Shining Stars - A United States Coming of Age Saga

[jak7139]

He's the guy with all the really, really terrible statues.

Yes. Along with Jefferson Davis and Stonewall Jackson, these three are probably the biggest ACW names on the Confederate side.

I was out of elementary school by the time the talk about statue-removals and rebrandings came around. It'll be interesting to see if that movement has affected the way the ACW is taught in schools.

 

[TheButterflyComposer]

Jefferson Davis

Spiderman's dad.

Stonewall Jackson

Famous for being confused with a wrestler.

 

[VILenin]

Spiderman's dad.

I have a friend who's a big fan of Miles Morales whose day was ruined when I pointed that out to him. I still don't think he's gotten over it.

 

[TheButterflyComposer]

I have a friend who's a big fan of Miles Morales whose day was ruined when I pointed that out to him. I still don't think he's gotten over it.

And it was apparently given to the character for exactly the awful reason you might expect.

 

[Rensslaer]

I regret to say (or maybe I don't?) I have no idea what all y'all are talking about.

Remember the AARLand Choice AwAARds! That's not a plug for me or this AAR - just encouraging support of many deserving authors. Not alot of votes so far!

I started working on the next update tonight, but it's a LOT of material so it may take me a bit.

Thanks everyone!

Rensslaer

 

[Rensslaer]

As peace settles upon the United States, and most of the world, in 1884, the USA begins to absorb the reality of having annexed a large Asian population in Malaya. With it we’ve acquired a machine parts factory, a lumber factory, a luxury furniture factory and two factories under construction – explosives and glass. Not bad! Every factory is fully staffed. There are more than enough craftsmen to go around.

Relative to the rest of the world, the United States is an up and coming success story. An empire, to be sure, but a new one. And not entirely a welcome comer. Much of the world – even the countries which like us – are wary of our seemingly aggressive ways. Keep in mind, though, that much of the “Badboy” we’ve acquired was earned at the close of defensive wars, where we had war declared upon us, or reacted to some outrage perpetrated against us. Not all the world understands that, even if they behave the same way.

Here are the top countries of the world in 1884. Note that France is only below the UK because the UK has demobilized and we also destroyed much of her navy, which will be built back after the 5 year truce-imposed hiatus (the “Cut Great Britain Down to Size” result). On paper (looking at the lower chart) the UK has only 110 ships left, whereas the United States has 341 and France 343.







I was a little surprised to find Wurttemberg shown as the 18th most powerful country in the world. I’d have expected it to have been subsumed into some form of Germany by this time, just as the North German Federation. Bavaria is there too, at 14th most powerful. In V2 it appears the “South German Federation” is less common to form in V2 than it was in V1.

In selecting these countries for the chart I made the assumption that any country with any reckoning in the world would be among the first 21 countries in number of brigades, so that’s what I was going to show you. To check myself, I looked at my next screenshot to confirm that, yes, any significant country would be on that list. Except then I noticed Brazil wasn’t on the first list because it had no armies for some reason (maybe disbanding their army on the Isle of Man made more sense to the Brazilian presidente than sending ships to bring them home?? Lol). Nevertheless, it had 52 ships, and I knew for a fact they had materially contributed (with an army brigade, not just ships!) to my last war, so I added them as number 22.

Note also that Colombia, Korea and Brazil were all in the US Sphere of Influence by this time – good to have them among the most powerful countries.

The United States, between 1884 and 1893, achieved a great many technological breakthroughs. Some of these improved our ability to colonize far afield (Nationalism & Imperialism and Machine Guns, specifically, and other techs via roundabouts, such as Organic Chemistry and Electricity and Raider Group Doctrine which helped supply limits and colonial range).

Many of these techs improved our factories, armies and navies. During these years the United States became significantly more powerful. Other countries did, surely, as well, but we were racing ahead of many of them.







I especially appreciated that some of these techs brought with them follow-on discoveries which I had certain percentage chances of acquiring (see the chart at the bottom of the middle column in the graphic above).

By the end of 1893 the United Kingdom, not the United States, was the only producer of Automobiles, Electric Gears, and even – unbelievably – Aeroplanes! No one was yet producing Telephones.

During this decade the United States acquired Casus Belli via boundary disputes with Portugal and the Netherlands. Neither seemed worth pursuing, especially since France was allied with the Dutch. The United States was not generally greedy. The lands we’d taken from the UK were taken primarily to reduce the British threat and to provide coaling bases for the US around the globe. It wasn’t exactly an intent toward global conquest – not really even global power. Just desiring to have a place to rest our ships wherever they might be, to support commerce.

The one place where we still truly desired conquest was the insufferable “Empire of Mexico” which was shrinking by the decade. During this decade the British included the United States of Central America and Mexico both in her sphere of influence, and continued an alliance with Mexico. More on that later.

