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I always a rather strange thing that the USA never established such a thing and would like to know what you guys think would be the effects of such a system. For all the people in room who may not understand what I am saying I'll further elaborate:

Within Modern South Africa there was a group of people known as the Boers who to put it simply were dutch speaking settlers who more or less went native. Over the course of their settlement in the 1600s they faced up to large scale resistance from local forces and due in part to a lack of support from home had to take matters into their own hands and set up what became known as the Commando System. Under the system all free men were for all intents and purposes required to serve in the militia and in conjunction with the regular armed forces would defend the settlement in times of war. When the Boer Republics were established during the great trek they maintained the system requiring all men between the ages of 16-60 to be liable for service in times of need. This system would function as the backbone of the Boer forces during the First and Second Boer Wars until the destruction of the Boer Republics upon the conclusion of the Latter.

The structure was rather simple. Each Town had a Commando led by a Commandant, below this level would be the wards which were led by a Field Cornet, below these were corporalships which roughly comprised ~20 or so burghers(free male citizens). Above the Commandant were the generals who led roughly 4 commandos, These guys were responsible to the Commander in chief who was theoretically responsible to the president of the Republic. Technically speaking these commanders were not responsible to the government though and were elected directly by the population of those they led.

In later iterations of the system present in modern South Africa the system became less of a military force and more focused on acting as a local police auxiliary useful in helping defend and police mostly rural regions. Due in par tot associations with Boer rule and by extension apartheid it would be dismantled in the mid 2000s.

So with that all in mind What would it take for the United States to establish such a system and not only that what would be the effects? To put it in more simple terms what would be effects of the United States having: Organized and Compulsory militia service(which I will call the Phalanx) both in peace and in war though not necessarily regular military service(which I will call the Legion) and Technically by extension Compulsory Gun ownership*1 with it. More than likely this will come in the form of an expanded 2nd Amendment. My thoughts:

- Short term, america might come out a lot more egalitarian in it's earlier years with the idea being that militia(which I will call the Phalanx) service = citizenship = voting rights. Hence anyone who is of service age(imagine somewhere between 15-20 years of age at the earliest) should be allowed to vote as a free man. America with a more democratic system from the onset could end up with a host of butterflies which adds onto my second point.

Medium Term, African Americans might end up a bit better off with this system. My thinking is that an armed and trained minority is a whole lot harder to disenfranchise than a unarmed one, mixed that in with the aforementioned earlier notions of egalitarianism might lead to them being able to maintain their rights even in the face of oppression. At least in certain regions especially if they have full majorities like say much of the Deep South. Might be kinda hard to justify things like poll taxes and other restrictions on voting rights in this world.

On the otherhand the Federal government might end up being a lot weaker depending on how the Phalanx is organized and controlled. Under the Boers the Commandos were not technically beholden to the government having elected officers and and it appears they had a major function in the collection of taxes to. Though this might end up being a double edged sword for the states since they might exert at best minimal power over this system with local governments(municipalities) having the principle power over it. Consequently you might end up with the idea of municipal rights being developed a lot earlier which is interesting to put it mildly.

- Longish-medium term, Womens suffrage takes a big hit and I think immigration might too. Service in the Phalanx will probably be heavily associated with voting rights, especially if the aforementioned earlier mode of thinking is developed, consequently since women don't serve in the Phalanx and I seriously doubt outside of the most radical of the early suffragist would even entertain such a thought this presents quite a potent argument against women voting. They don't have to bleed and die for their country so why should they get a say? It wouldn't be until you get groups in second wave before you have such thinking becoming a bit more... common but that didn't happen until roughly the 60-70s. Women might not be voting until potentially up to the 1960-80s in this world :eek:. An arguable example of this would be Switzerland which again arguably due to it's compulsory militia service never allowed women to vote until at the earliest 1970 and in some areas until the 1990s.

In terms of immigrants one could probably argue that a good portion of the reason america has such significant waves of immigrants was due in part to it's rather democratic nature but also possibly due to the lack of any sort of peacetime conscription which is a big plus. Now that atleast one of those has changed that might make america less of an ideal place to immigrate.

This doesn't even tough on the fact that minus conscription in the Legion which potentially is the only one required to serve overseas the USA is severely hamstrung in projecting hard power overseas and will have to settle for a more soft power approach to international affairs. No more global police man.

Overall? A somewhat less democratic, feminist, and colorful albeit more racially egalitarian USA that might end up at best a great power on the world stage but never reaches the status as a super power. Just my two cents though. What about you guys, what do you think?

1* that should turn the gun debate on it's head LOL
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