The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave [America RFC]

1775: Britain has finally concluded a long, protracted war with the Kingdom of France, for little to no gain. Britain's protestant allies, the Dutch, have fared even worse, being totally subsumed into Louis' empire. Quebec is still very much French, as is Lousiana, and so too shall the southern Thirteen Colonies if the terms of a harsh peace treaty are enforced.



Georgia has already been taken by France's Indian allies, who have committed great acts of brutality and slaughter on the colonial population there.

In 1775, representitives from Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and the Georgian provincial government-in-exile met for the first meeting of the Continental Congress and signed the Declaration of Independence in Jamestown, Virginia.

[excerpt]

Whereas KING GEORGE III and the government of GREAT BRITAIN hava, amongst other injustices, wilfully ceded the territory of of VIRGINIA, NORTH CAROLINA, SOUTH CAROLINA and GEORGIA to the FRENCH EMPIRE without the consent of the subjects habitated therein, in denial of the Rights of Englishmen and Fundamental Justice...the aforementioned colonies and provinces, in addition to the province of MARYLAND, hereby declare their Indepence from foreign Domination.
The Continental Army, formed from the militias of the five rebel colonies, immediately marched south to Georgia, routing the French-allied Indians who had seized the territory.



Within three months, republican intellectuals in the northern colonies had signed their own declaration, and invited the rebel states to invade.

Naval fighting began in the Gulf of Mexico, where the Royal Navy attacked an American flotilla – these were the fight shots of the war fired between the British and American militaries. The rebel colonies had not initially had the intention of waging war against Great Britain, but the declaration by northern sympathisers had inflamed both British parliament and public opinion, leaving little option but armed conflict.

Attempts by the Royal Navy to re-enforce New York and Boston were rebuffed by the Continental Navy, and a blockade of much of the Eastern Seaboard remained in place, albeit tenuously.

However, the Continental Congress was beginning to fracture over nearly every issue – the nature of the independent American states, how the War of Independence should be prosecuted, slavery – nearly every issue was coming to the forefront of political discussion while the war was still in full swing.



On one hand were Jefferson's faction, who came to be known as the Whigs, and John Adams, who led the Federalists. Into this dissention and disagreement stepped General Horatio Gates.



While George Washington had been the "Savior of Savannah", Gates' army was the one that had begun marching north into the northern colonies, being met with great public support.
As the garrisons in New York and other major colonial cities were overrun by angry mobs or else mutinied and joined the cause of the rebels, delegations were sent to Richmond from these colonies seeking admittance into the Continental Congress. It was with the support of these new admittees, who owed General Gates their independence, that Gates was appointed Commander-In-Chief of the Continental Army. Gates was granted free reign to raise men and funds through the Continental War Office however he saw fit.

The Continental Army of General Gates turned around, having inspired rebellion in the northern colonies, and crossed the Mississipi River to fight the true enemy: the French.



Meanwhile the Boston Fusiliers entered Nova Scotia and was subjected to a fierce artillery barrage from the Halifax battery, but they survived to retreat and fight another day.

The French navy began raiding the American coastline, but to little effect: they were not deterring the coming assault on New Orleans.



The Battle of New Orleans was bloody and won only at a great cost. Gates army was spent, and he was left with barely enough men to hold the territory which he had captured.



With the capture of Louisiana, American aims against France had been achieved. With Spain threatening war against Britain, America managed to secure a treaty brokered in Madrid in which American independence would be recognised, in addition to the territory of Nova Scotia being ceded to the United States.

By the turn of the century, America was a fledgling state ready to join the Great Powers of the world.

Great start!

With the war concluded, a Constitution for this new nation needed to be established. There would be no state religion, unlike the European monarchies. There would be religious freedom for all people – provided they were Christians. The democratic traditions of the Continental Congress would remain. All men are created equal, and would have equal representation in Congress - unless they were black, or not property owners.

While there was no formal "aristocracy" in this new nation, the landed gentry still controlled most of the economic production and wealth in the country. This led to a very stratified society, with poor farmers, a middle-class of merchants and tradesmen, and wealthy landowners who exported their cash crops to markets in Europe.

The legislature of the United States of America would have two houses, one in which seats were given equally to every state in the union, and one in which they would be allotted based on state population. The President of Congress would be elected by a simple majority, with representitives from both houses voting together as one for the momentous decision.

