How Few Remain - Aftermath of War

Aftermath of War

In April 1882, the Confederates once again defeat the United States, which allows the purchase of Sonora and Chihuahua to stand. Along with losing the war, the United States loses, in fighting with the United Kingdom, the northern part of Maine to the Canadian province of New Brunswick.

Following a series of speeches in Utah, Montana, and Illinois, Abraham Lincoln leads a group of left-wing Republicans into the Socialist Party; this action leads to the sharp decline of the Republican Party, allowing the Socialists to eventually become the primary opposition to the Democrats who, consequently, are driven to the Right.

After U.S. defeat in the Second Mexican War, President Blaine declares April 22 of every succeeding year to be Remembrance Day, to remember the humiliation of defeat, and vow revenge. The holiday parades will be somber, with the U.S. flag being flown upside down as a sign of distress, signifying the two losses to the Confederate States.

In effect, while conceding defeat in this war, Blaine was setting the stage for the next one, instilling in U.S. citizens an ever-present desire for and expectation of revenge upon the Confederacy (and upon Canada) while embarking on an intensive program of systematic militarization on the German model, with the vision of making the United States a kind of second Prussia. Turtledove's model in our history was evidently the French desire for revenge on Germany ("Revanchism") following their defeat in the 1871 Franco-Prussian War and the loss of Alsace and Lorraine.

In this timeline's New York City, there is no Statue of Liberty on Bedloe's Island, nor does the name get changed to Liberty Island – as the United States and France are on poor terms, due to France's support for the Confederacy, and there is no question of the French donating such a statue to the Americans. Instead, the island is taken up by a more grim statue, given to the Union by Germany, of "Remembrance, holding aloft her bared sword".

Meanwhile, the United States will move centers of administration from Washington, DC, to Philadelphia due to the District of Columbia bordering the Confederate state of Virginia (which is making governing increasingly difficult and impractical for the United States). The Powel House will become a secondary White House whenever tensions between the CSA and USA are high.

In order to continue to receive assistance from both the United Kingdom and France, Confederate President Longstreet had to propose a constitutional amendment calling for the manumission of all the country's slaves making them resident aliens; however, the free blacks will not have the same rights that whites have.

After losing two wars within twenty years, the United States begins an alliance with the strengthening German Empire (formed in 1871), and will eventually start to reform itself along Prussian lines.