Reborn Empire: A Canada Kaiserreich AAR

[TBguy1992]

For a long time, I've been interested in writing an AAR, especially one for Kaiserreich which is one of the best AH mods for any game I've ever played. And since I'm Canadian, I'll just go with that. So here it is, my first AAR: Reborn Empire. I honestly have no idea if I'm doing this right, but it will most likely be something similar in style, (but hopefully not content) to The Crown Atomic: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/“the-crown-atomic”-a-kaiserreich-cold-war-aar-canada-and-entente.840042/

Anyway, enjoy!

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Update #1: The King is Dead. Long Live The King!​

January 20, 1936: The news of the death of King George V rocked Canada as it awoke on that cold, blustery winter day. Long a symbol of continuity with the lost Homeland of the Exiles of the now eleven year gone United Kingdom, and of a Canada that went from a small (metaphorically speaking) presence in the world, pressured on one side of it's proximity to the United States and another from it's ties to the Motherland, to the centre of the British Empire though much weakened and reduced as the Syndicalist wave took over Britain.

The new King, Edward VIII, has been a popular Prince of Wales: respected by veterans of the Weltkrieg, well traveled through the empire, charismatic to the point of being a womanizer on a grand scale, and seemingly understanding of the plight of the poor. However it was also known that he truly believed, much as his father did, that their home was truly back in Britain, and that Canada, while a gracious host to hundreds of thousands of refugees and a huge portion of the Royal Navy in the tumultuous aftermath of 1925, was just a temporary home.

While the course of the future is still not known, as King Edward prepared to be crowned, a new energy seemed to have come over the nation and the Entente which Canada lead. Would this young man be one who leads the Exile's back home? Would he avenge the humiliation of the Weltkrieg and face Germany? Or would this be the final gasp of a long moribund European power? Only time would tell...

The first moves of the new King-Emperor was rather surprising: He supported William Lyon Mackenzie King, the current Prime Minister. While R.B. Bennett was the Canadian face of not only the Conservative party but also the restoration of Britain, Edward VIII decided that it would be best for now to support the duly elected Canadian leader.

Edward VIII's Coronation on February 5 - only a couple days after Black Monday struck Mittleurope - may have been without the dignified splendour or hollowed tradition of the previous thousands years of British pomp and circumstance that took place at Westminster Abby, had a blend of tradition and Canadian modernity that absorbed all royal watchers and the Empire at large. The first radio address that evening also showed this off: an affirmation of Empire, a glorification of Canada, and a first in centuries for a royal leader of England, a few public sentences of French for those in Quebec and in National France that, while halting and occasionally mispronounced, gave a certain sense of somber pride to one of the most important allies of the Entente and to the sometimes resistant and Empire-skeptic population within Canada.

But not even two weeks after this glorious moment, trouble burst into the open on the far reaches of the Empire, as Afghanistan declared war on Delhi on February 20. The first test of King Edward VIII and the Empire was at hand as the tribal warriors of Afghanistan, which had taken land from the Indian sub-continent as it fell apart after the collapse of the Raj in 1926, now tried to snatch more land from Delhi and it's British backed princes.

But the Empire was not to be brought down that easily. Not even a day later, the first efforts at War Bonds and Propaganda, along with press censorship, passed the House of Commons in Bill C-5, forced upon the reluctant PM King from the eager King Edward VIII, and the first fracture between King and Prime Minister was seen. However, only a couple squadrons of bombers could be spared for India, so most of the fighting would be left to Delhi and Australasia. It remained to be seen how much of a problem Afghanistan, the "Graveyard of Empires" would be to the long suffering British...

 

[Droom]

Subbed, can't wait to see how this goes!

 

[Skyhascheese]

Looking forward to this!

 

[TBguy1992]

I will apologize right now, before I start the second article, if this story ends up being very similar to another Canada AAR, The Crown Atomic. I will say that since I have no experience in changing the files or adding new missions, I’m going to be mostly sticking with the “Vanilla” Kaiserreich game for as long as I can, either until something happens and Canada is gone or almost nothing happens in a post Weltkrieg II scenario. I don’t know how long this story will go as I'm playing it almost as fast as I'm posting it, but even if stuff does start going wrong later, I could maybe just carry on with some more fictional ideas based on where the game left off. Either way, this is my first AAR, and I will do my best to entertain you, and not copy too many other AAR’s out there!

