Before we jump back into this timeline we have to address some holes that need to be plugged in order for it to be a reasonable timeline. When we left America for Europe we stopped off at the Indian Land and Rights Act. The bill reinforced a new round of Constitutional amendments and rather bluntly stated that all land that Native Americans sat on was theirs and no one was going to move them from it. I now present the revised consequences of these actions.



Though dissent toward the law would be high, the odds were against it. Any interest the Southern States had in arguing against it was muted. OTL the infamous bigotry of the former Slave States was, after the Civil War OTL, largely fueled by their defeat. It was a desperate attempt to achieve former glory as much as it was a railing against non-whites. That attitude had little place in a far less scathed and far wealthier region where peace had been made with neighboring States.



The more populated (middle) Western states also had less interest in supporting dissent, though a bond with their Western neighbors they might have had. They had little concern about tribes that had been wiped out or dismantled decades earlier.



Christianity also started pumping some sanity into the people who professed it. Abolitionist preachers were not a favored sort, but with a new peace they didn’t have to be lynched every time they tried to prevent a slave from being beaten to death. This gave them the opportunity to preach in town squares and local churches about what the Bible said about race and slavery. People learned that the Bible only condoned a time-limited form of slavery for paying off debts and that it wasn’t race based, along with all the things about the Church being a tapestry of many threads. It got through slowly.



The last nail in the coffin was a vastly changed political climate. Four million slaves were quickly gaining their own economic and political influence and we now had another group of States [PP: I capitalize States, consistent with “the several States” mentioned in the Constitution. It is interesting to note that in later amendments States is no longer capitalized (13th, 14th, & 15th Amendments). I believe this is because the States were later viewed as subordinate to the Federal Government, instead of a co-equal tier of government.] frothing over with ethnic minorities (there are twenty two right now OTL). There were quite a number of vocal supporters who gave the political equivalent of a standing applause for the bill.



Nonetheless, people resisted it. The resistance took place between February, 1867 and May, 1868. The first attempts were overt attacks against Native Americans, used also to test the Army’s resolve. It had about as much success as the Whiskey Rebellion. The strategy changed as wealthy ranchers and some railroad barons wanted tribes off of certain lands. A rather secretive cadre assembled over several months to decide what to do about the issue. What came out of the cadre was a clever plan, one that had already been used earlier in our history. They would hire able-bodied and skilled men in considerable numbers to dress as Native Americans and attack selected communities in raids to draw the wrath of the Army.



They recruited men from like minded communities to attack communities that had trade and friendly relations with tribes. The first raids went well. They inflicted casualties and considerable damage. They were also able to convince the public that it was Native Americans doing the attacking. Lee wasn’t so easily convinced though, as unpopular as his actions were at this point. At this time several units had been harassing tribes after attacks, believing they were responsible. He replaced most of the command structure out West with officers he trusted, many of which had served under him. This also drastically reduced the general corruption that had seeped into the higher ranks. He also tightened punishments for dereliction of duty and abuse of power by signing several executive orders that gave the death penalty for such crimes.



Native Americans also joined the Army in record numbers to protect their reputation. This tightened state of affairs didn’t allow for any margin of error. Unfortunately, the attackers traveled outside of that margin. Several were captured and the ploy very quickly burst open. Public opinion turned to rage as yet another group perpetuated war. Those responsible were hunted down and dealt with accordingly. The backers were arrested on conspiracy, treason, and sedition charges. The actual hired troops quickly surrendered without backers, but they had already done their damage.



Vigilante groups had struck against tribes and tribes had struck back. Thousands were dead on both sides. However, it almost was a perverse irony for the criminals that both Whites and Native Americans set aside their differences to demand justice. This was the beginning of a collapse of distrust between the two cultures.



Jumping back into Europe, with a German victory in WWI Germany more or less inherited French and British holdings. It put most up on the auction block by forcing the countries to sell their holdings in the Western Hemisphere and keeping the rest that were closer to them and easier to control. The problem with the African holdings was that there was a regime change in the colonial governments that were formerly French and British. This gave European-educated Africans and African veterans of WWI time to plan revolution. The influx of black market British and French weapons also helped their cause. The Afrika Koloniekriege (Africa Colony Wars) of 1921-1922 were ultimately unsuccessful, but it forced the Kaiser to raise yet another force to put it down, which cost him in both public support and money.



The Kaiser was also taking too much of a liking to Divine Right. It used a lot of reparation money to build palatial estates and what little public projects he did spend the money on were badly muddled. They ran rampantly over budget and were never done on time. Of course Germany had also taken on the loan debts of Britain and France to U.S. banks, as well as her own burdens to our financial institutions (much like OTL). If you account for the hyper-inflation caused by printing currency to pay off debt, then you have one troubled economy that wouldn’t be able to sustain itself in another five years.



