The Golden Path

The Golden Path is the political ideology of the United States of America since the early 1880's. The Path is characterized by extreme patiotism and militaric ideals. While the origins of the American Republic are deeply rooted in democracy, all politcal parties follow the principals of the Golden Path as well as the founding documents of the Republic especially the Constitution.

The Golden Path was born during the American Civil War, after this conflict was altered when foreign powers interfered in it and Henry David Thoreau  wrote his essay intitled The Golden Path. It is in his essay the he passionately called on Americans to reunitify under the Constitution against their common foes and to follow through with their most sacred principal including the Monroe Doctrine and the Manifest Destiny.

Pre Golden Path
Before the United States of America had The Golden Path it had chaos, at least compared to the America that it has become. It had spread across the continent with little to guide them other then same smart slogans to give them some direction. The idea of a Manifest Destiny which is the belief that the United States has a destiny to rule the continent from east coast to west coast, played an important part and should of worked well with the Monroe Doctrine, that call on the United States to view interference or attempted by Europeans to further colonize the Americas as an act of war. But the nation had failed to maintain direction in its conquest of the continent which it had won almost by per luck, and it had little power to enforce the Monroe Doctrine which it also maintain with more luck than force.

Yet, these beliefs had away been secondary to the values enshired in the Constitution that established  the rules and principle that each American would live by and each state would be governed by. A "government of the people, by the people, for the people had failed the people," as President Abraham Lincoln had famously said in his farewell address in March of 1865. But Lincoln had inherited a nation that had been a failed state from early in her history, with little more then those mottos, policies and misunderstood laws that the founders had given them.

On the eve of Lincoln election, he could not have known the full extent of the damage the last several presidents and congresses had done to America. The secession of the southern states added yet more to the failure of the union to capture the full loyalties of the individual or the state that they belong to. Add to it the failure to keep Mexico after it had been conquered just 14 years earlier allowed it to plan revenge or have the proper or well-trained armed forces needed to match and defeat the British when they decided to change the course of American history to its needs. America was ripe for either full collapse or a new direction, a new way of thinging about itself and the world around it, it was ripe for The Golden Path.

The New Northern Front
With the American Civil War raging since 1861, General-in-Chief Winfied Scott's Great Snake Plan had been established. The plan was designed as a naval blockade, with emphasized  on the southern ports and to advanced down the Mississippi River strangling the south's ability to trade with the rest of the world. The plan worked well, and many private gun-runners from the south, Britain and other nations "ran the blockade" with arms and traded them for cotton, the ships involved tended to be small and could only transport a small quanity of cotton. However, in 1863 the British naval vessel HMS Hydra entered into resticted waters off the Viginia shores. The USS Aeolus sank this ship beleaving it to be the Confederate blockade runner SS ''Banshee.     ''This event lead to a Trade Embargo on corn against Britian after the British intentionally started to run the blockage. 

By July both America and the British navies had several close calls but direct conflict had been avoided until now. With trade down to a almost nothing and despite a growing concern about other events in Europe, the British made the decision to directly intervene in the conflict between the states and re-open trade with the north, as Union corn was a major import representing 25%-30% of its grain imports and with poor crops in France in 1861 and 1862 it was even higher without these imports Britain faced a major famine.

Documents from that time clearly show that no party in Her Majesty's government wanted an armed conflict with the Americans, it had avoided conflict in 1861 over the Trent Affair. In fact just the opposite seemed true as they didn't want to recognize the south. With the movement of 40,000 troops to Canada and the raising of an additional 50,000 Canadians the borders between the two countries became armed for the first time since the end of the War of 1812. The Union had little option but to divert troops from the south where many had already seen war first hand, to the northern border in preparation for war with the British Empire.

After four months of fail negotiations and a growing shortage of gains at home Britian gave a final ultimatum which fell on deaf ears, as Lincoln refused any compromise.The British invasion of America started with an attack across the borders into New England and Michigan. It established a naval blockade of Boston and landed 15,000 troops in the city.

It was during this time that Henry David Thoreau evaculated Concord which is just outside of Boston. Despite Thoreau being sick with Tuberculosis, he made the journey to Albany, NY and as he stated in his essay, The Golden Path, he saw all the horrors of war for the first time and came to understand the errors of his earlier written; especially those that call on any anti-government civil disobedience or refusal to pay taxes

The New Southern FrontThCAFXD13X.jpg
With the sudden entry of Great Britain into the the American Civil War, Maximilian, the special ambassador for Napoleon III, and president Benito Juárez of Mexico started to develop plans for the reconquest of territory lost during the Mexican-American War 14 years earlier. The Franco-Mexican Alliance which had been born just a year earlier did not stipulate any formal plan to start a war, so Maximilian used the lure of the wealth of California to get Napolean to support the plan.

Benito Juárez was somewhat concerned about the cost and the level of training his army had but with France agreeing to send 30,000 troops and to help with the cost of raising a Mexico Army, the plan was finalized. With support coming from the Catholic Church, the monarchist and conservatives also throw  their support behind reconquest.

There was little doubt in either the French or the Mexican forces that a quick strike into Texas and California could work. The force they had built had surpassed 100,000 and over 50,000 held in reserve. The Franco- Mexican forces quickly advanced northward forcing American units, both Confederate and Union to retreat.

Internal Problems
By the end of 1863, the French and Mexican sent in agents to start slave uprisings throughout the south, promising freedom under the Franco-Mexican Alliance. Though most evident would suggest they had no plans to capture anymore territory then that lost by Mexico during the Mexican-American War.

In addition to the minor slave upraising, the French army reached the Indian territory after advancing through the Oklahoma territory. While the Indians had largely sided with the Confederacy, the French and Mexicans saw an opportunity to create a buffer zone by calling on the different tribes in the Indian Territories to become independent as a Franco-Mexican protectorate state. This proposal seemed to cause more problems amoung the different tribes than to get any cooperation.

Wide spread anti-war sentiments quickly disappered after Britian in the north and the Franco-Mexican invaded the the two halves of America,

Pre-Golden Path
Franco-Mexican Alliance

The Civil War

Corn War

Britian Invades

Mexico Invades

Internal Problems

Birth of the Golden Path
The Essay

Reaching Out

North

South

Counter Attack

Peace Treaty

The End of Slavery

Humiliation

The Movement
United We Stand Divided We Fall

The Militias

Elections

New Laws

Winning the Hearts and Souls

One Nation Under God



The Golden Path
All Men are Created Equal

Africa

Britian

France

Europe

Asia