America: Home of the Brave

Peace and War and Life and Death



President Harding, upon inauguration, declared war officially with Great Britain within the first month of his presidency. This came as quite a shock to Great Britain, who had had pleasant relations with the United States for the past century. Harding personally traveled to the border of Québec where American troops were horded to deliver a morale speech to the cold soldiers.

After his speech, it is said Harding stayed to shake every single soldier's hand.



While the war for St. John's was just about to get started, the city of Chicago was starting to become even more scientifically advanced. Now becoming known as the "Beaker City" for how many scientists rose to fame here, another famous scientist became known. Her name was Nettie Stevens, and she had discovered that animals have two different kinds of chromosomes in males to differentiate between the sexes.

Nettie Stevens, without asking approval from Congress, decided she wanted to settle in the city of Chicago with the rest of her other academicians and help the city become more intelligent and productive.



Without quite thinking of the ramifications of war with one of our allies and trading partners, President Harding noticed that our treasury was starting to stagnate as we trained more troops. We had canceled multiple deals with Great Britain as we had declared war, and many corporations were starting to get angry with Harding along with the Congress.

To help ease their woes and to continue bolstering the economy, President Harding quickly negotiated a deal with King Philip II of Spain. Harding said he would trade Spain fine, American marble for nine tons of gold per turn. The deal went through quite swiftly, soothing many angry voices, but everyone knew that our economy wasn't going to be as strong as it was prewar.



What really sent a surprise to President Harding was how much of a naval presence Great Britain had in the Atlantic. Great Britain had a frigate surveying the waters near Washington, D.C. during the time of war, which President Harding knew he could leave to its devices. The Navy had stockpiled two Ships of the Lines nearby, the S.S. Grant being the more notable example, and also a Galleon stationed near New York that would be docked in Halifax for protection.

The odds seemed to be put in Britain's favor as the S.S. Grant commenced battle with the British frigate, but with a stunning commander and great maneuvers, the S.S. Grant had eked out a victory. Some analysis states that the S.S. Grant only had about a 20% chance of sinking the British frigate, and it was quite a miracle that we had sunk it. President Harding gave those sailors and everyone else on that boat a hearty raise for their duties.




The official battle for St. John's had not actually started by this point, which was quite surprising. There was some bombardment by nearby American Cannon battalions, but there was no actual gunshots being fired. President Harding was quite nervous and anticipated a high loss of life, considering how advanced the British were militarily. They had stockpiled one battalion of Machine Guns and one battalion of Infantry to protect the city of St. John's.

The Machine Guns were units America could train, but we had not yet figured out the secret to training Infantry. This worried Harding, and he was considering sending a bill to the Congress to increase funding for the sciences to prevent us from slipping behind.

Once we finished bombarding, we had lost multiple battalions of Cannons to the strong Machine Gun fortifications. They had been stockpiled there for quite a while and knew the area like the back of their hands. We had lost just about half of our Cannons when we finally defeated the last of the Machine Guns with a clever battalion of Cavalry. That just left the British with one battalion of Infantry to protect St. John's, and they would have no more colonies on mainland North America.



While the Battle of St. John's was going on, a settler we had sent to the unsettled lands of Manitoba had finally reached the land we decided to settle. The city founded was right next to a large freshwater lake, and was named Dauphin. The city of Dauphin, being next to a lake and also beautiful waves of wheat, was expected to grow quite large and be quite productive.

To accommodate a growing population in the area, along with growing population in American territories, President Harding annexed the states of Montana, Arizona, and Manitoba in accordance with the American Annex Act.



Back on the front with St. John's, we had lost the rest of our Cannons weakening the Infantry stationed within the city. They were strong units, but they were no match for the sheer force behind the American Army. They had successfully taken down our Cannons, but were easily swept down by the very first battalion of Cavalry sent at them.

To commemorate this victory against the British, President Harding created the state of Newfoundland and Labrador, and decided to visit the city himself. It was the coldest winter on record in that area during this time, though, so President Harding unfortunately succumbed to pneumonia and died later that month. Seeing weakness, Great Britain refused to sign a peace treaty with the United States despite losing their final colony in North America.



There was rising tension from the passage of the Voter Fraud Prevention Act within the South, Africa, and Australia. Now-President Calvin Coolidge was debating whether to send a galleon with more troops to help protect the Australian city of Perth from the stronger and more reinforced British cities in eastern Australia, but considering the protests and possibility of British warships in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, refused to send any troops.

This further added to outrage among the protesters, and protests turned to violent riots. Villages in Australia and Africa were burned down, and a march to Washington, D.C. was organized. The marchers were violently beaten by police and arrested as they marched, and some police officers were murdered by violent protesters within the march, who would be kicked out as the march went on.

Once in Washington, D.C. the protesters stopped and chanted for voting rights and the repeal of the VFPA on the White House Lawn. President Calvin Coolidge was forced to exit the White House himself and address the protesters.



President Coolidge was not given much time to speak. As he had only spoken for twenty minutes, gasps had risen from the crowd as a protester near the front had successfully assassinated President Coolidge before he could be arrested by White House security. The media was sent to a craze, having both the President and Vice President die or be killed before the next election. The Speaker of the House was selected as President temporarily, but he had refused to run for president in 1924.

Members of the Congress erupted into violent debates on the Floor whether to repeal the VFPA, and what to do about the recent riots and protests resulting from the bill.