Timeline 31

Part 11: Growing Uncertainty (1908-1914)

As California's economy recovered and the city of San Francisco was rebuilt, the mood of the country and the world as a whole seemed to have changed. There was a lingering feeling of doubt about the future, especially as international affairs had begun to grow increasingly tense. In California, meanwhile, President Johnson's political reform efforts proved disappointing to people who had hoped that he would continue the battle for civil rights in California. Indeed, Johnson was somewhat counter to what Waterman had sought to achieve, secretly and informally negotiating a "gentleman's agreement" between California and the Empire of Japan, where California would ease restrictions on trade with Japan in exchange for Japan restricting emigration to California, followed almost immediately thereafter by the Immigration Act of 1908 being brought into effect. Its purpose is made clear by its more commonplace name, the "Chinese Exclusion Act", which outright banned all Chinese immigration to California, followed immediately thereafter by the Californian Alien Land Law of 1908, which banned Japanese immigrants and their descendants from owning property.


With the rise of such xenophobic actions, President Johnson's popularity declined rapidly, and many who had been enamored with the Waterman years were completely dissatisfied with the Progressive Party under the last two presidents, both of whom had completely halted the momentum of Waterman's reforms (though they themselves had brought in some beneficial reforms). Seeing divisiveness in the Progressive base, many Californians began to seek leadership from the Bear Flag Party once again, which had broken the Progressive majority in the Senate in the election of 1908. Among the BFP caucus, a prominent new voice was that of Leland Stanford II, the son of the former president who had begun advocating a slightly more moderate form of conservatism as the BFP had once called for, willing to offer some concessions to Progressive policies, such as the regulation of larger businesses and ensuring that a social safety net would be continued even with the Progressives out of power. Indeed, the social programs created had proven to be immensely popular and successful, and businesses in California had even seen improved profits and productivity with its workers able to do their jobs more safely and with more motivation for basic salaries.


As 1909 wore on, international tensions were starting to reach a greater prominence in the mind of Californians. Europe had been growing increasingly tense over imperial ambitions and rival factions forming to oppose each other. At this time, two main blocs had formed in Europe: The Triple Alliance formed of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy, and the Triple Entente formed of France, Russia, and the United Kingdom. Not only was this a European affair, it would become a global one owing to their massive immigrant diasporas, their colonial empires, and public sympathies. For example, out east Freedonia was sympathetic to the Alliance, while New England and the Confederacy were sympathetic to the Entente, though no formal commitments had been made. California's leadership and society, meanwhile, being so far removed from the conflict, had no loyalty to either faction, but many were more aligned with the Entente given that the British and French were constitutional democracies, and both Germany and Austria-Hungary were largely autocratic governments (this overlooked the Russian autocracy). Even with this, though, California still quite happily, almost eagerly, harbored Irish republicans who sought the independence from Ireland, in a situation where many were sympathetic to the Irish republican cause. This actually caused a diplomatic incident where in 1909, the United Kingdom demanded that several republicans be extradited to the UK, to which President Johnson refused, stating "These men have not caused any trouble and have not broken any laws in our country, and no civilian in our lands is subject to British law. These men will not be returned." In anger, the United Kingdom actually broke off all diplomatic relations with California until 1910, when Prime Minister Asquith resumed normal relations.


It wasn't helped by the fact that in 1909, European tensions were inflamed by the Austro-Hungarian annexation of Bosnia, which threatened to bring Europe to blows, but this was a distant concern for California at a time that there was a rise in conservative leanings in reaction to 18 unbroken years of Progressive presidencies that had gotten disappointing after the first six years, not to mention that it carried a reactionary bent that sought to oppose the brief surge in increased political and social rights for minorities and women, if not rolling them back then at the very least simply seeing the progress halted. It made itself especially known when the California Pacific Railroad was brought to the Supreme Court on anti-trust charges and successfully broken up, which although beneficial in the long run had the immediate effect of disrupting train services around California, causing a lot of anger for a society that was still highly dependent on railroads for transportation around the country.

