The below represents a timeline that I first started working on in my high school years - I found a notebook from back then (ca. 1977-1981) containing what I think may have been the first alternate history timeline I ever tried to create. I transcribed it and cleaned it up and updated it a little (particularly the list of US Presidents, and, of course, the stuff from the 80's on is new - I tried to create it in the same spirit) but tried overall to maintain the sense of how I was thinking back then. I figured I'd post it here - maybe some of you will find it amusing. I admit to a little trepidation - I'm no expert on history now, I knew even less back then:
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Anyway, here's my younger self's idea of what the USA might look like if John Hancock had been the head of the Continental Army instead of that Virginian fellow, with a little of my current self's notions thrown in.
(Note: States that have no territory listing are the same as the ones we know.)
The United States of North America (Philadelphia)
1) Connecticut (Hartford)
2) Dakota (Dakota City) includes North Dakota, South Dakota
3) Delaware (Dover)
4) Hancock (New Dedham) includes Alberta
5) Idaho (Boise)
6) Illinois (Springfield)
7) Indiana (Indianapolis)
8) Kentucky (Frankfort)
9) Lower Canada (Montreal) includes southern Quebec
10) Maine (Augusta)
11) Manitoba (Winnipeg)
12) Maryland (Annapolis)
13) Massachusetts (Boston)
14) Michigan (Lansing)
15) Minnesota (Saint Paul)
16) Montana (Helena)
17) New Brunswick (Fredericton) includes New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island
18) New Hampshire (Concord)
19) New Jersey (Trenton)
20) New York (Albany)
21) North Columbia (Nootka) includes British Columbia
22) Northern Louisiana (Saint Louis) includes Missouri, Iowa
23) Nova Scotia (Halifax)
24) Ohio (Columbus)
25) Pennsylvania (Harrisburg)
26) Rhode Island (Providence)
27) Saskatchewan (Saskatoon)
28) South Columbia (Spokane) includes Washington, Oregon
29) Southern Louisiana (New Orleans) includes Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, east Texas, westernmost Tennessee
30) Upper Canada (York) includes Ontario
31) Vermont (Montpelier)
32) Virginia (Richmond) includes Virginia, West Virginia, the District of Columbia
33) Western Louisiana (Topeka) includes Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Colorado east of the Rockies
34) Wisconsin (Madison)
35) Wyoming (Cheyenne)
The Northern Territories
1) Adams (Adams City) includes northern Northwest Territories
2) Alaska (New Archangel)
3) Greenland (Godthaab)
4) Jefferson (Eskimo Point) includes eastern Northwest Territories
5) Labrador (Hopedale) includes Labrador, Ungava
6) Washington (Yellowknife) includes western Northwest Territories
7) Yukon (Whitehorse)
PART ONE:
Years ago, I read somewhere that John Hancock lobbied to be named head of the Continental Army, but that Washington was picked instead. So, I decided to dream up a timeline in which Hancock got the job.
I decided that there would be two major differences as a result.
One: that since Hancock was a New Englander, and thus more familiar with the territory than the Virginian Washington, the American invasion of Canada would be more successful. In fact, the British would've been driven clear out of Canada, withdrawing to Newfoundland.
Two: that with a somewhat different make-up in the Continental Congress, an anti-slavery plank would've been included in the Declaration of Independence. This would've cost the Revolution a lot of support in the slaveholding regions, and only heroic expenditure of political capital on the parts of Jefferson and Washington would've kept Virginia, and by extension Maryland and Delaware, in the fight. (Thirty years later, I'm not sure how this would've followed from Hancock being in command, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.)
Anyway, the Revolution would've ended about when it did, with an independent, slavery-free USNA, gaining its independence, and the Deep South (Georgia, the Carolinas) remaining a colony of Britain. The USNA would retain Canada, and many Tories would flee to the South, rather than northward, as they did in our world. I decided that Philadelphia would remain the US capital, as it would be more central than it was on our world.
