Well, that only took 2 months.
Harry Turtledove's Southern Victory series imagined a world where the American Civil war ended with the Confederate states of America
becoming its own independent nation.
The end to one conflict, however, is merely the start of a century of hatred
between the two former allies. It's a century that spans over 9 books, and in the case of this YouTube series,
four parts. In this video series, Emperor Tiger Star and I are focusing on the world and history that Turtledove crafted,
Timeline 191.
Alliances are shifted and victories are changed simply because the South is now a force to be reckoned with.
These videos are meant for those who are interested in the scenario, but don't want to go through the novels themselves.
They aren't summaries of character motivations or plot by plot details,
Just the simple big history of events that transpired and why they transpired.
But hey, perhaps after listening to this you want to get into the books as a result.
Who knows? The two past videos part one and two go into detail on what exactly
happened. However to catch everyone up. here is a brief summary of what occurred in the sixty years since the south was
victorious. The South Won the American Civil War back in the
1860s; an invasion of the North by Robert E. Lee's Forces was successful
and it was a slap in the face to the Union cause, The Union was forced by the British and French to allow the
Confederates to break away and the War ends in Southern Independence.
This forever destroys the relationship
Between the North and these two. A few decades later, the south tries to get mexican land. The U.S. Threatens war.
Knowing there is no way they can win without these two helping, the south realizes
It won't get help without getting rid of slavery and so even though it goes against much of their code
Slavery is officially disbanded and the south gets help. War breaks out the United States gains the German empire as a friend,
But it doesn't stop it from being beat yet again by the coalition. instead of the U.S.
being united for a single alliance,
It's now split. the North aligns itself with the central powers against the british and French allied confederates.
Surprise surprise, war breaks out yet again.
World war one, the great war. In this alternate timeline, the war is also on the American
Homeland. the North American front is just as brutal as the western and Eastern front's of Europe. Union and Confederate forces
Stalemate at the Mason-Dixon line as a hellscape of Trench warfare begins to take shape.
Since the British are enemies, the U.S.
invades the populated areas of Canada and
Permanently occupies the territory. The war in Europe goes entirely different; the french mutiny and surrender.
Custer who survived,
introduces the first use of Tank warfare, or
Barrel warfare, against the Confederate lines. While the front line collapsed, the oppressed blacks in the south had enough and
rebelled against the Confederates. A
Socialist Black Rebellion spread throughout the Mississippi Valley.
Valuable resources are used to destroy the uprising, but it's enough that the North can break through.
The South is defeated, the British are defeated, WW1 ends with a Central Powers victory.
Germany gains territory, the U.S. gains Kentucky, part of Texas, and Canada. So, I think we're all caught up.
It's the 1920s, only a few years after the war.
The South is now devastated by the loss of this. Feeling victorious by winning one out of three, the United States
punishes the south for the war, pretty much just what happened in Germany. War
reparations, limit on military, you get the point. And just like in our Germany, being subject to
humiliating defeat and punishment from your enemies doesn't mend ties. The atmosphere in the 1920s
North America
is that there will be another conflict. It seems that the North and South are just destined to forever clash.
However, as of now, the Confederates are too weak to do anything against the U.S.
But one man is willing to change that. Even if that means he controls the Confederates himself, and
his name was ADOLF-I mean, Jake Featherston.
(Really should have been a better name.
Oh well.)
Jake Featherston served in the War against America,
never being allowed to be
promoted due to a grudge from the officers, he became bitter towards much of the authority from Southern higher-ups. The capitalists,
aristocrats, officers, politicians, he wanted to wipe the slate clean.
not only that, he blamed the socialist black rebels for stabbing the South in the back, and
causing them to lose the war. Well luckily for him,
He found a new ideology that embraced his hatred of everyone, but himself.
The Nazi par-
I mean, the FREEDOM party.
Featherston had a knack for expressing his views and gained popularity for his rousing speeches against the blacks and
Politicians who were destroying the confederacy.
(I think you can see where this character arc is going.) The south losing the great war created the situation where a new
authoritarian leader and
ideology would rise to take over the Confederate States of America.
Over the course of the 1920's and 30's,
The Confederates see the freedom party in a far better light due to rousing speeches and economic decline.
Basically a substitute for these guys, but what else was occurring while this guy was gaining popularity?