Also: While I know a bit of the political/military/cultural people and events of the time period, if I get them wrong, consider it part of the Alternate History and the Butterfly Effect. After all, Kaiserreich changed during World War One, 20 years before the events in game, so many, many thing may have changed!

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Update #2: Shaking up the Establishment​

An update on the current state of Canada:

The biggest change is that King George V is gone, and his son Edward VIII is in place. Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King is still in power, more as the new King is not willing to rock the boat, though tensions between the two Kings are rising, espeically over the response of Canada to the war with Afghanistan, which was still only two squadrons of tactical bombers as Delhian and Australasian troops suffered the heat, desert and jungle of India. The death of Weltkrieg hero Admiral David Beatty, and his last written remarks sent to supporters in the House of Lords over the current state of the Royal Navy lead to a sharp argument over who should be in charge: Canadian Admiral Percy Nelles, the current Lord of the Admiralty, or if Beatty’s British-born protégé Admiral Ernle Chatfield. In the end, despite the late Admiral’s denunciation, PM King publicly supported the incumbent, and Nelles retained his post. Several members of the House of Lords were heard to have shouted at the Liberal Party leader in the House of Lords as the decision was announced, and many critical editorials and letters were written by the British Exiles howling at King over the "injustice." However, outside of a small few in the Navy and in Ottawa, the result was met with a collective "meh."

Not even a day after this was settled, the role of the British Army came up, and who should be in charge. Unlike the argument with the navy, Edward VIII and King were more willing to come to agreement with General Georges Vanier, a competent French-Canadian who, it was believed, would appeal to all sides. The Exiles where heard to be grumbling, thinking the King that only a month before was saying that “London is but a short time away from liberation,” but there was little they could do in public that they hadn’t already done over Admiral Nelles. Besides, few Exiles could actually find fault with Vanier besides being Canadian or from Quebec (and saying so publicly would not have been in good form, due to the Exile's role as "guests" in the homes of their Canadian sons as the current unpleasantness in England continued), as he was a decorated war hero that lost a leg in France. Vanier would be raised to the level of brevet Field Marshall, to be officially appointed in the future.

The political fights that occurred in the halls of the Parliament Buildings and Rideau Hall in the middle of March over the Army and Navy would have been enough political wrangling for all involved, had not a new crisis brewed almost immediately in Ireland.

The Union of Britain, testing the new King’s resolve in far off Canada, sent their powerful Republican Navy on a “tour” to nearby Ireland, crossing into Irish territorial waters and threatening the Emerald Isle.

King Edward, having lost two fights to his Canadian PM over the military, demanded that Canada, and the Entente as a whole, support Ireland. PM King, despite his usual avoidance of external crisis and affairs, was either in a conciliatory mood after having Canadians remain in charge of the military or was pressured by the demands of Edward, the Conservatives, and even some within his party to acquiesce. The Irish Ambassador in Ottawa was summoned to a meeting with PM King on March 13, who offered Canadian and Entente protection to Ireland in return for a Treaty to be negotiated. The Ambassador cabled Dublin with the news, and President Michael Collins, after discussions with his cabinet (many of whom had been freedom fighters against the British just over a decade before, so mistrusted the Canadian offer) agreed to the deal.

The next month would have a series of top-secret negotiations between the Irish and Canadians, where the Canadians offered military and economic aid to build up Ireland in the face of the Syndicalist threat just across the Irish Sea, in return for asking Ireland to join the Entente. Ireland, desperately lacking capital and resources without the nearby Britain to trade with (not to mention the military threat) and high tariffs with Mittleuropa, agreed to join the alliance. Four cruisers, a dozen destroyers, airplanes and tanks, all to be built in Canada, were to be sold to Ireland to bolster their military, along with industrial equipment to give Ireland a leg up economically.

The Treaty of Belfast, signed by Michael Collins and the Canadian Ambassador to Ireland in the Northern Irish city in June, could be considered the first step to growing Canadian confidence in the future, and to a Reborn Empire...

