Part 137: History of the CCA/American Federation

History of the CCA/American Federation
In the run-up to the Dublin Conference, many propagandists in the Union of Rome saw their chance at "informing" the population about the major world powers, and thereby gain favor with the Communist Party. The writer of "History of the Reichstag" was the most famous of these propagandists, but still provided a somewhat impartial view of the superpowers' histories.

What the British called the "Troubles" began in Feburary 1st, 1800, when anti-tax riots in Washington became a full-blown insurgency. British colonists began to think themselves as seperate from Britian, and united by a new nationality: that of 'Yankee'. By June 11, 1807, the United Kingdom has became increasingly tired and worn out by continual colonial rebellions and unrest by the American colonists, allowing for Thomas Brooke, the governor of Washington, to propose a method to end the "Troubles" once and for all. British North America was divided into three parts: Janesland and New Britian were made into "autonomous dominions" while the 'center' (Virginia and Maryland) remained under direct British rule. Brooke's Plan was accepted, leading to the end of the "Troubles". However, Brooke's plan could not stop calls for secession, only buried them. The colonists still considered themselves independent Yankees, and still desired full independence.

Nevertheless, independent elections were held. Voting rights in both Janesland and New England was limited only to land-holders, and conservatives controlled both dominions. However, the conservatives in both Janesland and New England was concerned about losing power entirely to the nationalists and feared a restart of the "Troubles". They convinced Thomas Brooke to cancel the "scheduled" elections in 1811 and declare 'martial law'. Both Janesland and New England formed "authoritarian democracies", granting numerous social and political reforms, but refusing to let people vote them out. This policy worked...for a time, but eventually internal criticism led to both dominions to revoke the 'martial law' decree. Janesland held a second round of elections in 1827, New Britian followed suit in 1831.

From 1827 to 1845, elections in Janesland have peridoically resulted in the conservative government getting re- elected. In May 9th, 1846 though, the Janesland military launched a military coup, overthrowing the conservative democracy and ruling directly. Calling themselves the "Imperialist Party", the Janesland military created a reactionary dictatorship, ending the practice of elections and abolishing all the political that the Brooke's Plan promoted.

While Janesland was moving away from democracy, New Britian was moving forward. In 1831 (the second round of New British elections), the New Britian conservatives lost power to the liberals. The victory was short-lived: in 1835, the conservatives regained control over the country. The conservatives held power until 1845, when the liberals once more won elections. The liberals became very powerful on its streets, partly due to its flirtation with nationalism and capitalism, but soon disilluisoned the general public when they refused to actually act on nationalism.

This gave conservatives a chance to overthrow the liberals and again regain their traditional control. On October 24, 1846, the New British military launched a nationalist military coup, overthrowing the liberals and declaring independence from the United Kingdom. The New British conservatives then sent a message to the Janesland dictatorship, advocating for unification and independence from the United Kingdom. The Janesland dictatorship accepted, concerned that if they outright refuse New Britian's calls, that the military junta would be quickly destroyed. Together, the unified conservative alliance of New Britian and Janesland was called the Confederate Colonies of America (the 1905 constitutional reforms offically renamed the country to American Federation). The liberal remenants of the New British government decided to form an opposition party called the Republicans, with the goal of fighting against both the Conservatives and the British.

On May 26, 1847, the United Kingdom decided that it was impossible to peacefully restore the status quo, and thus declared war on the CCA.
The war was a disaster, leading to the loss of Virginia, Newark, Atlantic City, and Maryland to the Yankees. The United Kingdom eventually signed a peace treaty with the CCA in July 15, 1848. The CCA has gained its independence.

In the first post-war election in the CCA (1850), the conservative elite were thrown out of power and replaced by the Republicans, who had more genuine popularity and support than the conservatives ever could. The conservatives was never been able to recover from this disaster and ceased to be a major political force in American politics. The Republicans became the only ruling party in the CCA until 1902.

The Republicans implemented major reforms when writing the 1855 Constitution: the most important being that voting was now based on wealth instead of land. The Republicans however also sought to peserve traditional American values: aristocracy, nepotism, and establishment were all upheld and defended.

In October 8, 1851, the CCA proposed a military alliance with Vinland to defend against the Muslim states of Mazula and Morroco, which was accepted. The CCA previously considered forming a military alliance in June 27, 1850, but rejected the idea due to the implications that the CCA was unable to defend itself effectively. However, by 1851, saner heads prevailed. This alliance went into effect on June 13, 1883, when the CCA declared war on Morroco. The war ended in February 28, 1884 with the conquest of much of the Morrocan colonies in the "South" of North America.
The CCA continued to declare war on Morroco, in both 1896 and 1889. Both wars resulted in CCA liberating more "Southern" territories.

On June 17, 1887, Mazula attacked Vinland. The CCA honored its alliance with Vinland, hoping that the might of the two armies would beat back the Muslim hordes. They were wrong. The CCA had to sue for peace with Mazula, giving up important territores in the "Midwest", including Kansas City.