PART TWO:
Anyway, the USNA begins expanding westward, and the Louisiana Purchase happens on schedule. There is a War of 1812 that ends with the USNA in control of what we call Mississippi and westernmost Tennessee. Since the Deep South's western expansion is blocked, there is no Trail of Tears here, and the South retains a large Indian population. Florida is annexed or purchased from Spain and becomes part of British North America. In 1833, slavery is banned throughout the British Empire. This provokes a revolt by some members of the slave-holding class in British North America and leads to the so-called Traingle War, between those loyal to the British, the white slave-holders and an alliance of freedmen, rebellious slaves and Indians. This last is covertly backed by the USNA, for reasons both altruistic (the elimination of slavery) and cynical (some in the USNA hope to annex the territory). In the end, the alliance of slaves and Indians is successful and the British and the slave-holders are defeated, and an independent Africo-Indian Republic is formed. A large percentage of the white population leaves the AIR, for other British territory and for South America. A large number remain, those who can accept racial equality. In time, a number of blacks and Indians from the USNA also resettle in the AIR. The territory of the AIR includes what we would call Florida, Alabama, Georgia, the Carolinas, and eastern and central Tennessee.
Initially, relations between the USNA and the AIR are cordial, although they chill somewhat as the AIR steadfastly refuses to join the USNA and as the USNA comes into conflict with the Plains Indians when they expand westward.
PART THREE:
Now, as to Mexico. My rationale was that the USNA, being more northerly-oriented, would have come into less conflict with Mexico. There might've been some dispute over the border between Texas and the Louisianas, but I pictured these as being solved more or less peacefully. By and large, "manifest destiny" as a policy would not have developed in the USNA. Thus, Mexico would've retained control of most of Texas, as well as Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, California, Utah and Colorado west of the Rockies. Considering that that meant that Mexico would retain Texas' oil and California's gold, Mexico would've been a much richer nation, and, without the disastrous wars with the US of our timeline, a more politically stable one. In fact, I pictured Mexico as expanding southward, absorbing the Central American republics and Santo Domingo, eventually even annexing Cuba, Puerto Rico, and maybe even the Philippines from Spain later in the Nineteenth Century. Mexico would be the most powerful nation in the Americas, particularly dominant in Spanish-speaking Latin America, leaving the USNA and Brazil as the second and third powers in the Americas. I also considered that many of the immigrants who came to the USA from Catholic Southern Europe in our timeline from places like Italy, Spain and Portugal and possibly France might've gone to Mexico instead, again helping to build up the Mexican economy. Maybe Mexico would've expanded into the Pacific, and been the power that came into conflict with Japan in the 20th Century, instead of the USNA. But more on that anon.
PART FOUR: What maight the USNA be like today? I recall that my idea at the time was that USNA might've ended up as a sort huge nuclear-armed, largely homogeneous "Switzerland". With no Mexican War, Civil War or Spanish-American War the USNA might've had a somewhat more peaceful existence than our USA. I suspect it might've managed to stay out've whatever analogues to the World Wars this timeline might've had. It would be "whiter" than our USA, with smaller black and Indian populations, with Asians being almost as numerous a "non-white" minority (particularly in the West) as blacks. The USNA's Hispanic population would be virtually nonexistent, with Mexico a larger, richer nation. I suspect it would be a more "Protestant" nation, and the Catholic population it did have would be more from Ireland, Germany , Poland, and Hungary. I think the French population might've been somewhat more "diluted" than in our timeline, and French widely-spoken only in rural Lower Canada. I suspect that the central government would've still grown in power over the years, particularly with an "imperial" Mexico right next door, but probably still wouldn't be as powerful as it became in our timeline.
PART FIVE: The rest of the world: these were my least-formed ideas, so bear with me.
Europe in the Nineteenth Century: I suspected that the loss of Canada and the retention of the South might've altered British priorities and commitments enough that it would've distracted them somewhat from the Napoleonic Wars. (How likely this actually is, I have my doubts now.) While he would not have conquered Britain, Napoleon would've established France as the dominant power in Western and Central Europe, and arrived at some kind of a deal with the Czar, avoiding the disastrous Russian campaign. Thus the race to colonize Africa and India would've been much more competitive, and these areas would've been partitioned differently. A generation later, after the Triangle War, Britain would've been weakened enough that Napoleon, or perhaps Napoleon II, might've been able to strike at France's ancient enemy and conquer the islands, annexing England, and creating puppet states of Ireland, Scotland and perhaps Wales. The English monarch would've fled to Newfoundland, which the USNA would've discouraged the French from invading, not wanting a French presence nearby. France would've dominated Europe until about 1865, when the Germans, led by the Habsburgs in this timeline instead of the Hohenzollerns, would've thrown out the French and established an Empire of their own that dominated Middle Europe. The century would've drifted to its close with the declining French still in control of Western Europe, but with grumblings of revolt in Spain, England and the Low Countries.