In the election of 1910, while the Progressives held onto power in the Assembly, the Senate remained in BFP hands and Leland Stanford II won 57% of the national vote, becoming the 10th President of California in the same way that his father had once held the presidency, at the same time that yet another sputtering war between the CSA and Freedonia had broken out over a small skirmish on the borders, which brought increased European attention to North America once again. Stanford, though, was determined to keep California out of the conflict. While the Freedom War had been a victory achieved in just less than a year, the images of the horror and brutality that the war could bring had weakened the public appetite for war, and pacifism was in the mind of both political parties. This mood was similar across most of the nations of North America, to the extent that on 8 May 1910, Californian diplomats met with diplomats from Cascadia-Montana, Texas, and the Plains Federation to sign a mutual defense pact, where if any nation attacked them they would immediately come to each other's aid. This served as an initial start to future reconciliation between the nations of North America, though it was only a start.




Come 1911, world tensions ramped up once again when the Agadir Crisis nearly brought France and Germany to blows, at which point the Freedonian government began to grow ever closer to the Germans while the CSA, having finally abandoned slavery in 1905, attempted to repair their reputation in the eyes of Britain and France. Californian neutrality, meanwhile, was starting to become more difficult in light of a new development that came late that year. Emperor Maximilian II of Mexico had committed suicide without producing an heir, and as such the throne had gone to his bellicose and aggressive nephew who became Maximilian III, who was a thorough Germanophile and intensely proud of his Habsburg descent, immediately seeking closer relations with Germany. This only served to draw the members of the defense treaty closer together, which soon grew to include both the CSA and New England in November 1908. By now, Freedonia was the only nation outside of this treaty, though they had signed what was called the "Treaty of Friendship" with the German Empire in mid-1908.


Back at home, California was again experiencing social tensions of its own under Stanford II. While the social programs that had started laying the foundations of the welfare state in California proved too popular to overturn through legislation, he had instead begun scaling them back in the name of deregulating the economy to allow for greater growth, stating "The protection of the workers is important, but they cannot be workers if they cannot work for their pay." Secretly, though, these cutbacks had a second purpose. As money was diverted from the social projects, it was put into rearming the military, which after the Freedom War had been cut back further in what seemed an era of lasting peace during the "Pax Britannica". Between 1910 and 1914, the Californian army expanded significantly, going from a skeleton force of just 15,000 soldiers to 60,000, as well as modernizing its equipment and preparing defenses along all borders, such as upgrading the arsenal at the Presidio of San Francisco and creating accurate maps of the frontier with Mexico. Taking a cue from the German Empire, Stanford also authorized the War Department to create a new "Central Planning Office" that would create and study plans for war, initially creating scenarios such as war with Mexico ("War Plan Green"), a second war with Texas ("War Plan Red"), war with the United Kingdom ("War Plan Blue"), and then creating variants upon variants of them depending on who they would be fighting alongside or against. Perhaps the most crucial military reform at this time was the creation of the Joint Military Board, intended to bring the commanders of the Army and the Navy together under a single unified command structure overseen by the President as Commander-in-Chief, bringing all parts of the military into a single unified entity.

So the Archduke is alive in this universe but barley, i wonder if he is able to prevent his Uncle to go to war against Serbia.

Well at least he is smart, for now to stay away from morphine.

Nice to hear from you mobiyuz, take your time.

I'm back, baby! Let's get this ball rolling again!

---

Part 12: The Great War (1914-1919)

On 18 June 1914, an assassination attempt was made on Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by a Serbian terrorist group. In a fit of fury, the government of the Dual Monarchy was prepared to declare war on Serbia, but the still-living Archduke stayed the government's hand and instead insisted that an ultimatum be sent demanding that Serbia acquiesce to several demands from Vienna. However, despite being a voice for moderation, the Archduke was still in poor health, lingering from his wounds and still not making any kind of recovery. In the flurry of diplomatic exchanges and demands, German Emperor Wilhelm II gave support to Austria-Hungary, while Russia declared its protection of Serbia, and France declared its support for its ally Russia. When Franz Ferdinand died of a blood infection stemming from his wounds on 6 July 1914, the Austro-Hungarian establishment, unshackled by its voice of restraint, went forward with mobilization on 9 July 1914, followed by a declaration of war against Serbia on 20 July. Days later, Russia began mobilization against Austria-Hungary, Germany mobilized against Russia, and France mobilized against Germany. All at once a series of alliances and defensive pacts had collapsed into a continent-spanning war, the likes of which hadn't been seen since the days of Napoleon I.


