The Vicendum Series Part 1:

The Fall of The American Republic

 

Prologue

 

Besides September 11, 2001 (whose effects are still being played out), the biggest historical event of recent memory was the Cold War. It was an era that featured the so-called “last fight between superpowers” and an era when arguably nationalist rhetoric was still considerably high, although in decline since World War II. The effects of the struggle between the United States of America and the Soviet Union gripped and frightened the world for years, as people feared that both would threaten the world with destruction ten times over at the slightest provocation. Fortunately, reason prevailed, and neither launched a nuclear attack once, though it’s arguable that the threat isn’t over yet.

 

In real life, the final years of the Cold War saw the destruction of the Soviet Union and the effective end of Communism worldwide. It was seen at the time as a monumental collapse, with the enormous and powerful entity that was the USSR vanishing overnight. In reality, its collapse was a long time coming, with its economy teetering on the brink for well over a decade. The Soviets overshot their economic capabilities in attempting to compete with the US, and by 1991 they just could not handle the weight, allowing the USSR to literally disintegrate. The resulting “new world order” created a plethora of new nations and ended the status of Eastern Europe as nothing more than Soviet satellites, although how independent and how stable these new nations are is questionable. One does not need to look far to still see the old Soviet-style meddling in place, as just last year the Russian President helped the Ukrainian incumbent rig his way back to power, before the real winner manage to win his way to power thanks to world pressure and the Ukrainian courts. Although the plan was thwarted it was still a stark reminder of the shakiness that still plagues the nascent democracies that exist in Eastern Europe.

 

However, few may have realized that the United States too was not on solid ground following the Cold War. True, the recession that hit in 1990 was not as catastrophic as the economic collapse that crippled the Soviet Union, but it was still evidence that the Americans were not as strong as they looked. George Bush Sr.’s taxation policies were gutting the economy and cutting millions of jobs, moves that led to his electoral defeat in 1992 to Bill Clinton. Before he became known for what he did minus his pants, Clinton did help reinvigorate the American economy to the prosperous state it had enjoyed during the height of the Cold War. However, Clinton’s Presidency was also marked by the beginnings of the divisions that are so deeply prevalent in the US today. Events like the Columbine shooting, the ill-conceived invasion of Kosovo and the first World Trade Centre bombing all occurred during Clinton’s rule, and each helped undermine the stability of a united America. Of course, it was not just big events in Clinton’s reign that helped underline that point. For example, two policies that current President George W. Bush (AKA George Bush Jr.)  is criticized for began in Clinton’s second term- it was in 1996 that the much-publicized “abstinence-only” education program began, and worries about an “overheating” economy started to circulate by the end of Clinton’s rule. It is true that Bush Jr.’s policies exacerbated what Clinton did, but the fact that a lot of what Bush did also occurred during Clinton’s rule is often forgotten by a press that at times seems preoccupied with chastising Bush. Granted, it does not absolve Bush- who probably owes his election victory to the Democrats choosing a poor candidate rather than actual acceptance by the American voting public- but it is to say that he’s not all to blame for what ills America now.

 

Of course, that is a point that political scientists and the like can debate amongst themselves- I’m out to postulate what could have been. In real life, the US escaped disaster when its rival the USSR sunk- in my version, the USSR still sunk but it took the US with it. Such a scenario, though radical, is not unlikely- as I said before, the US is currently divided, and in the early ‘90s the US’ economy was in poor shape. Add to that, the atmosphere of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s was one of massive chaos- in the midst of the collapse of the Soviet Union; there was confusion amidst the celebrations, as old, previously strong regimes toppled within the blink of an eye without any idea of what could actually replace them. Thus, in the chaos of the time, it may not be that far-fetched that a similar upheaval could have taken place in the US. The Cold War created its fair share of fanatics and its possible a few of them may have started to think that, with the war over that “superpowers” are not needed anymore, and with the USSR gone so too should the US. Radicals of that kind do exist in North America- they just never get power because none of them are charismatic enough and/or have the guts to really do anything, but it may just be a matter of time before someone does. In my version of events, it would not take long for the US to crumble after the USSR- occurring also in 1991- with the result being largely the same as in Eastern Europe- chaos, possibly anarchy, then a whole new set of states and powers come into being. With the US gone so too are Canada and Mexico, whose dependence on the US today means that they certainly would not be able to hold on to their lands without the US to help them out.

