The World of Socialist New York

A British war in the early 1800s leads to much worse relations between Washington and London, and when the Northern merchant states open up in an abolitionist rebellion, the British (thanks to greater hatred of the U.S., plus the moral cause of slavery) are willing to intervene on the side of the Federal States of America. Thanks to poor leadership, the far right is able to take power decades later (Jonathan North is the closest thing this world as to Adolf Hitler), and is in turn overthrown by a socialist revolution out of New York City. Today, the Socialist International and the informal alliance lead by the U.S.A., Britain, France, and Japan compete for supremacy across the globe.

The United Socialist Collectives of America is hardly anything like OTL Stalin, although plagued by corruption, it is a generally well run technocratic dictatorship. Its 'Party Chairmen' don't rule a lifetime, and must come and go (although they are elected by a body of only nine inner party members).

Thanks to aggressively attracting immigrants from third world territories, and running the megalopolises with a brutal efficiency in city planning, New York City stands today at 24 million people (even more impressive when you consider than this world has a 100 million or so people fewer than OTL). Religion is subtly suppressed by the state (subtle enough that their are still churches that call themselves socialist and support the government), though this suppression has been much less subtle towards the Amish (who along with Reactionaries have died in camps). Through sheer North Korea-like willpower, the USCA is highly technologically advanced in computers and engineering (though scientists must be monitored by the state), and (along with the USA, British Empire, French Empire, Italian Empire, and Soviet Union) has nuclear weapons. In many ways, the USCA is not too culturally different from the USA.

Not that the USA notices this. Despite a bad 19th century, the USA is democratic and prosperous, if much less powerful and more traditional. It is a two party democracy, with the Democratic Party (Federal government power) and the Liberal Whig Party (states rights power). Many in the U.S. feel under siege, thanks to the Socialists in New York, Alaska, and Mexico. The British still consider themselves the leaders of the Anti-socialists, and the Japanese (angry about losing Korea) are surging forward with their string of puppet states. The French, with no Franco-Prussian War, are a lot more powerful.

The world has been more peaceful, and avoided the loss of some naivety, without the world wars. Germany still has a Kaiser and a parliament, and has been fairly peacefully integrated into the Anti-Socialist alliance. The biggest war in Europe was the Germano-Austrian war. The Soviet Union, still formed, under different leadership. It was much less brutal, though still attacked as being too brutal.

Without world wars, colonialism has gone on longer. Thanks to USCA support, a few third world nations have moved to socialism, chief among them the most radical of all the socialists; the People's Republic of India has embraced a sort of world cultural revolution, and its armies are more or less in open war in South East Asia against the Japanese.

Worst of all though, are the Italians who, are embracing the idea of empire, have gone to Neo-Roman Catholic Empire Clerical *Fascist Weirdness. Both Socialists and Non-Socialists accuse the empire of being a perversion of the other.

Throughout Africa and Latin America, Socialist agents from New York foment rebellion in countries that are eager to rid themselves of European empires.....