The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, 326 Indian reservations, and some minor possessions. At 3.8 million square miles (9.8 million square kilometers), it is the world's third- or fourth-largest country by total area. With a population of more than 328 million people, it is the third most populous country in the world. The national capital is Washington, D.C., and the most populous city is New York City.
The United States is a federal republic and a representative democracy with three separate branches of government, including a bicameral legislature. The United States after World War I had gained Australia, New Zealand and East Siberia and all of the East Pacific is under American Control which makes America have more territory in the Pacific Ocean than the Empire of Japan and the German Empire.
History[]
Formation[]
Early History[]
It has been generally accepted that the first inhabitants of North America migrated from Siberia by way of the Bering land bridge and arrived at least 12,000 years ago; however, some evidence suggests an even earlier date of arrival. The Clovis culture, which appeared around 11,000 BC, is believed to represent the first wave of human settlement of the Americas. This was likely the first of three major waves of migration into North America; later waves brought the ancestors of present-day Athabaskans, Aleuts, and Eskimos.
Over time, indigenous cultures in North America grew increasingly complex, and some, such as the pre-Columbian Mississippian culture in the southeast, developed advanced agriculture, architecture, and complex societies. The city-state of Cahokia is the largest, most complex pre-Columbian archaeological site in the modern-day United States. In the Four Corners region, Ancestral Puebloan culture developed from centuries of agricultural experimentation. The Haudenosaunee, located in the southern Great Lakes region, was established at some point between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries. Most prominent along the Atlantic coast were the Algonquian tribes, who practiced hunting and trapping, along with limited cultivation.
Estimating the native population of North America at the time of European contact is difficult. Douglas H. Ubelaker of the Smithsonian Institution estimated that there was a population of 92,916 in the south Atlantic states and a population of 473,616 in the Gulf states, but most academics regard this figure as too low. Anthropologist Henry F. Dobyns believed the populations were much higher, suggesting around 1.1 million along the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, 2.2 million people living between Florida and Massachusetts, 5.2 million in the Mississippi Valley and tributaries, and around 700,000 people in the Florida peninsula.
European Settlements[]
The first Europeans to arrive in the continental United States were Spanish conquistadors such as Juan Ponce de León, who made his first expedition to Florida in 1513. Even earlier, Christopher Columbus had landed in Puerto Rico on his 1493 voyage, and San Juan was settled by the Spanish a decade later. The Spanish set up the first settlements in Florida and New Mexico, such as Saint Augustine, often considered the nation's oldest city, and Santa Fe. The French established their own settlements along the Mississippi River, notably New Orleans. Successful English settlement of the eastern coast of North America began with the Virginia Colony in 1607 at Jamestown and with the Pilgrims colony at Plymouth in 1620. The continent's first elected legislative assembly, Virginia's House of Burgesses, was founded in 1619. Documents such as the Mayflower Compact and the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut established precedents for representative self-government and constitutionalism that would develop throughout the American colonies. Many settlers were dissenting Christians who came seeking religious freedom. In 1784, Russians were the first Europeans to establish a settlement in Alaska, at Three Saints Bay. Russian America once spanned much of the present-day state of Alaska.
In the early days of colonization, many European settlers were subject to food shortages, disease, and attacks from Native Americans. Native Americans were also often at war with neighboring tribes and European settlers. In many cases, however, the natives and settlers came to depend on one another. Settlers traded for food and animal pelts; natives for guns, tools and other European goods. Natives taught many settlers to cultivate corn, beans, and other foodstuffs. European missionaries and others felt it was important to "civilize" the Native Americans and urged them to adopt European agricultural practices and lifestyles. However, with the increased European colonization of North America, the Native Americans were displaced and often killed. The native population of America declined after European arrival for various reasons, primarily diseases such as smallpox and measles.
European settlers also began trafficking of African slaves into Colonial America via the transatlantic slave trade. Because of a lower prevalence of tropical diseases and better treatment, slaves had a much higher life expectancy in North America than in South America, leading to a rapid increase in their numbers. Colonial society was largely divided over the religious and moral implications of slavery, and several colonies passed acts both against and in favor of the practice. However, by the turn of the 18th century, African slaves had supplanted European indentured servants as cash crop labor, especially in the American South.
The Thirteen Colonies (New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia) that would become the United States of America were administered by the British as overseas dependencies. All nonetheless had local governments with elections open to most free men. With extremely high birth rates, low death rates, and steady settlement, the colonial population grew rapidly, eclipsing Native American populations. The Christian revivalist movement of the 1730s and 1740s known as the Great Awakening fueled interest both in religion and in religious liberty.
During the Seven Years' War (1756–63), known in the U.S. as the French and Indian War, British forces captured Canada from the French. With the creation of the Province of Quebec, Canada's francophone population would remain isolated from the English-speaking colonial dependencies of Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and the Thirteen Colonies. Excluding the Native Americans who lived there, the Thirteen Colonies had a population of over 2.1 million in 1770, about a third that of Britain. Despite continuing new arrivals, the rate of natural increase was such that by the 1770s only a small minority of Americans had been born overseas. The colonies' distance from Britain had allowed the development of self-government, but their unprecedented success motivated British monarchs to periodically seek to reassert royal authority.
Independence[]
The American Revolutionary War fought by the Thirteen Colonies against the British Empire was the first successful war of independence by a non-European entity against a European power. Americans had developed an ideology of "republicanism", asserting that government rested on the will of the people as expressed in their local legislatures. They demanded their "rights as Englishmen" and "no taxation without representation". The British insisted on administering the empire through Parliament, and the conflict escalated into war.