 

In the midst of the upheavals, the US’ allies come to help, but with the US ceasing to practically exist, the allies bite the bullet and play a part in its inevitable destruction. They will not, however, just content themselves with an American collapse and will eventually work to salvage whatever it can of North American culture and society. This is because the US’ lands are still very valuable today on an economic standpoint, and, on a global standpoint anyway, it would be foolish to destroy what had become an important source of income. Of course, without the US a new world order would be able to be created, allowing for something completely different to emerge from what once was. It may or may not be better, but like anything in history, time will be the only thing that can determine that.

 

Chapter 1: Prelude To Chaos

 

During the 1950s and 1960s, the United States of America and the Soviet Union were far and above the sole superpowers in the world. World War II saw the actual defeat of the Germans and the Japanese and the effective defeat of the French and the British through the collapse of their respective economies. In fact, defeat meant the dissolution of both Germany and France, with both nations fracturing into several small states (and with southern France becoming Roman). The Romans- non-participants in World War II- were still decades away from any kind of political and economic dominance after civil war again wracked the Empire for over two decades just before World War II, while the Casarans and Carthaginians, who would later become powers, were still confined to Africa and the fending off of the Europeans. The Habsburgs also found their way back to power in Austria, Hungary and Czechoslovakia, but their power was so weak that they became Soviet satellites anyway. The Bactrians were probably the Americans’ and the Soviets’ biggest challenger, but like the Romans, they too were well away from any kind of political domination.

Thus, for nearly two decades, the world was literally the Soviets’ and the Americans’ oyster, and the two took their chances in spades, getting involved politically wherever they could. The Cold War, as the chess game would later be called, would reach its height in 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis, when the Americans almost launched a nuclear attack on the Soviets upon learning of Soviet missile operations in Cuba (which were later dismantled). However, the situation would begin to unravel for the two in the 1970s, first with the Americans’ embarrassing withdrawal from Vietnam (where Vietnamese guerrilla tactics and the Vietnam jungle confused and overwhelmed the more technically superior Americans) and then with the Iranian Revolution that toppled the American-backed Shah, Mohammed Reza. The Soviets might have cruised to victory had they not encountered similar problems in Afghanistan during the 1980s and had their economy not been gutted by years of one-upmanship against the United States, setting the stage for a collapse the world hardly knew was coming. Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan helped weather the storm a little, but by 1989, the roof was about to collapse on the two superpowers. By the end of the year, the Berlin Wall and the government of Dacian[1] dictator Nicholau Ceauçescu fell, and democratic elections were being held in Poland for the first time ever. In 1990, the Dacians voted overwhelmingly to unite with the Romans, who now also found the time to annex Alsace and Lorraine, as well as much of the German Rhineland, the Low Countries, western Spain and almost all of the old country of France. The Romans also aided the French city of Orleans become a significant country in much of north-western France, while the Poles took the time to aid the Baltic countries and significant portions of the Russian mainland achieve independence from the Soviet state. The Tartars[2] declared independence, with the Caucasus and European Russian states doing the same soon after. Asian Russia fell to Bactria, who made good use of the resources there to bolster its thriving capitalist economy. Little by little, the world order that the Americans and Soviets had come to know was falling apart, with both nations knowing their days had become numbered.