This was mostly a distant concern for California, however. California maintained diplomatic relations with both sides of the war, even as it began to develop further with the entry of nations such as Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire on the Allied side, and the United Kingdom finally entering the fray on the Entente side. Californian and North American trade began to suffer as a consequence, given that a large amount of trade in North America was oriented toward shipping their products to Europe, although California did fare better than most of the other nations given that an equally large amount of their trade depended on shipping to East Asia, which had leveled out fairly quickly after the Empire of Japan entered the war and seized German ports and colonies in the Pacific. What had not leveled out, though, was an ongoing civil war in China following the collapse of the Qing Dynasty, putting a large dent in California’s foreign markets.


Despite declaring its neutrality at the outset, California did have some internal disagreement over which side to support. As has been discussed prior, the established political factions in California mostly supported the Entente led by Britain, but large segments of its population supported the Allies led by Germany. Most concerning, though, was the Mexican Empire to the south, whose ruler Maximilian III rather loudly supported Germany and Austria-Hungary. As early as September 1914, the Californian Armed Forces had begun making plans for a possible invasion by Mexico, and messages were sent to the members of the mutual defense treaty reassuring each other that they would still come to each other’s aid.


On 4 November 1914, a small Californian tramp steamer, the SS Napa, entered the zone around the United Kingdom that Germany had declared an “exclusion zone” subject to the laws of unrestricted warfare. While sailing south of Ireland, the German submarine U-35 attempted to torpedo the ship, but only succeeded in damaging its prow without sinking it. The Napa limped into its destination of Liverpool later that day, but the world reacted very strongly to the attempted sinking, with North America threatening to join the war by declaring the attack on the Napa as an act of war. Germany instead countered that the Napa had entered the exclusion zone knowingly, and was thus subject to the attack. Resentfully, the defense league withdrew its threat of war, but preparations for a possible war began as California continued to expand the size of its army.


The incident did convince Germany of the danger of having North America involved in the conflict, especially as Freedonian ships were left almost entirely alone by German U-boats. Seeking an opportunity, the German Foreign Office sent a coded telegram to the Empire of Mexico, stating that if Mexico would support Germany in the war and help the Allied war effort, they would support their re-annexation of large parts of southern California and Texas. As expected, Maximilian III enthusiastically accepted, and immediately ordered his army’s mobilization. And owing to his impulsiveness, he immediately launched a surprise attack on 28 May 1915, at a time when his army hadn’t been fully and properly mobilized. The Mexican forces charged north into the Texan state of Rio Grande and the Californian territory of Sonora Norte, catching their defenses off guard. Within days, the treaty kicked into effect and the nations of North America went to war. Initially a conflict limited to pushing back Mexico’s invasion, Freedonia caught the Entente off-guard and declared its full support for Germany, invading New England, the CSA, Canada, and the Plains Federation. World War I had come to North America.


The very earliest days of the war favored Mexico purely by numbers, but as May turned to June, the balance quickly swung to the Entente. California’s army did use conscription, but the core of its service was made up of professional soldiers who were highly trained, and California’s rich natural resources made supplying and feeding its soldiers much easier, especially taking into account the better infrastructure that California could use to mobilize and move its soldiers around when compared to Mexico, which had to move across the sparsely populated and underdeveloped northern deserts of its territory. When combined with nations such as Cascadia-Montana, Texas, the CSA, and the Plains Federation, they managed to halt the Mexican invasion and push them back to the borders, where they elected to once again make use of the “Turtling Strategy” pioneered by General Wilkerson and force Mexico to grind itself out on a war of attrition.


