There you go. Alternatively, if it goes back to Richmond, the US can strike from the Quantico area or Eastern Shore very rapidly
Sequel de Mayo (Cinco de Mayo, Vol. II)
- Thread starter KingSweden24
- Start date
Indeed. The fact that the weakened national government was kept out of the true capital city by a jumped-up-general-turned-warlord for at least a decade would be a great national shame.
The idea being that the warlord in Richmond was exploiting the instability to justify keeping the powerless rump national government in Charlotte for the “extent of the emergency”. And he’d probably hightail it out of the Confederacy with as much hard currency as he can grab when the Confederate Warlord Period ends.
It would be interesting to read about agents of the Confederate national government making covert deals with the other warlords as they reconstitute control over the country before throwing off the shackles of the “Confederate Emergency Oversight Commission*” and retaking Richmond.
*My idea for the fig-leaf the Richmond warlord uses to justify having the national government under his thumb.
Given the state of the Confederacy after the war, I doubt there's gonna be much stopping the Americans militarily if Philadelphia pointed at Richmond/Charlotte/New Orleans/some uppity Confederate Warlord* and told the Marines/Army of the Rappahannock, "Go!"
Though optics of General Pershing leading an American 'punitive' expedition (Harlem Hellfighters in tow) into 'secesh country' would be something.
Though optics of General Pershing leading an American 'punitive' expedition (Harlem Hellfighters in tow) into 'secesh country' would be something.
"In 1869, Pará rubber, extracted from a tree native to the Brazilian Amazon, was identified as an ideal rubber because of its chemical properties and the prospect that the British could control supply by growing it in southeast Asia. However, the British establishment did not understand Pará rubber biology and had no seed or knowledge of rubber extraction.
The British adventurer and aspiring plantation owner Henry Wickham filled this gap; he knew the tree in Amazonia. Wickham delivered 70,000 seeds, collected in Brazil, to Joseph Hooker, Director of Kew, in the early hours of the 14th June 1876. These were promptly planted and in August 1876, nearly 2,000 seedlings were sent to Sri Lanka. As the British were establishing Pará rubber plantations across south east Asia, the Amazonian rubber boom gathered pace. However, by 1912, the Amazonian rubber balloon had been punctured; rubber could be extracted more cheaply and efficiently from the British-controlled plantations in southeast Asia. For over a century, the means by which Wickham obtained his seeds has been debated. Wickham's involvement in the rubber story is sometimes considered a tangible example of where the artfulness of biopiracy leads."
From here, so you can get the jist of it.
That would hardly be a first in the world history of industrial espionnage.
The British did also steal the secret of tea from China, and 1400 years before that, a monk was bringing silkworms from China to the Byzantine empire...
Rubber making it to the plantations of Malaya is pretty much unavoidable here.
The British did also steal the secret of tea from China, and 1400 years before that, a monk was bringing silkworms from China to the Byzantine empire...
Rubber making it to the plantations of Malaya is pretty much unavoidable here.
I take your meaning, lol, but one does not place a major airbase within tube artillery range of the border.Nope, the US Airborne is in Charlottesville, West Virginia.
Besides, why annex the boonies in the west instead of Newport News and Norfolk?
IMO the obvious "border adjustments" in VA are the approaches to the Chesapeake Bay and NOVA down to the Rappahannock.
While not in as bad a situation as Washington DC on the foreign border, post war, the Confederate capital in Richmond still be closer to the US than OTL Paris was to the German border.
Just coming up with what would be *really* turning the screws.
My honest *guess* for the adjustments to border that the Author will make is what iOTL is the Virginia part of the Delmarva and the Rappahannock. However, in the west, the question is whether to continue along the Rappahanock or follow it more west along the Rapidan. Note this only works as a border until you get to the blue ridge. West of there you've got the Shenandoah River which is going almost exactly crossways to any potential border. The Shenandoah south fork has its source *south* of charlottesville and empties into the Potomac. My assumptions west of the Blue Ridge are Wincester and Front Royal are taken by the US, Staunton stays Confederate and Harrisonburg is the big question mark.
I'm not sure how much the Author has said that the C&D (Chesapeake & Delaware) canal has been expanded during the war, (iOTL, it got up to Seaway (St. Lawrence Seaway width) width in the 1970s), but my guess is that either the C&D will be expanded *or* a new canal through what is now the VA part of the Delmarva will be expanded to the width of the Nicaragua Canal. and for the forseeable future CSA traffic will be banned from them.
I'd imagine such a border would be partially based on rivers and county borders, IMO. Perhaps the Rappahannock up to its source, follow the county borders (in the US's favor, obviously) up to the Shenandoah, then keep going till you hit WV. Alternatively, you could follow the Rapidan up to Greene County, give that county to the US as well as Rockingham County, then follow those county borders till you hit the Shenandoah. Which of those two is followed is dependent on whether the US wants Culpeper or not. There is also a minimalist approach where the US only takes the counties along the border with US up to Frederick. This is, of course, assuming the US takes any NOVA territory at all.Just coming up with what would be *really* turning the screws.
