American Front- 1914

Since the Confederate States of America won it's independence during the War of Secession in 1862, relations between it and the United States have always been hostile. Beaten on the battlefield in a series of crushing defeats, then pressured by Britain and France to make peace, the US has always sought revenge for it's humiliation. When the CSA sought to buy the states of Sonora and Chihuahua from a bankrupt Mexico in 1882, hostility once more spilled over into war, and once more the US was defeated, as Britain and France came to the aid of their Confederate friends. Beaten twice in a generation by the Confederates and their allies, the US sought allies of it's own, ones to counterbalance the British and French. The allies they found were Germany and Austria Hungary.

The years leading up to 1914 saw North America develop into an armed camp. Two generations of young men in the US, the CSA and Canada have undergone conscription, while fortifications have grown along the frontiers, US guns pointing north into Canada and south into the CSA. The Canadians and Confederates, fearing their giant neighbour, responded in kind. The US built up an army of over 70 regular and 30 reserve divisions, while the Confederates and Canadians tried to match this as best they could. The US Navy is one of the strongest in the world, equalling the Germans, and second only to the Royal Navy. The Confederate and Canadian fleets cannot match their enemy, but with squadrons from the British and French navies, they may be enough to stop the US from dominating their shores and cutting their sealanes.

The CSA has been hampered by it's racist attitudes towards it's Negro population. With a third of it's 32 million people black, the CS has refused to use Negro men as soldiers, preferring to call up a much greater number of white men than the US has done. At best, Negroes are used as labourers or factory workers, replacing white men who can be called on to fight. With no rights of their own, the Negroes have no say in the situation, prompting some to turn to the revolutionary doctrines of Marx, Engels and Abraham Lincoln. Many Negroes dream of a Socialist Utopia, and the chance to free themselves from 300 years of slavery and subjugation.

To the north, Britain has placed it's third largest garrison in Canada, while the Royal Navy has developed bases in the Bahamas, Bermuda, Newfoundland and the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii). Russian Alaska has been garrisoned by units of the Tsar's Siberian Army, and is ready to reinforce the Canadian defences in Alberta and British Columbia. To the south, the Emporer of Mexico has committed his people to any war, and will fight alongside his Confederate backers in a bid to regain California and New Mexico.

While the Union and Confederate governments spent fortunes on building up their militaries, groups within each country plan for the moment when they can rise up and gain their own freedom. The Mormons in Utah, oppressed and harassed for over thirty years, plot to carry out their own war of secession. The even more oppressed and downtrodden Negroes of the CSA plan to gain their own freedom, with the gun if necessary.

So when a bomb assassinated the Austrian heir in the summer of 1914, and Europe began the long slide to war, North America followed suit. US troops have mobilized from California to Maine, while CS units have taken up position from Virginia to the Pacific. Canadian and British troops man defences in Ontario, Manitoba, Quebec and elsewhere, and wait for the US hordes. Declarations of war in Europe have been followed immediately by more in North America, and the whole world has begun the slide into total war, as fighting begins on almost every continent.

More background information on Harry Turtledove's alternate history timeline in which this scenario is set can be found on Wikipedia "Timeline-191"