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Nuclear-explosion This 1983: Doomsday page is a Proposal.


It has not been ratified and is therefore not yet a part of the 1983: Doomsday Timeline. You are welcome to correct errors and/or comment at the Talk Page. If you add this label to an article, please do not forget to make mention of it on the main Discussion page for the Timeline.


Confederate States of America
Timeline: 1983: Doomsday

OTL equivalent: Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi
Flag Coat of Arms
Flag Coat of Arms
Capital Muscle Shoals
Largest city Florence
Other cities Bolivar, Corinth, Cullman, Dalton, Dresden, Hickman, Jackson, Lexington, Mayfield, Murray, Rome, Russellville, Savannah, Scottsboro
Language English (official)
President
Vice President
Population 226,000 est. 
Independence 1984
Currency Confederate dollar (CS$)

The Confederate States of America is the name of several entities that have attempted to establish themselves throughout the former southern and midwestern United States in the post-Doomsday world.

This particular entity was founded in 1984 in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and dissolved in 1999. It was centered along the border of former Tennessee with the former states of Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia and also for a time included portions of the former states of Arkansas and Kentucky.

Despite its short history, it is considered one of the more stable post-DD nations to have borne that name. The city-states it consisted of still exist, and as the locals learn more about the outside world, support is growing to relaunch the nation.

History

In the weeks after Doomsday in September and October of 1983, several towns in the "mid-south" region along the Tennessee/Alabama/Mississippi borders banded together for survival. Numerous steps were taken to ensure the short- and long-term survival of the people in the region, and scouts were sent out to find out what had happened at least to the rest of the southeastern United States.

By early December, the destruction of several major cities - including Atlanta; Birmingham; Chattanooga; Huntsville; Jackson, Mississippi; Memphis; and Nashville - and major military bases had been confirmed. Also confirmed was the existence of several survivor towns and cities stretching from eastern Arkansas to north Georgia. After weeks of seeing no contact from any representative of the U.S. military or federal government outside of those already in the area, political leaders realized they were virtually independent of the U.S. and discussed the next steps they could, and should, take.

Several factors converged over the next several months to lay the foundation of the formation of the CSA, among them being:

  • the actions of federal agents in the area that were deemed detrimental to the public good and long-term survival of the region
  • long-standing area pride in "southern" culture, reflected not in anti-US sentiment but more in popular culture, including music (Lynyrd Skynyrd, Hank Williams Jr.) and television (Dukes of Hazzard)
  • an opportunity to start fresh, with a nation governed by values and laws that the people believed were superior to the bloated, unaccountable entity that many thought the United States government was becoming

Sentiment grew to adopt the name and flag of the Confederate States of America, but not without certain changes aimed at attempting to erase the racist stigma associated with anything pertaining to the Confederacy.

The final step in sealing the foundation for the new CSA came on January 19, 1984, after John Dowling, acting on self-professed authority as an agent of the FBI led groups of U.S. postal employees, National Guardsmen and other federal agency employees and area civilians to attempt to arrest Muscle Shoals, Alabama mayor James Sharp, on charges of sedition, terrorism and ursurping the rightful authority of the United States.

Sharp was rescued by Muscle Shoals policemen and taken to safe haven at the Northwest Alabama Regional Airport, where National Guardsmen not loyal to the federal agents had established headquarters.

Dowling, arrested after the failed coup d'etat, sued Sharp and other "instigators" in local court on behalf of the United States government; the court ruled that given the circumstances of the past several months, and that no military nor federal agency nor its representatives had made contact and established the ongoing existence of the federal government, it was reasonable to assume that a) the United States no longer existed, and 2) therefore Muscle Shoals was an independent government, free to operate on its own or in conjunction with any other local governments it wished to.

This ruling paved the way for Sharp to contact his counterpart in Florence, Eddie Frost, and leaders in the other communities they knew existed to begin to form a "more humane and more successful" Confederacy.

In August 1984, leaders from 27 towns and cities in the Tennessee-Alabama-Mississippi region gathered in Muscle Shoals as part of a Constitutional Convention. Over the next 17 days they went over both the constitution of the 19th-century CSA and the United States constitution. What they settled on was a hybrid that mostly resembled the 19th-century CSA constitution, with additional amendments reflecting those added onto the U.S. Constitution since the Civil War.

States' rights were more emphasized than in the U.S. Constitution, but the national government was given limited rights that superseded state and local laws. The latter was done to ensure the "Equal Rights Amendment" had teeth; this amendment stated that "all people, regardless of race, gender or creed, are considered equal by law", banned slavery of all citizens (regardless of color, creed or gender) and made racial and credial discrimination punishable by law. Despite that provision designed to ensure equal rights to all people, and the placing of African-Americans in prominent positions in the Presidential Cabinet, Congress and the Army, racism still was a challenge at the local level.

The constitution was signed on September 19, 1984 in Muscle Shoals; the President of the Convention, Rick Hall of Muscle Shoals, was voted as provisional President by the convention delegates until elections could be held in 1985. The Muscle Shoals city government gave the Southgate Mall over to the new government; remodeling allowed it to host both the Senate and House of Representatives, the President's Office, the Supreme Court and various governmental offices; the Confederate Army was set up at Northwest Alabama Regional Airport.