 

[Nikolai]

Good luck!

 

[TBguy1992]

Update 3: Bill C-7​

Just before the Treaty of Belfast is to be signed, the House of Commons is summoned for what was going to become one of the most politically, economically and socially altering laws in Canadian history: Bill C-7. With it was going to be a massive overhaul of the military establishment, security apparatus and industry to make Canada, the head of the British Empire, a re-invigorated and powerful nation that can rival the old UK.

Two developments occurred before the hard work on Bill C-7 began when reforming the military, three if the short war with Afgahnistan was to be considered, ending on March 18 with Delhi reclaiming the territory it once held. The first was the British Royal Command Staff, made up of the higher ranking members of the British Military in exile. When it was formed in 1927 by King George V in Ottawa, it served more as a “soldierly gentleman’s club” than a full fledged military installation, as it had almost no funding from either the King of the Dominion of Canada. It didn’t mean that it was useless however: the Royal Command Staff was where young and old British-exile military leaders could meet, discuss current military developments and even began to draw up their own military plans and engaging in war games as a hobby. Two particularly impressive members of the RCS was Admiral Roger Keyes, the 1st Baron Keyes, who was particularly focused with what went wrong at Gallipoli and the status of the Navy, and Air-Vice Marshal Hugh Trenchard, who wrote papers on what the size, equipment and role of the Royal Air Force should be. When he was Prince of Wales, the current King had spent more than his fair share of time with the warriors of the Weltkrieg, reliving the battles that lost the war. When he became King, he was adamant that the Royal Command Staff should be merged in with the current Imperial General Staff, which was as of right now maintained by a motley collection of Canadian and British Exiles.

PM King was hesitant to further reduce the influence of the Canadians in the military, but he couldn’t deny the usefulness of the soldiers that, even as exiles and civilians, had continued to work on their military skills. On March 20, the Prime Minister signed the order to elevate the British Royal Command Staff into the military establishment, though more as an advisory role to the Imperial General Staff. Admiral Keyes and Air Marshal Trenchard became major players in both the Royal Command Staff and the Imperial General Staff.

The second major change was when a British exile officer, Major-General John Frederick Charles Fuller, also a member of the Royal Command Staff, made a presentation to Field Marshal Vanier on April 4. J.F.C. Fuller, a Weltkrieg veteran, writer and strategist (as well as a die-hard supporter of King Edward VII) had been writing almost since the Peace With Honour was signed on what the future military would be: armoured spearheads with tanks and airplanes, mobile and motorized units racing to catch the enemy unaware and by surprise, winning victory through tactical and psychological means more than overwhelming firepower and the massed infantry attacks of the Weltkrieg.

Field Marshall Vanier, impressed by Fuller’s ideas and seeing that, if handled properly, it could be a way to capitalize on Canada’s strengths as an industrial and resource rich nation, but severely lacking in manpower to fight the next war, which was going to be either against the entrenched Union of Britain or the German Empire, which having won the last war were not most likely going to throw out what worked.

In days, Chief of the Army General Harold Alexander was replaced with the newly promoted Lieutenant-General Fuller, and the new “Fuller Doctrine” was being written up. It was a huge shift in military thinking, with soldiers in the army, many of whom had heard only bits and pieces of Fuller and his plans or none at all suddenly worried as to their future, while Weltkrieg veterans who had formed bonds in the trenches were furious that the next generation of soldiers were going to be locked in mechanical beasts, with little chance of socializing or forming camradire. Canadians were even more furious that yet another British Exile was being promoted over locals.

Into this rising tension between the military, the government, King and King, Canadian and Exile came Bill C-7.

The Prime Minister was not too particularly interested in putting together a sweeping law to address the military, security and industrial aspects of Canada for many reasons, one of the most pressing being the Liberal Party he was the leader of. With it’s broad support across most of Canada, but particularly in Quebec, PM King was hesitant in passing any laws that would make the French-Canadians, not the greatest supporters of the British Empire at the best of times, angry with the English Canadians who, generally supported the King and Empire, sometimes more than Canada itself.

