I'm sure some here will remember For All Time; a super-dystopian but fairly realistic work from 2001. For those that don't, it can be downloaded here.
A map at the conclusion can be found here.
The North American Confederation (NAC) is the most obvious oddity, and it's existence is not well explained in the timeline. We know that Quebec broke away from Canada in the mid-'80s and the USA, lead by military dictator Haig, occupied the rest of the place soon after, but we don't know why. The map also reveals that the Maritime Provinces are independent, and that it and rump Canada (but not Quebec) are strongly NAC aligned. How might this have happened? Does anyone have any good ideas? What feels particularly strange is that if one were to create a supernational organization with the intent on covering for an extension of the USA's power, wouldn't the best way to preserve legitimacy be to take all of Canada as a subject? Also, if rump Canada is an NAC puppet, why would the US government feel any need to annex much of the country officially, risking antagonizing the Canadians there?
Explaining how things might have led to the state of Canada is the main thing I'm after with this post.
Mexico is in a similar but simpler circumstance, with the north annexed and the rest of the country an NAC puppet. There, uprisings wracked the country in 1969 and the Collective Security Organization, including many American troops, intervenes. The country only gets a couple more mentions; there's still civil war in 1971 and in 1980, and by the end of the story Vicente Fox (misspelled as Vincente) is somehow still president of Mexico as he was OTL, the first civilian one since the '70s. The country was also invaded by the Haig administration, and Lord Roem's sequel (which can be read here) reveals happened in 1984, but why I don't know.
Mexico is overall easier to explain. What I presume happened was that the American invasion left the country with two (or more) rival governments, and though the pro-US one lost control of the capital it survived and joined the NAC. While the main Mexican government was anti-US, perhaps Maoist, it pivoted and attracted foreign investment, which left the rump state dominated by NAC corporate interests. Does anyone have a rival or better explanation?
I ask these questions because the story is actually really good, despite the flaws I bring up here, especially for something written so long ago. I encourage people to read it, so long as you are a fan of 20th century alternate histories and dystopias.
A map at the conclusion can be found here.
The North American Confederation (NAC) is the most obvious oddity, and it's existence is not well explained in the timeline. We know that Quebec broke away from Canada in the mid-'80s and the USA, lead by military dictator Haig, occupied the rest of the place soon after, but we don't know why. The map also reveals that the Maritime Provinces are independent, and that it and rump Canada (but not Quebec) are strongly NAC aligned. How might this have happened? Does anyone have any good ideas? What feels particularly strange is that if one were to create a supernational organization with the intent on covering for an extension of the USA's power, wouldn't the best way to preserve legitimacy be to take all of Canada as a subject? Also, if rump Canada is an NAC puppet, why would the US government feel any need to annex much of the country officially, risking antagonizing the Canadians there?
Explaining how things might have led to the state of Canada is the main thing I'm after with this post.
Mexico is in a similar but simpler circumstance, with the north annexed and the rest of the country an NAC puppet. There, uprisings wracked the country in 1969 and the Collective Security Organization, including many American troops, intervenes. The country only gets a couple more mentions; there's still civil war in 1971 and in 1980, and by the end of the story Vicente Fox (misspelled as Vincente) is somehow still president of Mexico as he was OTL, the first civilian one since the '70s. The country was also invaded by the Haig administration, and Lord Roem's sequel (which can be read here) reveals happened in 1984, but why I don't know.
Mexico is overall easier to explain. What I presume happened was that the American invasion left the country with two (or more) rival governments, and though the pro-US one lost control of the capital it survived and joined the NAC. While the main Mexican government was anti-US, perhaps Maoist, it pivoted and attracted foreign investment, which left the rump state dominated by NAC corporate interests. Does anyone have a rival or better explanation?
I ask these questions because the story is actually really good, despite the flaws I bring up here, especially for something written so long ago. I encourage people to read it, so long as you are a fan of 20th century alternate histories and dystopias.
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