North American Confederacy
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Author | L. Neil Smith |
---|---|
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Genre | Alternate history |
Published | 1979–2001 |
The North American Confederacy is an alternate history series of novels created by L. Neil Smith.[1] The series includes the novel The Probability Broach and its sequels. The stories take place in a fictional country of the same name.
Novels
By publication
- The Probability Broach (1979)
- The Venus Belt (1980)
- Their Majesties' Bucketeers (1981)
- The Nagasaki Vector (1983)
- Tom Paine Maru (1984)
- The Gallatin Divergence (1985)
- Brightsuit MacBear (1988)
- Taflak Lysandra (1989)
- The American Zone (2001)
By chronology
- The Probability Broach (1979)
- The Nagasaki Vector (1983)
- The American Zone (2001)
- The Venus Belt (1980)
- The Gallatin Divergence (1985)
- Tom Paine Maru (1984)
- Brightsuit MacBear (1988)
- Taflak Lysandra (1989)
- Their Majesties' Bucketeers (1981) takes place in the same universe, although none of the characters from the series appears in it.[2]
History
![]() | This article describes a work or element of fiction in a primarily in-universe style. (January 2018) |
The ostensible point of divergence leading to the North American Confederacy (NAC) is the addition of a single word in the preamble to the United States Declaration of Independence, wherein it states that governments "derive their just power from the unanimous consent of the governed." Inspired by this wording, Albert Gallatin intercedes in the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794 to the benefit of the farmers rather than the fledgling United States government as he does in real life. This results in the rebellion becoming a Second American Revolution. This eventually led to George Washington being overthrown and executed by firing squad for treason later that year, the United States Constitution being declared null and void, and Gallatin being proclaimed the second president. In 1795, a new caretaker government was established, and a revised version of the Articles of Confederation was ratified in 1797, but with a much greater emphasis on individual and economic freedom.
After the war, Alexander Hamilton fled to Prussia and lived there until he was killed in a duel in 1804.
Over the ensuing century, the remnants of central government dissipate. The government can no longer create money, and only individual people can, it being backed by gold, silver, wheat, corn, iron, and even whiskey.
In 1803, Gallatin and James Monroe arranged the Louisiana Purchase from the French Empire, borrowing money from private sources against the value of the land.
Thomas Jefferson successfully led an abolitionist movement that led to a peaceful end to slavery in 1820. Jefferson was also responsible for developing new systems of weights and measures(metric inches and pounds, among others) in 1800. He also devised a new calendar system to honor the birth of liberty as the old year 1776 becomes Year Zero, Anno Liberati's (Latin for Year of Liberation). When Jefferson first proposed the new calendar system in 1796, he originally marked it as Gallatin's ascension to the presidency. However, Gallatin protested that the real revolution was in 1776 and that the Federalist period should be regarded as an aberration and that commemorating, even by implication, the overthrowing and execution of George Washington might set a hideous precedent (as Gallatin insisted that historians should still count Washington as the first President). Jefferson and Gallatin compromised and utilized 1776 as the new Year Zero.
The absence of government interference creates a libertarian utopia where science and medicine advance at a significantly greater pace than in our baseline history. As Elisha Gray had already invented the telephone in 1867 (91 A.L.), Alexander Graham Bell instead developed a voder technology that allows chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans, and other simians to communicate and prove they are sentient, and the greater primates are granted citizenship rights equivalent to all races of humans. Later on, in history, dolphins, porpoises, and orcas revealed their sentience and joined the land civilizations. In 1888 (102 A.L.), Thomas Edison invented electrically heated streets. In 1947 (171 A.L.), colored television was invented. In 1993 (217 A.L.), mastodons are cloned back to life with frozen tissue.
