Canada
As its southern neighbors, Canada adopted a postal code system, with 5 numbers, and no letters. Railways were built, stitching the widespread nation together, and Canadians felt a distinct pride in being Canadian, and their slow move towards independence from the United Kingdom.
United Kingdom
A grateful nation welcomed its heroes home and celebrated the nation's victory in the war, and realized its new issues with the empire. Ireland was a bastion now of British pride, waving Union Flags all over given the rescue from French attack in the war. Britain needed to figure out how to provide for its veterans. Its first bill was a Veteran Colonial Adjustment Act; the bill paid passage for a veteran and his family to any dominion (Australia, New Zealand, Patagonia, South Africa, Kenya, Rhodesia, Canada, with emphasis on Rhodesia, Patagonia, Kenya, and South Africa) if he stayed there for 10 years and improved the land, plus agreed to build housing for the veterans. Of the 289,000 veterans, approximately 98,000 decided to move overseas for a new challenge, taking wives, girlfriends, children, and sometimes even parents, siblings, and friends with them.
Rhodesia, Kenya, South Africa, Patagonia, and Madagascar began to develop even more rapidly with a new influx of settlers. Roads, plumbing, electricity, more modern-style houses, businesses, and local brands all began showing up in the various dominions. British developed a primitive central heating and air cooling system that was adaptable to both Patagonia and Africa, and sold quite well in Australia and New Zealand. It included dehumidifier functionality as of 1922, where the drip pan would allow people to collect condensed water from the air for drinking, especially useful in Africa and Australia. It made life much more bearable in the winters of Patagonia, and summers of Africa and Australia. Edgar William Howard, a British scientist, developed a condenser that would help collect water from the air for use in Australia, which spread to the rest of the British Empire, making public water utilities much less subject to drought, along with the desalination plants, easing water shortages and helping public hygiene immensely.
Engineers in Australia began building several large desalination plants and pipes for the massive project of refilling the Lake Eyre Basin, with the hope of solving the problem of lack of water in Australia. The project was planned in 1909, and begun in 1920. Clean fresh water began pumping into Lake Eyre by 1921, and plants and fish began to be planted in and around the refreshed lake, which gradually grew to an inland sea when the Australians finished the project.
Sudan was an Anglo-Egyptian territory, but was split into a Christian South Sudan and Muslim Sudan to ease tensions in 1923. South Sudan (OTL South Sudan) would begin building ties to Kenya, British Central Africa, and the rest of colonized Africa.
News of the assassination of President Benning prompted Parliament to ban socialists and communists from coming into the United Kingdom or the British Empire, and banned Das Kapital from publishing anywhere in the empire.
On the Juba River, in Kenya, a Somalian uprising forced a minor 'war' with the locals; Kenya successfully defended its territory from invasion, and removed the Somalis to Italian Somaliland. The Luo tribe also participated in a minor uprising against the British settlers, resulting in about 183 Luo deaths. Other Kenyan tribes, in comparison, assimilated into the British society forming in their land, adopting English, Christianity, and British clothes, manners, and even names. Likewise in South Africa and Rhodesia, with the vast increase in British settlers, the outnumbered Africans either assimilated, or left for Dutch-Belgian Congo or the Portuguese colonies.
The General Post Office began experimenting with postal codes to sort mail more efficiently. It adopted a unique system bearing a two-letter country designation (IR, WA, EN, SC for the countries of the UK, with Crown Dependencies getting their own as well, MX, JE, GU, etc) preceded by a two-letter county designation and a four-digit routing number to determine the postal area. Theoretically, London would be LN0000 through 'LN9999, EN' in this system. It would not become mandatory until 1928, however.
Germany
Germany adjusted its border between Kamerun and its Congo colony to be the straight line extending from Spanish Equatorial Guinea eastward. While Germany gained the islands around Madagascar, the island itself was British property. German scientists created weather stations on the Scattered Islands (Verstreuten Indischen Inseln), most notably Tromelin Island. French and local supporters of the French located on Reunion and Mayotte were removed to French West Africa to make room for German settlers. With nearly 2 million veterans, Germany adopted a similar policy of its British colleagues and paid them to settle abroad to bring civilization to the world. Tanganyika, Kamerun, Togoland, Ivory Coast, Mayotte, Reunion, Bismark Archipelago, Caroline Islands, Congo, Gabon, Namibia, all received German settlers, not to mention those who went to the US, Canada, CS, and the rest of the British Empire. Namibia, Mayotte, Reunion, Tanganyika, Kamerun, Congo, and Togoland were all by 1930 nearly as German as Germany was.
