt stood for his fourth term, again elected easily in the popular vote. However, in the Legislature, the Constitutionalists lost pro-Navy seats to the jingoistic Republicans (who had co-opted many Navy Leagues), and anti-Navy seats to the New Whigs. This resulted in a very different political mandate for President Roosevelt, who was forced to work with the Republicans on military spending and the New Whigs on domestic matters - frequently resulting in standoffs between the rebuilt White House and Capitol. Additionally, as more and more funding was being drained into the Navy, the influential Army began to protest; further splitting the government and electorate.

By the end of his term in 1918, Roosevelt was a different man. The struggles of the past four years had visibly drained him, and his party looked to be crushed back into a third party at the polls. The population was increasingly polarized between the militaristic Republicans and the isolationist New Whigs led by William Wallace Lincoln II, a new man from Illinois who had seized control of the reeling party and reforged it into one of principle and peace. While he succeeded in building his Navy and reforming the national identity, the conflicts in his final term saw the undoing of much of his reforms.

As the economic boom continued through the 1920s, the Republicans managed to regain the presidency under Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover. The Navy continued to grow, establishing itself as a formidable competitor with efficient designs, only behind the British Republican Navy and the French La Royale in tonnage. The Army continued to protest - still a formidable force but becoming outdated against its competitors.

Meanwhile, just as the New Whigs reformed during their decade in the shadow of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidency, the Constitutionalists were now reforming. A young Navy man named Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected in 1922 to Theodore Roosevelt's old legislative seat in New York. From within, he began to shake up the existing ideas of the party, questioning the central tenants by which the American Republic existed. FDR believed it was time to follow the original tenets of the USA, and Lincoln's famous words, to restore a true Constitution and remove the military influence in the government. He additionally called, radically, for the possibility of Reunification of the American successor states to reform the USA. Initially this left him as an outlier amongst the Constitutionalists, but over the decade his persistence combined with the Roosevelt name pushed these ideas into the forefront of popular discussion.

A Nation at a Crossroads (1930-Current Day)

With the election of 1934 looming, it seems the American Republic is at a crossroads, with three paths. First, to retain the jingoistic Republicans by reelecting J. Paul Getty to power. They will maintain the status quo at home and will continue to strengthen the military. Perhaps one day the opportunity will arise to finally spread the American Eagle from sea to shining sea.

Second is the New Whigs and William “Willie” Wallace Lincoln; a party of peace and order the New Whigs will focus inward. They will protect American industry and attempt to expand markets for American goods, and try to maintain good relations all over the world. They will only go to war if threatened or a truly righteous cause. After all the goal of any government should be to protect its people, not put them in harm's way through useless wars.

Finally, the Constitutionalists could take the nation in an altogether new direction. Led by the radical ideas of FDR, they seek to remake the Republic into a freer, more democratic society. They want to cut military service out as a requirement for elected office, and establish a remodeled Constitution based on the original USA where the civilian government supersedes all military commands. Whether the Army or Navy could accept such an outcome is debatable.

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The Spanish Kingdom Of New Granada (Part 1)
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Introduction

General Simon Bolivar was sitting in a luxurious room on the upper floor of a building on the Main Plaza. For six weeks Bolivar had slept in a tent outside the city. He had been offered the chance to commandeer one of the lavish homes of loyalists, but he knew his troops would be encouraged by having their General on the battlefield. For six weeks his artillery had barraged Cartagena day and night, while his men cut off every road, and path that could be used to enter the city. The famous walls of Cartagena prevented any direct attack, even by sea, and so General Simon Bolivar resigned himself to lay siege on the city and wait until the Spanish fleet returned from its operation in the North Atlantic. Six weeks into the siege rebel scouts on the city walls spotted the sails of the Spanish Armada. The city walls could withstand a siege by sea as well, at least for a few more weeks, but news of the arrival of the fleet spread fear among the population. Only two days after the fleet arrived the rebel leaders were forced to surrender. Since then Bolivar had spent the last two days dealing with the rebel leadership. He had turned the house he was in into a makeshift court where he rebel leaders were brought to him. Next to him was the Admiral who had commanded the fleet which had aided Bolivar in the seat. The Admiral had a name, but Bolivar could not care to remember it.

You are all blind followers of the crown, so why would your name matter?

They had sat through almost a dozen hearings that day. Rebel after rebel was brought in, sometimes they pleaded for mercy, other times they stood by their actions and accepted their deaths. Bolivar admired that sort of honor, even it came from a traitor. Of course, it didn't matter how much honor they had now, they had betrayed the crown and, worst of all, had caused the death of their fellow country men. No amount of honor could change that. General Bolivar had been the one delivering the decisions. He had been ordered to execute every proven traitor, but also had been instructed to not require too much evidence. Not that it was needed, as almost nobody denied their affiliation with the rebels. The Admiral had been mostly silent throughout the entire process. Occasionally he would berate prisoners with an unrequested speech about the glories of the monarchy and the importance of duty and loyalty. Other than that, he was content with sitting back and letting the General call the shots. Despite all that, Bolivar was sure that the Admiral would receive the credit Madrid for putting down the rebels.

The door to the room opened and two soldiers dragged in a man. Unlike the other prisoners, this one was wearing a Spanish uniform. Bolivar eyed the prisoner curiously before asking the obvious question, "Is this one of our own?" He was afraid of what the answer would be. To everyone in the room the general appeared calm and composed, but inside he was panicking. The soldier was not just wearing the uniform of any Spanish Army, but of the Armies of New Granada. If the answer was yes, then it meant facing Bolivar was one of his own men.

The soldier who had brought in the prisoner answered, "Yes, sirs." Bolivar felt fear grip his heart. He looked over at the Admiral, who was looking at Bolivar with amusement. If this hearing went badly, it would make Bolivar look as though he could not control his own troops. The soldier continued, "This man was tasked with executing traitors. We brought a rebel to be hanged, but this man refused to put the noose around his neck, and even attempted to let the prisoner go."

"And why would you ever disobey your orders, soldier?"

Now it was the prisoners turn to answer. So far the man had had his head down and had avoided looking at anybody else in the room. He looked up, but when his eyes met the General's, he looked away in shame before answering. "Sir, I fought under you for the six weeks of this siege. When the city surrendered I faithfully entered and followed orders to arrest any traitor. My loyalty lies with you my commander, and with his Majesty the King. But the man brought to me for execution was my brother's son. I did not know he was with the rebels. He may have betrayed Spain, but he did not betray our family."

Bolivar considered his options. What this man had done was nothing more than insubordination, which he would normally punish with lashings and dismissal from the army. With the unstable situation in the city it would be unwise to be too lenient. The Admiral watched with interest as Bolivar considered his options. The General delivered his verdict, "You shall receive the standard punishment for such severe and direct insubordination. You will be whipped and dismissed from the army. However, due to the present circumstances you will serve five years in prison. As for your brother, he'll be hanged as ordered. Hopefully that will teach you a little obedience."

The prisoner had been feeling afraid since being brought into the room, but now he was feeling relief knowing he'd be able to care for his brother's family, even if he had to go to prison first. That feeling of relief disappeared when he noticed the Admiral getting up and walking towards him. "You are a traitor," said the Admiral. "A traitor to your commander and to the crown. You and your brother will be executed by firing squad. Hopefully that will teach this colony a little obedience. Take him away!" The soldiers dragged the prisoner out of the room, leaving only the Admiral and the General. Bolivar was at a loss for words, and he felt anger within him. Not just anger at his orders being undermined, but also at how his home had been called a colony. Despite the wealth and power that New Granada represented, they were still merely a colony to the Peninsulares. The Admiral walked out onto the balcony overseeing the Plaza and Bolivar followed him. From the balcony they saw the man they had just condemned be brought onto the plaza. Minutes later he was joined by another prisoner, surely his brother.

Bolivar turned to the Admiral and said, "With all due respect, Admiral, you just punished a man for insubordination with the same punishment we are giving the rebel leaders. Forgive me, but I cannot see how this is justice."

The Admiral smiled as he watched the prisoners be lined up for the execution. "Simon, I can see you have potential. If someday you want to do great things, you'll have to learn that it doesn't matter how they see things here. Let them fear you in New Granada, so they love you in Madrid. You should also know its important to send a strong message; it keeps the troops in line." Down from the plaza the sound of gunshots filled the air, accompanied by the screams of the two prisoners. As the noise died down, the Admiral added, "After all, you never know who will rise up in rebellion."

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The Spanish Kingdom Of New Granada (Part 2)
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History of New Granada (Section 1)

In 1933 the Kingdom of New Granada is an independent member of the Spanish Imperial Commonwealth. The Kingdom is ruled by King Antonio I of Bourbon-Orleans, nephew of Queen Isabella II and cousin of the ruling Spanish monarch. Under him New Granada is poised to enter a new age of prosperity and progress. Although the country has achieved stability in its internal politics and its relation with Spain, its history is one of conflict with Spain, its neighbors, and regionalism within its borders.