But with the demands coming from Conservative leader R.C. Bennett, who was a big-time supporter of King Edward, and his Conservative Party, and from the English Canadians in his own party, especially from Ontario and the Maritimes that have both prospered with the Exiles and the expanded military infrastructure and spending. So reluctantly PM King began to work to make the bill a bipartisan effort at uniting the country.

The first part of the bill was rather uncontroversial (at least compared to what would be coming next), so was the first to be agreed on: what the future of the economy would be, especially in wartime. The lessons of the previous war learned, a mobilized war economy would be vital, but the question of how to do it remained: to nationalize certain industries vital to any future war effort such as producing bombers, pieces of artillery and entire warships; providing government subsidies to allow factories to be expanded for use in war, or a compromise between the two. Committee hearings with many businessmen, soldiers and economists were at an impasse until Minister of Industry and Transportation C. D. Howe took the stand. An engineer by training, and a businessman who made a fortune before running for Parliament in 1931, the Liberal “Minister of Everything,” as he was called due to his roles in everything from Industry to farming to transportation was a no-nonsense fellow who often sought to control his department his way and chaffing as parliamentary debates often tried to limit him and his government as they tried to do the right thing, at least as he saw it. But He knew what he wanted, and he laid it out to the Committee: subsidize new factories, cut some red tape to allow more Free Market economics, and Canada would have a great position for an economy to win any possible war. The eleven member committee eventually agreed along party lines: six liberals voting for, four conservatives and the one member of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), leader J. S. Woodsworth voting against.

The next part of the debate was over the contentious issue of conscription. The Conscription Crisis of 1917 nearly destroyed Robert Borden’s government then, and PM King was not willing to let that happen now. However, despite King’s “Conscription if necessary, but not necessarily conscription” compromise, he split the Liberal Party, with Quebecois Liberals refusing any conscription at all for the high cost, the militarization of Canada on a massive scale, and “fighting for a dead Empire.” The unified Conservatives demanded full scale conscription, giving a myriad of arguments including the success of peacetime conscription for Germany (and conveniently ignoring France and Russia’s conscription that still failed them), the social benefits of bringing men across the country together to form social bonds and unify Canada, making the army the “schoolhouse of the nation.” The public remarks of King Edward VIII to the Winnipeg Tribune in favor of conscription lead to another political debate over the role of the King in the government: was he a figurehead, or did he have the right to sway public opinion to his personal view? This question would not be answered, but his public support and popularity brought many wavering MP’s to support Conscription.

In the end, the voting was just slightly in favor of conscription, with all Conservatives, and most English Liberals and a few independents voting in favor of Conscription, but almost every member from Quebec, the CCF and seven independents voting against. (154 to 91 in the 245 member House of Commons). PM King, his own compromise having failed earlier, did vote for this part of the law, and had the displeasure of being shouted at by members of his own party for going against Quebec.

Just a couple of days after this vote, Premier Maurice Duplessis of Quebec denounced the vote for Conscription, and 25 members of the Liberal Party, almost all from Quebec crossed the aisle and declared themselves the Progressives. Six MP’s that were not affiliated with any party and called themselves independents also joined the Progressives. They weren’t an official party, but large enough to be a major voting bloc in Parliament.

The last part of the now divisive Bill C-7 was over the internal security. The Conservatives, sensing blood, pushed for establishing a new committee in Parliament to root out those groups and individuals that wish to see Canada fall to syndicalism and anarchy, with M.P. Robert Manion, a former Liberal that joined the Conservative Party after the 1917 Conscription Crisis, pushing for it’s creation. The Liberals, lead by Solicitor-General Ernest Lapointe, one of the few Quebec Liberals that didn’t leave to join the Progressives, proposed a compromise to have another Liberal Quebec MP, Louis St. Laurent, as it’s leader. But with the split in the Liberal Party, the Progressive’s and CCF boycotting the vote, and a unified Conservative caucus, the stronger Manion Commission was formed.

The Bill passed the House of Commons on May 17, with Prime Minister King’s Liberals in disarray and on the verge of breaking up, the Conservatives re-energized with the public support of King Edward behind them, and Quebec nearly in arms over being thrown under the bus by the Liberals, the Conservatives steamrolling the party in power, and King Edward for his verbal slip up.