East Asia in the Nineteenth Century: Somebody, either the Mexicans or maybe the USNA would've "opened" Japan at about the same time as our timeline, with similar results as the Japanese desperately modernized. China would've suffered colonial intrusions much as it did in our timeline, with only the players being somewhat different.
Australasia in the Nineteenth Century: Australia would've ended up as a French colony, settled by French outcasts. What we call New Zealand would've remained primarily Maori in population, though under French domination. Likely the French might've converted the Maori to Catholicism.
South America in the Nineteenth Century: Spanish-Speaking South America would've largley fallen under Mexican influence, With Brazil and the Guyanas resisting.
Africa in the Nineteenth Century: I hadn't given as much thought to this, except that Africa still would've been heavily colonized.
PART SIX: Early Twentieth Century:
As the French Empire declined, tensions in the world've increased, eventually leading to a second Franco-German War in the early years of the century. Revolts would've sprung up in the remaining French colonies and satellites, with England, the Low Countries, Scandinavia and Spain breaking away. Germany would win the war, becoming dominant over France, annexing large chunks of French territory. The English king would've returned from Newfoundland, creating an independent Duchy of Newfoundland ruled by one of his younger sons. The Celtic countries would've retained their independence, as England would still be too weak to re-conquer them. Russia would've stayed out of the war, having its own concerns with the rising Japanese power. In the Far East, Japan would've come in on the German side, opportunistically snatching up several of France's Pacific colonies. Australia would've become an independent French-speaking republic and what we call New Zealand would've become the independent, heavily-Catholic, Maori Kingdom of Aotearoa. Germany would've retained footholds in New Guinea, China and the Pacific, and this would've led to tensions between them and the Japanese.
In the post-war period, Germany would've consolidated its position. Japan would've taken advantage of growing turmoil in China to begin encroaching on Manchuria and Mongolia, much as it did in our world.
PART SEVEN: The 30's and 40's
By the 1930's the situation in Russia would've deteriorated enough that the Czar began seeking an external threat to divert his people from internal issues. To do so, he manufactured a border incident in Poland. This proved to be a colossal error, as it led to war with Germany. The Germans made steady progress into Russia, but were becoming bogged down when the Japanese again opportunistically struck in Siberia. This led to the collapse of Russia, and by the end of the 30's Germany and Japan had partitioned Russia along the Urals. Each side set about consolidating its conquests, and making happy faces at Mexico and the USNA, which were perceived as the only remaining powers of note in the world. Japan, being caught up in Russia, never moved much further into China. For some reason, I have a sense of this timeline being somewhat behind ours technically, at least in some areas, so that nuclear weapons have not yet been seriously thought of.
PART EIGHT: The 50's and 60's
By the late 50's, increasing tensions between Germany and Japan led to armed conflict in Russia. A series of incidents involving the sinking of Mexican ships by Germans in the Pacific brought Mexico into the war. Eventually the Mexicans and Japanese swept the Germans from the Pacific. Germany was then invaded from two sides, surrendering when Mexican and Japanese forces met along the Dniester. Mexico set up democratic governments in the territories it occupied, whereas Japan annexed the territories it occupied into its Empire. In the postwar period, Mexico and Japan got along reasonably well, with each adjusting to its new position in the world.
PART NINE: 70's and 80's
I imagine the 70's and 80's would've been fairly peaceful. Mexico, after setting up democratic governments in Europe would've withdrawn its troops, but there wouldn't've been much danger of Japanese expansionism as the Empire would've been too busy digesting its conquests. This period would've seen an upsurge of interest in science, with the development of atomic power, initially for peaceful purposes but Mexico, Japan, the USNA and maybe Brazil would've quietly developed atomic weaponry as well. There would not've been the kind of arms race we had, however, as relations between the powers would've been somewhat less tense. Additionally, there would've been the beginnings of space travel, particularly by the USNA, Mexico and Japan.