The first President of the Congress of the United States would be the Commander-In-Chief of the Continental Army, General Horatio Gates. He received support from both the Radicals (Whigs) and the Federalists. Although his allegiances lay towards John Adams, he was not considered a partisan figure at the time of his first election.

In order to facilitate western expansion, Congress passed a bill granting free land to any pioneers who would venture west and plant the Stars and Stripes on unclaimed land. Some of this land, however, was not unclaimed, and the number of violent confrontations between settlers and the natives grew rapidly.



Western expansion resulted in the settling of many new cities, including Independence, north of the 49th parallel.



Congress was increasingly worried about America being enclosed on both its northern and southern borders by the British Empire – Canada on the north, British Mexico on the south. Spanish California, too, would prove and impediment to western expansion.

In 1835 a Santee war party began a reign of terror against American settlers in Nebraska and Minnesota, killing hundreds of settlers.



After their raiding and pillaging was done, they retreated back to the lawless plains, but they were tracked down and engaged by rangers from New Hampshire, and over 100 captured Indians were hanged for their part in the atrocities. President Andrew Jackson refused to pardon any of those involved.

General Winfield Scott became a national hero for his victories over various Indian tribes, and he used this public support to become President of Congress later in life, representing the Whigs.
Scott also established the National War Academy in Norfolk, Virginia to train the next generation of United States officers.



(he didn't have chainmail armour, though)

America was quickly becoming the destination of choice for European immigrants, and this was symbolised by Statue of Liberty, constructed in New York.



In 1844, border tensions and the desire for more land, and in competition with the British in Mexico, America invaded the independent Mexican rump state. Unlike the aboriginals the American army was accustomed to fighting, the Mexicans had a trained army equipped with firearms.



Settling along the west coast of the continent not only gave the United States a Pacific port, but also opened up luctrative trading arrangements with eastern nations like the Khanate of India and powerful Qing China, who were eager to purchase cheap American cotton.



However, this cheap cotton was being produced by slave labour, and European nations who had already abolished the practice and freed their slaves refused to buy products produced by slaves.

In 1960, President Scott has faced with the dilemma of slavery: his party was fractured over the issue, but his faction was able to maintain control of the party. The Democrats were vociferiously pro-slavery, but they had been soundly defeated in the 1856 election. President Scott managed to reach a negotiated settlement with pro-slavery Whigs, agreeing to the abolition of slavery on the condition that slaveowners be compensated for the loss of their property in a similar fashion as British slaveowners had been by the Emancipation Act of 1833.

There was some talk of secession by southern state governments, and there was a brief riot in the capitol of Richmond, but emancipation was eventually inacted with little bloodshed.

Wow, just switched over from slavery in 1960? this is going to be a quick run, isn't it? Still, nothing gold can stay, so I will enjoy it no matter how long it lasts.

Clearly it was a typo - I obviously meant 1860.

Looks great.

Enacted 10char.

Crimson Phantom said:

Clearly it was a typo - I obviously meant 1860.

Click to expand...

Ah, I see.

Nice start! Can't wait to see the rest of it!

Great story barely waiting for more.

In 1866, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland declared war on the United States of America. The Royal Navy immediately took control of the entire Atlantic coast, bombarding American cities with their powerful frigates.

The U.S. 1st Cavalry turned back an attack at Detroit, but this victory was a small one. The war was clearly in Britain's favour: they had amassed an enormous army in North America, and were ready to attack the United States on both fronts.



The United States maintained an army just large enough to protect its cities – the only units it had with which to attack were the 1st Cavalry Division and the Tennessee Artillery Regiment. A massive recruitment drive was undertaken; General McClellan knew that the war could not be won without men. Thankfully American men were ready to heed the call to arms, and the United States had a sophisticated industrial base that would hopefully be able to win the war.

The British under Colonel Sir Garnet Wolseley conducted raids throughout the American mid-west, striking at the infrastructure of the United States. However, Wolsoley's Western Expedition ended at Amarillo, when his cavalry charged the city walls and was repulsed by the militia and the Rhode Island Regiment.