My honest *guess* for the adjustments to border that the Author will make is what iOTL is the Virginia part of the Delmarva and the Rappahannock. However, in the west, the question is whether to continue along the Rappahanock or follow it more west along the Rapidan. Note this only works as a border until you get to the blue ridge. West of there you've got the Shenandoah River which is going almost exactly crossways to any potential border. The Shenandoah south fork has its source *south* of charlottesville and empties into the Potomac. My assumptions west of the Blue Ridge are Wincester and Front Royal are taken by the US, Staunton stays Confederate and Harrisonburg is the big question mark.
I'm not sure how much the Author has said that the C&D (Chesapeake & Delaware) canal has been expanded during the war, (iOTL, it got up to Seaway (St. Lawrence Seaway width) width in the 1970s), but my guess is that either the C&D will be expanded *or* a new canal through what is now the VA part of the Delmarva will be expanded to the width of the Nicaragua Canal. and for the forseeable future CSA traffic will be banned from them.
Also, would these be their own state or join West Virginia? And if the former, are they a reformed Union Virginia or a new state entirely? Meanwhile I'm assuming the Delmarva counties would end up in Maryland anyways.
Not been on here for a month or so, 0 time with a new baby, but been great to get back and catch up on this as ever fantastic TL.
When does Long come to power in the CSA, would he be seen as the one to deliver the broken and beaten nation out of their warlord period?
When does Long come to power in the CSA, would he be seen as the one to deliver the broken and beaten nation out of their warlord period?
Bases in close proximity to the border, especially as air power advances, seem a given
Then yeah it’s definitely part of TTL, considering the PoD
Maryland is who got wrekt so them and WV both enjoying spoils. Note too that WV has its original secession borders so it’d need to absorb some of VA just to get its OTL shape
Welcome back and congrats on your new arrival!
1933 election; so there’s some stability to come before he arrives on the scene, but all relative
Huey Long in 1933. So 1934-1940.
So if say - hypothetically - a decade after the war is the "Confederate Warlord Era" so say, 1917-1928ish. Then you could have a unifier president from 1928-1934, and huey inherits and revitalizes the whole state with his politics.
So if you do go with the Warlord Era it does make me wonder how many people will declare themselves "Confederate President" so to speak, because I can't see Vardmann staying in power for long, unless he is completely and politically isolated. A Vice President Patton coup could be interesting.
Hell, turning the Confederate Presidency into a figurehead position would be funny, tbh. But I guess that would require a more parliamentary Confederacy and a system where you have a Prime Minister and President. Head of Government and Head of State...
Gonna be tough for Jimbo to stay in power after his case of acute lead poisoning he suffers in early November of 1916. That can be fatal!
We’ll be getting to the Vardaman problem pretty soon, in fact!
“I’m having some ventilation installed… in my chest”
A nightmare, probably, as it means reactionary monarchist conservatism and chattel slavery won out over the relative modernist progressivism of the US and Argentina, which do not go unnoticed elsewhere in the world. At minimum; it’d be the biggest failure or setback of liberalism since 1848
One thing I can absolutely see being a common theme in those Bloc Sud alt-history scenarios is for the next war to be fought between the members of the BS itself; you can easily see a victory-drunk Confederacy try to bully the Mexican Empire (which may or may not be larger, depending on how much the author is wanking it) into being a satapy or client state, and declaring war after having become even more arrogant and confident of their innate superiority. Possibly with a US intervention on one side or the other.
Can't say what would be happening on the southern cone itself, though.
Same question as we have. "What would be imposed as Peace terms".
Let's take as a given that the Canal belongs to BS. Yes, that is taken American and German individual property, but I doubt that they would care what that would do to sour German-BS relations.
The Chileans would want the Canal shut down, *that* isn't happening. Brazil wants to Neuter Argentina, that could happen, but Chile doesn't want that much additional land (much less the Argentinians that live there), though the Brazilians take Mesopotamia is reasonable. and I'm not sure what else could be done (other than money of course)
Mexico wants the US out of its Business, fine. And the Confederacy.... ??????????????????
IIRC there were disagreements between the CSA and Mexico even pre-war (for instance, both thought that Centroamerica should be *their* economic colony) so there might be squabbling over terms as soon as theyve somehow defeated the US.
Worse if Mexico continues to be a relatively prosperous and safe country while the CSA is constantly trying to suppress partisans in occupied/annexed Maryland or whatever. Even the victory itself will probably revive the "Golden Circle" types in Dixie which is probably not a good thing for CSA/Mexican relations especially in Centro falls under Mexican dominance post-war.
Of course the other AH question here would be a clearer Brazilian defeat (i.e. Argentina has no major conditions on it and gets to keep its preferred government in Uruguay). This probably does interesting things to Brazil poswar but I don't know enough to comment on what exactly.
Of course, the *real* tricky one that everyone probably thinks about is probably people trying to get Canada/the British Empire as BS allies/co-belligerents, a la people in OTL trying to make the US ally with the Central Powers...
I agree with all three of you that the likely next step in a "BS Victory" scenario (which the genre is probably oversaturated with ITTL, especially in North America...) is probably the CSA and Mexico turning on each other within less than a generation, and I'd probably give the advantage to Mexico in such a case, if for no other reason that trying to invade it from the north is absolute hell (and the US probably at least gives some level of support)