PART TEN: The 90's to the Present
The early 90's were more of the same, but the late 90's saw the rise of a new power in the states that arose from the collapse of European imperialism in South Asia. A new Pan-Asian movement , with a charismatic, Hitleresque Leader gains power in India, Southeast Asia, the East Indies and China (save Manchuria, Mongolia and Taiwan, occupied by Japan). This Leader is hostile to Japanese imperialism and also seem to have imperialistic designs for Australie and Aotearoa, as well as Japan's Pacific territories, and the still-independent Kingdom of Hawaii. While not actively hostile to Mexico, the Mexicans are not so blind as to not see the threat to themselves. The big question is whether or not the Pan-Asian Leader has access to nuclear weapons. By early 2005, the long peaceful period seemed to be nearing its end.
The Presidents of the U.S.N.A.
1) John Hancock (1789-1797)
2) Thomas Jefferson (1797-1801)
3) John Adams (1801-1809)
4) James Madison (1809-1817)
5) James Monroe (1817-1825)
6) John Quincy Adams (1825-1833)
7) Daniel Webster (1833-1837)
8) Martin Van Buren (1837-1845)
9) John Tyler (1845-1853)
10) Franklin Pierce (1853-1857)
11) James Buchanan (1857-1861)
12) Abraham Lincoln (1861-1869)
13) Schuyler Colfax (1869-1877)
14) William A. Wheeler (1877-1881)
15) Chester A. Arthur (1881-1885)
16) Grover Cleveland (1885-1893)
17) Adlai Stevenson (1893-1901)
18) Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909)
19) Robert T. Lincoln (1909-1913)
20) Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921)
21) John G. Diefenbaker (1921-1925)
22) John C. Coolidge (192501929)
23) Herbert Hoover (1929-1937)
24) Franklin D. Roosevelt (1937-1945)
25) Thomas Dewey (1945-1953)
26) Adlai Stevenson II (1953-1957)
27) Harold Stassen (1957-1965)
28) Henry Cabot Lodge (1965-1973)
29) Katharine Tracy (1973-1977)
30) Peter E. Trudeau (1977-1981)
31) Ronald Reagan (1981-1989)
32) Brian Mulroney (1989-1997)
33) William J. Blythe (1997-2005)
34) Louise Bonaparte-Kennedy (2005-
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Anyway, here's my younger self's idea of what the USA might look like if John Hancock had been the head of the Continental Army instead of that Virginian fellow, with a little of my current self's notions thrown in.
(Note: States that have no territory listing are the same as the ones we know.)
The United States of North America (Philadelphia)
1) Connecticut (Hartford)
2) Dakota (Dakota City) includes North Dakota, South Dakota
3) Delaware (Dover)
4) Hancock (New Dedham) includes Alberta
5) Idaho (Boise)
6) Illinois (Springfield)
7) Indiana (Indianapolis)
8) Kentucky (Frankfort)
9) Lower Canada (Montreal) includes southern Quebec
10) Maine (Augusta)
11) Manitoba (Winnipeg)
12) Maryland (Annapolis)
13) Massachusetts (Boston)
14) Michigan (Lansing)
15) Minnesota (Saint Paul)
16) Montana (Helena)
17) New Brunswick (Fredericton) includes New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island
18) New Hampshire (Concord)
19) New Jersey (Trenton)
20) New York (Albany)
21) North Columbia (Nootka) includes British Columbia
22) Northern Louisiana (Saint Louis) includes Missouri, Iowa
23) Nova Scotia (Halifax)
24) Ohio (Columbus)
25) Pennsylvania (Harrisburg)
26) Rhode Island (Providence)
27) Saskatchewan (Saskatoon)
28) South Columbia (Spokane) includes Washington, Oregon
29) Southern Louisiana (New Orleans) includes Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, east Texas, westernmost Tennessee
30) Upper Canada (York) includes Ontario
31) Vermont (Montpelier)
32) Virginia (Richmond) includes Virginia, West Virginia, the District of Columbia
33) Western Louisiana (Topeka) includes Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Colorado east of the Rockies
34) Wisconsin (Madison)
35) Wyoming (Cheyenne)
The Northern Territories
1) Adams (Adams City) includes northern Northwest Territories
2) Alaska (New Archangel)
3) Greenland (Godthaab)
4) Jefferson (Eskimo Point) includes eastern Northwest Territories
5) Labrador (Hopedale) includes Labrador, Ungava
6) Washington (Yellowknife) includes western Northwest Territories
7) Yukon (Whitehorse)
PART ONE:
Years ago, I read somewhere that John Hancock lobbied to be named head of the Continental Army, but that Washington was picked instead. So, I decided to dream up a timeline in which Hancock got the job.