The first steps for independence were taken by the colony in the late 18th century. As New Granada grew in its population and economic importance, the Spanish crown sought to make the colony more profitable. A series of reforms known as the Bourbon Reforms aimed to centralize the colonial governments and economies. The reforms were met with resistance in New Granada. Although Spain had tried to rule with absolute power in New Granada, officials in the colony had often turned a blind eye when royal decrees were ignored. The crown's attempts to curb the autonomy of the colony sparked anger in New Granada and in 1781 the region of Socorro rose up in rebellion, establishing independent local governments aiming to overthrow Spanish rule. Due to the nature of the governments they established, the rebellion came to be known as the Comuneros Revolt. It took over nine months until the colonial government was able to regain control of the region.

In 1789 Jose Manuel de Ezpeleta was appointed as viceroy of New Granada. He embarked on a mission to centralize the Viceroyalty and ensure that future uprisings could not take hold like the Comuneros Revolt had. During his 16 years as viceroy he built? public programs that would bring the viceroyalty together and rein in regionalist? Caracas, Quito, Cartagena, and Panama. These cities had for a long time been resentful of having to be under the rule of Bogota and would often ignore the viceroy and his orders. One notable event was Gual's rebellion in 1797, during which Viceroy Ezpeleta was captured and held hostage while he was on a visit to Caracas.

Although the rebellion was quickly put down, it was the precursor of future rebellions in Venezuela against New Granada and Spain. Despite Ezpeleta's best efforts Venezuela continued to be alienated from the rest of New Granada. Venezuela consistently saw itself as superior to Santa Fe and deserving of being the seat of its own viceroyalty. Sentiments such as that one only grew stronger as Venezuelan interests were overlooked. One such event was the 1812 earthquake which caused great damage in Caracas and other major settlements in the region. Spain provided some money to the aristocracy to recover from the catastrophe, which appeased the elite classes. However, more than a decade later, while the region still had not recovered, Spain gave New Granada funds to build plantations along the Caribbean coast, which the Venezuelans saw as a misuse of money that could have gone to rebuilding their homes.

New Granada's participation in the Nine Years War was fairly minor, save for Cartagena serving as an important port for the Spanish Navy. Throughout the war unrest grew as the Spanish authorities raised taxes to finance the war. The British took advantage of this and began to sponsor rebel cells throughout the colony, many of which embraced republican ideals. In 1826 the Spanish fleet based in Cartagena left the port to aid in the upcoming 2nd Battle of Chesapeake Bay and the rebels saw their opportunity. Under the leadership of Antonio Nariño Ortega the rebels captured the city, which had been completely unprepared for any attack, and prepared to defend it against counterattack.

Harkening back to the rebellion in 1781, the rebels called themselves the Comuneros de Cartagena. Simon Bolivar was placed as general of the army tasked with recapturing Cartagena. For six weeks he laid siege on the city until finally the victorious Spanish fleet returned from its mission in the north Atlantic. The mere sight of Spanish sails was enough to scare the population of Cartagena into forcing the Comunero leadership into surrendering to Spain. The people of New Granada viewed the British with disdain, first for the harassments of their coasts and ships during the 18th century, and then for causing the war which had disrupted New Granadese trade. When it became known that the Comuneros of Cartagena were Republicans sponsored and manipulated by Britain, it caused a deep rejection of all republican ideals among the population of New Granada. Bolivar’s part in capturing Cartagena brought him fame throughout South America. He became known as the “Hero of the Indies” and in New Granada, especially Venezuela, most saw him as the guardian of the Spanish empire that had kept South America from falling to Perfidious Britain.

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History of New Granada (Section 2)

In 1838 Venezuela rose up in rebellion against New Granada after Bolivar was overlooked for the position of Viceroy. This sparked outrage throughout the colony with many cities sending letters to the King demanding that Bolivar be given the position of viceroy. Bolivar himself was outraged at not receiving the position. He quickly became involved with aristocrats and intellectuals that believed that Venezuela must be its own viceroyalty. This movement had been growing for a log time and Bolivar joining it gave it the final amount of legitimacy it required. Soon cabildos across Venezuela were declaring Bolivar their viceroy and militias organized into an army commanded by Bolivar. By the end of 1838 Bolivar and his forces controlled all of Venezuela and even some of the territory directly under Santa Fe. In 1839 rifts among Bolivar's followers caused the Venezuelans to split up, embroiling New Granada into a three way civil war. In 1846 after years of the King of Spain underestimating the resources needed to put down the rebellion, peace was finally signed with both rebel factions.

After the war royalists from Venezuela fled into New Granada, causing a growth in population and in farming. Coffee production began to grow throughout these years and caused the economy to grow as well. Initiatives by Viceroy Lopez in the 1840s and 1850s also sought to industrialize the colony so that it could be a base from which Spain could put down the revolution in Mexico. Among these reforms there were progressive measures to help incorporate former slaves into colonial society, as well as boys' universal education. In practice few former slaves benefited from these measures, but the new generation of the aristocracy did grow up with a new interest in the arts and with little memory of the horrors of the previous thirty years. In the late 1850s a renaissance begun in New Granada. The arts flourished and quality of life improved greatly. The New Granadese people saw this as a result of Spain treating them well through Lopez and his reforms. Love and loyalty for the monarchy grew tremendously during this golden age.

In 1875 a massive earthquake hit the city of Cucuta and affected much of New Granada and even the neighboring Venezuelas. The earthquake devastated a large part of the country and brought an end to the New Granadese Renaissance. New Granada entered a downward spiral as its production and nascent industry were hard hit by the earthquake. Even regions far from the epicenter were affected as the transport of goods along the Magdalena river was greatly reduced. In 1877 Santos Acosta was appointed viceroy and he immediately got to work on opening new mines to provide employment, build steam ships to revamp New Granada’s exports, seize land to streamline the agricultural production of the colony, and even to build a canal across Panama to aid pacific trade.

However these plans were met with resistance and very little progress was made towards any of them. Acosta travelled to Spain to personally request financial support from the Queen, but she refused. The people of New Granada felt that the Queen who had once loved them was now abandoning them. They continued to believe in the monarchy, after all it had served them well for nearly twenty years, but they prayed for a change of heart, or a change of Queen. In 1883 rogue forces from Venezuela raided New Granada's. Acosta pleaded with the Queen, this time claiming that if funds were not acquired then New Granada would fall to the republicans. The Queen agreed and on December 9, 1883 ships from Spain arrived in Cartagena carrying troops and gold.

Finally, New Granada stabilized and trade resumed. Mexico became one of the colony's most important trading partners, but when Mexico entered the Great North American War in 1889, the Queen banned all trade with them. Again New Granada found itself on the brink of economic disaster. Acosta, who was still viceroy only because nobody could be found to replace him, once more asked the Queen for help. After a long and frustrating negotiation, the Queen gave Acosta an ultimatum, which he accepted and on May 18, 1890 New Granada became independent and agreed to the following terms:

• New Granada would receive enough money from Spain to bail out its dying industries. That would > > - be the last financial support the colony would ever request from Spain.
• New Granada would become a semi-independent kingdom. Its first king would be appointed by Spain.
• Spanish merchants would receive priority and special tariff exemptions when trading with New Granada.
• New Granada would support Spain in any of its wars. Spain would defend New Granada from European aggression.

Queen Isabella appointed Infante Antonio María Luis Felipe Juan Florencio de Orleans y Borbón, her sister's son, as the first king of New Granada. Antonio was welcomed to New Granada with open arms by the population, who saw him as the answer to their prayers. He ruled as an absolute monarch, although he received considerable help from his ministers. By 1900 he had been able to take New Granada out of the recession it was in. Quality of life and wealth were nowhere near what they had been in 1860s, but the colony had finally ended the downwards spiral it had been in for so many decades. Thanks to his success Antonio received praise from his subjects, which fueled him to do even more works that would benefit his people. He was driven to serve the people of New Granada as an enlightened ruler, not out of a moral calling to do so but out of an obsession with the praise he received.

After launching a public library system which received little praise in 1912, Antonio became resentful and apathetic towards his people. He delegated much of his power to his son Alfonso and to his ministers, only interfering when they were too liberal in their governance. Thanks to Alfonso's political and public relations skills, the New Granadese public still views Antonio as a good leader in 1933. At the local level liberal ideals have been allowed to grow, with even local governments being opened to democratic processes. Local and regional politics are increasingly dominated by young aristocrats, and even young commoners who have found a way to thrive. In 1933 Antonio is weak and Alfonso is ready to take the throne. The people of New Granada await with high expectations as a new chapter in their history begins, with tensions rising with Venezuela to the west and Alfonso promising to seize the potential that his father left for the nation. Will New Granada become Spain's golden child once more, or will they forge their own path? Or has Antonio's apathy permanently doomed the young Kingdom?

