Nation Application
Full Nation Name: United States of America
Short Nation Name: The United States, America, USA
National Symbols: Bald Eagle, Statue of Liberty, Uncle Sam, Lady Columbia, Star Spangled Banner, North American Bison, Stars and Stripes, etc.Capital: Washington D.C
Territory: The lower 48 states, Alaska, Hawaii, the Philippines, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, Panama Canal
Form of Government: Federal Constitutional Presidential Republic
Head of State: President John Nance Garner, Vice-President Charles McNary
Head of Government: Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn
Ideology: Liberal democracy, anticommunism, federalism, republicanism
Population: ~148,594,713
United States - 131,028,000
The Philippines - 16,000,000
Puerto Rico - 1,543,913
Guam - 22,800
Military Description: The United States military is an all-volunteer force that stands at around 200,000 strong. As America did not enter the Great War, there was no mass mobilization of armaments and manpower compared to the likes of the American Civil War. That isn't to say that the country is lacking militarily, military observers are keeping track of the weapons used by other major powers and the military is always testing new toys for active service. The United States has also engaged in interventions in East Asia and Central and South America, especially the United States Navy and the Marine Corps. As it stands, the United States Navy is perhaps the most important asset to the country as the Navy spent much of its resources to protect international trade. New ships are also being built to bolster the Navy.
The United States Armed Forces is at the stage of not having its full potential drawn. The military is small as the country is focused more domestically with the economy and ending the unrest, different from full mobilization in a foreign war. However, the federal government has flirted with the Preparedness Movement, a Great War era domestic campaign initiated by former President Theodore Roosevelt and then-General Leonard Wood to strengthen the military in case of a hypothetical war. The Preparedness Movement gained some momentum when hunting down Pancho Villa but fizzled out as the Great War drew to a close. However, with the deployment of the National Guard against communist and fascist organizations in the era known as The Troubles, along with fears of the Soviet Union and Japan, the Preparedness Movement returned to full steam as another mean to unify the country and to grow the military against all threats, domestic or foreign.
Tech Tree: USA
Economic Description: The United States is a wealthy nation and its vast size stretching from sea to shining sea allows for a diverse range of industries to flourish. The Midwestern United States provides itself as new industrial centers for manufacturing and mining with the Ohio River Valley providing premium mining productions. Much of the Plains states and New England are agricultural centers while coastal states were centers of trade and fishing, with California being well known for its gold mines in addition. Texas, California, and Pennsylvania are also invaluable sources of oil along with other minerals such as gold and coal. Much of the southern states, however, were impoverished and saw the brunt end by the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. Although the country is still recovering from the Great Depression, revitalizing the economy of the American South has taken number priority by the federal government.
Goals: Continual recovery from the Great Depression, protecting American interests in the Americas and East Asia
Point of Divergence: 1916, "He kept us out of war."
History: The United States of America remained neutral as Europe tore itself apart. The public was against entangling in foreign affairs of Europe and the American public themselves were divided on the major powers. The Americans did not want war and the election of President Champ Clark in 1912 and in 1916 solidified America's neutrality. The rise of communism in Europe had also strengthened the pacifists and isolationists belief that America was right not to be involved in Europe with fears that American involvement would have made the situation worse. However, individuals with rather internationalists or aggressive leanings on foreign policy saw Europe's descendance as proof that American action could've prevented such an ordeal in Europe. Nevertheless, isolationists among both Democrats and Republicans ensured that America would focus on her own backyard instead of sailing across the Atlantic to fix one of Europe's many problems.
The 1920s saw a decade of economic prosperity, cultural dynamism in the arts and social movements, and massive scale usage of automobile, radios, telephone, film, and electrical appliances in America. While much of Europe licked its wounds from the Great War, America was living up the life of luxury. While America was still isolationist, that is not to say that the country shuts itself off from the global stage. The United States was a creditor nation throughout the 1920s, providing loans to European countries. Small scale interventions also took place in Central and South America and East Asia.
Fortune, however, did not last and the decade of prosperity and investments ending with the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The Presidency of Herbert Hoover had attempted to bring relief to the country with raising federal income taxes on high earners, enacting tariffs on foreign goods to protect American businesses, and expanding collateral banking credits. Public projects were also underway to bolster the economy with the country being on a very slow road to recovery after worsening effects such as unemployment and homelessness. The Great Depression brought some changes to the national politics. The Progressive Party had emerged as a major party with some of the more left-wing members of both the Republican and the Democratic Party joining the reformed Progressive Party. The Great Depression also saw a rise in communist and fascist activities, organizations that the government saw as a threat to the country. Memberships into previously marginalized organizations such as the Communist Party, the Socialist Party, the Silver Legion, etc. reached an all time high. Threatened by the rise of far-left and far-right groups, Republicans, Democrats, and Progressives talked of forming a grand coalition to keep out the fringes from power. Unfortunately, the centrist coalition in the United States struggles to find a compromise between it’s disparate members. The stark differences between the parties were too high to reconcile and coalition talks ended as soon as it began.
As the 1932 federal election begins, the Progressives nominated Governor Floyd Olson of Minnesota and Senator Huey Long of Louisiana. Meanwhile, conservative Democrats and Republicans rallied behind a coalition ticket of Speaker of the House John Nance Garner of Texas and Senator Charles McNary of Oregon. The various fringes had coalesced themselves in an attempt to be formidable forces in politics. The various socialist, syndicalist, and communist organizations formed the Combined Worker's Party and casted William Z Foster for the Presidency. Many far-right organizations sponsored William Dudley Pelley under the True American Party. Whatever threat the Combined Worker's Party or the True American Party posed to the establishment, it wasn't in the ballot as Foster and Pelley combined barely broke 7% in the popular vote and the race was between Garner and Olson as the clear front runners. Neither candidates were able to secure enough electoral votes to claim victory and the country entered a constitutional crisis as both candidates refused to yield. As the House of the Representatives remain hesitant on deciding the electoral result, both the TAP and the the CWP took the opportunity to point out the indecisiveness of the American system.
Fearing that prolonging the election would led to public discontent and create more support for the CWP and the TAP, Olson backs down. In a secret meeting with Garner in Washington, the two candidates agrees to Garner becoming President-Elect in exchange for Progressive influence in government and the denial of the TAP and the CWP in federal government. Four months after the election in 1933, Olson publicly concedes the race and Garner was declared as the President-Elect by the House of Representatives. Unfortunately, the secret meeting in an effort to unify the country for peace backfired as the backroom deal was seen as tyrannical and corrupt by Pelley and Browder. Public confidence in the government begins to fade and protests begin across the South and the Great Lakes. Some of the Governors in the affected areas deployed the National Guards to keep the peace. President-Elect Garner met with Hoover and MacArthur in discussion of implementing War Plan White in preparation for domestic uprising.
Protests turned to riot and labor strikes and political rallies dissolved into violence as Browder and Pelley advocated for taking up arms against Garner and each other. Thus beginning the two year period known as The Troubles. Pelley and the Silver Legion attempted to rally the southern states to secede (again) but was given a unreceptive response by most of the governors. Any attempts of violence by the Silver Legion against state governments were quickly crushed by state national guards and high ranking members of the True American Party were arrested, including Pelley who attempted to flee to South America. The True American Party was no more and only pockets of resistance existed in the swamps.
Compared to Pelley, Browder's Combined Worker's Party was more trouble to the federal government. In tandem with the Mafia and dissident members of the Progressive Party, the Combined Worker's Party held effective control from Chicago to Pittsburgh known as the Red Belt. They were able to resist incursions by police and the National Guards and union militias engaged with loyalist militias and the police in the region. At the recommendations of his generals, President Garner implemented War Plan White and federal troops lead by General Dwight D. Eisenhower were deployed to the Red Belt to bolster loyalist forces. Federal troops lead by General S. Patton were also deployed to the southeast to support the National Guards there. The initial success of the Red Belt sputtered and the left-wing partisans were no match for trained federal troops and in a few short weeks, the CWP was pushed out of Pittsburgh and Chicago lie as the only major stronghold of the party. By the fall of 1933, organized resistance from the CWP fell apart and order was restored to Chicago and Pittsburgh. Browder himself is missing and is presumed to have died during the fighting in Chicago. Remaining CWP and TAP activities have faded into the underground and federal troops are still kept in affected regions to keep the peace. However, the organizations were severely weakened to have any affect on the United States. By January 1934, Congress declares the Troubles to be over.
The Troubles prolonged the effects of the Great Depression and President Garner has the delightful task of fixing not just an economic setback but a divided nation. Negotiations between Democrats and the Progressives lead to a series of programs, public work projects, austerities, financial reforms, and regulations nicknamed the Bold Deal by the media. Reconstruction of the areas affected by the Troubles (especially the American South and the Midwest) also passed Congress. Despite Progressives gaining some seats in the 1934 midterm, Garner was able to defeat Progressive candidate Senator Hiram Johnson of California in the 1936 Presidential election. Despite the so far tenuous decade of the 1930s, there is reason for Americans to have some optimism for the prospect of the country. The economy appears to be going right back on track and domestic enemies of the Union has been crushed. Time will tell, however of any new threats facing the country, be it domestic or perhaps foreign.
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