Gorbachev realized that the ship was falling and smartly jumped, but the man he gave the reigns to- Boris Yeltsin- soon got a reputation for being an alcoholic and corruption again flourished in what was left of the Soviet state. Reagan’s reign as US President came to an end in 1989 because of American electoral rules, and was replaced in power by his former Vice-President George Bush, who won in a landslide against Democratic dud Michael Dukakis. Once in power, Bush showed that he had half the vision or the capability to rule that Reagan had even in his worst days, and proceeded to tax the US into a deep recession. He then launched a war against Iraqi invaders in Kuwait that would later be called “The Gulf War”, where he proceeded to evict the Iraqi government by early 1991. However, instead of celebrating the victory, the Americans heavily criticized Bush for wasting America’s opportunity as the world’s sole superpower by gutting its economy and by making the Americans look like bullies. A series of protests and riots ensued in March 1991 calling for Bush’s resignation, which occurred on April 1, 1991.

However, Dan Quayle- Bush’s Vice-President and successor in the aftermath of Bush’s resignation- proved that he was no better. On April 12, 1991, he decided to order the US Army to put down Iraqi insurgents vying to replace deposed dictator Saddam Hussein and then saw 10,000 American soldiers get ambushed by insurgents in Basra in what was the US’ worst single-battle casualty total since World War II. Later in the month, Quayle’s fortunes- and that of the American Republic- was sealed, when Quayle lost another 15,000 US soldiers outside of Najaf and then, in a public appearance at a high school, famously misspelled “potato”. At that point, the Americans collectively decided that he had to go, with the rioting and the protests again surfacing in May 1991.

 

Chapter 2: The 1991 Crisis

 

On May 2, 1991, twenty-five men near Brooklyn College began looting and pillaging local stores, all shouting that it was in the name of “The Emperor of New York”. No one was quite sure what it exactly meant, but the more mainstream speculation at the time was that the chanters were making a reference to New York’s State Nickname, “The Empire State”. The men were eventually arrested and spent the night in a county jail, after which they all posted bail and were set free, surprisingly with no restrictions (“After that night in jail they seemed like good natured citizens” said the guard later). A court date for the twenty-five- whom the local police mockingly dubbed “The Emperor’s Subjects”- was set for the beginning of June and was to take place in a courthouse near both the city’s famed Carnegie Hall and Central Park.

Details eventually surfaced surrounding the individuals, including who they were and what they actually called themselves. The group’s real name was “Legion XI of New York”, part of a larger group called “The Imperial Army of New York” headed by a man named Paul Jubin. Jubin- who calls himself “The Emperor of New York” was not among the twenty-five who looted the stores near Brooklyn College, but according to police reports Jubin did appear at the jailhouse to pick up the Legion. The guard then reports that Jubin- “who looked very much like Erik The Red”- told him that he “would be back” as he was leaving the jailhouse with his Legion. The guard did not make much of the statement, and Jubin did not actually return to the jailhouse that day.

Jubin, however, would make a return to New York most New Yorkers would not forget. Assembling an army of literally thousands and armed with goods “bought” from an army surplus store (and hidden in large containers inside pickup trucks), Jubin returned with Legion XI for the Legion’s court date, but the Legion was not going to trial- instead, Jubin was going to seize the courthouse for himself. Jubin’s men quickly overpowered the unarmed court workers and the few armed guards that they had and quickly took control of the courthouse, holding everyone inside hostage. His men also surrounded Central Park, Carnegie Hall and its surrounding areas (including the nearby subway station), doing the same to the occupants there as they had with the courthouse. A large section of Manhattan was under siege, with a standoff that eventually gripped the entire city.

A negotiation team was then sent to Manhattan to deal with Jubin. Jubin, suspecting a trap, sent a representative to meant with the hostage negotiator. The negotiations lasted barely five minutes, with this reported dialogue:

 

Negotiator: “So, what are your demands?”

Representative: “The independence of New York.”

Negotiator: “Well, we can’t do that.”

