Deo Vindice: A CSA AAR

[RossN]

Deo Vindice: A CSA AAR

Introduction

Hello and welcome to my new AAR. This will actually be my first HoI2 AAR (though not I hope the last), so it is a little experimental. I'm hoping it will work out.

Deo Vindice is played using "The Southern Road to War" Mod by CSA Badass, so all credit to him for coming up with this fine mod and I urge you try it out. In a nutshell it is the standard 1936 scenario with the addition of a surviving Confederate States of America currently led by President Huey Long. I will go into the history of the CSA from the American Civil War to the 30's in much more detail shortly but for the moment it is enough to say that the CSA is isolationist, democratic (if conservative), with reasonable relations with the United States and good relations with Britain. Naturally any or all of that may change as the AAR goes on but that is the situation at the moment.

I will try and make this a cross between the history book and narrative styles, with maybe a little bit more emphamis on the former. Still I'll guess we'll see - like I said I'm new to HoI2 AARs!

A disclaimer: The contents of this AAR - for instance the use of Confederate flags do not reflect my own political opinions or views of the subject any more than were I to play Germany or the Soviet Union. I chose a CSA AAR partially because I found the idea very interesting and partially because a fictional country gives me more freedom - though I will certainly try and keep things realistic!

Well I hope you'll stick around.

Above: The Confederate States of America, 1936

[Faeelin]

Freedom!

Err, wrong Confederacy. Sorry.

[Mob_Freako]

A disclaimer: The contents of this AAR - for instance the use of Confederate flags do not reflect my own political opinions or views

If you are using the 3rd national flag, the Confederate congress several months before they assigned the flag granted slaves in the south freedom so they could use them in the CSA military, effectively ending slavery in the CSA. So it should be ok.

Good Luck

[Earth's Savior]

I still don't get the Huey Long thing. Why is a socialist in a conservative government?

[HateThemCommies]

I still don't get the Huey Long thing. Why is a socialist in a conservative government?

He pretty much was the Louisiana state hero back during the depression.

He successfully implemented several social programs and vastly improved the infrastructure throughout the state. Some of the roads he built are still in use to day (mostly due to environmental concerns in swamps, it chaos out there I know from expereince )

He was actually a leading candidate to become president in 1936 and could have possibly defeated FDR but he was assainated so I guess not everybody loved him

[HateThemCommies]

Hold on I just realized something

Huey Long was killed in 1935 so how can he be in the game?

Got it, alternate timeline so he wasn't killed running for president in the confederacy, but then I agree how could a socialist can such widespread support in south to become president

PS why does the CSA have West Virginia? Even though they used to be part of Virginia I would have thought after McClellan's victories there they would have been happy to let the union take them?

[Mob_Freako]

If they would have won the civil war they most likely would ahve demanded it back. Also Huey Long is not in the Original Game, his brother Earl Kemp Long is however. Most likely a mod put him in.

[HateThemCommies]

If they would have won the civil war they most likely would ahve demanded it back. Also Huey Long is not in the Original Game, his brother Earl Kemp Long is however. Most likely a mod put him in.

Most everyone in West Virginia was pro-Union which was why they split off in the first place, so the rebs would have had to beat the Yankees pretty badly if they managed to get it back

[Mob_Freako]

Thats true, but to the Condeferates, west Virginia was still their territory. It will depend on the author of this AAR on how badly the CSA won

[Kabraloth]

Hold on I just realized something

Huey Long was killed in 1935 so how can he be in the game?

Better question: if the point of divergence was during the civil war, why was Huey Long even born?

[Mob_Freako]

Why not?

[HateThemCommies]

Better question: if the point of divergence was during the civil war, why was Huey Long even born?

well, we can't just make up new people can we?

[lifeless]

well this sure will be interesting and fun to read!

[EmprorCoopinius]

Good luck, I've played several enjoyable games with the Southern Road to War, from traditional Brit-backing to paternal autocrat master of Central America. Looking forward to seeing which direction you take this.

[RossN]

Hey and thank you for your comments.

I'm sorry I didn't get back to you earlier but last night my internet went down and it will take days to fix it. I can only communicate for short bursts at the library so the AAR might be slightly delayed in starting.

I'll try and answer some questions thoiugh:

i) Border questions

According to the mod creator the war ended early after the Confederate victory at Sharpsburg and the subsequent capture of Philadelphia caused Britian and France to recognise the Confederates and international and domestic pressures forced Lincoln to the peace table.

I'm not sure why Arizona and New Mexico were left out. The mod creator never mentioned them, though he did say that in general an attempt was made to follow more natural borders like the Ohio River (hence Kentucky). I assume a population exchange took place post-war where the pro-South population of the Union border states moved into Kentucky and West Virginia and vice versa - unless people feel that is too implausible?

ii) Huey Long

Yes he is still alive and became President in the 1933 during the darkest days of the Depression (Confederate presidents serve a single six year term, so next elections are in 1939). I can imagine Long's populist politics sweeping him into Richmond, though Congress and the Senate apparently remain with the other party - the opposing candidate in the 1939 election is Speaker of the House Garner.

I am planning on a two party system: the conservative Democrats who are relatively similar to OTL and the Populists (Long's party) a more radical group - though not socialists. Any thoughts?

[RossN]

The in-game picture at the start of CSA Badass' thread on his mod shows Arizona and New Mexico included.

I am officially confused.

