THE WORLD CREATED BY

Updated Sunday 15 May, 2011 12:18 PM

THE WORLD CREATED BY

NORTH SHORE MILITARY ACADEMY

By Thomas Wm. HAMILTON

NSMA arrived in 1770 as a result of a physics experiment gone awry. As it developed its numbers, strength, understanding, and influence, it created an entire Historical Analysis Office, whose job was to spot and track changes from OTL, insofar as they had records. In a few cases, such as the creation of the Tirolian Republic, they were unaware of the actual interference creating the effect, thinking it was just a "butterfly".

By the time of the Congress of Vienna in 1815 there were some noticeable changes in the maps of Europe and the Americas. The Tirolian Republic was separated from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, taking the western half of OTL's Austria, plus a small piece of Italy (Alto Adiga) and Trieste. In North America, the USA held Canada, Bermuda, the Bahamas, and Florida. The Louisiana Purchase had gone through much as in OTL, perhaps (?) due to NSMA's concern to make sure that happened. Latin American revolutions are further along than in OTL, with some behind the scenes support from the USA which is subtly pushing events away from 180 years of caudilloism, juntas and putsches, and towards a somewhat benevolent ruling class structure. Technology advances are limited: the USA introduced ironclad ships in 1812, the same year as the first telegraph. Railroads are soon to follow. None of this has reached Europe yet. In medicine, penicillin, aspirin, and thermometers are helping the general level of health a bit.

By 1924, the time of the last story ("Timely Interference"), changes are profound. NSMA dominates American society from behind the scenes. It has, for example, deliberately caused the USA to have three major political parties, funding each covertly. President Larkin of the Federalist Party in his first term introduced a federal tax on slaves, then in his second term used the money from the tax to purchase and free slaves. This has resulted in the Federalist Party being weak in the four states (South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi) that then had slaves, and some in other states who resented the social changes NSMA was pushing formed the Republican Party with the proslavers, rightly seeing the other three parties as hopelessly entangled in the changes they hated. This party remains small, however, as it does not receive the covert funding the others get, and is the target of considerable negative propaganda. For example, it generally discouraged women from participating in politics (far too late to block them from being able to vote), so many women will not vote Republican, and blacks remember the origins of the party lie in pro-slavery roots. In national elections the Federalist Party has a fairly solid 22%, the Democrats 20%, the Whigs 18%, the Republicans 10%, others (Socialists, Libertarian, Quebec Independence, Christian, Colored People's, Farmer Labor, etc) 11%, with 19% shifting with the winds. The House of Representatives is composed primarily of the big three, but in most elections the Republicans manage to elect four or five, and about twice per decade one or two of the other parties will win a seat. A Supreme Court ruling in 1855 manipulated by NSMA requires all states to permit more than one party to put up the same candidate, and combine votes. This has enhanced the minor parties' influence while tending to leave them not often winning with their own candidates.

Results in the 1922 midterm elections: (incumbent President is a Whig, first in 28 years)

Senate (94 Seats)

Federalist: 30 Democrat: 37 Whig: 25 other: 2

House of Representatives (451 seats)

Federalist: 129 Democrat: 158 Whig: 147 Republican: 4 Other: 4

State Governors (47)

Federalist: 14 Democrat: 16 Whig: 16 other: 1

Provincial Governors (16)

Federalist: 12 Democrat: 3 Whig: 1

Quebec, Pennsylvania, New Zealand (annexed 1828, statehood 1900) and most of the provinces are solidly Federalist. New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Illinois and some major manufacturing and business areas tend to go Whig, and Whigs are also competitive in some agricultural states. Most of New England and Arkansas lean to the Democrats with considerable Federalist strength. North Carolina, Florida and Louisiana see Whigs fighting with Republicans, while the Federalists have some strength. South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi see the strongest Republican vote, but even here Whigs and Democrats dominate. California is Democratic in the north, Federalist in the south, although the region around Monterey is known to occasionally elect a Whig. There is a small Socialist Party based in New York. Democrats and Federalists have co-opted green issues, since NSMA from the beginning worked to protect the environment. Some of their successes can be seen in the survival of the passenger pigeon and extensive preservation of natural areas.