Kaiser Heinrich I enjoyed immense popularity and victory parades in Berlin showed huge turnout to watch. Germany's veterans were welcomed home as heroes. Loyalty of Prussian Poles was noted by Heinrich, though many Poles moved to newly independent Poland. Despite the dream of a number of Polish to have so-called "Polish Corridor" to the sea, including Danzig, much of West Prussia, and most of Posen and Silesia, that was not to be. Germans living in Poland began moving into these portions of Germany while Polish desiring to be in Poland freely moved into their reconstituted country.
Empress Elisabeth Viktoria and Emperor Heinrich I of Germany
While some in Germany, notably west of the Rhine, and in southern Bavaria, Württemberg, and Baden had been swayed by the new philosophy of fascism, it generally didn't find many adherents in Germany. Many Germans were happy with their government and the benefits it provided, and weren't about to change things up. Kaiser Heinrich did request a new law, though, in 1919, requiring all men over 21 to own a rifle or handgun. Given the three wars with France already, and the necessity of facing a possible invasion from the east, all Germans, he said, should be armed and trained in the use of those arms.
Austria-Hungary
While Austria-Hungary had made it out of the war in one piece, it wouldn't last that way. In 1919, Czech soldiers who had been working with the allies had grown restless with wanting independence, and soon began petitioning the League of Nations, of which Austria-Hungary was a member, for entry as Czechoslovakia. Socialists and communists began agitating and causing minor unrest. Soon the situation boiled over and in September 1919, Austria-Hungary was in a full-blown civil war between its various ethnicities. German, Czech, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Romanian, and south Slav were all fighting each other, and the violence would threaten to spill into Germany, Italy, perhaps even Greece and Ukraine. The civil war continued into 1920, when the League of Nations, headquartered in Luxembourg City, finally stepped in, with Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, Spain, Greece, and Italy bringing Austria-Hungary to the negotiating table and forcing the emperor, Franz Josef, to partition his empire. Negotiations took two weeks before he finally agreed to split his empire.
Italy would gain Trentino, leaving Tyrol/South Tyrol in Austria; the Littoral would be Italian. Three Ladin communities, Cortina d'Ampezzo/Hayden, Livinallongo del Col di Lana/Buchenstein, and Colle Santa Lucia/Verseil, were to remain in South Tyrol and with Austria.
Yugoslavia would be created and merge with Serbia into one slavic nation with Slovenia as a member, containing Carniola, Fiume, and some of South Styria (but not Marburg an der Drau)
Hungary would include the portion of Slovakia that was majority Hungarian, plus a land connection to Szeklerland (OTL First/Second Vienna Award but nothing else)
Austria would retain Teschen Silesia, Sudetenland, German Bohemia, South Bohemia and South Moravia (attached to Upper and Lower Austria), Vierburgenland (which included Preßburg, Ödenburg/Sopron, Wieselburg, St Gotthard, and a few minor villages), Tyrol, Vorarlberg, Salzburg, Styria, and Carinthia. Some Austrians would celebrate this moment with a new flag, bearing a St Andrews Cross with 13 white stars for the 13 states in Austria, despite the official flag being a red, white, red striped flag. The Austrian city enclaves remained with Austria.
Czechoslovakia would contain the Czech and Slovak lands not in Austria or Hungary, including Carpathian Ruthenia. While they demanded more land, they were financially compensated for the lost land and would soon have generally positive diplomatic relations with Hungary, Germany, and Austria.
Poland would gain all of Galicia and join the League of Nations on equal footing with the rest of Europe.
Romania would gain all land not remaining in Hungary, in exchange for some debt forgiveness and joining the League of Nations.
Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia would also join the League of Nations (Austria-Hungary had kept them out of the LoN) on equal footing. Belarus and Ukraine would follow.
The negotiations were formalized November 1, 1920, when Austria-Hungary formally ceased to exist, and was replaced with the new nations of Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia; Poland, Italy, and Romania all gained land in the deal, and the League of Nations grew in stature as a viable diplomatic force for peace in Europe, and hopefully the world.
With the failure of Austria-Hungary, a lonely sergeant, a failed artist, attempted a coup in a beerhall in Vienna, but was shot in the crowd. His name is lost to history. Other Austrians, however, began to fall under the sway of fascism and its promise for restored Austrian glory. By 1924, the Austrian National Socialist Workers' Party was a minority party in the Parliament. The new, smaller Austria faced a deep fiscal crisis in 1920-1922, but a newly reformed currency, the Schilling, to replace the Krone. It was divided into 100 Pfennig, with coins of 1 Schilling, 2 Schilling, and 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50 Pfennig. Banknotes of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 500, 1000 Schilling were created at a rate of 10,000 Krone to 1 Schilling. The Ladin and Slovenian communities were granted linguistic rights in the new Austria, to the consternation of the growing fascist party.
