This is a continuation of my THE BLACK AND THE GRAY timeline, based on Confederate adoption of the Cleburne Memorial in early 1864. For those of you who haven't read the earlier segments of the timeline (up to 1898), you can view it on the Alternate History Directory of this website or by clicking the following link...
http://www.geocities.ws/robertp6165/blackconfederatecontents.html
ADDITIONS TO EARLIER SEGMENTS OF THE TIMELINE...
1866, Utah Territory--Brigham Young, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, declares that only men that practice polygamy can become gods. This puts the Mormon Church squarely in conflict with the United States government, which passed legislation in 1862 banning polygamy. In order to avoid conflict, the Federal government attempts to turn a blind eye to what is going on in Utah, but increasing protests by "Gentiles" living in Utah force the federal government to take an increasingly active stance against Utah polygamy.
1875, Utah Territory--The L.D.S. Doctrine & Covenants are revised to allow polygamy by adding section 132 and removing section 101 verse 4, prohibiting polygamy. Tensions between Mormon and "Gentile" citizens of Utah are increasing, forcing the federal government to increasingly become involved.
1877, Utah Territory--Death of Brigham Young. Any hopes that the L.D.S. Church will take a less extreme view on the issue of polygamy are quickly dashed, however. Orson Pratt, the new leader of the church, fully endorses polygamy.
1879, Utah Territory--The U.S. Supreme Court upholds a guilty verdict in Utah territorial court against polygamist George Reynolds, Brigham Young's personal secretary. The case was meant as a challenge to federal anti-polygamy laws, but backfired on the Mormon Church.
1880, Utah Territory--John Taylor becomes the fourth Prophet of the Mormon Church. He, like Young and Pratt before him, fully endorses polygamy.
1886, Utah Territory--LDS President John Taylor is allegedly visited by Joseph Smith and Jesus Christ, who confirmed to him the righteousness of polygamy. Fundamentalists say Taylor asked five men to ensure the practice lives on.
1887, Utah Territory--Edmunds-Tucker Act reiterates U.S. ban on polygamy with stiffer penalties, including the disenfranchisement of polygamists. Also in this year, John Taylor dies, and the L.D.S. Church is temporarily without a prophet.ªAlso in this year, John Moses Browning of Ogden, Utah, travels to Georgia (in the Confederacy) as a Mormon Missionary. He decides to settle down there and starts a firearms manufacturing company, Browning Firearms, after his mission period ends. Browning is a brilliant designer, and his work is soon noticed by the Confederate military.
1889, Utah Territory--Wilford Woodruff becomes the fifth Prophet of the Mormon Church.
1890, Utah Territory--As Utah vies for statehood, and recognizing that the political balance of power within Utah itslef is shifting as increasing numbers of Mormon polygamists are convicted and disenfranchised under the Edmunds-Tucker Act, LDS Church leader Wilford Woodruff issues a Manifesto suspending the practice of polygamy because it is "contrary to the laws of the land." However, the Woodruff Manifesto is not enforced, and polygamy continues on in Utah without a pause. This is not lost on local federal officials.
c. 1890 onward, North America--Movement to prohibit alcohol begins to gain support in the various nations of North America. As early as 1773, lead by the Methodist Church, calls were being made in America to prohibit the production, sale, and use of alcoholic beverages. This "Temperance Movement," as it was called, gradually gained strength throughout the 19th Century. Beginning in the 1890s, various State Legislatures in the United States, the Confederacy, and Texas vote to go "Dry." This further invigorates the Temperance movement, which begins pushing, in all three countries, for amendments to the national constitutions calling for complete alcohol prohibition.
c. 1890 onward, The Confederacy--Various designs by John Browning are adopted by the Confederate military. By the time war breaks out in 1899, the Confederacy has the best light machine guns and automatic pistols in the world. It will also adopt a Browning-designed semi-automatic military rifle...the first to be adopted by any military anywhere in the world...in 1900, just in time to see action in the war.
1893, Philadelphia, D.C.--Legislation to admit Utah as a State into the Union is introduced into Congress. Due in large part to reports of continued polygamy in Utah, the measure is defeated in Congress. Similar legislation will be introduced every year for the next decade, and always meet the same result. Dissatisfaction among the Mormons of Utah, who feel that they are being persecuted by the federal government, increases with each defeated statehood bill.
PART THREE--THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, 1899-2000
1899-1902--THE GREAT WAR. In March 1899, fighting opened simultaneously on several fronts. In Europe, under the direction of Chief of Staff Alfred von Schlieffen, five German armies invaded northern France, moving through the neutral territory of Holland and Belgium so as to bypass the heavily fortified Franco-German border. Holland's armed forces were quickly overwhelmed, and Queen Wilhelmina quickly capitulated and went into exile in Sweden. However, the Belgians, under King Leopold II, bravely resisted and refused to capitulate. But the Belgians were hit on a second front when the British landed an expeditionary force to cooperate with the Germans, and King Leopold was forced to retreat, with his army, into France, where they linked up with the main French army north of Paris. The Anglo/German armies advanced nearly to the gates of Paris before being halted by entrenched Franco Belgian forces on the Marne River. The front stabilized as the Anglo-Germans also dug in, and a bloody stalemate which would last for over two years resulted. At the same time, the Italian Army invaded Savoy and Nice in southern France, but was halted not far from the border by the French. In the east, Russia invaded Austrian Galicia and German East Prussia from Poland and a huge slugging match ensued which saw huge casualties inflicted for very little ground gained.
Meanwhile, in America, U.S. and Oklahoma forces invaded northern Texas, but were halted by the Alamo Line. Hundreds of thousands of Yankees and Oklahomans fell in useless assaults on these formidable works. Texas made brilliant use of rail lines to move reserve forces from front to front as needed, and they were aided in this by their early deployment of a helium-filled rigid airship, which performed invaluable recon missions with impunity over U.S. and Oklahoma lines. These airships also were equipped to perform bombing missions, and squadrons of airships transported raiding parties of Texas troops behind enemy lines to attack U.S. and Oklahoma supply lines, especially railroads (incidentally, Count Ferdinand Zeppelin also, in 1900, built a successful rigid airship which, unlike the Texas model, was filled with hydrogen, and this too...largely because there were no easy ways to attack these craft as the airplane had not yet been invented...gave valuable service performing similar missions for German forces in Europe). Texas also had a large force of armored cars which proved very useful on the flat plains of northwest Texas and the deserts of the southwest (at least in areas which were not scarred by deep trenches and shell craters). Nevertheless, Texas was heavily outnumbered, and things did not look good for it's long-term prospects.
Fighting also broke out in other regions as well. In Africa, British, German, and Italian forces attacked French colonies all over the continent. At the same time, the Boer Republics, Orange Free State and the Transvaal, declared for the Triple Entente and attacked the British colony in South Africa, placing the British garrisons of Capetown, Ladysmith, and Mafeking under siege. In the middle east, Russian armies invaded Afghanistan, with the intent of attacking India. Those armies would go on to occupy Afghanistan, and would clash with British and Indian troops in the Khyber Pass region, but they would never penetrate India itself during the entire war.
On the seas, there were major clashes between the various fleets. French and Austro-Italian fleets battled in the Mediterranean, resulting in a defeat for the French which opened the way for the landing of an Italian expeditionary force in Algeria. Anglo-German and U.S. fleets met off the coast of Nova Scotia, resulting in a victory for the U.S. which prevented the landing of an Anglo-German expeditionary force in Canada. And a combined Franco-U.S. fleet defeated an Anglo-Texas fleet in the Caribbean, which allowed the landing of an expeditionary force at Jamaica. The capture of this important naval base from the British forced the Anglo-Texan fleets to take refuge in the Texan naval base at Galveston, and also allowed the Franco-U.S. fleet to institute a blockade of the Texas coast, where the blockaders were severely harassed by Texas torpedo boats and submarines.
April 1899 saw several other nations enter the war. The Ottoman Empire and Japan, both with major grudges against Russia, entered the war on the side of the Grand Alliance. The Ottomans opened a new front against Russia in the Caucasus (where they made only limited progress, but tied up a sizeable number of Russian troops), while Japan attacked Russian forces in Manchuria, defeating them and occupying most of Manchuria within a year. The entry of the Ottomans, however, also spurred the entry of the Balkan nations...Serbia, Montenegro, Romania, Bulgaria, and Greece...on the side of the Triple Entente. These nations quickly occupied most of the Ottoman European possessions, as well as invading Austria's Balkan provinces. The entry of these nations did not materially change the balance of power in the main theatres, however, and the bloody stalemate of trench warfare continued.
In May 1899, the U.S. Pacific Fleet attacked and defeated the British fleet in the Hawaiian islands, depriving the British of this important coaling station within striking distance of the U.S. Pacific coast. Over the next three years, several attempts would be made to take back this vital base by the combined Anglo-German-Japanese fleets in the Pacific, but none of these would be successful, and the hoped-for landing of a British/Australian/New Zealand/Indian expeditionary force in Texas was never able to be effected. Also in May 1899, in Africa, with the British unable to immediately spare forces for the succor of their South African colonies, the Boers forced the surrender of Ladysmith, Mafeking, and Capetown and occupied all of South Africa. And, at the same time, the Grand Alliance forces (primarily Italian and British, with some German and Ottoman support) occupied all of France's African colonies.
The period from May 1899 to July 1901 was one of stalemate on all fronts, punctuated by bloody assaults (primarily by Grand Alliance Forces in Europe and by Entente Forces in North America) on entrenched enemy forces, resulting in huge casualties to the attacking forces. The only notable events during this time period was the introduction of flamethrowers by Texas forces in June 1899, and poison gas by Texas forces in February 1900 (both of these innovations were quickly copied by the U.S. forces, however, and were also to be used by both sides in Europe as well), as well as the capture of the French colony Indo-China by an Anglo-Japanese expeditionary force in April 1901.
