Also map has been updated with India.
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by Sao Nova Europa » Mon Apr 22, 2024 8:14 am
by Reverend Norv » Mon Apr 22, 2024 8:43 am
by Arvenia » Mon Apr 22, 2024 9:37 am
RESERVATION
NS Name: Arvenia
RP Name: Arabia
Territory: Saudi-Arabia, Yemen, Oman, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan, Israel, Sinai Peninsula, Eritrea, Djibouti and the rest of Syria and Lebanon
Do not remove - 2024RP
by Sao Nova Europa » Mon Apr 22, 2024 9:40 am
Arvenia wrote:RESERVATION
NS Name: Arvenia
RP Name: Arabia
Territory: Saudi-Arabia, Yemen, Oman, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan, Israel, Sinai Peninsula, Eritrea, Djibouti and the rest of Syria and Lebanon
Do not remove - 2024RP
by Chewion » Mon Apr 22, 2024 11:13 am
Sao Nova Europa wrote:Updated the map. For Germany, I used rl German-Polish borders since Chewion mentioned a Poland existing.
Correct me if I made any mistakes, preferably by posting a map with the corrections.
by Chewion » Mon Apr 22, 2024 11:18 am
by Arvenia » Mon Apr 22, 2024 11:57 am
APPLICATION
NS Name: Arvenia
RP Name (Formal): United Arab States (UAS)
RP Name (Informal): Jaziria
Flag: Either this or this one.
Capital: Riyadh
Territory: Saudi-Arabia, Yemen, Oman, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan, Israel, Sinai Peninsula, Eritrea, Djibouti and the rest of Syria and Lebanon
Population: 90,285,554
Official Language(s): Arabic, Hebrew, English, Somali, Tigrinya, Tigre, Kunama, Bilen, Nara, Saho, Afar, Beja, Persian, Russian, Greek and other languages
Type of Government: Federal Constitutional Semi-Presidential Republic
Head of State: President Bashir al-Nawad
Head of Government: Prime Minister Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak
Legislature: Legislative Assembly of the United Arab States
Legislative Houses: Senate (upper) and Council of Representatives (lower)
Party in Power: Al-Tawhid
National Issues:Public Goals: Combat extremist groups, achieve economic growth, expand military capabilities and form stronger ties with other Arab-speaking countries
- Israeli Conflict - The conflict between the UAS and the (mostly unrecognized) State of Israel has reached a breaking point following Bashir al-Nawad's return to the Presidency. The Israeli people have long fought for sovereignty from the UAS after the latter revoked Palestine's SAZ status in 1948.
- Political Corruption - Political corruption is very common in the UAS.
- Arab Unity - The UAS have long struggled to stay in touch with Arab-speaking countries in Africa following decolonization.
Private Goals: Defeat Israel and regain lost territories
GDP (nominal): $1.590 trillion
Currency: Arabian dinar (UAD)
Economic System: Capitalism
Defense Budget: 5-10% of the GDP
Alliance(s): The UAS leads the Arab League, while also forming security agreements with non-Arab countries.
Military: The Arab Defence Forces (ADF) forms the military wing of the UAS. It is composed of the United Arab Army (UAA), the United Arab Navy (UAN), the Arab Air Force (AAF), the Arab Air Defence Force (AADF) and the Arab Strategic Missile Force (ASMF). The President serves as Commander-in-Chief, while the ADF is directly commanded by the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS).
Being the largest branch in the ADF, the UAA (or simply the "Arab Army") consists of 640,000 active troops and 480,000 reserve troops. It operates approximately 3,000 MBTs, 1,650 APCs, 750 IFVs, 640 SPAs, 320 towed artillery pieces and 300 rocket projectors.
The UAN (or simply the "Arab Navy") operates 4 destroyers, 9 frigates, 17 corvettes, 20 submarines, 78 patrol vessels and 26 mine warfare ships. It is divided into the Mediterranean Sea Command, the Red Sea Command, the Persian Gulf Command and the Arabian Sea Command. It is currently looking to acquire aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships.
The AAF possesses approximately 1,000 aircrafts.
The ASMF is responsible for the utilization and management of the UAS' nuclear weapons.
History: Arabian history remains the same, aside from numerous failed attempts at conquering Macedonia. During the 17th and 18th centuries, Enlightenment ideas reached the Middle East, which has a deep impact on Arabs. Many Arabs went to Europe to explore further Enlightenment ideas and stumbled upon an active revolution in Western Europe. Inspired by it, they return home to instigate a similar revolution in the Kingdom of Hejaz, largely due to the decadence and corruption that prevails within the country. The revolution results in the creation of a revolutionary republican government that later seeks to turn neighbouring countries in the Arabian Peninsula into fellow "Arab republics". This leads to the Arab Revolutionary Wars, in which Islamic monarchies receives support from Macedonia, while the Arab republics are backed by their European counterparts. The wars lasted from the 1790s to the 1800s. In 1804, a revolutionary general named Nazim Khadawi unites all the Arab republics into the Arab Empire and proclaims himself "Emperor of the Arabs". This ends the Arab Revolutionary Wars, yet conflict raged on between the new Arab Empire and Macedonia over territorial claims on Mesopotamia until a stalemate was reached.
The Arab Empire operated as a semi-constitutional monarchy where the Emperor reigns supreme, yet political power is delegated to the people. Two opposing factions are formed to encourage political competition; the conservative Traditionalists and the liberal Reformists. The Arab Empire went on to establish factories and other industries across its territory in order to catch up with Macedon and Europe. Arabian society modernized and the Arab Empire began to colonize parts of Africa, bringing it into conflict with fellow colonial powers such as Italy-Aragon, Portugal, France and Britain. The Arab Empire managed to colonize Tunisia, Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea, Djibouti and Libya, as well as parts of Ethiopia, Chad and the Central African Republic.
In the 1890s, the Arab Empire transforms Palestine into a so-called "Special Administrative Zone", a move that has to do with the need to pursue economic development in the empire. As a result, hundreds of thousands of Jews migrate to Palestine, which leads to the Jewish population in the Arab Empire growing exponentially. From 1894 to 1896, the First Arab-Ethiopian War was fought between the Arab Empire and Ethiopia.
In the early 1910s, a conflict led to the Arab Empire losing Tunisia and most of Libya to the Latin Union. In 1914, the First World War broke out. The Arab Empire went to war with the Latin Union again for the purpose of regaining lost territory in North Africa.
From 1919 to 1920, a popular uprising took place across the Arab Empire, where protesters called upon Emperor Nazim III to step down and abolish the monarchist government due to its strong grip on economic policy. The uprising was successful and the Arab Empire was reformed into a federal republic called the United Arab States (UAS). Much of Arabia's constituent divisions were reformed into states, although both Palestine stayed as an SAZ and the UAS retained colonies in Africa. Both the Traditionalists and the Reformists were succeeded by the Conservative Party and the Liberal Party, respectively.
Due to the Great Depression, Faisal al-Qutayni, the liberal President at the time, formed a coalition government with the Arab Labour Party, a left-wing party that mixed social democracy with Arab socialism. Together, the Liberal Party and the Labour Party implemented social and economic policies aimed at addressing the Great Depression and its effects on the global economy. Most of the policies were similar to those implemented in the FAR at the time. However, the policies unnerved numerous businessmen and politicians in the UAS due to the fear of the coalition government aligning itself with the USSR. As a result, the Arab National Party was formed by right-wing liberals and Arab nationalists. It was led by Zahran al-Abidin, a businessman and retired UAA officer. The party's platform incorporated Arab nationalism, national liberalism, economic liberalism, secularism, anti-communism and pan-Arabism. The party eventually won the next presidential election and became the UAS' ruling party. The new government sought to promote Arab unity, economic liberalism, patriotism, secularism and republican values. Meanwhile, the UAS aggressively expanded into Ethiopia, thus kicking off the Second Arab-Ethiopian War, which lasted from 1939 to 1940.
When the Second World War broke out in 1940, the UAS aligned itself with liberal countries such as the FAR and used the conflict as an opportunity to get back at the Latin Union, who had joined forces with Germany and other reactionary countries.
Around this time, the UAS began relying on oil and became one of the world's biggest oil producers.
In 1948, President al-Abidin introduced a legislation that would grant all Arabian colonies in Africa full statehood in the UAS, while Palestine would be stripped of its SAZ status and also gain statehood. However, the decision angered Palestine's Jewish population, who didn't like the idea of being forcefully assimilated into Arab society. At first, they organized protests, which were cracked down on by the Arab authorities. Later, they began organizing armed resistance, which would cause the Arab Defence Forces (ADF) to get involved. The Jewish rebels were divided into numerous groups such as Haganah, Irgun, the Jewish Liberation Army and the Army of the Great Return. Many of these groups were vehemently socialist and thus received support from the USSR and other socialist countries. This situation marked the beginning of the modern Arab-Israeli conflict. President al-Abidin declared martial law in Palestine and mobilized both the ADF and ethnic Arab militias against Israeli rebel groups. Meanwhile, some countries such as the USA would support the UAS throughout the conflict. This particular conflict, the Rebellion of 1948, ended with the Amman Agreement, in which President al-Abidin promised the Israeli community full civil rights and political representation in the UAS. Despite this, many Israeli nationalist groups continued to advocate for self-determination.
Throughout the 1950s, things got out of hand as Arab socialist leaders rose to prominence across North Africa, which threatened the UAS' presence and influence. As a result, many UAS states in Africa (except for Eritrea and Djibouti) seceded from the UAS throughout the 1950s and into the 1960s. In 1956, the Suez War broke out between the UAS and Egypt, which would leave the Suez Canal divided between the two countries.
In 1967, the Eritrean War of Independence broke out between the UAS and the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF). The ELF was directly backed by both Somalia and Ethiopia, although the UAS was able to crack down on the rebellion after just six months. In 1969, diplomatic crisis ensues when the FAR declares support for Israeli self-determination, which drew anger from both President al-Abidin and his supporters.
The National Party would remain in power until President al-Abidin resigned due to his ailing health in 1974. A presidential election was held that same year, which was won by Yasir al-Rahman, a member of the Labour Party. In 1975, Standard Oil begins investing in the UAS, which only complicates the FAR's position in the Arab-Israeli conflict. In 1978, First Consul Robert F. Kennedy is assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan, an anti-Israeli extremist. The UAS denies any involvement in the assassination and denounces Sirhan Sirhan as a "right-wing extremist". In that same year, Akhua, a right-wing Arab nationalist party, defeats the Labour Party in the presidential election and its leader, Nazim Hussein, becomes President. President Hussein would pursue an paternalistic economic policy and maintain vehement opposition to Israeli self-determination.
In 1982, sectarian violence flares up in Lebanon between Sunni Muslims, Iskandirites (Alexandrian Muslims) and Maronites. Later that same year, President Hussein steps down and is succeeded by Prime Minister Yanira Saleh, who becomes the UAS' first female President. She continued Hussein's policies, such as paternalistic economics and opposition to Israeli self-determination. In 1984, the UAS would form a regional organization called the Arab League.
In 1985, the First Mered breaks out between the ADF and the Israeli community, which sees the formation of the clandestine Unified National Leadership for Emancipation (UNLE), which consists of the Israeli National Liberation Movement (Yildrot), the Popular Front for the Liberation of Israel (PFLI), the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Israel (DFLI) and the Israeli Communist Party (Maki).
In 1990, Yasir al-Rahman was re-elected as President, this time on a platform emphazising peace between the UAS and the Israeli community. This would culminate in the Arab-Israeli peace process, which ends the First Mered in 1991. In 1993, President al-Rahman is assassinated by Zahir al-Assad, an Arab ultranationalist who opposed the Arab-Israeli peace process. Zahir was convicted of the crime and later sentenced to death. The Arab-Israeli peace process contributes to the formation of the State of Israel in the Tel-Aviv Region.
From 2000 to 2005, the Second Mered took place between the ADF and various Israeli nationalist groups. It broke out after President Asif Zeitar, a deeply conservative Muslim, sought to force Israeli residents in and around Quds (Jerusalem) to pay jizyah. Notable nationalist groups include the Tel-Aviv Martyrs' Brigade (a paramilitary organization with ties to Yildrot), Mehudit (an Israeli nationalist group that incorporates Jewish fundamentalism), the PFLI, the DFLI, the Lions of the Homeland and Shin Bet (Israel's primary security force). It was during the Second Mered that the ADF conducted Operation Defensive Sword.
In 2010, Bashir al-Nawad is elected President of the UAS. He is the leader of Al-Tawhid, an Arab nationalist party that incorporates national liberalism, conservative liberalism, economic liberalism, Islamic democracy, right-wing populism and pan-Arabism. He takes a more hawkish stance against Israeli nationalism, which leads to increasing tensions between the UAS and Israel throughout the 2010s.
In 2018, President al-Nawad loses to opposition leader Fuad Jabari from the social-liberal and secular Hunak Muqtabal party. President Jabari is committed to Israeli sovereignty, while wishing to keep Quds undivided under Jazirian rule as Israeli nationalists demands that the city gets brought under their rule. His government helps ease tensions between the UAS and Israel.
In 2020, due to a political crisis within the UAS regarding Arab-Israeli relations, a snap election is held, which leads to Bashir al-Nawad getting re-elected as President. He proceeds to implement policies that were deemed controversial by the masses. Protests would ensue across the UAS due to these policies.
At the same time, conflict flares up between the UAS and Israel again, just as the ELF renewed its offensive against the UAS in Eritrea. As of 2024, the Arab-Israeli conflict is about to escalate to the point of no return, just as Jazirians prepare themselves for a new presidential election in the UAS.
RP Example(s):
Do not remove - 2024RP
by Reverend Norv » Mon Apr 22, 2024 7:06 pm
APPLICATION
NS Name: Norv.Come all ye true friends of the nation,
Attend to humanity's call;
Come aid in the slave's liberation,
And roll on the Liberty Ball.
RP Name: The Free American Republic, or FAR. The acronym is normally pronounced like the word “far,” rather than as three letters, and this has given rise to a variety of patriotic puns: one can be “FAR-born,” or “FAR-dreaming.” FAR citizens are traditionally called ”Yankees,” and the country itself is sometimes called “Yankeeland” or “Yankeedom,” especially by residents of the Americas. Poetically, Yankees often call their country “the Promised Land”: the traditional code for free states used by enslaved people escaping along the Underground Railway. Most simply, as it has been since the Second Revolution, the FAR is simply called “the North.”
Flag: The Red Ensign, at top, is the national flag of the FAR. It is the traditional flag of New England, and was adopted by the rest of the North during the Second Revolution. Because it is older than the flag of the United States, it asserts the North’s commitment to ideals more fundamental than the Union. Since the 19th century, the ensign’s predominately red color has also been associated with Yankee support for revolutionary movements. The ensign’s pine tree is one of the FAR’s most important national symbols, and is often seen with the words “An Appeal to Heaven”: the traditional appeal to God to vindicate the natural rights of the oppressed. Other key national symbols include the osprey (the national animal, usually pictured in a full dive); the coiled snake and the motto “De Oppresso Liber,” both associated with the Expeditionary Forces; and the image of broken chains, which is ubiquitous in Yankee iconography. The national anthem is "The Liberty Ball" - a real abolitionist anthem from 1845 - whose lyrics appear dispersed throughout this application.
Capital: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The People’s Senate still sits, for ceremonial purposes, in Independence Hall.
Territory:The borders of the FAR proper have changed very little since the Armistice of Baltimore. They begin at the Atlantic with the Mason-Dixon Line, which separated the states of Pennsylvania and Delaware from Maryland. At its western extremity, the Line meets the Ohio River near Marietta, Ohio. From there, the Ohio River forms the Republic’s southern border until it reaches the Mississippi at Cairo, Illinois. There, the border turns north, and follows the Mississippi to its source in Minnesota. From there, the border runs straight north to Laurentine, where the FAR’s border has not changed since before the Second Revolution. In total, the FAR includes the real-world states of Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin, along with most of northeastern Minnesota and the northern panhandle of West Virginia. The Mississippi and Ohio Rivers demarcate most of the FAR's frontier with the American Confederation, and have attained crucial symbolic importance as the North's "natural borders."
However, the FAR’s real authority extends well beyond these borders. The theoretically sovereign and independent California Republic has, since the 1877 Treaty of Monterey, been gradually integrated into the FAR: Yankees and Californians can travel and work in each others’ countries, the FAR guarantees California’s independence, California hosts the Republican Navy’s Pacific Fleet, and a Californian citizen - Earl Warren - has even been First Consul of the FAR. The California Republic also includes Hawaii, Samoa, Wake Island, and Guam; the residents of these islands are full citizens of California, entitled to all the rights and privileges of any Yankee. Liberia and Haiti are both closely aligned with the FAR as well, and benefit from an open market, free travel, and military guarantees; this is a legacy of FAR’s historic mission to protect “emancipatory democracies” established by freed slaves. (OOC note: Haiti and Liberia are available for other applicants who are willing to play as FAR client states.)
FAR territory also includes a number of treaty ports, leased from local governments and administered by the Republic’s federal government. These include San Diego and San Francisco, the strongholds of FAR authority in California; and the Panama Canal Zone, where the FAR constructed the canal more than a century ago. The number may grow in future; leasing these treaty ports provides a useful way for smaller and more vulnerable nations to establish a permanent FAR presence, with the economic benefits and security guarantees that result.
Finally, the FAR is often described - especially by Free Soiler critics of big business - as possessing an "invisible empire." This broad term refers to the corporate holdings of Yankee businesses: rubber plantations in Liberia, oilfields in Arabia and Laurentine, factories in China and Macedon where labor costs are lower. While not sovereign FAR territory, these holdings can reach enormous size, and are sometimes de facto self-governing: corporate security guards replace police, and corporate benefits matter more than government welfare. As a result, for better or worse, FAR influence is globally dispersed - as are FAR economic interests.
Population: The FAR population is 118.2 million (actual 2023 population of its constituent states). The population of the California Republic is 39 million, and all citizens of the FAR and California can travel, live, and work freely in either of those two countries. For all practical purposes, the FAR represents a single bloc of about 157 million people.
Official Language(s): The FAR has no official language, though public business is normally conducted in English. California has made both English and Spanish official languages, and public business is conducted in both.We're foes unto wrong and oppression,
No matter which side of the sea,
And ever intend to oppose them
Till all of God's image are free.
Type of Government:The Free American Republic is a federal, semi-presidential parliamentary republic. Its original constitution was written in 1856, but was extensively amended in 1908 in ways that altered its fundamental structure (empowering the Tribunate and creating a unicameral People's Senate); the Constitution has been amended roughly once per decade since then, mostly to expand the rights of individuals and labor unions. Among these rights are equality before the law; due process of law; human dignity; privacy; freedom of religion and expression; freedom of speech and association and protest; freedom of movement and residence; the right to organize and to strike; and (limited) freedom of cultural practice. The Constitution also guarantees positive rights: every Yankee has the right to a healthy environment, safe housing, healthcare, food and water, social security, education, access to government information, and access to the courts and to just administrative action. The Tribunate exists largely to safeguard these rights, and to force the political branches of government to honor them. It is for this reason that the FAR is sometimes described as "constitutionally," rather than just politically, social-democratic. Notably, the Constitution also defines the FAR (and has done since 1856) as an abolitionist and emancipatory state; the function of government is not merely the protection, but the ongoing progress and advancement, of human freedom. The constitutional order is intended to institutionalize a permanent revolution.
The FAR remains a federal system, albeit a fairly weak and highly centralized one. Some powers are reserved exclusively to the federal government; others are reserved exclusively to the states. The federal government has exclusive authority over defense, foreign affairs, immigration, citizenship, communications, and currency standards; whereas the states have exclusive jurisdiction on the police (excluding federal police), primary and secondary education, press regulation, public housing, prisons, gambling, and so on. In a number of areas, the states have concurrent jurisdiction: they can adopt any law that does not contradict existing federal law, in order to fill gaps in the federal system. These areas include business law, civil law, welfare, taxation, consumer protection, public holidays, and public health. Finally, in certain areas, the states can deviate upward from federal law: they can impose a stricter rule, but not a more relaxed one. Thus, for example, the states can provide for stronger environmental protections, higher education standards, or greater antidiscrimination protection than federal law requires - but they cannot deviate downward, below the level fixed by federal law. In practice, the result is a system where federal law sets nationwide parameters, and states use their concurrent or deviation jurisdictions to experiment within those parameters.
The FAR's head of state is its ceremonial president. The president is elected by nationwide popular vote, a process that often turns into a dialogue about the Republic's values and culture. But once elected, although quite prestigious, the president is essentially powerless: his signature is not required for legislation, even as a formality, and he cannot dissolve the People's Senate or call elections without the Senate's own consent. He is constitutionally required only to serve as the nation's "moral representative," and so he spends most of his time on humanitarian work, bringing problems abroad or at home to the Senate's attention. But because of its symbolic and cultural importance, the presidency still functions as a valuable political safety valve: presidential elections divert the public's appetite for symbolic and cultural conflict, and this allows Senate elections to remain more calmly issue-driven and policy-focused.
The People's Senate is the FAR's unicameral legislature, and it is the source of all federal legislative and executive power. Its members are elected for four-year terms by mixed-member proportional representation. Every voter casts two ballots: one for a Senator who will represent his state as a whole (the constituency seats) and one for a political party (the list seats). Every state has two constituency seats, which go to the top two vote-getters running for those seats. A state's number of list seats depends on its population, and list seats are distributed to political parties based upon each party's share of the vote in that state. The result is a system that slightly favors smaller states and larger parties, but also one that still allows for small parties to regularly win a few list seats even when they could not approach an absolute majority. Although the consuls originate most legislation, Senate committees have a powerful influence on shaping and amending every bill. The Senate also exercises an important role in providing political (rather than legal) oversight of the consuls and their administration. And, of course, the Senate chooses the consuls, and can remove them from office at any time by a vote of no-confidence; likewise, it alone can dissolve itself and call snap elections. It is generally considered the most powerful branch of government.The Consuls of the Republic are the FAR's equivalent of a cabinet, and the First Consul is the equivalent of a prime minister. Unusually, the First Consul does not appoint the other consuls. Rather, each consul must be individually approved by a vote of the People's Senate: the First Consul, the Consul for Defense, the Consul for Education, the Consul for the Treasury, and so on. In practice, the consuls are really chosen during party or coalition negotiations, and the vote itself is a foregone conclusion. The consuls exercise executive authority, each over his or her own department, and the First Consul does not possess final executive authority over the others; rather, he or she is expected to serve as a mediator of consensus. In a meaningful sense, then, the FAR has a joint executive, and the main guarantee of coherent governance is the power of the Senate to remove consuls who defy the party line. Thus, the First Consul's real power derives not from their executive authority, but from their role as party leader, which allows them to remove uncooperative consuls by a vote of the Senate itself.
Each consul oversees a government department, which executes the laws. The departments are staffed mainly by the FAR's powerful and deeply entrenched civil service, whose members can only be fired for cause and are therefore largely consistent from one consulate to the next. The civil service also selects its own members, through a series of rigorous entrance examinations and internships. It tends to be more conservative than the country as a whole; it is also whiter, richer, and better-educated than the FAR's general public. It considers itself to serve a "cooling function" in the government; the sweeping, idealistic proposals of the Senate and consuls are reduced to a more modest but practicable program by the civil service's implementation. This is especially true of the FAR's independent agencies - the national bank, the securities commission, the election commission, and so on - whose leaders serve for fixed terms and are not accountable to any political body. In a mostly progressive and often radical government, the conservatism of these agencies guarantees stability in the monetary supply, the administration of elections, and the regulation of markets - fields where volatility can be catastrophic.
The most important of these independent agencies is the Tribunate: the FAR's fourth branch of government, an immensely powerful public ombudsman. The Tribune is directly elected by nationwide popular vote every two years. He or she oversees a staff of almost twenty thousand inspectors and attorneys, who investigate citizen complaints against the state and federal governments. Unlike in other agencies, Tribunate employees do not have civil service protections, and can be replaced for purely political reasons; this means that the Tribunate is usually a reliable political instrument for the Tribune's party. That party, in turn, is usually the opposition in the People's Senate; voters typically like the idea of having one party investigate the other. The Tribunate is responsible for investigating not only violations of law, but also arbitrary or unreasonable applications of the law. It has specialized departments that focus on labor relations and civil rights. When it finds unlawful or arbitrary government action, the Tribunate issues a "Writ of Quo Warranto" to the offending agency, requiring it to cease its offending behavior and take remedial action. If the agency refuses, it can challenge the writ in the constitutional courts. As a result, controversial policies or actions tend to be immediately challenged by the Tribune, and decided in court. In practice, therefore, the Tribunate serves two roles. When government wrongdoing is obvious, it addresses the issue using a Writ of Quo Warranto. And when government action is merely controversial, the Tribune triggers judicial review.
The federal judiciary is a co-equal branch of government with full powers of judicial review: it can review statutes for constitutionality, and the application of those statutes for reasonableness. It applies a variant of Anglo-American common law. Its members are nominated by the Republican Bar Association, and confirmed by the People's Senate; they must therefore be acceptable both to the elected legislature and to the legal profession. The judiciary has five divisions: civil courts hear contract and tort cases, criminal courts hear criminal cases, the labor courts resolve disputes between unions and employers, the constitutional courts hear disputes between the branches of government (including appeals from Writs of Quo Warranto), and the civil rights courts hear cases based on violations of individuals' statutory or constitutional rights. Each division of the judiciary is wholly independent, and has its own appellate division, culminating in a supreme court: the Supreme Civil Court, Supreme Labor Court, Supreme Constitutional Court, and so on. Suits challenging a state law can be appealed from the highest court of a state to the relevant federal supreme court. If two supreme courts issue incompatible judgments, the issue is referred to the Court of Cassation: which consists of one member from each division's supreme court, and which is the final appellate authority when the supreme courts disagree.
This is, of course, only a description of the government of the Free American Republic proper. Treaty ports are directly administered by the Consul for Overseas Territories, with the assistance of elected city councils. More importantly: the California Republic, though functionally a part of the FAR, remains de jure an independent state under close association. It is a unitary presidential republic, with a more powerful executive than the FAR. Over time, the two countries' legal systems have become closely aligned: most FAR civil rights and labor rights laws have been directly adopted by the California government, and the California judiciary has long treated FAR cases as highly persuasive authority. The result is a fairly uniform legal regime. Relations between the countries are regulated by the North American Treaty, which allows FAR citizens and California citizens to live, work, and even vote on exactly equal terms in each others' countries. The result is a political union in all but name: the North American Treaty Organization, or NATO. When disputes between the FAR and California do arise, they are submitted to the NATO Coordinating Committee, where each country is represented in proportion to its population: the FAR has twelve representatives, and California has four. Remarkably, the North American Treaty requires both California and the FAR to treat the Coordinating Committee's decisions as a source of constitutional authority, overriding any contrary law. As a result, on the rare occasions when it is required to issue a judgment, it can fairly be said that the NATO Coordinating Committee is the final legal authority for 165 million people.
Head of State: President Helena Booker. Although not the FAR's first Black president, she is its first president of Caribbean origin - her parents fled Barbados in the 1950s - and this is an important distinction within the FAR's Black community. She served as a "conductor" in the Consulate for Abolition in the 1980s - organizing the escape of Black families from the South. After the end of segregation, she joined the Institute for Nuclear Disarmament, where she worked to negotiate arms-control agreements with smaller nuclear powers like Macedonia and Arabia. Ultimately, she rose to become the director of the IND, and then served as a People's Senator from Connecticut, where she was an important voice for refugee rights and for a peaceful, diplomatic foreign policy. Although registered as a Green Party member for most of her career, she was elected in 2020 as the result of backlash by the mainstream parties against the People's Party anti-immigrant rhetoric. She has focused much of her attention on trying to revive the Louisville Framework for talks on American reunification.
Head of Government: First Consul David Walker. Walker is a Radical hawk - a classic New England archetype - who happens to come from Indiana, a traditional bastion of the Free Soil Party. He served as a Ranger platoon commander in the last year of the Nicaragua War, and then worked for Helena Booker in the Consulate for Abolition. In 2004, he was Deputy Consul for Abolition Policy, and played an important role in shifting the department's focus from rescuing Black Americans to defending human rights worldwide. He was elected to the People's Senate in 2008, riding Barack Obama's coattails as one of a number of Midwestern Radicals who prevailed in traditionally Free-Soiler states. Under Obama, he served as Director of the Republic Clandestine Service and then as Consul for Abolition. During the Warren government, he won bipartisan credibility by supporting the Green New Deal, but fiercely opposed the 2018 Tarriff Act, and condemned the Warren government as naive about the threat from Russia. In 2019, Walker was elected Radical Party leader; in 2020, he led the Radicals to a plurality in the People's Senate, and successfully negotiated a grand coalition with the Free-Soilers. Since then, his government has been largely focused on foreign policy, and it has been mostly successful: he accelerated modernization of the Republican Navy and the Fighting Tigers, especially by expanding production of the F-35 fighter; he ordered the Republic Clandestine Service to exfiltrate pro-democracy leaders from Belarus and Ukraine - evacuating them to Philadelphia, where Walker recognized them as their countries' governments-in-exile; and Walker inaugurated Genesis II, the first human space station orbiting the moon. Though he has failed to make progress on American reunification, and though he has only slightly slowed the offshoring of FAR manufacturing jobs, Walker remains widely respected simply for holding his coalition of Radicals and Free-Soilers together through four tumultuous years.
Legislature: The People's Senate: a unicameral chamber elected by mixed-member proportional representation from the Republic's constituent states.
Legislative Houses: Since the constitutional reforms of 1908, the People's Senate has been the sole chamber of the federal legislature.