NSMA alumni are in Congress from all three major parties, as well as holding a number of governorships, a couple Supreme Court seats, and Cabinet posts. The USA now includes all the land in North America it held OTL except a tiny sliver of southern Arizona (the Gadsden Purchase never happened), plus Baja California and all Canada. It also has purchased Greenland and the Virgin Islands from Denmark in exchange for military supplies which allowed Denmark to hold onto Schleswig-Holstein. The USA annexed Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Philippines following a short war in 1889. Hawaii, the Bahamas, Assiniboine, Newfoundland, Luzon, Mindinao, Puerto Rico, Cuba and eight American Indian territories are Provinces, with one vote each in the House of Representatives and one electoral vote each. Provinces tend to support the Federalist Party because it frowns on the existence of Provinces, believing these regions should receive statehood. However, most have too small a population for statehood, and it is denied the Hispanic provinces because of a low level of English literacy. Seven states from OTL do not exist: West Virginia remains part of the mother state, and the Dakotas, Alaska, Montana, Nevada and Wyoming have never become states. Portions are in provinces, the rest just territories with low populations. But from Canada Ontario and Quebec are states, as is the west coast of Canada, here called Franklin, and if New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and Labrador can ever agree, together they would be accepted as a state. Hawaii and Luzon are approaching the point where statehood is likely.

Mexico is severely truncated, with the Yucatan and Chiapas combined with most of Guatemala into a Mayan state where Spanish is very definitely a second language. Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica, El Savador and Panama have remained in a loose confederation. Brazil and Argentina are the least influenced by NSMA, but basically the "colossus of the north" is fated to dominate in almost all timelines, as an OTL French writer predicted.

In Europe, the revolutions of 1848 have left France and Bavaria as Republics, loosely allied with Tirol in defense against Prussia and Austro-Hungary. Poland exists as a buffer state with a limited constitutional monarch who derives from a cadet branch of the Spanish royalty. Italy is united under the Savoy dynasty. Russia created a Duma as a ploy to show popular support for the Czar following the 1908 Serbian crisis, but it is an ineffectual body the current Czar petty much ignores. After a couple unfortunate incidents, NSMA has avoided getting involved in the Balkans, whose politics remain wild and woolly.

Britain controls extensive portions of west and east Africa, while France holds much of the Mediterranean coast west of Egypt, which is independent. Since NSMA had fairly complete information on where the oil, gold, uranium and diamond deposits in Africa were located, the Congo, southwest Africa and the diamondiferous portion of southern Africa are held by the USA. Prussia and Portugal have small holdings.

The Ottoman Empire is still holding on, barely, controlling Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, and Iraq. As a result of heavy diplomatic and economic pressure, the Empire has recognized vilayats for Armenia and Kurdistan. The Arabian Peninsula has broken away from the Empire thanks to NSMA-inspired uprisings, and is run by a "Senate" of sheiks. Their oil has barely been tapped.

Iran is little changed from OTL. The Indian subcontinent is partially controlled by Britain, but less so than in OTL, with several princely states totally independent. Southeast Asia has never been conquered by France, given USA opposition. Japan ended the shogunate in 1850. It had been prepared to pounce on a distracted Russia had the 1908 Serbian crisis turned into a war, but is feeling very constricted, never having taken Taiwan or Korea. China is much like the Ottoman Empire in that it is weak and divided, but with the USA sitting nearby in the Philippines, Japan does not feel free to act.

Australia is a former British colony, looking to the two major English speaking nations for support if Japan threatens. Indonesia remains a Dutch colony, but is wracked by several competing independence movements, including one covertly funded by Japan, another by Egypt's Moslem Brotherhood, and a third by an Indian prince. Several islands have their own homegrown insurgencies. The Dutch would love to pull out, but fear total chaos would ensue. Several attempts at a peace conference to lead to independence have failed. It seems likely that if a major war were to break out anytime soon, Indonesia would be the flashpoint.

The USA launched the first space satellite in 1903. The first manned spacecraft was launched in 1910, followed by the development of a permanent spacestation, which was used for launching the lunar expedition. Nuclear weapons have been discussed as a theoretical possibility since the early 1890s, but so far as anyone knows, no effort has been made to actually build or test any. Japan and Britain are experimenting with rockets, each hoping to be the second nation to reach space. The Czar, however, has as an advisor a monk who tells him that violating God's heaven is a sin, and so Russia has no space program.

The American launch facility is located at Cape Canaveral, FL, but Cuba's Congressional representative regularly tries to introduce legislation to move it to a small town called Guantanamo in Oriente County, Cuba, since it is closer to the equator and gains some additional speed from the Earth's rotation, as well as being further from shipping lanes if a rocket falls into the ocean. Some private interests are in fact studying whether to build the first private commercial launch facility there.

NSMA guided the development of automobiles away from gas or diesel, although a few early models operated on these principles. Electric cars are used as widely as other types are in OTL. Radio became a popular consumer item around 1887, with television introduced in 1899. By the time the first communications satellites were beaming shows around the world in 1911 television was in color. The lack of TV in some countries has become a political issue in those countries.

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