Poland
While the Polish King was celebrating his gain of Galicia, he also demonstrated his independence from Germany with placing Józef Piłsudski as Minister of Military Affairs. Piłsudski was of the opinion of making Poland a 'union of nations,' including the Baltic States, Belarus, Ukraine, and even the former western territories if possible. Constrasted to this was Roman Dmowski, who wanted an ethnically hom*ogeneous Polish nation. Soon Pilsudski would become Chief of State, the equivalent to Prime Minister in 1929.
Karl Josef I, Polish King, very distant relation to Stanislaw II, the last Polish King
Józef Piłsudski, Chief of State
Spain
Spain was essentially neutral in the Great War, but fell to a dictatorship in 1923 under General Miguel Primo de Rivera, who was aided by General Fransisco Franco. While nominally still a kingdom, the General held the power. Rivera sought to revive flagging Spanish fortunes and their lack of gain in the war by sending troops into Spanish Morocco, merging Tangier into the zone. The Tangier population of less than 50,000 people had no chance against the well-armed Spanish soldiers and were either rounded up and executed or expelled from the area. Spanish Morocco within two years would become completely Spanish.
Morocco, in five counties, a new Spanish province
France
Second Lieutenant Charles de Gaulle, who served under Colonel Philippe Petain, awoke in the hospital in 1917 with news of France's capitulation to the Germans, finally coming out of the blindness caused by mustard gas. He was aghast and disgusted. France couldn't fall! The land of Napoleon and Charlemagne was the light of civilization, not those barbarians across the Rhine! Something, someone must have cause France to fail...but not France. Some enemy within. And de Gaulle found it in the rising antisemitism that had once diminished after the Dreyfus Affair. He disguised his bitterness but kept it inside. Charles met with his former commander and was tasked with reporting back to the army about some various political parties causing trouble around Paris, originating in Valence. He was to go and report back. The French Workers' Party (Parti Ouvrier Francais, POF), founded in 1880, was aiming to abolish capitolism and replace it with a socialist society, and they were advocating the overthrow of the Lyons Republic (aka Third Republic of France).
Meeting in Marianne Hall in Lyons, de Gaulle met with the party and he actually found that he liked what they were saying. George Vacher de Lapuge was present, speaking about eugenics and the French race, and said some antisemitic things that blamed the French Jews for the loss in the Great War. Hubert Lagardelle began shifting his syndicalist tendencies to line up more with Mussolini's party in Italy in his speech that night, sharing his new views on socialism and how in France it was not the class which was most important, but the nation itself, and the French people owed their allegiance to the state, not their class. In the second meeting, he spoke up, getting heckled out of the hall to his embarrassment. The next meeting he shouted down the hecklers in a fit of anger and rage, gesticulating his passion about Marianne (described as a pure woman, grabbed and pawed at by the world) and the French people (led astray by the League of Nations and the British and Germans), his desire to advance France past the failed ideologies of the past and the lack of desire on some to modernize the military, which he included both Joffre and some French Jews. He came up with a phrase, describing his Croix de Guerre had to become a cross of fire to burn away the chaff and impurities choking the life out of France.
He officially joined the party on October 19, 1919 as the 55th member.
France itself after Versailles faced a serious economic crisis as a result of lost pre-war industry, loss of supplies of raw materials and foodstuffs due to the continental blockade, loss of colonies, and worsening debt balances, all exacerbated by the exorbitant issue of promissory notes raising money to pay for the war. Military-industrial activity had almost ceased, although controlled demobilization kept unemployment at around 1 million. In part, the economic losses can also be attributed to the Allied blockade of France until the Treaty of Berlin.
The Allies permitted only low levels of imports that most French could not afford. After four years of war and near famine, many French workers were exhausted, physically impaired, and discouraged. Millions were disenchanted with the monarch and hoping for a new era. Meanwhile, the currency depreciated, and would continue to do so following the German invasion of Lorraine, intent on gathering coal and other natural resources to repay some of their expenditures during the war.
The French peace delegation in Germany signed the Treaty of Berlin, accepting mass reductions of the French military, the prospect of substantial war reparations payments to the allies, and the controversial 'War Guilt Clause.' Explaining the rise of extreme nationalist movements in France shortly after the war, American historian Richard Patrick pointed to the 'national disgrace' that was "felt throughout France at the humiliating terms imposed by the victorious Allies and reflected in the Berlin Treaty...with its confiscation of colonies and territories in the east of France and even more so its 'guilt clause'." Charles de Gaulle would repeatedly blame the republic and its democracy for accepting the oppressive terms of the treaty, aiding his rise to power along with Petain. The country's first President, Alexandre Deschanel signed the new French constitution into law on August 8, 1917.