The United States was dealing with its own ideological insurrection as well. Unlike our
1920's, this U.S. wasn't roaring, in fact, jobs were still difficult to come by and the poor were turning to more
radical beliefs.
Socialism wasn't as hated in the U.S.
as in our timeline. Instead, socialists began to win Major victories and elections,
Becoming the new rivals to the democrats, who had sat pretty comfortably for decades, since the republican party had died.
The author of The Jungle, Upton Sinclair, an avid socialist, which was what the book was meant to be about by the way,
Ran for president against Teddy Roosevelt and won the election. Sinclair, trying to be peaceful,
He eased reparations, allowing in the South to have a more favored view towards the north
Well, this wouldn't last for long. As we all ask in times like this, "What about Canada?"
When Canada was annexed,
The US allowed the French Canadians to form their own
separate puppet state: Quebec. When this happened, the two countries joined the
Quadruple powers which made up of Germany, Poland (a German puppet state), the United States, and Quebec (a U.S.
puppet state). The best way to Illustrate the state of North America is a layered cake of tension
Yeah, that's not a stupid analogy at all.
Canadians, who are occupied by
Americans, hate the United States and long for the days of being British or
Canadians or whatever quebec is this becomes such an issue that insurrections begin to erupt and even
Assassination attempts on American leaders for decades there's practically a secret war in Canada as rebels fight to maintain their identity
Think of the United States as the black sheep of the English-speaking world
While the confederates are allies to britain the u.s. Actively fights against it and sides with the Germans instead
It's a very strange dynamic as the Americans are increasingly isolated
By people who speak their own language
the British look at Protestant rebellions and
just like the confederates long for the days where they were once the great power of the world and
The French due to will count them in this just slowly building resentment the thing I love that turtledove
Does is he includes single Fringe movement of our timeline?
Into the narrative of this timeline the British politician Oswald Mosley in our timeline
Ran a small group called the British Union of fascists they were promptly shut down once the war began however in Turtledoves world
Mosley's views are not only mainstream. They're prominent
He leads a group called the silver shirts which influenced the British Parliament into a hard-line stance in France
They are simply done with democracy
altogether the Republican experiment failed in the eyes of many Frenchmen in one group the acción Francois
I'm terrible at French come to power to install their leader as the new French monarch
Charles the Eleventh the
1930s begins with an age of economic turmoil it appears that radicalism has grown throughout the western world
The only one is the Confederate states the stock market crashed
Exploded the popularity of the freedom party in Jake
Featherston as the new leader of the south in quick Secession featherston was voted into office
Along with his party where they abolished the supreme court in voted to make Featherston
effectively president for life
The main Rhetoric featherston preached was he wanted the states back that the United States took during the war
sinclair agreed to allow the people of the States of Houston
Sequoia in Kentucky to vote in 1941
Well all the Sequoia voted to get back into the CSa the deal was the south when it demand anymore after this
But this wasn't enough for Featherston who demanded Sequoia back you see Featherston wanted Award
No matter what it was something he had prepared for for decades and has allies across the see war as well
there had to be a breaking point and there was
Wilhelm II of Germany died and his son will home the third
Refused to allow France its captured territory back for the New alliance
This was enough to declare war Featherston set his sights on, Ohio
Ohio was the Heartland of the us
And if it was say successfully annexed the us would be split in half
this planned invasion is called operation blackbeard in August
1941 the Confederates invaded the United States
crossing the Ohio river in
Into American territory in the span of a week they fought to lake Erie and the military presence that was there was entirely
destroyed
Featherston wasn't too smart he planned that the yankees would surrender when they saw such an act of military incursion
but the new President Al Smith
Wasn't too keen on being friendly to the south the Americans were ready for a fight in this time to end the confederate issue
once in for all
Featherston in the CSA
effectively signed their death sentence with the invasion of Ohio
And so world war two began the conflict would be even more devastating as the north and south
Fight for the fourth and perhaps final time and that is where emperor tiger star comes in to finish off the series I?
Think he's been waiting too for a very very long time
I could talk about this book all day, and there's plenty of smaller details
I've left out so if you want to read about how these events occur I seriously recommend these books spanning a century of alternate history
So, what series do you want me to cover next? (If any) Tell me in the comments. This is Cody, of Alternate History Hub.