Fanfic / Timeline-191: After the End

Timeline - 191: After the End is an AlternateHistory.com series started by "David bar Elias". The series is Continuation Fic of Harry Turtledove's Timeline-191 novel series that picks up from the end of the Second Great War in 1944 and concludes in 2009.

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This series contains tropes such as:

• Alternate Universe: A continuation of one where the Confederacy won the American Civil War in 1862.
• Allohistorical Allusion:
  • Japan's division in the post-Fourth Pacific War with Hokkaido being split off and becoming it's own country while the rest of the Home Islands fall under the control of syndicalist Rōdō undō party is one for Germany and Korea's divisions at the end of OTL World War II.
  • The epilogue states that in 2011 the "Japanese Spring" occurs that relatively peacefully topples the oppressive Syndicalist regime now replaced by the Japanese Ecological Party. This is one for the The Arab Spring of 2010-11.
• Ascended Extra: A few of the children of characters from the main series go on to have notable lives in this world. See below for more details.
• Argentina Is Nazi-Land: Many former Confederate and Freedom Party war criminals flee across the globe to escape justice, many finding work in Rhodesia and South Africa.
• The Alliance:
  • Following the Second Great War, the U.S. forms the Compact of Democratic States (this world's equivalent of NATO).
  • Germany and Austria-Hungary form the Tl-191 equivalent of the European Union in 1952 called the European Community. One of it's main purposes being to ensure the continued domination of Germany over the defeated British and French nations.
  • Brazil and the Ottoman Empire found the equivalent of the Non-Aligned Movement called the "Independence Movement'' to resist domination by the American, German, and Japanese blocs. It falls apart when the Ottoman Empire begins it's gradual collapse from the 1980s through the 2000s.
• The Atoner: By the '60s, many young southerners join the US military as the ultimate rebellion against their parents' generation and the CSA's actions during the Second Great War.
• Balkanize Me: A few throughout the world, though ironically enough, the Balkans remain stable and under Austria-Hungary well into the 22nd century.
  • Following Japan's defeat in the Fourth Pacific War, the northern island of Hokkaido is split off from Japan and administered by joint American-Russian military rule while the syndicalist Japanese Worker's Republic rules over the remainder of the Home Islands.
  • The Ottoman Empire begins to collapse in the 2000s-10s following a decades long decline that started in the 1980s.
• Bookends:
  • An in-universe one. South Carolina, the first state to secede back in 1861, is the last state to be re-integrated back into the U.S. in 1976 (also the 200th anniversary of American independence).
  • Another in-universe one is the Republicans under Canadian-American John Reynolds returning the White House in 1980. Exactly 100 years after the last successful Republican candidate, James G. Blaine.
  • A more traditional one is that the epilogue is set in 2162, the 300th year since the point of divergence in 1862 during the American Civil War that kickstarted the Tl-191 series.
• Big Bad: General Ishii is this during the leadup to and during the Fourth Pacific War. By the time of the Distant Finale he's stated by the author to be tied with Jake Featherston and Clarence Potter as the U.S.' most hated historical enemies.
• Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp": The Confederacy's extermination of it's black populace, the Population Reduction Program, is giving the name of "The Destruction" by survivors and historians.
• The Caligula: General Ishii, while not Emperor, but the leader of the Japanese government during the Fourth Pacific War certainly qualifies. The war is largely a result of his bellicose actions and rhetoric along with his brutal suppression of protests against Japanese rule in China. When said war begins to go south and a coup is planned to remove him, he launches a violent and bloody purge in all parts of Japanese society. He's likened many times in-universe as the "Japanese Jake Featherston".
• Conscription: A carry over from the main series but it's stated by the time of the epilogue, it's become a major feature of life for the majority of countries on the world. Quebec is one of the only notable countries that has an entire volunteer army.
  • However, in the U.S. at least under Republican President Morgan Reynolds, it's eventually redefined to being three years of "national service" with other options besides the military.
• Dawn of an Era: The theme of the epilogue set in 2162 as humanity is on the eve of launching it's first interstellar mission to a planet that indicates signs of an industrial-era civilization. Many in humanity, particularly in the U.S. given it's 300th anniversary of the Confederacy's independence, pondering if they might find something worse than the Confederacy.
• Dirty Commies: Rōdō undō, the ruling part of the Japanese Worker's Republic, start out as Chummy Commies in helping overthrow the Imperial Japanese government but quickly become this once they establish control of the Japanese Home Islands (sans Hokkaido) with them instilling their own oppressive Police State.
• Distant Finale: An epilogue to the series is set in 2162, the 300th year since the Union's defeat to the Confederacy in 1862 and also on the eve of the humanity's first interstellar exploration mission.
• Enemy Civil War: In the midst of the Fourth Pacific War, the Japanese Empire falls into a civil war when General Ishii launches a widespread purge in response to a planned coup by a group of Naval officers.
• Fictional Political Party: A variety across the nations of the world but perhaps the most common one found throughout are the Ecological Parties that begin popping up in the 70s (equivalent to our reality's Green Parties). The Distant Finale epilogue revealing the underground Japanese Ecological Party helped overthrow the Japanese Worker's Republic and became the new ruling party. Other examples include;
  • Like in Timeline-191 itself, the United States' political spectrum is dominated by the right-wing Democrats and left-wing Socialists, with the Republicans as a minor third party only relevant initially in the Midwest. However, it later expands thanks to the new states added from Canada, the former Confederacy, and the Caribbean, eventually becoming a major centrist counter-balance to the other parties.