President Alexandre Deschanel
The new post-war France was stripped of almost all its colonies, lost Dunkirk and Nice in Europe as well. Alsace-Lorraine remained in Germany, and around 1/3 of the French-speaking Alsatians left for France. Those who left and those who bordered the state were outraged at the continued insult to France that the loss of Alsace-Lorraine represented.
In the first 4 years following the Great War, the situation for French civilians remained dire. Severe food shortages improved little to none until 1921. Many French civilians expected life to return to normal after the removal of the naval blockade in 1917, but the struggles continued into the 1920s, while the rest of Europe seemed to prosper, leading to the perception it was done on the backs of the French people. Through the war, French officials made rash decisions to combat the growing national hunger, most of which were highly unsuccessful. Wine grapes were distributed instead of used for wine, leading many in other nations to begin building up their own wine industry to make up the shortfall, and a nationwide pig slaughter in 1913 took place to distribute to the people and soldiers, done partly to help decrease the use of potatoes and turnips for feed, to turn those items for human consumption. In 1920, meat consumption still had not increased since the war era. The continuity of pain introduced the Lyon authority in a negative light, making public opinion largely negative towards it, being one of the main sources behind its failure.
The actual amount of reparations France would be forced to pay was not the 132 billion francs decided in the London Schedule of 1919, but rather the 50 billion francs ($8,638,679,652.79 in 1917 USD) in the A and B Bonds The 'C bonds' were entirely fictional - a statement designed to make the public think France, which had now started 3 European wars, would be forced to pay much more. The actual payout from 1919 to 1929 was 20 billion francs, worth about $3.4 billion. Much of the cash came from loans from New York and Richmond bankers, while the rest was goods such as coal, wine, industrial equipment, or even chemicals. The reparations were fixed in 1921 to what the French could pay, not the basis of Allied claims. The public rhetoric in 1917 of France paying for all the damages and all the veterans' benefits was irrelevant for the total, but did determine how the recipients spent their share. France owed reparations mainly to Germany, Britain, Italy, Belgium, and the Netherlands. The CS and US each received $100 million CSD/USD.
In the early post-war years, inflation was growing at an alarming rate, but the government just printed more currency to pay debts. By 1923, the Third Republic claimed it could no longer afford the reparations payments required by the Berlin Treaty, and the government defaulted on some payments. In response, the German and Belgian troops occupied the Lorraine region, one of the most productive regions of France at the time, and took control of most mining and manufacturing companies in 1923. Strikes were called and passive resistance was encouraged. The strikes lasted 8 months, further damaging the economy and society.
Inflation of the franc; # of francs to equal $1 CSD
1917: 5.79
1918: 5.19
1919: 14.87
1920: 51.81
1921: 78.75
1922: 565.70
1923: 4,551,718.65 (4 million francs)
1924: 3,742,933,767,210.22 (3 trillion francs)
One-million franc notes being used as note paper in 1923
The strike prevented some goods from being produced, but one industrialist, Édouard Renault (born 1874), was able to create a vast empire out of the bankrupted companies. Because production costs in France were falling almost hourly, the prices for French products were unbeatable. Renault made sure he was paid in Confederate Dollars, which meant that by mid-1923, his industrial empire was worth more than the entire French economy. By year's end, over 200 factories were working full-time to produce paper for the spiraling banknote production. Renault's empire collapsed when the government-sponsored inflation was stopped in November 1923. In 1917 a loaf of bread was 1 franc; by 1923, that same loaf was 100 billion francs.
Since striking workers were paid benefits by the state, much additional currency was printed, fueling a period of hyperinflation. The 1920s French inflation started when France had no goods to trade. The government printed money to deal with the crisis; this mean payments within France were made with worthless paper money, and helped formerly great industrialists to pay back their own loans. this alos led to pay raises for workers and for businessmen who wanted to profit from the inflation. The circulation of money vastly increased, and soon, banknotes were being overprinted with three additional zeroes, and every French town printed its own promissory notes; many banks and industrial firms followed suit.
The value of the franc papier declined from 5.19f per dollar in 1913 to 4.55 million per dollar in 1923. This led to further criticism of the Third Republic. On November 15, 1923, a new currency, the franc retraite, at a rate of one trillion (1,000,000,000,000) franc papier for one franc retraite, a severe redenomination. At this point, the franc retraite was 3.72 per CSD, with a new symbol, ƒ, a lowercase 'f' with two horizontal marks instead of one. Once this was achieved and the old francs began to be returned for the new francs, the Lorraine region was returned to France under the Straßburg Treaties, which fixed the borders of Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, and France.