Representative: “Then I guess we don’t have a deal.” (Representative walks off)

 

The team then ordered in the SWAT team, which Jubin was prepared to fight. He spent the month between the Legion’s arrest and the trial date buying all kinds of riot and army gear to battle the SWAT team, and those preparations paid off- Jubin’s men decisively defeated the SWAT team that day, and later extended their control of New York City across the entirety of Long Island as the police system just fell apart. Jubin also picked up a considerable number of supporters along the way, many of them being swept up in his charismatic attitude and his pledges of building a state that would be stronger than anything Quayle could come up with. Eventually, Jubin’s “hostages”- as the US Government classified them, even though none were harmed and were free to roam about New York after he defeated the SWAT team- came to see Jubin as a liberator, and quickly bought Jubin’s idea of an independent New York (which many of them wanted anyway in the past in the form of statehood). By the end of the day, Long Island was practically independent of the United States, with even the New York City Police Department pledging their support for Jubin.

The events of that June day caught the attention of Quayle, who now had officially had a state in revolt. He immediately called in his chief army commanders to Camp David to work out a contingency plan to deal with Jubin, whose position posed an extreme security risk to Washington, and pacify him and his new state. He also started an ad campaign across the US asking for the unity of the nation to get behind the “terrorist” that was Jubin, hoping to draw on new recruits for a US devastated in Iraq. However, Quayle received the response he didn’t want- more revolts, this time in a nationalistic sense. Several more Jubin-types- like Carolinian Alexander Drabinsky and Detroit’s Jim Myer- appeared all over the US, and while most movements held no more than 100 members, they were simply too numerous to contain. Quayle decided to call in his allies for help, but this too blew up in his face. When the Romans arrived with the newly created “Legio Americum” arrived at Pilottown, Louisiana on June 15, 1991, the local residents unanimously embraced the army as their own, reportedly because the Romans there spoke perfect English (the Roman Government confirms that they did teach the “Legio Americum”, or “American Legion”, English, but this was only to ensure that they could communicate with local American authorities once they arrived, many of whom did not speak Latin). Louisianans, knowing their French roots and knowing those roots lay in Rome, almost unanimously went behind the Romans, whose only job in that state was pacifying random biker gangs that cropped up in the midst of the uprisings against Quayle (the Romans have been criticized for this because they were attacking “normal Americans”, but Quayle did specifically order Rome to pacify any criminal activity that may be going on in the areas they landed in). Texas, Arkansas, northern Mexico (targeted under Quayle’s orders but also accepting Roman rule on linguistic grounds like the Louisianans and because of the proximity of them to the US), New Mexico, Arizona, southern Nevada and the southern California coast all fell in short order to the Romans, who managed to occupy the areas as “peacekeepers” by the end of July.

The Casarans[3] and British, the other allies who answered the call, encountered a similar situation that the Romans did. Seattle- where the British made landfall- remembered their earlier ties to the British, enthusiastically embraced the British at the time and declared themselves united with Britain. Casara- who had extensive business dealings in San Francisco- met a similar situation with nationalists who wanted to be united with the Casaran state. The British and Casarans did not, however, meet the same kind of willingness to exert any real political control over areas that were not really theirs, as the Romans had also done (Rome claims it was doing this because the states needed direct control and would make it easier for them to hand them back over to the US, but Britain and Casara viewed this as a new form of imperialism). So, in a secret arrangement only since made public, the Romans, British and Casarans all met to discuss political control of the US should it eventually collapse, and worked out the following agreement:

 

1.                             The three states will enter a union called “The American Protection Pact” (herein labelled as “APP”) where issues between the three states can be resolved in the best interests of “greater North American prosperity”.

2.                             The Romans would get to keep all of the territories they had gained besides the northern Soanora desert which the Casarans wanted and which the Romans cared little about.

3.                             The Casarans would get southern and central California (barring the coast south of and including Los Angeles, which will be Roman), and the Soanora desert.

4.                             The British would receive Western Washington State where they had already established control.

5.                             North Dakota- possessing the majority of the US’ nuclear weapons- would be jointly ruled by the APP.