I decided that there would be two major differences as a result.
One: that since Hancock was a New Englander, and thus more familiar with the territory than the Virginian Washington, the American invasion of Canada would be more successful. In fact, the British would've been driven clear out of Canada, withdrawing to Newfoundland.
Two: that with a somewhat different make-up in the Continental Congress, an anti-slavery plank would've been included in the Declaration of Independence. This would've cost the Revolution a lot of support in the slaveholding regions, and only heroic expenditure of political capital on the parts of Jefferson and Washington would've kept Virginia, and by extension Maryland and Delaware, in the fight. (Thirty years later, I'm not sure how this would've followed from Hancock being in command, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.)
Anyway, the Revolution would've ended about when it did, with an independent, slavery-free USNA, gaining its independence, and the Deep South (Georgia, the Carolinas) remaining a colony of Britain. The USNA would retain Canada, and many Tories would flee to the South, rather than northward, as they did in our world. I decided that Philadelphia would remain the US capital, as it would be more central than it was on our world.
PART TWO:
Anyway, the USNA begins expanding westward, and the Louisiana Purchase happens on schedule. There is a War of 1812 that ends with the USNA in control of what we call Mississippi and westernmost Tennessee. Since the Deep South's western expansion is blocked, there is no Trail of Tears here, and the South retains a large Indian population. Florida is annexed or purchased from Spain and becomes part of British North America. In 1833, slavery is banned throughout the British Empire. This provokes a revolt by some members of the slave-holding class in British North America and leads to the so-called Traingle War, between those loyal to the British, the white slave-holders and an alliance of freedmen, rebellious slaves and Indians. This last is covertly backed by the USNA, for reasons both altruistic (the elimination of slavery) and cynical (some in the USNA hope to annex the territory). In the end, the alliance of slaves and Indians is successful and the British and the slave-holders are defeated, and an independent Africo-Indian Republic is formed. A large percentage of the white population leaves the AIR, for other British territory and for South America. A large number remain, those who can accept racial equality. In time, a number of blacks and Indians from the USNA also resettle in the AIR. The territory of the AIR includes what we would call Florida, Alabama, Georgia, the Carolinas, and eastern and central Tennessee.
Initially, relations between the USNA and the AIR are cordial, although they chill somewhat as the AIR steadfastly refuses to join the USNA and as the USNA comes into conflict with the Plains Indians when they expand westward.
PART THREE:
Now, as to Mexico. My rationale was that the USNA, being more northerly-oriented, would have come into less conflict with Mexico. There might've been some dispute over the border between Texas and the Louisianas, but I pictured these as being solved more or less peacefully. By and large, "manifest destiny" as a policy would not have developed in the USNA. Thus, Mexico would've retained control of most of Texas, as well as Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, California, Utah and Colorado west of the Rockies. Considering that that meant that Mexico would retain Texas' oil and California's gold, Mexico would've been a much richer nation, and, without the disastrous wars with the US of our timeline, a more politically stable one. In fact, I pictured Mexico as expanding southward, absorbing the Central American republics and Santo Domingo, eventually even annexing Cuba, Puerto Rico, and maybe even the Philippines from Spain later in the Nineteenth Century. Mexico would be the most powerful nation in the Americas, particularly dominant in Spanish-speaking Latin America, leaving the USNA and Brazil as the second and third powers in the Americas. I also considered that many of the immigrants who came to the USA from Catholic Southern Europe in our timeline from places like Italy, Spain and Portugal and possibly France might've gone to Mexico instead, again helping to build up the Mexican economy. Maybe Mexico would've expanded into the Pacific, and been the power that came into conflict with Japan in the 20th Century, instead of the USNA. But more on that anon.