Party in Power: A "grand coalition" of the Radical and Free Soil parties, led by the Radicals, controls the People's Senate, and Consuls are drawn from both parties according the coalition agreement. The FAR has five significant parties.National Issues:
- The Free Soil Party: The FAR's oldest party. Its traditional base is the white working class, both urban and rural, and especially the majority-white labor unions. It is left-wing in its economics, and more open to direct state intervention in the economy than the Radicals. On religious issues, it is more secular, and is traditionally supportive of abortion rights and the LGBT community. On racial issues, it is conservative; it was mostly opposed to civil rights, it remains opposed to affirmative action, and it is normally opposed to increased immigration. On foreign policy, it tends to be less aggressive than the Radical Party; it is dubious about both humanitarian intervention and foreign economic entanglements. Free-Soilers are mostly skeptical about reunification with the American Confederation, which they fear would undercut Northern wages - though Free Soil leaders have often supported reunification for other reasons. They currently are the second-largest party in the People's Senate.
- The Radical Party: The FAR's second-oldest party. Its traditional base is ethnic minorities, especially non-white voters, as well as educated professionals and business owners. It is moderately social-democratic in its economics, and supports the Rockefeller system: the tripartite corporatism in which the government mediates between capital and labor rather than intervening in the economy directly. On religious issues, it is traditionalist, though not fiercely so; it opposed gay marriage, and many Radicals still have doubts about abortion rights. The Catholic Workers Movement exercises a strong influence on Radical positions in this regard. On racial issues, it is progressive: it supported civil rights, supports affirmative action, and backs increased immigration - especially increased admission of refugees. On foreign policy, it is broadly hawkish and liberal-interventionist: it is the party of military force, regime change, alliances - and investment in the developing world. Radicals mostly support reunification with the American Confederation, but have doubts about whether it is practicable in the short term. They are currently the largest party in the People's Senate.
- The Populist Party: The FAR's newest party. Its base is disaffected white voters who left both the Radicals and the Free-Soilers. Its economic policy is often unclear, and is not the party's main priority. On both religious and racial issues, it is fiercely traditionalist: the Populists' animating fear is that the FAR will cease to be a majority-white and traditionally Christian society. They oppose abortion rights, gay marriage, transgender acceptance, and affirmative action; they seek a complete or near-complete ban on immigration. On foreign policy, they are mostly isolationist and protectionist; they blame the FAR's supposed friends in China and the American Confederation for the loss of Yankee manufacturing jobs. They are determined opponents of reunification with the American Confederation. The Populists are the third-largest party in the People's Senate, but every other party has guaranteed that it will not form a coalition with them; the Populists are widely seen as traitors to the FAR's abolitionist heritage and mission, and many suspect them of acting as a fifth column for reactionary regimes in Japan or Russia.
- The Socialist Party: The Socialists are a much smaller party - they usually hold only four or five seats in the People's Senate - but they can be important kingmakers in coalition negotiations. They draw their support from young, working-class voters to the left of the Free Soilers. They are a straightforwardly left-wing party, still committed in theory to a syndicalist revolution and an end to private ownership of the means of production; they have recently argued that only such a radical transition can defeat market forces that offshore FAR manufacturing jobs. On religious issues and racial issues alike, the party is firmly progressive: disdaining all appeals to the FAR's tradition of Christian abolitionism, and calling for open borders or quasi-open borders in the name of fellowship with all the workers of the world. On foreign policy, the party usually supports Radical calls for humanitarian intervention or regime change, but opposes the FAR's global economic influence and any efforts to prop up that influence. The Socialists are firm supporters of reunification with the American Confederation. They have, in the past, served as coalition partners for both the Radicals and the Free Soilers.
- The Green Party: Another much smaller party, the Greens are sometimes described as "champagne Socialists:" while their politics are progressive, their base is mostly well-educated urban professionals. Their priority is the environment, and they are economically heterodox: generally supportive of the Rockefeller system, but open to government intervention that protects the environment or fights climate change. On social issues, they are broadly progressive; they frequently ground their views on gender and sexuality in progressive Christianity rather than in secularism, however. On racial issues, they reliably support racial-justice causes and increased - though not unlimited - immigration. Greens tend to be pacifist in their foreign policy, and criticize the Expeditionary Forces' enormous budget. They are divided on reunification with the American Confederation, and typically feel that the Confederation must divest from fossil fuels before reunification can be acceptable. In peacetime, they are often coalition partners for the Radicals; in times of global tension, they gravitate toward the Free Soilers.
Public Goals:
- After Abolition: The Free American Republic was born through the rejection of slavery. For 144 years, the fight against slavery was more than the FAR's greatest strategic priority: it was the FAR's very reason for existing. Were it not for that struggle, there would be no need for an independent Northern republic. The FAR was always as much a cause as a country. And in 1996, that cause - that great, generations-long struggle - was achieved: segregation fell, and the United States became the American Confederation. And the FAR, after a year of delirious rejoicing, found itself deprived of the struggle that had given meaning to its history and hope to its future. "We have somehow continued past the last page of our own story," Helena Booker once mused. Even now, nearly thirty years later, the FAR continues to grapple with a pervasive ennui: who are we now? What do we stand for? What gives our lives meaning? What should we try to become? The obvious answer - reunification with the South - is frightening: the North would be left with half of the new America's wealth, but only a third of its people; Yankees could become a rich minority, ripe for disappropriation by the Southern majority. But surely these material concerns are unworthy of the heirs of Garrison and Douglass? That moral and even existential bewilderment is as much responsible for the rise of the Populist Party as any economic hardship. For the first time, the unifying cause that defined Yankee identity...no longer matters. Into that void have stepped new ideologies and new loyalties. For the FAR, the greatest challenge of the years ahead will be finding an answer to the most basic question of all: now that we have won, who are we now?
- The Price of Free Trade: Free trade has made the FAR rich. This country, relatively poor in natural resources, has made its fortune by trade: importing raw materials, and applying expertise to transform them into vastly more valuable exports. But since the 1990s, the rest of the world has begun to catch up to the FAR's manufacturing expertise. Worse, many of those countries have done so without paying the high labor costs that the FAR's unionized workers expect. And so millions of manufacturing jobs have evaporated, as FAR companies close factories in Ohio or Michigan, and reopen them in Shanghai or Alabama. Today, it is Hollywood and Silicon Valley and the big pharmaceutical companies that drive FAR economic growth, not the auto industry or the steel mills. Only renewable-energy manufacturing and military manufacturing remain vibrant. And so millions of Yankees have found themselves forced from respected, well-paid manufacturing jobs, and obliged instead to wait tables or deliver packages. Their understandable fury at this situation has found an outlet in the Populist Party, and it represents the most important threat in decades to the FAR's core political values: racial equality, social-democratic capitalism, and liberal interventionism. If the Republic cannot staunch the bleeding of its manufacturing sector, even greater political instability is sure to follow.
- This World of Woe: Throughout its history, but especially since the end of segregation, the FAR has attempted to serve as a beacon of liberty and justice for oppressed peoples around the world. Its military force is organized specifically for this purpose: the Expeditionary Forces are purpose-built to help foreign revolutionaries or to defend foreign democracies, rather than to wage war on their own. And the FAR's commitment to its ideals has left it overextended, and frequently trapped in no-win dilemmas. It is simultaneously trying to promote human rights and liberal reform in Western Europe's monarchies; to undermine tyranny and oligarchy in Russia; to prop up "emancipatory republics" in Haiti and Liberia; to mediate the Atlantic Peace Process between Ireland and Albion; to support China against Japanese revanchism; to encourage Israeli self-determination without sacrificing its investments in Arabian oil...the list goes on, and it grows with every year. The FAR cannot be everywhere at once, but it struggles to prioritize in a way that does not break its promises or sacrifice its values. If it cannot resolve that dilemma, then its days as a global power may be numbered.
Private Goals:
- Conscience of the World: The FAR has long sought to model the use of power in the service of values; to show that idealism is a viable alternative to realpolitik, and that kindness and conscience can be the basis for a foreign policy. Since the 1950s, every FAR government has committed to a "tithe": spending one percent of its Gross National Income on foreign aid. This means that the FAR spends far more on humanitarian projects than any other country. The Republic Agency for International Aid - RAIA - runs everything from schools to food pantries to microfinance programs to seed banks across the developing world, and even in impoverished regions or neighborhoods of more developed countries. The Republican Navy maintains a fleet of hospital ships and a dedicated search-and-rescue unit, which are a common sight in the aftermath of earthquakes or floods or fires. The Consulate for Abolition, after the end of segregation in the U.S., has evolved into a global human rights agency: assisting refugees, negotiating human rights treaties, investigating prisons, monitoring warzones, publishing reports on human rights abuses, and more. Perhaps the FAR's most influential humanitarian agency is the Institute for Nuclear Disarmament: funded by Philadelphia but independent of political control, the IND is generally trusted to act as an honest broker in inspecting nuclear stockpiles and programs. Because the FAR has refused to develop its own nuclear weapons, it has immense credibility in monitoring the nuclear capabilities of friend and foe alike - and in negotiating arms reduction treaties, which it attempts to do without cease.
- That Small Nations Might Be Free: The FAR is foundationally committed to the principle of government by the consent of the governed. This means, at a minimum, that ethnic and religious minorities must be respected; they must be governed by their own consent, not by force. And if those minorities wish to govern themselves, then that is also presumptively their prerogative. Thus, the FAR is a reliable ally for pro-democracy, minority-rights, and self-determination movements around the globe: it provides diplomatic support, economic investment, and sometimes arms and training. Sometimes, this pays off: the FAR's long support for pro-democracy forces in the South has given it security in North America, and its reliable backing for Irish independence may have given it a foothold in Europe. Other times, the Yankee fight for the liberty of small nations has been quixotic: most Malagasy and Singaporean people seem to value the stability of German rule more than the dream of national self-determination. But the goal itself is never in doubt: the FAR seeks a world order in which all people are free to determine their own future. Philadelphia is a natural ally to disgruntled minorities, and a natural foe to empires.
- For our Children, and Our Children's Children: The FAR is a global leader in the fight against global climate change, and has worked for more than thirty years to rally other nations to do their part. It hosts regular climate conferences in Chicago, presses for concrete commitments to reduce emissions, and makes climate change a central part of its diplomacy: every FAR embassy has an office of environmental coordination, which offers the host nation technical and financial support for projects intended to reduce emissions. The FAR also attempts to lead by example: its advanced nuclear power plants, offshore wind farms, California solar arrays, dense public transit network, and carbon taxes have reduced its greenhouse gas emissions well below the norm for such a wealthy country. The FAR, in other words, is well on its way to transitioning to a fully renewable infrastructure. Its great goal now is to find some way of dragging the rest of the world along with it.
- For All Mankind: Ever since it shut down its nuclear weapons program, the FAR has invested in space exploration. In part, this served to redirect scientific energy and public funds that had previously been spent on nuclear weapons; in part, it served to channel Cold War competition with Germany and the USSR into productive rather than destructive channels. But the result was RASA - the most lavishly funded space agency in the world - and a list of global firsts: first man on the moon, second permanent space station in Earth's orbit, and - this year - the first space station in orbit around the Moon. RASA's funding, by long tradition, is fixed by comparison to the nuclear-weapons budget of Germany or Japan, whichever is larger: however much the imperial powers spend on nuclear bombs, the FAR will spend more on peaceful space exploration. Likewise, because the FAR regards space as a demilitarized zone, it has no military space forces; rather, all Yankee experts in space exploration work for RASA alone. The FAR's goal is twofold. First, it aims to usher in a new era of human history as a multiplanetary species, with a Moon colony by 2050 and a Mars colony by 2100. Second, it intends to make that new era a uniquely peaceful one, by brokering treaties to prohibit the militarization of space. As David Walker put it, "we will save the Earth for our children, and give them the stars for their birthright."
- North American Decider: North America is divided among four powers. The American Confederation is the largest; the FAR is the wealthiest. Since the end of segregation, the FAR has turned its gaze outward, toward the rest of the world, seeking to advance democracy and human rights on a global scale. But this global focus requires security at home in North America. Thus, the FAR seeks to position itself, behind the scenes, so that it holds the balance of power on the continent: so that it faces no serious threats in the Western Hemisphere, and can influence events both north and south of its borders to ensure its own safety. It desires unofficial and unspoken preeminence in North America - not because it considers the continent a natural sphere of influence, but because power close to home is the precondition of influence further afield.
- To Win the Peace: For twenty-eight years, the American Confederation has preserved a world-historical achievement: a society that had been based for four centuries on the denial of multiracial democracy, became a multiracial democracy. That achievement both justifies the FAR's very existence, and ensures its stability on the North American continent. But the end of the long struggle between North and South has brought challenges of its own. The FAR seeks to maintain the stability of the new government in Atlanta, without strengthening that government so much that it can eclipse Northern sovereignty. It seeks to advance racial equity in the Confederation, without undermining the position of FAR investors. And it seeks to move gradually toward reunification, without endangering the unique and prosperous society that has emerged in the North since the Second Revolution. In public, American democracy enjoys the FAR's unconditional support; in private, it is the cause of a thousand balancing acts.
- An Invisible Empire: The offshoring of FAR industrial jobs is the single greatest economic challenge facing the Free Republic. Addressing it will require the FAR, at least to some extent, to reevaluate its longstanding support for free trade; without protective tariffs, nothing will prevent jobs in Michigan from being shipped to Alabama or Shanghai, where skilled laborers are available to do the same work for half the wages. But raise tariffs too high, and the rest of the world will retaliate: costing the FAR the imports of rubber and lithium and aluminum and oil that sustain what remains of its industrial economy. The FAR's great companies are all multinational conglomerates, with an "invisible empire" of holdings all over the world; and the same tariffs that would protect FAR jobs would therefore cripple FAR businesses. Behind closed doors, the FAR's two major parties are working feverishly to craft a balanced trade policy that can preserve as many Yankee jobs as possible, without destroying the global trade system that created those jobs in the first place.
We'll finish the temple of freedom,
And make it capacious within,
That all who seek shelter may find it
Whatever the hue of their skin.
GDP (nominal): The FAR's GDP is 9.59 trillion dollars; Californias' GDP is an additional 3.7 trillion dollars. For all practical purposes, the two countries together form a single economic unit worth 13.29 trillion dollars.
Currency: The FAR dollar, often just called "FARbucks" or "greybacks." The FAR is, in practice, an essentially cashless society; most people pay for items using bank accounts linked to their smartphones.
Economic System:The FAR is a social-democratic capitalist society based on a mild form of tripartite corporatism. Its economy is dominated by a relatively small number of extremely large companies; the auto industry, where three corporations account for more than ninety percent of production, is typical. The workforce of these companies is overwhelmingly unionized: fifty-nine percent of FAR private-sector workers belong to a union. As a result, economic life is largely shaped by negotiations between management and labor, which can set wages and benefits across an entire sector of the economy. The government plays an important role in mediating these negotiations, but does not participate itself; the FAR has no state-run enterprises, and even the public unemployment fund is administered by the labor unions. Despite its "socialist" reputation, the FAR has very few product market regulations; it strongly protects property rights; and it firmly enforces contracts. It is, in general, a very easy place to do business - as long as you can reach a deal with the RFL-IWW, the FAR's labor union federation. The government protects workers by refereeing the corporatist bargaining process, not by intervening in the economy directly.
The parameters of the FAR economy are based on two historical constants: it has always had limited natural resources (coal, iron, copper, and arable land, but little else); and it has always had a highly-skilled workforce and innovative entrepreneurs. The result has been a knowledge economy: the FAR imports raw materials, applies skilled labor and advanced technology in order to create valuable products, and then exports those products to the rest of the world. It has always relied on global trade for its prosperity; its sources of raw materials and its most important markets have both always been beyond its own shores. Today, this is truer than ever before. The FAR is increasingly not only a knowledge economy, but an information economy: its most valuable exports - high technology, software, pharmaceutical patents, media, financial services, etc. - comprise, in essence, only information itself. In many ways, the FAR is at the forefront of the world economy's march into the information age.
The FAR's reliance on global trade has made it one of the great champions of free trade: it needs to be able to import raw materials and to export advanced products, without tariff barriers in either direction. FAR companies are heavily invested around the world, both in resource-extraction operations (oilfields, rubber plantations) and in product markets (subsidiaries selling FAR goods). Globalization has made the FAR rich, but it has also gradually undermined Yankee manufacturing: companies would rather build new factories in China or Macedon, and fill them with ununionized low-wage workers, than bargain with the FAR's powerful unions. Thus, the engine of the FAR's prosperity is also the cause of much of its domestic turmoil.
There are two main exceptions to the gradual offshoring of industrial jobs. The first is the FAR's military-industrial complex. Until 1996, the FAR maintained a high level of military readiness at all times in case of war with the U.S.A., an imperial power that outnumbered the North by two to one. This necessitated self-sufficiency - and, indeed, qualitative and quantitative superiority - in military materiel. Although the end of segregation in the South brought a peace dividend, ongoing tensions with the Union State (and, to a lesser extent, with the German Empire) have ensured that the FAR still tries to source all of its military equipment from domestic suppliers, in order to ensure that it is not reliant on any other country for its safety. The result is a thriving, long-established, notably high-technology industry that produces cutting-edge stealth fighters, aircraft carriers, tanks, and - above all - computers: FAR military manufacturers set a global standard for avionics, fire control systems, data networks, and other military information systems. The second field where FAR manufacturing is thriving is green technology. Solar panels, wind turbines, tidal and geothermal power plants, electric vehicles, lithium-ion batteries - these are advanced technologies that can be efficiently produced by a smaller number of highly-skilled, highly-paid workers. The FAR's global leadership in the fight against climate change has made it a global leader in the production of these technologies as well. Today, green industry is the fastest-growing field of FAR manufacturing, and FAR-built windmills and solar panels and Ford Dynamos are exported all over the world.
Increasingly, though, it is the tertiary sector that drives the FAR's economy; its most important economic output is not manufactured goods, but ideas. The New York Stock Exchange, on Wall Street, is the world's most important financial center. Wall Street mutual funds and venture capital firms collect and package investments all over the world, from lithium mines in Africa to mortgages in Colorado; by making the global economy accessible to investors, they reap a tidy profit. Some of Wall Street's most important investments are in the FAR itself: these include the FAR pharmaceutical industry, which is at the forefront of international medical research. The FAR's healthcare system - which requires insurers and providers to compete within maximum and minimum prices set by each state - incentivizes innovation; within this narrow field of competition, new treatments are one of the few things that can justify higher prices. Thus, the FAR has long produced more than its fair share of the world's new medications. Still, the FAR's most profitable industry is information technology: Silicon Valley, in California, is the home of many browsers, applications, and devices used worldwide. The FAR manufactures a substantial share of modern computer hardware, but not a majority; when it comes to software, however, the FAR is the clear global leader. But the FAR's most influential industry is, indisputably, media: from Hollywood movies to Detroit music to the iconic New York City skyline, FAR films and albums and television shows are known and enjoyed around the world. This media dominance is both the FAR's greatest soft-power tool, and one of the greatest engines of FAR prosperity.
The FAR's domestic infrastructure has been the primary beneficiary of its focus on green manufacturing. Coal power plants have been mostly phased out since the 1950s; more than seventy percent of the FAR's electricity is now produced using nuclear power. Despite the decision of the People's Congress to shut down their nuclear weapons program, the FAR civilian nuclear program is quite advanced; it is pioneering new "light-water" Generation III nuclear reactors, which are safer and more efficient. Because it lacks meaningful domestic reserves of oil or natural gas, and because imported oil from Arabia was both expensive and morally fraught, the FAR has also come to rely heavily on public transit. Possibly, issues also existed with oil from Laurentine. The highway system constructed in the 1950s and 1960s, when gas was cheap and plentiful, has been supplemented by a dense passenger rail network: high-speed "bullet trains" connect cities, while a web of local maglev lines allow workers to commute from suburban homes to city-center jobs. Since 2010, most FAR urban planning has been based around a new model of walkable "vertical garden city": with green space and retail integrated directly into areas of civilian high-rises, reducing the need to drive at all.
Finally, the FAR is a welfare state, albeit of a somewhat unusual kind. Relatively few benefits are provided directly by the government. Rather, most benefits are based on government-mediated bargaining or contracting. Thus, the state pays for higher education - but often at private universities, which negotiate their reimbursement rates with state governments. Citizens choose between multiple possible health insurers, and the government pays their premiums - but it also fixes the range of acceptable premiums. Within those parameters, insurers compete to offer the best services and attract the most customers. The FAR has no conventional public housing program, but the government will pay the construction costs of a home for any Yankee who invests 400 hours of labor to help build that home himself. Job training or retraining are the province of unions, which receive public grants to train workers and then enroll those workers as union members. Even unemployment insurance is run by the RFL-IWW (a so-called "Detroit System") with assistance from public funds; in exchange for helping to pay the expenses of unemployed workers, the unions get to claim those workers as members when they find jobs again. Thus, in the words of one economist, the FAR is "less a welfare state than a welfare system" - it treats social welfare not as the responsibility of the state alone, but as a whole-of-society responsibility in which the government plays a coordinating role.Success to the old-fashioned doctrine,
That men are created all free;
And down with the power of the despot,
Wherever his strongholds may be.
Defense Budget (USD): 465.15 billion dollars. Because the FAR produces almost all of its own military materiel, its defense budget functions in practice as a massive industrial stimulus: FAR economists often describe defense spending as "permanent military Keynesianism." Moreover, the figure alone is somewhat misleading: the FAR spends about as much money on defense as China, but has only about 600,000 personnel on active duty: about half the Russian or Chinese total. As a result, comparatively less of the FAR's military budget is spent on personnel costs, and comparatively more is spent on research and technology. It is this disparity that has given the FAR, arguably, the most technologically advanced fighting force on Earth - albeit an unusually small one, for a country of its global power.
Alliance(s): The FAR has many friends, but relatively few conventional allies. It is the leader of the Niagara Pact, a military alliance with a joint command structure, which includes the FAR, Laurentine, Haiti, and Liberia (and possibly Ireland). The FAR has a non-aggression pact with the American Confederation, negotiated in the late 1990s, upon which both parties place a great deal of trust. The FAR maintains its "Open Door Policy" - dating to before the Boxer Rebellion - with regard to China; this provides that the FAR will oppose any effort to compromise Chinese sovereignty or to divide China into imperial spheres. Though the language is somewhat dated, the policy's main effect today is to imply that the FAR will defend China from foreign aggression. Notably, the policy does not suggest that the FAR would aid China in an offensive war. The FAR has strong ties to Ireland - based on the prominence of Irish Yankees, and on the FAR's support for both Irish revolutions - but it also has close ties to Albion: British and Yankee engineers cooperate on important technological projects, and Tolkien is a widely revered figure for left-leaning Yankees. The FAR has attempted to maintain relations with both nations by moderating the Atlantic Peace Process, which the FAR hopes will lead to a permanent, peaceful normalization of Anglo-Irish relations. A similar dilemma prevails in the Middle East, where the FAR has been both a longstanding supporter of Zionism, and a longstanding investor in the Arabian oil industry. FAR oil companies and aid workers in the region have been a frequent target for extremists on both sides.
Do not remove - 2023RP
by Reverend Norv » Mon Apr 22, 2024 7:07 pm
Military:The FAR is a potent if unconventional military power. In the year 2000, the People's Senate concluded that a major land war in North America had become highly unlikely; it therefore ended conscription and significantly downsized the FAR's conventional land and air forces - the National Guard. The FAR invested the money thus saved into the Republican Navy - one of the world's strongest sea forces - and into the Expeditionary Forces: an elite, combined-arms force that specializes in expeditionary warfare, unconventional warfare, and special operations. The Expeditionary Forces have given the FAR perhaps the world's largest and most skillful special forces command. Two other agencies also play key roles. The Republic Clandestine Service is the FAR's foreign intelligence agency, and it operates a global network of informants; it is renowned for its focus on human intelligence, and its skill at running double agents. And the FAR is one of the few countries in the world to have an entire military branch devoted to cyber operations: the Cyber Force recruits from Silicon Valley's best minds, and works closely with the FAR's civilian information technology sector. Finally, FAR military force is constrained by Yankee principles: the FAR has no nuclear weapons, and it has promised never to develop them. Likewise, it has no space force - though RASA is the world's leading civilian space agency - and the FAR has promoted treaties prohibiting the militarization of outer space. Stealth drones, not military satellites, provide FAR strategic reconnaissance.
All FAR forces share certain doctrinal principles, which reflect the fact that the FAR is a rich society but not a hugely populous one. The core principles of "Hosean operations" have not changed since the 1930s: "Intelligence before gas, gas before shells, shells before lives." Superior intelligence, speed, and firepower - in that order - are the FAR's preferred tools; pure mass is disdained. Moreover, FAR officers are taught to treat unconventional warfare and civil affairs as an essential part of any operation; no major FAR operation is undertaken without first attempting to win local allies, coordinate with local partners, and protect local civilians. Even a tactical defeat can be a strategic victory, if it wins hearts and minds. FAR service members are expected to be diplomats and leaders, not just warriors. The result is a force based on relatively small, fast-moving, insightful, and heavily armed units that rely on local intelligence and logistical support for their effectiveness. Such a force can punch far above its own weight; it can, like the Biblical quotation from which Hosean operations take their name, "sow the wind, and reap the whirlwind."
The FAR has five main military or paramilitary branches. They are, in rough order of importance:
- The Republican Navy, the FAR's naval force. It receives nearly half of the FAR's defense budget, and is likely one of the two or three strongest navies on Earth. Its power comes less from the number of its ships - it about the size of the Imperial Japanese Navy - and more from its unusually advanced technology and doctrine. It is based on seven carrier strike groups, each of which consists of a nuclear-powered supercarrier; a carrier air wing, usually of seventy-five aircraft (carriers operating in proximity to the Imperial Japanese or German navies are normally equipped with the fifth-generation F-35 Lightning II, plus AWACS aircraft); five guided-missile destroyers, of cruiser-equivalent displacement (the newest Doyle-class destroyers are stealth ships); two nuclear-powered attack submarines; and a logistical support ship. The Navy targets a thirty-year lifespan for all its ships and aircraft, after which they should be transferred to allies and replaced with new, cutting-edge equipment; instead of an overwhelmingly large fleet, it has built a smaller, equally expensive, but entirely modern one. Moreover, all of these warships and aircraft are comprehensively networked using the AEGIS system, which allows each component to use the radars and computing power of every other component to acquire targets or burn through jamming. It is this information-based warfare, designed by the best minds at Silicon Valley and implemented by state-of-the-art hardware, that creates - according to FAR strategists - the Navy's "holistic qualitative advantage." Notably, however, the Republican Navy has an additional specialty: humanitarian relief. Its hospital ships are typically the first to arrive after a natural disaster or civil war erupts anywhere in the world, and it has its own civil-engineering and search-and-rescue forces trained for humanitarian operations.
- The Expeditionary Forces are the FAR's all-volunteer, rapid-reaction, and globally deployable branch. They are a combined-arms force with their own sea, land, air, and special operations elements. Sea elements include: the Forces' very large Jubilee-class amphibious assault ships (which normally sail under the protection of a Republican Navy carrier group); the smaller Jordan-class littoral combat ships (which provide resupply and fire support for coastally deployed Expeditionary Force units); and the Ghost-class submarines (which are designed to insert special operators by swimmer delivery vehicle, and to support them with cruise missiles once they are ashore). Land elements include: the Parachute Division (three airborne brigades, with light vehicles and artillery, wholly deployable by parachute); the Spearhead Division (three air assault brigades, intended to deploy by helicopter from amphibious assault ships, with integrated helicopter gunship support); the Green Mountain Division (three light infantry brigades, transportable by airlift); and the Iron Division (two armored brigades, transportable by heavy airlift). Each division includes integrated logistics, combat-engineering, medical, signals, and field-artillery battalions. Air elements include: heavy airlift wings to transport the Green Mountaineers and the Iron Division; transport wings from which the Parachute Division can drop; fire support wings that use AC-130J gunships to provide precision ground attack capability; unmanned wings (which use armed and unarmed high-endurance surveillance drones - a crucial role, since the FAR has no military satellites); and the Expeditionary Air Corps, or "Flying Tigers" (which use the Jubilee-class ships as launch platforms for their F-35C Lightning II fighters, and which provide air superiority and close air support for expeditionary operations). Special forces elements include the Ranger Regiment (elite airborne light infantry, often used to seize airports so that the rest of the Expeditionary Forces can deploy); the Expeditionary Aviation Regiment (which inserts and recovers special operations forces by helicopter); the Underwater Demolitions Teams (frogmen who sabotage enemy ships and port infrastructure); the Special Boat Teams (responsible for covert riverine and littoral insertion and recovery); the Pararescue Teams (which extract casualties from battlefields too dangerous for conventional medevac); and the secretive Moses Unit (the FAR's tier-one special missions unit, specialized in hostage rescue). More important than all of these are the Conductor Teams of Expeditionary Special Forces - the famous Green Berets - who specialize in unconventional warfare: training, inspiring, and leading rebellions against oppressive governments. The FAR has invested in unconventional warfare for more than a century, and the Green Berets are generally acknowledged to be its foremost practitioners; their work is central to every Expeditionary Forces operation. In practice, the Expeditionary Forces tend to deploy as joint task forces, which bring sea, land, air and special-operations elements together under joint command at the division-equivalent level or below. They are respected by friend and foe alike for their advanced training, for their ability to operate with limited resupply, and for their extremely high morale. For many Yankees, the Expeditionary Forces represent the very best of the North.
- The Republic Clandestine Service is the FAR's main intelligence agency, often referred to simply as "Hampton," from its headquarters on Long Island. For most of its history, it specialized in "illegal" operations in the U.S.A., in support of the Underground Railroad: operations in which RCS operatives were obliged to operate without diplomatic cover, under entirely fabricated identities, often for years or decades. Thanks to that crucible, the RCS remains perhaps the world's best HUMINT agency. Because the Cyber Force has absorbed many SIGINT functions, the Clandestine Service has been able to focus obsessively on old-school tradecraft: agent handling, black bag operations, dead drops, honey traps, steganography, and the like. Precisely because it is an analogue agency in a digital world, it can be very difficult to detect or disrupt RCS operations: they do not leave any trace in cyberspace. This focus on HUMINT also creates opportunities for covert action: from blackmailing foreign leaders to funding foreign dissidents (the "briefcase full of cash" is not a metaphor in the Service), HUMINT officers and their agent networks can be used to influence as well as to eavesdrop. Widely respected at home, the Clandestine Service is justly feared abroad: its proclivity for long-term sleeper agents means that, even if one has known and trusted a man for decades, it is always possible that Hampton knew him first.