The Tennessee Artillery Regiment, one of America's two columns of cannon, was destroyed at the Battle of the Rio Grande. General Ulysses Grant was forced to retreat with the Delaware Civil Guard.

As the war raged, plague hit both Ireland and the United States. With Union soldiers dying in droves without seeing combat with the enemy, Congress was prepared to seek peace. However, the British rejected all delegations.



A new campaign was launched by the British, who took advantage of the epidemic that was ravaging America but leaving Canada and Mexico relatively untouched.

Fresh conscripts from Alabama, already at half-strength from disease, were forced to surrender when faced with an onslaught of healthy, well-trained British troops. The British had also developed repeating rifles which far out-performed antiquated American muzzle-loaders.

But as the British ventured south they too became sick, and the Carolina Regiment of Foot, one of the United States most decorated units, managed to counter-attack successfully at forces in Ohio. Fresh redcoats were still headed towards Chicago, though, and it looked as though by the time they arrived they would be able to march into the city unopposed, such was the state the defenders were in.



To the rescue came the Cleveland Cavalry Corps. Newly assembled but well-trained in hit-and-run tactics they managed to achieve victory at the Battle of Kalamazoo.

The United States began a counter-attack, capturing Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario and dislodging British troops stationed there.



Neither side seemed able to hold any of the ground it managed to take, leading to a great loss of life for little gain.

In addition to the plague, the British naval blockade was driving many Americans to the brink of starvation. To alleviate this, Congress gave some priority to the construction of a new navy. These new ships were modeled after French designs, being slower but heavier and bearing a higher number of cannon in order to best the Royal Navy's frigates.

Away from the Anglo-American war, rebellion had broken out in Quebec. A segment of the Quebecois were following America's example by declaring themselves an independant republic free of Bourbon control.



France had lost much international power since the War of the Sardinian Succession, where the Duke of Sardinia Piedmont had led a successful uprising against the Bourbon princes who governed much of Italy. Because Sardinia-Piedmont had relyed on heavy British support for their war of independence, they had in turn entered the war against America on Britain's side. However, as only a regional power in the Mediterranean they had not sent a single man to fight against the United States, and their support was only diplomatic.

On the seas, small-scale engagements were being won by the United States Navy. What they lacked in numbers they made up for in strength, and they had the deciding factor of friendly ports in their favour. If British ships needed repair they would need to go back to Albion or Hibernia, or at least Mexico. American ships operated mere miles from their home ports.
Under General Michael Clay, the bulk of the American army launched a campaign through the Niagara peninsula, capturing Toronto and aiming to take the capitol of the Province of Canada: Scarborough.



As the newspapers printed stories about the Niagara campaign, news came from France that the King had fled to England and Paris was in the hands of a radical republican provisional government. Quebec used this moment to declare its full independence from France.

The massed armies of General Clay attacked following an artillery barrage, fighting in the massive Battle of Burgoyne Wood. Though outnumber 9:1, the British and Canadian troops put up a strong resistance. The British regulars were equipped with Enfield rifles that enabled them to fire ten accurate shots before having to reload. But all the training and equipment in the world couldn't save the Canadian capitol from the sheet numbers of the Americans, who won the battle after nine days and marched triumphantly into Scarborough.

PART 4

Although Ontario was quickly being taken by the now-powerful army, British naval supremacy could not be challenged; for every victory there were two defeats, a ratio that a nation with an inferior navy like America's could not afford.

While many men were fighting in Canada, many more were busy laying rails all across America. This great demand for labour led to millions of immgrants flooding into America. The war, however, made it practically impossible for European immigrants to cross the Atlantic, so rail companies and factories alike were forced to recruit from China, Japan and India.

After another bloody battle Thunder Bay, the lynchpin of British control in Ontario, was captured at enormous cost by McClellan's armies.



Congress was divided over what to do now that Canada had been conquered. Surely now the British would sue for peace and give up Ontario, but that would allow them to maintain Mexico and their Caribbean colonies which would put America at risk in the future.

As elections loomed, the two parties, the Democrats and the Whigs held to radically different platforms. The Democrats sought peace with the United Kingdom and the end of tariffs on European goods. In an attempt to dash Whig attempts to portray them as "treasonous" they nominated General-in-Chief of the army, George Brinton McClellan, who had by that time become stridently against the war. The Whigs in turn nominated General Ulysses Grant as their candidate for President of Congress. The Whigs promised to maintain tariffs and to carry on the war "until every tea-sipping, crumpet-eating imperialist is ejected from the American continent".