6.                             The remaining territories would be reconstituted into the following areas:

a)       Cascadia (the remaining lands the west of the Rockies)

b)      Dixie (the “Deep South” region of the US, plus Virginia)

c)       The Principality of Boston (New England)

d)      The Principality of New York (New York State, New Jersey and the City of Philadelphia, which the APP decided would go to Jubin who effectively ruled the City)

e)       Central America (Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania (minus Philadelphia), West Virginia, Michigan and Wisconsin)

f)        Midwest America (Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota and South Dakota)

g)       The Principality of Colorado; and finally,

h)      The Union of Montana and Wyoming

7.                             All the above nations shall join the APP.

 

The three, however, maintained their pledges to aid the United States in its hour of need, but, according to George Roberts, the British representative in Washington and in the APP talks, “we all knew that it would be over and that the US had breathed its last breaths, so we decided to enter the agreement to ensure that order would return shortly after it fell. We maintained the faint hope that we could revive its fortunes, but each of us were realists and realized that we probably could not.”

Towards the end of the summer, the United States’ political future was sealed. Drabinsky, a Duke University graduate, started a new political party in the Carolinas aimed at re-defining the south as a “liberal traditionalist state”, but when the Carolinian Governors succeeded in branding him a traitor, Drabinsky gathered 100,000 followers- themselves also University students- and seized the South Carolinian State Legislature on July 15, 1991. His army then moved north and captured North Carolina a week later, and on August 1, 1991, formally declared the independence of Carolina as the new Empire of Carolina. Official international recognition was rendered by Rome a day later and a week later by Britain, officially making Carolina the first state to break away from the Union since 1861. The United States Army, given the circumstances all across the country, was slow to arrive, and once it did, it arrived in a disorganized mess that was in no way able to deal with Drabinsky. On August 23, at Twin Oaks near the North Carolina-Virginia border, the Carolinians finally met the Americans and methodically shot them to pieces. The victory was billed as another “David beating Goliath” type battle, but the truth was that Drabinsky, who was well versed in military tactics (especially those of the Americans), had a relatively easy time of it, effectively using the terrain to render the American forces useless. It also didn’t hurt that the Americans woefully underestimated Drabinsky’s strengths and merely threw large numbers at him without a strategy, but with such a crushing defeat, the Americans were in no way able to retaliate effectively.

Still, Drabinsky was worried enough about the Americans that he mobilized his followers to gain the support of the Southern states, and also called in British and Roman support. Drabinsky made the moves because he was concerned about another American assault, and personally decided that if he was ever going to rid himself of that worry, he’d have to take out the United States himself. Many of the Southern states- where the memory of the defeat in the Civil War was still vivid- enthusiastically threw their support behind Drabinsky, and a now-significantly stronger Carolinian Army forcibly pacified those that didn’t. Much of the area that the APP had defined as “Dixie” now lay in the hands of the Duke University graduate, and because of this, Carolina succeeded in gaining the support of both the Romans and the British, as well as Casara a little later on (no reason has been made official on why Casara delayed its support). Drabinsky, confident of his forces’ strength and ability, decided now was the time to march on Washington.

Meanwhile, up north, more trouble was brewing for the beleaguered American state. Myer, the Mayor of Detroit, formally called for the union of the so-called Rust Belt area of the US, in a bid to stop the destructive migration of its citizens southward. Myer, along with his counterparts in Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Buffalo and Chicago, were concerned with the exodus of both the manufacturing industries that gave the cities the bulk of their jobs and of vast numbers of their citizens, and were annoyed by the US’ neglect to aid their situation. Their call extended all the way northward to the Canadian city of Toronto, who also felt the pangs of neglect and thus enthusiastically endorsed a union. The cities themselves formally united on August 10, 1991 as the “Empire of Toronto” (with the Canadian city being recognized for its diversity) and declared their independence from both Canada and the United States, with the APP recognizing the state a day later. Quayle sent a small expeditionary force to Toronto to suppress the new state, but as the Army marched towards Canadian Forces Base Borden en route to Toronto; the Torontonians met the Army at Alliston on August 18. The two clashed in what is now known as “The Battle of Alliston”, and, mirroring earlier strategy-less American Armies, the expeditionary force was soundly defeated by the more resourceful Torontonians.