- The Republican Cyber Force is the newest branch of the FAR military; it is sometimes called "Milpitas" by metonym. Founded in 2006 as the World Wide Web came of age, it reflects both the FAR's affinity for unconventional forms of warfare, and the FAR's central role in the development of the internet. It has three main roles: as an intelligence-gathering agency, it is responsible for SIGINT and MASINT; as an offensive force, it is capable of cyberattacks against enemy military networks or civilian infrastructure; and as a "political warfare" force, it is responsible for using propaganda and disinformation to destabilize hostile regimes. Cyber troops are recruited from the best minds of Silicon Valley, and the Cyber Force works closely with California information-technology companies to develop new hacks and firewalls. In its espionage operations, it specializes in long-term, invisible infiltration: keylogging viruses, cellphone monitoring, and "Karma": a tool which can be downloaded by cloud connections, without requiring the target to click on any links. In its offensive operations, the Cyber Force has been linked to a wide array of attacks. These include brute-force DDOS; targeted worms that delete and overwrite key computers to render the whole network useless; and delayed-trigger viruses that can wait unseen in bank or electric-grid computers until they are needed. Finally, in its political operations, the Cyber Force uses both open attacks - like hacking public televisions to show politicians engaged in lies or corruption - and more subtle measures, like adjusting the algorithms of a search engine to lead the public to particular information. In one operation in Russia, it is believed to have set up a Dark Web chatroom populated by nonexistent dissidents, simply so that - when Russian cybersecurity shut the room down - the Cyber Forces could trace the Russian hack and upload a virus to the Russian cybersecurity headquarters. The only thing that the Cyber Force does not do in its political operations is lie outright; it is barred by law from deliberately spreading complete falsehoods. This principled restriction is the only restraint on an otherwise highly aggressive and extremely sophisticated operation.
- The National Guard is the FAR's traditional home-defense force, including land, air, and coast guard elements. Originally a citizen army of conscripts who were supported by a smaller professional core, it became all-volunteer after the fall of segregation in the U.S. While it remains the largest branch of the FAR military on paper, most of its personnel are reservists: they train one weekend a month, and have two weeks of field exercises in the summer. Only a small core of technical specialists and senior officers are professional soldiers. By law, the National Guard cannot be deployed outside North America; it exists to defend the Republic, not to spread democracy. Thus, it serves only a few remaining functions. First, it serves as the FAR's professional strategic force: the Free Republic's long-range cruise missiles and strategic bombers are assigned to professional National Guard air wings. (These units may fly outside the FAR, but they are based in North America, and thus do not violate the prohibition on using the Guard for foreign deployments.) Strategic bombing is largely foreign to FAR military doctrine, and these units are not much respected internationally. Second, Guard fighter wings provide a combat air patrol over the FAR itself, mostly using second-line fourth-generation fighters; likewise, Guard cutters provide paramilitary law enforcement and rescue at sea. Third, the Guard can be used, if the People's Senate votes to declare a state of emergency, to suppress riots or provide disaster relief; in practice, domestic disaster relief is the Guard's most frequent role. And finally, the Guard serves a limited ceremonial role: although the FAR does not indulge in military parades, it does provide an honor guard for foreign dignitaries, and this role is always assigned to the 1st Infantry Regiment of the National Guard. It is considered appropriate that citizen-soldiers, not elite professionals, should receive the highest ceremonial honor.
The liberty hosts are advancing,
For freedom to all, they declare,
The downtrodden millions are sighing,
Come break up our gloom of despair.
History:~ The House Divided ~
- 1820: The Missouri Compromise fails; by a narrow majority, Congress votes to admit Missouri as a slave state, while Maine remains a part of Massachusetts. Slave states outnumber free states; the balance of power in Congress tips toward the Slave Power. The shift proves decisive: over the next thirty years, Arkansas, Florida, and Texas will all be added to the Union as slave states, while Michigan will be the only new free state (Wisconsin and Minnesota and Iowa are all refused accession, and forced to remain territories). The result will be minority rule: even as immigrants from Europe swell the cities of the North, a small number of Southern planters will retain an iron grip on federal policy. Northerners increasingly come to see themselves as unfree, subject to foreign dominion.
- 1824: The Second Great Awakening reaches its peak. Its leaders, like Charles Finney, call for the abolition of slavery as part of their program of moral and religious revival. For the first time, abolitionism becomes a mass movement in the North: rather than an elite position based on Enlightenment values, it becomes a popular position based on evangelical Christian fervor. The first mass-circulation abolitionist newspapers are founded, and abolitionist societies see their membership balloon.
- 1826: New Jersey and Pennsylvania - often the first free states to which escaped slaves flee - pass personal liberty laws. These require a trial by jury in a local court before an allegedly escaped slave can be returned to the South. Supposedly, the trial will determine whether the detained person is really a "runaway." In practice, Northern juries consistently vote to deny extradition to the South, regardless of the specific facts. Personal liberty laws are popular, and immediately controversial: they set up a conflict between state courts and federal "fugitive slave laws."
- 1828: Outvoted in Congress, Northern representatives fail to secure a tariff on foreign manufactured goods; this would have promoted Northern factories, but risked retaliatory tariffs against Southern exports of raw materials, especially cotton. Northern manufacturing suffers by competition with cheap British imports. New York issues a proclamation claiming the right to "supravene" federal power over international trade: to impose its own tariff on foreign goods entering New York.
- 1831: William Lloyd Garrison founds the Liberator: a radical abolitionist newspaper that soon becomes the voice of the abolitionist movement as a whole. Its motto is still inscribed over the doors of the FAR Tribunate building: "I am in earnest – I will not equivocate – I will not excuse – I will not retreat a single inch – and I will be heard." Garrison will lead calls for northern independence - "No union with slavery!" was his rallying cry - and will become the FAR's first ceremonial president after the Second Revolution.
- 1832-1833: The Supravention Crisis: New York actually attempts to collect a tariff on British manufactured goods entering the New York City harbor. Congress votes to authorize the use of federal troops to compel New York to abide by federal trade law. New York backs down, but Northern politicians warn that the Union "is now maintained by force of arms alone; it is no longer in any sense a voluntary compact."
- 1836: Congress adopts the Pinckney Resolutions: parliamentary rules that require a two-thirds majority to bring any law concerning slavery up for debate. In effect, the Resolutions prevent not only Congressional action to interfere with slavery, but even Congressional debate on the subject. Abolitionists mostly despair of a federal solution to the "Slave Power."
- 1842: In Prigg v. Pennsylvania, the Supreme Court rules that personal liberty laws are incompatible with federal fugitive slave laws, and therefore represent an unconstitutional infringement of federal power by the Northern states. Pennsylvania continues to enforce its personal liberty law anyway, and jails slave-catchers who try to abduct Black Pennsylvanians without trial. This is the first act of open Northern defiance of federal authority. In a single decade, it will escalate to revolution.
- 1845: Congress annexes Texas to the Union by resolution, rather than by treaty. This is because a treaty requires a two-thirds vote of the Senate, and there are still enough Northern senators to block the admission of another slave state. With the addition of Texas, Northern leaders warn, the federal government has begun extending an "empire of chains" across North America. Mainstream abolitionist organizations begin active efforts to help slaves escape to freedom; the Underground Railroad becomes a highly organized operation indirectly funded by several Northern states. Harriet Tubman becomes an iconic figure, leading dozens of slaves to freedom each year.
- 1846-1848: The federal government, now completely Southern-dominated, declares war on Mexico with the goal of extending slavery all the way to the Pacific. Northerners refuse en masse to pay federal war taxes or report for military service. The Massachusetts legislature officially resolves that the war is being waged for "the triple object of extending slavery, of strengthening the slave power, and of obtaining control of the free states." Amid the war, the Free Soil Party is founded: a single-issue party bringing together moderate and radical abolitionists, whose platform provides solely that slavery shall not be extended beyond the existing slave states. When the war ends, Congress declares that slavery will be legal in all of the territories newly conquered from Mexico. Four months later, the Free Soil Party wins every Northern governorship, and all but three of the North's remaining seats in Congress.
- 1849: Gold is discovered in the newly annexed territory of California; the men who rush to prospect for it are overwhelmingly Northerners, and fear competition from large, slave-labor gold mines. California is admitted to the Union as a slave state, but votes the same year to abolish slavery. Hundreds of thousands of Irish immigrants, fleeing the potato famine in their homeland, arrive in Northern ports: provoking a nativist backlash, but also making the North far more densely populated than the South. Its political power does not keep pace with its rising population. Garrison and the Liberator make the first open call for immediate secession, and the Massachusetts legislature actually debates a declaration of independence.
- 1850: In an effort to crack down on the Underground Railroad, Congress adopts the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act, which expressly requires Northern courts and police to assist slave-catchers. Senator William Seward of New York warns, in a speech on the floor of the Senate, that there is a "Higher Law than the Constitution," and that the North reserves the right to ignore or even abandon the Constitution in defense of that higher law. Northern states universally refuse to comply with the new Fugitive Slave Act; Senator Charles Sumner of Massachussetts describes it as "a more tyrannical abomination than aught England ever imagined." A few months later, Senator Preston Brooks of South Carolina uses his cane to beat Sumner to death on the floor of the Senate.
- 1852: Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes Uncle Tom's Cabin. Abolitionist sentiment reaches a fever pitch. In Dredd Scott v. Sandford, the Supreme Court declares that California lacked authority to manumit slaves when it voted to abolish slavery; essentially, the decision renders slavery legal in every state. The North vows to defy the Court's decision, and Vigilance Committees arm themselves to resist federal enforcement. In Boston, a Black couple - Ellen and William Craft - are detained by federal slave-catchers; the Boston Vigilance Committee kills two of the slave-catchers, throws the others in the city jail, and frees the Crafts. Relying on the 1833 Force Authorization passed during the Supravention Crisis, President James Hammond sends federal troops to occupy Boston, and places the city under martial law. On October 15 - celebrated today as Defiance Day - the Massachusetts legislature formally votes to secede from the Union. The Second Revolution begins.
~ The Green and the Blue ~
- 1852: Yankee mobs surround federal positions in Boston. When the crowd starts throwing cobblestones, federal troops open fire, and kill dozens. Within two months after the Second Boston Massacre, every Northern state votes to secede. The Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa territorial legislatures - long denied statehood - declare independence as well. The Revolution's first shots are formally fired by the New York militia, which storms the federal military academy at West Point. Most of the U.S. Navy - still a Northern-dominated institution - mutinies, and sails back to harbor in New York or Boston. Under attack from the sea by the Navy and from the land by the Vigilance Committees, federal troops in Boston are forced to surrender. By the start of 1853, the United States are unmistakably in a state of civil war.
- 1852-1855: The Second Revolution. The Northern states form a joint military headquarters, but leave more basic constitutional questions for after the war. Instead, the new Northern Alliance focuses on arming and equipping its forces. It leverages the North's industrial base and teeming cities to raise a massive "citizen army," a levee en masse based on the European revolutionary model. To distinguish him from federal troops in blue, the Northern soldier is issued a dark forest-green uniform, which will become symbolic of the FAR forever afterward. The Northern navy blockades most of the South's Atlantic coast, cutting off supplies from Europe.
Fighting, initially, is indecisive but horrifically bloody; the North stops federal incursions at Chambersburg and Buffalo Mills, but suffers an almost two-to-one casualty rate. Federal troops besiege the critical city of Cairo, Illinois, at the junction of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers: seeking to "break the buckle" of the rivers that protect the Alliance's frontiers. 1853 and 1854 bring the fiercest fighting of the war, mostly in southern and western Pennsylvania, where the North has no river to protect it; the armies clash inconclusively at Wheeling, Beverly, and Winchester. In the west, the Alliance is badly defeated at the Battle of Rushford, and is forced to retreat behind the Mississippi: abandoning Iowa and much of Minnesota. The "Iowa Question" will dog FAR strategists ever after.
In 1854 and 1855, the tide turns. The Northern blockade starves the federal war effort. The federal army is brought to battle and finally, decisively defeated at Gettysburg. Alliance forces break the siege of Cairo and relieve the city after eighteen months, ensuring full Northern control of the Ohio and opening the way to push south down the Mississippi into slavery's heartland. By summer 1855, Alliance forces have pushed through weakening federal resistance into Hagerstown, and finally Baltimore, where they surround the main federal field army. A military coup overthrows President Hammond, who flees Washington and then shoots himself. At the instruction of the federal army, Congress seeks terms of peace. An armistice is signed in Baltimore, fixing "military zones of control" and ending the fighting - though the U.S. never formally recognizes Northern independence. The war leaves half a million Americans dead and much of Maryland and southern Pennsylvania in ruins. But its effect on the North is, in many ways, salutary: the conflict serves as a powerful stimulus to Northern industry, and an ideological crucible in which a new Northern national character is forged - a pragmatic but uncompromising revolutionary idealism.- 1856: At the Second Philadelphia Convention, the Northern Alliance is abolished and the Free American Republic is established. The 1856 constitution remains in force, with important amendments, to the present day. It mostly replicates the old United States Constitution, with a few important differences: it guarantees all citizens equality before the law, prohibits slavery, and declares all persons born in the FAR to be citizens thereof, with full voting rights, regardless of race. Only the executive undergoes major structural changes: traumatized by the Southern-dominated presidency, the North transfers executive power to a group of "consuls" appointed by Congress. In the process, it makes the Republic a parliamentary system, and reduces the president to a minor ceremonial role. In the new nation's first elections, William Seward leads the Free Soil Party to an essentially uncontested victory, and William Lloyd Garrison is elected as the first President of the Free American Republic. Ordinary economic and artistic life begins to resume; Henry Wadsworth Longfellow publishes Hiawatha, the first masterpiece of independent Northern literature.
- 1857: The newborn FAR embarks on an ambitious attempt to increase its population, industrial base, and military preparedness against a U.S. invasion that everyone considers inevitable. The centerpiece of this plan is the Homestead Act, which promises forty acres of farmland in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, or Michigan to any European immigrant who reaches the North. The result is an enormous influx of immigration, especially from Ireland and Germany. Nativist anxiety about these newcomers is somewhat assuaged by Consul for Education Horace Mann, who establishes the world's first national system of public education. It is intended to produce productive industrial workers, thoughtful citizens, and assimilated Yankees. Time will prove how inconsistent these objectives sometimes are.
- 1859: First Consul Seward declares the completion of the FAR's federal railroad initiative: every FAR city of at least fifty thousand inhabitants now has a railroad line linking it to all the other cities of the nation. William Kelly, of Pittsburgh, discovers how to produce steel cheaply by injecting air into molten iron in order to reduce the carbon content. The North's industrial efficiency - and especially its steel production - begins rapidly to increase.
- 1861: The Free Soil Party splits, for the first time since before the Second Revolution, over the issue of multiracial democracy. The party's Radicals believe that Black Americans - including all the slaves of the South - should become full citizens; the party's mainstream fears that this will drive down white wages, and argues instead that freed slaves should be settled in Liberia, their "ancestral home." In the first elections since the Revolution, the Radicals defeat the Free Soil mainstream, and Thaddeus Stevens becomes First Consul. His first act is to formalize the Underground Railroad: henceforth, any "man or woman of color, having been resident in the United States, who enters the Free Republic, shall be a full citizen thereof, and forever free." Existing abolitionist escape routes are assigned to the new Consul for Abolition, Frederick Douglass, and grow into an extensive and government-run intelligence network within the South.
- 1864: Petroluem deposits are discovered in western Pennsylvania. John D. Rockefeller, of New York, establishes Standard Oil; he begins investigating new applications for kerosene and gasoline. Frederick Douglass, the Consul for Abolition, calls for full equal civil rights between Black and white Yankees. The result is the final split of the Free Soil Party; the Free Soilers will henceforth primarily represent the white working class, while the Radicals will represent non-white Yankees and bourgeois Protestant progressives. Debate continues about the merits of "assimilation" versus "settlement" - in other words, whether Black Yankees should be sent to Liberia. In the Shenandoah, a major uprising of enslaved people follows the death of Omar ibn Said; Yankee volunteers go south to fight, but First Consul Stevens does not formally intervene - the North is too exhausted to face another war. In the uprising's aftermath, many slaves are able to escape to the FAR, sharing tales of the horrors that continue south of the Ohio.
- 1867: Andrew Carnegie, a Scottish immigrant to Pennsylvania, establishes Carnegie Steel. His strategy is to build steel mills at railroad junctions near iron and coal mines in Ohio and western Pennsylvania. This proves so profitable that Carnegie is soon able to buy the mines themselves. The first vertically integrated Yankee industries begin to evolve. The FAR's GDP per capita surpasses that of the United States for the first time; by 2023, it will be nearly twice that of the U.S. Henceforth, the FAR will be one of the world's most innovative industrial powers.
- 1870: First Consul Thaddeus Stevens dies in office. President Garrison publicly advises the Radical Party, of which he is a member, to call snap elections. The party does so, and secures a slim majority, which appoints Benjamin "Bluff" Wade of Ohio as First Consul. He is part of the Radical Party's "Stalwart" wing, which believes that another war with the U.S. is both inevitable and desirable, in order to eliminate slavery throughout the New World. Alexander Graham Bell secures a patent on his new invention, the telephone; the New York Stock Exchange begins using ticker-tape to transmit stock prices across the nation at the speed of electricity.
- 1872-1876: The California Revolution. With the federal government distracted by its ongoing conquest of Mexico, California - the last major free state in the Union - first refuses to allow its citizens to be conscripted for the war, and then declares independence. The FAR begins its longstanding investment in unconventional warfare, dispatching military advisors and supplies to assist Californian forces. California militia initially meet with great success, occupying the Oregon Territory and advancing to the Rockies. In 1875, with the conquest of Mexico complete, veteran federal troops return and begin to turn the tide; First Consul Wade responds with direct military intervention, sending gunboats down the Mississippi and ordering the Republican Navy to shell Charleston. As the conflict escalates, FAR forces attempt to resolve the Iowa Question by crossing the Mississippi into the former free territories of the Great Plains. They are once again defeated at the Battle of Fairmont. But the Iowa Campaign draws so many troops away from California that, in the west, the remaining federal forces are unable to pass the Rocky Mountains, and attrition gradually destroys the United States' western army. Both sides begin to negotiate terms of peace.
- 1877: At the Treaty of Monterey, the United States formally recognizes the independence of both the California Republic and the Free American Republic. Diplomatic relations, though still deeply hostile, are normalized; ambassadors are exchanged. The FAR commits to a military guarantee of California, and leases two treaty ports - San Francisco and San Diego - to serve as FAR bases for Pacific trade and expansion. The United States annexes Mexico. The treaty reflects a grim conclusion in North and South that slavery and disunion will both persist, because neither side has the strength to defeat the other decisively. Rather than attempt the South's total liberation, the FAR will spend the next sixty years trying to contain Southern power and destabilize a "slavocracy" that now spans much of the new world. 1877 brings an end to the era of existential struggle - an end to the years of the Green and the Blue.
~ Empire of Liberty, Empire of Lucre ~
- 1879: The Treaty of Monterey discredits Wade and the Stalwarts; abolishing slavery across America no longer appears an achievable goal. The voters turn the Radicals out of power for the first time, and elect a narrow Free State Party majority, led by Hannibal Hamlin: a Maine lawyer respected both by moderate Radicals and by the left wing of the Free State Party. His time in office will be consumed by labor issues. Two wars and nearly half a million deaths have left labor at a premium in the North - albeit briefly, for immigration will soon replace the losses. The Knights of Labor begin organizing workers to bargain for higher wages, and strikes begin to disrupt coal mines in Ohio and Pennsylvania. The governors of those states respond by calling out state militias; the strikes continue even so.
- 1881: Immigration joins labor disputes as a pressing political issue. A wave of pogroms in Russia and the Holy Roman Empire sends Europe's Jews flocking to the New World; two million will make the migration over the next forty years. A similar wave of Chinese immigration to California begins, driven by starvation at home and economic opportunity in California's vast farming country. California ultimately responds with the Chinese Exclusion Act, driving a wedge between Sacramento and Philadelphia; Hamlin and the Radical Party both condemn the Act as racist.
- 1883: William Davis of Detroit invents a new rail car, which uses ice, salt, and ventilation to preserve whole sides of meat. This makes it possible, for the first time, to transport meat for thousands of miles from the point of slaughter without risking spoilage. Midwestern cities - especially Chicago - develop enormous stockyards, where animal slaughter and butchery is concentrated for the entire nation. Northern agriculture begins to transform from a subsistence model to modern agribusiness. Railroads become essential to the nation's food supply chains; this vulnerability becomes obvious when the railroad porters strike, paralyzing thousands of tons of meat and vegetables en route to major cities. For the first time, Hamlin sends federal troops to break the strike. The parallels to pre-Revolutionary events like the Second Boston Massacre are unavoidable. The Free Staters lose their majority, and Hamlin survives in power only by negotiating a confidence-and-supply agreement with moderate Radicals.
- 1885: Carnegie Steel adopts the open-hearth process pioneered in Europe; entire steelworking towns are built at railroad junctions near coal and iron mines. Within a few years, the FAR will become the world's largest steel producer, a title it will retain until the 1990s (when China will surpass it). In California, substantial crude oil reserves are discovered, and John D. Rockefeller expands Standard Oil's operations. He also constructs enormous refineries and even storefront retail outlets, controlling every stage of the oil industry from extraction of crude oil to sale of bottled kerosene. This vertical integration, and the economies of scale it permits, will characterize FAR industry until the present day. Also in California, the growing power of California business in the Kingdom of Hawaii allows the Californians to impose the "Bayonet Constitution" on Hawaii, effectively transforming it into a California protectorate.
- 1887: Hamlin's government finally collapses, and the voters return the Radicals to power; John Bingham, the elderly primary author of the 1856 Constitution, becomes First Consul. As the United States begins to industrialize, Bingham fears economic competition from slave-driven factories; he bans all imports from the U.S.A., an embargo that will remain in place until 1996. Meanwhile, refrigerated rail transport has depressed food prices, driving many small farmers into debt; they respond by founding "granges," collective credit unions and bargaining units, which help farmers to pay their mortgages; in exchange, grange farmers must sell at a certain fixed price, and cannot try to undercut each other. Hostile to immigration, the granges put their support behind the Free Soil Party, and the FAR's modern party system begins to develop: Free-Soilers become more economically leftist but racially conservative, while the Radicals remain socially progressive but resist Free Soiler socialism.
- 1889: Buoyed by the Grange movement, the FAR's guilds and craft unions federalize, forming the Republican Federation of Labor (RFL). It will represent the interests of skilled workers ever afterward. Indiana - a "front-line" state where thousands of slaves flee each year - racially segregates schools and public accommodations. The Constitutional Court upholds the law, though it warns that residential segregation would be an unconstitutional usurpation of public authority. Soon, all the FAR "frontline states" have some kind of limited segregation: Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Delaware. States further from the border, where racial tensions are less pronounced, mostly refuse to impose any formal segregation. In New York, in fact, the completed Statue of Liberty sends the opposite message: it shows Harriet Tubman, three hundred feet high and cast in bronze, raising her lantern to light the way to freedom. On an unrelated note, many French Canadians immigrate to New England.
- 1891: Standard Oil's California operations make the FAR, for a few decades, the world's largest oil producer; even after that title is lost, it will remain until the 1990s the world's largest oil refiner, its largest producer of plastics and nylon. Rockefeller's growing influence ties California more tightly to the FAR. At his urging, the Treaty of Monterey is amended to create a single, open market between the two republics. In light of Standard Oil's voracious appetite for workers, California repeals the Chinese Exclusion Act; FAR capitalism, rather than FAR idealism, dooms California's attempt at racialized immigration. Back in the North, the nation's largest women's suffrage organizations merge to form the Republican Women's Suffrage Association, led by Susan B. Anthony. Marches and protests will steadily build momentum for women's suffrage over the next 15 years; by the turn of the century, more than half the states will have given women the vote.
- 1893: There are now nearly a million working telephones in the FAR, and the federal government founds the Interstate Commerce Commission to regulate wire communication. Fearful of Standard Oil's power, Philadelphia also adopts the Sherman Antitrust Act, which prohibits anticompetitive monopolies. It does reduce the power of Standard Oil and Carnegie Steel, but it is otherwise ineffective; the new, smaller companies would rather share an unofficial sectoral monopoly than actually compete. Ironically, the Act is also used to prosecute labor union activity, which is branded a "conspiracy in restraint of trade." In October, an uprising in Haiti against American rule - timed to coincide with Defiance Day, and accompanied with desperate pleas for FAR support - shocks the Northern public. "While we were building our prosperity, the Slave Power has placed half a continent in chains," declares the influential journalist (and suffragette) Nellie Bly. The revolt is crushed before the FAR can intervene.
- 1895: Disgusted with his inaction in Haiti, the Radical Party votes to replace John Bingham with a young, hawkish New Yorker named Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt promises a more aggresive line against the U.S. throughout the New World. He negotiates a 150-year lease on the Isthmus of Panama, and begins construction on the Panama Canal: intended to break the Golden Circle, and to guarantee lines of supply from New York to San Francisco. At home, Thomas Edison's new General Electric Company completes its project of electrifying the island of Manhattan; New York becomes the world's first "electric city." Stephen Crane publishes The Red Badge of Courage, ushering in a new, more bleakly realistic era in Yankee literature. And the independent union leader Eugene V. Debs leads a successful nationwide strike of Pullman railroad porters, which ends only when the federal Congress votes to carve out an exception in the Sherman Antitrust Act; henceforth, collective action by railroad workers will not be considered a conspiracy in restraint of trade.
- 1897: First Consul Roosevelt uses the Pullman strike to build momentum for a variety of progressive reforms, at home and abroad. Congress passes a federal system of workers' compensation and even amends the constitution to authorize direct federal taxation of income. It rejects Roosevelt's proposed labor law, however, which would have exempted all unions from the Sherman Act. Abroad, Roosevelt pushes through an expansive program of naval rearmament, intended both to ensure FAR supremacy in the Western Hemisphere, and to extend FAR influence beyond the Americas. The first indication of those new, global ambitions comes with Roosevelt's declaration of the Open Door Policy in China: the FAR will oppose European efforts to carve up China into colonial spheres of influence, and will support the independent sovereignty of the Dowager Empress. FAR economic and military advisors arrive in Peking shortly thereafter, seeking to strengthen the Chinese government against foreign and internal rivals.
- 1899: The Radicals appoint John Dewey the Consul for Education. Dewey leverages the increasing power of the federal government to make his ideas of "progressive education" the norm throughout the FAR: students will learn by discussion rather than recitation and by experience rather than traditional study. The goal is to produce not just obedient industrial workers, but reflective citizens. In China, the Boxer Rebellion explodes, and FAR military advisors find themselves assisting the Chinese imperial government against virtually every other developed power in the world; they fail, but establish the FAR as the sole trustworthy Western power for generations of anticolonial activists. In response, Roosevelt formally creates the Republican Expeditionary Forces: a new branch of the FAR military intended not to defend the North, but to support liberal governments and rebels around the globe. The Expeditionary Forces will become the most prestigious branch of the FAR military, and the sworn enemy of the United States Marine Corps: which faces the Expeditionary Forces on proxy battlefields throughout the New World.
- 1900: The Pacific Purchases: at Roosevelt's urging, California purchases the islands of Guam, Samoa, and Wake Island from Spain. These are intended to extend the FAR's strategic reach deep into the Pacific, better empowering it to make good on its Open Door assurances to China. They are initially administered as protectorates, without full civil or voting rights for the native populations.
- 1901: Weary of two decades of Radical rule, and still plagued by low food prices and expensive farm insurance, the FAR's rural voters rally to throw Roosevelt out of office. The Free Soil Party, led by the renowned orator William Jennings Bryan, takes power. Bryan is almost immediately faced with another wave of immigration, this time from the Latin Union; he tries but fails to introduce immigration quotas, to the fury of his mostly nativist base. Theodore Dreiser publishes Sister Carrie, which combines ruthless clarity and forgiving humanity in its portrait of the North's enormous modern cities. International respect for Northern literature continues to grow.
- 1903: Emboldened by Bryan's openly pro-worker rhetoric, Eugene Debs - the prominent Indiana socialist and rail-worker leader - founds the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). This group is intended to organize workers based on industry rather than profession, so that a single union can bargain for all the workers employed at Standard Oil or Carnegie Steel. The RFL resists absorption into the new IWW, but IWW policies - like admitting female workers as full, dues-paying members - will gradually influence the RFL as well. Orville and Wilbur Wright, of Ohio, achieve the first powered heavier-than-air flight off the coast of New Jersey, launching the FAR aircraft industry.
- 1905: The Panama Canal, a Roosevelt project to which Bryan found himself unwillingly shackled, is completed. Trade between California and the FAR is vastly streamlined and accelerated. Back in the North, Upton Sinclair - an immigrant from Baltimore - exposes unhygenic and inhumane conditions in the Chicago stockyards. The resulting uproar leads Bryan to create the FAR's first independent government agency: the Food and Drug Administration.
- 1907: The Triangle shirtwaist factory, in New York City, burns to the ground. 146 workers, mostly women, are killed; the blaze is blamed on unsafe and overcrowded working conditions. Bryan establishes another independent agency: the Industrial Health and Safety Administration, or ISHA. The RFL, shocked by the fire, reverses a number of long-held policies: it supports women's suffrage, accepts female workers as union members, and begins cooperating with the IWW. The result of this cooperation is the Bread and Roses Strike, which demands sweeping reforms to the FAR's political economy: a minimum wage, maximum working hours, full rights to organize and strike, and a dedicated public ombudsman to ensure that rights are enforced. Bryan, unable to resolve the strike, resigns. A coalition of pro-worker Radicals and Free Soilers votes for a bipartisan "grand coalition," led by the Free Soil Senator Robert La Follette of Wisconsin, a well-known "union man." La Follette's mandate is to establish lasting labor peace by any means necessary, including constitutional change.
- 1908: The Third Philadelphia Convention brings together representatives of government, big business, and organized labor to amend the constitution. It makes sweeping revisions to the FAR's constitutional order, and also sets a pattern: henceforth, most major reforms to the FAR's political or economic systems will be the result of tripartite corporatism. For a start, the new amendments guarantee women the right to vote and assure workers the right to organize and strike. But they also create a long list of new, "positive" rights: obligations that the government must meet to its citizens. These range from breathable air and drinkable water, to the opportunity to earn a wage sufficient for life. To enforce these new rights, the judiciary is expanded to include independent, specialized labor courts and civil rights courts. And an entire new branch of government - the Tribunate, led by a popularly elected Tribune - will serve as a dedicated public ombudsman to force the government to honor its commitments. Finally, the Senate and House of Representatives will be merged into a single People's Senate, whose members are chosen by a complex electoral law intended to reduce the disproportionate power of small states and to offer a voice to smaller "third parties." The system of government inaugurated in 1908 still defines the FAR's constitutional order today.
- 1910: In an era of violent socialist and anarchist turmoil, the FAR's success in addressing labor tensions through peaceful constitutional reform becomes a major point of national pride. La Follette is hugely popular; Eugene Debs is elected as the FAR's ceremonial president. William Wirt replaces John Dewey as Consul for Education, and establishes a system of public supplemental night schools, aimed at helping immigrant children catch up to their native-born peers. The economic gap and cultural divide between immigrant and native Yankees begin to diminish.
- 1912: Henry Ford establishes his first major assembly line outside Detroit, producing the Model T: the world's first broadly affordable motor car. Influenced by the tripartite negotiations of the Third Philadelphia Convention, Ford cooperates with the IWW and pays his workers well: arguing that it is foolish to pay workers so little that they cannot afford the products they make. This "Fordist" policy - cooperation with unions to train skilled workers, who are then paid enough to become customers as well as employees - will form the foundation of FAR prosperity until the 1990s. Meanwhile, the North's small Black population organizes to demand equality as well. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), led by the Massachusetts scholar W.E.B. Du Bois, calls for an end to segregation and for wage equality between white and Black workers.
- 1914: In Europe, Russo-German border tensions and conflicts in the Balkans erupt into the First World War. The FAR remains neutral. "A free people," says President Debs, "has no stake in a fight between the Kaiser and the Tsar and the King. Our only allies are the common people of Europe, no matter which crown they are forced to serve." Nevertheless, FAR military attaches are embedded with most of Europe's armies, and they return with chilling reports of trench warfare. The FAR begins to consider ways to ensure that a future war in North America does not imitate the charnel house unfolding in Europe.
- 1915: The proliferation of Model T's - millions are produced - requires a modernized infrastructure. La Follette creates the Republic Interstate Highway System, which will gradually grow from a loose network of macadamized roads linking major cities into a dense system of limited-access superhighways. Transportation infrastructure in the FAR becomes increasingly centrally planned. Steamship travel through the Panama Canal has rendered travel between the FAR and California comparatively swift and cheap; accordingly, the Treaty of Monterey is amended again, allowing FAR and California citizens to enter, leave, and work in each other's countries on equal terms. In practice, the FAR and California now represent a single territorial unit. At the same time, the treaty amendments regularize the situation of Hawaii and the other Pacific islands: these islands are annexed to the California Republic, and their inhabitants receive full civil and voting rights as California citizens. In New York, Columbia University creates the Pulitzer Prize for literature and journalism; it recognizes that Yankee letters are now the equal of French or British or Russian literature.
- 1917: In Russia, the Bolsheviks overthrow the Tsarist government. First Consul La Follette initially welcomes the revolution; he believes it is the beginning of a general revolution of Europe's peoples against the "crowned morons" who have led them to pointless slaughter. The FAR is the first major country to recognize the new Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. Possibly, beginning of brushfire wars with Portugal in southern Africa.
- 1918: As the First World War comes to a close, revolts sweep through the world's colonial empires. The Irish rise up against British rule; the Haitians once again rebel against the U.S.A. In both cases, the Expeditionary Forces arrive - often not in uniform, and bearing unmarked crates of FAR rifles - to train and advise the rebels. In Ireland, they are mostly successful, and Irish Yankees celebrate the independence of their homeland after centuries of foreign rule. In Haiti, the rebels are eventually crushed or driven into the mountains. Not all of the Expeditionary Forces can be evacuated; some Yankee officers are discovered, still leading rebel bands, twenty-three years later during the Great War. In Ireland, the FAR soldiers adopt the soft hats favored by urban guerillas, but dye them dark green: the traditional color of the Northern soldier. The Expeditionary Forces thereby acquire their modern nickname: the Green Berets.
- 1920: La Follette is widely blamed for failing to win Haiti's independence; he refused to send the Republican Navy to assist the Expeditionary Forces, for fear of escalating the war. The Free Soil Party is voted out, replaced by the Radicals and their hawkish New York leader, Charles Evans Hughes. He proves an eminently practical man, an aristocrat inclined toward charitable projects; he spearheads a program to fund running, fluoridated water in every major Northern city. Edith Wharton publishes Age of Innocence, a reflective look back at the Gilded Age before 1908, which already seems a long time ago for most Yankees. The first regular radio broadcasts - mostly music and news - begin in New York City.
- 1922: Tensions with the United States reach their highest point since the Treaty of Monterey. The emergence of a class of migratory Black wage laborers in the South means that many more African Americans are able to escape to the North. Underground Railroad operations balloon from about ten thousand escapees per year to more than seventy thousand. At the same time, the struggle of Southern workers to unionize - and the frequent slaughter of such workers, especially in the Virginia coal mines - provokes organized labor in the North to call for war. Northern radio stations spread the news of Southern massacres of miners, and of pogroms against African Americans. In 2004, the FAR will officially confirm that it had sent "Conductor teams" of Green Berets into the South in order to arm and train Black and labor-union self-defense groups. War becomes a very real possibility, and so the People's Senate enacts peacetime conscription and embarks on a systematic reorganization of the FAR military. Henceforth, there will be a clear division between national defense - the province of the National Guard, a citizen army of conscripts and reservists with a professional core - and foreign "liberation operations," which are assigned to the professional and all-volunteer Expeditionary Forces. That basic structure has endured to this day.
- 1924: North America narrowly avoids war, though Hughes is condemned for abandoning Virginia the way that La Follette abandoned Haiti. The influx of African American wage laborers escaping the South continues. The result is a cultural renaissance: Black music and culture enter the mainstream for the first time. Mamie Smith's "That Thing Called Love" becomes a national sensation. Jazz clubs appear in every major city. White musicians soon begin experimenting with Black models, a process most brilliantly captured by George Gershwin in "Rhapsody in Blue." Literature flourishes; F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby becomes an international bestseller. Growing tensions in North America have an oddly hedonistic effect: "Get drunk, get laid, dance all night," as Fitzgerald put it, "for tomorrow, history will call us all to die to make men free."
- 1926: After years of negotiations, the Republican Federation of Labor and the Industrial Workers of the World merge, creating the RFL-IWW. The merger is mostly a victory for industrial unionism; though the craft unions retain some influence, Yankee labor overall now reflects a vertically integrated unionism, where all of an industry's workers can bargain together with every major company in that industry - at the same time. This sectoral bargaining will eventually render the FAR an essentially corporatist economy, where the labor market is controlled by high-level and industry-wide negotiations between capital and labor. As the influx of African-Americans continues, the NAACP grows increasingly vocal and influential; Black Yankees, and their allies in the Radical party, agitate for an end to segregation in the "front-line" states. Abroad, Japanese expansionism in Asia sparks Philadelphia's concern; First Consul Hughes warns Japan that the FAR remains committed to its Open Door Policy in China, and will not tolerate the division of China by imperial powers.
Do not remove - 2023RP
by Reverend Norv » Mon Apr 22, 2024 7:08 pm
History (continued):
- 1928: Tensions with Japan and the U.S.A. put a spotlight on FAR relations with California. The Treaty of Monterey is amended once again. This time, the FAR and California pledge to defend each other under all circumstances whatsoever; their militaries are placed under joint command at the corps level and above; and California promises to host and supply the FAR Pacific Fleet. The result is the North American Treaty Organization, or NATO: a unified military force. At home, First Consul Hughes - with help from W.E.B. Du Bois - secures the passage of federal legislation prohibiting racial segregation in the schools. The Free Soil-controlled Tribunate immediately challenges the law, but school desegregation is upheld by a landmark decision of the Court of Cassation. Segregation in public accommodations - motels, restaurants, etc. - remains common in frontline states. Racial tensions in the North begin to ease. So does the rate of African-American migration to the FAR, as the Southern labor market gradually stabilizes.
~ This Annealing Flame ~
- 1929: After years of overleveraged, risky investing practices, the FAR's largest banks suffer a credit crisis. The New York Stock Exchange plunges into freefall. Major companies freeze operations as their finances evaporate; millions of Yankees abruptly find themselves unemployed. The Free Soil Party forces a snap election, and Huges is replaced as First Consul by Franklin Delano Roosevelt: a New York aristocrat of social-democratic principles and ruthless political instincts. The Free Soilers win their largest majority ever; even traditionally Radical constituencies like Black Yankees are prepared to give Roosevelt a chance. The Wall Street Crash will begin a half-century of economic turmoil, cultural upheaval, and world war: the most challenging era of the FAR's history.
- 1930: Roosevelt begins to bring the crash under control - and the rest of the FAR economy with it - with a sweeping program that he dubs the New Deal. New bank regulations impose borrowing caps and fiscal inspections on the Republic's financial sector. The Office of Price Administration sets price ceilings for household goods. This dirigiste system will persist into the 1960s, growing steadily more sclerotic as it ages. But economic activity limps along, and many of the FAR's iconic skyscrapers - the Chrysler Building, the Empire State Building - are completed. For decades, New York and Chicago will have most of the world's tallest buildings.
- 1932: While the economy has stopped shrinking, it is still mostly stagnant, and millions of Yankees remain unemployed and desperate. Roosevelt creates a slew of public works agencies - the ERA, CCC, FERA, WPA and PWA - which guarantee work for everyone from laborers to teachers to artists. The new public jobs are automatically unionized, which places the FAR's unions at the center of the Republic's economic recovery. Detroit exemplifies the new system; the "Big Three" automakers negotiate directly with Walter Reuther, the charismatic president of the RFL-IWW, and from those negotiations the entire city's economy follows. But not everything is corporatist bargaining: Dorothy Day and other Christian anarchists respond to the crisis by founding Catholic Workers communities across the FAR. These communes draw on the experience of left-wing Catholics in the Golden Circle, who have suffered under American rule for decades; the Catholic Workers will remain the FAR's internationalist conscience forever after.
- 1934: The economy begins to recover, and Roosevelt turns his attention from economic rescue to social reform. The People's Senate passes the Social Security Act, the FAR's first universal public pension system. In California, John Steinbeck publishes The Grapes of Wrath, which scathingly depicts the poverty of agricultural laborers; the novel spurs California to copy many of Roosevelt's reforms. Roosevelt founds Radio Free America, which broadcasts news, music, and radio dramas throughout the South and into Latin America; the drumbeat of Yankee "radio propaganda" reignites tensions between the FAR and the USA. The hideous death toll of Stalin's first Five Year Plan poisons FAR-Soviet relations. The U.S. and the German Empire sign a treaty of friendship. Possibly, end of brushfire wars with Portugal-Brazil in southern Africa.
- 1936: Roosevelt extends Social Security to include a national health insurance program, in which all Yankees are enrolled by default; they can continue to purchase more generous, supplemental private insurance. In California, Hollywood enters its golden age, and the California film industry becomes the most important center of cinema in the world. The first Academy Awards are held for excellence in filmmaking. The crimes of the Davis regime in the South - including the reintroduction of slavery - convince many Yankee leaders that a total war is now inevitable, with the fate of the continent at stake. War hawks in both parties call for preparedness. The FAR military develops a new and highly mobile theory of offensive war, intended to maximize the FAR's industrial advantage - in tanks, trucks, artillery shells, planes, bombs, and radios - against the USA's population advantage; General Smedley Butler, the FAR's most senior military officer, calls it "Hosean operations," after a quotation from the Biblical Book of Hosea: "For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind."
- 1938: China and Japan go to war. The FAR dispatches Green Beret teams to advise and train Chinese forces. It also dispatches the Republican Air Volunteers - the so-called "Fighting Tigers" - who provide air support for Chinese troops; the Fighting Tigers will eventually become the Expeditionary Air Corps. World war appears inevitable, and the People's Senate creates the Emergency Production Board, which directly rations materials and manpower to prioritize military mass production. Californians, realizing that they may have to bear the brunt of a Pacific war, demand full political equality with the FAR. The North American Treaty is amended to grant Californians and Yankees full political rights - including voting rights - in each others' countries. The NATO Coordinating Committee is created, and both California and the FAR assign the Committee final authority when their laws conflict.
- 1939: The German Empire invades the USSR. The FAR remains neutral in that war, focused on the fighting in Asia and the impending conflagration in North America. It does, however, sign a treaty of mutual defense with Great Britain: Britain is the only European democracy remaining outside the German sphere, and despite the Northern public's reflexive contempt for the British Empire, First Consul Roosevelt understands the strategic imperative of keeping Britain out of the hands of either the Kaiser or the Politburo.
- 1940-1946: The Great War, also known as the Second World War. Haiti rebels a third time. Roosevelt, initially reluctant to intervene, finds his hand forced when a U.S. submarine torpedoes a FAR ship carrying "humanitarian aid" to Haiti; in 2012, the FAR will admit that the ship's cargo was actually weapons for the Haitian rebels. With the support of war hawks in both parties, Roosevelt declares war on the United States - and on Japan, freeing the Republican Navy to intervene directly in the Sino-Japanese War. Washington invokes its alliance with Berlin, and the German Empire declares war on the FAR. Overlapping conflicts in East Asia, North America, and Europe become mere fronts of a single three-way war between the world's monarchs, communists, and liberals.
It soon becomes apparent that, although the U.S. military outnumbers the FAR by more than two to one, the FAR holds every other advantage over its southern neighbor: naval supremacy, industrial base, technology, tactics, and morale. In the first months of the war, the Republican Navy once again blockades the U.S., which has the additional effect of ending American oil exports to Japan and crippling the Japanese war effort. "Hosean operations" prove an immediate success: FAR and Californian armored and motorized forces, working in close coordination with FAR air support, in a matter of weeks clear U.S. troops from the northern Pacific seaboard and from much of the northern Great Plains. Meanwhile, the Expeditionary Forces - the Green Berets and Fighting Tigers - begin a gradual island-hopping campaign across the Caribbean. On each island, the Green Berets first land by parachute to raise an army of local rebels; then the Republican Navy and Flying Tigers provide fire support; and finally the Green Berets help the islanders to drive the U.S. Marines away.
At the same time, throughout the early 1940s, the FAR plays an important role in two other theaters. The FAR Atlantic Fleet helps to keep Britain in the war, guarding its supply of arms and food and Laurentine oil, and doing battle with the Kaiserliche Marine across the North Atlantic. Though the war effort will drain Britain to the point of eventual collapse, the North's naval and industrial might prevent an actual German invasion of the island. Meanwhile, the FAR Pacific Fleet's blockade of the U.S. west coast cuts off exports of American oil to Japan, starving the Japanese war machine of fuel. The tide begins to turn in Asia. Green Beret teams arm and train irregulars in the mountains of Burma and Tibet, forcing the Japanese out of those outlying territories and conserving the main fighting force of the as the National Revolutionary Army; the Flying Tigers gradually help China to achieve air parity against the invaders. As resistance grows behind Japanese lines, the FAR's expert special forces help to fan its flames. In the Pacific, the Republican Navy fights the Imperial Japanese Navy to a costly draw at the Battle of Midway, preventing an invasion of Hawaii and denying Japan a foothold in the central Pacific. By 1946, Yankee strategic bombers based on Guam are able to begin heavy bombing of Taiwan and Okinawa, and KMT forces have pushed the Japanese Army back into Manchuria.
Meanwhile, in late 1941, the war in North America escalates: the FAR and U.S. begin mass strategic bombing of each other's industrial heartlands. The FAR, thanks to its superior industrial base and therefore greater supply of aircraft, gradually ekes out an advantage in the air war. A Yankee mechanized army, using Hosean operations, races down the Great Plains toward the Texas oilfields, scattering U.S. forces as it goes, before gradually becoming bogged down in southern Kansas. Even as FAR forces slowly retreat across the Plains, however, another advance begins: gunboats and FAR veterans push down the Mississippi toward Memphis. Meanwhile, the FAR's longstanding commitment to unconventional warfare is rewarded: first Puerto Rico and then Haiti are liberated at long last from the South's control; the Green Berets lead a Cuban uprising against Richmond; and FAR arms and advisors take Mexican rebels from the Yucatan to the outskirts of Mexico City. The Golden Circle is shattered forever.
In 1945, the war grinds to an end. In Europe, Germany and Russia reach terms of peace. But exhausted by the fighting, Germany does not retain sufficient strength to save its ally in America. In September, U.S. President John Davis is murdered by his own generals, and FAR forces take Memphis - but encounter such bitter resistance that any attempt fully to conquer the South appears unthinkably costly. Both sides agree to peace talks. At the 1946 Treaty of Washington, the FAR fails to reunify the former United States - but it succeeds in destroying the Golden Circle. The U.S. grants independence to Mexico, Haiti, Santo Domingo and Puerto Rico, and promises eventual decolonization of Cuba. The New World slaveocracy, which has endured for nearly a century, collapses. The FAR emerges from the war as the leading power in North America, and as one of the most influential countries in the world. Even the Kaiser also signs the treaty, putting an end to the Anglo-Yankee war with the German Empire. But Franklin Roosevelt does not live to see that triumph; he dies in 1944, and the Radical Party wins snap elections. Henry A. Wallace, not Franklin D. Roosevelt, signs the Treaty of Washington.- 1947: Fighting continues in East Asia, and FAR Expeditionary Forces help to push the Japanese Army back to Korea; the following year, the FAR and China will sign a truce with Japan along the Sino-Korean border. Wallace relaxes, but does not abolish, wartime price controls and rationing; the federal government continues to direct much of Yankee economic life. This includes a new national nuclear program, located in rural northern Minnesota, aimed at producing fissile material. Factories are mostly retooled for civilian production, and the FAR's massive wartime industry becomes the engine of peacetime prosperity. The Minuteman Act promises all FAR veterans state support for higher education; the proportion of college-educated Yankees begins to grow. The FAR maintains a high level of peacetime military mobilization, in order to incentivize the U.S. to keep the promises of the Treaty of Washington.
- 1949: The Republican Housing Administration is created; it directly guarantees all mortgages, reducing the cost of homes and leading to a boom in homeownership. The result is suburbanization: veterans of the Great War, newly graduated from government-funded education, buy government-insured homes in the suburbs. A boom in auto manufacturing, to allow millions of Yankees to commute by car, enriches both the Big Three and the RFL-IWW. Norman Borlaug invents new varieties of semi-dwarf, high-yield, disease-resistant wheat. These are exported to Tianzhu and China and even to the new U.S.-backed regime in Mexico, where they prove so productive as to end the periodic mass famine that those countries have hitherto experienced.
- 1951: The British government collapses under the pressure of communist revolution, and Britain begins abrupt and destabilizing decolonization of its empire. Large areas of the globe are plunged into chaos, including Laurentine: the Laurentine military seizes power, and the FAR severs diplomatic relations, closes the border, and begins arming Laurentine's pro-democracy resistance. The Dirty War begins. Former British colonies in the Caribbean become anarchic, and millions of refugees flee to the FAR. First Consul Wallace commits to welcoming them, but the influx of mostly Black migrants revives long-dormant racial tensions in the North. In response, the NAACP launches a new campaign for civil rights: aimed at abolishing segregation in public accommodations, which remains common in "frontline states." J.D. Salinger publishes The Catcher in the Rye, which both predicts and provokes a wave of youth alienation. The FAR's morally earnest, tightly repressed mainstream culture begins to fray at the seams.
- 1953: Henry Wallace, having supported civil rights against the wishes of most of his own party, loses a snap election; the Radicals take power for the first time since the 1920s, led by Connecticut's Prescott Bush. Bush initially stakes out a muscular foreign policy: the Expeditionary Forces deploy to a half-dozen former British colonies in the Caribbean and beyond, seeking to build stable democratic governments; they succeed in some cases, and fail in others. In Laurentine's Dirty War, plainclothes Green Berets and Yankee rifles with filed-off serial numbers increase violence and decrease government control. As it becomes clear that reactionary and Stalinist forces are alive and well across the world, a "White Scare" grips FAR politics: any deviation from mainstream social-democratic liberalism risks denunciation as an agent provocateur from Dixie or Japan. Arthur Miller captures the prevailing atmosphere in his play, The Crucible. The civil rights movement gathers strength; the Radicals mostly support desegregation. Ralph Ellison, having escaped from the South during the Great War, publishes Invisible Man; racial politics in the North begins to move beyond just desegregation, to encompass questions of identity and structural injustice. Straight-laced Prescott Bush finds himself the leader of a nation in growing cultural turmoil.
- 1954: That turmoil, however, produces great drama and music. Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night is performed for the first time, several years after the playwright's death; Pete Seeger sharply critiques the FAR's endless military expeditionism with Where Have All the Flowers Gone? This does not deter Bush from his aggressive foreign policy: FAR Expeditionary Forces support Mexican rebels in overthrowing the U.S.-backed regime there.
- 1955: The Ashland Disaster. In August, the unthinkable happens: a defective nuclear bomb, being transported from the FAR's nuclear program in northern Minnesota, detonates in the port town of Ashland, Wisconsin. Nine thousand people die instantly; thousands more perish over the following weeks and months; dead fish float ashore around Lake Superior for nearly a year. For the first time, the world sees the full effect of a nuclear blast and radiation poisoning on a civilian population. The Yankee public reacts with horror, and with moral clarity: nothing, not even national survival, could justify using these weapons in war. And a weapon that can never be used should not exist. In an act that secures his lasting legacy as a hero of the global peace movement, First Consul Bush ends the FAR's military nuclear program and destroys its existing atomic weapons. Henceforth, nuclear power in the FAR will be used for civilian purposes alone. "No one can win a game played with atomic weapons," Bush warns. "The only way to win is not to play."
- 1957: Instead, the Bush government funnels its surplus cash into a new space program, which inspires a Space Race with Germany and Russia (and possibly Japan). The first FAR satellite, dubbed Sojourner-1, reaches orbit. Technology spreads at home, too: half of FAR households now have a television. But the country's cultural and racial turmoil deepens. White Yankees riot against Black Caribbean immigration, including - for the first time - in Boston, cradle of abolitionism. Jack Kerouac publishes On the Road - a book condemned both for its hedonism and for its nihilism, and which becomes a bestseller anyway. It captures the moment.
- 1959: After Germany's successful launch of the Mond-1 satellite just five months after Sojourner-1, the FAR redoubles its efforts in the Space Race. The Republican Air and Space Administration - RASA - is founded to coordinate all FAR space missions. It quickly begins to inspire technological breakthroughs: in California, Bell Laboratories invents the silicon transistor, and modern computers begin to take form. Stephen Sondheim celebrates Caribbean immigrant communities in West Side Story, but public opinion continues to harden against ongoing, unlimited admission of Caribbean refugees. In the end, Prescott Bush strikes a grand bargain: in exchange for Free Soil support for federal desegregation of public accommodations in the "frontline states," the Radicals will support a "points-based" immigration law that limits annual arrivals. The FAR restricts immigration for the first time, and ends legal segregation with the very same law.
- 1961: Bush's grand bargain divides the Radical Party and costs it the next elections. The Free Soilers take over, and for the first time, the party's choice is a Californian; the North American Treaty, after all, allows Californians and Yankees to hold office on equal terms in each others' countries. The distinguished jurist Earl Warren takes office as First Consul. FAR economic growth steadily slows: continued price controls, rationing, and dirigiste policies have rendered the economy sclerotic and inefficient and increasingly corrupt. Warren, a committed New Dealer, resists reforms.
- 1963: Gradual reforms in the U.S. make it easier for Black Americans to flee North; the Underground Railroad increases its activities. Racial tensions begin to build once more, especially since the Court of Cassation rules that the new arrivals are not subject to the points-based immigration system: per the Stevens Declaration of 1861, Black Americans are citizens of the FAR as soon as they set foot on its soil. Bob Dylan releases Blowin' in the Wind, a poignant cry for deeper societal reform. Betty Friedan publishes The Feminine Mystique, inspiring a new feminist movement that insists on real social and economic equality for women; the Supreme Civil Rights Court will enshrine access to contraception and abortion over the next decade. Warren sends Green Berets to support the Irish rebels in their fight against British Communist occupation, an act that helps to ensure Irish independence.
- 1965: Public frustration with economic stagnation reaches a boiling point. Warren and the Free Soilers are voted out and replaced by the Radicals, led by Nelson Rockefeller of New York. With a substantial majority of the People's Senate behind him, Rockefeller plans major structural reforms. Abroad, the Cold War continues: Green Berets covertly assist Cuban rebels, bogging down the U.S. in a brushfire war that will ultimately erode the South's stability. At home, James Baldwin leads a new kind of civil rights movement: insisting that legal desegregation is inadequate while Black Yankees remain structurally disadvantaged. The popularity of the Beach Boys erodes remaining cultural barriers between the FAR and California; increasingly, California will define what is "cool" for the North as a whole.
- 1967: Rockefeller passes a bevy of reforms to the basic structure of the FAR economy. Price controls and rationing are abolished, as are a slew of regulations. Instead, the new Twelfth Amendment requires wages and benefits and working conditions to be fixed by tripartite bargaining between employers' associations, labor unions, and the government. The national healthcare system is removed from the Social Security Administration and decentralized; each state will now run its own system, based on tripartite negotiations between that state's insurance companies, health workers unions, and government. Corporatist bargaining rather than direct regulation shapes economic policy. Finally, Rockefeller seeks free trade agreements with nearly every country except the U.S., hoping to revive a stagnant FAR manufacturing sector through global competition. The Rockefeller Reforms, though initially highly disruptive and controversial - dozens of major companies will fail in the next few years - ultimately prove critical; the FAR's economy becomes far more flexible and dynamic, and it begins to grow rapidly for the first time in a decade.
- 1969:RASA finally achieves its great goal: Neil Armstrong, of Ohio, becomes the first man to walk on the moon. "While Russia and Japan built rockets that could destroy the Earth, we built a rocket that could carry man beyond it," Rockefeller declares. The moon landing remains one of the FAR's proudest achievements. FAR culture begins to emerge from two decades of upheaval, mostly because it has acquired a higher tolerance for the controversial and the shocking. Philip Roth publishes Portnoy's Complaint, and the novel's frank sexuality provokes critical acclaim rather than moral outrage. The Woodstock Music Festival, in upstate New York, attracts nearly half a million young people to celebrate the new permissive culture. Abroad, Rockefeller declares FAR support for the self-determination of the Jewish community in Palestine. FAR involvement in the Near East begins to grow.
- 1971: Satisfied with his accomplishments, and in declining health, Rockefeller steps aside at the height of his popularity. The Radicals select Robert Kennedy, of Massachusetts, as his replacement. Kennedy expands the Minuteman Act: henceforth, the government will fund higher education for all qualifying students, not just for veterans. He also founds the Institute for Nuclear Disarmament, or IND: a publicly funded but independent agency whose role is to monitor the world's nuclear arsenals and to negotiate nuclear arms control. The FAR's refusal to build its own nuclear weapons allows other nations - even FAR rivals - to trust that it will be an honest broker in nuclear inspections and negotiations.
- 1973: The FAR-backed government in Barbados, established in 1955, collapses; the Expeditionary Forces return to the island. The Immigration Act of 1967 is amended to carve out an exception for refugees from conflicts in which the FAR is a belligerent; this allows Barbadians to immigrate to the FAR regardless of their education or job skills. FAR radio propaganda efforts, which date back to the 1920s, are brought under unified control by Radio Free America, which uses the gradual liberalization of U.S. society to beam FAR news, music, and movies to Southern radios and televisions. First Consul Kennedy speaks on the first broadcast: addressing Southerners as "My fellow Americans," and describing the country's separation as "this annealing flame, which will burn all our injustices away, and leave only the equality of brothers."
- 1975: Grandmaster Flash, a Barbadian refugee, helps to creates hip hop in New York City; initially confined to the North's relatively small Black community, Radio Free America broadcasts of hip hop become enormously popular in the United States. Standard Oil begins investing in Arabia, complicating the FAR's position in the Middle East: its government is Zionist, but its largest companies rely on Arabian goodwill. FAR agents of the Underground Railroad direct funds to the nascent Union Congress and other mixed-race civil rights groups in the South. Kennedy refuses to provide arms to the Black Panthers, hoping instead to achieve a peaceful end to segregation; this reticence becomes controversial within the Radical Party.
- 1977: Directors like Coppola, Scorcese, and Spielberg inaugurate the "New Hollywood": films as serious as The Godfather and as silly as Star Wars turn FAR popular culture into a globally influential export. In San Francisco, Harvey Milk becomes the first openly gay man elected to public office. The gay rights movement gathers strength in San Francisco, and begins to spread to the major cities of the North.
- 1978: As Tolkien guides Albion toward normalcy, the FAR re-opens its embassy in London and begins a longstanding attempt to mediate between Albion and Ireland; this Atlantic Peace Process will bedevil successive FAR governments, as the intransigent parties repeatedly derail negotiations. The Cuban War ends with the withdrawal of the last U.S. troops, and the FAR recognizes Fidel Castro's communist regime - though it immediately begins to press for economic and political liberalization. First Consul Kennedy is shot and killed by Sirhan Sirhan, an anti-Zionist Arab nationalist; conspiracists have alleged ever since that the gunman acted on Arabian orders. But by the time Kennedy dies, it is obvious that the segregationist regime in the U.S. cannot hold out too much longer.
~ Bring the Jubilee ~
- 1980: The Radical Party wins elections and names Mario Cuomo, of New York, as First Consul. Idealistic and uncompromising, Cuomo announces that the policy of containment which the FAR has held since 1877 is now at an end: rather than simply preventing the expansion of the Slave Power, the FAR will henceforth seek to erode and ultimately destroy it. By the turn of the twenty-first century, Cuomo vows, the slavocracy will be eradicated from North America. The FAR begins arming the Black Panthers, and embarks on a concerted campaign of "rollback."
- 1982: In an effort to roll back U.S. influence, FAR Expeditionary Forces join Sandinista rebels in Nicaragua, seeking to overthrow the U.S.-backed government there. They will remain bogged down in an increasingly savage and costly jungle war for the next eight years, costing the FAR a great deal of money and even more moral credibility. Hundreds of thousands of Indians seek a better life in the FAR; many have sufficient skills and education to satisfy the FAR's points-based immigration system, and they quickly become a prosperous and well-integrated part of Northern life.
- 1984: In California, Commodore International produces the first affordable personal computers: the VIC-20 and Commodore 64. "Silicon Valley," outside San Francisco, begins to emerge as the world's leading center of information technology; over the next twenty years, it will become essential to the economy of the FAR as a whole.
- 1986: RASA completes construction of the Genesis Space Station: the second permanent human habitat outside the planet, after Germany's smaller Himmelslab space station. The FAR will gradually open Genesis to scientists from most other countries, and it will become the most important site for extra-planetary research. It is still in use today. Free trade - an economic benefit to the FAR since the Rockefeller Reforms - begins to show a different face: Carnegie Steel begins offshoring thousands of jobs to Macedonia, where labor costs are lower and the reformist government of Andreas Papandreou is eager for foreign investment. The steelworkers strike, but are unable to prevent their factories from closing.
- 1988: Frightened by the Carnegie closures, the Yankee public revolts: Cuomo and the Radicals are voted out, and the Free Soil Party takes power for the first time since 1965. They are led by Geraldine Ferraro, the FAR's first female head of government. She proves unable to address the problem of offshoring, and her term is instead consumed by the HIV/AIDS epidemic, which catapults the issue of gay rights and anti-gay prejudice to the center of FAR public life; on this issue, unlike on race relations, the Free Soilers emerge as more progressive than the more religious Radicals. Amy Tan publishes The Joy Luck Club; non-European immigrant experiences begin to be taken seriously in Northern popular culture.
- 1990: After eight years of bruising war - in which the Green Berets are, for the first time in history, accused of war crimes - Ferraro withdraws FAR forces from Nicaragua. The Three Mile Island nuclear plant, in Pennsylvania, narrowly avoids a catastrophic meltdown. FAR scientists begin warning that fossil fuel use is warming the world's climate. Ferraro sees a way to reduce the FAR's reliance on nuclear energy, fight climate change, and revive FAR manufacturing all at the same time, and begins a massive investment into research and production of more efficient wind turbines, solar panels, and tidal power generators.
- 1992: Silicon Valley companies introduce the first web browsers - IBM WebExplorer, Netscape Navigator, and so on - which bring the World Wide Web into Yankees' homes. Radio Free America launches an online service, aimed at reaching millions of people in the U.S. via the Internet. FAR banks begin an enormous investment in the Amalgamated Democratic Municipalities, which promises to lift millions of people in the southern African interior out of poverty - creating huge profits for anyone who bought up real estate while it was still cheap. The bubble will grow for the next sixteen years.
- 1994: In the United States, the Goldwater administration's movement toward reform means that the fall of segregation appears imminent. Pledging steadfast support for a final end to the American regime, Howard Dean of Vermont leads the Radical Party back into power. He forms a close partnership with the reformist Chinese premier, Lien Chan, which culminates in a Chinese-FAR free trade agreement. This will, in less than a decade, become enormously unpopular as millions of FAR industrial jobs are offshored to China. Japan also begins to move toward democracy, and Dean becomes the first FAR First Consul to travel to Tokyo; a brief detente between the FAR and Japan emerges. Above all, Dean calls on U.S. President Goldwater to follow through on his pledge of free and fair elections.
- 1996: Angela Davis is elected President of the United States. The Union Congress Party is legalized. Segregation ends at last. For the first time, travel is possible between North and South; Black Americans who escaped along the Underground Railroad see their families for the first time in decades; the People's Senate ends the embargo on trade with the U.S., and Northern consumer goods become available for sale across the South. For months, an atmosphere of delirious joy sweeps the FAR; work is cancelled, bars offer free drinks, people literally dance in the streets. "After one hundred and forty-four years," First Consul Dean declares, "we can say at last that the struggle was not in vain; that the Higher Law prevails; that the dream of Seward and Stevens and Douglass is fulfilled: abolition, abolition, abolition at last!" The People's Senate formally declares 1996 the Year of Jubilee, and cancels all individual back taxes. Rita Dove, the FAR Poet Laureate, calls it "the sweetest year / of milk and honey / when love found us at last."
- 1998: Soon enough, the Jubilee fades and new challenges present themselves. New cable television channels cater to particular audiences: intellectuals, ethnic minorities, farmers, factory workers. The FAR's media landscape begins to fracture, and its political mainstream will gradually follow suit. For now, however, Dean hosts the Chicago Climate Conference - the world's first attempt at a unified response to global warming - and extracts a vague promise from the other attendees to limit greenhouse gas emissions. The FAR will lead the charge against climate change until the present day.
- 2000: As it becomes clear that the new regime in the U.S. will survive, war in North America ceases to be a realistic possibility. The FAR experiences a peace dividend. Military conscription ends, though all FAR citizens still complete a year of national service in schools or hospitals when they turn eighteen. The National Guard shrinks by more than half, and transfers most of its aircraft to the Expeditionary Forces; henceforth, it will be an all-volunteer force that relies heavily on reservists. Against fierce Free Soil opposition, First Consul Dean manages to reduce tariff barriers with the U.S.A.; companies immediately begin to shift their operations south of the border, where labor costs are lower. And after 139 years, the FAR finally revokes the Stevens Declaration of 1861: no longer will any Black American become a FAR citizen simply by reaching free soil. The Underground Railroad is no longer necessary.
- 2002: The FAR economy suffers its biggest crisis since the 1960s: the Dot-Com Bust. Silicon Valley companies, many of them overleveraged and overvalued for years, see a sudden collapse of their value on the New York Stock Exchange. At the same time, deindustrialization accelerates: nearly a million manufacturing jobs move to China or the U.S.A in a single year. Dean and the Radicals respond by attempting to regulate the Internet and cable television, to prevent political and financial panics; the FAR public mostly sees this as well-intentioned censorship, and votes the Radicals out. John Kerry, a moderate Free-Soiler from Massachusetts and hero of the Nicaraguan War, leads the Free Soil Party back into government.
- 2004: After human rights abuses in certain foreign countries spark international outrage, Kerry announces that the Consulate for Abolition - traditionally associated with the Underground Railroad - would henceforth be responsible for advancing human rights around the world. The Radical Party - which was traditionally conservative on sexual issues, due in part to the influence of the Catholic Workers Movement - adjusts its position, embracing a cautious support for the rights of gay and lesbian couples. Gay rights become a central plank of FAR human rights policy. The Lord of the Rings movies are released, and become a pop culture sensation; among other things, Tolkien mania contributes to closer cultural ties with Albion.
- 2006: Silicon Valley recovers from the Dot-Com Bust by rolling out some of the most influential technologies of the new century: the iPhone, Netflix video streaming, the Kindle e-book, Amazon.com online shopping. The Republican Cyber Force is established, bringing all Yankee offensive, defensive, intelligence, and political-warfare operations in cyberspace under a single chain of command. It leverages its ties to Silicon Valley - the Cyber Force is literally headquartered in Milipitas, California - to fill its ranks with the world's best hackers and programmers. Cormac McCarthy publishes No Country for Old Men, a novel about racial tensions and organized crime on the Mississippi frontier between the FAR and the American Confederation. First Consul Kerry, seeking to rally a Yankee public demoralized by the ongoing offshoring of its jobs, vows to land a man on Mars by 2030.
- 2008: New York regulators discover that real estate investments in the Amalgamated Democratic Municipalities - where every major FAR bank, and most major companies around the world, are deeply committed - have been vastly overvalued; thanks to speculation and corruption, millions more houses have been built than will ever have people to buy them. Wall Street crashes, followed by global financial markets generally, sparking the Great Recession. First Consul Kerry resigns; the Free Soilers lose snap elections to the Radicals; and Barack Obama, of Illinois, becomes the first Black man to serve as First Consul. He launches a somewhat cautious rescue program, which will delay the FAR's full economic recovery. Obama's great reform is the Affordable Housing Act: the federal government will fund construction of a house for any Yankee who is willing to invest 400 hours of "sweat equity" - volunteer labor - to assist in building it. Championed by the Catholic Workers, the affordable housing guarantee combines public welfare with individual responsibility, and it gradually decreases the FAR's rate of homelessness.
- 2010: Obama becomes the first Radical leader to publicly support same-sex marriage; within months, the People's Senate votes to allow marriage by any two consenting adults, and it enshrines freedom of sexual orientation in the Constitution. The Second Chicago Climate Conference produces more concrete commitments: the FAR, and several other nations, pledge to reduce their carbon emissions by at least fifty percent by 2030. The Obama government immediately takes steps to comply, including by beginning construction of a new high-speed rail network to link all of the FAR's major cities.
- 2012: The FAR achieves full economic recovery from the 2008 crash, in the sense that its GDP is once again steadily growing. But jobs lost during the crash have not returned, and the Radicals are increasingly unpopular. Social conservatives from the right wing of the Radicals and racial conservatives from the right wing of the Free Soilers make common cause, announcing a new Populist Party that will, according to its founding charter, "defend the most persecuted people in this Republic: traditional, working-class White families."
- 2014: For the first time, Senate elections do not return a clear majority. The Free Soil Party, led by Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, negotiates a coalition with several smaller left-wing parties: the Socialist Party, the Green Party, and so on. Warren's first priority is to halt the ongoing offshoring of jobs, which she attempts to do in the most radical way possible: she opens serious talks with the American Confederation on national reunification. After all, if the Confederation and the FAR are the same country with the same labor market, then Northern unions can insist on higher wages everywhere, and the flight of jobs will stop. The talks fail to make meaningful progress - disputes include the Confederation's reliance on fossil fuels and the FAR's insistence on tripartite bargaining - but they do produce the "Louisville Framework," a set of agreements on how to continue negotiations. The Framework will structure Yankee-American reunification talks for the next decade. Abroad, First Consul Warren publicly supports the Euromaidan protests in Ukraine; when the protests are crushed by Russian tanks, the FAR imposes economic sanctions on Putin and his allies, limiting the ability of Russian oligarchs to trade on the globally important New York Stock Exchange.
- 2016: Warren's next attempt to re-shore jobs is the Green New Deal: a massive program of federal investment in green energy technology and manufacturing, which builds on the Ferraro government's similar project in the early 1990s. It meets with some substantial success; this sort of high-tech manufacturing is more efficient with a skilled workforce, so it is cost-effective notwithstanding the FAR's high labor costs. Warren accelerates the Second Chicago Conference timeline for cutting emissions and imposes a carbon cap-and-trade system that limits total emissions per year. She hopes that emissions restrictions will indirectly stimulate green manufacturing. The program shows early signs of success. Conspiracy theories, many originating in Russia and promoted by the Putin regime, begin to proliferate online and on cable news. In by-elections, the Populist Party becomes the third-largest party in the People's Senate.
- 2018: In a final attempt to curb industrial offshoring, First Consul Warren proposes limited tariffs on Chinese and American manufactured goods. The bill passes over strenuous objections from both parties: the Radicals denounce it as misguided protectionism, while the Free Soilers warn that it is too little, too late. The Republican Navy launches "Exercise Icebreaker," joint FAR-Laurentine naval and air exercises in the Arctic, which places the Putin regime on notice that the Niagara Pact possesses the capacity to strike the Russian homeland from the north.
- 2020: Left without a workable majority after the 2018 Tariff Act, First Consul Warren resigns and calls new elections. They take place in an increasingly dangerous world. Russian troops have entered Belarus to keep President Lukashenko in power after an election that Lukashenko obviously lost. Japan has rearmed, revived the Free Manchu Army as a proxy force on China's border, equipped that force with rockets and heavy artillery, and begun blasting propaganda on loudspeakers across the Chinese frontier. David Walker, a rare Radical from Indiana, leads the Radicals in a hawkish campaign based on the need to stand up to bullies around the world. They win a plurality, but fall short of a majority. Rather than work with the Populists, Walker negotiates a grand coalition for the first time since 1907: both the Radicals and the Free Staters will appoint Consuls, with Walker as First Consul. Foreign and defense policy, where the two traditional parties mostly agree, will drive the government's priorities. Walker orders a major modernization of the Republican Navy and the Fighting Tigers, and moves FAR Expeditionary Forces to California in readiness for action in the Pacific.
- 2022: Abroad, Russian troops enter Kazakhstan, crush antigovernment protests, and ensure the continuation in power of President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. After Ukraine and Belarus, this is the last straw for First Consul Walker. The Republican Cyber Force launches Operation Fusillade, a wave of cyberattacks against Russian government systems: deleting millions of files, shuttering government offices, and costing the Russian state tens of millions of dollars to repair. Putin warns that any further such attack will be considered an act of war; Walker warns Putin not to "test the resolve of a nation founded for the sole purpose of defying tyrants." Climate change makes itself unmistakably felt: hurricanes strike the Northeast seaboard, and wildfires devastate California. The People's Senate creates a new Consul for Resilience, whose department will work to strengthen FAR infrastructure against climate disruption.
- 2023: Vladimir Putin declares the Union State; fraudulent referenda, monitored by Russian troops, legitimate the amalgamation of Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Transnistria, and Abkhazia under Russian hegemony. The FAR - perhaps unwittingly playing into Russian propaganda - does everything possible to disrupt the process: the Cyber Force hacks or crashes vote-counting computers, the Clandestine Service leverages its connections with Kazakh and Ukrainian dissidents to stage mass protests in Kyiv and Almaty, the Consulate for Abolition floods Russian social media with messages condemning the Union State and pledging support for human rights. When all of that fails, the Clandestine Service - with secret logistical support from Germany - executes Operation Rapture: more than a hundred Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Kazakh pro-democracy leaders are spirited out of the Union State (in several cases, they are jailbroken out of Russian prisons) and evacuated to Philadelphia. There, the People's Senate votes to recognize them as the legitimate governments-in-exile of their countries, and declares the Union State to be an illegitimate occupation of sovereign nations. The FAR maintains its embassy in Moscow, but insists that its ambassador engages in diplomatic relations only with the Russian Federation.
- 2024: International tensions remain exceptionally high; after Operation Rapture, the FAR expects Russian retaliation, and waits anxiously to see what form it will take. Amid widespread disillusionment with the progress of reunification, Walker reiterates his "qualified commitment" to the Louisville Framework, and to "eventual reunification on terms that are fair and acceptable to all." In March, the FAR celebrates a moment of hope amid rising world tensions: RASA completes construction of Genesis II, a space station orbiting the moon. It is, Walker states, "another important step toward a permanent human presence beyond the orbit of the Earth."
RP Example(s): N/A.
Do not remove - 2023RP
by Reverend Norv » Mon Apr 22, 2024 7:38 pm
by Shohun » Tue Apr 23, 2024 12:52 am
RESERVATION
NS Name: Shohun
RP Name: Empire of Japan
Territory: Japan, Korea, the Ryukyu Islands, Taiwan, the Mariana Islands, Guam, Wake Island, the Marshall Islands, and the Kuril Islands
Do not remove - 2024RP
by Shohun » Tue Apr 23, 2024 1:20 am
APPLICATION
NS Name: Shohun
RP Name: Empire of Japan
Flag:
Capital: Tokyo
Territory: Japan, Korea, the Ryukyu Islands, Taiwan, the Mariana Islands, the Marshall Islands, and the Kuril Islands
Population: 243,825,284
Official Language(s): Japanese
Type of Government: Parliamentary Constitutional Monarchy
Head of State: Emperor Akihito
Head of Government:Prime Minister Fumio Kishida
Legislature (the name of your national legislature): Imperial Diet
Legislative Houses (if your legislature is bicameral): House of Peers and House of Representatives
Party in Power: Liberal Democratic Party
National Issues:
Far-Right Takeover: With increasing nationalist sentiment in Japan, right-wing parties have surged, with far-right elements such as the Sanseito party even gaining seats in the House of Representatives. The Nippon Kaigi remains strong, with several other groups rising in popularity. As Japan rises again and seeks to regain its pride on the international stage, the right has seized on the sentiment and has come to power in full force. This has clashed with more liberal groups, who have been increasingly trampled by the far-right parties. Such has caused political partisanship, with peace advocates going as far as resorting to violent means.
Security Void: As a relatively peaceful nation internally, Japan has been able to afford the luxury of a lightly armed police and lax security. That all changed with the assassination of former-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2022, which has resulted in overhaul of the domestic security establishment. Now the National Police and the Special Higher Police have been granted powers not seen since the 1930s, allowing them broad powers to enforce the law and crack down on dissident.
Culture Wars: Ever since Japan began to open up to Western influence, a battle has raged behind the scenes as older generations call for a return to traditional values. As Japan continues to expand and become open to western culture, the government has been forced to balance economic interests with traditional culture.
An Aging Emperor: As Emperor Akihito grows older, he has become increasingly removed from politics, allowing advisors to fill the void. Now as rumors spread that Emperor Akihito plans to appoint the Crown Prince as Prince Regent, power-hungry Imperial advisors jockey for influence behind the scenes. The possibility of a new ruler calls for great concern for political upheaval, with Crown Prince Naruhito expected to take a much more active role politically.
The China Question: Although peace has reigned for decades, tensions still persist on the Korean border. Chinese claims over Taiwan and the Senkaku Islands has led to disputes and tense stand-offs over the years, as the Imperial Navy, Imperial Air Force, and Imperial Coast Guard seek to exert Japanese control over the disputed islands and seas. Tensions also persist in the South China Sea, where Japan, China, and Vietnam maintain disputes over local islands.
Public Goals: Develop the Japanese economy, bring peaceful relations to East Asia, and defend against aggression.
Private Goals: Rise to superpower status and crush remaining dissident in the annexed territories.
GDP (nominal): $7.8 Trillion
Currency: Japanese Yen
Economic System: Capitalist
Defense Budget (USD): $450 Billion
Alliance(s): None as of now.
Military:
The Imperial Japanese Armed Forces is one of the strongest militaries in Asia, boasting a powerful arsenal of weapons and well-trained soldiers. The Imperial Armed Forces has a range of power-projection capabilities, and claims to be capable of operating almost anywhere in the globe, although the Imperial Armed Force's operations are primarily limited to the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Among the branches of the Imperial Armed Forces is the Imperial Army, the Imperial Navy, the Imperial Air Force, and the Imperial Strategic Force.
The Imperial Army is the largest of the four branches, consisting of 800,000 active soldiers, 600,000 ready-reservists, and 4,400,000 homeland-reservists. The Imperial Army utilizes a combination of volunteers and conscripts in order to bolster its numbers, and generally requires all male citizens to serve a minimum of two years of active service before being transferred to the reserves in either the Armed Forces, Coast Guard, Border Force, National Police, or the Civil Defense Force. Exemptions are allowed for religious purposes or disabilities, but must be approved by local officials. The Imperial Armed Forces has modified its force structure in recent years to incorporate a ready-reserve component which trains 30 days a year and is meant to be able to be quickly mobilized within weeks or even days after the outbreak of fighting. Additionally, the Imperial Army has a sizable homeland-reserve component which trains 5 days a year and is meant to be a pool of trained former soldiers that can be gradually drawn upon during times of conflict. After active service, soldiers are required to serve for five years in the ready-reserve, and then for ten years after that in the homeland-reserve, provided that they end active service after only one tour of duty. Personnel who opt to serve in the Coast Guard, Border Force, or National Police serve for two years of active duty, but can be called up for service at any time for the next 20 years. There is no reserve component for the Coast Guard. For many decades, Japan has sought to build a large pool of "civilian warriors," whom are able to be called upon in the event of attack. As a result, most Japanese men over 25 have received military training due to prior service.
The Imperial Army is divided into five major commands. The primary command is Central Command responsible for the defense of Japan. Northern Command is one of the smallest units, responsible for protecting Karafuto and the Chishima Islands, although some units are positioned in Hokkaido. Western Command is responsible for the protection of Korea, while Southern Command is responsible for Taiwan the the Ryukyu. The Expeditionary Command is the force responsible for conducting international deployments.
The Imperial Army has transitioned to the combat brigade organizational format, believed by commanders to allow better flexibility in combat environments. Currently the active forces are dispersed as follows: Central Command - 150,000 Northern Command - 25,000 Western Command - 400,000 Southern Command - 100,000 Expeditionary Command - 125,000
The Imperial Navy is the might of the Japanese Empire and boasts a highly capable force of hundreds of combat warships. The Imperial Navy is made up of 420,000 active personnel, 140,000 ready-reserve personnel, and 20,000 homeland-reserve personnel. Among these numbers is the 120,000 active and 30,000 reservist Special Naval Landing Forces (SNLF) which operates as Japan's marines. Under a new centralized grouping, the SNLF acts as one of Japan's most elite infantry forces, with certain units being trained as paratroopers or in special forces tactics. In addition to their duties as a naval assault force, the SNLF serves as security on ships, bases, and on islands in coordination with Imperial Army garrisons. SNLF and Army soldiers operate anti-ship missile batteries stored on many islands as part of Japanese doctrine of overwhelming the enemy with defensive fire as they come near Japan.
Among the most capable in the world, the Imperial Navy is said to be capable of conducting operations anywhere, with Japanese nuclear submarines said to be lurking in the Atlantic at any given time. Despite this, the Imperial Navy has developed and continued to hold a defensive doctrine, imagining combat taking place close to home.
The Imperial Navy is equipped with 5 aircraft carriers, 14 amphibious assault ships, 1 battleship, 8 cruisers, 66 destroyers, 4 frigates, 6 destroyer escorts, 20 nuclear ballistic missile submarines, 12 nuclear attack submarines, 38 conventional attack submarines, 24 minesweepers, 24 patrol boats, 178 transport ships, other auxiliaries, 685 fighters, 175 patrol aircraft, 12 AWACs, 20 search and rescue planes, 30 utility aircraft, 135 anti-submarine warfare helicopters, 250 utility helicopters, and 20 recon drones.
The Imperial Air Force consists of 200,000 active personnel, 40,000 ready-reserve personnel, and 10,000 homeland-reserve personnel. The primary duty of the Imperial Air Force is to operate Japan's fighter, bomber, and transport force to support Army and Navy operations across Asia. While almost every branch has its own air wing, the Imperial Air Force also is responsible for the space domain, and has the largest number of operators for the cyber domain. Despite being regarded as a support branch, the Imperial Air Force sees some of the most action, flying regular patrols over contested islands and waters, including conducting incursions of the Chinese and Vietnamese ADIZs.
The Imperial Strategic Force consists of 75,000 active personnel and 5,000 ready-reservists. As the smallest branch, the Imperial Strategic Force is primarily responsible for Japan's nuclear arsenal, and missile arsenal, while also operating a large number of drones or smaller artillery rockets. Serving as Japan's deterrent, the Imperial Strategic Force is made up of only the most loyal soldiers, who swear an oath directly to the Emperor.
The majority of Strategic Force bases are buried deep underground, with the idea that they cannot be wiped out in a first strike by enemy nuclear missiles. Most bases are located in mountain complexes, with a large number of nuclear missiles stationed in the more remote Hokkaido. Sizable stocks of conventional missiles in special magazine launch systems are deployed across Taiwan and southern Japan, meant for use during a conventional conflict. Development of hypersonic missiles is currently underway, with missiles set to begin active deployment in 2023. Additionally, a number of air launched ballistic missiles are maintained by the Air Force.
Besides the Imperial Armed Forces, the Imperial Border Force is responsible for security on the Korean border, the Imperial Coast Guard protects the EEZ, while the National Police and Special Higher Police are in charge of law enforcement across Japan.
History:
1941-1942: Separated from its allies, the Empire of Japan wages a fierce war in China that begins to grind into stalemate. The Imperial Army makes gains in hard fought campaigns, but is unsuccessful at completely dislodging the Chinese.
1943-1948: The blockade of the United States by FAR naval forces catches up to Japan, leading to fuel shortages. As the Japanese war machine grinds to a halt, it is forced to slowly pull back forces out of China proper in order to maintain its military. The Japanese retreat in China is brutal, with Japanese soldiers enforcing a scorched Earth policy as they fell back, looting and burning every town and city to the ground. Slowly returning to pre-war borders, Japan unilaterally declares an end to the 'China Incident.'
1949-1953: Now focused internally, the Imperial Army goes through a series of purges to eliminate generals it blames for "losing" the war in China. With the war against China being over, the Imperial Army is allowed to focus on eliminating insurgents in Korea and Taiwan, finally wiping out all major elements by 1953. Seeking to remain competitive with foreign powers, the Empire begins a nuclear research program. The first Japanese nuclear bomb is tested in this time, too late for use in China. In Korea, the Imperial Manchukuo Army is reformed from Manchus who fled to Japan following the initial Japanese withdrawal. Emperor Puyi is given an honorary title in the Japanese Imperial Family, and is considered the leader of the Manchukuo Government in Exile.
1954-1960: Japan goes through a period of economic turmoil, and its wartime expenses catch up to the economy. The Imperial Armed Forces is downsized, and efforts are made to cut back expenditures. At the height of a Cold War with China, Japanese nuclear weapons are stationed on the border and prepared for use. The Imperial Manchukuo Army is deployed to the border and occasionally in small raids on China, while the official Imperial Armed Forces does not get involved.
1961-1966: The Empire embarks on a campaign to improve the economy, working with other nations to increase trade. The Empire opens up a space program to compete in the space race, and in doing so develops its first ICBM. The Cold War continues, but enters a period where "Manchu" raids are ceased and tensions are lowered slightly.
1967- 1975: As the economy begins to improve, investment is directed to Taiwan and Korea. A series of LDP administrations seek to increase unity and allow equal rights for Taiwanese and Koreans.
1976-1984: The Imperial Armed Forces announces its first expansion program in decades, as it seeks to modernize amid numerous developing threats. During the time, efforts are made to improve relations with Japan's neighbor Russia. The Imperial Manchukuo Army is officially disbanded in a sign of goodwill to China. However the unit, while much smaller than before, is allowed to operate within the Imperial Army.
1985-1993: With a focus on the economy, a series of Japanese administrations make efforts to improve foreign ties and to improve trade relations. The Japanese economy enjoys growth and stimulation.
1994-2003: Japan begins to play a greater role in international politics, and liberal reforms being to take place. Greater extents of democracy are allowed, while the control of the military declines.
2004-2012: Japan begins a military rearmament program amid tensions with China and Vietnam, vowing to defend itself and to bring peace and stability to the region. The Japanese economy takes a hit during a recession in 2008, but begins to slowly recover. The former Imperial Manchukuo Army is revived as the Free Manchu Army, as tensions with China begin to grow once again. While small and limited in capability, the Army is armed with rockets and heavy artillery for hypothetical use on the border. The FMA's role remains limited to launching propaganda balloons and blasting propaganda on loudspeakers, but the Army vows to return to power one day. In addition, Japan begins to covertly fund and arm radical groups across Asia and even as far as Europe, focusing efforts in Indonesia, the Philippines, and the Middle East in an effort to build a network of proxies around the world to do Japan's bidding.
2013-2023: Japan is one of the strongest countries in Asia as it continues to grow. Challenged with anti-Imperialist sentiment and hostile neighbors, the future remains uncertain.
RP Example(s): Strange New World
2025: A Shifting World
Do not remove - 2024RP
by Sao Nova Europa » Tue Apr 23, 2024 5:33 am
Shohun wrote:RESERVATION
NS Name: Shohun
RP Name: Empire of Japan
Territory: Japan, Korea, the Ryukyu Islands, Taiwan, the Mariana Islands, Guam, Wake Island, the Marshall Islands, and the Kuril Islands
Do not remove - 2024RP
by Union Princes » Tue Apr 23, 2024 9:40 am
RESERVATION
NS Name: Union Princes
RP Name: Canada
Territory: Canada, Greenland, and Alaska
Do not remove - 2024RP
by Sao Nova Europa » Tue Apr 23, 2024 9:56 am
Union Princes wrote:RESERVATION
NS Name: Union Princes
RP Name: Canada
Territory: Canada, Greenland, and Alaska
Do not remove - 2024RP
by The Anarcho-Syndicalist Commune » Tue Apr 23, 2024 10:27 am
RESERVATION
NS Name: The Anarcho-Syndicalist Commune
RP Name: The Guðriki
Territory: Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Finland, The Baltics,
Do not remove - 2024RP
by Sao Nova Europa » Tue Apr 23, 2024 10:33 am
The Anarcho-Syndicalist Commune wrote:RESERVATION
NS Name: The Anarcho-Syndicalist Commune
RP Name: The Guðriki
Territory: Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Finland, The Baltics,
Do not remove - 2024RP
by Great Confederacy of Commonwealth States » Tue Apr 23, 2024 11:41 am
APPLICATION
NS Name: Great Confederacy of Commonwealth States
RP Name: The American Confederation
Flag: See above
Capital: Atlanta, Georgia
Territory: Virginia (undivided), North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennesse, Kentucky, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, Mexican states of Sonora and Baja California
Island territories: Cayman Islands, Jamaica, The Bahamas
Population: 240,746,331
Official Language(s): English, Spanish, various native languages
Type of Government: Federal Parliamentary Republic
In the American Confederation, the old federal system of the United States finds something of a rebirth. If you want to understand the American Confederation, you have to understand the government that preceded it. The Richmond Government, as it has been called by historians, was a unitary government based on centralised state power, a strong executive and limited democratic oversight. The central figure was the President, who combined the role of head of state and head of government. He had free reign in picking his secretaries and had broad emergency powers. Moreover, the President presided over a national police force that had grown increasingly unaccountable, even to the President. The President was empowered to veto new legislation, with 2/3rds of the Council of State needing to vote against the veto in order to lift it. The President was elected by the House of Deputies, from a list of nominees from the Council of State.
