The greatest Timeline ever.

[M]

I haven't posted much (ok, at all) recently, but I have been lurking around. I'm just loving the Superimperialist and TR timelines, so I have decided to build one of my own. A timeline that begins at the beginning of everything, the conception of liberty. Welcome to the Timeline of Glorious Democracy Reigning Supreme by the grace of Lady Liberty and her strong right hand, the United States of America. Welcome to the Greatest Timeline ever! First chapter will start in 1776, just as soon as I write it.

[M]

I lied. 1773.

With the passage of the Intolerable Acts, the Sons of Liberty grew ever more extreme. They began to condemn slavery as an evil and primitive institution, a representation of the bondage by which Britain held America. Tom Paine explicitly condemns slavery in Common Sense as "the Royal Brute of Dixie". Slaveowners began to be pestered as friendly to the British Empire, and this became a self fulfilling prophecy. The Carolinas and Georgia increasingly became more supportive of British rule.

1775

The Boston Massacre, followed by the midnight ride of Paul Revere, the shot heard round the world and the battles of Lexington and Concord. 10 colonies meet at the First Continental Congress to plan a common defense.

Virginia patriot Patrick Henry gives a rousing speech which concludes, "Why stand we here idle? Is peace so dear, or life so sweet, as to be bought at the price of the chains of slavery? The next gust of wind from the north will bring with it the clash of resounding arms, while our brethren are slaving in the fields. I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!" Virginia leaders lead by General George Washington and statesman Thomas Jefferson free their slaves, setting an example for other colonists.

1776

Declaration of Independence affirms the new nation's Enlightened Republican principles. Slavery is one of the complaints in the long litany that forms the declaration's middle section.

Francis Marion launches a pro-US uprising in the Carolina upcountry. With his wily hit and run tactics in the marshes around the Congaree and Pee Dee rivers, he becomes known as the Swamp Fox. The new Continental Army launches an offensive southward to link up with him.

1777

General Cornwallis lands in on Long Island, than seizes New York. Washington's army is nearly captured, but retreats to the mainland.

General Benedic Arnold's invasion of Quebec successfully captures both Quebec and Trois Rivieres, but fails to take Montreal and secure the entire St. Laurence River. He is later beaten back out of Canada.

General Nathaniel Greene is the most succcessful, his Southern campaign is extremely sucessful. Avoiding British strongholds on the Carolina coast, he marches through the upcountry and links up with Marion. They are said to have embrace, with Greene exclaiming "I only regret we have but two lives to give for our country!"

1778

Cornwallis is able to capture both Philadelphia and Boston, but the USA does not seem to be collapsing just yet. Greene and Marion briefly seize Charleston, then are driven back by British reinforcements under General Banastre Tarleton. Tarleton alows his trrops to rape and loot with wild abandon in Charleston. Many Carolina and Georgia Loyalists turn turncoat, as do some of the local Scotch-Irish in Tarleton's company.

George Rogers Clark launches an invasion of the Old Northwest along the Ohio River. Scattered Redcoats and their Indian allies suffer defeats in several small scale skirmishes. Clark takes a great deal of land without too much pain.

Battle of Saratoga is a smashing victory for General Arnold, falling back from Canada. Americans hold their fire till they see the "whites of there eyes". Then they let 'em have it.

1779

France declares war on the British Empire, and lands an expeditionary force under the Marquis du Lafayette. France's fleet at this time comes as close to matching Britain's as anyone's will for the next 200 years. Spain declares war in support of France, without entering a formal agreement with the Americans. The Netherlands, which has been friendly to the American position throughout, decides to ramain neutral for now.

New Berne, Wilmington, and Charleston have become isolated British fortresses. Greene advances into Georgia and threatens Savannah. Governments of the Carolinas and Georgia join the 13 colonies, lead by SC statesmen Thomas Pinkney who has suddenly become antislavery as Continental arms are successful. While many Southerners support this because of Tarleton's harshness, The British strategic position is still very strong.

On Christmas Eve, General Washington crosses the Delaware River. Numerous Britsh soldiers and "Hessians" (German mercenaries) are caught sleeping. Literally.

1780

Clark progresses deeper into the Western frontier. The Shawnee are scattered when trying to resist this advance. Clark cuts South and comes close to threatenting British ports in West Florida.

Greene continues to solidify Continental control of the Caroliana upcountry, however, he is pshed back in Georgia, and the British do not seem close to losing th important port cities.

Britain declares war on the Netheralnds, heating up the Caribbean War, which they appear to be losing. The Parliamentary opposition, lead by Edmund Burke and William Pitt the Elder, is increasingly pro-American. Pitt withdraws his son from the British army. PM Lord North is ridiculed, and it is whispered that German speaking George III is mad, or at least headed that way.