The Second Continental Congress unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776; this day is celebrated annually as Independence Day. In 1777, the Articles of Confederation established a decentralized government that operated until 1789.
After its defeat at the Siege of Yorktown in 1781, Britain signed a peace treaty. American sovereignty became internationally recognized, and the country was granted all lands east of the Mississippi River. Tensions with Britain remained, however, leading to the War of 1812, which was fought to a draw. Nationalists led the Philadelphia Convention of 1787 in writing the United States Constitution, ratified in state conventions in 1788. The federal government was reorganized into three branches in 1789, on the principle of creating salutary checks and balances. George Washington, who had led the Continental Army to victory, was the first president elected under the new constitution. The Bill of Rights, forbidding federal restriction of personal freedoms and guaranteeing a range of legal protections, was adopted in 1791.
Although the federal government outlawed American participation in the Atlantic slave trade in 1807, after 1820, cultivation of the highly profitable cotton crop exploded in the Deep South, and along with it, the slave population. The Second Great Awakening, especially in the period 1800–1840, converted millions to evangelical Protestantism. In the North, it energized multiple social reform movements, including abolitionism; in the South, Methodists and Baptists proselytized among slave populations.
Beginning in the late 18th century, American settlers began to expand westward, prompting a long series of American Indian Wars. The 1803 Louisiana Purchase almost doubled the nation's area, Spain ceded Florida and other Gulf Coast territory in 1819, the Republic of Texas was annexed in 1845 during a period of expansionism, and the 1846 Oregon Treaty with Britain led to U.S. control of the present-day American Northwest. Victory in the Mexican–American War resulted in the 1848 Mexican Cession of California and much of the present-day American Southwest, making the U.S. span the continent.
The California Gold Rush of 1848–49 spurred migration to the Pacific coast, which led to the California Genocide and the creation of additional western states. The giving away of vast quantities of land to white European settlers as part of the Homestead Acts, nearly 10% of the total area of the United States, and to private railroad companies and colleges as part of land grants spurred economic development. After the Civil War, new transcontinental railways made relocation easier for settlers, expanded internal trade, and increased conflicts with Native Americans. In 1869, a new Peace Policy nominally promised to protect Native Americans from abuses, avoid further war, and secure their eventual U.S. citizenship. Nonetheless, large-scale conflicts continued throughout the West into the 1900s.
Civil War era[]
Irreconcilable sectional conflict regarding the enslavement of Africans and African Americans ultimately led to the American Civil War. With the 1860 election of Republican Abraham Lincoln, conventions in thirteen slave states declared secession and formed the Confederate States of America (the "South" or the "Confederacy"), while the federal government (the "Union") maintained that secession was illegal. In order to bring about this secession, military action was initiated by the secessionists, and the Union responded in kind. The ensuing war would become the deadliest military conflict in American history, resulting in the deaths of approximately 618,000 soldiers as well as many civilians. The Union initially simply fought to keep the country united. Nevertheless, as casualties mounted after 1863 and Lincoln delivered his Emancipation Proclamation, the main purpose of the war from the Union's viewpoint became the abolition of slavery. Indeed, when the Union ultimately won the war in April 1865, each of the states in the defeated South was required to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment, which prohibited slavery. Two other amendments were also ratified, ensuring citizenship for blacks and, at least in theory, voting rights for them as well.
Reconstruction began in earnest following the war. While President Lincoln attempted to foster friendship and forgiveness between the Union and the former Confederacy, his assassination on April 14, 1865 drove a wedge between North and South again. Republicans in the federal government made it their goal to oversee the rebuilding of the South and to ensure the rights of African Americans. They persisted until the Compromise of 1877 when the Republicans agreed to cease protecting the rights of African Americans in the South in order for Democrats to concede the presidential election of 1876.
Southern white Democrats, calling themselves "Redeemers", took control of the South after the end of Reconstruction, beginning the nadir of American race relations. From 1890 to 1910, the Redeemers established so-called Jim Crow laws, disenfranchising most blacks and some poor whites throughout the region. Blacks faced racial segregation, especially in the South. They also occasionally experienced vigilante violence, including lynching.
Industrial Revolution and further expansion[]
In the North, urbanization and an unprecedented influx of immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe supplied a surplus of labor for the country's industrialization and transformed its culture. National infrastructure, including telegraph and transcontinental railroads, spurred economic growth and greater settlement and development of the American Old West. The later invention of electric light and the telephone would also affect communication and urban life.
The United States fought Indian Wars west of the Mississippi River from 1810 to at least 1890. Most of these conflicts ended with the cession of Native American territory and their confinement to Indian reservations. Additionally, the Trail of Tears in the 1830s exemplified the Indian removal policy that forcibly resettled Indians. This further expanded acreage under mechanical cultivation, increasing surpluses for international markets. Mainland expansion also included the purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867. In 1893, pro-American elements in Hawaii overthrew the Hawaiian monarchy and formed the Republic of Hawaii, which the U.S. annexed in 1898. Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines were ceded by Spain in the same year, following the Spanish–American War. American Samoa was acquired by the United States in 1900 after the end of the Second Samoan Civil War.
Rapid economic development during the late 19th and early 20th centuries fostered the rise of many prominent industrialists. Tycoons like Cornelius Vanderbilt, John D. Rockefeller, and Andrew Carnegie led the nation's progress in the railroad, petroleum, and steel industries. Banking became a major part of the economy, with J. P. Morgan playing a notable role. The American economy boomed, becoming the world's largest. These dramatic changes were accompanied by social unrest and the rise of populist, socialist, and anarchist movements. This period eventually ended with the advent of the Progressive Era, which saw significant reforms including women's suffrage, alcohol prohibition, regulation of consumer goods, greater antitrust measures to ensure competition and attention to worker conditions.