The Democrats fared well in the north, where fishing and trade had been cut off by the Royal Navy and many had had their lives and livlihoods destroyed. The Democrats also garned voted by die-hard anti-abolitionists still angry at "the Party of Scott" which had similarly "robbed them of their livlihood".

The Whigs managed to maintain control of Congress, however, through the vast seats newly established in the west. Jobs in railway construction and munitions factories had drawn hundreds of thousands to Texas, Kansas, Colorado, Wisconsin, Illinois and other interior states, and it was the votes of these men that decided the election.



(Note that by this time I'm no longer going by the date it says on the game screenshots. Obviously a UK-US war couldn't go on for forty years)

On the day of his inauguration, President Grant and Congress received word that not only was the war far from over, it was in fact just beginning. Spain, seeking to gain American territory in Oregon and Texas, had declared war on the United States, bringing with it the full strength of its empire, spanning nearly all of South America, as well as California and Egypt. McClelland resigned from his post as General-in-Chief, decrying the Whigs for having escalated the war by refusing to negotiate peace with Britain.

A group of volunteers from Utah ventured forth as soon as word of the war travelled to their isolated state. These men immediately grabbed their rifles and seized the Spanish border fort of Alto Pico, where less than 200 Americans then held off the repeated counterattacks of over 1 000 Spanish cavalrymen for nine days before making their retreat.



They were relieved by the Virginia Regiment, another group of untrained volunteers, who held off further Spanish attempts to retake the fort. Alto Pico was quickly draining the Spanish reserves of manpower in California.

Alto Pico became a rallying cry for the American people, a symbol of the defence of freedom and liberty against tyranny.

---

America's army, now battle hardened from eight years of war and with a powerful industry to back them up was ready to take the war to the heart of California.



The 17th Texas Rangers, a unit specifically trained to fight in the rugged hills of north California, held off yet another Spanish cavalry assault.



The British began a campaign along the border, but it ended indecisively.



The U.S. navy, having finally banished the British from the American coastline, was able to conduct surveillance missions on the state of British defences in Mexico. Apparently, behind the front line, their defences were...somewhat less than sufficient.



Seeing this weakness they held behind their lines, the new General-in-Chief, General William Tecumseh Sherman, ordered an amphibious landing in the Yucatan peninsula.

San Francisco, the major city in California, had been left with only a token garrison after the disasterous attempts by the Spanish commanders to retake Alto Pico. The City was surrendered to America's finest and most decorated Regiment, the 3rd Virginia Grenadiers, on 18th August, 1873.

In the Treaty of Madrid, signed by both nations at the end of the year, Spain gave up all claims to territory in North America and agreed to pay reparations for the war.

Did you alter the city names of England to get names like Scarborough and Yucatan?

In my games Chichen Itza stays the same if conquered by England and Scarborough is called Fort Albany.

nody said:

Did you alter the city names of England to get names like Scarborough and Yucatan?

In my games Chichen Itza stays the same if conquered by England and Scarborough is called Fort Albany.

Click to expand...

He's playing a 3000BC start from what I can ascertain, if that changes anything

Yes, I did alter the names. I'm playing a 600 AD game.

It just seemed silly to me that obsure forts should be Canada's major cities, or that a Mexico that had been under British domination for three centuries would retain entirely Aztec or Mayan names.

I agree with you on the names. Good game too and nice story I like your style really. Anyways good luck in the war and after taking Mexico you should get vengeance on the Spanish and take Spain itself. Just my advice though.

Hahaha, I doubt that would happen. We'll soon be in the age of nuclear weapons, rendering war obsolete. Besides, it would be much easier and more profitable to simply take South America - I peeked in worldbuilder as I was changing names, they control the entire thing. Well, except for three Incan vassal cities. The rest is all yellow. I'm amazed they're as stable as they are.

PART 5

While there was some resistance in Canada to the American takeover by loyalists to the crown, Congress implimented a policy of mass immigration to the largely unpopulated Canadian wilderness. Along with Americans, many Europeans flocked to Canada, and quite soon the loyalists found themselves aliens in their own country.



