Excerpt from CSA - The Early Years (1993)
After the meditation to end the War of Secession, the South would enjoy its glory days in the sun. With South California in Confederate hands, there was really no way that the United States could prevent the acquisition of the Hawaiian Islands by the Confederacy, as well as the surrounding islands, like Midway and Wake Island. All of this was done during the presidency of Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis' successor in the 1866 elections. He rode in, like his predecessor and all future presidents until after the Great War, on the Conservative Party ticket. The Liberals at this time were a minority party, and so mostly ignored, though it is widely believed that Lee could have been a flaming radical with the Liberals and still won the elections by his stunning margin.
As the 1860s gave way to the 1870s, the USA became more and more bitter at the loss against the CSA, victory having been so close before the Gettysburg Campaign. Quickly the Republicans and Democrats changed their tunes. The Democrats became very socialist, perhaps even communist, and the Republicans began to preach fascism. Both parties decreed the need to bring the CSA back into the Union, by force if necessary. President Lee watched with worry, wondering if this would ever amount to anything beyond hot air. It never did, but fear ran wild on the North American continent during this time.
After Lee was succeeded by James Longstreet in 1872, the Confederacy began to take a more active role in international politics. The CSA began to align itself closer and closer with the British and French who had secured its independence, leading them to be drawn into several conflicts in which they had no stake. The colonial wars against African tribes and Asian powers mattered little to the Confederacy, beset as it was by fear of its angry northern neighbor. The CSA invested heavily in guns and ships during this time, but they were never used against the USA. As the century passed, however, the presidencies of Jeb Stuart and Thomas Jackson behind the CSA, the USA began to find an ideological ally.
In the Russo-Japanese War, the Russian Empire had fought the Japanese to a near-standstill, but British & Confederate intervention ended the conflict in a Japanese victory. Russia felt betrayed by every nation in the world - until President Theodore Roosevelt offered the hand of friendship. The Russians had found a sympathetic ally.
Thus did the world come to grips with the most fearsome and destructive conflict yet - the Great War or First World War.
'll soon provide you will colored pics of ministers'n'leaders!