Roosevelt three term regime and WWI[]
On September 6, 1901, President William McKinley was attending the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York when he was shot by Leon Czolgosz. Roosevelt was vacationing in Vermont, and traveled to Buffalo to visit McKinley in the hospital. It appeared that McKinley would recover, so Roosevelt resumed his vacation in the Adirondacks. When McKinley's condition worsened, Roosevelt again traveled to Buffalo. McKinley died on September 14, and Roosevelt was informed while he was in North Creek; he continued on to Buffalo and was sworn in as the nation's 26th president at the Ansley Wilcox House.[page needed]
Roosevelt's accession to the presidency left the vice presidency vacant. As there was no constitutional provision for filling an intra-term vacancy in that office (prior to ratification of the 25th Amendment in 1967), Roosevelt served his first term without a vice president. McKinley's supporters were nervous about the new president, and Hanna was particularly bitter that the man he had opposed so vigorously at the convention had succeeded McKinley. Roosevelt assured party leaders that he intended to adhere to McKinley's policies, and he retained McKinley's Cabinet. Nonetheless, Roosevelt sought to position himself as the party's undisputed leader, seeking to bolster the role of the president and position himself for the 1904 election.
Shortly after taking office, Roosevelt invited Booker T. Washington to dinner at the White House. To his dismay, this sparked a bitter, and at times vicious, reaction across the heavily segregated South. Roosevelt reacted with astonishment and protest, saying that he looked forward to many future dinners with Washington. Upon further reflection, Roosevelt wanted to ensure that this had no effect on political support in the South, and further dinner invitations to Washington were avoided; their next meeting was scheduled as typical business at 10:00 a.m. instead.
For his aggressive use of the 1890 Sherman Antitrust Act, compared to his predecessors, Roosevelt became mythologized as the "trust-buster"; but in reality he was more of a trust regulator. Roosevelt viewed big business as a necessary part of the American economy, and sought only to prosecute the "bad trusts" that restrained trade and charged unfair prices. He brought 44 antitrust suits, breaking up the Northern Securities Company, the largest railroad monopoly; and regulating Standard Oil, the largest oil and refinery company. Presidents Benjamin Harrison, Grover Cleveland, and William McKinley combined prosecuted only 18 antitrust violations under the Sherman Antitrust Act.
Bolstered by his party's winning large (but slightly smaller) majorities in the 1902 elections, Roosevelt proposed the creation of the United States Department of Commerce and Labor, which would include the Bureau of Corporations. While Congress was receptive to Department of Commerce and Labor, it was more skeptical of the antitrust powers that Roosevelt sought to endow within the Bureau of Corporations. Roosevelt successfully appealed to the public to pressure Congress, and Congress overwhelmingly voted to pass Roosevelt's version of the bill.
In a moment of frustration, House Speaker Joseph Gurney Cannon commented on Roosevelt's desire for executive branch control in domestic policy-making: "That fellow at the other end of the avenue wants everything from the birth of Christ to the death of the devil." Biographer Brands states, "Even his friends occasionally wondered whether there wasn't any custom or practice too minor for him to try to regulate, update or otherwise improve." In fact, Roosevelt's willingness to exercise his power included attempted rule changes in the game of football; at the Naval Academy, he sought to force retention of martial arts classes and to revise disciplinary rules. He even ordered changes made in the minting of a coin whose design he disliked, and ordered the Government Printing Office to adopt simplified spellings for a core list of 300 words, according to reformers on the Simplified Spelling Board. He was forced to rescind the latter after substantial ridicule from the press and a resolution of protest from the House of Representatives.
President Roosevelt was determined to continue the expansion of U.S. influence, and he placed an emphasis on modernizing the small Army and greatly expanding the large Navy. Roosevelt presided over a rapprochement with Britain and promulgated the Roosevelt Corollary, which held that the United States would intervene in the finances of unstable Caribbean and Central American countries in order to forestall direct European intervention. Partly as a result of the Roosevelt Corollary, the United States would engage in a series of interventions in Latin America known as the Banana Wars. After Colombia rejected a treaty granting the U.S. a lease across the isthmus of Panama, Roosevelt supported the secession of Panama and subsequently signed a treaty with Panama establishing the Panama Canal Zone. The Panama Canal was completed in 1914, greatly reducing transport time between the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans. Roosevelt's well publicized actions were widely applauded. President Taft acted quietly, and pursued a policy of "Dollar Diplomacy", emphasizing the use of U.S. financial power in Asia and Latin America. Taft had little success.
The control and management of the Republican Party lay in the hands of Ohio Senator and Republican Party chairman Mark Hanna until McKinley's death. Roosevelt and Hanna frequently cooperated during Roosevelt's first term, but Hanna left open the possibility of a challenge to Roosevelt for the 1904 Republican nomination. Roosevelt and Ohio's other Senator, Joseph B. Foraker, forced Hanna's hand by calling for Ohio's state Republican convention to endorse Roosevelt for the 1904 nomination. Unwilling to break with the president, Hanna was forced to publicly endorse Roosevelt. Hanna and Pennsylvania Senator Matthew Quay both died in early 1904, and with the waning of Thomas Platt's power, Roosevelt faced little effective opposition for the 1904 nomination. In deference to Hanna's conservative loyalists, Roosevelt at first offered the party chairmanship to Cornelius Bliss, but he declined. Roosevelt turned to his own man, George B. Cortelyou of New York, the first Secretary of Commerce and Labor. To buttress his hold on the party's nomination, Roosevelt made it clear that anyone opposing Cortelyou would be considered to be opposing the President. The President secured his own nomination, but his preferred vice-presidential running mate, Robert R. Hitt, was not nominated. Senator Charles Warren Fairbanks of Indiana, a favorite of conservatives, gained the nomination.