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The Spanish Kingdom Of New Granada (Part 4)
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King Antonio of New Granada

To his supporters, he is a devoted and brilliant reformer. To his opponents, he is a fickle and extravagant narcissist. King Antonio of New Granada truly is a fascinating figure. Appointed to his position by his aunt, Queen Isabella II of Spain, the first half of Antonio’s reign was marked by the absolutism common throughout Europe, while the other half has seen him as a distant figure who rules through his ministers.

Born into the influential Orleans y Borbón royal family, King Antonio grew up in obscene wealth. His familiarity with opulence led him to becoming quite spoiled, a character trait that has continued to haunt Antonio. He would throw large, lavish parties, living an extravagant life, to the chagrin of his more modest wife, who eventually divorced him in 1912. However, Antonia was also born to be a ruler. From an early age he was groomed to be a leader. His aunt, the same one who appointed him King of New Granada, told her nephew how New Granada’s issues are due to the masses being allowed to rule themselves. In contrast, Antonio had also read some works on liberalism, however he still doubted liberalism’s practicality. It was during this time Antonio’s autocratic beliefs took shape. And autocratic he was.

Upon his ascension to the New Granadan throne, the new King quickly consolidated power. Following his omnipresent aunt’s advice, he quickly dismissed many high-ranking officials from the colonial era of New Granada and disbanded the Audencia, effectively replacing it with a council of eleven ministers that quickly became nothing more than a rubber stamp. Antonio launched a wave of economic reforms, creating a new currency known as the Granadese reales, expanded silver and gold mines to then mint his coins, as well as encouraging further mining to increase trade with Peru. Using his familial connections, King Antonio secured multiple loans that allowed him to rebuild the many ships that had been damaged by the Cucuta earthquake years before. Antonio’s economic reforms brought New Granada out of the recession it had been stuck in and him much praise from his subjects. The praise grew louder, the devotion more widespread, slowly consuming Antonio, who soon began ruling “for the people” to gain more and more praise.

During this phase of his rule, Antonio wanted nothing more than the admiration of his people, and sought to achieve this through modernization. He sold vast swathes of land for the construction of railroads, ordered the purchase of modern weaponry and ships for the army and navy respectively, hired foreign officers from across North America to train his soldiers, and began plans to build a canal across his Panamanian territories (though this fell apart when the expedition sent to scout Panama either returned sick, or worse didn’t return at all). The last change in Antonio’s rulership came at the height of his glory, when he ordered the construction of a sprawling network of public libraries at the advice of his ministers. Antonio expected more praise, more admiration, more devotion from his subjects, yet his project got little to no attention. This led him to become apathetic and distant, leaving most of the responsibilities to his ministers and his son, Prince Alfonso. His ministers had been given more freedom to push for more change (as long as it wasn’t too radical of course), which they did, allowing for local elections and permitting a gradual liberalization. At the same time, Prince Alfonso has used his charisma and connections within the media to maintain Antonio’s image as a father of the nation, as well as using his diplomatic skills to mediate conflicts between New Granada and the Republic of Venezuela. Now, Antonio continues to sit on his throne, admired by his people even through his indifference, wishing for nothing more than for his subjects to worship him.

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The Slovak Rebellion In The Danubian Civil War (Part 1)
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Today we take a look at a province Carpathian

Surrounded by Tatra and Fatra with a cross ecumenical

for many Magyars these folks are quite alien

yet the circles in Vienna consider them to be identical

But Osterreich would do well to remember

That the Wends of Karpaty have quite a temper

If the Kaiser was to stomp out their ancient traditions

one should not be surprised if Nitra turns to sedition

​

Synopsis: To be or not to be (a Nation): Slovakia

The Slovaks are (arguably wrongly) regarded by some more harsh academics in Vienna or Budapest as “a people without a history”, because they have had no classical social elites. The aristocracy professes allegiance to the Hungarian heritage, while the civilian population of major cities like Pressburg speaks either German or Hungarian. The Slovaks dominate the smaller towns and villages in Upper Hungary, identified as the northwestern parts of Royal Hungary, constituent part of the Austrian Empire. Slovakia does not exist as an administrative unit within Royal Hungary, and the Slovakian settlement areas are concentrated in regions that have been deemed for centuries to be integrative components of the Hungarian Kingdom. Because of their relatively small demographic volume, but also owing to the social structure oriented on peasant farming in the village-based Slovakian society, a national awakening among the Slovaks has been slower to manifest, but it is nevertheless increasingly present as the 20th century advances.

If and when the Habsburg imperial authority shall collapse, the young Slovak national leadership will face three central issues: the question of Czecho-Slovak federationism, potential dangers of an irredentist national Hungary, and strengthening the Slovak national consciousness and identity. In the chaos engulfing the Danubian plains, a union between the Czechs and Slovaks would make both stronger against common enemies. However, entering this union may risk subordinating the young nation to Prague, and in the process once again losing their distinct identity. As for its neighbour to the south and old suzerain, the Republicans of Hungary under rising liberal star Mihály Károlyi (the strongest anti-Habsburg force there), announce peaceful intentions of cooperation with its neighbours against the common threat that is Austrian domination and Germanization. However, in the event that Károlyi will be deposed by more radical factions, relations may sour quickly...

825-1108: The First and Only Monarchy

As the Avar Khaganate in the Carpathian basin collapsed under its own weight, many new states emerged from the fractured empire, among them Moravia and the Duchy of Nitra, led by Pribina. The two duchies would become rivals until the Duchy of Nitra was absorbed into Moravia, turning the lands of Nitra into vassal fiefdoms. New castles and towns were built that would play a role in the strategic location of the Nitrian lands for centuries to come. The Franks to the west had a chance to make Nitra independent again and put Pribina in power, but they would decline. Svätopluk first ruled the vassal state and was very popular with the people, eventually becoming the ruler of Moravia. Meanwhile, Saint Cyril and Methodius arrived in the Carpathian basin around this time to spread the word of Christianity. However, during Svätopluk´s rule, the dualism of the kingdom began to fade and the kingdom turned more and more Moravian as time went on.

After the death of Svätopluk the First, the kingdom fell into an internal divide between Mojmír the Second and Svätopluk the Second. Svätopluk would rise up against his brother and began a grueling war; yet despite his best efforts, and even with the support of the Franks, Svätopluk was defeated and imprisoned. He would be freed by the Bavars soon after, but the Nitrian Duchy would not be restored. No kingdoms last forever though, and the Moravian one faded quite early on. At this time, the Hungarians arrived in the Carpathian basin from the east and started to conquer the lands in the basin, with Nitra being one of them, splitting it in the process. Old Nitra became the Hungarian lands of Hont, Váh, and Boršod. The region would change hands time and time again between Poland and Hungary, yet would never see political independence again. Thus begins the tale of Slovakia, and the fight for independence.

1780-1820: The Almost Forgotten Heroes

Almost all credit for the creation of the Slovak language and unification of the Slovak people goes to Ľudovít Štúr. Yet, one should not minimise the contribution of Anton Bernolák and the rest of his group, called the Bernolákovci. These were members of the 18th century Catholic Clergy who first brought the words of the Enlightenment to the Slovaks and modified the Slovak language from almost tribal scripts into modern words. Their main centers of work were Tyrnau, Budín and Pešť. The Slovak language he standardized mainly preferred the western dialect from cities like Pressburg, Nyitra and Tyrnau. They succeeded in their effort of improving the Slovak language and laid the groundwork for it to be further refined many more years after. Anton would go on to publish a book called “Dissertatio Philologico-critica de Literis Slavorum” which talked about the Slovak grammar, and after some years he would publish a sequel called “Grammatica Slavica”. Yet his last book would top them all, and after many writings, he created the biggest work of his life, called “Päť Zväzkový Slovár Slovenský, česko-latinsko-nemecko-uherský”, which was a Slovak-Czech-Latin-German-Hungarian dictionary, the first of its kind and also the first dictionary to feature the Slovak language. Undoubtedly, he is a hero lost to history, as the legacy of the Enlightenment would later be suppressed in Austria during the Metternich-Bach Era.

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The Slovak Rebellion In The Danubian Civil War (Part 2)​

1835-1848: The Founding Fathers of Modern Slovakia

In 1815, a man was born with the name of Ľudovít Štúr. Even though he came from a peasant background (like the majority of Slovaks at the time), he learned many languages in his youth. When he reached 15 years of age, he went to Pressburg to study in an evangelical Lyceum. There, he met people who would eventually help him codify the Slovak language and inspire the fight for national recognition in the future.