 It was in this cloud of chaos that Drabinsky made his push to Washington. On September 1, 1991, Drabinsky’s army formally entered Richmond, the result of which turned the former Confederate capital into the new Carolinian Imperial Capital. His march caught the attention of the new Torontonian Empire under Myer, as well as Jubin’s, and the three made a pact to march on Washington together. Their moves were largely without any outside help, although the APP did provide them with supplies and funds to complete the trip. Nine days later, the three armies met at Cumberland, Maryland and from there decided to go on to Washington. A day later they would arrive, a force of 200,000 men, mostly infantry (although Drabinsky was able to secure some tanks that were housed in Southern Army Bases), but without an Air Force or a Navy, both of which the US possessed. Drabinsky needed a plan to incapacitate both and force the Americans to play a ground game, because if he could do that then they would play into his hands. The Americans may have been badly beaten before, but they were operating far from Washington and had plenty of riots to deal with- here, at Washington, the Army would be focused, because pacifying those riots will mean nothing if the Capitol was taken. Drabinsky may have had the momentum, but the Americans still held the advantage.

 

Chapter 3: September 11, 1991: A New Beginning From Another’s End

 

By September 11, 1991, all that remained of the once strong and proud Union was a discombobulated mess with Maryland, Washington, DC, and Delaware in one section and Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine in another. New York State itself fell to both Myer and Jubin, with the former capturing the West and Jubin capturing the East in the aftermath of Western New York’s independence from the US. New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania technically still remained American (as the Governor of New Jersey and the Mayor of Philadelphia refused to recognize Jubin’s state), but their respected populaces’ loyalties were towards Jubin, whose New York City they came to rely heavily on and were culturally tied to. Washington itself was under total lockdown, with Congress itself relocated to Baltimore so it could be safe from assault. Congress had heard rumours of an assault, but with much of Drabinsky’s planning done in secret, they had no idea of what kind of force they would be dealing with.

Meanwhile, the three Emperors made a plan to formally deal with the American Army. The goal was to divert American attention away from the main force, with the hopes that the force could get into Washington unopposed. Once they were inside the city, Drabinsky figured the fight would be more even because then Army’s Air Force and Navy would have a harder time hitting their targets through all those buildings. It would also be from those buildings that Drabinsky’s snipers could target the US’ ships with anti-aircraft and anti-naval missiles, while on the streets Drabinsky’s more numerically stronger men would prove to be too much for the woefully under-matched Americans.

At dawn, Drabinsky put his plan into motion. The 1st Division of Drabinsky’s army- 50,000 men and ten tanks- started their march on Washington. Just as Drabinsky predicted, the US launched much of their payload on that invasion force, thinking that would be the main strike force. Fortunately for Drabinsky, the Americans made it easy for the 1st Division, with several missiles going way past their targets in what was a repeat of the poorly planned assaults that Drabinsky had to deal with earlier. This meant that some 25,000 men and five tanks actually made it to Washington itself, hitting MacArthur & Nebraska at 9AM with the knowledge that the entire planned missile payload was all used up. The 1st Division continued its march along MacArthur, eventually hitting the famed Constitution Avenue at 1PM.

By the time Drabinsky got the news that the 1st Division had actually hit Washington, he put the second phase of his plan into motion. His main force was scattered throughout nearby Rockville in a bid to confuse the American radars, and at 9:30 they deployed- now in tandem- towards Washington. The large moving force dealt a morale blow to the Americans, who suddenly saw a large force coming their way without any way to counter it.

With Drabinsky possessing Hummers and tanks, the rest of his forces met up with the 1st Division at Virginia & Constitution at 1:30 PM. Once he was there, he was impressed with how many of the 1st Division had survived- he had figured that most of them would be dead under the torrent of American missiles. However, once he found out the Americans’ blunders he laughed, realizing that the Americans were not as coordinated as he thought they were. A minute later, Drabinsky and his men marched to the US Capitol, reaching it in half an hour.