Not sure I agree with your projections for the party system. Assuming that the South is relatively stable and prosperous for the general period leading up to the start date, I don't see why you would have a Conservative Party on the one hand and a very Radical one on the other; more likely you would simply have a replicated two-party system a la the USA historically or Britain; two parties relatively moderate and sometimes frankly similar in their ideological direction.

I'd probably have three parties; The Whigs (Liberal-leaning) The Democrats (Conservative) and the Populists (Long's Party, radical pseudo-social democratic) with Long winning a surprise victory on the third party Populsit ticket.

Unfortunatly that thumbnail is from the Doomsday Mod which I don't have - I only have vanilla HoI2.

The reason I thought up a radical second party is simply that Long himself is so radical that I had difficulty seeing him fit in a more respectable party - especially since I doubted an independent CSA to be a single party state.

I do see your point at the three party system and it makes more sense. The Populists are very much the third party with little representation in Congress and the Senate and espousing all sorts of dangerous radical ideas. I'm sure those sympathetic to the African-Americans rights support the Populists.

The Confederacy had an unstable period from about the 1880's to the early 1900's caused by economic woes and the decline of slavery (the latter may be unrealistic but I just don't want to play a 20th century state that still has slavery). From the turn of century on the CSA grew in prosperity thanks to Texan oil and things have stabilised somewhat. Politically there is an East/West divide between Whiggish Texas and the Democratic heartland of the Old South.

[J. Passepartout]

Oho, the new confederacy AAR you mentioned...

[RossN]

I. A Nation Is Born (1863-67)

The Treaty of Boston, signed on 12th March 1863 that ended the War of Southern Independence dissapointed many on each side. Obviously the goverment of the United States had only signed with the deepest reluctance in the face of mounting domestic and international pressure from Britain and France, but even in the Confederate States many criticised the inability of the negotiators to secure Missouri, the territories of New Mexico and Arizona, and even the state of Maryland evacuated by the Confederate States Army in accordance with the Treaty but (it was claimed) holding widespread Confederate sympathies.

Nevertheless the overall mood in the Confederacy was one of relief, joy and not a little shock that the "Rebellion" as Lincoln persisted in calling it for years afterwards had succeeded. Southern gallantry and elan had proved a match for Northern industry and organisation. Now however an even greater task faced the victors of Sharpsburg: building a nation for peace as well as war.

The South was overwhelmingly rural and underindustrialised. Of its cities only New Orleans had had a population of more than 100,000 in 1860 (though the population of the new capital of Richmond swelled considerably during the war reaching some 96,000 in 1863). The states that formed the Confederacy produced only $155 million in manufactured goods in 1860: the backbone of the economy remained cotton, and to a lesser extent tobacco and sugarcane.

Fortunatly cotton sold well abroad (as did tobacco in the later decades of the 19th century) but President Davis realized that if the Confederacy was to survive in the long term he would have to industrialise swiftly. Otherwise the Confederacy would be faced with an ever more powerful and embittered North and the chances of the South once again winning by sheer generalship seemed unlikely. So he sought foreign investment.

The obvious choice was Britain and initially at least this obtained a measure of investment and loans. Davis even entertained hopes of creating a North American alliance as a detterent to future Northern aggression. Unfortunatly for Davis however Lord Palmerstone had passed away and his successor Gladstone scrupled with allying with a nation that depended on slavery. Relations cooled.

There was however another European power that had been friendly to the Confederate cause and also had an interest in America. Napoleon III might be more willing to strike a deal...

Next: Mexico

[RossN]

II. The French Alliance and the First Mexican War (1864-71)

Napoleon III had installed Maximilian von Habsburg as Emperor of Mexico in 1864, over the de facto acceptance of the Confederate States and the strong, but unenforcable threats of the United States. The pro-French Confederates could hardly object and even though the Union most certainly did war was a political impossibility.

Richmond officially recognised Maximilian's goverment in July 1864, to the surprise of many outside observers. As it happened the South felt it very much in its interests to have a friendly Mexico and Maximilian was certainly a friendlier face than Benito Juárez. Besides the Maximilian Affair had a certain romantic flair about it that engaged well with Southern sympathies. Ultimately though it was to help cement the alliance with Napoleon III and repay the debt the Confederacy owed him that Davis first recognised, and then granted aid to Maximilian.

Gradually a war of nerves emerged in Mexico with the Confederate States supplying arms, supplies and training to the Imperial forces and the United States supplying likewise to the rebels. As neither Richmond nor Washington DC wanted a renewal of war neither side was able to to engage directly - to the endless frustration of the French who applied more pressure on the Confederates to intervene directly.

In 1867 the situation changed somewhat with the election of Alexander Stephens as the second President of the Confederate States. Stephens, though a rather reluctant participant in the Mexican intervention decided to step up support in the hopes of ending the war in Mexico swiftly. He was worried both that US President McClellan would be defeated in the upcoming US election and replaced with a more hardline opponent and that France was on the verge of pulling out of Mexico in the face of mounting losses and increased commitments in Europe.

In the Second Battle of Veracruz (19th December 1867), an Imperial force "advised" by Stonewall Jackson defeated soundly a Mexican force. Amongst the prisoners taken was Juárez himself, who was executed for treason in January. It was the turning point in the war and though large scale conflict would continue until 1871 the Imperial forces began the slow march towards regaining control of the country.

The Confederates had gained a valuable ally in Imperial Mexico. Unfortunatly they had lost a yet more valuable one. In July 1870 the Franco-Prussian War had begun and the Confederacy found itself in a hard position once again.

Next: International relations and internal troubles

[Earth's Savior]

Nice. Keep up the good work.