Keep On Rockin' in the Free World!
Chapter II - We'll Always Have (the Treaty of) Paris
The Shawnee were out of the war, and the American armies had just tripled in size. Who's laughing now? Not the British defeated in Carolina on January 4th, 1774, certainly. Possibly the small American regiment that recaptured Penobscot two days later chuckled a bit, though.
Meanwhile the English were attempting to make up for the Shawnee cop out by recruiting new allies to their cause; as of January 7th the fledgling United States was at war with Britain, Denmark, Portugal, and Prussia. Only one of those nations did any fighting, and actually quite well, as Powhatan resisted American efforts to retake in on January 23rd.
In (largely ignored) domestic policy matters, on January 29th there was an agricultural revolution of sorts in Chesapeake. In celebration, local representatives had a pie-eating contest. On February 3rd, the Continental Congress passed measures to facilitate trade in the local financial center of New York, previously monopolized by the English.
Back in war-related matters, the defeat of the British at Carolina had been large enough for American regiments to enter Savannah unopposed, which they did, then lay siege to British-owned Seminole. At Seminole battle was joined, but not with British. The highly aggressive native retiree population launched an attack on March 6th, but it failed to stop the Continental Army, which began a siege of the British fort there. Meanwhile the resurgent clone armies of New England had reached the front lines, arriving at Sebago on March 22nd, and Oswego and Adirondak on March 28th. The British still had men in all three provinces, so battle was joined.
Take that, George III! Oh, wait, he's gone nuts again. Oh well.
On April 1st, American clone regiments won out in Oswego, marking the first offensive victory for the United States in the region since the war began. Two days later the Redcoats were also forced to retreat from Sebago, and the unopposed Adirondak army moved for Ticonderoga. Meanwhile a vastly outnumbered British force was annihilated in Onondaga on May 1st, and on May 8th American soldiers stepped on Canadian soil for the first time, with the beginning of a siege in Megantic. All news was not good, however, as Chesapeake was captured by British soldiers moving out of Powhatan on June 2nd. In compensation, General Greene began an assault upon Megantic's fort on June 5th, which ended in success a week later. On June 30th, battle began in Bangor and a siege began upon Montreal. Four days later the formerly stationary British troops in Powhatan moved on to take Roanoke, and natives picked a fight with American soldiers in the British trading post of Oshawa. The natives, lacking any sort of significant military technology, lost. On July 10th British soldiers found a gap in the American lines and took Adirondak. The United States' armies were not well distributed enough. Five days later, however, Americans won a battle in Bangor, and on July 23rd an assault began on Shawningan, though that news was overshadowed by more captures of American land behind American lines; Santee was taken by British soldiers the same day. On August 5th the regiment that had found a gap in Adirondak also took Conneticut, and in Huron there was a land battle between British reinforcements and American soldiers trying to catch the mission into Conneticut. More battles broke out in Adirondak on September 25th.
However on October 20th, 1774, the war-weary British high command offered a cease-fire and reparations equaling $8,800 (1.) General Washington and the Continental Congress accepted the offer, and the American Revolution was, for now at least, won. A month later, in Paris, Benjamin Franklin took a break from screwing French noblewomen and signed the Treaty of Paris, giving the United States the right to all of North America east of the Mississipi and south of Canada. The continent was now at peace.
With this, the United States now had only to deal with matters of domestic policy, neglected during the war for obvious reasons. Effective trade became a priority, with a monopoly being acquired on the Continental Congress' home turf, Manhattan, on November 24th. American merchant ships also left for Tlaxcala in Mexico, Niteroi in Portuguese Brazil, and further afield, though not all Congressmen were prepared to deal with the cost required to enter some of the most profitable trading centers.
Still liking that whole "free trade" policy?
Anyway, the government of the nation continued to be the Continental Congress, using a charter known as the Articles of Confederation to govern its actions. These articles clearly reflected the American leaders' anti-monarchy feelings, providing a central government with extremely weak powers. This central government was composed of state legislature appointees, and its role was limited mostly to conducting foreign policy, though it had the kernel of the later Constitution's commerce clause, allowing freedom of movement between states for people who were not paupers, vagabonds, fugitives, or named Pinckney. However state legistlatures governed most military appointments, provided the budget, and were the only body who could collect property taxes. Furthermore the Articles of Confederation gave the central government no enforcement powers; it could only ask for money from the states. This left the army's funding in jeopardy at times and led to a situation described by Alexander Hamilton as "a sort of 1:12 scale United Nations, only without Irish rock stars waiting outside." However the Articles of Confederation were not a total failure; in fact, for a first try they provided quite a bit of stability.