As the year 1835 came, Ľudovit decided that he could not witness his fellow Slovaks being integrated into Austrian culture by force. He and his former Pressburg classmate became the fighters for Slovak autonomy within the neo-absolutist Austrian Empire. He improved the Slovak language and created Slovak literature that inspired his peers to continue the campaigning for rights. However, this angered several groups: the Slovak Catholics, who refused to change from the literary standard once created by Anton Bernolák (they also benefited from the Austrian support of the Church in the imperial lands); the Czechs from Bohemia that wanted to spread the use of the Czech language in Slovakia, and the evangelists who were used to the old biblical Czech language. Nevertheless, Štúr would push for Slovakian autonomy and approached the Austrian Crown many times, but the Habsburgs had no interest in allowing an autonomous entity based on national principles. In resignation, he instead focused to bind together the evangelists and Catholics of Slovakia, in an attempt to stabilise relations and the Slovakian region as a whole. The Slovak language was successfully changed to a Central Slovak dialect to improve relations between West Slovaks and east Slovaks, following a congress on the 28th of August 1844 in Liptovský Mikuláš. Ľudovít would release a book titled “Nárečja Slovenskuo Alebo Potreba Písaňja v Tomto Nárečí”, in an attempt to popularize the new literary standard.

1848: The Great Betrayal

As the tumultuous 1848 came, Ľudovít could sense a big event impending - voices of unrest from the Pannonian Plain about having no say in leadership and taxation continued to grow louder. A rebellion in Hungary would occur soon after, and the Austrians approached Ľudovít for assistance in containing the Hungarian insurrection. Having been promised the autonomy of the Slovak lands in Royal Hungary, Štúr mobilized many Slovaks to fight for the Habsburg crown. A tough fight, no doubt, as the Slovaks fought hard to liberate parts of the mountain regions of Fatra and Tatra and were slowly marching to Žilina. As the fight continued with an Austrian victory being inevitable, orders from the Habsburg Crown were sent to the Slovaks to cease the military operations,and return home. News soon arrived that Kossuth’s Rebellion had been defeated, and that all national militias (in Slovakia and the other parts of the Empire as well) were to be demobilized. Thinking that the meaning of this was the promised proclamation of national autonomies, including for Slovakia, Ľudovit and the other Slovak leaders went to their homes, only to find out days later that, like many other ethnicities, the Slovaks too had been deceived by Vienna. No administrative reorganization was coming, and the Austrian iron fist would remain as staunch as ever. Many Slovaks joined forces with the Hungarians after learning this. This was too little too late though, as the victory of the Habsburgs was assured by that point. Ľudovít parted ways with his peers and went to settle down, sometimes fantasizing about scenarios where the Slovaks got their yearned freedom.

1860-1932: Last Ditch Attempt and Impending Germanization

With the first reformators of the Slovak language dead, Slovakia found itself without any active national emancipation movement. A last-ditch attempt was made to establish autonomy for Slovakia within the Austrian Empire, that being the signing of the “Memorandum of the Slovak Nation”in the city of Martin by various remaining national leaders. The points they made there included:

• Request to establish a legal academy
• Request for the establishment of the Department of Slovak Speech and Literature at the University of Vienna
• Allow Slovak schools to teach in Slovak
• The right to publish literature in Slovak
• For Slovaks to control the press of Slovakia

As they sent this to Vienna they hoped that the Kaiser would accept these requests. The reply arrived from Vienna months later, and the response was a highly expected “No”. With all hopes ruined, the authors of the Memorandum dispersed, and Slovakia once again sank into irrelevance.

After this, no opportunity for autonomy would be in sight for decades, except ideas like the proposed idea of future Czecho-Slovak cooperation suggested by the Czechs (Nevertheless, it was clear that the Kaiser won’t accept such a proposal either). The Slovaks were split in two about this idea. Many people thought that this would benefit both peoples, as it would enable them to once again have rights and feel pride in their nationality. Others thought that it would be just another failed attempt and would mean just switching the occupiers, from Vienna to Prague.

But as the Austrians were noticing the continued Slovak fight for autonomy, they realized that letting them speak their language and preserve their culture would mean instability in the region, as more and more ethnicities would demand rights. On the background of simmering unrest in Hungary, Banat and Transylvania after Klapka’s Revolt of the 1860s, They quickly shut down the only 3 high schools in Turz Saint Martin ( Martin ), Groß-Rauschenbach ( Revúca) and Klosster ( Kláštor Pod Znievom ),thus barring Slovaks from educating themselves in their own language and forcing them to learn German and study in Vienna and other German-language schools. The bigger urban centres, like Pressburg and Nyitra immediately fell prey to the policies of the Austrian administration. The Germanisation Program had begun, and Slovak populations in the cities were decreasing at rapid rates. By the early 1900s, when Franz Ferdinand relaxed some of the measures, the only cities which remained relatively unaffected were the small towns in the Tatras and other mountains. This powerful and institutionalized Germanisation (which occurred Empire-wide) did not help the Slovak cause at all, as they were now an even more ruralized population. All was not yet lost, however. Andrej Hlinka, a Slovak priest and self-described “nationalist”, used the growing dissatisfaction towards Vienna to gather support from the Slovaks and establish himself as one of the leaders of another Slovak movement for independence, 70 years after Štúr. Political theorists ascribe Hlinka’s rising movement as an example of “Fraterism”, a neo-theocratic ideology. Fraterism is the belief in a secularly-run, but authoritarian theocracy, where everything, from laws to economics are regulated and run alongside religious principles. It tends to be very socially conservative, corporatist and supporting of welfare programs and religious trade unions. Trying to gather support for his cause, Hlinka went to the town of Černová. He built a catholic castle there and the people immediately jumped to his movement and hoped that the Austrian authorities would let him bless the castle. This would have meant the recognition of an openly-nationalist Slovak cleric however, something Austria could not tolerate. Instead, the Austrians chose a German-speaking bishop from a nearby city to bless the castle. The Slovaks, resentful of this belittling, peacefully protested against this. However, if the Bloody Decade taught Europe anything about the Austrians, it is that they would be iron-fisted in their “Minorities Question”. The Austrian Gendarmerie received clear orders: disperse the protest; use of lethal force is authorised. Instead of handling the issue in a civil manner, the Austrians decided to shoot the protesters. 15 died and many more were injured, in what became known as the Černová Incident. This would be one of the many reasons for the growing hatred towards the Austrians by the Slovaks in the years leading to 1933.

1933: A Long-awaited Chance

With many ethnicities in the Austrian Empire starting to be more and more vocal against the perceived abuses perpetrated by Vienna, the Slovaks feel that maybe another try at independence will soon be feasible. As many places in the country are becoming more and more hostile to Austrian domination, the scene is set for confrontation. The only thing yet unknown as 1933 dawns is whether the Austrians will fix this issue with diplomacy and concessions, or will the Slovaks rise again in arms?

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The Freedmen's Republic (Part 1)​

“Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground.” - Frederick Douglass

Bloody Beginnings

The year is 1824 and war rages across the Americas. British forces under General Pakenham land at Baltimore and are almost instantly stranded and cut off from supply lines as their transporting fleet is decimated by the French Navy. Pakenham, never one to cower in the face of adversity, launched an infamous campaign in which he led his men on bloody assaults across the eastern seaboard.General Pakenham with his hatred for the Americans, which was consolidated by his protracted struggle behind enemy lines, took it upon himself to undermine the USA in any way he could, up to and including the liberation of slaves, some of whom choose to stay and fight with Pakenham’s forces, others fleeing elsewhere. After raiding an American armoury to resupply and with winter setting in, Pakenham set up an informal base of operations deep in the Appalachian mountains. With winter having taken its toll on the British troops in the relatively inhospitable Appalachia, they were far from peak fighting form. In the following year Pakenham and his army was defeated at the Battle of Aiken County. With their leader now removed from the equation, troops that had managed to escape soon fled back into the Appalachian Mountains, with a small contingent of freed slaves amongst them. Their only objective now was to survive. Word soon travelled amongst slaves that, should they be able to escape their masters, there was a place for them in Appalachia. It wouldn’t be easy, but it was a chance at freedom. Few managed to link up with the ragtag ensemble but those that did were crucial in helping the British soldiers survive, without the local knowledge of the escaped slaves the foreigners would have certainly perished. American troops never attempted to investigate rumours of a 100+ strong bandit hideout formed by slaves and British soldiers in the mountains and dismissed it outright as “a work of hearsay and fiction, of which slaves are known to concoct for both their own entertainment and the cultivation of dissent.”

