

____________________________________________________



Prologue ​

Once I built a railroad, I made it run, made it race against time.

Once I built a railroad; now it's done. Brother, can you spare a dime?

Once I built a tower, up to the sun, brick, and rivet, and lime;

Once I built a tower, now it's done. Brother, can you spare a dime?



- Brother, Can You Spare a Dime, Yip Harburg



*** ​



America. Long considered the land of opportunity by the huddled European masses, yearning to breathe free, a land of unmatched potential and promise. The New World has been a symbol of refuge and starting anew, in stark comparison to the oppressive monarchies and churches of Europe, ever since the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock and the colony of Jamestown suffered through its first winter. However, by the year 1937, the United States is attempting to weather a very different kind of storm: a storm of beliefs, power, and ideology, a storm taking the American people by surprise, a storm that would thrust them onto the world stage to contend with the giants of the first Weltkrieg, and the looming specter of the second.







Thousands of new factories brought millions from the countryside into American cities, spawning an industrial boom, massive fortunes for the nation's richest, and a general period of prosperity now nostalgically referred to as the Roaring Twenties. In 1925, however, revolution in the birthplace of capitalism led to general crisis. The British Revolution kicked out the bankers and aristocrats not even ten years after they had lost the Weltkrieg, and replaced them with a confederation of trade unions, united under the nascent ideology of syndicalism. The American economy, having lost its most valuable trade partner, spiraled into destruction and millions were left jobless. The vast unemployed proletariat flocked to the newly reorganized American left, and its chosen son, John Reed. Reed had made his name as an observer in the failed Russian Revolution and had sung the praises of both the French and British revolutions. He rose to prominence in the Socialist Party, participating in the Seattle Commune uprising of 1923 and serving a stint in the Senate after a massive upset in New York state. His 1925 efforts led the merger of radical trade unions and communist parties into the Combined Syndicates of America. Throughout many cities of the East Coast and Midwest, the power of the CSA is second only to that of the weakening federal government.







While the alliance of syndicalists and communists was gaining power in the latter half of the twenties and the beginning of the thirties, a new hope was rising in the rural South. The trials faced by the millions of American farmers were no less devastating than those of the big cities, the economic difficulties compounded by the Dust Bowl forming in the West. Years of land mismanagement and poor infrastructure left the soil weak and powdery, giving rise to giant dust storms capable of wiping away a family's entire livelihood in one afternoon. Falling prices for agricultural products of all varieties did not help matters, and legions of rural workers packed their bags and headed west to California or east to the cities. The influx of new labor into an industrial heartland already facing close to 25 percent unemployment caused strife in the cities and disillusionment with the laissez-faire attitude of the federal government. Against this backdrop, demagogue Huey Long rose to prominence in a neglected South. Running on a platform of wealth redistribution and strengthening infrastructure, Long won the 1928 gubernatorial race in Louisiana and a Senate race in 1930, though he refuses to take his seat until his power base in Louisiana is secured by his political puppets. Failing to win the 1932 Democratic nomination for the presidency, Long forms his own party, the American Union Party. The AUP has continued to rise, combining many conservative elements of the Southern political landscape while also appealing to the common man with his slogan, "every man a king, but no one wears a crown."





The rise of the CSA and AUP have made the 1930s the most ideologically polarized time in American history. It was against this backdrop that Democrat John N. Garner manages to win the election and the presidency. The CSA won a few Midwestern stronghold states, Illinois, Ohio and Michigan, and the Union Party carried Long's home state of Louisiana, but Garner quite easily defeated his Republican opponent, given how tired the nation was of Republican failure to alleviate the worst of the Depression. Nevertheless, both Reed and Long protested the outcome of the election and the former called for a general strike, beginning on New Years'. With Garner's campaign promises of restoration of law and order, the whole nation is on edge and eagerly awaiting the new president's response. Little do any of them know, the election and the winner's handling of the coming months would plunge the nation into a chaos it had never seen before.

Welcome to my first AAR/Kaiserreich writing project,, chronicling the events leading up to the implosion of the United States of America and the rise of the Combined Syndicates of America. This will be a heavily literary based project, probably consisting of scenes strung together by more traditional descriptions and screenshots. I won't be focusing on gameplay so much, so if you're reading this to find the best strategy for winning the Second American Civil War you probably won't find it with me. I hope you will all read and enjoy!