It was almost with a whimper then as Bill C-7 passed the House of Lords on May 26, and entered law as the Military-Industrial Act of 1936. Filled with the members of the British aristocracy that fled England in 1925, it was almost a given that the House of Lords would pass the law that offered a chance for them to return home eventually. But the damage in Canada had been done, and with the series of political revolts, upheavals and protests both for and against Bill C-7 all across the country, it would take a long time for tensions to rest.

But who knew what was going to happen next?


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Just so you guys know: I fudged the Canadian Parliament a bit. When this update started, the House of Commons looks more like:

Red: Liberal - 159 seats
Blue: Conservative - 63 seats
Yellow: Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) - 12
Grey: Independents - 11


But after it, more like:

Red: Liberal - 134 seats
Blue: Conservative - 63 seats
Yellow: Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) - 12
Grey: Independents - 5
Green: Progressive - 31

This isn't to even talk about the further troubles in the Liberal Party...

 

[Milites]

It seems that good old Edward got the better of the PM in the showdown of the Kings! Let's hope Canada gets mobilized enough to tackle the menace of Socialism at home as well as a abroad.

 

[annsan]

Parking your tanks on the Crown Atomic lawn eh? Careful you might get a visit from the Mounties

Subbed!

 

[TBguy1992]

Parking your tanks on the Crown Atomic lawn eh? Careful you might get a visit from the Mounties

Subbed!

Hey, for all you know, this could be the Prequel to Crown Atomic!

But nah, I wouldn't do that. Plus, my Mounties are possibly going to have the same look on life as that charming fellow in one of the updates...

 

[TBguy1992]

It seems that good old Edward got the better of the PM in the showdown of the Kings! Let's hope Canada gets mobilized enough to tackle the menace of Socialism at home as well as a abroad.

Eventually, that is the plan. No Syndicalist shall live as long as Canada goes into Super Empire mode!

 

[Droom]

I say, can Canada become a syndicalist paradise through the glorious revolution?

 

[Baron Jukaga]

I say, can Canada become a syndicalist paradise through the glorious revolution?

No but you can go full Central Planning if you elect the SoCreds. (As a bonus they have an event to calm the Quebec riots without arresting Duplessis)

Great AAR, subbed!

 

[Droom]

No but you can go full Central Planning if you elect the SoCreds. (As a bonus they have an event to calm the Quebec riots without arresting Duplessis)

Great AAR, subbed!

Damn! Ah well, CSA do your thing.

 

[TBguy1992]

Alright, slight recon time for the previous update.

You remember those parliamentary charts I made? Well, I may have left out an entire party, the Social Credit Party, mostly based in Alberta. So, time for a couple new pictures!

Here's Parliament before Bill C-7:
Red - Liberals: 149
Blue - Conservatives: 60
Yellow - Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF): 9
Green - Social Credit (Socreds): 16
Grey - Independents: 11

And now after Bill C-7

Red - Liberals: 127
Blue - Conservatives: 60
Yellow - Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF): 9
Green - Social Credit (Socreds): 16
Grey - Independents: 5
Purple - Progressives: 28

Alright, Retcon done!

If you have any questions, or anything you want me to cover in future updates, please let me know. And thank you everyone for your kind comments!

 

[TBguy1992]

Update 4: Around the World in the Next 80 Some Days
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With the turmoil in Canada caused by Bill C-7 now leaving the headlines, and therefore the general public consciousness, events from around the world was replacing internal affairs. Part of the reason for this was what some called the "Toronto Clique:" mostly British Exile newspaper publishers, editors and writers who, having lost everything back home, wanted to remind the people they still thought of not as Citizens of the independent Dominion of Canada, but as Subjects of the British Empire that happened to live in the Canadian colonies, that the horrors and dangers of Syndicalism was not just an ocean away, but could be anywhere. And not just syndicalism, but anything that could be seen as "anti-Imperial," such as, say, the Germans.

The Liberal Government of William Lyon Mackenzie King, to them, wasn't doing enough to fight this international conspiracy that was trying to destroy the last remnants of the British Empire to allow an horrendous alliance of German militarism and Syndicalist revolution to take over the world. Reminiscent of the "yellow journalism" of the American media mogul Hearst, the stories the Toronto Clique printed didn't have to be true. In fact, they could be fabrications, embellishments and even outright lies, hanging on the thinnest sliver of truth, all to raise the sense of uneasiness, make the voters demand action and, if the Prime Minister wouldn't deliver it, then have someone like the Conservatives under R. B. Bennett to do it.