In the late 1880s the United States developed Protected Cruiser technology, and the President immediately ordered dozens of cruisers to be laid down. The first were cruising the seas in the early 1890s, and were sent around the world on diplomatic visits, transiting in 1892 through the Italian-owned Suez Canal, built in 1890 just after the conclusion of their own war with Britain.







Britain, by the way, was in no way a toothless adversary. While traipsing through the Mediterranean, my cruisers caught sight of a squadron of no fewer than 19 British steam transports!

In a previous update I had mentioned in passing that the United States was suffering from a plague, of sorts, of Anarcho-Liberal rabble-rousers, some of whom had converted large numbers of soldiers, such that some of our standing brigades acquired questionable loyalties. In 1890 this came to the fore, and we had armies and bands of civilians rise up across our country – both continental and overseas. Most of these rebellions were quickly put down, but others withstood our armies for months. After this it was decided to actually disband some of the units who appeared to have the most Anarcho-Liberals, as it was these standing army brigades who had caused us the most trouble.

Worse yet, in 1888 the Communist Party had been founded. This was unwelcome news, indeed. However, there was a silver lining of sorts. I’ve related that for decades the Democrat Party (conservative) had been in charge of the Presidency and the Liberals and Socialists had somehow never been able to come up with the 50% to pass ANY social reforms. We’d gotten Acceptable Pensions and a 10-Hour Workday from events, I believe. But had never passed anything through a mostly conservative Congress. The addition of the Communists changed this and jiggered it just enough to pass Trinket Subsidies and Minimal Safety Regulations.









Now, I might quibble with how realistic that is. Communism is a revolutionary ideology, and I don’t know that they would have been willing to work with ANYONE to pass “mere” reforms that were not everything they wanted – reform typically reduces revolutionary sentiment and tension, and that’s the last thing they would want to do, philosophically.

Anyway…

Through no fault of the Communists our budgets and the American way of life had improved considerably in the last 1880s and early 1890s, such that in 1894 taxes on all classes had been lowered, tariffs had also been lowered, and 80-90% of Americans were experiencing a higher standard of living than they’d ever had before. The government was still racking up surpluses, and most everything was at full funding.







In a decade’s time, you’ll expect a lot of flavor events. Some of the more interesting ones… Valley of the Kings. Meiji Restoration. Huck Finn.

Krakatoa explodes! I suppose in OUR timeline the explosion in Krakatoa might have gone unnoticed on the day of the explosion to most US residents, and they might only have seen the smoke/debris clouds drifting around the globe as days and weeks passed after.

THIS timeline has Krakatoa just a relative hop-skip-jump from Singapore, and I bet those guys got ROCKED!!! Just imagine the American governor trying to figure what to telegraph to the President. Lol I saw somewhere that the only effect Singapore did not experience (visual plume, sound of the explosion, etc. would all have been present) was the tidal wave.

The United States also colonized much of the deep blue Pacific in Micronesia and elsewhere.







During the decade between the wars the United States improved its bases and defenses at outposts around the world – Malaya, Hawaii, Lae, Freetown, Guyana, Mexico and the Panama Canal.

Malaya had its defenses – fixed and mobile (armies) beefed up tremendously. The British were known, from reconnaissance missions, to have tens of thousands of soldiers based in India, and had a fast conduit through which to attack Malaya – through allied Burma and Siam. The Malayan Peninsular positions to be defended by the United States Army would have to be prepared, so extensive fortresses were built up in layers, and ports were expanded to provide repair facilities for damaged US Navy ships. In the President’s mind, future war with the UK was not an “if” – it was a “when.”

The USA also bought Alaska – the southern portion that did not already belong to the UK – from Russia. Brigades were recruited and placed in defensive positions to guard against future conflicts with Britain.

The Sphere of Influence campaign was expanded to not just retain Japan and Korea, but also to add China. The fight for China was intense, the struggle being not just with the UK, but also with Russia.







Around the world…

Europe remained more or less stable during this period. The Germans allied with the Italians to counterbalance the French-Dutch alliance. Spain and Italy, during this interwar period, focused on conquest in north Africa and the Fertile Crescent of the Middle East.









Russia, for her part, wasn’t expanding into Europe either. Her attention was directed south, where she annexed Persia, finally achieving the long dream of Russian Tsars to hold warm water ports somewhere that wasn’t bottled up like the Baltic or Black Seas were.

The UK wasn’t at all happy about Russian encroachment in this region. Russian Persia began to seem a possible threat to British India. The UK was also feeling threatened by China, whose newfound alliance with the United States boded ill for a British future in the region.







Please forgive the mishmash of some of these images. I’ve had to piece sections together from various screenshots to present a more-or-less comprehensive whole. Just a messy whole.