July 1901 would prove to be the decisive month of the conflict. In that month, several things happened which decisively tilted the balance against the Triple Entente.ªªFirst, the Confederate States of America entered the conflict on the side of the Grand Alliance. The Confederacy was drawn into the conflict as a result of several factors. The first of these was continuing harassment of Confederate shipping in the Caribbean by the Franco-U.S. fleet operating from Jamaica, including several sinkings by Entente submarines. The second was the increasingly belligerent attitude by the U.S. toward the Confederacy with regard to the trade in munitions and oil...Texas exporting oil to the Confederacy in exchange for arms...being carried on across their mutual border by the Confederacy and Texas, which was providing Texas with practically it's only means of outside supply (Of course, the Confederacy is also trading with the U.S., but that has not prevented the U.S. from pressuring the Confederacy over it's trade with Texas). The entry of the Confederacy proved vital to the Grand Alliance in several ways. The Confederate Navy joined with the fleets of Britain and Germany to finally crush the U.S. Atlantic fleet, enabling the landing of Anglo-German expeditionary forces in Canada and in Virginia (where they operated in cooperation with Confederate forces). Confederate naval forces in the Caribbean also assisted the Anglo-Texan fleets in that region in breaking the blockade of the Texas coast, and an Anglo-Confederate expeditionary force was landed at Jamaica in December 1901, retaking that strategically important base. And the Confederates themselves were able to provide the extra troops which kept Texas in the war and allowed the Grand Alliance to finally take the offensive on all fronts in America. Texan, Confederate, and British troops advanced north, and occupied all of Oklahoma, Arizona, and New Mexico before the end of hostilities in early 1902, while British, Confederate, and German forces advanced north from Kentucky and Virginia, seizing much of the midwest and even capturing the U.S. capital of Philadelphia, D.C., before the end of hostilities in early 1902. And the Anglo-German expeditionary force in Canada occupied Montreal and Quebec before the end of hostilities in 1902.
Second, the Mormons of Utah, who had long felt that they were being oppressed for their religious beliefs with regard to their practice of polygamy, declared their secession from the United States, seized government arsenals around the Territory (which, unlike OTL, had not been granted statehood by this time) and rose in armed revolt. Mormon independence was immediately recognized by the Grand Alliance powers. The major transcontinental rail line was thereby cut, and the United States was forced to divert troops from the New Mexico and other fronts to deal with the rebellion, which it was unable to crush before the end of hostilities in 1902.
And third, spurred on by popular anger resulting from a combination of famine caused by poor harvests and the unending casualty lists of the war, a revolution lead by a coalition of Menshevik Marxists and bourgeois liberals broke out in Russia which toppled Tsar Nicholas II, who abdicated in favor of his brother, Grand Duke Mikhail. The new Tsar Mikhail II had the good sense to "go with the flow," and agreed to a new written constitution. The document strictly limited the powers of the monarch, guaranteed civil liberties, and created a popularly elected legislative body, called the Duma, which had the power to approve or veto any new law and to approve and control officials of the crown. Mikhail II also quickly bowed to the obvious popular will and sued for peace, taking Russia out of the war. The Grand Alliance powers quickly concluded a treaty with Russia, signed at Warsaw in August 1901, which stipulated that Russia was to cede it's lands in Poland to Germany and Austria, cede the Caucasus to the Ottomans, withdraw from Afghanistan, and recognize Japan's annexation of Manchuria. Germany and Austria were then able to transfer large forces from the east to the front in France, and the Ottomans were able to transfer large forces to the Balkans. This decisively tipped the balance in Europe. Within a year, France had fallen to a coordinated assault by German, British, Italian, and Austrian troops, and the Turks (with German and Austrian help) had re-conquered most of the Balkans. The Balkan states (Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Romania, and Greece) were all forced to surrender by the end of October 1901. France held out until February 1902, when it, too, surrendered. With it's last ally out of the war, the United States, too, capitulated in March 1902, virtually ending the Great War (fighting continued for another year in South Africa as Grand Alliance forces gradually crushed the Boer Republics with troops freed by the end of fighting elsewhere).
The war had been devastating for nearly all nations involved. Casualty figures were as follows, by nation...
THE ENTENTE FORCES
--UNITED STATES: 6,000,000
--OKLAHOMA--700,000
--FRANCE: 7,000,000
--RUSSIA: 9,000,000
--SERBIA: 400,000
--MONTENEGRO: 30,000
--GREECE: 100,000
--ROMANIA: 500,000
--BULGARIA: 300,000
--BOER REPUBLICS: 100,000
--BELGIUM: 100,000
--HOLLAND: 50,000
TOTAL: 24,180,000
THE GRAND ALLIANCE FORCES
--CONFEDERATE STATES: 350,000
--TEXAS: 4,000,000
--BRITISH EMPIRE: 5,000,000
--GERMANY: 6,000,000
--AUSTRIA: 3,000,000
--JAPAN: 350,000
--OTTOMAN EMPIRE: 3,000,000
--ITALY: 2,000,000
--UTAH: 20,000
TOTAL: 23,720,000
Aside from the obvious impact of the widespread use of magazine rifles firing smokeless powder, machine guns, flame-throwers, poison gas, submarines, armored cars, airships, and large caliber, quick-firing artillery, the war is significant in that it marks the first widespread use of radio communication (which was invented in the late 1890s by Marconi and others) by the militaries of all nations.
1900--Elections in the Union. Republicans William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt run for an unprecedented third term. They defeat William Jennings Bryan and Charles A. Towne, the Democratic challengers, in large part because voters do not want to "switch horses" in the midst of a war.
1900, The Confederacy--John M. Browning is appointed as Chief of Weapons Design at the Confederate Ordnance Department. Under his supervision, many innovative weapons will be introduced into the Confederate arsenal, including the Browning Self-Loading Rifle, the first semi-automatic rifle to be adopted by the military of any country, and the Browning Light (.30 caliber) and Heavy (.50 caliber) Machine Guns.
4 March 1901, Philadelphia, D.C.--William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt are sworn in for their third terms as President and Vice President of the United States.
1902--The Geneva Peace Conference. In May 1902, representatives of all the powers involved in the recent war...except the Boer Republics, which were still at war...met in Geneva to hammer out a final peace treaty. President Semmes of the Confederate States of America tried, unsuccessfully, to encourage moderation in the peace terms so as to prevent the treaty from becoming the seed ground for a future war, and the terms of the final treaty which was signed in November 1902 are harsh. Provisions of the treaty were as follows...
--Texan annexation of Oklahoma was recognized, despite protest by the Confederacy.
--The United States was forced to cede to Texas all of New Mexico Territory east of the Rio Grande, which was the part of that territory which was originally claimed by the Republic of Texas at the time of it's annexation by the United States (Texas had pressed for cession of all of New Mexico and Arizona, but the Confederacy strongly opposed Texas annexation of territory to which it had no historical claim, and in this was supported by the British).
--The United States was forced to cede all of Canada, except the former province of British Columbia...which it successfully argued (with Confederate support) was necessary to link it's Alaskan Territory to the rest of the United States...to Great Britain. These territories had been under uneasy U.S. military occupation since the Reparations War in 1881, and the people within them were glad to be returned to the British Empire.
--Britain also re-annexed the Dominion of Nova Africanus, which was less glad to re-join the British fold, having tasted de-facto independence during the war.
--The United States was forced to grant independence to the Mormons in Utah, which immediately announced the re-birth (as they viewed it) of their state of Deseret.
--The Confederacy (despite the clamoring of some hotheads who noisily demanded that the Confederate government seek the re-annexation of West Virginia by the Confederacy) did not ask for any territorial revisions.ªª
--At the insistence of Britain and Texas, the United States was forced to strictly limit the size of it's navy to no more than 1/2 that of Britain, and reduce it's standing army to no more than 200,000 men.
--The Terms of the Treaty of Warsaw, signed earlier between Russia and the Grand Alliance, were recognized by the Geneva Conference, but additionally, Russia was forced to grant independence to Finland.
--The annexation of Holland, Belgium, and Luxembourg by Germany was recognized, despite the strong objections of Britain.
--France was forced to cede Savoy and Nice to Italy, as well as Corsica.ªª
--All of France's colonies in Africa were ceded, with some going to Germany and others to Italy.
--France was forced to limit the size of it's army to no more than 100,000 men.
--Germany, as previously agreed, ceded it's colony in East Africa to Britain, allowing it to complete it's Capetown to Cairo railroad at last.
--Belgium's colony in the Congo was ceded to Germany.
--Britain annexed the Boer Republics in South Africa.
--Japan was allowed to keep the former French colony in Indo-China, as well as the Philippines (which it occupied shortly after invading Indo-China in 1901, even though Spain was officially neutral in the conflict).
--The British re-claimed the Hawaiian Islands.
--Germany, which had annexed Holland, also claimed the Dutch colonies in the East Indies and South America, and this was recognized.
--The Balkan States, with the exception of Greece, are partitioned between Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire. Greece...which has some powerful friends in Britain and Germany...is allowed to retain a precarious independence, but suffers territorial loss to the Ottomans.
--The United States, France, and Russia were all forced to pay heavy reparations to the victorious powers.The Confederacy refuses to accept reparations.
The Treaty of Geneva well illustrated the principle that "To the victors go the spoils." And, as Confederate President Semmes had feared, it would lead to further conflict later in the century.
1902 onward--In the aftermath of the War of Secession, almost all of the Confederate States had adopted the suggestion of Judah P. Benjamin that freed blacks be placed in a system of "peonage," where they were bound to work the plantations of their former masters...for wages or on a share-crop system...while they were educated and until such time as they became financially self-sufficient enough to leave the plantation. In most places, this had worked as Mr. Benjamin intended...providing a gateway through which freed slaves made themselves ready for the responsibilities of citizenship. But in some areas...Mississippi, South Carolina, and Alabama, the traditional strongholds of the old States Rights Party...the system was abused to create a sort of "slavery without slavery." Plantation owners trapped former slaves by getting them in debt, forcing them to continue to work the plantation in order to pay off the debt (similar to the "company stores" in the North by which factory owners kept many of their employees effectively in slavery)...which of course, never quite happened. Those three states also never adopted legislation granting State Citizenship (i.e. the ability to vote in State elections or to run for State offices) to blacks. Blacks in those States have a tough life, with little hope for betterment.
