Only The Dead

While the war did not officially end until April 15^th of 1903, the fact was that this went largely unnoticed by the world and has long since been forgotten. The date that everyone remembers is 11/11/01, the date of the general cease fire that ended all of the fighting in Europe, North America, and Africa. The fighting in China would continue for some time but, not between the forces of the former belligerents. The fighting in Alaska would take years before it finally settled down. That only happened after what was surely a simple attitude change. People there got tired of it and would no longer tolerate it.

The Alaskan situation was also a part of a larger problem in Imperial Russia. Czar Nicholas found himself with a civil war on his hands. Before the end of the fighting it had only been civil unrest but, when the Russian Army demobilized a good number of these hastily conscripted draftees took their weapons home with them. Many would join bands like those in Georgia while others would form their own. Russia would not know peace for some years to come.

France was also not out of the woods just yet. While the violence never reached the levels that it did in Russia, the fact was that her inner political turmoil would prove to handicap the nation in many ways for some years to come. France’s turmoil would also pale in comparison to that of Italy and Austria-Hungary. They would both know ethnic strife and internal wrangling that would often grow violent, and greatly weaken both nations. This was never more clear than in 1914 when the reinvigorated Serbian group, the Black Hand, would attempt to assassinate the son of Emperor Franz Joseph. The attempt was botched, the plan failed, but it almost led the Balkans into another war that would have been compounded by the intervention of several major powers. Fortunately, no one wanted a repeat of 1898. A conference was called in The Hague, and the matter was settled and quickly swept under the rug.

The problems in North America were not so easily disposed of. Even as the final peace treaty was signed, to many thought that it was riddled with contradictions and none of it good enough to settle any future disputes that were already brewing. The fact was that, the war had only left tensions between the US and CS, at an even higher level, despite the fact that for the first time since 1861, both nations were officially at peace. The Confederacy was forced to give up her claims on territories she lost in the American 61 but, in the hearts and minds of most Confederate citizens, this was not the case. The people in the US still felt as if the CSA had not been punished enough for their traitorous actions. This bitterness would linger for years to come.

Of course, of all the nations involved no one probably suffered more from the peace than did Great Britain. Her empire was shattered by the war and even though she made great progress at repairing the damage, the fact was, it was too little too late. The Common Wealth was all but a memory by 1903.

The republic of Canada successfully learned to stand on it’s own two feet and, without military expenditures, life for the average Canadian improved. Even US interference proved to be largely an empty threat. The very first time the US made demands of unarmed Canada, it suddenly found that the Canadians still had a weapon. The US was told, “go ahead and invade, we won’t cooperate.” To put into practical terms, even passive resistance to such an invasion would have made the venture cost more than it was worth. The US went on to largely ignore Canada while the Canadians gave the US no reason to do much else. This suddenly gave Canada a freedom in her foreign policy that she had never enjoyed before.

South Africa also successfully managed to put an end to the constant interference of British Foreign Policy. Both the Cape Colony and Natal would find itself under US administration for years to come but, would eventually go on to join the Boers and Zulu in forming the USSA, the United States of South Africa. Ironically, this nation functioned more like the Confederate States than it did the federalist system that was used by the US. It would also be largely successful and much of that has been accredited to the fact that no one wanted to relive the situation that occurred in the great war.

With the loss of key members of Britain’s empire, and the others rapidly faltering, Britain found itself turning more and more towards one of the undisputed winners of the conflict. The UK and Imperial Germany came out of the war with an unshakable strategic partnership that both nations greatly benefited from, however, as time went on it became more and more clear who the senior partner was and this was not Britain. Even so, both nations would be major players in the post war world.

This world was also more and more becoming one that was bi polar in nature. If US power had been doubted before the conflict, Roosevelt went on to prove that, after the war, it could not be. The rivalry that was forming between the US and Germany would only grow. This would rear it’s head in many parts of the far flung globe, most prominently in China and South America. Both nations would also find itself confronted with the emerging entanglements of rising regional powers that went well beyond the Confederate States and Japan, both of whom became leaders in that community.

Brazil got the upper hand with Argentina, thanks largely to the disintegration of the former. Some of the divided states of China would emerge as local powers in their own rights. All of these regions would go on to influence the larger picture in many ways but, none would be as successful as Mexico. She came out of the war a creditor state, mostly to the smaller nations just to her south. Mexico, with it’s growing industrial base, would soon come to dominate and then outright annex the entirety of the Central American isthmus. It would be Mexico who finally went on to build the canal across Panama and it would be Mexico who mostly profited from this.

The war had reshaped the world in many ways but, in the end, it was the decentralization of power that was probably the most significant. Europe had dominated the planet for centuries and the war both weakened the great powers and transferred much of that to other corners of the globe. This would eventually come home to effect relations between ethnicities in every nation. This would be hard felt in nations like the Confederate States, a country that was born of an attempt to ignore the changes in the world around it. What this war showed the CSA was that the world would not ignore them. The war forced the CSA to throw it’s doors wide open and the changes this fostered would play itself out over the next century, with many interesting results.

The technologies introduced in this war are still with us today. Some of those early attempts seem almost comical to us now and, many, have been largely forgotten. Some of the inventions have become so common place to us that we take them for granted. Others have developed into more advanced machines that would look almost like magic to someone in the closing years of the nineteenth century. All of our wonders today had their genesis in that time period and that makes it, important to understand.

We must not forget the lessons of this war. In understanding it’s origins, in how it was fought, in the legacy it left behind, we understand the world that we live in today. We must also remember the sacrifices of those who, most likely, did not even understand them at the time. Yet, that has been our real history. It is a story of average men and women, all doing little and seemingly unimportant things. All contributing to the larger picture that is shaped in such a way that no one even realizes it, until long after the fact. If there is any lesson to be taken from all of this, that would most likely be the important one.

THE END