A great example was when the Syndicalist nations like the Union of Britain, the Commune of France, Southern Italy and other nations around the world met in Paris for the Third International. While it was, like any international gathering that took place through the generations, a place for politicians to make speeches and strut and posture while diplomats behind the scenes negotiated secret deals in smoke filled back rooms far from the glamour of the cameras. The Toronto Clique, in a series of articles throughout April and May 1936, called it the "meeting of snakes on how to devour the world."

As all the public declarations came out, the headlines of the newspapers in Canada screamed horror and terror:

SYNDIES THREATEN WORLD ORDER: SOCIALIST ARMIES PREPARE TO MARCH!
Toronto Star, May 9, 1936

SPAIN IN REVOLT: SYNDICALISTS THREATEN KING!
Halifax Morning Chronicle, May 13, 1936

AMERICAN TERRORISTS PLOT COUP: REEDISM POISONING THE REPUBLIC!

Winnipeg Free Press, May 18, 1936

SYNDIE COUP IN PANAMA CRUSHED! CANAL SAFE, WORLD BREATHES SIGH OF RELIEF.

Vancouver Sun, May 12, 1936

Then there were times when Toronto Clique newspapers would contradict each other on certain stories, as some would make something seem a bigger threat, or a laughable bit of incompetence on the Syndicalist's behalf:

UNION OF BRITAIN EXPANDS ARMY; A DAGGER POISED AT CANADA'S NECK!

Ottawa Citizen, August 3, 1936

SYNDIES DRAFT MILITIA: ONLY GOOD FOR OPPRESSING, LOOTING, GENERAL SAYS

St. John's The Telegram, August 5, 1936

But of course, it wasn't just the Syndicalists that were a threat: the Germans were fair targets to. Many of the members of the Toronto Clique had served in the Weltkrieg (which they still adamantly called The Great European War, refusing to sully the name of their struggle and hardship with the much more popular and well known German word for the conflict). In fact, it seemed as if the Canadian newspapers owned by members of the Toronto Clique particularly enjoyed watching the Mittleeruopan economies crumble in the face the 1936 Berlin Stock Market Crash. But any event that the German Empire had even the tiniest role in could be blown out of proportion if necessary. Only if the Syndicalists did something more harrowing and revolting, or could be made to seen that way, would Germany get a break from being plastered on the front pages of these newspapers.

CRETE GREEK AGAIN! GERMANS SURRENDER ILLEGAL OCCUPATION: STILL FORCE MASSIVE REPARATIONS
Montreal Gazette, May 6, 1936

Of course some events, even the birth of entire new nations, could be ignored or buried in the back pages if it wasn't exciting enough, or had a rather disturbing lack of Syndies or Krauts to rail against, such as the Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus in late May and early June.

It wasn't all doom and gloom and carefully tailored messages to make the public angry or scared. The 1936 Helsinki Olympics, for example, gave a chance for the Toronto Cliche to show off the superiority of Canadian and Imperial athletes. While maybe not winning many medals compared to previous versions of the games, it was a welcome change, to allow the nations of Earth (minus the Syndicalists, of course) to compete in peaceful competition.

CANADIANS WIN GOLD, DOMINATE GERMANS, RUSSIANS IN TRACK

Regina Leader-Post, June 17, 1936

But the Toronto Clique newspapers were always quick to promote things that they saw as helping the Empire, strengthening the military, or helping the homeland:

CARIBBEAN GETTING AID; EMPIRE SHOWS GENEROSITY

Winnipeg Free Press, June 26, 1936

HOW CANADA WILL BECOME AN INDUSTRIAL SUPER POWER

Macleans, August 1936 mounthly issue

But not everything that happened in the world could be reported in the newspapers, even if the populace knew it. Deep in the halls of Parliament Hill and Rideau Hall, meetings between Canadian politicans, British nobles and American businessmen, mostly from the New England states, met in secret, all speaking of a terrible possibility: a second American Civil War.