Three states initially formed the CSA:

  • Alabama (capital in Florence, consisting of the U.S. Congressional Fifth District and portions of the Fourth, Third and Seventh Districts)
  • Mississippi (capital in Corinth, consisting of the U.S. Congressional First District)
  • Tennessee (capital in Adamsville, portions of the U.S. Congressional Fourth and Seventh Districts).

A small national district was carved out of the territory of a former shopping mall in Muscle Shoals for the national government's use; it served as the home of both houses of Congress, the Supreme Court, the President's office and other national agencies. The Army was formally established at Northwest Alabama Regional Airport, which was renamed Fort Liberty.

In Congress's first joint session in January 1985, America the Beautiful was designated the official national anthem (to establish the new country's ties to and history with the U.S.) and declared itself as being at war with the Soviet Union and all its associated allies (including Cuba). Congress also passed a resolution declaring its loyalty to the United States and to the nations of the North American Treaty Organization.

Hall was nominally opposed during the 1985 Presidential race, and won with nearly 94 percent of the vote in the November 1985 elections. He took his oath as President at the Muscle Shoals First Baptist Church, with both the Stars and Bars official flag and the United States flag in the background.

As word spread throughout the region of the new nation's existence, other provisional states and city states joined:

  • Jackson, Tennessee joined as its own state in April 1986, claiming western Tennessee up to the Kentucky border.
  • The Kentucky counties of McCracken, Ballard, Marshall, Calloway, Carlisle, Fulton, Graves, Trigg, Livingston, Lyon, Caldwell and Hickman joined in December 1986 as the Commonwealth of Kentucky (having lost contact with Frankfort and not yet knowing of the newly formed commonwealth based in north central Kentucky outside Fort Knox). This Kentucky state's capital was placed in Mayfield.
  • Georgia, with its capital in Rome and claiming all of northern Georgia down to Atlanta, joined in March 1987.
  • Arkansas, with its capital in Jonesboro, joined in April 1988.

The CSA was rocked by the secession of Jackson in 1991, at the hands of leaders who came into conflict with Muscle Shoals and eventually seceded from the nation, becoming an isolationist, somewhat violent citystate.

While a blow to the young nation, the CSA would survive Jackson's secession.

What many observers thought did it in was a relatively weak President, who served from 1992 through 1998, who was less successful than Hall in unifying the various factions that began to come into existence and build influence during his administration. Other major factors contributing to the demise of the CSA were squabbling over numerous matters by political leaders in each state who either wanted more power, or had differing views on what the nation should be, or even to reform the United States of America. Issues over trade and travel between the various states, most notably due to lethal, radioactive ruins of nuked cities and military bases and attacks by warlords and bandits, also helped split the young nation.

Arkansas left in 1998 over a perception of the CSA being "useless" to benefit its local affairs. Finally, in 1999, after the Mayfield government seceded from the CSA to join Kentucky; Georgia left over the increasing size of the national government; and Alabama leaders seceeded in a failed attempt to start their own nation, Muscle Shoals pulled the plug and declared the Confederate experiment to have run its course. By the time Alabama's newly elected leaders asked to rejoin the CSA, the national government and army had folded or been dissolved into the various states.

The various citystates stretching over six states still exist today, with an estimated total population of 226,000. Despite the former CSA state of Kentucky having joined the current Commonwealth of Kentucky, there is large popular support for the resumption of the "Confederate experiment" among the other former states, politically and popularly. Proponents have quietly been pushing for a Second Constitutional Convention date of spring 2011. Prominent leaders throughout the southeast have been working towards this end since the turn of the century.

Government and politics

More to come...

Political subdivisions

The founding states effective September 24, 1984, were:

  • Alabama
  • Mississippi
  • Tennessee

Alabama also hosted the national capital, Muscle Shoals.

These states joined in subsequent years:

  • Georgia
  • Jackson
  • Kentucky

The following areas were territories that, for various reasons, never became official states:

  • Chattahoochee
  • Hopkinsville, Kentucky/Clarksville, Tennessee/Fort Campbell (consisting of the abandoned/partly destroyed cities of Hopkinsville and Clarksville, and the abandoned Fort Campbell U.S. military base)
  • Kentucky Lake
  • Natchez Trace
  • Tupelo

These areas were considered for statehood or territorial status, but for various reasons rejected invitations to join the CSA:

  • Cadiz, Kentucky
  • Jonesboro, Arkansas
  • Madisonville, Kentucky
  • Shelbyville, Tennessee
  • Portageville, Missouri
  • Toccoa, Georgia
  • Tuscaloosa, Alabama

Constitution

More to come...

Executive

More to come...

Legislative

More to come...

Judicial

More to come...

Civil liberties

More to come...

Equal rights

More to come...

Differences from the United States

More to come...

Differences from the 19th-century Confederacy

More to come...

Economy

More to come...

Demographics

More to come...

Armed forces

More to come...

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