While Roosevelt followed the tradition of incumbents in not actively campaigning on the stump, he sought to control the campaign's message through specific instructions to Cortelyou. He also attempted to manage the press's release of White House statements by forming the Ananias Club. Any journalist who repeated a statement made by the president without approval was penalized by restriction of further access.
The Democratic Party's nominee in 1904 was Alton Brooks Parker. Democratic newspapers charged that Republicans were extorting large campaign contributions from corporations, putting ultimate responsibility on Roosevelt, himself. Roosevelt denied corruption while at the same time he ordered Cortelyou to return $100,000 (equivalent to $2.8 million in 2019) of a campaign contribution from Standard Oil. Parker said that Roosevelt was accepting corporate donations to keep damaging information from the Bureau of Corporations from going public. Roosevelt strongly denied Parker's charge and responded that he would "go into the Presidency unhampered by any pledge, promise, or understanding of any kind, sort, or description...". Allegations from Parker and the Democrats, however, had little impact on the election, as Roosevelt promised to give every American a "square deal". Roosevelt won 56% of the popular vote, and Parker received 38%; Roosevelt also won the Electoral College vote, 336 to 140. Before his inauguration ceremony, Roosevelt declared that he would not serve another term. Democrats afterwards would continue to charge Roosevelt and the Republicans of being influenced by corporate donations during Roosevelt's second term.
As his second term progressed, Roosevelt moved to the left of his Republican Party base and called for a series of reforms, most of which Congress failed to pass. In his last year in office, he was assisted by his friend Archibald Butt (who later perished in the sinking of RMS Titanic). Roosevelt's influence waned as he approached the end of his second term, as his promise to forego a third term made him a lame duck and his concentration of power provoked a backlash from many Congressmen. He sought a national incorporation law (at a time when all corporations had state charters), called for a federal income tax (despite the Supreme Court's ruling in Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co.), and an inheritance tax. In the area of labor legislation, Roosevelt called for limits on the use of court injunctions against labor unions during strikes; injunctions were a powerful weapon that mostly helped business. He wanted an employee liability law for industrial injuries (pre-empting state laws) and an eight-hour work day for federal employees. In other areas he also sought a postal savings system (to provide competition for local banks), and he asked for campaign reform laws.
The election of 1904 continued to be a source of contention between Republicans and Democrats. A Congressional investigation in 1905 revealed that corporate executives donated tens of thousands of dollars in 1904 to the Republican National Committee. In 1908, a month before the general presidential election, Governor Charles N. Haskell of Oklahoma, former Democratic Treasurer, said that Senators beholden to Standard Oil lobbied Roosevelt, in the summer of 1904, to authorize the leasing of Indian oil lands by Standard Oil subsidiaries. He said Roosevelt overruled his Secretary of Interior Ethan A. Hitchcock and granted a pipeline franchise to run through the Osage lands to the Prairie Oil and Gas Company. The New York Sun made a similar accusation and said that Standard Oil, a refinery who financially benefited from the pipeline, had contributed $150,000 to the Republicans in 1904 (equivalent to $4.3 million in 2019) after Roosevelt's alleged reversal allowing the pipeline franchise. Roosevelt branded Haskell's allegation as "a lie, pure and simple" and obtained a denial from Treasury Secretary Shaw that Roosevelt had neither coerced Shaw nor overruled him.
Roosevelt enjoyed being president and was still relatively youthful, but felt that a limited number of terms provided a check against dictatorship. Roosevelt ultimately decided to stick to his 1904 pledge not to run for a third term. He personally favored Secretary of State Elihu Root as his successor, but Root's ill health made him an unsuitable candidate. New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes loomed as potentially strong candidate and shared Roosevelt's progressivism, but Roosevelt disliked him and considered him to be too independent. Instead, Roosevelt settled on his Secretary of War, William Howard Taft, who had ably served under Presidents Harrison, McKinley, and Roosevelt in various positions. Roosevelt and Taft had been friends since 1890, and Taft had consistently supported President Roosevelt's policies. Roosevelt was determined to install the successor of his choice, and wrote the following to Taft: "Dear Will: Do you want any action about those federal officials? I will break their necks with the utmost cheerfulness if you say the word!". Just weeks later he branded as "false and malicious" the charge that he was using the offices at his disposal to favor Taft. At the 1908 Republican convention, many chanted for "four years more" of a Roosevelt presidency, but Taft won the nomination after Henry Cabot Lodge made it clear that Roosevelt was not interested in a third term.
In the 1908 election, Taft easily defeated the Democratic nominee, three-time candidate William Jennings Bryan. Taft promoted a progressivism that stressed the rule of law; he preferred that judges rather than administrators or politicians make the basic decisions about fairness. Taft usually proved to be a less adroit politician than Roosevelt and lacked the energy and personal magnetism, along with the publicity devices, the dedicated supporters, and the broad base of public support that made Roosevelt so formidable. When Roosevelt realized that lowering the tariff would risk creating severe tensions inside the Republican Party by pitting producers (manufacturers and farmers) against merchants and consumers, he stopped talking about the issue. Taft ignored the risks and tackled the tariff boldly, encouraging reformers to fight for lower rates, and then cutting deals with conservative leaders that kept overall rates high. The resulting Payne-Aldrich tariff of 1909, signed into law early in President Taft's tenure, was too high for most reformers, and Taft's handling of the tariff alienated all sides. While the crisis was building inside the Party, Roosevelt was touring Africa and Europe, to allow Taft to be his own man.