Greece
Greece was ecstatic with its newfound land acquisitions - Europe, the Aegean, and the Trebizond territory on the Black sea. They built border walls to keep the occasional Turkish attack way, and began reconsecrating all the ancient churches that had since been turned into mosques, and moved all government offices into Constantinople, with the legislature finishing construction in 1926. The British and the Germans heavily invested in Greece, at this point to help keep the Soviet Union at bay, modernizing infrastructure in Greece and training their government officials in modern and efficient governing. Their 'aid' would help Greece avoid tax and budget issues that had been plaguing the country for decades and begin to have much easier and efficient time collecting taxes and providing government services. The issue of Koine or Katharevousa Greek occupied some of the time of the government, while the various dialects of the language - Pontic in Trebizond, Demotic in the Aegean, Cappadocian in the inner Aegean bordering Turkey, Southeastern in the Aegean islands, Northern in Europe, and Athenian in southern European Greece. Some efforts at compromise between Katharevousa and Koine came about in the 20s, notably purging Turkish words for native Greek words (considering the Turks' Greek genocide), and restoration of genitive/dative distinctions.
A new legislative building in Constantinople took the place of the former Blue Mosque:
A rectangular reflecting pool was added in 1997 in front of the capitol building of Greece
The Prime Minister of Greece was given one of the many palaces in Constantinople to use as a residence:
In 1924, King Constantine I died of a heart attack, and his son was crowned George II. His wife, Viktoria of Prussia, daughter of Kaiser Heinrich I, would prove very popular on the social scene in the 1920s, and Greece would soon enter a small golden age with George II at the helm.
King George II of Greece and Queen Viktoria, 2 years his junior
There was a near attempt at a coup in 1923 under Constantine I, but the presence of a contingent of British and German troops, who were working with the Greek Army on training maneuvers near Constantinople, successfully put the rebellion down. The Treaty of Constantinople (1924) provided free passage through the straits for European trade and military vessels, and promised not to let Russia through the straits. When the USSR found out, they protested to the League of Nations, but the LoN was not very receptive.
Italy
Italy had grown in size, but some Italians were as yet unhappy with the gains, notably Benito Mussolini, a socialist who began to drift into the new form of socialism developed by Giovanni Gentile, called fascism. Mussolini had grown disenchanted with socialism as its class-basis for revolution never happened in Italy; people rallied around their nation in his experience. Gentile's new form of socialism explained this and made the nation state the basis of the philosophy - everything within the state, nothing without the state. Fascism began to grow in Italy, promising new prosperity that seemed to escape Italy after the Great War, and soon began to find adherents in France, Spain, Austria, Germany, and elsewhere. By 1921, the party was in the Italian legislature as a strong party and by 1922, ruled the legislature with Mussolini at its head. The National Fascist Party succeeded after the Revolutionary Fascist Party, and ruled Italy throughout the 1920s.
Belgium
Belgium had to face several factors after the war. Assimilating Dunkirk, another Dutch-speaking area, and the accusations of collaboration by a number of Walloon with the French occupation, threatened the coexistence of the Walloon/Dutch communities of Belgium. Rebuilding the nation took precedence, repairing the outward signs of war, while trying to ignore the inner scars on the part of many. Walloons who stood with Belgium became more outwardly patriotic, and even took efforts to speak Dutch where possible so none could question their loyalty, while collaborators were soon jailed, or fled to France. Belgium as a nation seemed to have a form of national PTSD, and seemed not to know how to handle it. Some left for the Dutch-Belgian Congo; others left for the British or German Empires, and still others to the US or CS.
Netherlands
The Netherlands was glad to be out of the war; now it had to rebuild from the semi-occupation from France. War veterans having fought in the war were given help as needed, and many wanted to leave Europe, and take their families with them. A number went to South Africa, then Patagonia, Surinaam, the Dutch Antilles, and the now entirely Dutch Sint Maarten, whose 3500 French citizens were removed to French West Africa. Around five thousand veterans and their families were requested to move to the island to take control of the other side of the island and ensure order was maintained, with passage paid; four thousand left to go to the island; the other thousand decided to move to Surinaam.
Flag of Sint Maarten
The colony of Surinaam, with around 100,000 persons in 1920, gained another 30,000 people over a four-year period from 1918-1922, attracted by the fresh start, the presence of electricity and air conditioning and dehumidifying technology, and the chance to leave the stress of being on a continent near France, now having started two wars involving the Netherlands. In 1924, a new legislature was built for Surinaam to allow more local control of the colony's affairs.