1775 began with the arrival of one Benedict Arnold to command regiments in Boston, and the opening of a center of trade in Table, at the far south end of Africa. Merchants were sent there.
On February 9th, Congress had a visitor from the Cherokee, to the southeast of American lands. Apparently settlers in Carolina and native tribes had gotten into a dispute.
"Good day, kemosabe," said the Cherokee representative.
"What seems to be your problem?" asked Thomas Jefferson, who was one of the United States' best diplomats, since he could mix a mean margarita.
"Your settlers and mine seem to be fighting over whether or not Edgefield lies in white man's land or not."
"Edgefield."
"Yes."
"Why Edgefield?"
"Our chiefs have not figured out that bit either."
Jefferson did not reply. Eventually a lobbyist-funded fact-finding mission had to be dispatched to the area. It found the headquarters of the National Wild Turkey Federation.
Jefferson and the Continental Congress, seeing the need to rebuild the national economy and spend on infrastructure rather than armies, thusly conceded Edgefield to the Cherokee, saying of the American colonists, "Let them eat fried chicken."
Further afield, American traders monopolized Table on July 5th, providing some of the income required to create an organized tax collection office in Hartford, Conneticut, albeit gingerly, on October 17th. Around a month later, on the 13th of November, ten traders were sent to unorganized Wisconsin, aiming to claim the province before the British did, and also extend American mercantile influence. Later that month, on the 28th, the Congressional debate facilitating these developments went awry, however. In a heated debate on corn tariffs, James Madison addressed Congress, holding up an ear of corn saying, "In Roanoke, this corn would cost two cents. Yet this very same ear would deprive me of a half-dollar in Hartford! Put that in your pipe and smoke it!" Virginian tobacco planters read a garbled transcript of the speech, and interpreted it as a mandate that corn would quite literally be smoked in pipes. This, if true, would threaten the livelihood of tobacco planters. In Powhatan, these planters rose up in open revolt. General Washington was required to move south with the Congressional Army to inform the farmers of their error.
While Washington was handling that, on January 3rd, 1776, a guy named Kociusko arrived to command some regiments in the American army. And on January 14th, Congress recieved word that a trading post had been successfully established in Wisconsin. More traders were sent there on January 25th.
So, where are the dairy products?
Flush with success, on February 10th Congress signed off a proposal for one hundred settlers to build up Oswego. They were going to native-free, previously settled, friendly land, but somehow got lost anyway. Several months later, the hundred colonists were found running a Wal-Mart in West Orange, New Jersey. Nobody knows why.
On March 2nd, General Washington arrived to deal with the sadly misguided Powhatan rebels. The rebels refused to admit their interpretation of the Madison speech was incorrect, and started a battle lasting a week, ending in Washington's victory. Also, there were some developments in naval technology, though at this point the United States didn't have an "official" navy. (2)
In news less related to the military, on March 25th the second contingent of traders arrived safely in Wisconsin. Furthermore the various unrest related to taxes, the war, and clone armies died down by April 1st. (3) On April 7th, funding was approved to construct fortifications in Savannah, mostly to stop all the frivolous-lawsuit trial lawyers suing each other in Florida from moving north. Fewer British invasions that route would just be a nice bonus.
The Continental Congress had decided on a relatively isolationist foreign policy early in its existence. Allying with one of the large European power blocs would accomplish very little for the United States. However it was not in the nation's best interest to have those alliances openly hostile. So Benjamin Franklin arranged for some important French and Spanish nobles to marry Congressmen, on May 1st and 4th respectively.
Would this matter? Perhaps.
To be continued.
Footnotes:
1. 88 ducats.
2. Naval tech 34.
3. Stability to +3.
it would be a great help if you could leave a blank line between paragraphs as it would make things so much easier to read and prevent my eyes skipping lines and my brain getting all confused! 