(I actually don't know how this happened - Scarborough became American almost immediately, by Thunder Bay is still 88% British)

Sherman's gambit to capture the Yucatan worked: the Rhode Island Regiment met only a token resistance from the local inhabitants of the peninsula, and the only American deaths were from disease.

The capture of the Yucatan sparked an armed uprising by the native peoples of Central America against British rule. A provisional government was established in Port George where a Declaration of Independece was signed for the United States of Central America.

Cuba and Jamaica, trustee states of Britain's who had been ruled in their history by nearly all of the European colonial powers, acquiesced to Congress' demand for treaty ports. These islands became United States Overseas Territories, within the sphere of American influence but free from the emerging labour laws which were being signed into law in the United States proper.



(In RFC, Europeans never seem to settle the Carribean, in my experience. This never made sense to me, considering Cuba and Jamaica will give you Spices and Sugar. But I suppose those can be gotten just as easily on the mainland)

Tampico was captured by regiments from Texas, but America faced poor odds for winning in Mexico. Yucatan had apparently been the only gap in the Mexican defence – the west and central parts of the country were well fortified and packed with British regulars.

Tampico was quickly retaken by the British, who suffered few casualties while they surrounded and destroyed five American divisions. The Second Battle of Tampico was the worst defeat the American army had ever suffered.



The remnants of the American army withdrew back across the border, regrouping in Austin, Texas. The Texian border was defended with Gatling guns, so it would be unthinkable for the British to attack. What the British lacked in technology, however, they made up for in numbers. The British were able to conscript hundreds of thousands of Mexicans into service, in addition to being able to re-enforce from Britain.

After ten years of war, Americans were tired of conflict. However, Congress stayed firmly in Whig control and they would not push for a peace settlement.

---

To the northen border, the legislature of the Republic of Quebec voted in favour of admittence to the Union, and Congress greeted them as new Americans. They would, of course, keep special rights at the state level, including their language, but they were now protected by the U.S. army. The Quebecois had seen what had happened to France after their republican revolution: they had been invaded by all the powers of Europe and carved up between them like a Christmas goose. The only reason Quebec had maintained its freedom was because of America, and it was a fairly logical outcome that Quebec would eventually become an American state.



After building up forces for a great time, finally around a dozen infantry units supported by artilery and cavalry crossed back into Mexico. The British had essentially ignored the USCA declaration of independence – they were far too bust holding on in Mexico to worry about Honduras, Guatamala and Panama – even though Panama was their link to Australia and New Guinea.

Tampico was recaptured, and this time it was the British and Mexicans who suffered a staggering defeat. British attempts to recapture the city were repulsed by the 202nd Division from Mississipi.

In the USCA, the provisional government was overthrown in a coup by former officers of the colonial army, who inexplicably declared a state of hostilities with the United States. They demanded the handover of the Yucatan peninsula, a vital military asset in the mutual war with the British. The USCA, however, had only four infantry divisions under their command and were therefore wholly incapable of making good on their threats.

British Mexico was falling apart, and the British public were increasingly unwilling to see their men and boys dying to hold onto the last vestiges of a dying empire. British parliament began a new strategy of "Mexification" - handing over guns and badges to those Mexicans still willing to fight and getting aboard the first ships out of Coyuca.



Unlike the British army, the Mexicans were largely untrained, poorly equipped and poorly lead – most Mexican officers had already been killed or captured in the course of the war.



Coyuca was captured by the Americans, who outnumbered the beleaguered Mexicans 10:1. Mexico City would fall soon after. The single British unit that had not fled the doomed colony, a well-trained unit with three promotions, refused to wait for the inevitable surrender and attacked the Wisconsin 101st Regiment east of Mexico City. But, as they so often had, the American "citizen's army" proved to be a match for the fewer but more professional British, and Mexico's best hope for survival perished in the fruitless assault.



(the two extra stars are for the states of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario and Quebec - I decided that Washington would be incorporated into Oregon, and West Virginia, of course, never came into being as there was no civil war, leaving a net gain of two states. The western Canadian provinces [which in this game never existed] are incorporated into existing states [Montana, Oregon] or else into the North-West Territory)

Nice job and good luck in the Modern era and have fun becoming the only nation in the western hemisphere.

mAP TRADE?

