A House Divided-An American Timeline

jeckl

Superman said:
I have some plans for something related to taht, but since I haven't written them down myself yet, I can't reveal any details.

Because a major POD 40 years earlier is bound to have some sort of effect? Also, the UK was also a supporter of the Monroe Doctrine, and won't take kindly to France just playing around in the Americas. That, and the fact that, ITTL, Napoleon III just jeopardized the proto-Entente that was developing between the UK and France by helping the slavocratic CSA win its independence, while the UK was staunchly abolitionist.
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It may have some effect, but not defiantly on the big, key events. The UK and France had clashes in Fashoda

The Entente didn't really develop until after Germany was formed. The UK's main interest was the protection of it's empire. They joined France and Russia against Germany because their colonies security depended upon Franco-Russian good will, far more then German. After Germany united in the Franco-Prussian war (which it is very likely to win, unless it's advisors in the American civil war prompt a major reform, that gets completed before the war) it was the major power and with Kaiser Bill 2 they were going to rub Britain the wrong war, looking for colonies, threatening UK market share, building a big fleet.

If you can use butterflies to affect these things, then a UK France clash would make sense.
 

Superman

jeckl said:
It may have some effect, but not defiantly on the big, key events. The UK and France had clashes in Fashoda

The Entente didn't really develop until after Germany was formed. The UK's main interest was the protection of it's empire. They joined France and Russia against Germany because their colonies security depended upon Franco-Russian good will, far more then German. After Germany united in the Franco-Prussian war (which it is very likely to win, unless it's advisors in the American civil war prompt a major reform, that gets completed before the war) it was the major power and with Kaiser Bill 2 they were going to rub Britain the wrong war, looking for colonies, threatening UK market share, building a big fleet.

If you can use butterflies to affect these things, then a UK France clash would make sense.
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Of course, I didn't actually say that there would be a UK-France clash, did I? ;)
 
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Superman

jeckl said:
True :)

How much support (If any) will France give to the CSA?

Same with the UK (also to the US)?
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France has broken through the Union blockade of the south, and is responsible for some limiting bombardment of the Northern coast to distract the US Navy, as well as sending military advisers and some weapons. For the first few years of its independence, France will also try to prop up the Confederacy as a buffer between the USA and Mexico, but it'll drop that soon enough.

The UK truly is neutral here, but continues to trade with the USA and didn't recognize the Confederacy until the Union did.
 

Superman

Peace and Reconstruction in the Confederacy

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Charleston, South Carolina(above) and Atlanta, Georgie(below) were both among the many Confederate cities ruined during the war

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While the United States had its own problems, the Confederacy was even worse off. Many southern cities had been ruined or destroyed in battle, and the cost of fighting the war had brought an enormous debt on them, and extremely high inflation meant that Confederate dollars were worth very little. To solve that problem, President Davis convinced the Confederate legislature to issue a new currency, Confederate credits, which were worth about $10 in Confederate dollars, or about the same as a US dollar. However, there was still the matter of paying all the veterans of the war, and dealing with the slave revolts brought on by abolition in the North. The loose nature of the Confederacy also made it nearly impossible to coordinate the various Confederate state militias to work together to put down rebellions outside of the state they served. To pay off their veterans, the Central Government of the Confederate States attempted to convince its states to cede sparsely populated parts of themselves to the central government, in exchange for assuming their debts, like the Federal Government of the United States had done after the American Revolution. However, this idea was extremely unpopular, as many Confederate citizens correctly assumed that, not only would their taxes have been used to pay off their own state’s debt, but also for every other state. The government dropped the issue, and didn’t bring it up again. The Confederate economy, and its very existence, seemed doomed, and it seemed like a miracle was needed to save it.

 However, foreign aid allowed to Confederacy to survive its turbulent first years. Though the Confederacy no longer bordered Mexico after West Texas rejoined the Union, its very existence still prevented the US from deploying troops to Mexico to oust Emperor Maximilian from power, and as such, it was seen by France as a useful distraction for the US, to keep their interests in Mexico safe. Significant military aid from France, including weapons and advisers, helped the Confederacy develop a modernized army, which, on paper, appeared capable of challenging the United States itself. However, Confederate troops were now required to serve in Mexico, as French troops were called back home when war with Prussia appeared imminent. The establishment of a permanent army, even in peacetime, and the overseas deployment of Confederate troops drove a wedge between the various state governments and the central Confederate government.

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Anti-government riots in New Orleans, 1867
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 The other major source of assistance for the Confederacy came from wealthy slaveholders from Brazil. With abolitionism on the rise there as well, many plantation owners who had depended on slavery for their livelihood immigrated to the Confederacy, bringing their wealth with them. Though this left abolitionists with far more power back home, it also gave the Confederacy access to new financial resources. The emancipation of slavery in border states in the United States also caused American slave owners to be attracted to the Confederacy. The Confederacy finally had a chance to succeed as an independent nation.