Indonesia and the surrounding area remained much as it had been, except for the American gains in Malaya and New Guinea. Spain retained the Philippines. The British retained Australia and New Zealand and part of New Guinea. Brunei remained independent, as did Atjeh. Most of the rest was Dutch, except that some of Borneo’s interior remained free of European control altogether.







As can be expected, European powers had, by this point, colonized most of Africa. Italy had much of Egypt, though some Egyptian land remained free. The Ottomans had Asia Minor and Irak, as well as Libya and Chad. The French were working their way south from the Mediterranean coast, and reached the sea near Nigeria, thus cutting off British access from west to central Africa. France invaded Sokoto in the 1890s and completely annexed them.

Where the French, Portuguese, Spanish, Italians and Ottomans had not already staked their claims, Great Britain had successfully spread through almost all the rest of the continent. Only portions of southeast Africa remained uncolonized. Then there were the free states of Zulu, Transvaal and Oranje remaining free. I don’t actually remember it being there, but that appears to be a French possession intruding between British South Africa and British Namibia.







The US attempted alliances with France and the North German Federation which were refused (due to badboy?). We also tried Italy. No go. The United States could take care of itself, they imagined, and perhaps they also worried about being drawn into wars with the UK.

In 1893 there was yet another border incident along its southern border (actually, more likely these days, along the northern border between the Mexican Empire and American Mexico), giving the United States an Acquire State CB against Mexico. Mexico, of course, was allied with the UK. We’d been watching the British in Canada lose a number of provinces to rebels, which was interesting and intriguing. It suggested that their troop numbers there had not improved much since the last war finished.

Was the British Empire perhaps in serious decline? Was time for us to extend our reach into Canada? In any case, was it wise to entertain a possible SEVENTH war with the British, just to avenge a slight along the border with Mexico?

By the end of 1893 the United States was constructing 25 new brigades, including 2 Guard brigades and 3 Artillery brigades. Also being built were dozens of cruisers.






The United States attitude toward Mexico continued to be one of distrust and hostility. Why did these border incidents keep cropping up? Why did they continue to poke the bear? Why couldn’t they leave things alone? Why couldn’t they at least remove the “Empire” from their increasingly embarrassing national title?

In any case, there was a feeling in the United States that it was Manifest Destiny to continue to war with Mexico until it was completely under the American thumb. The alliance with the UK was a consideration, but so was the possible capture of lucrative factories along the border with Canada. The Mexicans and the British, it seemed, would never learn to get along with the United States, so why shouldn’t the United States pre-empt the next war this time?

War was declared in May of 1894, and as expected the British sided with Mexico. Perhaps the most significant change from previous wars was the belligerency of China, who joined the war against Britain and began marshalling enormous armies toward the northern reaches of India.

But before the war could get underway, the United States took time to mourn the loss of one of its heroes of previous wars, General Don Johnson. He would be remembered more for his conquests than for his vices.





I’m not actually a huge fan of Don Johnson or his acting, but I still just can’t let this joke go!! Our general died in 1889, and the movie from which that shot is taken (In Pursuit of Honor) is set in the 1930s, so the continuity is a little off. But Johnson plays the part of a cavalry sergeant who stands up to Gen. Douglas MacArthur when ordered to slaughter his horses (which “aren’t needed anymore” in the 1930s). Might be a decent movie – I’ll maybe watch it.

 

[HistoryDude]

What kind of rebels are the British dealing with in Canada? Independence?

Hopefully the Communists aren't a massive issue. A rebellion by them could be annoying if it corresponded with another war with Britain...

Is anyone in the US considering allying with Russia? Britain is their common enemy... or is China too much of a barrier?

 

[TheButterflyComposer]

Aeroplanes

So not just internal combustion, but efficient, light engines. In 1893! Very impressive
Considering the UK has spent most of the past century getting pasted by the US and wasting all their money, they still have an absolutely massive empire and have somehow done even better I'm Canada and Africa than otl.

 

[Chac1]

Thanks for the update.

Sad to see the passing of General Johnson. I too like him best in your AAR.

As for Communist parties, they are not always bent on revolution and in some countries they do have a record of working in the legislative bodies. But having such a party make a legislative difference in the U.S. is certainly alternate history.

 

[jak7139]

the USA begins to absorb the reality of having annexed a large Asian population in Malaya

If the US was critical about the numbers of Asian immigrants OTL, I imagine this changes the dynamics a lot.

It wasn’t exactly an intent toward global conquest – not really even global power. Just desiring to have a place to rest our ships wherever they might be, to support commerce.

"We're not conquerors, honest! We just want a tiny, little, piece of land. You're not using it, are you?"

The USA also bought Alaska – the southern portion that did not already belong to the UK – from Russia

How did the UK take the northern bit of Alaska? Conquest?