Beginning in 1828 the United States of America was in dire need of troops to supplement their war effort, in their sheer desperation they looked to the slaves across the nation. In exchange for their service in the US Army they would be granted their freedom. Many slaves and free African Americans across the North of the country took up the offer, they were trained, armed and organised into the newly created ‘Freedmen’s Regiments. The Regiments proved to be more than effective, providing a much needed boost to the US war effort. When tales of the Freedmen’s heroism under Gen. Scott's command fed back to the American top brass, there seemed to be only one logical option, recruit more slaves with the offer of their emancipation and try to turn the tide of this horrific war. Many of the Freedmen’s Regiments were recruited from the northern states and in order to found further battalions the US would have to look south, whether the southern states would allow this however was a different matter. The southern slave owners were infuriated, the federal government wanted to seize what they viewed as their rightful property and spirit them away with no recompense. Many southern states refused to allow slaves to travel north, often with the threat of violence. This was a huge blow to the USA’s war effort, their manpower would soon become severely depleted and troops would be spread increasingly thin. On plantations across the South black men and their families fled en masse, heading north to this new found opportunity to escape the cruelty of their bondage. Many slaves were rounded up by militias and slave catchers and forced back to work, but a steady trickle found their way North.

As army recruiters had approached a plantation in Virginia, the enslaved men had attempted to flee and gain their freedom but they were rounded up and backed into a barn where they were savagely beaten. Several days later the men managed to escape their captors and they bolted into the cold night air. After hours walking they approached a crossroads near Harrisonburg where a group of black men had gathered around a tree. A slim man, with cropped hair stood proudly atop a branch and bellowed to the gathered crowd. This man was Nat Turner, a preacher, born into slavery and self taught from a young age. Turner was a fantastic orator, the passion with which he delivered his rousing words and bible verses instilled the men around him with not only the fires of rebellion, but more importantly hope. With their new found revolutionary spirit Nat Turner and his mob salvaged weapons and supplies from nearby property. In a field near that crossroads, a new nation was to be born, a nation of Freedmen. Turner made what is now considered a historic address to hundreds of gathered Freedmen in which he said - “For too long we have been stuck between the yoke of the Yankees and the stranglehold of the South, no amount of promises and perverse talk in any part of this rotten nation can truly break our shackles. The war has blown a hole in the very heart of America, and it is in this gaping wound we will begin to heal. Come brothers, forget the Americans, for they soon forgot their humanity in their dealings with us, let us fight, alongside the British if needs must, and remember our true worth, remember our God given right, remember that we are free!”

Nat Turner, urged by two men who had recently travelled down from the Appalachian Mountains, decided to march his group in search of the so called ‘Pakenham’s Phantoms’, a small contingent of British soldiers allegedly hiding out in the mountains offering refuge and protection to local slaves in exchange for their assistance in their survival. Turner and two hundred or so Freedmen armed for the most part with swords, axes, hatchets and pitchforks with a smattering of stolen muskets and shotguns, began their trek. Several days later Turner stumbled up a winding mountain pass when an accented voice bellowed out - “Who goes there?!” Turner replied - “Nat Turner, child of God and shepherd of this here flock, I believe, despite the lateness of the hour, we Sir, are your reinforcements.” The British troops now numbering no more than one hundred and around 50 freed slaves couldn’t believe their luck. Hungry and cold they welcomed Turner and his men, and the little supplies they could share. What the British had lacked in manpower and food they made up for in arms and military experience. Turner proposed an alliance of sorts, the British were free to join them on their crusade for Freedom and they would be fed and treated like equals, in return they would contribute their guns and their knowledge to train the Freedmen for the unavoidable upcoming struggle. Agreements were reached, handshakes made. They would march back to Harrisonburg at first light, as Turner and his brethren now had the means with which to make their dream a reality.

The Freedmen, now armed and under the leadership of Turner claimed the surrounding land as their own, ready to defend themselves against slave catchers and militias, and unwilling to ever return to bondage. They seized farms for food, houses for shelter and built barricades to fortify their positions. Word of these plucky irregulars reached British military command, they were astounded, the gall of these brave young men had opened up a new front in the war, and a gaping hole in the American heartland. General Drummond was dispatched with a large force of around 30,000 to reinforce Turner’s uprising. When word reached the redcoats that there were British survivors of Pakenham’s command amongst Turner’s troops the shock and jubilation couldn’t be hidden. The US forces, on the verge of disintegration under the strain of Britain’s Trident Plan, had no troops with which to resist the Freedmen. Turner’s rebellion and his new ‘nation’ were here to stay. Within weeks the US was in utter chaos, with desertions and catastrophic defeats all too common. The Freedmen’s revolt was the very large straw that broke the metaphorical camel’s back. With the help of Pakenham’s survivors, the Freedmen, and roving bands of slaves escaping the South united to fight a bloody guerrilla war against all who would stand in the way of their emancipation.

Washington soon fell, the US government was scattered and nearly every Southern state was legislating for secession. The United Kingdom seized a large portion of Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. Partly in recognition of the valor shown by the Freedmen, and partly as they would play a key role in British foreign policy in North America in the future, as such this land was given to the survivors of Nat Turner’s uprising. By the terms of the peace deal, all slaves in US territory were to be freed, transferred to British authorities and transported to the newly established ‘Freedmen’s Protectorate’.

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Home of the Free

The Freedmen’s Protectorate was far from a safe haven upon its inception, racial violence and civil disobedience was rife. Plantation owners and their families were forced from their properties by local militias and white citizens who were sympathetic to the slavers were also exiled. Resistance from white slave owners was not uncommon, but having been armed by the British, local Freedmen soon dealt with any resistance with brutal efficiency. Many slavers fled to the new nations of the American Republic or the Fraternal American States. As the British withdrew most of their troops the Protectorate was soon left utterly rudderless, farms left unplanted and no guarantee of a reliable food supply, no government and no consensus on what was to happen next.The Freedmen’s saviour came from within, as Nat Turner once again stepped forward to lead his flock in the right direction. He gathered all the elders and leaders of each distinct community and welcomed them to the genesis of the Freedmen’s future. He stood at the end of a long table in a local church and addressed the men and women before him

“Brothers and sisters, what an opportunity we have earned. With our own blood, our own tears and our own faith we have etched a line in the dirt, we have built a home. Now the war is done it's time to organise ourselves and our communities, we must build like Noah, we must feed our people just as Jesus did. Although we face a great threat from the evils of our neighbours, and the Lord knows we will protect ourselves, now is the time for peace. ‘He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.’ Come we have much work to do.”

Turner and the elders soon organised informal community councils, plantations seized by the councils were replanted with food to feed the disorganized masses. Communities devastated by the war began to rebuild and Freedmen moved into the properties vacated by the slave owners and their families. In 1833, Turner, in defiance of the British, put out a call to all those would support them and the cause of the abolition of slavery, to all of the righteous and the faithful. The call invited any man, woman or child of any color or creed to come to the Freedmen’s Protectorate and help build a better future. In 1834 the community councils began being formalized into a government made up of local representatives, voted for by the communities. Now free to farm the land however they wished the Freedmen found they could operate much more efficiently than any slave run plantation. Using agricultural knowledge passed down through generations from all across the globe the farmers produced unprecedented yields. Animal waste products, crop rotations and other traditional methods saw the Freedmen reap a bountiful harvest, year on year. Several philanthropists from across North America, and to a lesser extent the UK, began investing large amounts of wealth in the Protectorate. For example, Abbey Kelley donated a large sum to help locals organise medical provisions for women and children, and Gerrit Smith gave $9000 so that his acquaintances Theodore Dwight Weld and his wife Angelina Grimke could set up educational institutions across the territory.

Development and Debate

In 1843 the Freedmen’s Parliament convened to vote upon matters of the Protectorate’s military going forward; there were two main proposals.

• Keep the militia system as is. Professional soldiers were too expensive and hard to equip. This was the view held by most delegates.
• Keep the militia system, but also add a small professional force, essentially providing as much as could be afforded (at the time the nation lacked any capital).