Surinaam's National Assembly, a bicameral legislature
Residence of Governor General of Surinaam, the monarch's representative
The discovery of gold brought an influx of Dutch to the colony, which brought in a greater demand for more infrastructure, building up the coastal and inland cities (really towns) of the colony. By 1930, the colony was a stable, prosperous segment of Dutch society; here the Indian and black members of society were not segregated, but unfortunately did not enjoy full equality with their neighbors.
Russia
The Russian SFSR began consolidating its power in its territory, and by 1922, had absorbed Belarus, Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia into its territory, creating the USSR. In 1923, the Volga German SSR was created, attracting many of Germany's communists to emigrate to see their belief in communism practiced, as they had by and large given up the hope of Germany going communist.
Volga SSR
Hoping to build its own fortunes and legitimacy, the USSR created the Jewish Oblast in the far east, shipping Russian Jews to the land as a theoretical homeland for them, where many would speak Yiddish as opposed to Russian, to communicate with each other. In addition, several other autonomous SSRs would be created around the Volga SSR, creating a French, Spanish, Italian, and Hungarian SSR (on that map, green top-right is French, purple top-left is Hungarian, and the purple is split Spanish/Italian), intended for communists from those countries to come to the USSR, build up its industry, and show the superiority of communism as opposed to socialism or fascism, all three of which were considered variations of left-wing philosophy in Europe at the time, differing only in the degree of state control over public and private property.
Unlike the Volga SSR, the other SSRs would never see large-scale communist immigration from Europe; mere thousands left their homelands, but many of those would be the leading intellectuals of European communism, leaving to join their idealistic impression of what communism could achieve.
Confederate States
The Confederate National Park System came into being in 1923, when park rangers from South California, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona met in April from the 6th to the 13th. Soon, they met with several other interested parties from the eastern Confederate States, and initiated the first designations for National Parks:
Great Smoky Mountains (TN/NC)
Carlsbad Caverns (NM)
Grand Canyon (AZ)
Everglades (FL)
Hot Springs (AR)
Yucca National Park (SoCal) (OTL: Joshua Tree National Park)
Guadeloupe Mountains National Park (TX)
Shenandoah National Park (VA)
Volcano National Park (HI)
Sequoia National Park (SoCal)
Mount Benning National Park (AK) (OTL: Mount McKinley)
Following the United States' lead, the Confederates created a two-letter abbreviation for each state and territory to make it easier to direct mail across the nation. Puerto Rico (PR), Cuba (CB), Yucatan (YN), Guiana (GN), Tennessee (TN), Florida (FL), Hawaii (HA), Virgin Islands (VI), Bahamas (BH), Bermuda (BM), Arkansas (AR), Alabama (AL), Alaska (AK), etc. A four-digit postal code is also created, with the first designating a region, second two a county, and last a post office. By 1927, this was updated to a five digit code to allow more post office designations.
Regions:
1: VA, NC, SC
2: KY, TN, MO
3: GA, FL, AL
4: MS, LA, AR
5: TX, OK, NM, AZ
6: CA, SN, JF, DR, RG (South California, Sonora, Jefferson, Durango, Rio Grande)
7: YN, CU, SD, PR (Yucatan, Cuba, Santo Domingo, Puerto Rico)
8: MR, GD, BH, BM, VI, GU (Martinique, Guadeloupe, Bahamas, Bermuda, Virgin Islands, Guiana)
9: AK, HA, NL, PN, MI (Alaska, Hawaii, New Caledonia, Polynesia, Mariana Islands)
0: Government Buildings or Army Bases
Dentists begin advertising the benefits of iodine for the body, and soon, across the Confederacy iodized salt, iodent toothpaste, and iodine in bread. Soon, IQs increase 15 points amongst the general population; the US soon follows suit.
In contrast to the United States, the eugenics movement gained very little traction in the Confederacy, as its advocacy on abortion and sterilization clashed with the much stronger Christian faith in the South. Some proponents changed their eugenics advocacy to simpler advocacy for standards of beauty, which included blonde or red hair, blue/gray and green eyes, fair skin, delicate eyebrows and 'curvy' figures.