And so we still see how Hitler came to power through the NVB. Mussolini came to power about the same time. Hitler recognized the opportunity and seized upon it. He now had four major European nations in his control and another like-minded dictator was in control of a former WWI ally and Aryan state. He proposed a formal trade and military alliance to accelerate economic development. In 1926 the Convenzione Nazionalista Romana (Roman Nationalist Convention) convened to discuss the idea of an alliance. From that convention emerged something even more ominous, a new nation, the Confederacy Romano (Roman Confederacy). It stunned the world.



From 1926 to 1930 there was a total integration of military and industrial infrastructure. Hitler built his Autobahn from Austria to Italy to France and tied the rail systems of all the countries together. By spending horrendous amounts of money and importing dynamiting techniques from the U.S. they were able to create to rail tunnels under the English Channel in 1932. Hitler also marched on nations like Czechoslovakia and Poland and absorbed them in due time.



The U.S. suffered from much the same pacifist attitude that Britain did OTL. The U.S. had had its own economic revolution of sorts. The Southern Gulf States had realized early on that their days of ranching and land wealth were numbered and that industry was their future. Wealthy land owners cleared tracts of land and imported equipment from the East Coast. They started with textiles, but expanded into other industries. They sold their goods in the populated Eastern States and started expanding their operations their. Of course, without a foot hold, they had to essentially franchise out their business to local business men willing to take the risk of running a factory. This local autonomy meant that they started encroaching on Eastern markets even faster, and to attract workers away from the bigger firms the first increased wages. When Eastern firms increased their wages they created better working conditions. And so the competition went back and forth until formerly horrid jobs and working conditions became quite reasonable. Factories, during the competition, had sought to avoid it and expand into more open labor markets. The beneficiaries were Western States, who experienced much earlier industrialization than OTL.



The only attracted more immigration and much more uniform expansion Westward. Over crowding in cities was less of a problem and where there was crowding immigrants could now afford better housing and private services like trash collection and private schooling, which were started by entrepreneurial spirits who saw a market. Immigrants became much more affluent, far less exploited, and far more integrated into a varied American culture.



So what does this mean to its relations with Europe? It means that the U.S. viewed herself as a bastion of peace and freedom away from caustic European politics. She wanted nothing to do with WWI and really didn’t feel like doing anything about the Roman Confederacy. The turning point came with the Spanish Civil War in 1935. Fascist forces were backed by the Roman Confederacy and the Democratic Spanish forces were losing ground. Many of the Spanish speaking U.S. States (many had relatives in Spain) didn’t like what was going on and lobbied Congress to do something about it. We reluctantly sent over military advisors (remember what I said about Native Americans passing on war skills?) to help the Democratic Spaniards. That lasted until March of 1936. Fascist forces came upon Democratic forces and took them by surprise. They “interrogated” them to a rather bloody end and left the bodies to rot. A pro-Democracy unit with a U.S. military advisor attached came upon the bodies. The U.S. military advisor became very pissed and spent his energy over the next several days tracking the Fascists down. He captured the CO and tortured him until he confessed, then shot him and several of his underlings. The survivors (enlisted men) tolled their commanders and it traveled up the chain of command until it reached the leaders. Word got back to Hitler. He saw it as a chance to scare the Americans out of Europe. He declared war and marched on Spain…



Our military wasn’t nearly as small as OTL, but it was still at peace time readiness. The few thousand troops we sent over were able to fight a fierce guerilla war, but German forces pushed the Democratic Spaniard forces to back farther and farther. The intervening months were an example of what some have called a “man-made miracle.” U.S. industries re-tooled in record time to build and convert ships for troop carrying. We were able to move fifty thousand troops into Spain in three months and stop RC (Roman Confederacy) forces, who hadn’t expected the reinforcements.



RC forces were also marching North, closer and closer to Scandinavia. We quickly backed them with fresh supplies of weapons and ammunition. We moved another 200,000 troops into place in Scandinavian nations by December of 1936. We had multiplied our standing forces ten fold to two million by this time.



And so we have come to 1937. It wasn’t trench warfare this time around. Germany struck with its feared blitzkrieg several times and inflicted heavy losses. We also suffered at the hands of German subs as we sent ships to re-supply our troops. Advanced fighters and bombers struck our airfields. Hitler’s wonder weapons found testing grounds along our lines. 1938 was a better year. Our industry hit it’s stride and starting pumping out troops transports every four days. Experimental fighter designs were rolled out and put into service. We moved troops into North Africa.



Apparently Japan thought were too busy. They struck Pearl Harbor in September. Next time, the Divine Wind strikes…