On January 4, 1892, the Vinland alliance was renewed. As if to test this alliance again, Mazula declared war on January 2, 1893. Again, Vinland and CCA lost the war, and Vinland made major territorial concessions, altough CCA did not lose any territory. As a way to regain national prestige, in 1898, CCA declared war on Morroco, but the war was quietly ended
in a white peace in
1900. Vinland soon saw that this alliance was useless, and decided not to 'renew' it for quite some time.

By this time, the Republican regime began suffering from internal turmoil. The Republicans refused calls to expand implement universial suffrage, as their Mazulan rivials was doing. Instead, they wanted to ensure that only the wealthy could vote. This failure to expand political reforms led to the Socialist Revolution, which led to increased MIL and CON for both laborers, farmers, craftsmen, and soldiers. The Revolution drew attention to the failure of American liberalism to aid the common folk: frequently, the liberals rejected any talk of social reforms for ideological reasons.

The Republican Party also saw slavery as an odious insitution, one that the rest of world have abanonded. The Republicans abolished slavery, thereby making slaves less militant, but angering the rest of American society, which depended on slave labor. Aristocrats, officers, capitalists, and clerks gained more MIL and CON as a result.

Finally, the constant and endless defeats to the Mazulans turned the entire country 'revanchist'. The CCA blamed the Republicans' inability to protect American soil, and started looking for scapegoats and simple solutions to their problems, both external and internal.

The American People's Party (formed during the Socialist Revolution) offered both. Led by J. Edgar Hoover, the American People's Party declared that it would regain the territories that was lost to Mazula, promised to "put the minorities in their place" in order to restore the pre-abolition status quo, and planned social reforms to please the masses and stop the country from falling to socialism. These policies catapulted the American People's Party into mainstream politics.

In 1902, the liberal Republicans lost power to the fascist American People's Party. The massive popularity the fascists enjoyed allowed them to revise the American Constitution in 1905. The socialist leanings of the American People's Party became evident: political reforms such as health care, unemployment subsidies, safety regulations, pension funds, minimum wages, and maximum work hours became implemented on a vast scale. Political reforms were rolled back, partially to prevent the liberals from regaining control. The country was also formally renamed to the American Federation. The American People's Party also wanted to abolish elections outright and create a strong Presidental Dictatorship, but this proposal was rejected by the masses.

In 1904, Mazula declared war on the American Federation, and again the Federation surrendered and gave up territory. This made the American People's Party incredibly unpopular, as many began to question if the APP's revanchist rhetoric really meant anything. As a way to distract the population, on 1906, the Federation declared war on Morroco. Vinland soon became persuaded to renew its military alliance in December 21st, 1906, and then joined in the attack on Morroco. The war ended with the American Federation gaining three territories, thereby allowing for the American People's Party to claim some measure of victory.

The American People's Party won re-election in 1907, but the American People's Party soon began to lose support. The social reforms spelled the end of the Socialist Revolution, taking away one of the major fears that the fascists drew upon for political support. The territorial defeat against Mazula also showed the APP as not having the skills necessary to defeat Mazula, causing for people to search for a new answer to the same old problem.

In 1911, the Republicans again won elections, and promised to upheld the APP's reforms. The Republicans declared a war with Morroco in 1912, a war that led to white peace. The Republicans also were poised to win elections in 1916, and did do so, but the APP alleged election fraud, and waged a revolution against Republicans' rule. With the support of the military and of pro-fascist paramilitaries, J. Edgar Hoover seized power and created a Presidental Dictatorship. Elections was finally abolished, as they would interfere with the unity of the nation.

In 1919, the APP declared war on Morroco, but by this time, Morroco was so weakened that few people actually paid attetion to such a war declaration. Morroco was easily annexed by the Iberian Caliphate.

In 1920, Mazula was persuaded by the deposed Republicans to intervene on its behalf and destroy the American Federation entirely. The Mazulans declared war, hoping for an easy victory. They were wrong. The APP claimed that their industrial programs and 'national unity' projects was responsible for the war: while this could help, it was far more likely that the reason Mazula lost the war with the AF was due to Mazula being ruled by an Anti-Military Party, and its neglect of the army led to it being ill-prepared for actual combat.

Nevertheless, a victory was a victory. The APP's political fortunes was blostered in recovering most of the territories (in the "Midwest") the Federation has lost in previous wars with Mazula. The APP gained enough genuine popularity that it could sustain the dictatorship indefinitely. It even was able to ride out the Great Depression without much worry.

However, the Mazulans still pose a major security threat to the APP, and it is rather unlikely that the APP can repeat the same feats that it did in the 1920 war. The Mazulans seemed very interested in not only liberating the Midwest, but to annex the American Federaton and bring back 'liberal democracy', even going so far as to provide a very twisted view of Republican history (even though the Mazulans actually attacked the Republicans and were responsible for the rise of fascism in the first place). The general population of the Federation seem very content with the APP's rule, for now. It is likely that a security-obbessed J. Edgar Hoover would launch a surprise attack on Mazula in order to liberate more territories for the Americans. It is unknown if Hoover actually want to annex Mazula entirely; Hoover has stated ambiguously that he wanted to defend the Chrisitan population from the Muslim menance, through any means necessary.