Once there, Drabinsky tangled with what was left of the American forces, and predictably it was a whitewash. By 4:30, most of the American force was dead or dying, and Drabinsky had hardly lost a soldier. At 5PM, Drabinsky himself entered the Capitol, declaring on national television “the US is dead”. Five minutes later, Quayle went on TV to officially resign, throwing in the towel to both his Presidency and the United States of America.

Drabinsky’s victory would be celebrated for weeks later, with September 11 being declared a national holiday in both New York and in Carolina. On October 9, Drabinsky, Jubin and Myer met in the White House to formalize the division of the spoils. Myer would receive the entirety of the Great Lakes region as well as all of Illinois, while Jubin received New Jersey, southern Ohio, southern Indiana and all of West Virginia. Drabinsky formally annexed Washington to his Empire, and took up the rest of Maryland and Virginia that wasn’t already his, with the three Emperors allowing the rest of America to become independent states. On October 10, they announced their reorganization to the world. A day later, the APP recognized the new states, meaning that a month to the day that the American Republic fell, it officially went out of existence.

 

Chapter 4: Rebuilding North America

 

The fall of the US shook the world. No longer did the world have two distinct superpowers each vying for control and influence globally- a new world order was fast approaching, and it would soon make its presence heard. Its first order of business was to repair the damage of the 1991 Crisis and restore North America past the threshold of glory.

Shortly after the US’ fall, the Pact countries declared to meet at Washington to decide how to officially organize the new states. Drabinsky and Jubin proved to be firmly in control of their states, but Myer was still having difficulties within his borders with pro-American and pro-Canadian rioters. His problem would only grow, when another series of riots in Canada forced the Canadian Government to resign its posts on October 25, plunging Canada into the throes of anarchy. It would all come to a head on October 29, 1991, when Myer himself was assassinated by what the Pact called “Canadian terrorists”. Rome, who already had extensive dealings in the area, moved in with the newly minted “Canadian Legion” to put down the riots. By November 23, Roman troops had succeeded in securing Ontario, southern Manitoba and most of New York State and established a new colonial capital at the already-existing town Rome, New York. Jubin, who aided Rome, received the rest of the old Torontonian territory and New York Island (the areas he really cared about) as a reward for his actions. On November 25, Rome divided up its possessions in the Southwest US, giving the vast majority of its lands their independence as “The Republic of Texas”, and- after some negotiations with Casara- retaining Louisiana (with Houston) and Baja California (with Los Angeles, Las Vegas and southern Arizona) as colonies. November 28 saw the British officially assert themselves in the New England territory, while a day later, Roman and Casaran troops moved into the North American heartland, putting down various revolts and starting to repair the roads and infrastructure the months of violence had destroyed. By December 3, Rome, Casara and Britain felt that North America was secure enough to hold a conference- dubbed the Washington Accord- to finally determine North America’s fate.

 

Chapter 5: The Washington Accord

 

A lot of hype surrounded the Washington Accord when it was announced. Several in the international media dubbed it a conference on the same level as the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 that officially ended World War I or the Congress of Vienna of 1815 that ended the Napoleonic Wars. Leaders from all over North America- as well as a few international leaders with North American interests- went to Washington to push their ideas for North America, some of which were eccentric while others were more rational.

There were several major issues that needed to be covered in Washington, besides reorganizing state borders. One, the Accord needed to determine what to do with North Dakota’s nuclear arsenal. Fortunately for the Accord none of the rioters managed to get to the nuclear silos, but the threat still existed and needed to be dealt with. Two, the Native American situation needed to be worked out- without a Canadian or an American government to assign them to reservations, the chance presented itself for the Accord to finally address their centuries-old sovereignty issues. Thirdly and finally, the natural resources of North America needed to be sorted out, especially the oil reserves in Texas.