After weeks of debate, there were no conclusions reached, delegates waited eagerly to hear the opinion of Delegate Rev. Nat Turner, but he too was undecided - that was until a young delegate named Frederick Douglass took the floor and made an impassioned speech advocating for universal national service. The system would provide the manpower to both protect and sustain the fledgling nation. A new, universal conscription he said, where all men would serve two years beginning at age 18 in the military, and all women in an auxiliary corps for service to the nation in whatever way was necessary from tending to the sick, to helping in manufacturing and education. Rev. Turner was impressed, and with his backing, the motion was passed. It was later found to have been a coordinated effort from Rev. Turner and his handpicked protégé, who was chosen due to the Reverend’s future being threatened by his development of throat cancer. The new Citizen-Soldiers of the Protectorate would become one of its central pillars - vastly accelerating the national improvement in education, healthcare, infrastructure, and of course military capacity. In 1844 Lewis Tappan, having moved to the Protectorate with his brother, begins teaching young black men law, and in 1846 under the lead of Macon Boiling Allen, Robert Morris and several community leaders begin to draft The Freedmen’s Law Code, to ensure all men are treated equally and with dignity within the Protectorate’s borders. 1844 was also an extremely sad year for the Freedmen’s Republic in which Nat Turner, seen by many as the man solely responsible for their emancipation, passed away peacefully in his sleep. Having finally succumbed to his cancer, he was buried near the site of the initial uprising in Harrisonburg. His funeral was attended by crowds of almost unimaginable size, work across the nation ceased and every citizen who was able to do so flocked to the crossroads to mourn the great man they’d lost. Hymns, songs and dancing punctuated the day, as did wailing, tears and genuine distress. It was however decided that the Freedmen must not mourn Nat Turner’s death but celebrate his life. In the absence of their de facto ‘leader’ the Freedmen’s Parliament resolved to continue their democratic rule without Turner at the helm.

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The Freedmen's Republic (Part 3)​

New Blood and New Beginnings

The destruction of newspaper offices in the American Republic, that were vehemently against the exploitative practices and system of indentured servitude still used in the FAS, sparked a series of events that left everlasting scars on the collective North American psyche. The attack was launched in 1856 by mob of white citizens from the north of the Fraternal American States and led to near universal outrage. The culprits were never caught by the authorities. The Freedmen’s Protectorate, with the help of the British authorities offered a financial award for any information on the perpetrator. In what appears to be retaliation, several men are hacked to death in a Fraternal American town near the burned offices by an unknown assailant. Locals presume it to be the result of a personal dispute. The following year word reaches the Freedmen regarding the possible identity of the unknown murderer who had engaged in the retaliation. The source claimed the men that were hacked to death were actually engaging with the Five Families and their continuing systems of oppression and that this was neither an extension of the mob’s violence or the result of a vicious personal dispute. This was a targeted retaliatory attack in which men were brutalised on their doorsteps. The perpetrator? John Brown. Having met John Brown briefly before, Frederick Douglass approached him to discuss possible collaboration. Brown would work on behalf of the Freedmen, using British finance and arms to surreptitiously continue the Liberty Raids in an attempt to free the remaining people held against their will in the Fraternal American States. In 1859 a series of events occurred that would shake the FAS to their core. John Brown and his sons gathered a militia of around 20 men, armed themselves and bought supplies with finance from Britain. His plan was simple, en route to Athens, Georgia they would liberate as many people as possible, arm those willing to accompany them and raid the armoury in Athens. When the armoury was breached they’d loot as many weapons as they could carry, destroy the rest of the stockpile and escape on horseback with the newly freed men and their plunder. Unfortunately the raid didn’t go as planned, when the armoury doors were breached a local militia descended upon the raiders and under the orders of Brown seven of the Freedmen and two of his sons bolted for the safety of the border. The rest stayed with Brown and vowed to fight. In a long and protracted battle all but John Brown were killed and upon storming the inner rooms of the armoury they found a wounded and exhausted Brown trying in vain to light a fire in an attempt to blow up the munitions stored inside. Brown was arrested and shipped to New Orleans to face ‘trial’ - though he knew there’d be no chance at justice. When standing in the New Orleans courthouse, before being sentenced to death for treason, he was asked for any last comments and John Brown stood and addressed the courtroom -

“I have, may it please the court, a few words to say… I have an objection; and that is, it is unjust that I should suffer such a penalty. Had I interfered in the manner which I admit, and which I admit has been fairly proved (for I admire the truthfulness and candor of the greater portion of the witnesses who have testified in this case), -- had I so interfered in behalf of the rich, the powerful, the intelligent, the so-called great, or in behalf of any of their friends -- either father, mother, sister, wife, or children, or any of that class -- and suffered and sacrificed what I have in this interference, it would have been all right; and every man in this court would have deemed it an act worthy of reward rather than punishment.

The court acknowledges, as I suppose, the validity of the law of God. I see a book kissed here which I suppose to be the Bible, or at least the New Testament. That teaches me that all things whatsoever I would that men should do to me, I should do even so to them. It teaches me further to "remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them." I endeavored to act up to that instruction. I say, I am too young to understand that God is any respecter of persons. I believe that to have interfered as I have done -- as I have always freely admitted I have done -- in behalf of His despised poor, was not wrong, but right. Now if it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood further with the blood of my children and with the blood of millions in this slave country whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments. -- I submit; so let it be done!”

On December the 2nd, 1859, John Brown was hanged by the neck until dead for the crimes of murder and treason before a crowd of thousands, all jeering and seething at the prospect of one of their own committing such acts against the Fraternal American States. Widely seen as a traitor and an agent of terror in the FAS he was widely mourned as a hero amongst the Freedmen. In the Freedmen’s Protectorate, Brown was immortalised in the folk song “John Brown’s Body” despite lyrics varying wildly, they all proclaim “His soul is marching on!”

During the chaos of the British revolution in 1862, the Freedmen seize their opportunity and declare the Protectorate to be independent, and Frederick Douglass is voted as the inaugural Prime Minister of the Freedmen’s Republic. The canny Douglass would use his diplomatic envoys, predominantly Quakers, to achieve an unprecedented achievement. The envoys would offer the American Republic the opportunity to spite the British and provide protection for the newly established Freedmen’s Republic. This was, unknown to the American Republic, tabled before French diplomats simultaneously, and as such two Major Powers pledge to protect the Freedmen from all foreign aggression. The Freedmen’s Republic, having secured the backing of major powers did not rest on its laurels, they quickly adopted a stance of armed neutrality. In the vein of Nat Turner’s swords and plowshares speech they recognized that they should be able to protect themselves, but they would not actively wage war against other nations. The Republic is not naive, they knew there was little loyalty in geopolitics and that both American states and European powers could pose a threat to their independence.

Economics, Entertainment and Immigrants

In 1866 Robert Reed Church, a former slave and entrepreneur opened up several bars and pool halls in the Republic’s population centers. They prove to be a great success amongst the hard working masses of the burgeoning industrial sectors and set the foundations for what will become an integral part of the Freedmen’s Republic: art, culture and entertainment. Prime Minister Douglass’ ambitious plans for a standardized railway system within the Republic are presented to and subsequently approved by Parliament, with the caveat that the nation would refuse any investment or interference by white robber-barons. The planning and survey began immediately, with the creation of countless jobs predicted. Assessors are also dispatched to several mining sites to examine the discovery of unidentified deposits of an extremely hard mineral, presumed to be Wolframite. Increasing tensions between the Irish community and the FAS in 1872 saw a steady trickle of Irish immigrants seeking refuge in the Freedmen’s Republic. These new arrivals are greeted with a mixture of skepticism and cautious welcome. Many of these families were escaped debtors and were no stranger to the machinations of Plantation owners, but the trauma of Atlantic Slave Trade certainly wasn’t a shared experience. In 1874 Douglass departed office and Lewis Hayden was elected as the Freedmen’s second Prime Minister. With the departure of Douglass, and a waning amount of capital, the wide reaching railway developments began to slow in 1876 however in ‘77 under the close supervision of Prime Minister Hayden, a former clothier himself, the textiles trade in the republic began to flourish. The Textiles Act of the same year relaxes working time restrictions and women are actively encouraged to enter the industry.