PART 6

PART 6

(I'm going to advance the timeline a little here to make up for the fact that we have modern technology now)

With the loss of Mexico, Britain was prepared to continue a naval war against the United States. For nothing could sink the Royal Navy! Except perhaps the U.S.S. Liberty, anchored off the coast of England. Or maybe those giant sea monsters that look large enough to crush buildings.



Britain was forced to accept that he glory was gone, that she was now a second-rate power, controlling only her home islands and Australia and New Guinea. Britain grudgingly signed a peace treaty, although unlike Spain it refused to offer any sort of monetary compensation – this was a bitter peace for both parties.

The USCA refused to even negotiate with "neo-colonialist American swine", even as American troops stormed Guatamala City by the hundreds of thousands. President Horatio McCormack, the head of the military junta that had seized power from the provisional government, became mad and delusional, commanding non-existant armies to counter-attack.



He began seeing conspiracies everywhere, and executed most of his cabinet as traitors. The USCA was collapsing.
---

THE MODERN WORLD

Now in the 20th century, the world is a strange place.



North America is home to the United States of America, a bastion of freedom in a very unfree world.

Spain controls all of the Iberian peninsula and the west of north Africa. Portugal, their client state, exists only on Ponta Delgada. Spain's colonies, self-governing dominions still loyal to their mother country, dominate South America, with an autonomous native region permitted to exist in the Andes.

The Great Britain has lost its most important colony, Mexico, and without it all it has is the home islands and a very sparsely populated Australia (they actually only have one city there but it just looked wrong to not colour it all in on the map), as well as New Guinea.

Scandanavia is composed of several United Kingdoms, nominally independant but all with the same king, and completely reliant on each other for survival. The United Kingdoms are currently supporting the government in Free Italy against Soviet takeover. Without their support it would surely collapse (they actually control Rome in-game, I chose to represent this ownership as more of a "stewardship").

Germany, which had itself conquered much of Europe during a brief dictatorship, was eventually single-handedly defeated by the Soviet Union, who marched their armies all the way into France, "liberating" it. The U.S.S.R. now stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific, the largest empire in the history of man.

The Netherlands, after centuries of French domination, is now independent, but this indepence may be very brief indeed – they may go the way of Yugoslavia: after winning independence from Germany on their own they were then invaded by the Soviets. Time will tell...

Egypt is nominally a Spanish protectorate, but it owes little allegiance to Europe's last colonial power. It survives relatively self-sufficiently.

Much of the Middle East is part of an alliance of Islamic republics, who in recent years took over Greece, flexing their muscles as a regional power. Libya, though on the other side of Egypt, is a member of this alliance.

The Caliphate of Fars is a fuedal kingdom only now modernising, but it too is showing an ability to project power a long ways – it has within the past six months sponsered a coup in Algeria to install a friendly general.

East Africa, that which is not part of the United Islamic Republics, consists of a few countries, although these are generally bronze-age kingdoms ruled by tribal chiefs. Sub-saharan Africa is largely "the forgotten continent".

The only parts of Africa to have embraced modern technology and ways of life are German West Africa and German South-West Africa. With the Reich gone, however, these last vestiges of German power have been left to form independent nations of their own. These white settler states have instited a policy of "abtrennung", in which whites and blacks are forcibly seperated. Aboriginals in these two nations cannot vote or travel without special documents, and are denied most other civil rights.

India is, in terms of population, the worlds largest democracy. It is as it always has been: independent. It is a regional power and has a sound economy.

To the west of India lies the Federal Republic of China and its allies, the Republics of Annam, Kampuchea, Siam, and Laos, and the Malaya Federation. Together they form the mainland Asian opposition to Red China.

The People's Republic of China is the successor to Qing China. Although ideologically similar to the Soviets, they have tensions between them. They are fierce opponents of both Free China and the Empire of Japan.

Japan is an empire in retreat; Japan once controlled much of coastal China, but was forced out by the Republicans during the Fourth Sino-Japanese War. However, it still has a strong navy and other colonies: Korea, Manchuria and the Palawan Islands (the Philippines).

America most definately faces a future rival in the USSR, but with an empire so vast it should take only a little prodding to collapse.