Around this point in time, the Confederate clothing maker William DuPont from Richmond developed and advancement on the brassier developed by Mary Jacob in New York, USA. He developed a system of sizes with bands in inches and cups in letters from A through G. His cousin, Andrew Isaacson (second cousin), developed a standardized pant size for men with waist/leg measurement in inches, and for women in waist/hip and leg measurement. For dresses, Isaacson halved the measurement to look smaller to women. Popularized shortly after being created in 1924, these advances soon became standard and then mandatory by 1932 in the CS, and soon, the US. A lawsuit in 1930 by several women, who found one size wasn't the same between bra, dress, or pant manufacturers for false advertising brought the issue to the Supreme Court, which ruled that it fell under the standards of weights and measurements clause of the Confederate Constitution. At that point, all women's clothing for all manufacturers would have to be the same size or risk lawsuit. A 24/36/26 from Levi would be the same as a 24/36/26 from Straussmann.
United States
American conservationists also began designating lands as national parks. In contrast to the Confederates' parks, where the land remained property of the state, just cooperatively managed by the federal government, in the US the land became property of the federal government.
Yellowstone National Park (WY)
Yosemite National Park (NC)
Mount Rainier (WA)
Crater Lake (OR)
Wind Cave (SD)
Mesa Verde (CO)
Glacier (MT)
Rocky Mountain (CO)
Lassen Volcanic (NC)
Acadia National Park (ME)
At this time the US begins creating two-letter state abbreviations, and a 5-digit postal code to route the mail.
1: ME, VT, NH (Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire)
2: MA, CT, RI (Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island)
3: PA, NY, NJ (Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey)
4: WV, MD, DE (West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware)
5: WI, IL, IN, OH, MI (Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan)
6: ND, SD, MN, IO (North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa)
7: WY, CO, NB, KA (Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas)
8: ID, NV, MT, UT (Idaho, Nevada, Montana, Utah)
9: CL, WA, OR, NC (Columbia, Washington, Oregon, North California)
0: Army Bases and Government Buildings
In the United States, eugenics grew in its sway, resulting in widespread policies of sterilization of mentally retarded people, insane, and others who didn't fall in the "normal" range of acceptable behaviors. It also focused US immigration on persons originating in Europe, aside from France, which also included Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Rhodesia, Kenya, Namibia, Tanganyika, Canada, and a few other dominions and countries, while excluding eastern Europe. The progressive movement in the United States was the originator of the eugenics movement, aiming at improving and preserving the genetic quality of the American people. Selective breeding became in vogue in the upper classes, focusing on desirable traits, which did not include brown or hazel eyes or black or brown hair. Eugenics was not limited to white Americans. Black Americans such as W.E.B. du Bois, born in Massachusetts, believed that "only fit blacks should procreate to eradicate the race's heritage of moral iniquity" (direct quote). In the United States, the Carnegie Institution, Rockefeller Foundation, and the Sheridan Institute (named in honor of the heroic cavalry hero of the War of the Rebellion) all funded eugenics movements. Theodore Henderson, whose father worked with Woodrow Wilson, worked with the Sheridan Institute to develop a mass index of family pedigrees, and concluded that whose who were unfit came from economically and socially poor backgrounds. Margaret Sanger was a leading member of the eugenics movement, advocating abortions and sterilizations of 'undesirable' members of society. Henderson favored immigration restriction and sterilization as primary methods. Ethan von Amerling, another leading eugenicist, favored segregation in a famous book, The True Loyal League of the Union. Henderson and the others formed the Eugenics Record Office, which later became the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
Eugenics poster in New York City in the early 1920s
There was even an American Breeders Association, established in 1906 by Rodger von Amerling, specifically to "investigate and report on heredity in the human race, and emphasize the value of superior blood and the menace to society of inferior blood." Members included Ryan Keelan, Benjamin Bulthuis, Edward Seamus O'Neill, and other prominent socialites.
Outside of this trend, the Americans continued to flaunt Prohibition, with day-visas into the Confederacy, which often lasted only a few hours, but the charge for that, plus the tax on alcohol in the Confederacy allowed the states on the border with the Union to pay down their portions of the war debt and provide pensions for their soldiers. Along the border there were no 'speakeasies' since alcohol was easily accessible, but on the US side of the border, prostitution became a problem, and somewhat on the Confederate side also, as Confederate women were 'curvier' than the women from the US.
South Africa
Moving into South Africa, numbers of Dutch kept the local Afrikaans Nederlands speakers from developing a new dialect or even a new language. Dutch continued to be taught, and the new Dutch some aghast at the poor Dutch of the Afrikaner there, founded the African Dutch Language Society. They did take things a little far in their zeal, however. The ADLS made the following suggestions:
*revival of du, dijn, dij as the second person singular; jij, uwer, u in the plural
*revival of die/des/den (m), die/der/die (f), dat/des/dat (n); die/der/den/die (pl) articles
*revival of verb endings: e, es, et; en, et, en (sg/pl)
*revival of strong/weak adjective endings
*restoration of strong verbs that became mixed or weak
*restoration of weak nouns and distinguishing them from strong nouns
*pronouncing the 'n' on word endings
The group 'translated' the Bible into their 'New African Dutch' and in 1922, got the provinces with a Dutch majority to make this form of Dutch official, artificial as it was. For the next few years, children in schools would be taught this form of Dutch, and eventually would become the official form of Dutch for South Africa, which would sound...odd and old fashioned to European Dutch. Jan Tulbagh led the movement, which was actually quite successful.