As time has gone on, public outcry in the more "progressive" States of the Confederacy has steadily risen against these "archaic" practices. This outcry is strengthened when, in the Great War...as in the War of Secession and the Spanish War...black soldiers once again show their bravery and patriotism for the Confederacy and play a vital part in the successful conclusion of the war. More and more people are questioning why blacks, anywhere in the Confederacy, should be denied full citizenship.
1903, South Africa--Britain crushes the last Boer resistance and occupies the Orange Free State and Transvaal. These are unified with their own Cape Colony and Natal province to form the colony of South Africa.
1900, The Confederacy--John M. Browning is appointed as Chief of Weapons Design at the Confederate Ordnance Department. Under his supervision, many innovative weapons will be introduced into the Confederate arsenal.
1903, Russia--The Bolshevik wing of the Russian Marxist movement strongly opposes the new government, as it desires the complete overthrow of the monarchy and the establishment of a "dictatorship of the proletariat." Bolshevik leaders such as Vladimir Lenin and Josef Stalin are forced into exile, fleeing ahead of Tsar Mikhail's security forces.
1903--Elections in the Confederacy. The State Sovereignty Party, flush with it's recent victorious handling of the Great War, offers J.E.B. Stuart, Jr. of Virginia for President and Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr. of Kentucky for Vice President. The Liberty Party candidates are Allen D. Candler of Georgia for President and Benton McMillin of Tennessee for Vice President. The State Sovereignty ticket of Stuart and Buckner easily wins the election.
1903 onward, North America--Despite the fact that the Confederacy recently sided against the United States in the Great War, the recent actions of the Confederacy at the Geneva Peace Convention in trying to moderate the demands of Britain and Texas and in not demanding territory or reparations for itself has prevented any great animosity from forming between the Union and the Confederacy. Indeed, relations between Texas and the Confederacy have taken a dramatic downturn, given the Confederacy's strong opposition to Texan grabs for territory after the Great War, and the Union and the Confederacy find themselves gradually drawn together by a common opposition to Texas.
1903--The Union is experiencing a severe depression in the aftermath of it's defeat in the Great War. The heavy reparations imposed by the Treaty of Geneva, plus the enforced reduction in the size of the military (which impacts many major industries which supply the military) are mainly responsible. The large-scale transfer of gold, in the form of reparations, out of the United States Treasury has severely affected the money supply in the U.S., causing a collapse of prices which has thrown millions out of work. Riots by hungry, unemployed men take place in many large cities and are brutally suppressed by the U.S. Army and various State Guards.
1904, The Confederacy--On 22 February 1904, at Washington, C.D., J.E.B. Stuart, Jr. is sworn in as the ninth President of the Confederate States of America, and Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr. is sworn in as Vice President.ªªPresident Stuart will immediately introduce a bill in Congress to eliminate the Conscription Act...one of the key issues for the State Sovereignty Party...and to reduce the size of the army to 200,000 men, arguing that the limitations on the size of the U.S. military imposed by the Treaty of Geneva obviate the need for a larger military force. His bill will be passed by the end of the year, a major victory for the State Sovereignty Party.ªªAlso in this year, John M. Browning resigns his post as Chief of Weapons Design for the Confederate States War Department in order to accept the post of Chief of Ordnance, Republic of Deseret. However, the Browning-trained designers at the Confederate Ordnance Department continue to turn out innovative designs for the Confederate military.
1904--Elections in the Union. Republicans Theodore Roosevelt and Charles W. Fairbanks are facing opposition by Democrats William Jennings Bryan and Alton Parker. In response to the continuing Depression in the United States, Bryan is once again proposing the free coinage of silver, as well as a new issue of "greenbacks," to restore the money supply and encourage inflation of prices. His message finds a receptive ear among the electorate, and the Democratic candidates win election in a landslide victory. Democratic majorities are also returned in both the House and the Senate.
1905 onward, the Balkans--The annexation of Serbia by the Austro-Hungarian Empire after the Great War has lead to the formation of various Serbian independence groups in Austrian-held territory. These groups engage in various acts of terrorism, mostly against Austrian occupation forces, which test the stability of the already shaky Austrian Empire.
1905, Great Britain--The Hornsby Company, improving on earlier designs by one Richard Edgeworth dating back to 1770, patents the first truly practical caterpillar track. The invention is soon put to use in Europe and North America by companies producing agricultural tractors.
1905, Texas--Not satisfied with it's territorial gains in the Great War, the Republic of Texas decides to "settle accounts" with Mexico. Battle-hardened Texas troops invade Mexico in March 1905, and by the end of the year, have conquered the entire country. The United States and the Confederate States strongly protest, but when Britain begins rattling it's sabre in support of Texas, both decide to keep their own swords sheathed. Texas soon reorganizes the crazy quilt of States in Mexico into twelve new "Territories," which it plans to gradually admit as States in the future. the incident serves to strengthen the trend toward increasing cooperation between the Union and the Confederacy which has been growing since the Great War.
1905, Scandinavia--Norway peacefully secedes from Sweden.
4 March 1905, Philadelphia, D.C.--William Jennings Bryan is sworn in as the twenty-third President of the United States, and Alton Parker is sworn in as Vice President.
1905, The Union--The Depression continues. President Bryan's Monetary Act, which ushers in free coinage of silver as well as issuing several tens of millions of dollars in paper currency (Greenbacks) in an effort to boost the economy, is passed by the Democratic Congress. It does have the desired effect, gradually inflating prices and encouraging new hiring by employers. By the end of the year, the Depression seems to be well on it's way out.
1906, The Union--Unfortunately, the temporary boon to the economy caused by President Bryan's inflationary monetary policy has played out, and now the effect of ever-increasing prices is forcing the economy back into recession. Unemployment is rising again as a result.
23 October 1906, France--Beginning with the work of Englishman George Cayley in 1799, scientists and inventors in many countries have been experimenting with designs for heavier-than-air flight. There have been many partially successful designs, especially unpowered gliders, but also experiments with craft powered by steam engines which actually achieved flight...over very short distances...in 1874 and 1890. However, the weight of the steam engine makes it an impractical for anything other than very short flights, and it has only been the development of the internal combustion engine, powered by gasoline, which has finally made a manned, powered, heavier-than-air craft a practical idea. It is not until 1906 that the first flight by such a machine is made, however, in France by Brazilian Alberto Santos-Dumont (Wilbur and Orville Wright were never born in this timeline...their father, abolitionist United Brethren Bishop Milton Wright, was among those killed in the July 1865 riots). The aeroplane is born. Research is soon underway in all major nations to develop their own version of the machine.
1907, The Union--In an attempt to arrest the inflationary spiral which is gripping the country as a result of his 1905 Monetary Act, President Bryan orders the recall of all Greenbacks (paper currency). This sudden contraction of the money supply, however, simply accelerates the gathering recession which has been building over the past year. By the end of the year the country is back in the throes of a full-scale Depression. Also in this year, Glenn Curtis designs and flies the first American aeroplane.
1907 onwards, Europe--Increasing tension between Britain and Germany. In the aftermath of the Great War, Germany has come out with an empire which rivals that of Great Britain, which does not please the British one bit. And to make matters worse, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany has resumed his naval buildup, which has worsened relations dramatically between his nation and Great Britain. Then, in 1907, the British up the stakes by introducing the first all-big-gun battleship powered by oil-burning, steam turbine engines, the H.M.S. Fearless. The warship carries twelve 14-inch guns in six turrets (two fore, two aft, and two amidships). This vessel instantly renders every battleship then existing in the world obsolete. Germany immediately begins work on it's own version, and the two nations are shortly in a bitter naval arms race. Tensions between the two nations rise to unprecedented levels, and the already fragile alliance between Britain and Germany, which was severely shaken by German land-grabs in Europe after the Great War, will not survive. ªBritain will, over the course of the succeeding years, find itself gradually pushed toward France, Italy, and Russia...other nations in Europe who feel as threatened by Germany as Britain does...as concern over increasing German power grows.
1908--Elections in the Union. President Bryan doesn’t run for a second term. Vice President Parker runs for President with John W. Kern as his running mate. Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft are the Republican candidates. The charismatic Roosevelt runs an aggressive campaign, making speeches in cities all over the country in which he denounces the "buffoons who have ruined our great nation." People are generally disgusted by the way the Democrats have handled the Depression, and T.R. easily wins the election.ªª
1908, The Confederacy--Captain John Gabriel Rains, Confederate States Army, flies the first Confederate-designed aeroplane.
1908, The Union--Brigadier General John T. Thompson, U.S. Army, has been tinkering with an idea for a new weapon, based on his experiences in the recent war, which he calls the "Trench Broom." In 1908 he patents the first truly practical sub-machine gun, what will become known to history as the "Tommy Gun." The U.S. Army adopts the new weapon the next year. Competing designs will be adopted by most other countries over the next decade.
4 March 1909, Philadelphia, D.C.--Theodore Roosevelt is sworn in as the Twenty-fourth President of the United States of America, and William Howard Taft is sworn in as Vice President.
1909--The Union. President Roosevelt introduces into Congress legislation which he calls the "Sound Money Bill," which consists of several items and is intended to replace President Bryan's Monetary Act. The bill calls for the withdrawal of all gold coins from circulation, as well as all silver coins in denominations higher than $1. These are to be replaced by a new paper currency, which will be backed, not by specie, but by the "full faith and credit of the U.S. Government." This will divorce the "value" and the supply of money from the ever-expanding and contracting supply of specie. Also, the supply of this new paper money will be regulated by a new central bank, called the Reserve Bank of the United States, to prevent abrupt expansions or contractions of the money supply. This legislation is bitterly opposed by Democrats in Congress, but Roosevelt, through sheer charisma and adroit political maneuvering, is able to get it passed before the end of the year. President Roosevelt also takes advantage of the increasing friction between Britain and Germany to announce that the United States will not abide by the disarmament provisions of the Treaty of Geneva, and at his urging, Congress passes legislation increasing the peacetime strength of the U.S. Army back to it's pre-Great War strength of 340,000. Although there are protests from Britain and Texas especially, nobody much wants to re-open armed conflict, and Roosevelt's bold declaration stands.
