Alternative History
Advertisement
Second American Civil War
Part of the Interwar period
Date November 27, 1932 - November 29, 1936
(four years and two days)
Location North America
Result Victory for the Workers' Liberation Army in the contiguous United States, and Alaskan territory.

Successful Communist Revolution in the United Socialist Republics of America
Mainland America loses most external territories
Diaspora of Conservative or 'Blue' Americans to Canada, the British Empire, France and Japan.
Billions of dollars from wartime damage

Territorial
changes
Dissolution of the United States of America
Establishment of the United Socialist Republics of America
Independence of Puerto Rico
Annexation of the US Virgin Islands by Puerto Rico, American Samoa and Guam by United Kingdom.


Panama Canal Zone is taken by League of Nations mandate under British and Colombian supervision.
Independence of the Philippines and the Kingdom of Hawaii from America under Japanese protection.

Belligerents
Revolutionary Forces

Red flag Workers Liberation Army
Flag of California People's Republic of California
Flag of Washington, D.C. Commune of Georgetown
Flag of Chicago Commune of Chicago
Red flag Commune of Detroit
Red flag Commune of Pittsburgh
Red flag Provisional and revolutionary governing councils in liberated territories


Co-Belligerents
Flag of Russia Democratic Republic of Russia (until 1935)
Flag of Mexico Mexico (after 1933)

US flag 48 stars Provisional Government of the United States of America

Flag of the League of Nations (1939–1941) League of Nations (as mediator)
Flag of the United Kingdom United Kingdom
Canadian Red Ensign 1921-1957 Canada
Flag of Australia Australia
Flag of France France
Flag of JapanJapan

Newly independent states:

Flag of Puerto Rico Puerto Rico
Flag of the Philippines (1919-1936) Philippines
Flag of Hawaii Kingdom of Hawaii

Commanders and leaders
Sarah Leslie

Flag of Russia Leon Trotsky

US flag 48 stars General George Marshall

Flag of the United Kingdom Ramsay MacDonald (1932-35)
Flag of the United Kingdom Stanley Baldwin (1935-36)
Canadian Red Ensign 1921-1957 R. B. Bennett (1932-35)
Canadian Red Ensign 1921-1957 William Lyon Mackenzie King (1935-36)
Flag of Australia Joseph Lyons
Flag of France Albert Lebrun

Flag of Puerto Rico James R. Beverley
Edmund Root (1932-33)
George A. Alexander (1933-36)
Flag of the Philippines (1919-1936) Manuel L. Quezon
Strength
150,000 Workers Party Soldiers (by 1936)


500,000 armed workers-party militias
Up to three million civilian-partisans

700,000 in the regular army


1.5 million Blue Partisans

unknown
Casualties and losses
2.75 million 2.5 million unknown

The Second American Civil War was a four-year armed conflict fought in the 1930s that spanned across the North American continent as well as outlying islands in the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. The war was the result of the Second American Revolution and the decline of America's first nation-state. Decades of industrialization as well as curbing of civil liberties for leftist activists incited the original socialist uprisings of 1932. The standing U.S army as well as many old state government and right forces fought for counterrevolution.

The Second American Civil War was the most deadly known conflict to ever occur on the continent of North America and in the history of the American State resulting in at least the death of five million combatants and civilians. The modern American Government blames 'right wing forces' and intervention by Colonial Powers as the causes of excessive casualties.

The Civil War permanently realigned the society and economy of whole regions of the United States. Industrial areas were re purposed for war-capacity by revolutionaries and remained as a centers for America's military industrial complex until the 21st century.

In the Southeast sharecropping- largely collapsed, through traces remained in Socialist America. African Americans and portions of working class White Anglo-Americans attacked the traditional agrarian elite. Right wing partisans aligned with several white supremacist groups fought a brutal guerrilla struggle to preserve the traditional class and race based cast system of segregation that existed in America's southern states.

In Appalachia the civil war was a struggle between mobs and warring groups. Appalachians had mixed loyalties. In certain cities such as modern day Wheeling Pennsylvania coal miners overran local government. Overall Appalachians supported the Provisional Government just as they had supported the American Federal Government in the first Civil War. All Appalachians were guided in securing their own sovereignty. Their choice of sides revolved around which offered most autonomy.

In many areas the Provisional Government of the United States resorted to a scorched earth policy to prevent revolutionaries from crossing the heart of the United States. The move slowed the advance of leftist forces but many rural Americans became disaffected believing the provisional government had abandoned them.