The Richmond government had a legislature consisting of two houses; the House of Delegates was elected through a district voting system. The lower of the two houses, its support was required for the passing of legislation and adopting a budget. By the 1980s however, the House of Delegates had already legislated more power into the hands of the President. By the 1990s, it would not be inaccurate to call the President a de facto dictator.
True legislative power was held by the Council of State. This body was appointed by the President in order to advise him on state matters. They could theoretically remove a President, but because they owed their lifetime appointments to him, they never actually used that power. They did use their power, however, to block legislation they disliked. Because of the power structures in the US at the time, the Council of State mostly represented business interests, with some NGOs thrown in for flavour and to divert criticism.
The Council of State also acted as the Court of Highest Instance in administrative matters. For civil and criminal matters, the Supreme Court of the United States remained empowered, being elected by the Council of State from a nomination made by the President.
By the 1990s, this system had devolved into a de facto autocracy. Importantly, it had created a strong system of segregation in the United States, with black, brown, latinx, First Nations and other people of colour being relegated to second class citizenship. They could not vote, they could not hold office, and they hardly had any protections under the law. Their groups were endlessly pursued by state police forces, and they were targeted by white supremacist terrorist organisations such as the Klu Klux Klan, which had strong representations in government.
In 1994 the Council of State and the House of Delegates declared that the successor to president Goldwater would be elected by a national referendum, open to segregated citizens. In 1996, this led to the election of Angela Davis to the office. This would begin the transformation from a segregated state into a new republic. Finally in 2003, the new constitution went into effect, creating the American Confederation.
The new constitution relied heavily on human rights doctrine. However, far from just listing civil rights, it would protect economic, cultural and social rights as well. A ban on discrimination became the first article. The ban on forced labour became the second. Then came freedom of speech, freedom to vote and run for office. That was followed by the right to housing, to security of person, and other economic and political rights, in no apparent order. About fifty articles in total are dedicated to civil and economic rights, the fiftieth being the right of communities to protect themselves from power by force of arms.
The new constitution recreated the old states, and ensured that they would have republican, democratic constitutions. State governments have to abide by very strict rules: term limits for those holding public office, a maximum number of years between state elections, and a detailed list of offices, like sheriff and judge, that need to be elected by the people. States must also have some form of referendum in their state constitutions.
For the rest, the States are the primary building block of the Confederation. The Confederal Constitution actually consists of two parts: the Declaration of the Confederation, which holds the fundamental rights of people and deals with the inner workings of government. The second part is the Treaty on the Functioning of the Confederation. This document is agreed on by the States, and it delegates powers and duties to the confederal government. This treaty can be changed by a complicated system of voting procedures, but it prevents the confederal government from perpetrating a power grab.
The same is true for the Confederation itself. All offices can be held for a maximum of three terms, and are subject to recall elections. The President of the Confederation is elected directly by the people. The President has a special task under the new constitution; her task is to safeguard democracy and the rule of law throughout the Confederation. She is, in fact, the Chief Ombudsperson, in some ways. Her office is independent from the rest of government and the only part of government which has funding constitutionally guaranteed. This was in some ways modeled after the Tribunate.
The Prime Minister is one position that is not directly elected, though it is subject to recall by referendum. The Prime Minister is elected by the House of Representatives, and heads the Council of Secretaries. Secretaries are proposed by the Prime Minister, but in practice are agreed upon by the coalition parties. These secretaries must then be approved by both the House of Representatives and the House of Delegates. However, their role is severely limited.
The House of Representatives is the pre-eminent Lower House. It is elected through a proportional vote by citizens and all those who can prove they have lived in the Confederation for over five years. It is elected every two years, and because of the proportional voting system is host to a large number of parties. The largest party is the Union Congress Party, itself a confederation of trade unions and civil rights organisations. It currently has a majority in parliament, following the extreme success of the new constitution in 2003. However, it is flanked to the left and right by other parties, such as the Black Panther Party on its left and the League Party on their right.
The House of Delegates consists of delegates from the various States. Every State is allotted a number of Delegates roughly according to population (with some minor adjustments in favour of the smaller states) which they must fill through a system of their own design. Some States have a first-past-the-post system, though most actually have some form of ranked preferential voting. The House of Delegates has a number of local parties, as well as national ones.
The Confederation judiciary is limited. The Supreme Court of the American Confederation only considers matters of constitutional interests. It mainly deals with supposed human rights violations, while also defending the liberal democratic institutions of the various States. The Confederal President can also bring cases directly to the Supreme Court. It can deal with cases dealing with confederal law, but only if the interpretation of a lower court goes clearly against the meaning of the law.
Each State is represented by a judge, meaning that there are 36 judges. Each State has its own way of selecting them, but the process must be democratic. However, judges are not subject to a recall vote, to protect their judgements from tampering. They are elected for five year terms and can only sit out two, and some States have rules barring judges from even a second term.
Special attention must be given to the Interstate Law Enforcement Cooperation Organisation, or ILECO. This department of the Confederal government replaced the National Investigations Bureau, the law enforcement agency of the United States. No longer does it have its own jurisdiction. It merely supports law enforcement cooperation between the various States, while having some expertises of their own. They are explicitly banned from doing any criminal investigative work of their own.
The mistrust of police runs deep in the Confederation. The Constitution bars police officers from college campuses, for instance. It also limits police militarisation. Some cities have even done away with a police department altogether, opting instead for community policing. A strict system of warrants exists, not only for searching homes, but vehicles as well. Some States have no-touch laws on the books, which ban officers from touching people who are not subject to direct police action.
Head of State: President Stacey Yvonne Abrams
Head of Government: Chancellor Raphael Warnock
Legislature: All-American Congress
Legislative Houses: House of Representatives; House of Delegates
Party in Power: Union Congress Party
National Issues:
American Reunification
Since the 19th century, America has been disunited. In the view of the Union Congress Party, this is because the old United States was too dedicated to the preservation of the institution of slavery. The Washington Separation, as it has been dubbed by the UCP, is itself a monument to segregation. There is no need for brother countries, separated by injustice, to remain separated. One of the main points of the UCP, therefore, is to seek reunion with the North. While this was unacceptable to the Old Parties, still representative of capital and white interests, with the transition into the Confederation the separation becomes less and less important while the strengthening of the American trade block becomes more important.
The South Will Rise Again
The repeal of Segregation has not met with universal support from the population. In fact, a small subset has constantly agitated against the change, blaming every issue under the sun to the black vote and black politicians. A vocal minority of the nation is ready to drag the Confederation back into the days of segregation. These problems are broader than just political agitation. Expansion of workplace protections to black and latinx citizens has increased costs with companies. While companies publicly support desegregation, it is known that a few high profile investors believe a return is necessary to save the Confederate manufacturing sector.
The Fourth branch
While segregation is officially over, the effects have not disappeared overnight. The bureaucratic class, known as the fourth branch of government, is still overwhelmingly white. This is partially because, despite desegregation of all universities, the top universities still mostly let in white students from legacy families. While politicians are now increasingly black, brown or latinx, their support staff is still mostly white, which has been to the detriment of actual desegregation.
The White Market
Likewise, desegregation has not led to an immediate redistribution of economic property. While legal restrictions have been removed, barriers to entry into a capitalist economy are not only laid down in law. Lack of initial capital means that citizens of colour have not been able to reap the immediate benefits of economic liberalisation. Some fixes to this have been proposed, such as taking property from the largest investors in segregation and dividing it up equally among those who suffered under the system. However, the UCG leadership has mostly concerned itself with building bridges.
Scars of Separation
Building bridges comes at a cost. While some of the worst offenders have been brought to justice, the majority of perpetrators of the Segregation system have not seen any legal consequences for their actions, apart from being removed from the highest direct levers of power. Meanwhile, some who had been branded as terrorists by the segregating regime are now in power. Many people have lost their lives or their loved ones in the struggle, and many more have been part of a vicious political struggle. Healing those wounds is not easy.
Sovereign wealth
In order to pay for ambitious social programs, the Confederation created a national wealth fund. Alongside private corporations, the All-American Oil and Gas Corporation (AAOGC) sells oil and natural gas in order to pay for unemployment benefits, education, social welfare and healthcare benefits. Fossil fuels are not endless, however, and climate change does not leave the Confederation untouched. Already, hundreds have died from forest and prairie fires, as well as cold snaps in Texas. The nation needs to pivot away from fossil fuels, but how will it pay for its benefits then?
Public Goals:
Private Goals:
GDP (nominal): 13.32 trillion dollars
Currency: AU Dollar
Economic System: Social democratic capitalism
Defense Budget (USD):
Alliance(s):
Military:
History:
1852-1855: Civil War
In separating itself from the United States, the Northern States in a sense also created a second new nation. Where the United States had once been restrained by northern representatives in Congress, by Whigs in all corners of the bureaucracy, and by northern business interests, it was now at once let free. With the Massachusetts legislature voting to secede from the Union, the hardline action of the Hammond administration was suddenly justified. As more and more states began to desert the union, Hammond was strengthened in his iron response. He handily won his reelection bid, with Whigs being separated between pro-secession and anti-secession candidates. Following his reelection, and the New York attack on West Point, Hammond raised an army in order to quell the rebellion.
Overall command of the Eastern theater of war is given to general Winfield Scott. The Western theater is given to general Joseph E. Johnston. Scott fights a mostly inconclusive war at first. While successfully draining the north of resources, he is seen as insufficiently dashing. With many northern officers deserting to join the Alliance, the army is left to southern officers with overly romantic notions of how wars are conducted. After Scotts unsuccessful attempts to invade the North at Chambersburg and Buffalo Mills, he is replaced with colonel Jefferson Davies; a younger officer with a more dashing attitude.
While the armies continue to clash in the East, general Johnston successfully lays siege to Cairo. The West is a neglected theater, which suits the general perfectly. In his view, control over the Mississippi and Ohio rivers are far more important than any momentary gains on the fields of Pennsylvania. A strategically minded general, he manages to defeat his enemy in detail at Rushford.
Back home, however, things are changing drastically. The Northern blockade hits heavily on the southern planter economy. The United States lacks the industrial base of the North, as well as critical infrastructure, and therefore cannot replace lost men and material at the same rate the North can. The United States sinks deeper and deeper into foreign debt, and the American Dollar becomes little more than a government IOU. This forced the military to start requisitioning, although they try to spare the planter class as much as possible. However, this creates problems with conscription, as more and more young lads stay at home to protect their family farmsteads.
These myriad issues finally lead to disaster at the Battle of Gettysburg, where a dashing assault by general Davies is repelled and routed, due mainly to supply issues, bad morale, and years of fighting in pitched battles, losing men that the South could not replace. The defeat is so staggering that president Hammond makes preparations for peace talks, but the army rebukes him and Congress blocks his attempts. When Hammond proposed creating black regiments in order to solve supply issues, Colonel Lee of the Virginia Militia enters Washington DC and confines the president to house arrest. From that point in the war, the United States was practically governed by the military.
The surrender of Davies at Baltimore makes the defeat of the United States certain, however. Hammond manages to slip the grasp of his captors and flees South. Congress, still controlled by the army, sues for peace, signed by vice president William Gilmore Simms. At the same time, Congress issues a warrant for the arrest of James Hammond to face an impeachment trial. Hammond, rather than face defeat, shoots himself; the only president to ever commit suicide. President Simms is inaugurated shortly after to pick up the pieces of the monumental defeat.
He was never quite up to the challenge. President Simms presided over a government like it was the United States of old, not realising it had changed too drastically during the Civil War to be recognisable. He failed to get the support of the military, which by then had infiltrated every level of the bureaucracy. He did not run for re-election, and was succeeded in 1956 by his vice president John C. Breckinridge; a veteran of the Eastern Campaigns and an avid supporter of the Golden Circle. He named Albert Pike as his Secretary for War, thus indicating that he agreed with the former general’s political views on the expansion of the United States.
After the official secession of the Northern States, slave power was now firmly in control of the United States. The Fugitive Slave Laws were expanded, and freedom of speech for abolitionists was severely limited. The Whig party was essentially abolished in the latter days of the war. In 1857, in order to try to turn the loss into a victory, Congress passed the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, enshrining slavery and black servitude directly into the founding document. Various states professionalized their slave catcher squads with veterans from the war, and more and more the power of the clergy began to creep into state governments.
1858-1878: The Golden Circle
The expansion into the Golden Circle, the area around the Caribbean, was seen as necessary in order to help reconstruct the United States economy. The loss of the industrial heartland had to be compensated. Of course, with the military still representing an important voice in debate, the conquest of foreign territories was their preferred mode, and the former officer Breckenridge was not one to refuse. In 1958, after two years of preparation, a force under general Jackson sailed for Haiti. General Johnston, now the leader of the United States army, selected Jackson so that he could blame the loss on a working class officer should the invasion go south.
It did not, however. Despite taking heavy losses, Jackson managed to wrest control of the coast from Haiti. While the interior would always remain a problem, Jackson proclaimed victory in late 1858 in a lavish ceremony. He had many of the island’s leaders hanged, paying tribute to the Spartacus Uprising of ancient times. The conquest of Haiti was of symbolic importance to the United States, as it had always been a model for servile insurrection: the dreaded slave uprisings that put fear in the hearts of the US planter class. The conquest of Haiti caused a minor row with France, however, and the United States had to take over the indemnities owed to France by Haiti for the loss of its slave population.
In 1960, it was Johnston himself who led the invasion of Cuba, which was to become the center point of the Golden Circle. With Iberia in political turmoil, and half a world away, there was little the Spanish could do to prevent a US takeover of the island. He used his powers as a military governor to dispossess large parts of the Creole landed classes. He then surprised the whole nation by running against Breckenridge in the 1960 elections, promising land and glory to all who would support him. The position of Breckenridge, that existing land ownership in Cuba should be respected, lost him the nomination. And since there was no party to oppose Johnston, the nomination basically handed him the presidency.
Under the Johnston presidency, land from the conquest of Cuba was basically handed out as bribes, and used to buy political loyalties as well as fund the federal government. This turned into somewhat of a racket; soldiers fighting in wars would expect to be paid in land, and the federal government needed to sell land in order to keep taxes and tariffs low. This meant that ever-larger amounts of land would be needed to satisfy the hunger of the expanding republic. This was dubbed the Jefferson Question, after the Jeffersonian ideals of the former US president, but it had hardly anything to do with small land ownership such as Jefferson envisioned it.
It was this problem that led the US into subsequent wars; in 1862 it took Santo Domingo, and in 1865 Puerto Rico was taken. These lands were redistributed and helped the US stay in the black, but it was only a temporary measure. It became more and more clear that solving the Jefferson Question long-term would mean the conquest of Mexico, which the Knights of the Golden Circle under secretary Pike had already long argued for. This would result in the expansion of so-called filibustering; private incursions into Latin-American states in order to subdue the government there, followed by US invasions in order to ratify the annexation.
At the same time, the country saw a shift in its public discourse. In 1864, Johnston was nominated without an opponent, as any possible opponent had been bribed with land in Santo Domingo to stay out of the race. The whole political elite seemed to stand behind president Johnston and his policies, and as such, criticism of the government was less and less accepted. Many employers started firing employees for criticizing the administration. The newly formed Klu Klux Klan, a veteran’s paramilitary organization and slave catcher gang, also aimed violence at dissidents and especially abolitionists. The clergy too supported the government, in return for more strict moral codes and the sending of missionaries to the predominantly Catholic territorial acquisitions.
by Great Confederacy of Commonwealth States » Tue Apr 23, 2024 11:42 am
1864: Omar ibn Said Uprising
Of course, following the Civil War, the enslaved population of the US had not been quiet. A possible victory of the Alliance had given some hope that they would be freed, and many defected to the Alliance and fought in its ranks. But the peace of 1855 made it clear that the United States would continue to exist, and the 13th Amendment made it clear that no enslaved person would be freed within their lifetime. This resulted both in a sense of melancholy, but it also created interests in various liberation theologies. Christianity was still popular, but more and more it was seen as the religion of the oppressors, especially when moral codes became more strictly enforced against black music.
Muslim enslaved people had existed for a long time. Many of them served as clerks because they could read and write. This also gave them access to a network, and it allowed them to secretly preach to the illiterate populations of the plantations. In many places, these Muslims became pillars of their community, allowing for communication between plantations as had never happened before. The Islamic veneration of Jesus as a Messiah also allowed for easier conversion of populations.
In 1864, Islamic scholar and enslaved person Omar ibn Sayyid passed away, living to his mid nineties. Many wanted to mourn his death, but since he had been a Muslim and a slave, any funeral rites were forbidden, and his body was burned without being given the proper honours. This enraged enslaved populations. The communications network set up by Muslim slaves allowed for the fire of discontent to spread quickly, and before long, the enslaved of North Carolina were in open revolt. Weapon stores were captured, and by shrinking into the countryside, these bands of rebels allowed the revolt to spread through other states. Before long, the whole Shenandoah Valley was ablaze.
The revenge of the federal administration was swift. It raised troops, mostly volunteers, to fight the rebels. Months of brutal fighting continued, with massacre after massacre. The rebels were adept at guerilla warfare, which the federal troops had a hard time dealing with. That was, until the veterans of the Cuban campaign arrived. With these fresh troops, general Nathan Bedford Forrest managed to crush the Shenandoah valley and pacify the region, drenching it in blood.
The Shenandoah Uprising, as it was later known, sparked rabid fears among the United States planter class. They clamped down even harder on their enslaved populations. However, many others began relaxing some provisions in order not to antagonise their enslaved workforce too much, and a large number managed to flee north across the border with the Free American Republic. The uprising also delayed the plans of the federal administration to go to war with Mexico.
The conquest of Mexico would eventually occur in two stages. During the Second Mexican War, in 1871-1873, the United States captured some border provinces, and forced Mexico to relinquish some treaty ports. It also destroyed the Mexican army and captured munitions, guns and artillery. Then, in 1874, it went in for the killing blow. In 1875, federal troops entered Mexico City and raised the star-spangled banner over it, formally annexing the territory.
This did not happen without domestic issues, however. The response to Shenandoah and the invasion of Mexico was a clear sign of things to come for California. Soon, the power of the federal government would be insurmountable, and then nothing would stop slave power from dispossessing their mines and lands and handing them over to the old planter class, or the new colonial class. In 1872, California resisted the draft for more troops to serve in Mexico, and declared its independence, leading to the Californian War.
In 1875, Johnston became the first president since George Washington to command a field army while in office, marching north to fight the FAR in Illinois and Iowa, defeating FAR troops at Fairmont. While a glorious victory, it does little for the campaign in California. The Rocky Mountains prove impenetrable, even for veteran general Nathan Bedford Forrest, and the United States is forced to recognise the independence of California, while also recognising the Free American Republic. The timing was deliberate; with the conquest of Mexico, president Johnston could pretend he was exchanging the Yankees for the conquest of Mexico.
1878: Hail, Imperator!
The conquest of Mexico, as much as it was a glorious crowning jewel in the Golden Circle, created a big problem in American politics. Mexico, after annexation, would represent fully a fifth of the entire US population, and most of them would be Hispanic peasants and labourers. Allowing Mexico into the Union as a single state would suddenly give a huge share of the votes in Congress to one State. The question of whether Hispanics even had the right to vote made this all the more problematic; southern Democrats feared that one day, the Hispanic vote would outnumber the white vote in the race for presidency. Were Mexico split into various states, then their Senators would gain even more power, especially when combined with the Senators from Cuba, Santa Domingo and Puerto Rico.
The debate was ended by the Compromise of 1878, also known as the Blackburn Compromise. Though of dubious constitutionality, it created the concept of the ‘discorporate State’. Mexico itself, as a territory, would not be granted Statehood. It would remain under direct federal control, and its people would be subjects, not citizens, of the United States. However, in order to properly administer the representation of whites in the territory, Congress would create the State of American Mexico. This State would not have a territory, but all white residents of Mexico would be a part of this State. As such, they would be able to vote for state representatives, governor, Congress, and for President, while receiving the protections of the US Constitution.
This was a compromise position between various power blocks. The Old Planters in the South did not want the colonial planter class to overshadow them politically. However, the colonial planters (and the president) did desire representation in the Senate, which had become the superior House of Congress. In this way, the colonial planter class could be represented, while retaining the superiority of the South. As part of the Blackburn Compromise, the 3/5th Compromise was lifted, ensuring that enslaved people would count fully towards the State population. Since Hispanics did not count towards State populations, the compromise could be swiftly done away with.
As a part of the Compromise, the Statehoods of North and South Cuba, Puerto Rico and Santo Domingo were revoked, and they too were turned into territories with discorporate States, with Cuba becoming a single territory, as well as the states of Haiti and Santo Domingo being merged into the Territory of Saint Dominic. Finally, the conquest saw the United States rise to the status of an imperial power. In order to ratify this, the territory of Mexico was reorganized into the Mexican Empire, following the example set by Britain in India. In a lavish ceremony in Richmond, the Presidency of the United States was crowned as the Emperor of Mexico, with president Johnston serving as its stand-in. He would not be personally Emperor, and he would still be bound by the US Constitution, but the title would further his prestige internationally. Furthermore, the new imperial title did much to awaken in the Southern gentry their love of the romantic middle ages, and it saw the return to fashion of knights and castles. In practical terms, however, it changed little more than the address of the president: His Majesty, the President of the United States.
This compromise, however, opened the way for the President to take control of the redistribution of seized lands in Mexico, which he did with gusto. The land grants were broadly separable into four categories: compensation for military veterans of the previous wars, grants to the old aristocracy with political connections, sales to the newly-enriched and growing industrial class, and bribes to existing local power structures, such as Mexican landowners and even the Church, in return for their obedience. This ensured that in 1880, with the land grants still well underway, the Democratic Convention would name Johnston as their ‘perpetual candidate’. In a one-party system, this ensured that Johnston would have the presidency for the foreseeable future; a welcome piece of stability, especially for those who found themselves on the receiving end of the land grants.
It did, however, put a halt to immediate US expansion. The new territory of Mexico needed to be surveyed, and rebellions needed to be put down. The United States military remained deployed in Mexico to resist uprisings. At the same time, Johnston sat atop a hierarchy that was more and more personally loyal to him, while growing increasingly esoteric. His War Secretary, Albert Pike, was both a member of the Masonic Order and a Knight of the Golden Circle, and using his prestige and position he inducted many members as unofficial ‘Knights of the Empire’. One of these members was Nathan Bedford Forrest, a leader of the Klu Klux Klan which had arisen as a veteran’s organisation for those eager to preserve White Supremacy in the South. While the federal government remained outwardly neutral, Johnston’s allies in the upper classes and the racist slave-catching militias ensured his complete domination of politics for almost the next decade.
1882: Henry’s Rebellion
Henry’s Rebellion was smaller than the Shenandoah Rebellion, but no less influential. Henry Turner was a slave in Louisiana; his ancestors had been free Creoles, but had been implicated in some political scandal and, for the colour of their skin, they were enslaved. The Henry Rebellion was abolitionist, Christian, and echoed some of the spirit of the FAR. Henry’s army of escapees burned their way past the Mississippi, looting Baton Rouge before an army could stop them. The commander of the local Klu Klux Klan militia had them all crucified, which led to horrific scenes.
1888: Decline of chattel slavery and the Great Schism
The 1870s and 1880s saw changes in economics beyond the control of the Johnston administration, however. The growth of the Indian cotton industry meant that Europe could rely less and less on imports from the United States, which made it possible for British abolitionists to push for more and more restrictions on the imports of goods produced with slavery. This led to a decline in the price of American cotton and other exports. This was bad for the planter class, but did lead to a growth in US-based manufacturing, and subsequently the development of a capitalist class.
These changes in the global economy created an impetus to move away from the neo-feudal slave-based systems of the past, into the capitalist systems that had overtaken Europe and the FAR. The political situation in the United States had also changed. Colonial planters already relied mainly on dirt-cheap local labour, and since the Atlantic slave trade had already been closed off, never had the opportunity to import African labour. The new manufacturing class too favoured a system of wage labour, if only to create more consumers for their products. They did not so much want to abolish slavery, but they did want to create the conditions wherein individual landowners could decide to switch to a system of wage labour.
The old planter class and the military were divided on the issue. Primarily, there existed an idea that the United States had been founded on the idea that some were simply more suited to rule than others, and that African Americans still needed instruction as a race. Abolition, to them, was sacrilege, which was probably why such a sweeping policy was never proposed. Some planters and middle class officers believed that the shift to wage labour would make it less likely that slaves would break out in open revolt. Others, however, especially officers from the old families, feared that wage labour was the first step to abolition, and that abolition would create the conditions for a servile war, which was most-feared.
It was a proposal to amend the Fugitive Slave Act that eventually forced the issue. It was proposed in Congress that, in order for wage labour to be possible, it would need to be possible for some enslaved people to leave bondage. Otherwise, what would stop a plantation owner from recapturing a freedman in wage labour when a dispute arose? Proponents argued that the prospect that one would eventually be able to buy their freedom was a far better motivator than the lash. Opponents found it a heretical idea, opposed to the separation between the races. Among the latter were old planters, members of the military and especially the clergy, united in the Constitutionalist caucus. Through the clergy, this party also enjoyed the support of the middle class, which feared they would have to share their cities with freedmen, something for which newspapers had warmed them for decades.
Eventually, the problem seemed unsolvable. When Democratic lawmakers brought forward their proposed amendment to the Fugitive Slave Act, lawmakers from the Democratic Constitutionalists broke off from the party and founded their own. The Constitutionalist Party would unite old planter interests in the defence of slavery as it had existed before, taking with them the loyalty of the Klu Klux Klan, among other institutions.
Now, the Great Schism had far reaching effects on US politics. Not only did a new party emerge with a new (if old) ideology, it also shattered the one-party hegemony that had existed since the Northern Revolt. Where once the powerful political, military and economic forces had been united behind the government, now sides of the political spectrum supported the government on and off depending on election results. Where once criticism of the government had been basically unheard of, now the parties rediscovered the power of a critical press.
This led to a reevaluation of the position of government power. President Johnston remained popular, but he immediately had to deal with a hostile House of Representatives, where the Constitutionalists gained a majority. The fight for power over the government had begun, leading to new ideological points. The Constitutionalists favoured extending the vote to the white middle classes, because they expected more support from them. They also proposed that Senators should be elected instead of appointed. The Democratic Party adopted the position that the federal government should be curtailed and more power should be vested in the States, mostly because the Democrats still controlled most governorships in the South.
On other issues, the parties were still united, however. Both were vehemently racist, just in slightly different gradations. Both favoured colonial expansion and the control of the wealthy, whether it was planters or the new industrialist class, which was rapidly expanding. Even in industrialisation, the two parties could find some common interest, with plantation owners increasing prices as demand for their goods increased too.
1891-1912: Free labour and the Age of Steel
In 1891, president Johnston died in office, immediately creating an expectation for his successors. Over the final years of his life, he had increasingly withdrawn himself from the public eye, with his cabinet and Democratic prominents taking on the roles of government more and more. The militarists in the cabinet were slowly replaced by industrialists and colonial profiteers, cementing their power within the Democratic Party. The military, which had been so vocally political before, strategically withdrew from politics in favour of expanding their power within the state bureaucracy.
Vice president Joseph Wheeler, an elderly general from the Wars of Expansion, took over the presidency. The United States entered into the era of the ‘a-political presidents’. These presidents commanded the loyalty of the army and the veterans, and thus could control the federal bureaucracy far easier than any party politician. However, they could do little without the support of the politicians in Congress and the parties. In 1892, the Constitutionalists and the Democrats agreed that they would not run candidates against each other for the presidency, in return for the president not picking sides in political debates.
This basically handed over power to the lobbyists, who could now influence the secretaries far more directly. With the power of the industrialists growing, this would lead to the Age of Steel between 1985 and 1920. The federal government invested heavily in the expansion of infrastructure. This meant laying train tracks, digging mines, building factories, and laying canals, among other hard labour.
These projects were partially performed by enslaved people, often on loan from local slave owners or employers. Since these projects were not destined for export, the federal government was mostly concerned with cost reduction instead of international condemnation. Those slave owners were compensated for the use of their labour force, but since the federal government provided food and housing, the slave owners did not have costs associated with hiring out labour. In fact, many slave owners were happy to be rid of their existing labour force, and used the opportunity to switch to wage labour, unwilling to take back their slaves once the federal government was finished with them.
But mostly, the projects were performed by ‘free labour’. The change in economics over the past decades had created a large class of traveling black labourers, moving from project to project to earn their wages, and spending most of it traveling. These men were often far away from home, looking for places where they might start their lives anew, but many white townships would not take them in. As such, they wandered, taking whatever work was available to them. These men and their families had almost no legal remedies available to them, and as such, could be treated as harshly as was most profitable for the project. For the federal projects that meant that these men performed the most dangerous tasks, since employers would not have to pay compensation for deaths, and their far-away family would have no way to sue for damages.
The expansion of infrastructure brought the economy of the United States into a new era. Suddenly, all these new factories required labourers as well, drawing from the same ‘free labour’ pool as well as a new white working class, drawn from the Jeffersonian farms into the cities to earn their living. The United States’ proletariat had been born.