1909--Confederate Elections. This election is the first in which the cause of full black citizenship in all States of the Confederacy becomes a major campaign issue. The State Sovereignty candidates, Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr. of Kentucky and Martin F. Ansel of South Carolina, strongly oppose any interference by the national government or other States in the "internal affairs of Mississippi, Alabama, and South Carolina," and they narrowly defeat the Liberty Party candidates, Nathan Bedford Forrest II (son of William Montgomery Forrest and grandson of General Nathan Bedford Forrest) of Tennessee and John Isaac Moore of Arkansas.
1910, North Africa--Italian airmen make the first military use of the aeroplane, using it for reconnaissance and even dropping some primitive bombs on rebellious Berber tribesmen in Libya and Tunisia. Other nations begin forming their own military air services in response.
22 February 1910, Washington, C.D.--Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr., is sworn in as the tenth President of the Confederate States of America, and John Isaac Moore is sworn in as Vice President.
1910, The Confederacy--Despite the increasingly close relationship between the Union and the Confederacy since the Great War, U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt's recent announcement that he is abrograting the limits imposed on the U.S. military by the Treaty of Geneva is a cause of concern in the Confederacy. President Buckner does not want to re-impose compulsory conscription...the elimination of which was one of the State Sovereignty Party's key victories...but he needs to find a way to counterbalance increasing U.S. military power. He secretly authorizes development of an idea for an armored fighting vehicle, to be based on the recently invented caterpillar tractor, which will have the ability to cross trenches and, it is hoped, restore mobility to the battlefield. In order to disguise their real use, the new vehicles are developed under the pretense that they are simply tractors for hauling artillery ammunition. They thus acquire the code name "wagon," and are known in Confederate military circles...in private...as "Battle Wagons."
1910, The Union: In the United States, the civil service system has never been reformed (largely because assassination of President James Garfield didn't happen in this alternate timeline). Government jobs are still given out according to a "spoils system" which dates back to the administration of Andrew Jackson. On June 19, 1910, that particular chicken finally comes home to roost when President Roosevelt is shot to death in front of the White House itself by a disgruntled job seeker. William Howard Taft is sworn in as the Twenty-fifth President of the United States of America shortly afterward. In the aftermath of this incident, the civil service system is reformed and the "spoils system" is finally eliminated. Taft also begins a program of tax cuts, spending cuts, and reductions in government regulation aimed at stimulating business investment and hiring which, when combined with the effects of the "Sound Money Bill" of deceased President Roosevelt, will finally end the Depression by the end of the following year.
1911, The Confederacy--The shocking assassination of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt has lead the Confederate government to examine it's own system for distributing government jobs, which is also basically a political "spoils system." By the end of the year, legislation will be passed by the Confederate Congress to reform the civil service system and eliminate the Confederacy's version of the "spoils system."
1912--Elections in the Union. Buoyed by his success in ending the Depression, President Taft and running mate Charles W. Fairbanks handily defeat their Democratic challengers, James Beauchamp Clark and Thomas R. Marshall.
4 March 1913, Philadelphia, D.C.--President Taft is sworn in for his second term as President of the United States, and Charles W. Fairbanks is sworn in as Vice President.
28 June 1914, Sarajevo, Bosnia--The Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, is assassinated by Serbian nationalists. Unlike in OTL, this is all considered an "internal" matter for the Austro-Hungarians to resolve and does not lead to war. Emperor Franz Josef orders a crackdown and thousands are arrested all over Serbia and Bosnia. However, the Serbian independence movement is not destroyed. Numerous acts of terrorism will occur over the next few years.
1914, North Africa--German and Italian troops skirmish in the desert on the Algerian/Tunisian border, almost igniting a war between Germany and Italy. Cooler heads prevail, however, and war is avoided. However, King Victor Emanuel III of Italy is offended by what he regards as "haughty" treatment by Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany, and he begins to re-consider his relationship with Germany.
1915--Confederate Elections. The big issue in this election is, as in 1909, the issue of full black citizenship in all States of the Confederacy. The Liberty Party candidates Woodrow Wilson of Virginia and William Edward Burghardt DuBois of Maryland (a popular black Congressman whose family had been expelled from the Union in 1870...when DuBois was a child of two years...and had settled in Maryland), who argue persuasively in favor of the extension of full citizenship to blacks residing in South Carolina, Mississippi, and Alabama, narrowly defeat the State Sovereignty Party candidates, Edmond Favor Noel of Mississippi and Emmett O’Neal of Alabama.
1915, Europe--In February of this year, Great Britain, Italy, and France secretly sign a mutual defense treaty aimed at Germany. The new alliance is called the Germany, however, finds out about this, and Kaiser Wilhelm begins making diplomatic overtures to his cousin, Tsar Mikhail of Russia. Russia is, like Germany, looking with avaricious eyes at the crumbling Austro-Hungarian Empire, and these overtures are well received.
21 November 1916, Austria-Hungary--Emperor Franz Josef dies, and is succeeded by his grandson, who reigns as Emperor Karl I.
1916, Russia--Capitalizing on widespread dissatisfaction with the pace of national recovery under the current government, Vladimir Lenin and Josef Stalin, with other exiled Bolshevik leaders, secretly return to Russia and begin preparing for a coup.
1916, The Confederacy--On 22 February 1916, at Washington, C.D., Woodrow Wilson is sworn in as the eleventh President of the Confederate States of America, and William Edward Burghardt DuBois is sworn in as the nation's first black Vice President. President Wilson, in his inaugural address, states emphatically that the Confederate national government will make no attempt to impose it's will on the issue of black citizenship by legislation on the people of South Carolina, Mississippi, and Alabama. "Such a course would be, and should be," he says, "illegal." But, he continues, "the Confederate government can and will use it's influence," particularly in the awarding of government contracts and other forms of government largesse, "to attempt to persuade the people of those States to do what is just" and to extend full citizenship to the blacks within their borders.
1916, The Union--President William Howard Taft is informed of the secret military alliance between Great Britain, France, and Italy. Feeling betrayed by France, which has been an ally of the United States against Britain, Taft announces that the U.S. is abrogating it's alliance with France. As Texas is maintaining it's alliance with Britain, this serves to push the Union and the Confederacy still closer together.
1916--Elections in the Union. President Taft and Vice President Fairbanks defeat Democratic challengers Willard Saulsbury and Judson Harmon.
1917, Austria-Hungary--Emperor Karl I is trying to find a way to placate the various minorities in his polyglot empire, which is threatening to implode from the stresses produced by various ethnic nationalist movements. He announces that the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary will become a Quintuple Monarchy of the Austrians, the Hungarians, the Poles, the Czechs, and the South Slavs. He also introduces other reforms intended to grant greater regional autonomy, converting the Habsburg Empire into a federal state. However,ªthe Hungarians strongly oppose this change, with greatly reduces their power within the Habsburg empire, and it is only with great difficulty that Emperor Karl is able to maintain the stability of the empire over the next decade.
1917, The Confederacy--President Wilson makes good on his promise to exert pressure on the recalcitrant states of South Carolina, Alabama and Mississippi on the issue of full citizenship for the blacks within their borders when he introduces a bill to close several military bases in each of these States, and to, so far as is possible, withdraw government contracts from firms in those States and give them to firms in more "progressive" States. The bill is vociferously denounced by the representatives of those States in the Confederate Congress, but nevertheless passes by a narrow margin. Also in this year, the first Confederate "Battle Wagons" are successfully tested, and begin to be deployed by the Confederate Army.
4 March 1917, Philadelphia, D.C.--President Taft is sworn in for his third term as President of the United States, and Vice President Fairbanks is sworn in for a second term as Vice President.
1918, The Confederacy--The military base closings mandated by President Wilson's legislation of the preceding year are completed. There is much outcry in the affected States, including some talk of secession by various hotheads. But over time there has been a slow shift in public opinion in these states regarding the issue of black citizenship, especially after the recent performance of blacks in the Great War, and the effect of the withdrawal of Confederate government money spurs already-existing movements to change the laws to fit in with the times. Alabama is first, passing a Negro Citizenship law and abolishing the peonage system in September 1918.
1918, The Union--Vice President Fairbanks dies on June 4, leaving the office of Vice President temporarily unfilled.
1918, Russia--The Bolshevik wing of the Russian Marxist Party mounts an abortive coup. Tsar Mikhail appeals to his cousin, Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany, for aid, and with the assistance of German troops, the Russian government puts down the rising. Among those killed in the uprising are Vladimir Illich Lenin and Josef Stalin. The Mensheviks, lead by Leon Trotsky, remain loyal to the government, and as a result end up as the only remaining Marxist faction left in Russia. Trotsky is shortly after named as Prime Minister by Tsar Mikhail, a decision which is quickly ratified by the Duma. Trotsky maintains his coalition with the bourgeois liberals in the Duma as he tries to bring about socialism by democratic means.ª Following this event, Russia and Germany will sign a formal treaty of military alliance.
1919, The Confederacy--South Carolina passes a Negro Citizenship law and abolishes the peonage system.
1920--Elections in the Union. President Taft does not run for a fourth term. Democrats Alfred E. Smith and James M. Cox defeat Republican candidates Warren G. Harding and Nicholas M. Butler.
1920, Europe--With the support of Britain and Italy, France declares that it is abrogating the treaty limitations on the size of it's military force. Germany protests, but, not wanting to start a war just yet, Kaiser Wilhelm does nothing more.
1920, The Confederacy--Mississippi passes a Negro Citizenship law and abolishes the peonage system. Blacks are now allowed to vote in State and national elections across the Confederacy, and blacks can no longer be legally held to service by their employers anywhere in the Confederacy.