PART FOUR: What maight the USNA be like today? I recall that my idea at the time was that USNA might've ended up as a sort huge nuclear-armed, largely homogeneous "Switzerland". With no Mexican War, Civil War or Spanish-American War the USNA might've had a somewhat more peaceful existence than our USA. I suspect it might've managed to stay out've whatever analogues to the World Wars this timeline might've had. It would be "whiter" than our USA, with smaller black and Indian populations, with Asians being almost as numerous a "non-white" minority (particularly in the West) as blacks. The USNA's Hispanic population would be virtually nonexistent, with Mexico a larger, richer nation. I suspect it would be a more "Protestant" nation, and the Catholic population it did have would be more from Ireland, Germany , Poland, and Hungary. I think the French population might've been somewhat more "diluted" than in our timeline, and French widely-spoken only in rural Lower Canada. I suspect that the central government would've still grown in power over the years, particularly with an "imperial" Mexico right next door, but probably still wouldn't be as powerful as it became in our timeline.
PART FIVE: The rest of the world: these were my least-formed ideas, so bear with me.
Europe in the Nineteenth Century: I suspected that the loss of Canada and the retention of the South might've altered British priorities and commitments enough that it would've distracted them somewhat from the Napoleonic Wars. (How likely this actually is, I have my doubts now.) While he would not have conquered Britain, Napoleon would've established France as the dominant power in Western and Central Europe, and arrived at some kind of a deal with the Czar, avoiding the disastrous Russian campaign. Thus the race to colonize Africa and India would've been much more competitive, and these areas would've been partitioned differently. A generation later, after the Triangle War, Britain would've been weakened enough that Napoleon, or perhaps Napoleon II, might've been able to strike at France's ancient enemy and conquer the islands, annexing England, and creating puppet states of Ireland, Scotland and perhaps Wales. The English monarch would've fled to Newfoundland, which the USNA would've discouraged the French from invading, not wanting a French presence nearby. France would've dominated Europe until about 1865, when the Germans, led by the Habsburgs in this timeline instead of the Hohenzollerns, would've thrown out the French and established an Empire of their own that dominated Middle Europe. The century would've drifted to its close with the declining French still in control of Western Europe, but with grumblings of revolt in Spain, England and the Low Countries.
East Asia in the Nineteenth Century: Somebody, either the Mexicans or maybe the USNA would've "opened" Japan at about the same time as our timeline, with similar results as the Japanese desperately modernized. China would've suffered colonial intrusions much as it did in our timeline, with only the players being somewhat different.
Australasia in the Nineteenth Century: Australia would've ended up as a French colony, settled by French outcasts. What we call New Zealand would've remained primarily Maori in population, though under French domination. Likely the French might've converted the Maori to Catholicism.
South America in the Nineteenth Century: Spanish-Speaking South America would've largley fallen under Mexican influence, With Brazil and the Guyanas resisting.
Africa in the Nineteenth Century: I hadn't given as much thought to this, except that Africa still would've been heavily colonized.
PART SIX: Early Twentieth Century:
As the French Empire declined, tensions in the world've increased, eventually leading to a second Franco-German War in the early years of the century. Revolts would've sprung up in the remaining French colonies and satellites, with England, the Low Countries, Scandinavia and Spain breaking away. Germany would win the war, becoming dominant over France, annexing large chunks of French territory. The English king would've returned from Newfoundland, creating an independent Duchy of Newfoundland ruled by one of his younger sons. The Celtic countries would've retained their independence, as England would still be too weak to re-conquer them. Russia would've stayed out of the war, having its own concerns with the rising Japanese power. In the Far East, Japan would've come in on the German side, opportunistically snatching up several of France's Pacific colonies. Australia would've become an independent French-speaking republic and what we call New Zealand would've become the independent, heavily-Catholic, Maori Kingdom of Aotearoa. Germany would've retained footholds in New Guinea, China and the Pacific, and this would've led to tensions between them and the Japanese.
In the post-war period, Germany would've consolidated its position. Japan would've taken advantage of growing turmoil in China to begin encroaching on Manchuria and Mongolia, much as it did in our world.