Roosevelt had attempted to refashion Taft into a second version of himself, but as soon as Taft began to display his individuality, the former president expressed his disenchantment. He was offended on election night when Taft indicated that his success had been possible not just through the efforts of Roosevelt, but also his brother Charley. Roosevelt was further alienated when Taft, intent on becoming his own man, did not consult him about cabinet appointments. Roosevelt and other progressives were ideologically dissatisfied over Taft's conservation policies and his handling of the tariff when he concentrated more power in the hands of conservative party leaders in Congress. Regarding radicalism and liberalism, Roosevelt wrote a British friend in 1911:
- Fundamentally it is the radical liberal with whom I sympathize. He is at least working toward the end for which I think we should all of us strive; and when he adds sanity in moderation to courage and enthusiasm for high ideals he develops into the kind of statesman whom alone I can wholeheartedly support."
Roosevelt urged progressives to take control of the Republican Party at the state and local level and to avoid splitting the party in a way that would hand the presidency to the Democrats in 1912. Additionally, Roosevelt expressed optimism about the Taft Administration after meeting with the president in the White House in June 1910.
In August 1910, Roosevelt gained national attention with a speech at Osawatomie, Kansas, which was the most radical of his career and marked his public break with Taft and the conservative Republicans. Advocating a program of "New Nationalism", Roosevelt emphasized the priority of labor over capital interests, a need to more effectively control corporate creation and combination, and proposed a ban on corporate political contributions. Returning to New York, Roosevelt began a battle to take control of the state Republican party from William Barnes Jr., Tom Platt's successor as the state party boss, whom he would later confront in the Barnes vs. Roosevelt Libel Trial. Taft had pledged his support to Roosevelt in this endeavor, and Roosevelt was outraged when Taft's support failed to materialize at the 1910 state convention. Roosevelt nonetheless campaigned for the Republicans in the 1910 elections, in which the Democrats gained control of the House for the first time since the 1890s. Roosevelt lost the election after he and Taft split the republican vote which resulted in the Victory of Woodrow Wilson.
Wilson Presidency[]
After the election, Wilson chose William Jennings Bryan as Secretary of State, and Bryan offered advice on the remaining members of Wilson's cabinet. William Gibbs McAdoo, a prominent Wilson supporter who would marry Wilson's daughter in 1914, became Secretary of the Treasury, and James Clark McReynolds, who had successfully prosecuted several prominent antitrust cases, was chosen as Attorney General. Publisher Josephus Daniels, a party loyalist and prominent white supremacist from North Carolina, was chosen to be Secretary of the Navy, while young New York attorney Franklin D. Roosevelt became Assistant Secretary of the Navy. Wilson's chief of staff ("secretary") was Joseph Patrick Tumulty, who acted as a political buffer and intermediary with the press. The most important foreign policy adviser and confidant was "Colonel" Edward M. House; Berg writes that, "in access and influence, [House] outranked everybody in Wilson's Cabinet.
Wilson sought to move away from the foreign policy of his predecessors, which he viewed as imperialistic, and he rejected Taft's Dollar Diplomacy. Nonetheless, he frequently intervened in Latin American affairs, saying in 1913: "I am going to teach the South American republics to elect good men." The 1914 Bryan–Chamorro Treaty converted Nicaragua into a de facto protectorate, and the U.S. stationed soldiers there throughout Wilson's presidency. The Wilson administration sent troops to occupy the Dominican Republic and intervene in Haiti, and Wilson also authorized military interventions in Cuba, Panama, and Honduras.
World War I broke out in July 1914, pitting the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy with Spain, Bulgaria, Japan and Persia) against the Entente Powers (Great Britain, France, the Ottomans, Serbia and Russia with other Countries later on). Both sides rejected offers by Wilson and House to mediate an end the conflict. From 1914 until early 1916 when he lost the election against Roosevelt, Wilson's primary foreign policy objectives were to keep the United States out of the war in Europe and to broker a peace agreement. He insisted that all U.S. government actions be neutral, stating that Americans "must be impartial in thought as well as in action, must put a curb upon our sentiments as well as upon every transaction that might be construed as a preference of one party to the struggle before another." As a neutral power, the U.S. insisted on its right to trade with both sides.
However, The British after their failure of supporting India then decided to get Canada involved in the war which resulted in Germany to block contact with Britain and Canada which resulted in a battle in the Atlantic which also resulted in the British sinking an American ship called the Lusitania which had German diplomats. Wilson was pissed and complained to the British, the British tried to apologize, but Wilson did not forgive them to keep his presidency due to 1916 being an election month and he was running against the popular Teddy Roosevelt.
Election of 1916[]
Wilson knew he had to appease his people and neglect the British, due to was running against the legendary predecessor of his predecessor Taft, Teddy Roosevelt himself who made a comeback after he split the Republican vote. Teddy had made himself more popular by saying he will go to war against Britain for the slinking of the Lusitania in which he would burn the British in hell and help the Germans win. The American populace was cheering and the British seeing this freaked out as they tried to rig the election to get Wilson to win and they even collaborated with Wilson's cabinet as a way to ruin Roosevelt's campaign such as assassinate him. The British tried to interfere to make sure Wilson won by sending in a Gypsy Ethnic British Assassin named Aisha Puddleford to kill Roosevelt's campaign team and ruin Roosevelt's campaign and make Wilson win, but the Germans caught them and revealed the news to Roosevelt and the Americans and revealed the spy to the Americans. Wilson denied getting help from the British and even beat up Ms. Puddleford to prove he was not a British agent, but he was called a racist by the Gypsy people in America and Puddleford kissed him causing a Scandal within the marriage of Roosevelt and his wife, Edith Bolling Galt who divorced him as Roosevelt married Ms. Puddleford. Roosevelt won because of all of this as he became President of the USA with Warren G. Harding as Vice-President. Later on Roosevelt declared war on Britain as soldiers marched up to Canada and bombarded it to prevent a Canadian invasion.