The small but concentrated pockets of Native Americans throughout the country took the opportunity to declare independence. Provisional Calvary brigades attempted to crush Native uprisings. The Workers Liberation Army supported the Natives in name but seldom got involved in local conflicts directly. Certain Southern Native tribes aligned with the Provisional Government in exchange for promises of greater autonomy.

History

Prelude

Main Article: Second American Revolution On November 23, 1932, Washington DC was captured by members of the American Workers Party. Following this event, California and Chicago along with Washington, DC, which was renamed Georgetown, declared themselves to be "socialist republics" united together in a military alliance.

Capitalists, businessmen, United States loyalists, and people opposed the establishment of a communist state organized a provisional government of the United States in opposition of the revolutionaries. The new provisional government was organized and recognized as the legitimate American government by almost every country in the world, with the exception of Russia. In response, the United States threatened to launch troops into California and Chicago.

Following several workers strikes, the United States declared martial law and relocated the capital from Washington, DC to New York City in an attempt to stabilize the country. This further destabilized the country, resulting in increasing civil unrest and revolutionary movements. To prevent its collapse, the military organized a coup seizing power, until order and government could be stabilized. Finally, on November 27, 1932, the United States formally declared war on the new republics.

War

The United States sent military forces to California and Chicago, as well as invading the de facto capital of the communist rebellion, Georgetown. The attempt failed, as it forced revolutionary to band together, forming the Workers' Liberation Army to fight the invasion. The Workers' Liberation Army repelled the invasion pushed farther into United States territory.

While the United States started with a larger military and population, communists possessed a larger industry and a large amount of supporters in the United States. The Workers' Liberation Army sent its navy to invade New York City, in an attempt to capture the capital. The invasion at first failed, so the fleet began a siege of the city. This forced the United States Army to retreat to New York. As the United States Army and Navy attempted to stop the invasion, its government began to break down.

Intervention

The ongoing Revolution in the United States deeply unsettled the western countries. The United States had previously played a deciding role in WWI and had set a precedence of authority in the Atlantic Ocean. Lost to a revolution this source of stability would evaporate. At the same time conservative British officials were concerned about a possible invasion of Canada by the revolutionaries or an American inspired revolution among the British working class. Commonwealth members agreed and France fearing a future American strike on her Asian colonies from the Philippines also agreed to intervene.

Japan, coming to its own as a separate World Power felt threatened by the Revolution in America. Many of Japan's right wing leaders previously eager to drive western imperialism out of Asia but were intimidated by Russian collaboration's with American Communists. They feared a joint Russian-American invasion upon Sakhalin and Hokkaido from the north. Japanese leftists also voiced their support for America's uprising.

The western powers acted jointly in their intervention and encouraged Japan to join a coalition as League of Nations mission to restore order. Japan after deliberation agreed, but in reality conducted their own mission to attempt to keep Russia and America's revolutionaries apart from each other. The American territories of the Philippines, Hawaii, Guam and Samoa became of great interest to military planners of Japan and UK.

Resistance and Conclusion

With the army concentrated on the capital, the Workers' Freedom Army easily broke through the country's borders and started to annexed United States territory. Communists, who were increasing in numbers, revolted against the army, seized control of their states and then declared themselves to be "socialist republics", accelerating the United States' collapse. Anti-Red partisans as the most determined anti Communists rose up on their own accord as the old United States collapsed. In the last stages of the war, partisans were the most effective force of counter revolution.

United States soldiers, seeing the war as a lost cause, began defecting to the new republics or joining anti-Communist partisans, weakening the United States' defense. By 1936, New York was the last remnant of the United States, slowly being conquered by the Workers' Liberation Army. Finally, on November 29, 1936, general George Marshall, provisional president of the United States, surrendered to the revolutionary forces, ending the civil war.

Aftermath

With its surrender, the United States was dissolved, and its territory and citizens were incorporated into newly formed socialist republics. These now were united under the Treaty and Constitution on the Creation of the United Socialist Republics of America as the "United Socialist Republics of America". With the former United States gone, Alaska was secured as a new territory while remaining United States territories such as Puerto Rico, Hawaii, the Philippines, the Canal Zone, Samoa and Guam either becoming independent or incorporated into surrounding countries.

The USRA quickly lead socialist revolutions in these new nations, though due to its own instability, these revolutions failed. This failure convinced the USRA to stabilize before leading revolutions to create socialist states. While the USRA would emerge as a superpower after World War II, it would not be until 1946 that the damage caused by the civil war would be fully repaired. The victory of the USRA was seen by the American people as a reason why communism was an ideology that could succeed, leading them to support a communist revolution in Japan, creating the Democratic People's Republic of Japan.

Advertisement