PART SEVEN: The 30's and 40's
By the 1930's the situation in Russia would've deteriorated enough that the Czar began seeking an external threat to divert his people from internal issues. To do so, he manufactured a border incident in Poland. This proved to be a colossal error, as it led to war with Germany. The Germans made steady progress into Russia, but were becoming bogged down when the Japanese again opportunistically struck in Siberia. This led to the collapse of Russia, and by the end of the 30's Germany and Japan had partitioned Russia along the Urals. Each side set about consolidating its conquests, and making happy faces at Mexico and the USNA, which were perceived as the only remaining powers of note in the world. Japan, being caught up in Russia, never moved much further into China. For some reason, I have a sense of this timeline being somewhat behind ours technically, at least in some areas, so that nuclear weapons have not yet been seriously thought of.
PART EIGHT: The 50's and 60's
By the late 50's, increasing tensions between Germany and Japan led to armed conflict in Russia. A series of incidents involving the sinking of Mexican ships by Germans in the Pacific brought Mexico into the war. Eventually the Mexicans and Japanese swept the Germans from the Pacific. Germany was then invaded from two sides, surrendering when Mexican and Japanese forces met along the Dniester. Mexico set up democratic governments in the territories it occupied, whereas Japan annexed the territories it occupied into its Empire. In the postwar period, Mexico and Japan got along reasonably well, with each adjusting to its new position in the world.
PART NINE: 70's and 80's
I imagine the 70's and 80's would've been fairly peaceful. Mexico, after setting up democratic governments in Europe would've withdrawn its troops, but there wouldn't've been much danger of Japanese expansionism as the Empire would've been too busy digesting its conquests. This period would've seen an upsurge of interest in science, with the development of atomic power, initially for peaceful purposes but Mexico, Japan, the USNA and maybe Brazil would've quietly developed atomic weaponry as well. There would not've been the kind of arms race we had, however, as relations between the powers would've been somewhat less tense. Additionally, there would've been the beginnings of space travel, particularly by the USNA, Mexico and Japan.
PART TEN: The 90's to the Present
The early 90's were more of the same, but the late 90's saw the rise of a new power in the states that arose from the collapse of European imperialism in South Asia. A new Pan-Asian movement , with a charismatic, Hitleresque Leader gains power in India, Southeast Asia, the East Indies and China (save Manchuria, Mongolia and Taiwan, occupied by Japan). This Leader is hostile to Japanese imperialism and also seem to have imperialistic designs for Australie and Aotearoa, as well as Japan's Pacific territories, and the still-independent Kingdom of Hawaii. While not actively hostile to Mexico, the Mexicans are not so blind as to not see the threat to themselves. The big question is whether or not the Pan-Asian Leader has access to nuclear weapons. By early 2005, the long peaceful period seemed to be nearing its end.
The Presidents of the U.S.N.A.
1) John Hancock (1789-1797)
2) Thomas Jefferson (1797-1801)
3) John Adams (1801-1809)
4) James Madison (1809-1817)
5) James Monroe (1817-1825)
6) John Quincy Adams (1825-1833)
7) Daniel Webster (1833-1837)
8) Martin Van Buren (1837-1845)
9) John Tyler (1845-1853)
10) Franklin Pierce (1853-1857)
11) James Buchanan (1857-1861)
12) Abraham Lincoln (1861-1869)
13) Schuyler Colfax (1869-1877)
14) William A. Wheeler (1877-1881)
15) Chester A. Arthur (1881-1885)
16) Grover Cleveland (1885-1893)
17) Adlai Stevenson (1893-1901)
18) Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909)
19) Robert T. Lincoln (1909-1913)
20) Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921)
21) John G. Diefenbaker (1921-1925)
22) John C. Coolidge (192501929)
23) Herbert Hoover (1929-1937)
24) Franklin D. Roosevelt (1937-1945)
25) Thomas Dewey (1945-1953)
26) Adlai Stevenson II (1953-1957)
27) Harold Stassen (1957-1965)
28) Henry Cabot Lodge (1965-1973)
29) Katharine Tracy (1973-1977)
30) Peter E. Trudeau (1977-1981)
31) Ronald Reagan (1981-1989)
32) Brian Mulroney (1989-1997)
33) William J. Blythe (1997-2005)
34) Louise Bonaparte-Kennedy (2005-