1903-1940: Pax aurea
Also from 1903 onward, the foreign policy of the United States began to change. The annexation of Mexico had taught the US government that outright annexation was expensive; too expensive, while the same effects could be reached through less direct means. American business used its tremendous capital to buy up large chunks of land in Central and South America, establishing themselves with a strong power base. If local governments protested, and took action against the planters and industrialists, then those investors could count upon the United States to back them up. Diplomatically, and sometimes, militarily.
The first instance of this was actually before what historians call the ‘Pax aurea’, or Golden Peace. In 1899, the United States participated in the defeat of the Boxer Rebellion, in order to gain an overseas market in China. This shows the strangeness of the name Golden Peace for this era: there was plenty of fighting and dying, but no official wars and no annexations.
The United States Marine Corps proved itself for the first time in this regard in 1903, when it successfully invaded Honduras to install a friendly government. President Wheeler rewarded them by rechristening them as the Imperial Marine Corps, and allowing them to wear the badge of the Imperial Crown of Mexico. While mostly for show, it did signal to the Marine Corps what their purpose was, and how they could best serve the President. The Imperial Marines would subsequently be seen in Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador and Costa Rica. When oil was discovered in Venezuela, the Marines placed it under semi-permanent military occupation; maintaining its native government, but installing a military governor that could override decisions by that government.
While it expanded United States interest abroad, to the point of creating a de facto American empire in the Caribbean, it also turned the Imperial Marines into an unofficial police force. At the behest of territorial governors, they could be relied upon to intervene in cases where local police forces were inadequate. The Marines put down a workers’ strike in Cuba in 1915 with machine guns and grenades. When Haitian workers seized an arsenal in an uprising, the Marines came in, causing mass slaughter among the population. A demonstration by Catholics in Mexico City in 1917 turned into a bloodbath, and subsequently the Marines took their revenge on Catholic clergy throughout the country.
1912-1930: Everything Wars
Of course, you can only push labourers so far before they break. While white trade unions had already established themselves, the first black trade unions came about in 1912. Despite these organisations being largely illegal, these trade unions enjoyed massive support from their members and communities, and provided much-needed services like healthcare, pensions, and sick pay. At first, employers were happy that workers were dealing with these problems themselves, meaning they would have a more resilient workforce. But soon, these organisations began to make demands. In 1917, a strike by ship construction crews in New Orleans led to a wage increase of 300%. An Atlanta railroad strike ensured that the city would build more safe housing to replace the shacks in which black workers were forced to live before. Kansas City was even desegregated when local shopkeepers, white and black, refused to work until city ordinances were lifted.
These black unions also attracted white workers. The white working class had grown as well since industrialisation, but white unions were often too friendly with company management to get anything done. These black and mixed unions did get things done. However, management and the government struck back in 1921. In the Virginian coal mines, workers went on strike for better pay, better protections, and a lifting of racist divisions between workers. Meanwhile, demands were made of the State government to provide adequate housing. The strikes got out of hand quickly from the perspective of the State: Virginia miners set up their own municipal governments, abolishing slavery and holding their own elections. Word even spread that the FAR was arming union militias in an attempt to gain control over the movement. Panic spread of an unholy mix of servile insurrection and a northern invasion.
In response, the miners and the State government called upon the Marine Corps to crush the rebellion, which they did with vigor. Not only did they kill striking mine workers, they also burned villages and committed mass murders on the black population in the area. The bloodthirst of the Marines actually created a problem for the governor of Virginia, who had to institute harsh censorship to stop the news from coming out; instead blaming the deaths and destruction on ‘rival groups’ within the strikers.
Of course, Virginia was right next to the border of the FAR, and news did leak there. The actual news coming south from FAR news sources, mixed with the censored versions from Virginia, led to a poisonous cocktail of fear in the United States. Everywhere, States tried to clamp down on union activity, but usually this just made their position worse. In 1924, a Louisiana National Guard unit even joined in a strike of Mississippi boat workers, forcing the governor to resign and calling for new elections. Elections in which, for the first time, black people would have the vote.
1924: Separation
The 1924 elections were largely fuelled by the fear of a servile uprising and the rise of mixed race unions. The Democratic Party was in power at that time, and they were blamed for insufficiently acting against the threat. President John Pershing suddenly faced an election challenge, something that had not happened since the 19th century. The outwardly a-political Pershing was soundly defeated by Constitutionalist candidate John W. Davis, who suddenly gained a majority in both the House and the Senate. His mandate was clear: the safeguarding of the United States against what he saw as insurrectionists.
Things moved quickly after this. In 1925, upon taking office, Congress immediately passed the Seditious Organisations Act, which criminalised organisations with a seditious character. The definition of ‘Sedition’ was broadened to include any act that meant to disrupt the ‘natural relations between classes and races of people’. When problems emerged with the definition of ‘race’, the Race Relations Act of 1924 created a system by which races could be categorised. These two acts together mandated the creation of separate white and black unions. Furthermore, it banned strikes by black unions. Meanwhile, the Labour Relations Act of 1925 created a system of recognised unions, which only white unions could take part in.
The unions tried to resist this encroachment upon their rights, but the federal government used the Marine Corps to break up any organised protest with violent means. More and more, the Marines began to act as law enforcement, not only in the territories, but within the United States proper as well. Because of the large number of suspects, the Marine Corps constructed specialised camps to house inmates under horrific circumstances. The Land Appropriation and Distribution Act of 1926 created special reservations to house black people, as well as allowing cities to set aside land for official ghettos.
However, it was also discovered that constitutional realities got in the way of the policies envisioned by the Davis administration. Nevertheless, these policies were popular with white voters, partially because negative press of them was stifled by the Seditious Organisations Act. In 1926, during the Midterms, the Constitutionalist Party won another majority, and not only that, but their allies in the Democratic Party were now so desperate for political clout that they were willing to help alter the Constitution.
1928: The Nashville Convention
In 1928, this resulted in the Nashville Constitutional Convention. The task at hand, set by Congress, was to draft an entirely new constitution that was fit for a modern era. According to the drafters, new technologies and the ever-shifting economy made it necessary for the government to be able to act fast and decisively. Furthermore, the authors of the original Constitution had not taken into account that their love of liberty would be used by enemies of the United States to destroy her foundational beliefs. Thus, the new government would be founded on the principles Christianity, Family, and Loyalty.
The result, presented in 1932, was the Nashville Constitution. It created a unitary State, abolishing the federal nature of the United States and placing supreme legislative power with Congress. It also cemented the racial categories of the Race Relations Act. It contained hardly any civil rights, apart from the right to vote for whites (and the lack thereof for blacks) and property rights. The House of Representatives would be elected as it had always been, but the Senate would be appointed by the President. The president, meanwhile, would no longer be elected by popular vote, but by the Senate, which was renamed to the Council of State.
1932-1940: The Dread Pact
After the new Nashville Constitution was instated, the Constitutionalists began to cement their political power throughout society. Critics at the time called it the ‘Dread Pact’: the new government would make people complicit in segregation, merely by being a member of society. The higher up one wanted to be, the more one would have to entangle oneself with racism and the regime. The ways this manifested were myriad and diffuse. In matters of religion, local governments began revoking church service licenses for mixed congregations. In order to even preach, priests would now have to segregate their churches, ensuring that the only priests who remained towed the party line. In this way, the voting priesthood was mostly pro-segregation, and they elected pro-segregation church leaders. Doctors too were trained in segregated universities, taught racist science, but in order to apply for research grants with the government, or get a job in white communities, they too would have to tow the party line. More and more clubs, societies and organizations were taken over by party members, to the point that being a party member was requisite for higher office.
In 1934, following an attempted strike by a black, unrecognised union, black unions were banned. White unions were subsumed into the government, into the National Labour Relations Board, which was dominated by employers. Most white unions meekly accepted this new reality, fearing of going the same way as the black unions. In 1935, the president banned opposition parties by decree, and subsumed the Democratic Party into itself. From that point forward, the United States would operate as a one-party state dedicated to maintaining segregation, with no opposition outside of the party. By the end of 1935, the United States had been transformed into a White Man’s Republic, where democracy was relegated to the few who could participate in government. In all but name, Davis had become a dictator.
Davis’ rise to power gave an official platform to views that had been relegated to the background for some decades. While racism had been the official policy of the United States for decades, Davis empowered the most rabid racists and eugenicists. The Purity Act of 1936 federally forbade interracial relations. Not only that, but doctors were empowered to euthanize mixed race babies, as well as people with disabilities. Chemical castration of gay people, gender non-conforming people and black people became a common occurrence. To protect against mixed-race relations, more and more cities relegated black people to special ghetto’s, which they walled off.
Now, a difference between Jewish pogroms in Europe and anti-black racism was the nature of the economic relations between people. Black people were a major work force, and therefore the large majority did not want African Americans destroyed. However, the majority view was now that they needed to be separated and put to work. This in turn would lead to the actual return of slavery, in state-sponsored form. Special Labour Bureaus were set up to hire out black labour to the lowest bidder, either moving them out to special segregated villages in the countryside or housing them in segregated barracks near factories. This way, whole industries such as mining, heavy industry and infrastructure work was done by enslaved black people. Those who had managed to make a middle class living for themselves under the old system found themselves dispossessed, their goods distributed among poor whites to create a stronger white middle class.
1940: The Great War begins
1941:
1942:
1943:
1944:
1945: The Silent Coup
By 1945, it was abundantly clear that the US was going to lose the war with the FAR. Even if the FAR could be held back on the mainland, their island hopping campaign in the Caribbean had all but destroyed the Golden Circle. Haiti was already independent, as was Santo Domingo and Puerto Rico. Cuba would be next to fall, after which the FAR would have a straight route into the soft underbelly of the US. Mexico too could be considered lost. US troops still held onto the capital, but even if by a miracle the FAR was to evaporate, there was little hope of retaining that control for long. Meanwhile, Davis stubbornly resisted drafting black citizens as troops to bolster the dwindling numbers of recruits. He kept personal control of the war, seemingly happy to let it last until the FAR marched into Richmond. For the entire war, Davis had kept his Imperial Marines in reserve to deal with civil unrest at home, unwilling to test their myth of invincibility.
By March 1945, the general staff had had enough. As David returned home from Church, he was overpowered by air force soldiers. His family was put under house arrest, and Davis was made to sign a pre-prepared statement at gunpoint, that he had fallen ill, naming marshal MacArthur as his replacement for the duration. Under pain of death, his personal doctor was made to sign as well. Together they were driven into the Swift Creek forest, where they were summarily executed. Their bodies were burned with petrol.
MacArthur, feigning the signature of Davis, then ordered the Imperial Marines to Memphis, to hold the city against the FAR advance. At the same time, he ordered the conscription of black soldiers into the army, to be led by white officers. By this point, MacArthur was not attempting to win the war. He was making a show of force to show the FAR that the US was far from spent, and that they would have to pay for every mile of territory won. Under those conditions, he could make peace.
The Imperial Marines did fight viciously for the defence of Memphis, and even after multiple assaults and horrid house-to-house combat, they did not give in, rather dying than being captured. It was fruitless, and after three weeks of fighting, they had been entirely spent, reduced to a tenth of their fighting strength. However, MacArthur had achieved his dual purpose. He had convinced the FAR that the US had far better and more reserves than she actually had, and he had destroyed the armed forces most likely to oppose his coup. In April, he announced that president Davis had died of a stroke, and that he would take the reins as president.
All he could do at that point was attempt to reach an armistice with the FAR.
1946: Washington Peace Treaty
Decolonisation of Mexico, Haiti, Santo Domingo and Puerto Rico, with eventual decolonisation of Cuba
1949: Mexican independence
After four years of preparation, Mexican independence finally came due. However, when this happened, it was still under US terms. Its new constitution had been written by a new constitutional convention, dominated by land owning elites that had previously been loyal to the American administration. The US military presence basically guaranteed a transition of power to US allies by both protecting the convention and arresting supposed dissidents, especially from national liberation movements and communists. The Treaty of Hermosillo ceded Sonora and Baja California to the United States, because those states had been economically integrated into the US. More importantly, they held Pacific ports without which the US could not project power into that ocean. The loyalist government would remain in power for little over half a decade before rebels overthrew it.
1945-1960: Reform and rebuilding
President MacArthur stayed in power after the war. By antagonising the Davis loyalists, he forced himself into an alliance with the reformist faction within the United States. The Constitutionalist Party was banned, and in its place returned two parties: the Democratic Party, known as the New Democratic Party, which aligned itself with MacArthur, and the League Party. The latter was unofficially known as the White League Party and aligned itself with the Davis loyalists, and had secret ties with the Klu Klux Klan. The Klan was disarmed by MacArthur, which was later ratified under the Paramilitary Act which banned the government from contracting private militias and which forbade expressly political militias. In the place of the Klu Klux Klan and other such organisations arose ‘civic’ militias, which while outwardly different, continued in secret the legacy of the Klan. For the MacArthur administration, however, it was out of sight, out of mind.
MacArthur, who had always been a moderate, was an advocate of true free market reforms, and in this received the backing of small to medium businesses. The Free Competition Act gave the government the power to break up monopolies, which MacArthur used to break up state-sponsored monopolies and oligopolies which had benefited from the enslavement camps of the Davis administration. Segregation laws were kept in place, but their restrictions on the individual economic rights of individuals were relaxed. From now on, it became possible for black people to own businesses and to enter into the middle class. The MacArthur administration commenced rebuilding efforts that created new suburbs, and although segregated, it created white and black suburbs of similar quality to repay black draftees.
All of this was not purely out of charity. MacArthur knew that keeping the black population in line had been taking up more and more resources in the final years of the war. Many African Americans had sided with the FAR, and would have gladly invited Northern invaders. This political situation was untenable, and in order to remain afloat, the government would have to choose a new path. The Secretary of Internal Affairs, John Hoover, proposed reforms that would streamline this process.
The Hoover Plan revolved around free market reforms. By dangling the American Dream in front of African Americans, they would hopefully work hard to earn their freedom by becoming wealthier. This would allow them to put their labour productivity to good use while allowing the free market itself, through setting rents, wages and housing prices, to keep them in line. It would also massively boost the economy by producing more consumers, especially for the growing auto industry.
These individualist freedoms meant nothing for union rights, however. A special Directorate for Racial Labour Relations was created, which would manage the labour conditions for black workers, but it would primarily keep wages below that of white workers in order to keep black workers ‘competitive’. Black unions were still illegal, and while prosecuted as anti-American, underground organisations existed, many with contacts in the FAR.
Regardless, the post-war boom was an economic miracle that made MacArthur incredibly popular. Many families managed to buy a house and create generational wealth, and car ownership shot through the roof as the whole of the US was connected through a new highway system, paid for by the national government through the Mexican reparations. The reforms in racial relations, however, were not universally popular. Especially the League Party agitated against the changes, calling them ‘preparations for race mixing’ and ‘ideologically confused’ for letting black people perform the ‘roles’ of white people. Especially when African American veterans were given the same housing as white veterans, even though white veterans saw themselves as having fought harder, this was exploited by the League. It would force MacArthur to walk a tightrope for the rest of his administration.
1962-1978: The Cuban War
The decolonisation of Haiti and the Dominican Republic after the Great War left many Cubans desiring the same. As a territory of the United States, Cubans too had been drafted to fight against the FAR. These veterans had returned home expecting to receive voting rights and a devolution of power. However, instead, they found the US clamping down on independence movements, squeezing cash out of Cuba to pay for rebuilding the US mainland. In 1946, the United States government declared that the Richmond Declaration regarding voting rights would only apply to those living in US States, and since Cuba was a territory, the Declaration would not apply to them.
Hopes of decolonisation were further dampened in 1948, when the US took control over British territories in the Caribbean, including Belize, Jamaica, the Bahamas, the Caymans, Barbados, the Grenadines, and others. It showed to them that the US government had not changed, and was even willing to expand its colonial possessions as the rest of the world decolonised. The socialist revolution in Britain, and the subsequent revolutions in the former British empire, were a real inspiration, however. Activist groups popped up all over Cuba, and started organising and protesting.
The rise in protests also came with a rise in influence from communist agitators, especially veterans of the Great War. During the War, the Cuban Division had apparently been infiltrated by communists, and a network of veterans had come back after the war. One of them being Fidel Castro, now an officer of the unofficial ‘Cuban National Guard’. At the same time, there were rumours that the Cubans were being trained by veterans from the FAR. The Cuban National Guard became the military wing of the Cuban National Congress, which formed a shadow government on Cuba with authority among the Cubans.
In 1950, president MacArthur was presented with two options. Option 1, favoured by the military, was a crackdown of the Cuban intelligentsia. A cleanup of the island to return it to its previous subservient status. A second option, proposed by the State department, was the creation of a Cuban puppet state, which would align itself with US goals. MacArthur, influenced by John Hoover, elected the second option, and on January 1st 1955, the Cuban Flag was hoisted above Havana for the first time. Control was given over to the CNC, aided by a US military liaison.
Immediately, however, rifts began to form in the new government. The communist wing under Castro was unhappy with the liberal wing, which got all the positive news coverage from local and international media. They also had more campaign funds, while Cuban communists often found themselves harassed by Cuban police or American ‘observers’, many of whom were Marine officers. During the 1956 election, the liberals and conservatives won big, while social democrats and communists were left in the dirt. This allowed for a US-friendly government that left the economic interests of the US on the island unharmed. What was more, after communists protested, the government began an anti-communist crackdown supported by US intelligence. A year later, this devolved into a civil war.
The US did not get fully involved in this war until 1962, when the militarists in the new Hoover cabinet finally got their way. It was meant as a diversion from national politics, and something the entire nation could get behind. Hoover needed to project strength in order to siphon off support from the radical League Party. For the war, the first truly interracial draft in United States history was issued. Not only that, but for the first time African Americans filled junior officer roles, up to the rank of captain. During the war, this would get gradually raised until African Americans could fill the rank of colonel.
While meeting with initial public support, especially since it was expected to be a short war, the conflict dragged on for years. As the casualty lists came back, public sentiment turned against the war. It still had the support of the radicals in the League Party, but it also gave rise to a large anti war movement that would define the 1960s and 1970s. While the Hoover administration would greatly expand its security apparatus to deal with these threats, it would never be able to fully wipe out its adversaries, either in Cuba or the US.
1963 - 1972: The Anarchy
President Hoover resigned in 1963 citing health reasons. The period that followed is known in hindsight as the Anarchy, for Hoover had not clearly showed his preference for a replacement as president. This opened the door for political jockeying, especially between the various competing security bureaus that Hoover had so vigorously expanded. The names of these men (for they were all men) is not worthy of mentioning, for many served only for the better part of a year before being forced to resign. Within the government bureaucracy, the abdication of Hoover and his eventual death in 1964 created a power vacuum that was filled by various factions, not really mapped onto political parties or ideologies but based on competing strategies and alliances.
None of these factions, however, wanted to withdraw from the Cuban war, and therefore all faced the consequences of its impopularity. Quickly shifting power resulted in diffuse policies, from expanded bombing to reduced troop concentrations and more diplomatic approaches, as well as expanding the war to other countries or withdrawing from those countries. The same went for domestic policies. All of the presidents and administrations between the Hoover administration and the Wallace administration were first and foremost pragmatic more concerned with their power within the state bureaucracy, they on the whole expanded government regulatory bodies, if only to give jobs to their supporters. A constant stream of new executives required a constant stream of new managerial positions.
1965-1972: Powder Power
On the side of the civilians, the continuation of the inpopular war in Cuba gave rise to a broad, and later militant, anti-war movement. Because both black and white soldiers are sent to the front, these peace movements are often multi-racial, and during demonstrations black and white veterans can be seen marching together. Even within these movements, racism is still an issue, but they do move towards a greater goal together. As the government hardens its stance in Cuba, more and more people are disillusioned by subsequent administrations and politics as a whole, and begin to demand far broader reforms, also in the area of civil and political rights, economic rights, and so forth.
The ineffective administrations of the anarchy all relent, in some way or another, to these forces. While their stance on Cuba and the war is non-negotiable, they see social programs and government regulation as a way to soothe public anger. Subsequent administrations attempt to court the kind of civic nationalism that takes an interest in a clean environment and tidy streets. While segregation is non-negotiable, various administrations do invest more in ghetto schools, although many of those reforms are rescinded and half-heartidly reapplied by subsequent presidents. In this era, particularly the right of white women to have an abortion is expanded, though mostly through the courts rather than government action,
At the same time, the Black Panther Party rises to power. Black veterans take up arms to fight the white segregationist government, using community outreach, community self defence, and terrorist tactics to further their goals. While they are denounced by a large majority of newspapers and especially the white middle class, their work gains national sympathy from the people they are trying to liberate, and draws international attention to the situation within the US. In response to this, white militias rearm themselves. While governments are banned from contracting militias, individual companies and corporations are still able to. Private military security becomes a staple of many communities, where business owners and residents pool resources to buy themselves protection by private armies. These militias often harass black residents or passers-by, and become themselves targets of Black Panther attacks.
These years since World War II of placating the white working class and even the black middle class through social programs has powerful enemies, however. In the late 60s and early 70s, prominent conservative thinkers come out in opposition to these programs, seeing it as the road to eventual emancipation and a return to full democracy. This, they claim publicly, is both unpatriotic and unconstitutional. Funded by wealthy white industrialists, these conservative thinkers embed themselves in universities and begin a broad, decentralised media campaign in order to draw attention to American values: a government that only regulates morals, but does not regulate the economy.
1972-1984: President Wallace - The Alabama Austronaut
This drive for a 'smaller government' came to fruition when president Wallace ascended to the presidency. After almost ten years of weak central rule, Wallace managed to gain the support of the legislature in order to wrest control of the bureaucracy again. His ideology could be summed up as support for decentralised, market segregation. His administration was marked by privatisations of many formerly government services, and the strengthening of the idea that companies had no duty other than to their shareholders and American morality. His administration explicitly rejected economic liberty and equality, portraying them as 'euro-communistic' and un-American. This resulted in his crackdown on protest movements, the stick to make the carrot of the newly liberalised economy more appealing.
This policy did have its intended effect. White liberals began to abandon the protest movements in favour of a middle class existence in the expanding, segregated suburbs. This sharply deorganised and depolitised the white middle class, to the point that withdrawal from Cuba could be sold as a victory without much scrutiny. This also caused many clashes within the protest movements, where white activists were blamed for being able to withdraw back into a segregated society built for them, where they could be free of guilt. This injustice hardened the resolve of those who stayed behind. While the number of protests declined, the number of targeted attacks went up, especially bomb attacks. In Cuba too, the number of fragging incidents increased dramatically, and veterans coming home took with them both their military knowledge and their mental scarring. The result was the Bloody Decade, which reached its zenith when president Wallace was blown up by a car bomb in 1984, sending his car flying so high that he gained the nickname 'Alabama Astronaut'.
1984-1996: President Goldwater
Goldwater had been a devout proponent of segregation since his early political career, but the murder of his predecessor spooked him. Instead of outpourings of grief from abroad, most international media framed the death of Wallace as a logical result of his racist policies and autocratic style of governance. While Goldwater still cracked down on possibly seditious movements during the first part of his term, during the late 80s, his support base was growing tired of the violence. Not only that, but the killing of Wallace brought international scrutiny to the United States. Suddenly, all over the world, demands came to divest from what activists called 'practical slave labour'. An international boycott of US goods led to a loss of face, but far more pronounced was the increased price of imported energy. This caused runaway inflation, which fueled additional unrest. It got so bad that Goldwater deployed federal troops to cities in order to safeguard the suburbs from 'invasion' by 'city dwellers', to little avail. This militarisation was only seen as a further escalation, and was answered by an increase in deadly molotov cocktail attacks.
Eventually, Goldwater and his supporters had had enough. In 1992, talks began with the United Congress Party, a coalition party of underground mixed-race and black organisations. While some minor concessions were gained, the main focus of the negotiations was a 'presidential referendum' and new elections following the repeal of 'political segregation', allowing black voters to participate for the first time. Goldwater still hoped to reinforce his position, and he used every trick in the book to dissuade black Americans from voting in the referendum, but in the end it did little to change the outcome.
1996: President Davis and Desegregation
The 1996 election referendum resulted in Angela Davis winning an overwhelming majority of votes, carrying all demographics except for high income white males in rural areas. There was no possible way for the Goldwater administration to deny the validity of this vote, and no way to spin it in favour of the segregationist order. It was a staunch rebuke of existing policies, and within hours the whole country knew it. It was like breaking a spell: suddenly the whole country knew how unpopular segregation had become, and it awakened something in the population. For days there were rallies and parties in celebration of the result. In December 1996, Angela Davis was sworn in as the president of the United States.
Her first presidential order was to put a moratorium on the prosecution of the Union Congress and its constituent organisations. This brought the organisation out from the shadows and into the limelight. Before long, they had established themselves as a respected party with broad popular support, and when it was clear that they would not let themselves be forced back into the closet, Congress struck the various laws banning them from the books. During the 1998 midterms, the Union Congress Party won not only a majority in the House of Representatives, but enough members to amend the constitution. President Davis appointed enough members to the council of State to make this possible, after a great number of previous appointees had resigned their posts in protest or shame.
In 2003, the new constitution went into effect, creating the American Confederation. This name change was deemed necessary, for the United States had never lived up to the lofty ideals proclaimed by the founders. Too many memories were held of that divisive name, and as the country sought new purpose, so did it change its name and its flag to represent that. More importantly, however, its system of government was changed back to a federal government, with strong powers to enforce civil rights but weak powers to enforce other laws, modeled partially after the FAR.
2003-2023: Building a nation
Before this new era could commence, the old era had to be closed first. While some championed the punishment of those responsible for the crime of segregation, the UCP decided on a platform of reconciliation. Already, many wealthy southerners had fled abroad with their wealth and assets, and the UCP wanted to prevent further white flight. Not only that, but there were still right wing militias that needed to be taken down, and the UCP wanted to deprive them of whatever support they had from white moderates. So, a special Department of Reconciliation was established, charged with healing past wounds and, where necessary, pass judgement. Only a few diehard segregationists and white supremacists, totally unrepentant and guilty of sedition besides segregation, were every succesfully charged and imprisoned. The rest was let go.
The end of segregation also required the building of strong social welfare programs in order to mend the wounds that had been caused by centuries of systemic, legal racism. Hospitals, schools, universities, postal services, railways and other important infrastructure was partially nationalised. To fund this, the new government nationalised the oild companies of those Americans that had fled abroad, and combined them into an All-American Oil Company, the profits of which went into a sovereign wealth fund. This allowed social welfare programs to begin righting the massive inequality between black and white Americans. This required the breaking up of some incredibly powerful business conglomerates that had formed under the segregationists governments, a move that was first viewed with scepticism but then with massive approval from the middle classes who stood to gain by the end of economic stratification.
The 2008 economic crisis hit the American Confederation hard. However, it also came with benefits. It allowed the Union Congress Party to entirely reimagine both American banking and the real estate market. Using the sovereign wealth fund, the American government could not only nationalise certain banks, but also help pay off morgages so that more houses were avaible for sale for lower prices. This allowed for the quick desegregation of a lot of suburbs, as well as the creation of a black middle class. The wealth fund also helped avoid the worst of joblessness and bankrupcies.
With the slow recovery of the American economy, new voices emerged that plotted new possible futures for the American Confederation. One of the most prominent involved re-uniting with the states that had left over the issue of slavery in the 1800s. Though the nations had diverged in all those years, a reevaluation of history found that the FAR had been far more progressive than the US in most of its history. This renewed hope has led, in 2023 and 2024, with careful discussions commencing regarding possible closer cooperation and perhaps even eventual reunion.
Do not remove - 2023RP
by Cybernetic Socialist Republics » Tue Apr 23, 2024 1:54 pm
APPLICATION
NS Name: Cybernetic Socialist Republics
RP Name: Amalgamated Democratic Municipalities
Flag:
Capital:
Territory:
Population:
Official Language(s): Bantu, English
Type of Government: Unitary Parlimentary Republic
Head of State:
Head of Government:
Legislature (the name of your national legislature):
Legislative Houses (if your legislature is bicameral):
Party in Power:
National Issues: Mention three (3) issues - domestic and foreign - that plague your nation and which you need to tackle in order to prosper.
Public Goals:
Private Goals:
GDP (nominal):
Currency: Pula
Economic System:
Defense Budget (USD):
Alliance(s):
Military:
History:
In the late 7th century, a variety of Bantu nomads came to the Matabeleland geographic region full of elephants which could be killed for their meat & more importantly, their ivory, which was often traded for gold from merchants that'd visit them from eastern coastal communities, often kept as jewelry & used for religious purposes. Competition for this ivory would see some nomadic groups settle down & make use of the regions decent agricultural potential, to lay claim to and defend elephant herding grounds. This gradually led to the emergence of a warrior elite that would be paid in gold to protect the elephant grounds & the ivory trade itself. Said warrior elite, in order to protect their position, would also take measures to regulate the hunting of elephants, to not only prevent their decline, but facilitate the increase in their population.
As these tribes became increasingly complex & stratified into distinct class societies, one particularly 'advanced' group would in the late 11th century establish a castle on Mapungubwe Hill. In an effort to centralize their power & cut out of middle men that came from needing to trade for weaponry, they'd direct trade towards the receipt of raw materials, which could then be turned into weaponry and equipment for increasingly complex armed forces & agriculture, including the use of slash & burn agricultural methods. As the volume of this internal trade increased, the gold used to facilitate it tarted running thin, even as it was increasingly augmented by mining inside of Africa & this new Kingdom of Mapungubwe adopted a 'familial' ideology that considered those under its direct purview to be 'family' and that the practice trading gold between "brothers & sisters" was in some way shameful. What would end up emerging is a palace economy, where tributes from the local 'family' would be extracted, with its proceeds distributed to the 'family'. The acquisition & use of gold, however, did not slow down, be the medium of exchange that existed between communities rather than within them.