Newly moving British and Europeans began challenging the existing laws on racial discrimination in South Africa, causing friction with the existing settlers who had tried to take 90% of the land for them, while only being maybe 65% of the population at this point. The issue of race, being brought up especially by the Indian Mahatma Gandhi, was brought to a head in 1923, when existing settlers engaged in a series of protests in Cape Town, Pretoria, Johannesburg, and other cities around the dominion, nearly turning into armed rebellion. The British Army, with a number of veterans already in the dominion, was able to put down the rebellion over the course of three months, with a number of people jailed, executed, or exiled for their parts in the semi-rebellion. Jan Smuts, who originally backed some form of segregation, switched to back the empire in a deal to retain some electoral power. The Dominion of South Africa Reorganization Act of 1923 was passed in the UK Parliament strictly outlawing racial discrimination and segregation in hiring, voting, schools, or businesses, and provided for a gradual integration of existing South African blacks, starting with those who served honorably during the Great War, around 28,000 persons. They were required to pass either English or New African Dutch proficiency, a British and South African history test, and convert to some Christian denomination and take a British name. Once done and taking an oath of loyalty to the crown and to South Africa, they were granted the right to vote. Under orders from the British Parliament, the population of 6.9 million, of which 4,502,812 were white, 1,039,110 were black, 831,288 were Indian, and 554,192 were of other Asian heritage, began the process of real integration, likely avoiding future problems with race.
Based on its experience in South Africa, Rhodesia and Kenya would soon have the same law passed for them also; all three dominions' immigration would still remain heavily British and European, however, but each of them would begin legal 'gradual integration' for native Africans which assimilate to British society, and would continue deporting Africans who did not assimilate to Swaziland, Lesotho, or Mozambique.
Time Zones
By 1903, various nations of the world had some form of railway time, dividing their nations into various zones of time. In 1911, a coalition of nations, namely the US, CS, UK, France, Germany, Japan, and several others came together to decide on a unified standard for time. They eventually created 24 one-hour time zones for the planet.
In the CS, the time zones were:
Caribbean (-4): Puerto Rico, Bermuda, Virgin Islands, Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique
Atlantic (-5): Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida (east of the Chattahoochee River/Apalachicola River), Bahamas, Cuba
Central (-6): Florida (western part), Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri
Western (-7): Texas, Oklahoma, Arizona, New Mexico, Sonora, Jefferson, Rio Grande, Durango, Yucatan
Pacific (-8): South California
Yukon (-9): eastern Alaska panhandle
Hawaii/Alaska (-10): Hawaii, Alaska, Polynesia
(+10): Mariana Islands
(+11): New Caledonia
In the US:
Brazil (-3): Amapa territory
Caribbean (-4): St Barts, Barbados
Eastern (-5): Pennsylvania, West Virginia and east
Central: Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa
Mountain: Dakotas to Montana
Pacific: North California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Columbia
In Europe:
Iceland (-1): Iceland, Portugal
GMT (0): UK, Spain, France, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Belgium
Central European Time (+1): Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Italy, Yugoslavia, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland
Eastern European Time (+2): Greece, Romania, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia; part of Russia including Murmansk and Moscow
(+3): purple here
In Africa:
South Africa: split between +1 and +2 (northern and western cape GMT; the rest is +2)
Dutch-Belgian Congo: split as in OTL
(-2) Liberia, Sierra Leone
(+0) Togoland, Ivory Coast, Gold Coast, Dahomey
(+1) Kamerun, Namibia, German Congo
(+2) Rhodesia, Kenya, Tanganyika
Map:
Great job, I really appreciate it! It's really nice of you to do this for this timeline. I would make a few small changes:
-Kamerun, straight line border with Equatorial Guinea
-San Andreas and Providencia became British territory
-Guam and Mariana Islands are one CS territory, while the Caroline Islands are German territory
-Austria had German Bohemia, Sudetenland, and Teschen as states, though I don't think those can be shown well at that resolution
-Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Belarus, Poland, and Ukraine aren't occupied or otherwise by Germany, and are independent in 1917.