MORE TO COME IN THE NEAR FUTURE...
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ADDITIONS TO EARLIER SEGMENTS OF THE TIMELINE...
1866, Utah Territory--Brigham Young, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, declares that only men that practice polygamy can become gods. This puts the Mormon Church squarely in conflict with the United States government, which passed legislation in 1862 banning polygamy. In order to avoid conflict, the Federal government attempts to turn a blind eye to what is going on in Utah, but increasing protests by "Gentiles" living in Utah force the federal government to take an increasingly active stance against Utah polygamy.
1875, Utah Territory--The L.D.S. Doctrine & Covenants are revised to allow polygamy by adding section 132 and removing section 101 verse 4, prohibiting polygamy. Tensions between Mormon and "Gentile" citizens of Utah are increasing, forcing the federal government to increasingly become involved.
1877, Utah Territory--Death of Brigham Young. Any hopes that the L.D.S. Church will take a less extreme view on the issue of polygamy are quickly dashed, however. Orson Pratt, the new leader of the church, fully endorses polygamy.
1879, Utah Territory--The U.S. Supreme Court upholds a guilty verdict in Utah territorial court against polygamist George Reynolds, Brigham Young's personal secretary. The case was meant as a challenge to federal anti-polygamy laws, but backfired on the Mormon Church.
1880, Utah Territory--John Taylor becomes the fourth Prophet of the Mormon Church. He, like Young and Pratt before him, fully endorses polygamy.
1886, Utah Territory--LDS President John Taylor is allegedly visited by Joseph Smith and Jesus Christ, who confirmed to him the righteousness of polygamy. Fundamentalists say Taylor asked five men to ensure the practice lives on.
1887, Utah Territory--Edmunds-Tucker Act reiterates U.S. ban on polygamy with stiffer penalties, including the disenfranchisement of polygamists. Also in this year, John Taylor dies, and the L.D.S. Church is temporarily without a prophet.ªAlso in this year, John Moses Browning of Ogden, Utah, travels to Georgia (in the Confederacy) as a Mormon Missionary. He decides to settle down there and starts a firearms manufacturing company, Browning Firearms, after his mission period ends. Browning is a brilliant designer, and his work is soon noticed by the Confederate military.
1889, Utah Territory--Wilford Woodruff becomes the fifth Prophet of the Mormon Church.
1890, Utah Territory--As Utah vies for statehood, and recognizing that the political balance of power within Utah itslef is shifting as increasing numbers of Mormon polygamists are convicted and disenfranchised under the Edmunds-Tucker Act, LDS Church leader Wilford Woodruff issues a Manifesto suspending the practice of polygamy because it is "contrary to the laws of the land." However, the Woodruff Manifesto is not enforced, and polygamy continues on in Utah without a pause. This is not lost on local federal officials.
c. 1890 onward, North America--Movement to prohibit alcohol begins to gain support in the various nations of North America. As early as 1773, lead by the Methodist Church, calls were being made in America to prohibit the production, sale, and use of alcoholic beverages. This "Temperance Movement," as it was called, gradually gained strength throughout the 19th Century. Beginning in the 1890s, various State Legislatures in the United States, the Confederacy, and Texas vote to go "Dry." This further invigorates the Temperance movement, which begins pushing, in all three countries, for amendments to the national constitutions calling for complete alcohol prohibition.
c. 1890 onward, The Confederacy--Various designs by John Browning are adopted by the Confederate military. By the time war breaks out in 1899, the Confederacy has the best light machine guns and automatic pistols in the world. It will also adopt a Browning-designed semi-automatic military rifle...the first to be adopted by any military anywhere in the world...in 1900, just in time to see action in the war.
1893, Philadelphia, D.C.--Legislation to admit Utah as a State into the Union is introduced into Congress. Due in large part to reports of continued polygamy in Utah, the measure is defeated in Congress. Similar legislation will be introduced every year for the next decade, and always meet the same result. Dissatisfaction among the Mormons of Utah, who feel that they are being persecuted by the federal government, increases with each defeated statehood bill.
PART THREE--THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, 1899-2000
1899-1902--THE GREAT WAR. In March 1899, fighting opened simultaneously on several fronts. In Europe, under the direction of Chief of Staff Alfred von Schlieffen, five German armies invaded northern France, moving through the neutral territory of Holland and Belgium so as to bypass the heavily fortified Franco-German border. Holland's armed forces were quickly overwhelmed, and Queen Wilhelmina quickly capitulated and went into exile in Sweden. However, the Belgians, under King Leopold II, bravely resisted and refused to capitulate. But the Belgians were hit on a second front when the British landed an expeditionary force to cooperate with the Germans, and King Leopold was forced to retreat, with his army, into France, where they linked up with the main French army north of Paris. The Anglo/German armies advanced nearly to the gates of Paris before being halted by entrenched Franco Belgian forces on the Marne River. The front stabilized as the Anglo-Germans also dug in, and a bloody stalemate which would last for over two years resulted. At the same time, the Italian Army invaded Savoy and Nice in southern France, but was halted not far from the border by the French. In the east, Russia invaded Austrian Galicia and German East Prussia from Poland and a huge slugging match ensued which saw huge casualties inflicted for very little ground gained.
Meanwhile, in America, U.S. and Oklahoma forces invaded northern Texas, but were halted by the Alamo Line. Hundreds of thousands of Yankees and Oklahomans fell in useless assaults on these formidable works. Texas made brilliant use of rail lines to move reserve forces from front to front as needed, and they were aided in this by their early deployment of a helium-filled rigid airship, which performed invaluable recon missions with impunity over U.S. and Oklahoma lines. These airships also were equipped to perform bombing missions, and squadrons of airships transported raiding parties of Texas troops behind enemy lines to attack U.S. and Oklahoma supply lines, especially railroads (incidentally, Count Ferdinand Zeppelin also, in 1900, built a successful rigid airship which, unlike the Texas model, was filled with hydrogen, and this too...largely because there were no easy ways to attack these craft as the airplane had not yet been invented...gave valuable service performing similar missions for German forces in Europe). Texas also had a large force of armored cars which proved very useful on the flat plains of northwest Texas and the deserts of the southwest (at least in areas which were not scarred by deep trenches and shell craters). Nevertheless, Texas was heavily outnumbered, and things did not look good for it's long-term prospects.
Fighting also broke out in other regions as well. In Africa, British, German, and Italian forces attacked French colonies all over the continent. At the same time, the Boer Republics, Orange Free State and the Transvaal, declared for the Triple Entente and attacked the British colony in South Africa, placing the British garrisons of Capetown, Ladysmith, and Mafeking under siege. In the middle east, Russian armies invaded Afghanistan, with the intent of attacking India. Those armies would go on to occupy Afghanistan, and would clash with British and Indian troops in the Khyber Pass region, but they would never penetrate India itself during the entire war.
On the seas, there were major clashes between the various fleets. French and Austro-Italian fleets battled in the Mediterranean, resulting in a defeat for the French which opened the way for the landing of an Italian expeditionary force in Algeria. Anglo-German and U.S. fleets met off the coast of Nova Scotia, resulting in a victory for the U.S. which prevented the landing of an Anglo-German expeditionary force in Canada. And a combined Franco-U.S. fleet defeated an Anglo-Texas fleet in the Caribbean, which allowed the landing of an expeditionary force at Jamaica. The capture of this important naval base from the British forced the Anglo-Texan fleets to take refuge in the Texan naval base at Galveston, and also allowed the Franco-U.S. fleet to institute a blockade of the Texas coast, where the blockaders were severely harassed by Texas torpedo boats and submarines.
April 1899 saw several other nations enter the war. The Ottoman Empire and Japan, both with major grudges against Russia, entered the war on the side of the Grand Alliance. The Ottomans opened a new front against Russia in the Caucasus (where they made only limited progress, but tied up a sizeable number of Russian troops), while Japan attacked Russian forces in Manchuria, defeating them and occupying most of Manchuria within a year. The entry of the Ottomans, however, also spurred the entry of the Balkan nations...Serbia, Montenegro, Romania, Bulgaria, and Greece...on the side of the Triple Entente. These nations quickly occupied most of the Ottoman European possessions, as well as invading Austria's Balkan provinces. The entry of these nations did not materially change the balance of power in the main theatres, however, and the bloody stalemate of trench warfare continued.
In May 1899, the U.S. Pacific Fleet attacked and defeated the British fleet in the Hawaiian islands, depriving the British of this important coaling station within striking distance of the U.S. Pacific coast. Over the next three years, several attempts would be made to take back this vital base by the combined Anglo-German-Japanese fleets in the Pacific, but none of these would be successful, and the hoped-for landing of a British/Australian/New Zealand/Indian expeditionary force in Texas was never able to be effected. Also in May 1899, in Africa, with the British unable to immediately spare forces for the succor of their South African colonies, the Boers forced the surrender of Ladysmith, Mafeking, and Capetown and occupied all of South Africa. And, at the same time, the Grand Alliance forces (primarily Italian and British, with some German and Ottoman support) occupied all of France's African colonies.
The period from May 1899 to July 1901 was one of stalemate on all fronts, punctuated by bloody assaults (primarily by Grand Alliance Forces in Europe and by Entente Forces in North America) on entrenched enemy forces, resulting in huge casualties to the attacking forces. The only notable events during this time period was the introduction of flamethrowers by Texas forces in June 1899, and poison gas by Texas forces in February 1900 (both of these innovations were quickly copied by the U.S. forces, however, and were also to be used by both sides in Europe as well), as well as the capture of the French colony Indo-China by an Anglo-Japanese expeditionary force in April 1901.