The Sphere of Influence campaign was expanded to not just retain Japan and Korea, but also to add China. The fight for China was intense, the struggle being not just with the UK, but also with Russia.

How did you deal with China's population size to get them in your sphere? From what I remember, nations with large populations are basically impossible to sphere.

(due to badboy?).

What is your infamy at? It doesn't show up on the interface for whatever version of Vic2 you're playing.

From the screenshots of this chapter, I've learned many parts of the interface are different whether you have Heart of Darkness or not. Very interesting.

 

[Rensslaer]

What kind of rebels are the British dealing with in Canada? Independence?

Hopefully the Communists aren't a massive issue. A rebellion by them could be annoying if it corresponded with another war with Britain...

Is anyone in the US considering allying with Russia? Britain is their common enemy... or is China too much of a barrier?

@HistoryDude I'm not 100% sure about the rebels. I assume they are Anarcho-Liberals like I've been dealing with. Yes, all rebellions are annoying. At least in Victoria they're not overwhelming, like they were in at least some versions of Stellaris. Sometimes it was like "Congratulations, you have defeated the enemy empire and destroyed every one of his starships, bringing him to his knees. But two months later they rebel, and suddenly they have TWICE as many starships as in your entire fleet. And meanwhile another "pirate band" of, oh... 23 corvettes that have been hiding quietly in the ether appear on the other side of your empire. Good luck!"

I don't know that anyone is considering great power alliances anymore. The great powers in this game have all been kind of aggressive, and have taken much territory, and presumably Badboy. Except for France -- I don't recall that they've done much.

So not just internal combustion, but efficient, light engines. In 1893! Very impressive
Considering the UK has spent most of the past century getting pasted by the US and wasting all their money, they still have an absolutely massive empire and have somehow done even better I'm Canada and Africa than otl.

@TheButterflyComposer Yeah, I know! I was pretty impressed myself.

Thanks for the update.

Sad to see the passing of General Johnson. I too like him best in your AAR.

As for Communist parties, they are not always bent on revolution and in some countries they do have a record of working in the legislative bodies. But having such a party make a legislative difference in the U.S. is certainly alternate history.

@Chac1 This is true. But I also have a hard time imagining that the US would accept a Communist Party as equal partners in Congress. Plus the way the districts are decided always favors a two-party system, so the very idea of third parties holding more than a handful of seats is unlikely. I've "studied" this a fair bit, because I'm a big fan of third parties, and there's always a tipping point -- it's theoretically possible for a third party to make its mark if there's enough support for it due to conditions, but in such cases it usually means the 2nd party would then fail and the third party would become the second party in a new two-party system (as happened in 1854-1860).

If the US was critical about the numbers of Asian immigrants OTL, I imagine this changes the dynamics a lot.

"We're not conquerors, honest! We just want a tiny, little, piece of land. You're not using it, are you?"

How did the UK take the northern bit of Alaska? Conquest?

How did you deal with China's population size to get them in your sphere? From what I remember, nations with large populations are basically impossible to sphere.

What is your infamy at? It doesn't show up on the interface for whatever version of Vic2 you're playing.

From the screenshots of this chapter, I've learned many parts of the interface are different whether you have Heart of Darkness or not. Very interesting.

@jak7139 I almost wonder if it would be less impactful, insofar as immigrants flooding America's continental shores. Much of the drive for immigration was opportunity in American lands, and if there are American lands overseas, and easier to get to, Asian populations might just go there instead of to the continental USA. But V2 has some algorithms throwing POPs all over the place and wide intermixing. I feel like there would have been large Asian populations in the USA regardless of whether 2 million Malayans had just become citizens.

But definitely an interesting "what if" -- I've played with the idea of a natural intermixture of Mexicans into American society due to the takeover of Mexico. And, honestly, that's not necessarily that different from what happened naturally in OTL. The USA DID, more or less, take over much of Mexico when it annexed the western states, and there was a large Hispanic population who all became citizens. Views of this have gotten distorted because of the current immigration debate. But western states are very well intermixed and have been for a couple centuries now, without a lot of tension. It's pretty normal in Colorado to have Hispanic neighbors and classmates like we did in the '70s. And many of those families had been citizens for a hundred years or more.

To All! : I was very happy to get this update out. Sorry it's been a while. It'll take me a while to figure out how to present the next war. I will probably want to abstract parts of it simply to avoid repetition, but each war has its unique elements that I will highlight to keep it interesting.

Updating Rex Germania probably today.

Please remember to vote (only a handful of days left!) in the Q1-2024 AARLand Choice AwAARds! No pressure to support my AARs, but do please vote to encourage the writers and our community! Not alot of votes so far -- yesterday it finally hit the 2nd page, and many of the posts aren't even votes, so it's pretty slim. Please participate!

Thanks again for reading!

Rensslaer