OrenjiGatsu
The best moon you'll ever see.
Recently I’ve watched a youtube series regarding Turtledove’s alternate history with the CSA. I found it quite interesting to think of the states in rebellion actually winning, despite me having no actual support for the idea. Hence, here it is.
In Maryland in 1862, General Robert E. Lee of the Confederate States of America created Special Order 191. In it was information for the movements of the Army of Northern Virginia. A copy of this message was found by a Union soldier in a former CSA campsite. The letter was given to Union General McClellan, whose was quite excited to know his opponent’s plans. He used it to stop Lee at the Battle of Antietam. The slight victory was used by Abraham Lincoln to issue out the Emancipation Proclamation, changing the meaning of the US Civil War from succession to slavery and making foreign intervention in favour of the CSA, by the United Kingdom and French Empire, not possible.
This order being found has had a great impact on the war, by causing Lee's army to be stopped and giving Lincoln a victory to publish the proclamation after. However, suppose that things went differently. That the copy was never found by a union soldier. This is the world of Harry Turtledove’s Southern Victory series.
In this series, without those orders, McClellan cannot find the Northern Virginia army, so the Battle of Antietam does not take place. Instead, the Confederate army surprises General McClellan and gets a decisive victory over them. They then head on and take Philadelphia. This catches the eyes of the UK and France. They give the CSA some recognition, and demand that Lincoln negotiates with the CSA on ending this. With that, the Union does and the CSA is now recognised not as states in rebellion, but as a legitimate country.
There it is, a southern victory, as much as all of us fear. This has created a great shift in the world and history. Not only is an independent Southern US in the world, but so are you. You will be taking up the countries in this new world. How will your country act now?
This world will start in 1885. It has been 23 years since the CSA won victory over the US in the "War of Succession". The CSA composes of the original 11 states along with the Indian Territory (known in our world as Oklahoma, but known as Sequoyah in this timeline), Kentucky (conquered during the war), Cuba and Puerto Rico (bought from Spain instead of being freed through war in our timeline), and the former Mexican provinces of Sonora and Chihuahua (bought from the Second Mexican Empire that lasted in this timeline). The Northern US is unable to buy Alaska from Russia, but western expansion is happening faster and harder. The Battle of Little Bighorn does not happen, meaning George Custer is still alive. US imperialism has been slowed by the loss of the south. Hawaii is not added to the US due to this, and is instead annexed by the UK.
The Northern US has recently fought the CSA over their gaining of the Mexican provinces. The US, as in the previous war, fails. The UK and France ally with the CSA and blockade and bombard the northern US coasts. The northern US is forced to give up Maine to British Canada. Meanwhile, the CSA has to start to end slavery in order to keep its British and French allies, though keeping the freed slaves in Apartheid like conditions.
The Northern US has found itself needing an ally if it ever wants to have a chance of defeating the CSA, but who? Perhaps that new German Empire. They seem to be strong, defeating the French Empire in the Franco-Prussian war, and the Northern US has been getting a bunch of German immigrants. What if they accept?
The South, while winning two wars, needs to realise that if it weren’t for their smart officers and large allies, they couldn’t win a war with the North, and that losing to the North may mean the end of the CSA. Not only that though, as they also have to deal with their freed slaves. They are not only racially oppressed, but economically oppressed as well, and economic oppression brings forth radical thoughts such as Marxism.
This is the world that we are in now. What happens now is all up to you. The only real differences between the historical world and Turtledove's world at this time is mostly in the Americas (that’s why I chose this point in time). Britain is Britain, Germany is Germany, and France is France. Who will you ally, who will you fight?
This will be the usual game where one is the leader of a certain nation. You can choose any nation (even the white elephant in the room). You do not need to read Harry Turtledove’s books for this. Not much has happened on the global scale, and there are a lot of resources out on the internet (including a wikipedia page on the series and an AltHistoryHub series). A discord will likely exists for this.