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Brazilian slaves in Florida, 1868
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Thehappyvampire

Good update.

Curious, what are the other nations' views on the Confederacy? And will the Confederacy play a big part in the world's politics?
 
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Superman

Thehappyvampire said:
Good update.

Curious, what are the other nations' views on the Confederacy? And will the Confederacy play a big part in the world's politics?
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America despises it, for obvious reasons. The UK doesn't really care. Mexico is split between the Liberals, who, like America, hate it, and the Conservatives, who, like their French master, see it as a useful buffer. As of right now, most of the world doesn't care too much, but I won't go into too much detail as to whether that will change too much or not. The only European nation that's actually worried about the CSA is Spain, which I'll get to later.

It won't have a huge direct role in many places outside of North America, but the effects of its very existence will lead to butterflies.
 

Superman

The flag of the United States:
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and the Confederate States:
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Following its defeat in the War of Southern Independence, the USA changed its flag. Not wanting to appear to have lost the war, they also couldn't keep stars for states that no longer were part of the Union, so a compromise was reached. The 13 stars, like the stripes, symbolize the original 13 states(even though four of those are no longer American), while the large star in the center represents the Union as a whole.

For the Confederacy, the ten stars represent the ten states of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas. An 11th star, for Tennessee, was considered, but was ultimately dropped, as Tennessee was now in Union hands.
 
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jeckl

Good update, I really like how Brazil is the nation that aids the CSA (albeit indirectly)

I also notice that the 'wiki' (or what ever you want to call it) Refers to 'Mexico', 'Brazil' 'France' and 'Austria'. Very interesting.
 

Superman

jeckl said:
Good update, I really like how Brazil is the nation that aids the CSA (albeit indirectly)

I also notice that the 'wiki' (or what ever you want to call it) Refers to 'Mexico', 'France' and 'Austria'. Very interesting.
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Thank you. ITTL, the mutual threat of Prussia is pushing France and Austria closer together, and this will come up later. Mexico, or at least the parts controlled by Maximilian, is basically a French puppet, and with a Hapsburg on the throne, they're pretty close to Austria, too. Brazil isn't "directly" helping the CSA, but while abolition is taking off there too, the slaveholders want a place they can go to in the event that slavery is abolished back home.
 

Thehappyvampire

Will the Confederate states start rejoining back into the Union one by one? Or will the Confederacy just be another North Korea?
 
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Superman

[FONT=&quot]The Industrial Revolution and Economic Recovery

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A photograph of a Bessemer converter in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which had been the steel capital of America

The Industrial Revolution had brought many changes to the American way of life along with the various technology invented during this time. The Confederate-American War had halted the construction of a transcontinental railroad, as resources had been needed on the battlefield, and railroads had instead been constructed in the East to deliver resources to Union troops. However, after the war, construction had resumed, and the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroad companies finished building the railroad in 1870. The construction of the transcontinental railroad greatly benefited the United States. Veterans of the war, freed slaves and immigrants, mostly from Ireland and China, were all among the hundreds of laborers who built the railroad. In addition to creating hundreds of jobs, the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad also connected cities in the East to farms out west, and allowed farmers to sell their produce to a much wider market, as well as increasing interstate trade. The American economy grew at a much higher rate than it had ever grown before, while their Confederate counterparts, lacking the advantage of industrialization, lagged far behind them.
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Andrew Carnegie(1835-1904), one of the leading entrepreneurs in the steel industry

With the discovery of the Kelly-Bessemer process in the 1850s, steel making became a major industry in the United States. During the war, Scottish-American entrepreneur Andrew Carnegie had worked with others to establish a steel rolling mill. After the war, Carnegie invested in the growing iron and steel industries, and it was here that he amassed his vast fortune. The steel industry was linked to the railroads, and as steel was stronger than iron, it was also used in machinery that was used in factories. As demand for steel grew, so did its production, and by the 1880s, the United States was the world’s leading producer of steel.
The introduction of new machinery reduced the demand for skilled workers and created job opportunities for unskilled laborers. As unemployment dropped, the American economy continued to recover from the blow it had received during the war, and by 1875, was the fifth largest economy of any independent nation in the world, behind only China, the UK, Russia and Germany. ​
 

Superman

This one was pretty close to OTL, but at this point, it was pretty much inevitable that the Union was going to become an industrial powerhouse. Still, enjoy.
 

Superman

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A map of the USA and CSA. Blue is for American free states, medium blue is for American slave states, dark blue is for American territories, gray is the CSA.
 
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Thehappyvampire

Can't wait for next update! :D

Does the existence of the Confederacy encourages the United States on creating a large, trained military?
 
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