United States of America

The United States of America in the Southern Victory-Series have lost the Civil War and built up an hereditary enmity towards the Confederate States ever since.

OTL
There are many parallels between the United States in this timeline and France in OTL up to a certain point (at least the end of the Great War).

Begin of the "Erbfeindschaft"
Before 1945, the main epoch of the German history was the "Dreißigjährige Krieg" (Thirty Years' War), beginning the time of modern warfare and religious conflict. In 1639, king Louis XIII of France took Alsace from Germany. Thus began the "Erbfeindschaft", which did last 324 years until 1963 (Elysée treaty). Lorraine, the second german province (and one of the five original duchies of Germany) France aquired, left the German Empire 1735 for Poland and was inherited by France in 1766.

Troops of Louis XIV of France marched into Germany until Rhine river. As they were thrown back, they destroyed the territories they left, coining the words of "Verbrannte Erde" (Scorched earth).

Rheinkrise
Hostilities began to increase in 1840-1843, when Adolphe Thiers reinforced France's claim as the Rhine as the "natural border" of France and of all the territories to the left of the Rhine (the claimed territory is a very large part of today's Germany). This led to a patriotic upheaval in Germany (then divided); many works of patriotic art, the best-known being the "Wacht am Rhein" (the song from "Casablanca"), "Was ist des Deutschen Vaterland" and the "Deutschlandlied" (today Germany's national anthem) were created in its wake. More and more forcibly, the people, foremost in the smaller german states, pushed to create from the many, mostly tiny, german-speaking states ("Kulturnation", cultural nation) one political nation. (This can be seen in the Deutschlandlied's first stanza, "Deutschland, Deutschland, über alles / über alles in der Welt / daß es stets zu Schutz und Trutze / brüderlich zusammenhält - "Germany, Germany, above all / above all in the world / that it may, for protection and defence / stand together brotherly" - one sees that this is not to mean "Germany shall be the leading nation of the world", but "the German whole shall come before all particular interests, Germany must be united". Amongst others, this patriotical surge was one factor for the The Revolutions of 1848 in the German states.

The Rheinkrise was but one aspect of a larger crisis Thiers had maneuvered France into: By backing Muhammad Ali of Egypt he moved France to the brink of war against the major powers of Europe of this time. Although king ouis-Philippe of France pulled the emergency brake and dismissed his president of the council and foreign minister, which Thiers was, France felt as if having lost the war that otherwise would surely have come.

In the Rheinkrise, one can see parallels of Southern Victory's Civil War, in which the Confederate States were formed as a nation - as OTL Germany's national identity got a vast surge from it. France was "defeated" and saw itself isolated against all other major powers, as the United States see themselves in Southern Victory. And it lead to the next steps.

The German-Franch War of 1870/71
This war is also sometimes called the Franco-Prussian War, although never in Germany. OTL, it was the first war the (soon-to-be) united Germany fought together. Unlike in the Rheinkrise, where France just faced german nations partly hostile amongst themselves (Austria was not cast out of Germany yet), here it faced a unified whole that was fully intent to settle old accounts. The war went crippling for France, and against Bismarck's advice, Wilhelm I took Alsace and the german-speaking part of Lorraine from France - however, after the French Revolution 1789, these parts, although german-speaking, mostly saw themselves as french.

The parallels here are a bit thinner. It is a catastrophic defeat for France (furthermore, a real defeat). As the United States of Southern Victory, France loses territory. Now, the hatred begins to flame and cries are growing to settle the accounts that later lead to the disastrous Paris Peace Conference of 1919.

Presidents since the POD

 * Abraham Lincoln (Republican, 1861-1865) 1
 * Horatio Seymour(Democrat, 1865-1869)
 * 1869-1873: (not known)
 * 1873-1877: (not known)
 * Samuel J. Tilden (Democrat, 1877-1881)
 * James G. Blaine (Republican, 1881-1885)
 * 1885-1889: (not known)
 * Alfred Thayer Mahan (Democrat,1889-1897)
 * Thomas Brackett Reed (Democrat, 1897-1901)
 * 1901-1905: (not known)
 * 1905-1909: (not known)
 * 1909-1913: (not known)
 * Theodore Roosevelt (Democrat, 1913-1921)
 * Upton Sinclair (Socialist, 1921-1929)
 * Hosea Blackford (Socialist, 1929-1933)
 * Calvin Coolidge (Democrat, died before taking office)
 * Herbert Hoover (Democrat, 1933-1937)
 * Al Smith (Socialist, 1937-1942) 2
 * Charles La FolletteCharles La Follette (Socialist, 1942- )

1. - Switched to the Socialist Party after his Presidency

2. - Killed in office