In the North, Philly and Boston are liberated. The net Washington and Lafayette are drawing around British forces has them enclosed in two major regions, the Chesapeake and New York areas.

Arnold is promoted and commended for his excellent service, especially at Saratoga. He launches a new ofeensive into the Maritime provinces, but Britain easily reinforces them through Halifax and he is beaten back again.

1781

British forces under Cornwallis himself are forced to surrender at Virginia's Yorktown peninsula to Combined American and French land and naval forces.

1782

Spain captures Havana, threatens Florida. The Dutch take back several lost Caribbean islands.

The Southern campaign becomes a stalemate.

1783

Britain sues for peace.

The Peace of Paris:

Anything not dealing with continental North America is OTL. Spain gains the Floridas. The 10 Colonies are recognized as independent, and George Rogers Clark's conquest of the Old Northwest is recognized. Canada remains British. The Carolinas and Georgia form an independent Southern Confederacy, are not allowed to join the USA or Britain will declare war.

The Continental Congress sets up the Articles of Confederation. Slavery is explicity banned by all United States and by the Confederate State of North Carolina. It begins to revive in Georgia and SC as Tories (in our lingo, Loyalists to the Crown) return to prominence. Britain continues to illegally occupy Ft. Detroit and a few others in the far north of the United States. The Articles actually do a decent job of esteblishing a system to govern the terrirtories, but other than that are fairly ineffective.

By 1788, change is in the air.

[M]

If no one cares, I don't really have to write this thing.

[ilikeverin]

Interesting.  Verrry interesting.  *needs maps*

[M]

1783-88

In the United States of America, the Articles of Confederation government has been proved to be woefully inadequate. It actually does a decent job of managing the Northwest Territories (initially these were claimed by the various original colonies, whose mandates strethced to te Pacific Ocean based on their various charters, which often conflicted withone another).

Everything else is a mess. There is no strong executive. Each state has their own currency, and Rhode Island and Connecticut actually fight a nasty trade war. Ethan Allen's Green Mountain men are increasingly adamant about having their own state in Vermont. These boys fought under Benedict Arnold in Canada during the war. Their area is claimed by both New York and New Hampshire, but is actually controlled by New York. The Green Mountain Men at one point manage to string the governor up on a poll.

Defense is problematic as well. There is no strong standing army, and the government has little power to defend the nation. Britain occupies several strategic forts in the northern United States, including Ft. Detroit. John Jay travels to London on a government mission but is unable to get the British to withdraw. Britain also arms tribes like the Iroquois Confederacy as a further barrier to US power and expansion.

The final straw comes with Shays' Rebellion, 1786-1787. Daniel Shays leads an uprising of Massachussates farmers and unpaid soldiers. This soon spreads across New England. A new Constitutional Convention is summoned to amend the Articles of Confederation, which have clearly failed the USA.

Meanwhile, in the Southern Confederacy, they have their own problems. Pinckney has chaned his mind once again. He is now more favorable to slavery and friendship with Britain, perhaps even a return to British overlordship. He forms a political party called the Tories. Francis Marion, the Swamp Fox, counters by forming the Patriots, which opposes slavery and supports American union. At first Pinckney looks unpopular except with the eite gentleman planters, upcountry poor white farmers are big fans of Marion, and the South still remembers the heavy hand of General Tarleton.

However, North Carolina, which sees itself as "a thin vale of humility between two mountans of arrogance", decides that South Carolina is the greater Mountain in this case, and the government in Wilmington presses for annexation to the USA. The USA would love to accept, but has it's own problems and is nowhere near ready for another war with Britain.

There is a strong backlash in the Southern Confederacy's first Presidential election in 1785. Marion wins North Carolina, but loses his home state of South Carolina, as well as traditionally Anglophile Georgia (Georgia supprts Britain as protection against Spanish and Indian incursions). According to Confederate law, one must win two of te three states to become president. So Pinckney is inagurated. Britain feels confident enough to remove most of its illegal military presence from the Southern Confederacy. (It is no longer really tenable anyway, as Spain now controls both the Floridas and Cuba). Marion becomes South Carolina's Senator in the three member legislature and leads the opposition to President Pinckney. The legislature is dominated by patriots, as only Georgia has a Tory senator, who is in fact Oglethorpe's grandson).

Now, about that Constitutional Convention...

[M]

Constitutional Convention

The Constitutional Convention assembled in Philadelphia in 1787. Old Benjamin Franklin effectively played host, which was disliked by none as Franklin's sharp mind and sharper wit had not declined with age. General Washington of Virginia was unanimously elected presiding officer. A notable absence was Thomas Jefferson, who was serving as ambassador to France and was unable to attend, although he was very interested in the process and communicated frequently by letters with members.