The easiest of the situations for the Accord to resolve was the nuclear question- the arsenal would be placed under international control, with half of it being dismantled and used for electricity. Rome was officially handed control of North Dakota as “supervisors” (though the Romans would eventually annex North Dakota outright), with South Dakota being renamed as the “Confederacy of Dakota” and given independence. The rest of the issues needed a bit more time to resolve, especially the issue of statehood and the Native question. Eventually, it came to be decided- on the economic front- that there would be a “limited” economic union across all of North America, with the free movements of goods and services but with governments being allowed to issue tariffs and other economic restrictions to protect their own economies. These tariffs, as it was later decided, could only be used for “internal development” and a fraction of these tariffs had to be placed in an “international pot” for the other states to use to fund economic projects. “The Fair Trade Initiative”, as it came to be called, would be designed to protect local economies but still allow for economic growth. A North American Economic Council- with members culled from all the North American states- was created to facilitate trade and tariff issues and to further the Initiative, but some feared the bureaucracy may slow North American progress. So far, trade has recovered past 1991 levels, and, as of 2005, the Initiative has proven to be a remarkable success.

Once the economic issue was sorted out, the rest of the issues fell into place. Borders became easier to draw without the worry that needed resources could not accessed, and now simply became an issue of assessing local cultures and existing economic structures. Several other minor issues that had to be addressed were, including a Roman pledge to build up Toronto’s aging public transit system and to revamp Ontario’s highway and intra-regional transit system. Eventually, most of today’s current borders and states- including the British recognition of independence of the Cascadian state along the Pacific coast- were hashed out by the Accord, and, like the Congress of Vienna nearly 200 years prior, the borders have so far proven to be mostly stable (the only “corrections” that occurred was the Quebecois annexation of Prince Edward Island and the Cascadian annexation of northern California, as well as the eviction of the French by Quebec in 1995). By December 8, 1991, the Accord was declared finished, with Casaran Emperor Vistras V declaring “a new world order” in a speech to announce the successful end of the Accord. A renewed sense of optimism pervaded in North America, as after a year of hardships, many finally had something to cheer about.

 

Epilogue

 

In the late 1990s, the world was literally a mess. Revolts occurred daily and were taking place in many sectors of the global and many were simultaneous. It appeared sudden, but the truth was that this was not a drastic process.

Since the Fall of America in 1991, several historians have attempted to explain why both of the great superpowers fell simultaneously. Some draw comparisons to The Great Roman Collapse[4], saying that the US was a victim of its own excesses and refused to believe that the outside world could be of any help to them. Others believe that this was the inevitable process in the evolution of statehood, with this being the era of small states after so many years of “neglect” by the large US and Canadian states[5]. Still others believe that the process was not inevitable and that had the US received a better government it would still be around. Most historians, however, agree that the revolutionary sentiment that began with the “Hippie Generation” and the protest of the Vietnam War came to a head in 1991, as years and years of American military setbacks and economic stagnation played a significant role in the US’ downfall. However, in a year where really the worst was expected, by the end of 1991 optimism was the order of the day worldwide. Without the fear of “Americanization”, the world may finally be able to rebuild itself without having to align itself along partisan politics. The process has encountered a few bumps- such as the political dustups between the Romans and the Byzantines over Reunion- but, overall, there are few who doubt that the world really is improving for the better.

 

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[1] Romania. “Dacia” was the Roman name of the country and is used here to avoid confusion with Rome.

[2] Descendants of the Mongol tribe that founded the Golden Horde who are based in present-day central “European Russia”

[3] A powerful Western African state that escaped European control in the 19th century that is a product of my imagination but not inconceivable as one could form in the face of the European threat at the time.

[4] This is what I term the fifth century Germanic invasions of the Western Roman Empire, because in my version the Romans did not completely fall.

[5] This, I should point out, is a theory that is known to most historians. History is cyclical, especially when it comes to independent states. The cycle here starts with a collection of independent states that eventually develop connections with each other and unite as one large state. This large state eventually develops sectors of its territory that band together to “get their voices heard” in the large state, and eventually those sectors break off usually because they feel “neglected”, forming another batch of small states. These states again eventually become a large state, with the cycle of “small states-large state-small states-large state” repeating itself ad naseum.