America's navy then invaded and Bombarded Australia from the Philippines with the aid of Japan. However due to rebellions from Filipino Nationalists, America gave the Philippines to Japan as Japan created a Puppet State there to appease the Nationalists as Roosevelt decided to focus on Australia and New Zealand and conquer them so the Germans can have an easy time annexing Islands in Melanesia and Polynesia as Germany traded Micronesia to Japan to get East Timor to create a trade route to Germany's holdings in Africa from German New Guinea to get more resources to help America annex Australia and New Zealand. After long hard battles for the Americans and Germans and the East Timor/Micronesia trade, the British surrendered Australia and New Zealand to America as British, Australians and New Zealanders in the two dominions became American citizens.
America, Japan and Indo-Persia then helped with the Russian Civil war as they aided the White Army with the rest of the Central Powers and their Puppet States. Japan halted it's invasion of Mongolia and the rest of China as they then decided to stop and stabilize their gains immediately as they heard news of the Communist Revolution and the Civil War. America annexed East Siberia as a colony to use as a refuge for the White Army if the White Army's campaign to save Russian from the Soviets failed.
America joined Germany in the British Invasion by involving themselves as they were destroying British defenses against the Germans and sending in Soldiers to invade and kill British Soldiers and stop the Syndicalists from being a obstacle. The Germans and Americans then surrounded Buckingham Palace and marched in as they arrested George V the Royal Family. Edward, Prince of Wales escaped before the arrest and sneaked on an American ship headed towards Canada with the help of a group of Canadians who are Prisoners of War. The Royal Family was put under house arrest by the Americans as officials of their palace were forced out for harsh interrogations by American Soldiers. Sadly two angry Americans who had relatives who died on the Lusitania mugged and forcefully threw the royal family members onto the ground as they shot the whole royal family of Great Britain to death. The corpses of the Royal Family and George V (who was wearing a crown of thorns placed on his head.) were stripped hanged in front of the whole Public as the American troopers who shot them walked out with pride with Germans and American soldiers who were horrified and shocked at the corpses of the Royal Family as the British citizens cried in pain and sorrow over the deaths of the royals and horrified themselves in what they saw, Roosevelt condemned the troopers for their awful behavior. The Russian civil war was lost as the Soviets conquered Scotland, Iceland and Greenland. Denmark tried to get Iceland and Greenland back, but they were invaded by the Germans. This resulted in Britain who was so miserable over the death of their royals to surrender as the Treaty of Tokyo was signed.
Roosevelt was praised as a hero as he then created a bunch of reforms to stabilize the new American Empire. America created two new Puppet States in East Siberia known as the The Sakha Republic ruled by Lavr Kornilov as President and the Russian Republic ruled by Alexander Kolchak. Wilson and Puddleford moved to the hometown of his Paternal Grandparents which is the town of Strabane, County Tyrone, Ireland in which he was rudely welcomed by the Emperor of Ireland, Miklos Horthy. He lived in the home of his Paternal Grandfather with Aisha Puddiford (the Gypsy assassin who had an affair with him) and Wilson's eldest daughter Margaret Woodrow Wilson, Wilson's siblings also moved there too. Eleanor Randolph Wilson McAdoo, youngest daughter of Wilson was divorced by her husband in 1920 then moved to Strabine with her daughters as she moved in with her father, his mistress and her sister. Wilson having finally going into exile made the people who despised him for everything including the Scandal cheer with glee. Wilson had died in Strabane in 1924 as his daughter Margaret was put under Guardianship of her Aunt, Anne E Wilson. Eleanor and her daughters moved to the countryside of Ireland where they lived Isolated from the rest of the world. Puddiford moved back to her mother's house in London.
Roosevelt remained President of the United States as he created new reforms on the Foreign Policy including creating a League of Nations to combat the Soviet Threat. The League of Nations consisted of America, Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan, Indo-Persia and their Puppet States. England was the State that needed constant help due to various riots and civil wars between many political parties such as the Loyalists, National Monarchists, Republicans, Syndicalists, Anarchists, etc.
After WWI Roosevelt spent the rest of his fourth term in office peacefully until his death in 1919.
Warren G. Harding Presidency[]
Warren G. Harding after Roosevelt's death had become the President of the United States in which he was managing the American Colonial Empire. Harding had made Calvin Coolidge his vice president. In Australia, Australian Aboriginals and Australian Whites were revolting against High Commissioner Fritz Kuhn's Policies to have the half born children of White Australians and Aboriginal Australians taken away from their families and sent to Military bases to be trained as soldiers. He managed the situation by firing Fritz Kuhn and replaced him with Arthur Colwell who then cancelled the reforms.
He helped Lavr Kornilov stay in power after having to deal with a proxy group of Siberian socialist tribes loyal to the Far East Republic. He had also with Japan negotiated with Germany to create trading bases to the two nations maintain contact with their colonial empires. Germany agreed to the plan as a way to appease it's American allies who graciously helped them kill off Britain.
Sadly Harding was dead and Coolidge took power.
Calvin Coolidge Presidency[]
Calvin Coolidge became President after the death of his boss, Harding. Coolidge was Pro-Japanese, Pro-Indo-Persian and Pro-German as he allowed German Indo-Persian and Japanese Businesses create bases and campuses in America. Coolidge allowed the German, Japanese and Indo-Persian Aristocrats and Peasants migrate to America to have better lives and buy American businesses and allowed the Aristocrats of those nations have political positions in the country. Peasants from Indo-Persia, Japan and Germany with Peasants from their Puppet States migrated to America and took many American jobs and worked in hopes of getting better lives. This was praised by Americans who loved diversity and believed Diversity since the Americans themselves were immigrants in the 1600s. Sadly the Nativists did not like this and preferred to be Isolationist.