July 1901 would prove to be the decisive month of the conflict. In that month, several things happened which decisively tilted the balance against the Triple Entente.ªªFirst, the Confederate States of America entered the conflict on the side of the Grand Alliance. The Confederacy was drawn into the conflict as a result of several factors. The first of these was continuing harassment of Confederate shipping in the Caribbean by the Franco-U.S. fleet operating from Jamaica, including several sinkings by Entente submarines. The second was the increasingly belligerent attitude by the U.S. toward the Confederacy with regard to the trade in munitions and oil...Texas exporting oil to the Confederacy in exchange for arms...being carried on across their mutual border by the Confederacy and Texas, which was providing Texas with practically it's only means of outside supply (Of course, the Confederacy is also trading with the U.S., but that has not prevented the U.S. from pressuring the Confederacy over it's trade with Texas). The entry of the Confederacy proved vital to the Grand Alliance in several ways. The Confederate Navy joined with the fleets of Britain and Germany to finally crush the U.S. Atlantic fleet, enabling the landing of Anglo-German expeditionary forces in Canada and in Virginia (where they operated in cooperation with Confederate forces). Confederate naval forces in the Caribbean also assisted the Anglo-Texan fleets in that region in breaking the blockade of the Texas coast, and an Anglo-Confederate expeditionary force was landed at Jamaica in December 1901, retaking that strategically important base. And the Confederates themselves were able to provide the extra troops which kept Texas in the war and allowed the Grand Alliance to finally take the offensive on all fronts in America. Texan, Confederate, and British troops advanced north, and occupied all of Oklahoma, Arizona, and New Mexico before the end of hostilities in early 1902, while British, Confederate, and German forces advanced north from Kentucky and Virginia, seizing much of the midwest and even capturing the U.S. capital of Philadelphia, D.C., before the end of hostilities in early 1902. And the Anglo-German expeditionary force in Canada occupied Montreal and Quebec before the end of hostilities in 1902.
Second, the Mormons of Utah, who had long felt that they were being oppressed for their religious beliefs with regard to their practice of polygamy, declared their secession from the United States, seized government arsenals around the Territory (which, unlike OTL, had not been granted statehood by this time) and rose in armed revolt. Mormon independence was immediately recognized by the Grand Alliance powers. The major transcontinental rail line was thereby cut, and the United States was forced to divert troops from the New Mexico and other fronts to deal with the rebellion, which it was unable to crush before the end of hostilities in 1902.
And third, spurred on by popular anger resulting from a combination of famine caused by poor harvests and the unending casualty lists of the war, a revolution lead by a coalition of Menshevik Marxists and bourgeois liberals broke out in Russia which toppled Tsar Nicholas II, who abdicated in favor of his brother, Grand Duke Mikhail. The new Tsar Mikhail II had the good sense to "go with the flow," and agreed to a new written constitution. The document strictly limited the powers of the monarch, guaranteed civil liberties, and created a popularly elected legislative body, called the Duma, which had the power to approve or veto any new law and to approve and control officials of the crown. Mikhail II also quickly bowed to the obvious popular will and sued for peace, taking Russia out of the war. The Grand Alliance powers quickly concluded a treaty with Russia, signed at Warsaw in August 1901, which stipulated that Russia was to cede it's lands in Poland to Germany and Austria, cede the Caucasus to the Ottomans, withdraw from Afghanistan, and recognize Japan's annexation of Manchuria. Germany and Austria were then able to transfer large forces from the east to the front in France, and the Ottomans were able to transfer large forces to the Balkans. This decisively tipped the balance in Europe. Within a year, France had fallen to a coordinated assault by German, British, Italian, and Austrian troops, and the Turks (with German and Austrian help) had re-conquered most of the Balkans. The Balkan states (Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Romania, and Greece) were all forced to surrender by the end of October 1901. France held out until February 1902, when it, too, surrendered. With it's last ally out of the war, the United States, too, capitulated in March 1902, virtually ending the Great War (fighting continued for another year in South Africa as Grand Alliance forces gradually crushed the Boer Republics with troops freed by the end of fighting elsewhere).
The war had been devastating for nearly all nations involved. Casualty figures were as follows, by nation...
THE ENTENTE FORCES
--UNITED STATES: 6,000,000
--OKLAHOMA--700,000
--FRANCE: 7,000,000
--RUSSIA: 9,000,000
--SERBIA: 400,000
--MONTENEGRO: 30,000
--GREECE: 100,000
--ROMANIA: 500,000
--BULGARIA: 300,000
--BOER REPUBLICS: 100,000
--BELGIUM: 100,000
--HOLLAND: 50,000
TOTAL: 24,180,000
THE GRAND ALLIANCE FORCES
--CONFEDERATE STATES: 350,000
--TEXAS: 4,000,000
--BRITISH EMPIRE: 5,000,000
--GERMANY: 6,000,000
--AUSTRIA: 3,000,000
--JAPAN: 350,000
--OTTOMAN EMPIRE: 3,000,000
--ITALY: 2,000,000
--UTAH: 20,000
TOTAL: 23,720,000
Aside from the obvious impact of the widespread use of magazine rifles firing smokeless powder, machine guns, flame-throwers, poison gas, submarines, armored cars, airships, and large caliber, quick-firing artillery, the war is significant in that it marks the first widespread use of radio communication (which was invented in the late 1890s by Marconi and others) by the militaries of all nations.
1900--Elections in the Union. Republicans William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt run for an unprecedented third term. They defeat William Jennings Bryan and Charles A. Towne, the Democratic challengers, in large part because voters do not want to "switch horses" in the midst of a war.
1900, The Confederacy--John M. Browning is appointed as Chief of Weapons Design at the Confederate Ordnance Department. Under his supervision, many innovative weapons will be introduced into the Confederate arsenal, including the Browning Self-Loading Rifle, the first semi-automatic rifle to be adopted by the military of any country, and the Browning Light (.30 caliber) and Heavy (.50 caliber) Machine Guns.
4 March 1901, Philadelphia, D.C.--William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt are sworn in for their third terms as President and Vice President of the United States.
1902--The Geneva Peace Conference. In May 1902, representatives of all the powers involved in the recent war...except the Boer Republics, which were still at war...met in Geneva to hammer out a final peace treaty. President Semmes of the Confederate States of America tried, unsuccessfully, to encourage moderation in the peace terms so as to prevent the treaty from becoming the seed ground for a future war, and the terms of the final treaty which was signed in November 1902 are harsh. Provisions of the treaty were as follows...
--Texan annexation of Oklahoma was recognized, despite protest by the Confederacy.
--The United States was forced to cede to Texas all of New Mexico Territory east of the Rio Grande, which was the part of that territory which was originally claimed by the Republic of Texas at the time of it's annexation by the United States (Texas had pressed for cession of all of New Mexico and Arizona, but the Confederacy strongly opposed Texas annexation of territory to which it had no historical claim, and in this was supported by the British).
--The United States was forced to cede all of Canada, except the former province of British Columbia...which it successfully argued (with Confederate support) was necessary to link it's Alaskan Territory to the rest of the United States...to Great Britain. These territories had been under uneasy U.S. military occupation since the Reparations War in 1881, and the people within them were glad to be returned to the British Empire.
--Britain also re-annexed the Dominion of Nova Africanus, which was less glad to re-join the British fold, having tasted de-facto independence during the war.
--The United States was forced to grant independence to the Mormons in Utah, which immediately announced the re-birth (as they viewed it) of their state of Deseret.
--The Confederacy (despite the clamoring of some hotheads who noisily demanded that the Confederate government seek the re-annexation of West Virginia by the Confederacy) did not ask for any territorial revisions.ªª
--At the insistence of Britain and Texas, the United States was forced to strictly limit the size of it's navy to no more than 1/2 that of Britain, and reduce it's standing army to no more than 200,000 men.
--The Terms of the Treaty of Warsaw, signed earlier between Russia and the Grand Alliance, were recognized by the Geneva Conference, but additionally, Russia was forced to grant independence to Finland.
--The annexation of Holland, Belgium, and Luxembourg by Germany was recognized, despite the strong objections of Britain.
--France was forced to cede Savoy and Nice to Italy, as well as Corsica.ªª
--All of France's colonies in Africa were ceded, with some going to Germany and others to Italy.
--France was forced to limit the size of it's army to no more than 100,000 men.
--Germany, as previously agreed, ceded it's colony in East Africa to Britain, allowing it to complete it's Capetown to Cairo railroad at last.
--Belgium's colony in the Congo was ceded to Germany.
--Britain annexed the Boer Republics in South Africa.
--Japan was allowed to keep the former French colony in Indo-China, as well as the Philippines (which it occupied shortly after invading Indo-China in 1901, even though Spain was officially neutral in the conflict).
--The British re-claimed the Hawaiian Islands.
--Germany, which had annexed Holland, also claimed the Dutch colonies in the East Indies and South America, and this was recognized.
--The Balkan States, with the exception of Greece, are partitioned between Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire. Greece...which has some powerful friends in Britain and Germany...is allowed to retain a precarious independence, but suffers territorial loss to the Ottomans.
--The United States, France, and Russia were all forced to pay heavy reparations to the victorious powers.The Confederacy refuses to accept reparations.
The Treaty of Geneva well illustrated the principle that "To the victors go the spoils." And, as Confederate President Semmes had feared, it would lead to further conflict later in the century.
1902 onward--In the aftermath of the War of Secession, almost all of the Confederate States had adopted the suggestion of Judah P. Benjamin that freed blacks be placed in a system of "peonage," where they were bound to work the plantations of their former masters...for wages or on a share-crop system...while they were educated and until such time as they became financially self-sufficient enough to leave the plantation. In most places, this had worked as Mr. Benjamin intended...providing a gateway through which freed slaves made themselves ready for the responsibilities of citizenship. But in some areas...Mississippi, South Carolina, and Alabama, the traditional strongholds of the old States Rights Party...the system was abused to create a sort of "slavery without slavery." Plantation owners trapped former slaves by getting them in debt, forcing them to continue to work the plantation in order to pay off the debt (similar to the "company stores" in the North by which factory owners kept many of their employees effectively in slavery)...which of course, never quite happened. Those three states also never adopted legislation granting State Citizenship (i.e. the ability to vote in State elections or to run for State offices) to blacks. Blacks in those States have a tough life, with little hope for betterment.