As a consequence, when the Mapungubwe grew closer with other communities, it sought to gradually decrease the need for exchange of gold in favor of in-kind exchange, which would eventually, through a mixture of force & coercion, see them brought into palace economy. The Kingdom of Mapungubwe's power did not grow without resistance, nor were they unique in their methods. Other similar cities grew across south-eastern africa and waged war against each other. Villages would thrall themselves to castles for protection & even come together to build their own, especially as a practice of labor tribute, where villages would be required to end men & women to provide a given number of hours of labor per year to their palace, became increasingly common.
However, there was always a limit to the size of the 'realms' that these palaces could coordinate given the nature of their economic system, which itself encouraged their propagation. This, however would some what change with the 12th century arrival of paper, which the Mapungubwe would be the first to adopt to write down & keep detailed accounting records, making use of the Arabic writing system as they did. Over the next three hundred years would see the Mapungubwe system of organization spread outward from its heart of Zimbabwe, out into other Bantu speaking cultures, as those that adopted it would find themselves subjugating those that did not, as the end of nomadic cultures radiated outward. One consequence of this was a growing demand for the goods that made this system possible, which presented Zimbabwe a great opportunity for wealth, which is precisely why the Mapungubwe had coerced and conquered their way to the eastern coast of Africa & directly took over trade to the Indian Ocean. This including taking in foreigners that knew navigation and shipbuilding, allowing these costal communities to not only take in ships, but build & end them out. This drove a demand for both the goods to trade & the materials for ship building, wood & cotton, which would see expansion in demand for these goods across Mapungubwe system societies that needed to deliver something to them to receive the imports they needed.
By the start of the 16th, Zimbabwe was dominated by two kingdoms. In north-east was the Kingdom of Mapungubwe, which had grown to a major patron of trade & transportation infrastructure, from roads to ships, because & despite the distance of their capital from the coast respectively. In the Southeast was the Kingdom of Butua, which had grown into a major stopping point for the intake of raw materials & goods that would go onward to & from the Kingdom of Mapungubwe, after being turned into finished goods, before heading on into the rest of the Bantu world. Tensions between these two power houses were high, but what would finally set off and decisive conflict was religion & european contact. The Mapungubwe had, unsurprisingly, grown increasing close to islam due to its close ties with arab traders for centuries, but an acute concern about the potential of foreign domination would restrict its spread to the rest of the Bantu societies. Allies of the Kingdom of Butua in southwestern african the Khoisan Confederation a coalition of city-states that consisted of the only significant non-bantu dominated societies in the region, would be the first to end up in contact with European explorers.
When the Europeans proselytize Christianity to them, they converted. When they were asked of the state of the region & its most dominant powers, they implied a dominance of the Kingdom of Butua that was beyond that which was actually the case. By the time the Europeans came into contact with both the Mapungubwe and the Butua, recognizing the Islamic influence of the latter, the europeans adopted a more favorable attitude of the Butua through the Khoisans & made them their primary partner through the Khoisans. It was not long before the Khoisan Confederation became a competing axis of trade, with Khoisans also strengthening pre-existing Khoisan merchant communities across western africa. The Mapungubwe System's cultural taboo against trade in gold amongst friends had long had a unique effect on the Khoisan, surrounded by Bantu people's, as it often left them as outsiders whom which trade in gold with was not only excusable, but encouraged. Consequently, Khoisan societies had developed a cultural affinity for gold as a mechanism not only for trade, but for the operation of manufactories. After all, if the Khoisans were outsiders, there was no reason they couldn't pay Bantu workers in gold to produce goods as wage laborers & sell them goods for that same gold.
Of course, it didn't take long for Bantu kingdoms to view the Khoisans drawing goods & labor out of their formal controlled economies as parasitical, so they faced high tolls for road use, which would perpetually limit the expansion of such manufactories into the interior. It would have two immediate major consequences, however. The first being that it drove them to a mastery of not only shipbuilding and sailing for the purpose of maritime trade, but of stone fortification construction & mining, to protect their outposts from shifting relations with Bantu Kingdoms. The other was that it drove them into a positive mutual relationship with the Kingdom of Butua, as their way of indirectly making inroads into the interior, while also being an ally they could call upon that prevented anti-Khoisan sentiment from ever getting too out of hand. The Kingdom of Butua, got out of it a meaningful alternative maritime power to work with to the Mapungubwe Kingdom, in addition to the better understanding of the the furthest flung parts of the Bantu world that gave them that advantage over the Mapungubwe. The Kingdom of Butua's economy was also considerably more 'open' then that of the rest of the Bantu world.
For the Khoisan Confederations' part, there was no taboo in exchange using precious metals amongst themselves. While the Bantu world's economies reflected those of bronze age palace economies, the Khoisan cities economies were more comparable to the methods of iIaly in the same time period. Despite their connections to the Kingdom of Butua, nothing allowed for the taboo against exchanging gold coins amongst 'friends' could be overcome, particularly with the Butua being considered exceptionally Khoisan-philiac as they were. But one loophole was found, in which the Kingdom of Butua would make use of the paper it had began manufacturing to free themselves from reliance on Mapungubwe, to provide promissory notes that allowed their subjects to exchange liabilities between each other. This would gradually see central economic control & public provision in the Kingdom of Butua recede to 'infrastructure' & a Millet dole respectively, along with an abolition of labor tributes in favor of paying these notes to workers & reclaiming them for destruction through taxation & tolls.
By the mid 16th century, the Kingdom of Butua would end up following the lead of the Khoisans in adopting Christianity. At around the same time, the Mapungubwe ended up adopting islam as their official religion. For the rest of the 16th century and into the 17th century, a race would commence, to spread each other their religions & ultimately, their political influence, to the rest of the Bantu world. Unsurprisingly, wars between and within kingdoms would break out, but direct all out war between the Mapungubwe & Butua was broadly avoided. That was until the middle of the 17th century, in which a succession crisis would break out due to the King of Butua failing to leave behind a male heir before dying. Apparently, he left behind a will stating that his daughter should claim the throne upon his death. Given his well known trust in his daughter, many in felt the will legitimate, but given the breech in tradition the will represented, others rejected its legitimacy. This time period was one of relative decline for the Mapungubwe & had things gone differently, the Butua would have perhaps peacefully eclipsed them. But this controversy, in addition to the new 'Queen' being married to a Khoisan, presented what they perceived as an opportunity to strike.
What followed was the first of a pair of immensely destructive wars in the 17th century. For ten years, both King & Queen would command armies across the continent, in a brutal religious war that'd destroy the delicately balanced palace economies of the region and take the lives of around 15% of the population between the killing and famines. The once defensive and mercantile Khoisans confederation became the military core of Butuan forces once it became abundantly clear that defeat in those conflict very likely risked their annihilation as a people. Unsurprisingly the stress of the conflict gave rise the spread to a number of radical ideas, among them being the spread of Protestantism & Republicanism areas under Khoisan influence, even as the Queen's forces remained staunchly catholic & of course monarchist. Which is precisely when when after 15 years the Mapungubwe were finally defeated, peace only lasted a year. The Khoisan King of Butua had, through the course of the conflict, pledged himself to Protestantism, which while overlooked during the war, could not be overlooked after the war. Furthermore, during the chaos of the war, northern kingdoms had taken to capturing and selling people to the Europeans as slaves. Seeing it as a means to both get rid of the remaining Muslim population & fund the reconstruction of the economy, the areas under the direct control of the Queen intended to indefinitely continue the slave trade, something that a liberalizing Southwest considered abhorrent.
Then one fateful day, the Queen decreed the nullification of her marriage, her marriage to a powerful prince whose dynasty would take over the Empire after her passage & her intention to eliminate the "Khoisan Hersey" & The "Arabic Heathen". Hastily, those populations under threat would come together to form an informal alliance, the Amalgamated Municipalities, with many overthrowing their kings & establishing republics where necessary & making the former King of Butua their commander in chief. The resulting conflict was a massive religious & ideological struggle would bring the region down to around 50% of the population ithad the the first war against the Mapungubwe, but, ultimately, the Amalgamated Municipalities would prevail, with the Queen, the majority of the nobility, along with plenty of sympathizer, going into exile. Yet victory for republicanism & ultimately religious toleration, as the Amalgamated Municipalities' forces showed leniency to muslim populations to rally them to their side, did not by any means but the region into a golden age of unity. The Amalgamated Municipalities remained a league, rather than a nation-state, a way to provide a fourm of discussion for disputes between cities & confederations of cities, rudimentary peacekeeping to prevent the region from erupting into general warfare & mutual defense from foreign states that saught to dominate them. The entire region how traded amongst eachother as the Khosians did, with coin of gold & silver. Much of it came from trade outside of these states, but plenty of it came from mining within their borders. Cities would rise & fall from irrelevance with the discovery of new veins, with roads built to move labor & materials acrosss the region.
By the middle of the 18th Century, the southern cities of the Amalgamated Municipalities, which grew increasingly wealthy as the stopping off point for trade to & from europe that saught to round the cape, with many choosing to have foreign traders pay to stop over with books & blueprints instead of hard currency. This would be how the Watt steam engine came to southern AM, as the search for metals, both precious & industrial, alongside coal for steelmaking, drove a need to build mines the dug ever deeper. Over the next century, inequality grew across the Bantu world. Already the coasts had an advantage over the interior & the south had the greatest advantage of all, but those differences only compounded. When the first railways were built, they'd overwhelmingly run around the coast & into the interior, rather than between interior cities & their hinterlands. Even the trade roads that'd been used for centuries fell into disrepair, as interior muncipalities lost the tax base needed to sustain them as their local production grew increasingly incapable of matching the prices of exterior production. Furthermore, the coastal cities were champions of free trade, not protectioni & interior cities dared not risk what was left of their economies by instituting their own tariffs. In an effort to protect themelves from this form of domination & secure some manner of internal development, nationalist feelings emerged first in the interior municipalities, which would see them form the first true nation-states in the Bantu world. While these states were too poor to represent an immediate threat to the coast, the city-states of the exterior & south formed their own nation-states. In doing so, the balance of power was retained.
The result was that by the late 19th century, Southern AM and Coastal AM had living standards on par with the europe, while the interior was among the poorest places on earth. Their main export industries, were people that'd leave to work on the coasts and in the south &, along with mines and farms owned by citizens from the exterior. For decades now, forward thinking liberals had helped form & staff schooling systems on the interior, bringing literacy rates in the interior far above parts of the world with similar wealth, but the result was to essentially cause the interior nations to pay taxes to fund school systems that the exterior would end up plucking the best and brightest from. Furtheremore Often times the exterior often functioned as middle men for exploitation of the interior by foreign countries for profit. With the nation-state now being the dominant form in the Bantu World, AM as an organization deteriorated into being truly nothing more than a forum for city-states that could no longer act outside of the whims of the local municipality. Needless to say, as the years went on, the inequalities between the exterior and interior nations were leveraged by radical political movements In the The exterior by movements that called for the restriction of movement of labor & the imposition of crushing restrictions on manufactured goods produced in the interior to keep their economies dependent on the exterior. The Interior, ironically, saw movements that championed the transformation of these nation-states into a single pan-national state, with a unified currency, laws & transfer payment & a single army. Unsurprisingly, the world wars saw attempts by foreign powers attempt to exploit these divisions for their own ends, which in the first third of the 20th century lead to new rashes of instablity & warfare. However it is precisely these conflicts that'd serve to reinvigorate the pan-national ideas that have gone into retreat. The Post WW2 nuclear age would see the most powerful nations in the Bantu world come together to form not only a combined nuclear program but lay the foundation closer co-operation between interior & exterior.
It was ultimately a need to protect from external threats that drove the exterior to become as in favor of the creation of a formal nation-state as those in the interior were, with these efforts moving most quickly during times of Cold War detante. By the 1970s, de facto transferpayment system was agreed upon, the Bantu Anti-Poverty League, where all member states would levy a tax used to pay for direct aid to the poor across the region. Freedom of movement was also slowly opened up, along with the harominzation of a variety of trade regulations. The development index of the interior rose slowly but gradually and low-capital/labor intensive industrial sectors gained support. In the meanwhile, the exterior nations continued to build on the leagacies of its capital-intensive transportation, construction & military manufacturing industires. Where the high-tech sector existed in the exterior & it did, it existed primarily the serve those sectors. That, along side a sizeable entertainment sector, which served to drive cultural homgenization across Bantu lands despite very significant income diferences. The national projects of the 19th century had always been primarily elite products, the average citizen had always identified with their muncipality first & Bantu second, if not the other way around. The politicians they sent to office increasingly reflected that view, when they didn't directly come from those classe. As the Soviet Union fell, formal negotations began the set the ground work for taking the network of regional treaties with sporadic membership & mandates into one unified Bantu State with a single central sovereign government, with national bounadies erased & all local power being retuend to the hands of muncipal governance, adopting the new name of Amalgamated Democratic Municipalities, calling upon the name of a long defunct organization.
Of Immediate importance was the adoption of the Pula as the national currency. For years, the land that'd become the ADM had seen significant foreign investment, but with variations outside of te most sensiive parts of the defense industrial sector. These rules were completely removed with regards to the ownership of real estate & mostly removed in other sector at the start of the talks that'd formly turn it into a nation state. As negotations went on, grand delceration were made of plans to truly unify the Bantu world and bring the interior in line economically with the exterior thorugh massive infrastructure projects and promises of deregulation. The result was a masssive speculative flow of foreign currency into ADM, especially to buy real estate, which ended up providing the currency needed for imports for modern capital investment, which helped make the hype into partial reality, which only fuel its further growth. Municipalties end up in a race to the bottom to draw in investors, driving property taxes ever lower. Unsurprisingly, the domestic wealthy also got into the action, along with pension funds. By the turn of the 21st century, it became increasingly clear to policy makers that these real estate assest price bubble was unsustainble, economic growth, while incredibly strong, simply wasn't capable of backing it all up. Their response was simply to attempt to escape the blast radius & buy time to do so. Immigration policy was drastically liberalized, childcare policies were deployed with overly ambitious projections for future population growth, all the while the parts of the domestic private sector in the know continued to divest out of real estate in favor of a spetacual increase in extractive industry spending. But in late 2007, a series of leaks would pop the bubble. Not only were population growth estimations over optimsitic, the actual population living inside of the ADM was also overstated. Infact, the government had been making benefit program payments to citizens outside of the country as a means of concealing that fact. The end result was a catastrophic collapse of the real estate sector in the ADM, which rippled out into the rest of the world as panic sales of began. In the chaos, the political parties that formed government broke up over the proper way to address the crisis, forcing an early election.
A new government came to power with the first majority mandate in the history of the ADM. The previous parties had mostly been jumped up regional cliques that formed brokerage parties. This one had ideological commitment, even if it was a heterodox ideology, one that saw the 2008 financial collapse not as a tragedy, but an opportunity. The political left of the ADM had always been a curious thing. Never fully reformist, nor fully revolutionary, in the interior it consisted primarily of modernizes who loked the the exterior as a region to catch up to, while in the exterior it consisted of cosmopolitans that suppootred pan-nationalism out of a stuanch commitment to internationalism & anti-colonialism. In both cases, the bulk of their most comitted members was not found in the interior peasantry, or the exterior proletariat, but in the educated professional stratas of both interior & exterior. Consequently, they were (& remain) The only political party which stretches across the interior & exterior divide, therefore the only one capable of winning elections. They are the 'Onwards' Party. Their first of action upontaking power was to do absolutely everything they possible could to allow asset prices in the ADM to bottom out, while keeping the economy together, determined to ensure the foreign owned assests could be purchased by the state, or domestic capital existed, local buyers, as possible. The ADM's Central Bank was given power over consumption taxes & public works as additional inflation & unemployment levers, along with operating a Sovereign Wealth Fund. More than 15 Years on, Onwards Party, having one every election since its first, remains in power, but the previous generation of leaders have given way to a younger generation. This generation is popular understood as divided into two factions, divided less by 'left' or 'right' or moderate/radical, but the posture they believe the ADM should have with regards to the world. One faction. The Outwards Faction also known as the Hyenas, which call for a more assertively anti-colonial ADM that proejcts power throughout the world & The Upwards Faction, also known as the Leopards, which call for a more cooperative posture with the international community to secure greater internal development. The 2024 Onwards convention is poised to determine which faction will lead the party & nation into the future.
RP Example(s): If you are new and do not have an example, you can write a short (two paragraphs long) RP in your app for me to evaluate.
Do not remove - 2024RP
by Union Princes » Tue Apr 23, 2024 4:57 pm
APPLICATION
NS Name: Commonwealth of Union Princes
RP Name: The Commonwealth of Laurentine
Flag: See Above
Capital: Chappelaineux (Ottawa)
Territory: Canada, Alaska, and Greenland
Population: 40 million
Official Languages: French (priority) and English
Type of Government: Unitary Bicameral Parliamentary Republic with an Authoritarian StreakUnlike most government institutions, Laurentine does not have a single head of state or head of government. For fear of centralizing power too much in the hands of one person, the Parliament has been empowered to assume the roles of both the Executive and Legislative branches of government. There is no president, ceremonial or otherwise. All foreign and domestic decision-making begins and ends in Parliament. Foreign dignitaries are met with ambassadors and allowed to participate in Congress to state their business and affairs to the Parliamentarians. The Ministries, such as the Ministry of Defense under a normal head of state are appointed by Parliament. There exists a unique title of "Grand Marshal of the Commonwealth," a six-star general rank that fills the role of Commander-in-Chief of the Laurentine military.
While citizens of other nations complain of their representatives not meeting frequently enough, Laurentine representatives are seemingly worked to the bone given the vast obligations and responsibilities afforded to them by the Constitution; Parliamentarians that do not attend Congress for two (Four for the Deputies) consecutive sessions automatically lose their seat in Parliament and immediate replacement elections are called. There are no term limits for Senators and Deputies but there is a mandatory retirement age at 70 and resignations are accepted. The process of selection of Parliamentarians occurs every four years in a national election.
While seemingly rather unorthodox, it is nonetheless entertaining for spectators and observers. There is a TV channel operated under the authority of the Parliament that exists solely to cover the day-to-day business of Parliament; unless classified material is covered in which it switches to live performances of music and dance. Interestingly enough, the Laurentine Constitution allows for a decision enacted by the Supreme Court to be overruled by a national referendum; requiring a two-thirds majority vote with a 2% margin of error.
Head of State: The Parliament
Head of Government: The Parliament
Legislature: The Parliament
Legislative Houses:Party in Power: The National Liberal Labour Party - A Big Tent organization that dominated Laurentine politics for 70 years, almost making the Commonwealth a one-party democracy.
- The Senate/Sénat (Upper)
- National Assembly/Assemblée Nationale (Lower)
National Issues:Public Goals: Grow the Economy, Maintain World Peace, Foster National Unity.
- A Hereditary Republic: While the current system did prevent the concentration of power into the hands of a single man, it ended up creating a political oligarchy instead. These dynasties groomed their scions for the past several decades to understand and manipulate their voter base; appealing to populism and popular media to keep their family connections to Parliament. There exists a vast network of interest groups, lobbyists, and politicians greasing the wheels of bureaucracy.
- The Fatigue to Intervene: Ever since Laurentine gained independence and entered an alliance with the Free American Republic, the Commonwealth had fought alongside American forces for peacekeeping missions and toppling tyrannies. However, the glory of being a world's policeman, Laurentine has found itself in interventions ending in quagmires, souring the appetite for further intervention worldwide. A sentiment that threatens to undermine its partnership with its southern neighbor.
- The New Right: For the longest time, opposition towards the NLLP has been dysfunctional and lacking a coherent ideology until now. Disillusioned with the liberal order, there is a growing number of conservatives who reject traditional liberal norms and seek to "reclaim" their homeland from the people they view as "parasites." If they acquire dominance in Parliament, the status quo would be overturned in favor of a more nationalist, isolationist, and discriminatory regime.
Private Goals: Maintain Anglo-French cultural heritage, increase birth rates, and increase militarization.
GDP (nominal): 2.2 Trillion USD
Currency: Laurics
Economic System: Highly Developed Mixed Economy (10th largest in the world) and highly regarded as one of the least corrupt societies in the world.Defense Budget (USD): $110 Billion (5%)
- Resource Abundance: Laurentine is rich in natural resources, including oil, gas, minerals, forests, and freshwater. Resources crucial in driving economic growth and exports.
- Services Sector: The services sector is the largest contributor to Laurentines's GDP, encompassing industries such as finance, healthcare, education, retail, and technology. Cities like Toronto, Coevorden (Vancouver), and Montreal are major hubs for finance, technology, and professional services.
- Manufacturing: While the manufacturing sector has faced challenges in recent decades due to factors like globalization and automation, it remains an important part of the national economy while industries such as automotive, aerospace, and machinery manufacturing remain prominent.
- Energy: Laurentine is one of the world's largest producers and exporters of energy, particularly oil and natural gas. Alberta's oil sands and Alaskan oil reserves are significant contributors to the country's energy wealth, though environmental concerns and market fluctuations have impacted the sector.
- Trade: Laurentine is highly dependent on international trade, with the FAR being its largest trading partner.
- Financial Stability: Laurentine's banking system is known for its stability and resilience, which helped it weather the global financial crisis of 2008 relatively well compared to other countries.
- Government Role: The Parliament plays an active role in the economy through fiscal policies, including taxation, spending, and regulation.
- Labor Market: Laurentine has a highly educated workforce and a relatively high standard of living. However, there are regional variations in economic conditions and employment opportunities, with provinces like Chapplaineux and Haut-de-Laurentine often leading in job creation and innovation.
Alliance(s): The American-Laurentine Friendship Treaty of Mutual Defense and Commerce.
Military: Laurentine Armed Forces/Forces Armées - the united military forces of Laurentine; conscription-based for men and womenUnique Units
- The Laurentine Army - 500,000 active
- The Laurentine Navy - 30,000 active; 1 carrier, 2 battleships, 8 light cruisers, 20 destroyers, 24 frigates, 20 submarines
- The Laurentine Airforce - 30,000 active, 600 Aircraft
- The Laurentine Cyber Defense Force - Modeled after the Yankee RCF.
- The Gendarmerie - 7,000 officers, 80,000 NCOs
The Laurentine Nuclear Program
- The 1st SSR/Special Service Regiment - Premier Commando force of Laurentine capable of land, air, sea, and counterinsurgent operations. It has a fierce rivalry with the FAR Expeditionary Forces. Originated during WW2.
- The Laurentine Foreign Legion - Elite Expeditionary force with naval, armor, and aircraft reinforcements. For a Legionnaire who completes five years of service or has been wounded in action, Laurentine citizenship is the reward.
- The Mobile Parliamentarian Guard - Formally part of the Gendarmerie, this is the only police unit in the world equipped with tank destroyers and locomotive artillery.
- The Commonwealth Armored Corps - The armored arm of the Laurentine Army containing 400 FAR-designed MBTs
Laurentine does not possess nuclear weapons but has the major advantage of producing a nuclear deterrent on short notice thanks to the state-of-the-art nuclear reactors, the Laurentine Deuterium Uranium/LAUDU. The nation has the expertise, facilities, and materials needed to build an arsenal in a pinch.
History:RP Example(s): https://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=524475
- 17th Century - French colonization of North America begins with the founding of Quebec and the colony of Acadia. Labrador and New Foundland were already claimed by Vinland but were soon conquered by the French. Scandinavia lost Greenland to France during the colonial wars. New France became a hotspot for immigration from France and Burgundy to escape the static social structure of Europe.
- 18th Century - France loses to Albion in the Seven Years War and New France falls under Albion's control. To placate the populace, Albion allowed the French colonists some measure of autonomy. Albish settlers started arriving in New France, expanding towns and villages in Eastern Canada. A schism develops between the majority population of French colonists and the growing minority of Albish. Albish Canada nearly joined the American Independence movement in the American Revolutionary War as many French Canadians were disgruntled with Albion's rule. Further cultural autonomy had to be ceded to ensure the colony remained loyal to Albion. After America gained independence, loyalist Americans were expelled into Canada, causing a linguistic balance between French and English speakers.
To promote unity and ensure stability in Canada, bilingualism was introduced and quickly enforced in government and public institutions. A move that quickly dispelled any further notion of Quebec separatism although only a few scant nationalists still clung on to relevance. English, French, and Burgundian-French languages slowly assimilated into each other, with more French loanwords being adopted, even replaced, English ones.- 19th Century - Industrialization and Westward fever hit Colonial Canada; this period of nation-building and Western expansionism saw the displacement and violent removal of Native American tribes, clearing the war for ethnic European settlements. Entire cultures were wiped out as the Indian Act saw the colony secure complete control over the Natives' education, government, and legal rights. Catholic missionaries were heavily pressured into converting the native tribes to Catholicism.
- 20th Century - The entry into WW1 and WW2 brought a Canadian national identity to the forefront with the two conflicts being seen by the Canadians as their "baptism by fire." Despite the prestige, renown, and economic boom gained from the two world wars, Albion collapsed under the weight of German aggression, causing its empire to collapse into a power vacuum. In Albish Canada, a military junta was set up to re-establish order and a choice must be made to either go full independence or maintain ties with Albion.
Canada went with the former as many people had no real particular love for Albion. To distance itself from its imperial association, the new country renamed itself "Laurentine" after the St. Lawrence River. However, this freedom was rather shortlived as the Free American Republic, paranoid of the authoritarian junta by the generals, started interfering in Laurentine politics. The FAR funded insurgency groups to destabilize the junta to pave the way to democratic rule. A method that saw the mid-20th century rife with domestic terrorism and increasing militarization in response. The 1950s to 60s is commonly referred to as "the Lost Decade" as many Laurentines came to believe that FAR intervention and subterfuge was unnecessary as the military junta was a temporary arrangement and had plans to relinquish control to a civilian government.- The Early Contemporary Era - Entering the 1960s, the junta formally stepped down and allowed Laurentine to transition into a democratic government. To placate the military generals, the title of "Grand Marshal of the Commonwealth" was created. The leaders of the radical pro-democracy insurgent groups formed a regime that empowered the Laurentine Parliament to unprecedented power, abolishing the offices of Head of Government and Head of State as the result. Their immediate policies pursue closer ties with the FAR, enacting trade deals and military cooperation. Conscription was finally enacted to build a "People's Army" to instill collective responsibility and duty for Laurentine. Ironically, the first election saw 90% of the Senators and Deputies removed from Parliament due to Laurentines having kept a low opinion of the radicals. Yet, the policies enacted by the first coalition government remained in place when a more moderate set of politicians gained seats.
Together, the moderates formed a new coalition called the "Nationalist-Liberal-Labour Movement," or "NLLC," whose platform championed stability, unity, and a return to normalcy. The Nationalists evoked the 1940s for it was the period of Laurentine prowess and martial success while the Liberals and moderate Socialists looked to the FAR for inspiration to achieve full recovery. Despite their differing visions for Laurentine, they both agreed to prevent power from slipping into the hands of the far-left and the far-right, hence why the Gendarmerie was not demilitarized and why conscription was maintained.
As the decade rolled into the 1970s, Laurentine began to participate more and more with FAR adventures in policing the world to prevent conflict, earning the country a reputation for punching above its weight. While the empowered Parliament was unusual in its position in the government hierarchy, the citizens gradually warmed up to the idea and accepted the new status quo. Although the economy and industry were marked by technological innovation and tremendous growth, discontentment toward immigration nearly saw the NLLC dethroned as many reactionaries and conservatives declined the lack of assimilation into Laurentine culture. Immigration reform was quickly passed in Parliament to both placate the Right as well as still votes from the opposition.
The 80s-90s were marked by tremendous growth in the economy and technological advancements but were also equally marred by the start of the non-interventionist movement. Close ties with the FAR had allowed Laurentine to become firmly integrated and indispensable on the world market, pursuing a nuclear program and finally participating in the Space Race, putting its first astronaut into orbit in 1989 - two decades after Armstrong's landing on the moon. Plans to put a Laurentine astronaut on the Moon were thrown around constantly but never realized.
In 1990, for the first time in the Treaty of Friendship and Mutual Defense, Laurentine took over FAR military operations in Nicaragua. After the Green Berets' withdrawal from the region, Laurentine sent in the 1st Special Service Regiment, the Laurentine Foreign Legion, and a detachment of Gendarmes as peacekeepers in the country. The Laurentine presence immediately established itself as a "tough but fair" stance toward both the government loyalists and the Sandinista rebels though even they did not escape accusations of human rights abuses. After two years of boots on the ground, Laurentine forces withdrew unceremoniously.- The Millenium Dawn - By the 2000s, the NLLC has entrenched itself as the dominant political force in Laurentine politics, eventually rebranding itself as the National Liberal Labour Party. With the proliferation of the internet, Laurentines quickly saw how overly aggressive and dramatic their Parliament representatives behaved. They engage in throwing water balloons, ham, eggs, toilet paper, and shoes at each other. Instead of decrying this behavior, almost all Laurentines collectively agreed that "yes, Parliament is where we send our most insane people to live."
In 2010, one non-NLL Senator protested the bill legalizing same-sex marriage by eating it with a fork and knife as the papers were smeared with maple syrup. All 200 pages of it. He ended up having to be hospitalized and forced to yield his seat to a successor. The bill, named in honor of that dissenting Senatorm ended up being passed in 2011 legalizing same-sex marriage. The rest of the 10s was marked by the construction of high-speed railways connecting East Coast Canada to the West Coast, strengthening ties to the ROC, growing awareness of global warming, and rising hostilities with the New Russia.
In 2023, Operation Rapture conducted by the FAR generated mixed feelings within Laurentine as it was conducted without the knowledge or consent of Parliament; though knowing how rambunctious the Parliamentarians are recently, it was probably for the best. Regardless, conservative Laurentines took this action as an insult to the friendship the two nations have built over the decades while liberal Laurentines felt mild betrayal for not being included in the operation. Amidst the dissension, however, the Laurentine Parliament threw another layer of sanctions on Putin and his associates, going farther than the FAR in some areas.
In 2024, Parliament announced it will be selecting an astronaut to land its first Laurentine on the Moon.
Do not remove - 2024RP
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