It soon became clear that the Convention was not amending the Articles of Confederation at all. Rather, they were writing an entirely new Constitution for the United States of America. The document itself was authored by James Madison, also of Virginia. It gained widespread support at the convention and was submitted for ratification. Among other things, it established a bicameral legislature and a strong central government. It is based largely on Locke's ideas of limited government and social contract, Smit's of Free Trade, and Montesqiue's of checks and balances between government branches.

A debate broke out nationwide as the Constitution was dropped like grapeshot on an unsuspecting country. The Federalsit Papers, anonymous but actually authored by James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay, are the founding documents of the Federalists, who support the constitution. These forces are able to sweep aside the objections of the appropriately name anti-Federalists after the adoption of the Bill of Rights, 11 basic freedoms, such as the first amendment's guarantee of free speech, religion, press, assembly, and petition, and the eleventh's guarantee that no person in the United States can or will be considered property.

Washington's first term, 1789-1792

The passage of the constitution leads to the first presidential election, that of 1789, in which General Washington is unanimously elected. Washington could have been a Dictator or even a King, but despised both and only reluctantly became President. John Adams of Massachusetts, the second place candidate, becomes Vice President, as provided by the Constitution. Thomas Jefferson becomes Secretary of State, Henry Knox of War, Alexander Hamilton of the Treasury. Hamilton and Jefferson form opposing camps within the administration, with Hamilton supporting a strong federalized government and national banks, and Jefferson supporting an agrarian republican idyllic existence. Hamiltonians become known as Federalists, Jeffersonians as Democratic-Republicans. VP Adams tends to side with the Federalists, while President Wshington grows to detest parties. Also in this era, Ethan Allen briefly declared a Vermont Republic, and eventually all concerned parties agreed that Vermont would become the 11th, and first landlocked, state.

Meanwhile in the Confederacy, Pinckney was losing his hold on things. He suffered a defeat to Marion in 1789. President Marion attempted repeatedly to accomplish American Union, however, president Washington waas adamant about the preservation of neutrality, and refused to admit the "three lost states", as they were popularly known. Marion also tried unsuccessfully to adopt a constitution on the American model (the Southern Confederacy instyead remained much loser), and also failed to ban slavery, again on the US model.

Washington's second term, 1792-1796

Washington was reelected in 1792, again unanimously, this time with Jefferson in second becoming Vice President. The outbreak of Revolution in France and war in Europe complicated matters considerably for the new nation. Vice President Jefferson, Confederate President Marion, and Ben Franklin, ambassador to Frace, all support the entrance of the United States into war with Britain in support of Revolutionary France. However, Washington adamantly preserved neutrality and refused American Union, instead sending John Jay back to London and negotiating a treaty seen by the Jeffersonians as giving in to British demands.

Washington was also criticized for putting down the "Whiskey Rebelion" with excessive force; using his powers as commander in chief, he assembled a force of 10,000 men and crushed the rebellion ruthlessly. Jefferson was especially upset, believing that a little rebellion every now and then was a good thing.

Washington decided not to run for a third term, setting a precedent. In his farewell address, he warned against the danger of political parties. His advice was not heeded.

That brings us up through through 1796, which will do for tonight.

[M]

It takes me time and occasional research (defined as clicking a few buttons and skimming a page) to write this thing. So you better show some interest. Or I wil just quit. And that would be bad. So comment, please! Thank you.

Oh, thanks ilikiverin for your interest. If I figure out how to do maps, I may stick some in. Currently maps are OTL except the Carolinas and Georgia are an independent country, called the Southern Confederacy.

[Polkergeist]

It's good that you have taken slavery out of the picture, it makes for easier expansion, if that is what you are lookig for.

I can also sympathise with the time constraints on writing a good timeline as I have been doing one of my own lately. I should be able to post it up soon.

[M]

Exactly! You caught on early. Removing slavery accelerates expansion. Also, I get to inlude the founding fathers in my TL, which I must say is great fun.

In the short term, the anti-slavery movement has lost us the South. But my Southern Confederacy is the most interesting part of my TL so far, if I do say so myself.

[Polkergeist]

Yes, we will see how your southern confederacy will pan out, but as the TL will be expansionist  I'd like to see how the US will make up for its lost  southern states. What other areas will it make up for the loss of the south.

[dunn]

M
I had the same problem with TR timeline, but people do read, not everyone posts though. keep the work

[Siege40]

I think the reason you aren't getting any major response is that your TL closely resembles the actual events of history. It sounds as though the South is going to be over thrown quickly, I kind of like the idea of a Southern Confederacy, with Virginia in it, but it isn't my story now is it?

Siege

[Gustaf]

That we don' post doesn't mean that we don't read...

I will read it over and post later. Keep up the good work, time lines are always interesting.