As time has gone on, public outcry in the more "progressive" States of the Confederacy has steadily risen against these "archaic" practices. This outcry is strengthened when, in the Great War...as in the War of Secession and the Spanish War...black soldiers once again show their bravery and patriotism for the Confederacy and play a vital part in the successful conclusion of the war. More and more people are questioning why blacks, anywhere in the Confederacy, should be denied full citizenship.
1903, South Africa--Britain crushes the last Boer resistance and occupies the Orange Free State and Transvaal. These are unified with their own Cape Colony and Natal province to form the colony of South Africa.
1900, The Confederacy--John M. Browning is appointed as Chief of Weapons Design at the Confederate Ordnance Department. Under his supervision, many innovative weapons will be introduced into the Confederate arsenal.
1903, Russia--The Bolshevik wing of the Russian Marxist movement strongly opposes the new government, as it desires the complete overthrow of the monarchy and the establishment of a "dictatorship of the proletariat." Bolshevik leaders such as Vladimir Lenin and Josef Stalin are forced into exile, fleeing ahead of Tsar Mikhail's security forces.
1903--Elections in the Confederacy. The State Sovereignty Party, flush with it's recent victorious handling of the Great War, offers J.E.B. Stuart, Jr. of Virginia for President and Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr. of Kentucky for Vice President. The Liberty Party candidates are Allen D. Candler of Georgia for President and Benton McMillin of Tennessee for Vice President. The State Sovereignty ticket of Stuart and Buckner easily wins the election.
1903 onward, North America--Despite the fact that the Confederacy recently sided against the United States in the Great War, the recent actions of the Confederacy at the Geneva Peace Convention in trying to moderate the demands of Britain and Texas and in not demanding territory or reparations for itself has prevented any great animosity from forming between the Union and the Confederacy. Indeed, relations between Texas and the Confederacy have taken a dramatic downturn, given the Confederacy's strong opposition to Texan grabs for territory after the Great War, and the Union and the Confederacy find themselves gradually drawn together by a common opposition to Texas.
1903--The Union is experiencing a severe depression in the aftermath of it's defeat in the Great War. The heavy reparations imposed by the Treaty of Geneva, plus the enforced reduction in the size of the military (which impacts many major industries which supply the military) are mainly responsible. The large-scale transfer of gold, in the form of reparations, out of the United States Treasury has severely affected the money supply in the U.S., causing a collapse of prices which has thrown millions out of work. Riots by hungry, unemployed men take place in many large cities and are brutally suppressed by the U.S. Army and various State Guards.
1904, The Confederacy--On 22 February 1904, at Washington, C.D., J.E.B. Stuart, Jr. is sworn in as the ninth President of the Confederate States of America, and Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr. is sworn in as Vice President.ªªPresident Stuart will immediately introduce a bill in Congress to eliminate the Conscription Act...one of the key issues for the State Sovereignty Party...and to reduce the size of the army to 200,000 men, arguing that the limitations on the size of the U.S. military imposed by the Treaty of Geneva obviate the need for a larger military force. His bill will be passed by the end of the year, a major victory for the State Sovereignty Party.ªªAlso in this year, John M. Browning resigns his post as Chief of Weapons Design for the Confederate States War Department in order to accept the post of Chief of Ordnance, Republic of Deseret. However, the Browning-trained designers at the Confederate Ordnance Department continue to turn out innovative designs for the Confederate military.
1904--Elections in the Union. Republicans Theodore Roosevelt and Charles W. Fairbanks are facing opposition by Democrats William Jennings Bryan and Alton Parker. In response to the continuing Depression in the United States, Bryan is once again proposing the free coinage of silver, as well as a new issue of "greenbacks," to restore the money supply and encourage inflation of prices. His message finds a receptive ear among the electorate, and the Democratic candidates win election in a landslide victory. Democratic majorities are also returned in both the House and the Senate.
1905 onward, the Balkans--The annexation of Serbia by the Austro-Hungarian Empire after the Great War has lead to the formation of various Serbian independence groups in Austrian-held territory. These groups engage in various acts of terrorism, mostly against Austrian occupation forces, which test the stability of the already shaky Austrian Empire.
1905, Great Britain--The Hornsby Company, improving on earlier designs by one Richard Edgeworth dating back to 1770, patents the first truly practical caterpillar track. The invention is soon put to use in Europe and North America by companies producing agricultural tractors.
1905, Texas--Not satisfied with it's territorial gains in the Great War, the Republic of Texas decides to "settle accounts" with Mexico. Battle-hardened Texas troops invade Mexico in March 1905, and by the end of the year, have conquered the entire country. The United States and the Confederate States strongly protest, but when Britain begins rattling it's sabre in support of Texas, both decide to keep their own swords sheathed. Texas soon reorganizes the crazy quilt of States in Mexico into twelve new "Territories," which it plans to gradually admit as States in the future. the incident serves to strengthen the trend toward increasing cooperation between the Union and the Confederacy which has been growing since the Great War.
1905, Scandinavia--Norway peacefully secedes from Sweden.
4 March 1905, Philadelphia, D.C.--William Jennings Bryan is sworn in as the twenty-third President of the United States, and Alton Parker is sworn in as Vice President.
1905, The Union--The Depression continues. President Bryan's Monetary Act, which ushers in free coinage of silver as well as issuing several tens of millions of dollars in paper currency (Greenbacks) in an effort to boost the economy, is passed by the Democratic Congress. It does have the desired effect, gradually inflating prices and encouraging new hiring by employers. By the end of the year, the Depression seems to be well on it's way out.
1906, The Union--Unfortunately, the temporary boon to the economy caused by President Bryan's inflationary monetary policy has played out, and now the effect of ever-increasing prices is forcing the economy back into recession. Unemployment is rising again as a result.
23 October 1906, France--Beginning with the work of Englishman George Cayley in 1799, scientists and inventors in many countries have been experimenting with designs for heavier-than-air flight. There have been many partially successful designs, especially unpowered gliders, but also experiments with craft powered by steam engines which actually achieved flight...over very short distances...in 1874 and 1890. However, the weight of the steam engine makes it an impractical for anything other than very short flights, and it has only been the development of the internal combustion engine, powered by gasoline, which has finally made a manned, powered, heavier-than-air craft a practical idea. It is not until 1906 that the first flight by such a machine is made, however, in France by Brazilian Alberto Santos-Dumont (Wilbur and Orville Wright were never born in this timeline...their father, abolitionist United Brethren Bishop Milton Wright, was among those killed in the July 1865 riots). The aeroplane is born. Research is soon underway in all major nations to develop their own version of the machine.
1907, The Union--In an attempt to arrest the inflationary spiral which is gripping the country as a result of his 1905 Monetary Act, President Bryan orders the recall of all Greenbacks (paper currency). This sudden contraction of the money supply, however, simply accelerates the gathering recession which has been building over the past year. By the end of the year the country is back in the throes of a full-scale Depression. Also in this year, Glenn Curtis designs and flies the first American aeroplane.
1907 onwards, Europe--Increasing tension between Britain and Germany. In the aftermath of the Great War, Germany has come out with an empire which rivals that of Great Britain, which does not please the British one bit. And to make matters worse, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany has resumed his naval buildup, which has worsened relations dramatically between his nation and Great Britain. Then, in 1907, the British up the stakes by introducing the first all-big-gun battleship powered by oil-burning, steam turbine engines, the H.M.S. Fearless. The warship carries twelve 14-inch guns in six turrets (two fore, two aft, and two amidships). This vessel instantly renders every battleship then existing in the world obsolete. Germany immediately begins work on it's own version, and the two nations are shortly in a bitter naval arms race. Tensions between the two nations rise to unprecedented levels, and the already fragile alliance between Britain and Germany, which was severely shaken by German land-grabs in Europe after the Great War, will not survive. ªBritain will, over the course of the succeeding years, find itself gradually pushed toward France, Italy, and Russia...other nations in Europe who feel as threatened by Germany as Britain does...as concern over increasing German power grows.
1908--Elections in the Union. President Bryan doesn’t run for a second term. Vice President Parker runs for President with John W. Kern as his running mate. Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft are the Republican candidates. The charismatic Roosevelt runs an aggressive campaign, making speeches in cities all over the country in which he denounces the "buffoons who have ruined our great nation." People are generally disgusted by the way the Democrats have handled the Depression, and T.R. easily wins the election.ªª
1908, The Confederacy--Captain John Gabriel Rains, Confederate States Army, flies the first Confederate-designed aeroplane.
1908, The Union--Brigadier General John T. Thompson, U.S. Army, has been tinkering with an idea for a new weapon, based on his experiences in the recent war, which he calls the "Trench Broom." In 1908 he patents the first truly practical sub-machine gun, what will become known to history as the "Tommy Gun." The U.S. Army adopts the new weapon the next year. Competing designs will be adopted by most other countries over the next decade.
4 March 1909, Philadelphia, D.C.--Theodore Roosevelt is sworn in as the Twenty-fourth President of the United States of America, and William Howard Taft is sworn in as Vice President.
1909--The Union. President Roosevelt introduces into Congress legislation which he calls the "Sound Money Bill," which consists of several items and is intended to replace President Bryan's Monetary Act. The bill calls for the withdrawal of all gold coins from circulation, as well as all silver coins in denominations higher than $1. These are to be replaced by a new paper currency, which will be backed, not by specie, but by the "full faith and credit of the U.S. Government." This will divorce the "value" and the supply of money from the ever-expanding and contracting supply of specie. Also, the supply of this new paper money will be regulated by a new central bank, called the Reserve Bank of the United States, to prevent abrupt expansions or contractions of the money supply. This legislation is bitterly opposed by Democrats in Congress, but Roosevelt, through sheer charisma and adroit political maneuvering, is able to get it passed before the end of the year. President Roosevelt also takes advantage of the increasing friction between Britain and Germany to announce that the United States will not abide by the disarmament provisions of the Treaty of Geneva, and at his urging, Congress passes legislation increasing the peacetime strength of the U.S. Army back to it's pre-Great War strength of 340,000. Although there are protests from Britain and Texas especially, nobody much wants to re-open armed conflict, and Roosevelt's bold declaration stands.
