In 1865 the civil war ended for five days until an assassination attempt on Lincoln failed at the Ford Theater. Lincoln and a young soldier named Maxwell Blake managed to fight off Booth who escaped to the South. News spread about the attempt, causing a resurging rift between the Industrial Union and the Agricultural Confederacy. Northern citizens demanded in fear of another war the complete annihilation of the Confederacy. Maxwell Blake became an overnight celebrity spokesperson for the Union and desperately tried to use his influence to avoid further conflict. Both sides were at a standstill. The Confederacy claimed no knowledge of the attempt on Lincoln’s life, but refused to allow Union soldiers from crossing the borders to search for Booth. Outraged by this, riots and lynches grew against southern supporters. The remnants of the Confederacy reestablished an army to protect their borders and their citizens from these growing hate crimes. The Union
citizens, fearing the rebuilding of a Confederate army demanded that the Union army be redeployed along the border-states to prevent invasion. Both sides stood quietly anticipating an attack by the other.
Safety and defense became a sudden concern and both the North and the South dumped massive amounts of financial backing into military science and weaponry. In 1866 the Industrial Steam Age began. The South quickly reestablished slavery to fund their research without need of tax changes. The change was a blatant slap to the face of Lincoln, however with the growing threat of war, chose to not respond. Trade between the two was heavily minimized to only what could be transported by railroad, and travel between the two became unheard of. The Confederacy’s low cost of cotton exports bought it a lot of favor from England, and in turn gained European technology to gain an upper hand to the Union. With England’s scientists and money, the Confederacy created the first heavier than air flying machines using steam powered engines running propellers.
With the tensions and attention to the South, supplies delivered to California and Oregon dwindled leaving the two states to fend for themselves. Outraged by this the two states declared themselves no longer a part of the United States and succeeded to their own territory. The two states became “New California” and established a majority of their trade with Japan, Russia and Asia.
In late 1867 with England’s support and their new technology, Gorilla Confederate forces acting on their own lead by Jessie James began sneaking across the border to attack, rob and seize Union lands, compounds and forts. The Union troops immediately mobilized toward the South and the Confederacy immediately mobilized. Both sides were at a standstill in the middle for months, never gaining or losing ground for more than a few days until the Confederacy began using their flying machines, after which the Confederacy began gaining ground quickly. In mid 1868 there was a second attempt on Lincoln’s life. This time he was aboard a riverboat with members of his cabinet with an assassin attacked him with a dagger. There was a tussle and both men went over the back of ship. Climbing back onboard victorious, it was revealed that Lincoln lost most of his left arm in the wheel of the ship. Support for Lincoln following the attack skyrocketed and the Senate
decided unanimously to remove the term limits to allow him to run for additional terms. The Union pooled all resources into R&D to combat the planes and quickly created steam-powered airships and small helicopters to compensate.
In 1871 France established a blockade on behalf of the Union to reduce the supplies from English ships from reaching the Confederacy. It quickly became enough to help the Union gain a foothold and began retaking the lands it had lost in the previous years. With pressure from the rest of Europe, England chose to remove themselves from the war in 1873. With their supplies cut off and the Union’s strategic use of aircraft, the Confederacy finally surrendered fully in 1875. However with their strength, political power and their standing, they refused to rejoin the United States.
Years after the end of the Civil War, prospectors, adventurers and outlaws moved into the lawless areas to the West of the established United States. These people clashed constantly with the Indians and the Mexicans creating a completely uncontrolled lawless area that became the Western Frontier.
In 1914 Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated and the World War began. With the Confederacies ties to England, they immediately sent troops and their flying machines to aid in the battles immediately securing an upper hand against the Germans. The Confederate Government gave life-long freedoms to any slave and all their children if they joined and fought on behalf of the Confederacy in the war. Most of the slaves were freed in this way. In late 1915 the Union, under pressure from their citizens, also joined in the war effort and pooled their resources to help. It was the first time in nearly 60 years that the Union and the Confederacy stood side by side. Both pooled their resources and funding to support the war effort. With the swing of the steam-age still in full swing, they combined their efforts and made extremely effective upgrades to their vehicle arsenal making automobiles, flying gunships, airborne aircraft carriers, tanks and motorcycles.
There were rumors that New California had sent troops to the front, however nobody could confirm this. However, the rumors were of heavily armored men shrugging off bullets and firing strange rifles. In late 1915 the war ended due mostly to the aid of the Americans.
In 1916 the North American economy boomed and brought in the new age of prosperity. The Jazz age began and with it the freedoms of the roaring twenties. The Automobile industry was already in it's prime and the cheap efficient steam power gave most American's cheap power and heat for their homes, good steady jobs, and cheaper appliances and vehicles