The United States, as was clear to many observers of the time, in a period of trouble. Still suffering from the economic recession and malaise of the fall of the UK in 1925, and then hammered again by the Berlin Stock Market Crash in early 1936, the US was basically going from crisis to crisis with little to stop the slide. President Herbert Hoover could do little to stop the slide as he was a strong believer in pulling yourself up by your bootstraps when you fall on hard times. What Hoover in the White House and the Republican and Democratic Congressmen in the Capitol failed to realize was that many Americans no longer even had boots to pull straps on, or whatever metaphor you want to use. The vaunted isolationism that kept them out the Weltkrieg was now biting them hard. With Mittleeuropa virtually self sufficient, Japan closed off as it built an Asian Empire, the Syndicalists a no-go, the much smaller markets of South America chaffing at American paternalism, and the Entente was a shadow of their former selves, the US had little way to turn but in on itself.

The American people needed help, and only the demagogues and ideologists of the far left and right had any solutions. Workers from factories in New York, Pennsylvania and the Midwest and African Americans grasping for any chance at equality in a Long Depression that hit them harder than whites, were being swayed to Syndicalism under Jack Reed, while the America First Party under Huey Long brought in a huge umbrella of disparate groups in the Deep South: dissatisfied farmers, fearful plantation owners, white supremacists, Bible-clutching fundamentalists and authoritarians who believed that American Democracy, like the democracies of the UK and France, would only lead to terrorism and anarchy. Both groups were fraying the edges of the political discourse, and many leaders were faced with the hard decision of trying to pick a winner before a fight even started, which was the lesser of two evils, or if something, anything, could save the old US from the two evils.

One thing that did come of this in Canada was a partial political reconciliation between the Two Kings of Canada: Prime Minister King and King Edward VIII. While the PM was still bitter at Edward for interfering in Canadian politics and out maneuvering him in what the PM considered his turf in the House of Commons, and Edward was growing increasingly dissatisfied with the elected leader of the nation that he reigned over, but seemed to be doing everything in his power to undermine royal authority and stability, the threat of an American Civil War, and what it could mean for Canada brought the two together in a secret meeting in Rideau Hall in the evening of July 22. After hours of discussion, eventually a course of action was undertaken, and a young Canadian army officer was dispatched from the home of the King to travel to Washington D.C. While it wouldn't be for many decades before it was reveled what the two men had decided, one thing was clear: a letter was sent to the one man that both Kings thought might be able to handle the situation: General Douglas MacArthur.

For months tensions in the US simmered, and the press onslaught of the Syndicalists continued, until one day in September...

BRITISH, FRENCH COMMUNARDS PLOTTING WAR!
Toronto Star, September 22, 1936

US ARMY SEIZES POWER: MARTIAL LAW DECLARED: GEN MACARTHUR CALLS FOR CALM
Same issue of the Toronto Star, September 22, 1936

CIVIL WAR! AMERICA FRACTURES, LONG DECLARES UNION STATE, MACARTHUR: "US WILL STAND!"

Regina Leader-Post, November 7, 1936.

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Sorry for the long update. I really wanted to get this done so I could let myself keep playing this game, as I didn't want to get too far ahead of myself. If you managed to get this far, I hope you enjoyed, and take a guess as to who wins the Second American Civil War! (PS, I won't be changing files to get a certain outcome, letting the game do it itself!)

 

[HIMDogson]

I'd recommend declaring war on the CSA and then giving !acarthur territory for an alliance.

 

[TBguy1992]

I'd recommend declaring war on the CSA and then giving !acarthur territory for an alliance.

I will have to see how things go. Also, I'm not in any military shape at the moment, so I would have to embark in a crash military expansion program right away, but busy with other things like getting rid of the dissent from Bill C-7.

 

[Aquadragon10]

I can't wait for our lovely Canadian tanks to crush the syndies. Canada stronk!

 

[TBguy1992]

I can't wait for our lovely Canadian tanks to crush the syndies. Canada stronk!

I like the way you think! For King and Empire!

 

[Aquadragon10]

Well just burn down a couple syndies and german cities. Can't burn those british ones though, cause that would be wrong.