Coolidge's vice President Wayne Wheeler, created Prohibition laws with the permission of Congress so German, Indo-Persian and Japanese Aristocrats and Nobles can buy the American Alcohol Industry and prevent Mobsters such as Al Capone from buying Alcohol Companies and prevent the justification of gang wars between mobs in Chicago. This operation began after the Valentine's day Massacre and multiple gang wars that occurred during the aftermath of the massacre.
Wheeler also gave permits for the Aristocrats and Nobles from the three Empires to buy Gun Stores with permission of the National Rifles assossiation to prevent the selling of weapons to Left Wing Organizations.
However Coolidge was overthrown in a coup by the Liberal Federal Fascist Party run by Huey Long. Long had declared himself president and reversed all of the reforms of Harding and Coolidge.
Huey Long Dictatorship[]
Huey Long had taken power of the Presidency and had elected Joseph P Kennedy as his vice president which Warren G. Hooper as speaker of the house was saying no to fearing that Germany would not tolerate him in that position due to his not so good run as Germany's Ambassador, but Long made him take it. Long reversing the Policies of Harding and Coolidge caused revolts against him by the mass populations of Americans and German, Indo-Persian and Japanese Immigrants. Australians and New Zealanders also revolted fearing that Fritz Kuhn and Dr. Samuel Green could return and bring back the Part Australian Aboriginal-Part Australian White Child Soldier enslavement Program. This caused the rise of multiple Political Parties fighting against the Long Regime and those who support Long which would cause Anarchy in the future.
Government[]
The United States is a federal republic of 50 states, a federal district, five territories and several uninhabited island possessions. It is the world's oldest surviving federation. It is a federal republic and a representative democracy "in which majority rule is tempered by minority rights protected by law. In the American federalist system, citizens are usually subject to three levels of government: federal, state, and local. The local government's duties are commonly split between county and municipal governments. In almost all cases, executive and legislative officials are elected by a plurality vote of citizens by district.
The government is regulated by a system of checks and balances defined by the U.S. Constitution, which serves as the country's supreme legal document. The original text of the Constitution establishes the structure and responsibilities of the federal government and its relationship with the individual states.
The United States has operated under a two-party system for most of its history. For elective offices at most levels, state-administered primary elections choose the major party nominees for subsequent general elections. Since the general election of 1856, the major parties have been the Democratic Party, founded in 1824, and the Republican Party, founded in 1854. Since the Civil War.
Since Post-World War I and Roosevelt's glorious victory, America prospered as a nation even during the Presidency of Warren G. Harding until Harding's death in 1923. After that Harding's Deputy, the Pro-Japanese, Pro-Indo-Persian and Pro-German Calvin Coolidge, used America's prosperity to allow Aristocrats from those three countries in buying up American industry and allowing Peasants from those countries and their puppet states in migrating to America and taking American jobs due to America's vast resources and how people in America were able to achieve the American dream. This pissed of the Nativists and the Ku Klux Klan who then founded the Liberal Federal Fascist Party with Huey Long who overthrew Coolidge and created a Racist, Fascist and Isolationist One Party Dictatorship run by Long himself as President. Long appointed Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. as his vice President.
Current Administration[]
- President: Huey Long
- Vice President: Joseph P. Kennedy
- Secretary of State: Arthur Vandenberg
- Secretary of Treasury: Henry Morgenthau Jr.
- Secretary of Defense: Hugh Simons Gibson
- Head of National Security: John Edgar Hoover
- Chief of Staff: George C. Marshall
- Chief of Army: Omar N. Bradley
- Chief of Navy: Frank Knox
- Chief of Air: Charles Lindbergh
- Chief of Military Police: Parker Sage
The ascension to Presidency of Huey Long was not approved by Coolidge's loyalists including his Vice President Wayne Wheeler who used Prohibition to ban Alcohol not created by Germany, Japan and Indo-Persia to prevent competition with Nativist Moonshiners who do not have legal licenses for creating Alcohol and prevent stickups and prevent Alcohol businesses in America from being subjugated and acquired by Mobsters so the Mobsters don't have a legal reason to wage war with each other in the streets. Due to the unpopularity of the Long Presidency, Multiple American Political Parties had risen and decided to lead coups against the Long Presidency, however all of these Political Parties are fighting each other as they themselves as the people who overthrow Long and their rivals should shut up and let them take charge and force their agenda upon the Government which could start multiple civil wars in the country.
Political Parties of America[]
- Liberal Federal Fascist Party - The current ruling party of the United States of America, they stand for Liberalism, Fascism, Nationalism and Isolationism. The Party is run by Huey Long, the current President of the United States of America and his deputy Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., who is the Vice President of the United States of America.
- Democrat Party - The Democrat Party is the Liberal faction of the United States of America that stands for a philosophy of modern liberalism blended with notions of civil liberty and social equality with support for a mixed economy. The Party is led by the Liberal Distant Cousin of Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt and his deputy Harry Truman.
- Republican Party - The Republican Party is the Conservative Party of the United States of America that stands for protectionism and tariffs at its founding, but grew more supportive of free trade in the 20th century. The Party is led by William Edgar Borah and his deputy the eldest daughter of the late Teddy Roosevelt, Alice Roosevelt.
