United States of America (Groß-Deutschland)

The United States of America is a country in the western hemisphere covering all of North and South America. It is the world's largest country in terms of area.

Foundation, Expansion, and Tensions
The United States began as 13 former British colonies on the Eastern Seaboard of North America. The new nation had fought a grueling war for independence from Britain from 1775 to 1783. In 1803, the nation expanded its borders for the first time when President Thomas Jefferson bought the Louisiana Purchase from France. American history went just like in OTL up until the Mexican-American War. Here, the Mexicans did not surrender when the American forces reached their capital. This led to the United States occupying and absorbing all of Mexico. Mexico was divided into seven states. When choosing whether to become free or slaves states, the new states all voted free, due to the due anti-slavery sentiments that were a part of Mexican culture. This horrified the slave-owning southern states. In the late 1850s, lawmakers from the free states used their new political advantage to attack the "wretched institution" (one Baja California congressman's description of slavery) of the South. In 1857, the Supreme Court ruled in Dred Scott v. Sandford that a former slave named Dred Scott had the right to his freedom because he had lived on free territory with his former master shortly before the master's death. Chief Justice Roger Taney came up with the verdict after what he described as a "inner revelation" lead him to question and renounce his former pro-slavery views and convince his fellow justices of the immorality of slavery.

The tensions came to a head in 1859. That year, militant abolitionist John Brown attempted to start an armed slave insurrection in Virginia. The state of Virginia sentenced Brown to death for treason against the Commonwealth of Virginia. Public opinion was on Brown's side, however, and President James Buchanan issued him a pardon. Buchanan's decision enraged the plantation-owning oligarchy of the South, and many begin to consider abandoning the Union.

Civil War and Reconstruction
The straw that broke the Camel's back came in 1860. That year, Abraham Lincoln was elected as President of the United States. Lincoln's Republican Party was built on an abolitionist platform. In addition, the slave states found their voice in Washington D.C. increasingly drowned out by the free states. In December of 1860, South Carolina seceded from the Union. Within six months, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina had followed, forming the Confederate States of America. However, the South's vision for "a more perfect union" proved to be very autocratic. Many Southerners who hoped for a looser Union were disappointed. When native Virginian Robert E, Lee was offered to command the Union Army, he accepted. As Lee himself said: "Though my loyalty to my home state is strong, I feel it has made a terrible mistake by joining that union of fools calling themselves the Confederate States of America."

The Civil War proved to be a bloody affair. The Union and Confederate armies clashed all over the CSA. However, General Lee's military prowess eventually won the day. The Confederacy surrendered in 1865. President Lincoln narrowly escaped an assassination attempt by a Confederate sympathizer.

With the Civil War over, Reconstruction began. Despite the voices of Radical Republicans who cawed for punishing the South, Lincoln emphasized a theme of reconciliation. Without the harsher measures of OTL, the racial animus that plagued OTL South never developed, allowing the integration of blacks into society to happen much sooner. By the end of Reconstruction in 1877, the United States has rebuilt itself.

Expansion
In 1867, the US purchased British North America and Russian Alaska. This paved the path for the unification of the the Americas under Washington D.C.

While the Americans were prospering in the mid-late 19th century, the people of Latin America were suffering under dictatorships and oligarchies. Many of these people looked to the United States with envy, wishing they could partake in a such an enlightened system. Beginning in the early 1880s, the US government recognizes these sentiments, and provides aid to those working to overthrow their old regimes in return for incorporation into the United States. By the beginning of the twentieth century. all of Latin America was under the control of the United States.

World War I
When World War I broke out in Europe, the United States under President Theodore Roosevelt (who had won the 1912 election on the Progressive ticket after serving office as a Republican from 1901-1909) had little interest at first. However, the French harrassment of American ships bound for Britain slowly pushed America towards war. Finally, the United States entered the war on the side of Britain and Germany. American prescence in the war helped the Anglo-German alliance win.

Interbellum
After the war, America experienced unprecendented prosperity in the decade commonly known as the "Roaring Twenties." The good times came to an end, however, when the stock market crashed in 1929. The Great Depression had begun.

In 1932, with the economy still in a crippled state, New York Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected President with his nephew Theodore Roosevelt Jr. as his Vice President. FDR promised to get the economy back on its feet. For the next six years, massive government programs were started in an attempt to kickstart economic activity. Despite the claims of many on the left, it is generally agreed by most historians that FDR's programs only served to perpetuate America's economic troubles.

World War II
In 1939, on the eve of FDR's campaign for re-election, it was revealed that the president had been colluding with the militaristic Fascist regime in France. In response, FDR was dropped from the Democratic ticket and his VP Theodore Roosevelt Jr. was elected President in 1940.

For the first few months of his term, Theodore Jr. tried to keep America neutral. In December 1941, however the fascist Empire of Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. The US declared war on Japan. France, Poland, Italy, Spain, and Russia in turn declared war on America. The first priority of America was ending the fascist threat in Europe. Spain was taken down first, and Italy was brought to the Allied side after its fascist regime was toppled. France and Poland finally gave out in 1945, and their campaign against European Jewry was revealed. Japan and Russia surrenderred after both countries were struck by American atomic bombs.

Cold War
Not all was well after the end of the war. After the initial recovery period, Russia rose again under the banner of communism. For the next four and a half decades, the American and Soviet blocs competed for supremacy, with the American tradition of liberty facing off against Soviet communism.

In 1962, the Bering Straits crisis erupted when the Soviets were caught placing missile fields in the part of Siberia closest to North America. President John F. Kennedy managed to defuse the crisis.

In 1963, President Kennedy was assassinated by Fidel Castro, an American communist from the state of Cuba. Some suspected Soviet involvement in the assassination, though these suspictions remain unproven.

In 1980, on the heels of President Jimmy Carter's failure to stop communist gains, Ronald Reagan was elected President. Reagan pursued the fight against communism with vigor, loudly denouncing the Soviet Union and building up the American military to outmatch the Soviets. Reagan's efforts paid off after he left office in 1989-the Soviet Union collapsed in 1995 and its former satellite states threw off the communist yoke.

A New Threat
On September 11, 2001, Islamic territorists attacked the United States, striking the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Arlington, Virgina. President Vincente Fox-the first Hispanic president of the US-declared a "War on Terror," pledging to fight the Islamist threat to American democracy. The United States has toppled pro-terrorist regimes in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia.