Red America

Red America:
A bit of an ASB map done for fun. In this time-line the American Civil War was a little bit more intense and the reconstruction period was even longer and more difficult with a few more Confederate loyalists causing trouble after the war. America does continue on into the 20th Century but under very different leadership as the butterflies flap.

The United States suffered a number of presidents who whilst not incompetent and corrupt were not competent enough to solve the problems they faced. Industrialisation inevitably led to the expansion of socialist groups and an unfortunate number of poorly organized and orchestrated military interventions in Latin America served only to increase the level of unrest and disillusionment with the government. The interventions also created a greater number of soldiers who found themselves virtually unemployed after the wars ended. When the First World War began (with different people on either side and a very different outcome) America stayed out of it due to civil unrest. The president of the time had only increased the disparity between the social classes due to corruption and the survival of the industrial trusts. Soon enough protests began and were suppressed. The protests blew up into violent riots that were handled very poorly. Socialist groups emerged out of the woodwork and took over portions of the country. A second Civil War was fought between the Socialists and the Patriots and then the various different Socialists. The Civil War finally ended in 1918 and left the largest and most powerful of the socialist groups in power.

The United Socialist States of America today is a large socialist power and support and control numerous satellites socialist states across the world. The USSA is a centralised and fairly authoritarian state but it has never reached the levels of the OTL USSR. The individualism of the old USA has been disavowed and culturally removed from most of society in order to concentrate on community centred projects and organisations. Big businesses have been abolished and the economy is now run and regulated by the state. The USSA is also very militant and has a large military and intervenes across the world in order to establish and maintain other socialist states across the world and of course make them puppets but that's not talked about in polite company. At the very least the socialist regime has ended discrimination in America far earlier than OTL. USSA environmental policy is even worse than OTL and much of the USS is now horribly polluted and beginning to have larger consequences. However whilst the USSA has managed to survive until 2013 and their computerised economy is up and running, the economy has been floundering for years and things are beginning to get drastic, farms are being taxed to their limits, pollution and climate change are reducing viable farmland and shortages are getting to the point where shops and distribution centres are now heavily guarded and mobs are forming in the streets of major cities.

Many of the remaining socialist states are either worse off, in a similar situation or have undergone sufficient reforms to allow their economy to survive. Socialist China has embraced a degree of capitalism since the more radical aspects of their government died off. The Chinese Socialist Republic has always been on the edge of the American Sphere and has been surrounded by enemies since the republic was created. France abandoned their socialist government shortly after the USSA pulled their garrisons out of Europe in the 90s and the various resistance movements took control. France had kicked their German occupiers out of the nation in the 1950s with USS support but had never really taken well to American dominance and military control and has now transformed into a slightly fascist-lite state with a decent chip on its shoulder and the determination to make it somewhat big once more.

There was an industrialised war in Europe and without the US, the Entente failed to stop the German domination of much of Europe. Locked out of Europe and with the USSA looming over them the British instead turned to industrialising their empire in order to gain some more strength and credibility. Their defeat against the Americans during the Invasion of Canada was a blow to their prestige and the numerous rebellions in their colonies tied them up further. Eventually a quick alliance with the Japanese gave them a bit more power and in return they assisted with Japanese expansion into much of Asia and the Pacific (Hawaii got swapped back and forth a bit). Japan's move into China was under different circumstances and they eventually adopted a policy of granting Dominion status to certain regions of their empire (mainly to assuage nationalist tensions if possible). Together the two empires represent the largest and most populous power bloc but also the most fragile and most difficult to steer in any ideological direction.

Germany has also changed since the early 20th Century. Their former collection of puppet states has now been transformed into a political and economic union centred around Germany itself. Germany is now a scientific producer with a lot of large corporate combines devoted to research and development. Germany is also still very militant with a cultural revival in the 1980s centred around the Holy Roman Empire, Prussia and the Teutonic Knights. They also decolonised most of the empire they acquired after the Great European War and have instead continued to invest in their European Sphere. The European Community evolved from the former German puppet system. On paper it is a loose political organization created to oppose socialism. In practice it is a far more centralised entity centred around the Germans and united by fear of the Americans, French and to a lesser extent the British (but don't tell them that).

These two power blocs both oppose socialism they are still opposed to one another due to various reasons. By this point the divisions are based mostly on history rather than ideology now that the nations of the two blocs are practically the same concerning their foreign and domestic policies. As the USSA reduces in power and withdraws from many of its puppets the other power blocs are beginning to realise that their great enemy is not as powerful as they once believed (the USSA had far greater reach overseas than the OTL USSR mind you so they were even more paranoid).

Technology is at around the OTL levels though without the US there is no internet and fewer consumer good based computers. Globalisation has come about and there is a lot of cultural exchange however it is more multi-cultural as opposed to the more obvious Americanisation of OTL. The cultural export centres of the world are London, Berlin, Moscow and Tokyo. Imperialism is still around in the form of the British and Japanese but this has been transformed, somewhat, into a new system of economic and political interdependency. With a different WWI and no WWII, there was also no Nazi regime and no Holocaust, however this also means that fascism was not discredited as an ideology and several states still practice varying forms of it. Currently the most accepted form of government is a constitutional monarchy due to most of the major powers practising it and the fact that the USSA has somewhat discredited republicanism, at least of their style. Climate change is at about the same stage as OTL, maybe a little bit further thanks to the industrialisation of the old empires and the poor economic choices of the USSA. Nuclear proliferation still took place and currently the world is watching with baited breath, the decline of the USSA is becoming more and more obvious and several talking heads are wondering whether the nation itself will collapse under the strain. Others are wondering if the collapse will be a peaceful one or whether they want to take the world with them (unlikely but you never know).