Presidents of the Old United States/North American Confederacy
The Probability Broach includes a timeline for the history of the United States which includes a listing of those who followed Washington and Gallatin as the Presidents. In this history, the United States merged with several other North American nations to form the North American Confederacy in 1893. From that point, the individuals listed here are considered Presidents of the NAC. Many of these individuals are prominent in the history of either anarchism or libertarianism and are the following:
Number | Name | Years served | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1 | George Washington | 1789–1794 (13–18 A.L.) | Overthrown and executed by firing squad for treason. First president to die in office. |
2 and 7 | Albert Gallatin | 1794–1812 and 1836–1840 (13–18 A.L. and 60–64 A.L.) | |
3 | Edmond-Charles Genêt | 1812–1820 (36–44 A.L.) | |
4 | Thomas Jefferson | 1820–1826 (44–50 A.L.) | Second president to die in office. |
5 | James Monroe | 1826–1831 (50–55 A.L.) | Third president to die in office. |
6 | John C. Calhoun | 1831–1836 (55–60 A.L.) | Lost reelection to Gallatin in 1836. |
8 | Sequoyah Guess | 1840–1842 (64–66 A.L.) | Fourth president to die in office, was killed in battle by a Mexican sniper. First Native American president. |
9 | Osceola | 1842–1848 (66–72 A.L.) | Second Native American president. |
10 | Jefferson Davis | 1848–1852 (72–76 A.L.) | |
11 | Gifford Swansea | 1852–1856 (76–80 A.L.) | |
12 | Arthur Downing | 1856–1859 (80–83 A.L.) | Fifth president to die in office |
13 | Harriet Beecher Stowe | 1859–1860 (83–84 A.L.) | First female president. Advocated on banning alcohol during her presidency, though her plan is never put into action. |
14 | Lysander Spooner | 1860–1880 (84–104 A.L.) | By 1986, half-metric ounce .999 fine silver coins were minted in his likeness. |
15 | Jean-Baptiste Huang | 1880–1888 (104–112 A.L.) | Is of French Canadian and Chinese ancestry. |
16 | Frederick Douglass | 1888–1892 (112–116 A.L.) | First and only African-American president. |
17 | Benjamin Tucker | 1892–1912 (116–136 A.L.) | |
18 | Albert Jay Nock | 1912–1928 (136–152 A.L.) | |
19 | H. L. Mencken | 1928–1933 (152–157 A.L.) | He killed his vice president in a duel and was subsequently killed himself by his vice president's mother, resulting in him becoming the sixth president to have died in office. |
20 | Frank Chodorov | 1933–1940 (157–164 A.L.) | Chosen by the Continental Congress to be president following Mencken's death. |
21 | Rose Wilder Lane | 1940–1952 (164–176 A.L.) | Second female president. |
22 | Ayn Rand | 1952–1960 (176–184 A.L.) | Third female president. During her presidency, she became the first president to travel to the Moon. |
23 | Robert LeFevre | 1960–1968 (184–192 A.L.) | |
24 and 28 | None of the above | 1968–1972 and 2000–? (192–196 A.L. and 224–? A.L.) | [3][4] In 2008, "None of the above" is elected president for life, presumably abolishing the office of the presidency. |
25 | John Hospers | 1972–1984 (196–208 A.L.) | |
26 | Jennifer A. Smythe | 1984–1992 (208–216 A.L.) | Fourth female president. |
27 | Olongo Featherstone-Haugh | 1992–2000 (216–224 A.L.) | Born in 1932 (156 A.L.). He had served as vice president under Jennifer Smythe. He was also the first non-human primate to hold office of the presidency. He was a gorilla. |
Themes
The North American Confederacy is much more advanced in science and technology and much wealthier than our Earth, implying the author's view that libertarianism is a superior political order. Smith states that his novels are written with the purpose of promoting libertarianism.[5][6]
Awards
The Probability Broach won the 1982 Prometheus Award, an award created by Smith himself and given by the Libertarian Futurist Society.[7] The Nagasaki Vector, Tom Paine Maru, The Gallatin Divergence and The American Zone were all Prometheus Award finalists.
See also
References
- ^ "Uchronia: The North American Confederacy Series". www.uchronia.net.
- ^ "WorldFAQ: L. Neil Smith's North American Confederacy"
- ^ In The Venus Belt, Lucy Kropotkin claims that she came in second during the 1968 presidential election, avoiding the presidency by only one vote, her own.
- ^ In The Venus Belt, it was revealed that Olongo Featherstone-Haugh (pronounced Fanshaw), the gorilla who served as Vice-President in this book, had been elected President. At the end, Olongo retires and None of the Above (which is always an option on the ballot) is returned to office.
- ^ "L. Neil Smith article on "Advocates for Self-Government". Archived April 24, 2003, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "A letter on Smith's website that stresses his libertarian ideology".
- ^ "Prometheus Awards".
External links
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- Book series introduced in 1979
- Alternate history book series
- Fictional North American countries
- Novels set on the Moon
- Novels set on Mars
- Libertarian science fiction books
- Cultural depictions of George Washington
- Cultural depictions of Thomas Jefferson
- Cultural depictions of Alexander Hamilton
- Cultural depictions of James Monroe
- Cultural depictions of Alexander Graham Bell
- Cultural depictions of Thomas Edison
- Cultural depictions of Ayn Rand
- Books about Frederick Douglass