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The Freedmen's Republic (Part 4)​

War is Hell

The American Republic placed a large order for military uniforms and canvas material for tents in 1883, this combined with The Textiles Act of 1877 saw an unprecedented economic growth in the Republic. Thousands of workers sit at sewing stations and stitch miles of material to fulfill the request from the Americans, factories are expanded and more workers hired. Many observers in the Freedmen government recognize this bulk order as only meaning one thing, the war was on the horizon. The following year the current Prime Minister Langston Hughes approaches the textiles industry, he brings forth a forensic breakdown of the benefits of investing their newly found wealth into infrastructure, especially Douglass’ proposal of the as yet unfinished railroad network. The benefits he says are huge, not only will improved infrastructure help boost production and speed up delivery but it will also create jobs. The Textiles magnates agree to the proposals. 1885 is the year that would see the Freedmen proved right as war breaks out across the continent. The Freedmen’s Republic retain their stance of armed neutrality and jaws are clenched with anxiety across the nation. Military advisors and reconnaissance units report no antagonistic troop movements but regardless of this the Freedmen call up reservists in waves for refresher training to avoid large scale disruption to the economy. Any reservists called up to full-time positions were replaced by females workers in jobs across society. Despite the ongoing chaos the economic growth and the use of reservists labor saw the completion of Douglass’ proposed railway network as a matter of national security. The newspapers in the republic aren’t censored unlike the media in both the AR and FAS. They begin publishing photographs and news stories from the frontlines of the Great North American War, its brutality shocks the nation, it would seem the white man has descended into ‘savagery’ himself. In 1887 the completion of the railway network and the current economic situation see the founding of Beard & Mccoy Locomotive Works, utilizing the great minds of their founders and world-class materials, the company began the construction of cutting edge Locomotive trains. To underline the sheer tragedy and human loss of the war the American Republic once again submits a huge order for fresh military uniforms. A demonstration by predominantly female textile workers occurs in several areas rallying against the working conditions in the industry, a situation exacerbated by the increased demand due to The Great War. Many factories have descended into squalor, with no breaks and long shifts to meet quotas. The following year a small investment in increasing efficiency and renovating fabric factories by Industry leaders, and a slow down in demand, proved to placate workers without the need for a change in legislation. However, the passion of many of the women would develop into radicalism over the coming years. In 1891 the Great North American War came to an end. The horrific scenes etched in the minds of the citizens of not just the Freedmen’s Republic but all of North America. Freedmen Reservists are demobilized and are free to return to their respective industries now that the threat of invasion had subsided. The true scale of the devastation of the war is brought home by the huge increase in the demand for building materials such as timber and iron. Both materials are produced in substantial amounts in the Republic and their value skyrockets as the continent begins rebuilding. Prime Minister William Still, who had previously been on the Freedmen Trade Board, quickly moved to lower tariffs on these key goods, meaning companies from all over North America scrambled to buy from the Freedmen. It was once said that slaves had built America, now Freedmen played a key role in supplying the necessary materials to see America rebuilt once again. The economic effects of the post-war scramble to rebuild benefit the republic greatly, the transport industry sees an opportunity and in partnership with the timber, and iron magnates, tram networks in the cities of Ekoville, Prosserton, Gullahton, Tyestown and Manumission are constructed with their newfound profits. Life in the cities of the Republic enters a new age, one of peace, prosperity and pushing the boundaries of technology.

A Modern Nation

The Freedmen’s Republic was truly thriving, communities were growing and with the economic effects felt after the Great North American War businesses and factories had a fresh injection of life. Although not everything was perfect, as illustrated when the small but steadily growing Jewish community in Ekoville was the focus of media attention in 1894 after a Jewish business had its windows smashed in what many say was an anti-Semitic attack. Locals say the media was sensationalizing events and that it was merely a personal dispute. Regardless newly elected PM Robert Smalls makes a visit to the business, shakes a few hands, pays for the glass to be replaced out of his own pocket and states proudly-

“We would do well to remember that similar acts of mindlessness are occurring across Europe and even on our own continent. The Republic is a sanctuary for those who support liberty and reject notions of superiority amongst men. So long as a man supports our cause, be he Jew, Italian or Irish, he is our adopted brother, and shall always have a place in our communities.”

Another immigrant, from the Irish Republic, John Philip Holland, presented his plans for a prototype vehicle, the submarine, to the Freedmen Navy. The Admirals are in awe and immediately bring him on board to lead the research and development of their own submarine program beginning in 1897. Education had long been seen as key in the FR but when an elderly but greatly successful Mrs Mary E. Pleasant donates an astonishing sum to further higher education in the Republic many are pleasantly surprised. The beneficiaries, Shaw University in Tyestown, the National Religious Training School and Chautauqua for Freedmen in Jacobstown, Turner Agricultural and Mechanical College in Brownsburg, all of which saw a huge rise in both teaching capacity and enrollment. This boost to higher education also enabled a team led by Mary Mahoney, Professor George F. Grant and Dr Daniel Hale Williams set up the Department for Health, dedicated to improving the health and wellbeing of the citizens of the Republic. The Department of Health would see the Freedmen make huge advances in scientific fields, particularly in medical fields, internationally the Freedmen’s doctors and nurses were known to be particularly talented. In 1901, movements in the business world were made as The Stearns-Freedmen Maritime Bureau, which was founded in 1852 when George Luther Stearns invested a sizeable amount in the Freedmen’s ports and shipyards, was renamed Conyers Maritime Industries as Admiral James H. Conyers took over the company with the help of several industrialists. As well as naval developments, Charles W. Chapelle fronts a large amount of capital rumored to be in the region of $10,000 to form the Freedmen Institute of Aviation. Unveiling his long-distance airplane prototype to the public,a wave of excitement screeches across the nation. Militaries however see his design as a glorified paper glider, and dirigibles would remain the chosen vehicle for air-based warfare.

Arguably the most significant event of the early 1900s would be completely hidden, and for good reason. In 1909 the SSB was founded. The Secret Service Bureau, or The Bureau, is a secret department of the Freedmen Government, designed to provide a covert arm for both domestic and overseas operations. Some sources claim the SSB has a paramilitary wing, but this can officially neither be confirmed nor denied. Since the founding of the Freedmen’s own territory there had been a steady stream of immigrants from both north, south and even the Caribbean. Some of these arrivals came in search of hope and opportunity without fear of racial persecution, they came by train or boat to the ‘promised land’ to etch out a new existence. Some however weren’t so lucky. There were many black people, who by rights should be Freedmen but by curse of geography still remained under the yoke of apathetic masters. In the early years, they called it simply ‘a way out’ but over time the systems in place and the resources on hand to help people escape to their God-given freedom grew and grew. Some called it a ‘Railroad’ with conductors and safe houses to ensure the safe delivery of its passengers from plantation to the promenades of the Republic. Whatever it was, it was very much underground, covert, secret. The Freedmen Republic’s government, some of them were passengers from across the continent themselves, valued this grassroots organization but decided that with investment and guidance they could take the idea of practical steps toward emancipation to a much larger audience. Throughout history there had been many who took that extra step in the name of freedom; Reverend Nat Turner, John Brown and his posse, Harriet Tubman, the list is truly endless. So inspired by those trailblazers, the SSB was formed with the intention of empowering individuals like those mentioned before, so that they too could gain their freedom or freedom for others. The SSB would be a covert organization that would offer counsel, resources and funding to individuals in need. They would be the underwriters of a new age of freedom. As the Freedmen knew so well, freedom isn’t easy, but it is close, sometimes all you need is a helping hand.

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The Freedmen's Republic (Part 5)​

A Continent of Contrasts

In 1910 it was time for ‘The fight of the century!’. Jack Johnson, the African American heavyweight champion of the world faced off against James J. Jeffries, returning from retirement and billed as “The Great White Hope”. Jack Johnson won in the 15th round with a decisive knockout! Street parties occurred across the Freedmen’s Republic where tens of thousands had gathered to hear updates by live telegraph. Unfortunately the same can’t be said for the other nations in what soon became America-wide race rioting between jubilant black boxing fans and humiliated white Jeffries supporters. Five years later saw the premiere of a cinematic milestone. Albeit one with unforeseen repercussions for minorities. The Birth of a Nation is released, the first 12 reel film produced about the struggles and subsequent rise of The Fraternal American States. The film’s depiction of colored peoples is universally condemned in the Republic. Prime Minister Morgan moved to ban the film, but declared that if the film was to be shown it was to be shown for educational purposes -

“Let us not speculate as to how the colored peoples are viewed by the White Man, let us examine it closely. Let our scholars and our professionals study the very materials that seek to demonize us, and perhaps one day we will understand that which fuels the fires of their hatred toward us.” - Clement G. Morgan PM

Conversely in 1918 what is widely known as the Vesey Renaissance begins, a cultural, intellectual and social revolution amongst young, middle-class black people in the Freedmen’s Republic. Since the foundation of the Protectorate there was a large migration of non-white people from across the continent, educated, uneducated, young, old, northern and southern. The Freedmen’s Republic became a melting pot for the culture and ideas of oppressed peoples the world over and it was in this melting pot that music, art, poetry and philosophy was to flourish. James Weldon Johnson MP successfully lobbies Parliament and the PM to fund the creation of Freedmen Foundation for the Arts (FFA) which would provide grants, facilities and mentoring for up and coming artists. JW Johnson MP makes several public speeches about how culture is not just for the wealthy, and how the working people of the Republic should enjoy the fruits of the nation’s brightest minds too. Two years later JW Johnson MP and the renowned Langston Hughes hosted an outdoor concert for the Freedmen Republic’s Military forces in Newton. Although the bill contained several musicians of differing styles, the second act, a young man known as ‘Dipper’, stole the show with his masterful performance of hugely popular Jazz songs. During his encore, the soldiers rushed the stage and held him aloft, he never missed a note and the music and dancing continued long into the night. This event was widely condemned by senior military figures with one general even calling it ‘degeneracy’ but the general public saw it simply as hard-working men enjoying their time off.