At home, meanwhile, there was an understandable level of chaos over the sudden attack, and there was a very real threat that Mexico might overrun California entirely. It was more than political chaos, however. Southern California, and for that matter many areas of California, had a large number of Hispanic citizens who had both immigrated from Mexico and who had simply been there since the region had been annexed by either the United States or California. Public outrage over Mexico’s invasion led many to begin suspecting that anyone who spoke Spanish or looked Mexican was a spy for the enemy. Draconian laws that disproportionately affected Spanish-speakers were soon passed limiting freedom of press, speech, and assembly, culminating in the territories of Baja California Norte, Baja California Sur, and Sonora Norte being declared to be under martial law from 1916 to 1919.


Over the course of the war, the national mood began to grow more and more exhausted across all of the powers involved, with the Allied Powers on the back foot and desperately trying to pull out a win while the Entente was desperately trying to cling to every advantage they had. And it just kept getting worse. In late 1915, Italy finally answered the call to their German alliance with a promise of French and British colonies, opening up a new front of slaughter in southern Europe. That same year, a disastrous campaign for the Dardanelles failed on the Entente side. And then in 1916, an even more monumental event. Having been denied citizenship, subjected to all forms of oppression, and conscripted as forced labor for the war effort, the Afro-Confederate population of the CSA rose in rebellion, inspired by the works of Karl Marx and Abraham Lincoln. Spurred into rebellion, the CSA’s advance toward Washington collapsed entirely as the country devolved into civil war, leaving the Entente in North America scrambling to cover this as well as the Freedonian advance.


By 1917, the war was slowly becoming more desperate on all sides. An indecisive naval battle off the coast of Norway left the British and Germans struggling to try and gain domination in the North Sea, and Japan had begun sending their navy to assist the British in operations in the Middle East. In North America the Red Rebellion in the CSA saw both Afro-Confederates and Anglo-Confederates exacting horrible retribution against each other, committing atrocities too terrible to mention here. But in California, the war was starting to move to their advantage when the Battle of Hermosillo destroyed the last major Mexican forces standing in their path, allowing California to advance further into Mexico alongside the Texan forces. All the while, pro-Republican forces rose in rebellion across the Empire, effectively collapsing Mexico’s ability to make war. And yet, by 1918 the war showed no signs of slowing, even as the Germans forced a humiliating peace onto the Russian Empire (now collapsed into the Republic of Russia) and rushed its forces to bolster itself in the west, stalemating the minimal progress the Entente had been able to make. More worrying, however, was the new and unexpected rise of the communist forces in Russia, threatening to overtake the government.


By late 1918, the situation still looked hopeless, but then the calculus began to change. Faced with massive mutinies across the front lines, France’s offensives rapidly collapsed as the Germans captured a downed British airship with a rough copy of the planned 1919 offensive, which called for tactics the Germans described as “blitzkrieg”. Using the mutinies, Germany pulled out the Turtling Offensive for themselves and put every last ounce of strength they had left, even as the army forced Kaiser Wilhelm II to abdicate in favor of his more compliant son Wilhelm III. As the last April Offensive began in Europe, Emperor Maximilian III of Mexico was assassinated by a radical anarchist, collapsing the government and forcing them to sign an armistice just before the Second Mexican Empire collapsed entirely. Austria-Hungary followed not long after, imploding into an infinite number of civil wars, while Turkey soon collapsed when the Greeks pushed all the way to Constantinople, and the Italian army collapsed en masse. Finally, on 19 May 1919, Freedonia’s government collapsed as the western states broke away, and a Germany that had just barely held against the April Offensive sued for peace. All at once, it was over.

The war was over. 50,000,000 people lay dead across the trenches of Europe, the Sonoran Desert, the Ohio Valley, the Eastern Front, the Middle East, and East Asia. Yet even now, battles raged on. The Turks were struggling desperately to repel the Greeks, the Russian Civil War between the Red Army and the loose “White Army” coalition raged onward, and China too had exploded into a civil war that Japan was now all too happy to take advantage of. Nations had risen, fallen, been born, ceased to exist, and changed utterly and thoroughly within the space of just 6 years.

But for many, that didn’t matter. What mattered was that peace was here.