- Hollywood Party - The Hollywood Party is an organization of Hollywood Filmmakers, Actors, Actresses, Directors, Producers, Writers and Studio Owners who desire to take over the country and make it easier for all citizens of America to achieve the American dream without politics and civil war. The Party is led by Walt Disney and his deputy John Wayne.
- Nationalist Military Party - The Nationalist Military Party of America is a Nationalist and Militarist Party in America that stands for America's National Identity and the rights of the Veterans of World War I and it consists of Nationalists and Veterans. The Party is led by General Douglas MacArthur and his deputy Dwight D. Eisenhower.
- Communist Party of America - The Communist Party of America which stands for Communism plans to turn America into a communist state ruled by the Communist Party itself. The Party is led by Earl Browder and his deputy William Z. Foster.
- Syndicalist Party of America - The Syndicalist Party of America which stands for Syndicalism plans to turn America into a Syndicalist State ruled by all Socialist Parties and the workers. The Party is led by Charles McNary and his deputy Thomas D'Alesandro Jr.
- Anarchist Party of America - The Anarchist Party of America which wants to turn America into an anarchist state ruled by the Anarchist Party, the Mobs, Criminals, Delinquents, Terrorists, Drug Cartels and Moonshiners so they can get away with crimes and murder. The Party is led by Al Capone and his deputy who is the head of the Clevland Mobsters (who are allies of Al Capone's gang) Frank Milano.
- Fascist Party of America - The Party of America that represents Fascism and has the desire to turn America into a fascist one party totalitarian dictatorship run by the leader of their party who is Charles Lindenburg and his deputy George W. Christians.
- Dixie Party of America - The Dixie Party of America is a Nationalist Party stands for Confederate States Nationalism, Imperialism and Racism against all races except the Anglo-American and Native American races. The Party plans to restore the rule of the Confederate States of America and make the government of the Confederate States the supreme Government of all America under rule of the Ku Klux Klan and to even restore slavery. The Party is led by Dr. Samuel Green and his deputy Samuel Roper who are members of the Ku Klux Klan.
- Black Liberation Army of America - The branch of the Black Liberation Army (the Army terrorizing Africa) in America. The Black Liberation Army like the Organization it is a part of wants to make Africans the supreme race of the world and mass murder all races and Africans who favor diversity and equality. They are led by Casper Holstein and his deputy, the "Madam Queen of Policy", Stephanie St. Clair
- Monarchist Party of America - The Monarchist Party of America is the Political Party of America that plans to replace America's government with a Monarchy ruled by Edward VIII, Felix Flying Hawk the son of Native American Chieftain Flying Hawk, María Josepha Sophia de Iturbide the titular head of the Mexican Monarchy or David Kalākaua Kawānanakoa the son of David Kawānanakoa who was the third heir to the now defunct Hawaiian throne. The Party is led by Ambrose Jessup (A.J.) Tomlinson who's deputy is his son Homer Aubrey Tomlinson.
- Black Dragon Society - The Black Dragon Society is an Nationalist Terrorist Militia that consists of Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Burmese, Siamese, Shan, Cambodian, Lao, Vietnamese, Malaya, Bruneian, Singaporean, Indonesian, Mongolian, Taiwanese and Filipino Americans who want to replace the Government of America and create a Republic with Pan Asian Nationalism and a style of Government similar to that of Imperial Japan. It is led by Satokata Takahashi and his deputy Margaret Chung.
- Nation of Islam - An Islamic Terrorist Army that consists of Persian, Indian, Punjabi, Afghan, Marathi, Uzbek, Turkmen, Tajik, Turkish, Arab, Ethiopian, African, Hadimu and Shirazi Americans who desire to replace America with an Islamic State. The Organization is led by Elijah Muhammad and his wife and deputy Clara Muhammad.
Military[]
The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States of America. It consists of the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces which span from the US and it's overseas territories.
Army[]
The United States Army is a small part of the US military. They have a small active-duty force, but they make up for that in a large number of National Guard Reservists and an excellent corp of officers. The US Army is one of few in the world that have dedicated armored elements, and one of even fewer that have successfully supported marine divisions.
[]
The United States Navy is the most modern and powerful branch of the military. It is one of the few navies in the world that operates aircraft carriers and boasts a significant amount of other capital ships. The Navy maintains a presence in two oceans, the Pacific and the Atlantic, with the Pacific Fleet being the stronger of the two. While still lagging behind, the US Navy is one of the few that could come close to rivalling Germany's Kaiserliche Marine.
Air Force[]
The United States Army Air Corps is directly subordinate to the Army and, as such, is currently operated as a supporting force, covering soldiers on the ground from above and providing tactical reconnaissance. The Air Corps has sought to expand its operations to the US Navy and, perhaps, become its own independent branch should the need eventually arise for such a large aerial force. The Air Force is extremely powerful and fully capable of taking on the German Luftstreitkräfte in a one-to-one confrontation.
Foreign Relations[]
America gets along well with it's Puppet States, The Republic of Liberia, Japan and Indo-Perisa. It does not get along well with Britian, France, Canada, Germany, Italy and especially Spain.
Society[]
Culture[]
The United States is considered a prime destination for immigration from around the world and, as such, has an extraordinarily heterogeneous society retaining the cultural heritage of hundreds of distinct ethnic groups and nationalities. The country is a "melting pot" of cuisine, music, art, literature, and, most importantly, politics.
Economy[]
The United States, without a doubt, boasts the largest industrial capacity out of all of the world's major powers in 1933 and when it comes to resources, the US can draw upon the vast natural wealth of North America, making them nearly self-sufficient. But with the economy badly damaged by the Great Depression and with the country torn apart by partisanship divided the ability of the US to draw upon its vast power remains in doubt.