While the Freedmen enjoy peace and prosperity a large scale civil disturbance turns into a massacre in the city of Tulsa, FAS in 1921. A riot broke out over the alleged assault of a white girl by a black teenager and soon spiraled from a lynch mob into the systematic destruction of black life and property, The unprecedented levels of violence even saw the white attackers dropping explosives from airplanes. 10,000 or more black citizens of the FAS are made homeless by the massacre, many of whom seek asylum in the Freedmen’s Republic. This provoked outrage from the majority of the people of the Republic, which led to increasing support of militant Pan-Africanist Marcus Garvey. He was quoted - “If the White Man in the South continues to trample down our brethren with their dirty boots, then it can only be so long before we pull the rug from under them.” However, this statement proved to be controversial amongst many, peace was widely viewed as too valuable to risk any kind of foreign intervention in the South.

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The Freedmen's Republic (Part 6)​

The Cracks Begin To Show

The 1920s saw the first sign of major divide forming in Freedmen society. In ‘22 a short-lived riot breaks out in Prosserton when local young people returning from a Saturday night of revelry interrupt a city-center sermon with the shrill notes of a saxophone. The young people, intoxicated, energized and full of rebellion came to blows with churchgoers and the ensuing chaos saw 4 injured and a small amount of property damage. A socially conservative newspaper calls them heathens and describes how one young woman was “so scantily clad she would not have been out of place in one of those perverted European paintings!” 1924 saw JW Johnson elected Prime Minister of the Freedmen’s Republic after cultivating an image as ‘a man of the people’ and as a passionate advocate of black culture although he was viewed by more conservative citizens as being nothing more than a liberal yuppie.

Alice Ball, Dr. Hildrus Poindexter and Dr. Louis T Wright of the NIH set out their plan for working to eradicate most preventable disease from the Freedmen’s Republic. Their plans mostly fall on deaf ears and are labeled ‘utopian’. They were accused of ‘wanting to play God’ by one senior church leader. The clash between Church and wider society continued when Rev. Frederick A. Cullen warned against an obsession with the sinful pursuits associated with the Vesey Renaissance, he warns against the excessive drinking, gambling and sexual promiscuity often associated with some aspects of the movement and urges a nationwide ‘return to christ’. Far from the urging of the Reverend, James W.Ford warns of a growing wealth disparity in the Republic, whilst musicians and businessmen began earning more and more Ford reinforced the point that factory workers were still in effect chained to their machines. At one of the Freedmen Communist Party rallies, he was quoted as saying - “Brothers and sisters, Jazz is good, but what really soothes the soul is economic justice!” Doubling down on the wide variety of viewpoints and cultures in the Republic in 1929 a man called Wentworth Arthur Matthew emerges from the rising Jewish community, having formed Abraham’s Wilful Union party with the aim of making the state a holy fusion between a monarchy and a republic, stating it is the perfect way to achieve true peace on Earth. He claims to be the descendant of a lost Jewish king in Africa, a blood relative of King Solomon himself, and is determined to continue that legacy. While others mock him over his supposed delusions, this attracts the attention of the Jewish community and other curious individuals.

Another issue is the advancement of women’s position in society. Women have always been at the forefront for the fight for freedom. MumBet, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth the list is endless. Some of the most intelligent and passionate fighters in this struggle have been women. But now freedom has been won, what now for the rights of a woman? Well in the decades since the Republic was proclaimed, quality of life has improved massively, so much so there was little desire to foment radical social change in the immediate aftermath. This would gradually change though, the groundwork had already been laid by the phrase “Am I Not A Woman And A Sister?” the female equivalent of the popular phrase used by British abolitionists. Sojourner Truth made a famous speech that would go on to be called “Ain't I A Woman?” in which she appealed to white women’s rights activists to consider the plight of Black Women, who was arguably in a much worse position. It was upon this groundwork that some of the most famous contributors to Freedmen culture would build, with the work of Ida B. Wells and Zora Neale Hurston, strong advocates for black culture and women's rights. Women increasingly became involved in radicalism, especially left-wing radical politics. After women’s role in The Great NA War during the mobilization of reservists was recognized as being of great benefit to the nation, it further bolstered support for equal suffrage. This, of course, was something that was highly controversial for many portions of society, including many religious groups, social conservatives and even some black nationalists, who despite recognizing black women as powerful and valuable their role in politics was something that was perhaps in the mind of many a step too far. In 1933 many women are sided with the cultural revolution, although there are those in the upper classes and religious circles that believe tradition should dictate their role in society. Many things have changed in the last 100 years, the freeing of slaves and the freedom to vote, will the next revolution be A Woman’s Fight?

A Thirst For Change?

A group of industrialists and senior religious figures sign an open letter to the government that reads

“... we would therefore ask the honorable gentleman Mr.Locke PM to impose proper restrictions on the entertainments and brewing industries so that we, as a nation, can retain our productivity but also attain our salvation.”

The newly elected Prime Minister Alain LeRoy Locke would find himself torn between his personal Baháʼí Faith and his patronage of the arts. He had throughout his political career supported the arts, entertainment and promotion of culture, but upon consultation of his advisers, a 20% tax on alcoholic drinks was proposed to parliament. He hoped that it would appease the socially conservative, the religious and the traditionalists of the nation, without breaking the back of the music and entertainment industry. The motion was narrowly passed with support from Garvey’s Pan-African Brotherhood and the Freedmen Islamic Hizb led by Elijah Muhammad. The Libation Laws 1932 were extremely controversial, especially amongst younger people, industrial workers and left-wing politicians but extremely popular amongst the rural communities, the religious and the ever-growing upper classes. The new tax brings about a strain on society like none other since the founding of the Protectorate. The tax hit working people the hardest and Socialists such as James W.Ford, George Washington Carver and Cyril Briggs saw a huge boost in popularity. Briggs was quoted during a meeting - “To even think that the higher-ups thought appeasement would please anybody is surely a blunder like no other. The government should make decisions based on the best interests of the masses, not the whims of a minority.”

A strike over safety concerns at a shipyard in Ekoville erupts into chaos after a group of rural residents delivering timber made disparaging comments about the strikers. “Bunch ‘o lazy drunkards” Three strikers and two lumber merchants were hospitalized. The fight makes front-page news with headlines such as “Armed zealots hunt ‘heathens’” and “Work shy brutes attack the faithful”

As such The 1930s begin with the Freedmen’s Republic in a situation unfamiliar to them, with growing unrest within their nation. The nation stands somewhat divided, with those ready to embrace new liberal social norms and policies in the interest of cultural progression and economic diversity whereas their opposite numbers regard the true culture of the Freedmen to lie in their spirituality, their proud history and putting their people and their safety first. With elections just around the corner and the tension palpable, which path will the Freedmen take and how will this young nation be perceived by the powers of the old world?

“O, let my land be a land where Liberty Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath, But opportunity is real, and life is free, Equality is in the air we breathe.” Langston Hughes

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The Dutch Republic in 1933​

Relative Decline (1780-1826)​

After military intervention by the Prussians, the Patriot rebels were forced underground. The Stadtholder, William V, could rest comfortably knowing the political turmoil brought on by the radicals was over. Though, while the issue of radicals was solved, the reasons for it coming about hadn’t been. The Patriot movement advocated for a democratic republic, stoked by growing dissatisfaction with the Netherlands’ situation and by the success of the American revolution. Indeed, there was much to be unhappy about. In the past, the Dutch could pride themselves in supreme naval power and unparalleled wealth brought on by the spice trade. Now, they were being overshadowed by other powers, namely the British.

The Fourth Anglo-Dutch War, from 1780-1784, served as an example of Dutch decline. The Dutch were defeated rather disastrously at sea, signalling that much had changed in the hundred years since the Third Anglo-Dutch War. Along with perceived military decline, the Dutch economy had also been stagnant; little economic growth occurred while other European powers began to overtake them. Next, the Dutch Republic was intended to be more representative of the people than in other European societies, yet political power had been concentrating in patrician families and nobility for a long time now. Last of all, the American Revolution was a catalyst inspiring the idea of reform through revolution. These factors all contributed to the rise of the Patriot movement.

Alas, the movement would end in defeat. After the Patriots arrested the Stadtholder’s wife, a Prussian princess, the Prussians opted to intervene in the low-key civil war taking place. In truth, the Prussians had been wary of the Patriots for a while, as were other European powers. But, they weren’t seen as significant enough for direct military intervention at the time. The arrest of the princess only served as a casus belli and final straw. With the arrival of Prussian troops, the movement was defeated militarily, and the status quo restored.

Part 2 coming soon.