1909--Confederate Elections. This election is the first in which the cause of full black citizenship in all States of the Confederacy becomes a major campaign issue. The State Sovereignty candidates, Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr. of Kentucky and Martin F. Ansel of South Carolina, strongly oppose any interference by the national government or other States in the "internal affairs of Mississippi, Alabama, and South Carolina," and they narrowly defeat the Liberty Party candidates, Nathan Bedford Forrest II (son of William Montgomery Forrest and grandson of General Nathan Bedford Forrest) of Tennessee and John Isaac Moore of Arkansas.
1910, North Africa--Italian airmen make the first military use of the aeroplane, using it for reconnaissance and even dropping some primitive bombs on rebellious Berber tribesmen in Libya and Tunisia. Other nations begin forming their own military air services in response.
22 February 1910, Washington, C.D.--Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr., is sworn in as the tenth President of the Confederate States of America, and John Isaac Moore is sworn in as Vice President.
1910, The Confederacy--Despite the increasingly close relationship between the Union and the Confederacy since the Great War, U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt's recent announcement that he is abrograting the limits imposed on the U.S. military by the Treaty of Geneva is a cause of concern in the Confederacy. President Buckner does not want to re-impose compulsory conscription...the elimination of which was one of the State Sovereignty Party's key victories...but he needs to find a way to counterbalance increasing U.S. military power. He secretly authorizes development of an idea for an armored fighting vehicle, to be based on the recently invented caterpillar tractor, which will have the ability to cross trenches and, it is hoped, restore mobility to the battlefield. In order to disguise their real use, the new vehicles are developed under the pretense that they are simply tractors for hauling artillery ammunition. They thus acquire the code name "wagon," and are known in Confederate military circles...in private...as "Battle Wagons."
1910, The Union: In the United States, the civil service system has never been reformed (largely because assassination of President James Garfield didn't happen in this alternate timeline). Government jobs are still given out according to a "spoils system" which dates back to the administration of Andrew Jackson. On June 19, 1910, that particular chicken finally comes home to roost when President Roosevelt is shot to death in front of the White House itself by a disgruntled job seeker. William Howard Taft is sworn in as the Twenty-fifth President of the United States of America shortly afterward. In the aftermath of this incident, the civil service system is reformed and the "spoils system" is finally eliminated. Taft also begins a program of tax cuts, spending cuts, and reductions in government regulation aimed at stimulating business investment and hiring which, when combined with the effects of the "Sound Money Bill" of deceased President Roosevelt, will finally end the Depression by the end of the following year.
1911, The Confederacy--The shocking assassination of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt has lead the Confederate government to examine it's own system for distributing government jobs, which is also basically a political "spoils system." By the end of the year, legislation will be passed by the Confederate Congress to reform the civil service system and eliminate the Confederacy's version of the "spoils system."
1912--Elections in the Union. Buoyed by his success in ending the Depression, President Taft and running mate Charles W. Fairbanks handily defeat their Democratic challengers, James Beauchamp Clark and Thomas R. Marshall.
4 March 1913, Philadelphia, D.C.--President Taft is sworn in for his second term as President of the United States, and Charles W. Fairbanks is sworn in as Vice President.
28 June 1914, Sarajevo, Bosnia--The Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, is assassinated by Serbian nationalists. Unlike in OTL, this is all considered an "internal" matter for the Austro-Hungarians to resolve and does not lead to war. Emperor Franz Josef orders a crackdown and thousands are arrested all over Serbia and Bosnia. However, the Serbian independence movement is not destroyed. Numerous acts of terrorism will occur over the next few years.
1914, North Africa--German and Italian troops skirmish in the desert on the Algerian/Tunisian border, almost igniting a war between Germany and Italy. Cooler heads prevail, however, and war is avoided. However, King Victor Emanuel III of Italy is offended by what he regards as "haughty" treatment by Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany, and he begins to re-consider his relationship with Germany.
1915--Confederate Elections. The big issue in this election is, as in 1909, the issue of full black citizenship in all States of the Confederacy. The Liberty Party candidates Woodrow Wilson of Virginia and William Edward Burghardt DuBois of Maryland (a popular black Congressman whose family had been expelled from the Union in 1870...when DuBois was a child of two years...and had settled in Maryland), who argue persuasively in favor of the extension of full citizenship to blacks residing in South Carolina, Mississippi, and Alabama, narrowly defeat the State Sovereignty Party candidates, Edmond Favor Noel of Mississippi and Emmett O’Neal of Alabama.
1915, Europe--In February of this year, Great Britain, Italy, and France secretly sign a mutual defense treaty aimed at Germany. The new alliance is called the Germany, however, finds out about this, and Kaiser Wilhelm begins making diplomatic overtures to his cousin, Tsar Mikhail of Russia. Russia is, like Germany, looking with avaricious eyes at the crumbling Austro-Hungarian Empire, and these overtures are well received.
21 November 1916, Austria-Hungary--Emperor Franz Josef dies, and is succeeded by his grandson, who reigns as Emperor Karl I.
1916, Russia--Capitalizing on widespread dissatisfaction with the pace of national recovery under the current government, Vladimir Lenin and Josef Stalin, with other exiled Bolshevik leaders, secretly return to Russia and begin preparing for a coup.
1916, The Confederacy--On 22 February 1916, at Washington, C.D., Woodrow Wilson is sworn in as the eleventh President of the Confederate States of America, and William Edward Burghardt DuBois is sworn in as the nation's first black Vice President. President Wilson, in his inaugural address, states emphatically that the Confederate national government will make no attempt to impose it's will on the issue of black citizenship by legislation on the people of South Carolina, Mississippi, and Alabama. "Such a course would be, and should be," he says, "illegal." But, he continues, "the Confederate government can and will use it's influence," particularly in the awarding of government contracts and other forms of government largesse, "to attempt to persuade the people of those States to do what is just" and to extend full citizenship to the blacks within their borders.
1916, The Union--President William Howard Taft is informed of the secret military alliance between Great Britain, France, and Italy. Feeling betrayed by France, which has been an ally of the United States against Britain, Taft announces that the U.S. is abrogating it's alliance with France. As Texas is maintaining it's alliance with Britain, this serves to push the Union and the Confederacy still closer together.
1916--Elections in the Union. President Taft and Vice President Fairbanks defeat Democratic challengers Willard Saulsbury and Judson Harmon.
1917, Austria-Hungary--Emperor Karl I is trying to find a way to placate the various minorities in his polyglot empire, which is threatening to implode from the stresses produced by various ethnic nationalist movements. He announces that the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary will become a Quintuple Monarchy of the Austrians, the Hungarians, the Poles, the Czechs, and the South Slavs. He also introduces other reforms intended to grant greater regional autonomy, converting the Habsburg Empire into a federal state. However,ªthe Hungarians strongly oppose this change, with greatly reduces their power within the Habsburg empire, and it is only with great difficulty that Emperor Karl is able to maintain the stability of the empire over the next decade.
1917, The Confederacy--President Wilson makes good on his promise to exert pressure on the recalcitrant states of South Carolina, Alabama and Mississippi on the issue of full citizenship for the blacks within their borders when he introduces a bill to close several military bases in each of these States, and to, so far as is possible, withdraw government contracts from firms in those States and give them to firms in more "progressive" States. The bill is vociferously denounced by the representatives of those States in the Confederate Congress, but nevertheless passes by a narrow margin. Also in this year, the first Confederate "Battle Wagons" are successfully tested, and begin to be deployed by the Confederate Army.
4 March 1917, Philadelphia, D.C.--President Taft is sworn in for his third term as President of the United States, and Vice President Fairbanks is sworn in for a second term as Vice President.
1918, The Confederacy--The military base closings mandated by President Wilson's legislation of the preceding year are completed. There is much outcry in the affected States, including some talk of secession by various hotheads. But over time there has been a slow shift in public opinion in these states regarding the issue of black citizenship, especially after the recent performance of blacks in the Great War, and the effect of the withdrawal of Confederate government money spurs already-existing movements to change the laws to fit in with the times. Alabama is first, passing a Negro Citizenship law and abolishing the peonage system in September 1918.
1918, The Union--Vice President Fairbanks dies on June 4, leaving the office of Vice President temporarily unfilled.
1918, Russia--The Bolshevik wing of the Russian Marxist Party mounts an abortive coup. Tsar Mikhail appeals to his cousin, Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany, for aid, and with the assistance of German troops, the Russian government puts down the rising. Among those killed in the uprising are Vladimir Illich Lenin and Josef Stalin. The Mensheviks, lead by Leon Trotsky, remain loyal to the government, and as a result end up as the only remaining Marxist faction left in Russia. Trotsky is shortly after named as Prime Minister by Tsar Mikhail, a decision which is quickly ratified by the Duma. Trotsky maintains his coalition with the bourgeois liberals in the Duma as he tries to bring about socialism by democratic means.ª Following this event, Russia and Germany will sign a formal treaty of military alliance.
1919, The Confederacy--South Carolina passes a Negro Citizenship law and abolishes the peonage system.
1920--Elections in the Union. President Taft does not run for a fourth term. Democrats Alfred E. Smith and James M. Cox defeat Republican candidates Warren G. Harding and Nicholas M. Butler.
1920, Europe--With the support of Britain and Italy, France declares that it is abrogating the treaty limitations on the size of it's military force. Germany protests, but, not wanting to start a war just yet, Kaiser Wilhelm does nothing more.
1920, The Confederacy--Mississippi passes a Negro Citizenship law and abolishes the peonage system. Blacks are now allowed to vote in State and national elections across the Confederacy, and blacks can no longer be legally held to service by their employers anywhere in the Confederacy.
MORE TO COME IN THE NEAR FUTURE...
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