  • After Mexico overthrows its imperial government and (eventually) transitions to democracy, it is dominated by the (ironically conservative) Liberal Reconstruction Party. The Socialist Party of Mexico eventually emerges as serious competition, however.
  • In Britain, an alternate Labour Party runs most governments following the Second Great War, though the Progressive Liberal Party eventually gains prominence.
  • The Russian Republic's main political party post-revolution is the Socialists, with their initial only competition being the Communists, who eventually fade away to nothing. But then real competition comes from the conservative Justice and Prosperity Party, the Orthodox Church-backed Renewal Party, and the Russian Ecological Party.
  • The Democratic Party of China has autocratic control of the country for decades after its liberation from Japan, but eventually loosens control and starts facing serious competition from the Ecological Party of China.
• For Want Of A Nail: In contrast to the regular Tl-191 books, the author decided to play this straight and avoided using historical figures from our timeline born after the original 1862 point of divergence. In particular the author decided to butterfly away all real-life figures born after 1920.
• Full-Circle Revolution: The Japanese Rōdō undō (Labor Movement) starts out as the most organized internal resistance movement against General Ishii and the Imperial government and are integral in helping eventually topple it. Following their takeover of Japan (sans Hokkaido) at the climax of the Fourth Pacific War though, within a decade they've become just as an oppressive government as the Imperial government was. The Distant Finale epilogue states they're eventually overthrown themselves by the Japanese Ecological Party in 2011.
  • Happens to the Japanese Ecological Party also by the time of the Distant Finale. They've kept Japan as an isolated pariah state and maintain their own oppressive Police State that outlaws (save for the military) many modern technological developments such as vaccines and aircraft.
• Government Agency of Fiction: An interesting example playing off real history, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) is established in 1945 as the main department in charge of U.S. intelligence gathering/espionage efforts. This was actually a Real Life agency used by the U.S. during World War II before being dissolved in 1945 by Harry Truman.
• Heroic Lineage: A few children of characters from the main Tl-191 books go onto become major figures in this world:
  • Joshua Blackford (Flora's son) becomes a Democratic President from 1973 - 1981.
  • Mildred Morrell-Quigley (Irving Morrell's daughter) serves in both the U.S. House and Senate as a Democrat and then later Secretary of State.
  • Leo Enos (son of George Enos Jr and grandson of George Enos and Slyvia Enos) becomes a Socialist President from 1989 to 1993.
  • Greg Bliss, the son of Luther Bliss, is a prolific author in late-20th century America whose Story Within a Story Doctor Lexington launches the Alternate History genre to popularity in this world (called "Spec Fic").
• In-Joke:
  • Morrell in his retirement years writes a trilogy of memoirs with the names of each respective book being The American Front, American Empire, and Settling Accounts.
  • Jonathan Moss' is revealed to have written his own memoir titled Few Remain
• Just the First Citizen: The title for the ruler of the Japanese Worker's Republic is "The People's Friend".
• La Résistance: Averted in the case of the former Confederacy, no large-scale organized resistance of former Confederates arises to bedevil the U.S. like what happened with Canadians and Mormons.
• Look on My Works, Ye Mighty, and Despair: The U.S. carries out a policy of the systemic destruction of all Confederate government-related buildings, military installations, and statues until finally the only things left that indicate there was ever a Confederate nation are the remains of the Death Camps that now serve as memorials for the victims of the Southern Holocaust.
• The Migration: The upheaval of the Second Great War causes many peoples to migrate on masse to new nations.
  • Survivors of the Black Destruction/Population Reduction move to Haiti (a U.S. protectorate).
  • Many former Confederates in the post-war world move to the independent Republic of Texas. This crosses over with Argentina Is Nazi Land in cases with Confederate war criminals who flee to places such as South Africa or Rhodesia.
  • New Zealand and Australia become a popular destination points for both British expats who were both supporters and opponents of the Churchill/Mosley government following Britain's defeat in the SGW.
  • Quebec sees a large number of Frenchmen flee to it, though the U.S. pressures Quebec to try and prevent the entering of former Action Française members.
• Nazi Hunter: More like Confederate Hunter in this world, as Cassius Maddison spends much of his post-war life tracking down escaped Confederate and Freedom Party war criminals.
• Our Presidents Are Different: After the first three post-war presidents (Thomas Dewey, Harry Truman, and Hubert Humphrey), all Presidents of the U.S. are entirely fictional characters.
• People's Republic of Tyranny: The Japanese Worker's Republic that rules over most of the Home Islands (save for Hokkaido) following Japan's defeat in the Fourth Pacific War. Despite officially following Syndicalism, they're totalitarian Communists in all but name.
• The Revolution Will Not Be Vilified:
  • Russia finally topples the oppressive Tsarist government with the Second Russian Revolution in 1963, establishing the Russian Republic.
  • The Second Chinese Revolution kicks off in 1967 in the Japanese puppet state of Manchuko and concludes with Japan's defeat and empire-wide collapse in the Fourth Pacific War in 1968-69.
• Richard Nixon, the Used Car Salesman: Mostly averted in contrast to the regular series as the author decided to butterfly away real-life figures born after 1920, but will occasionally go into detail on fates of people born before the cut-off date.
  • Harry Truman gets elected as President in his own right and serves from 1953 to 1961. Irving Morrell is his Vice-President.
  • Lyndon Johnson was an aspiring Radical Liberal politician in Texas before getting blacklisted by the Freedom Party and ostracized out of Texan mainstream society. His bitterness towards this and horror at the Death Camps in Texas had him conduct his own private research into Texas' role in the Confederate Population Reduction Program.
  • Hubert Humphrey becomes President in 1961 and becomes the first, and only, President to serve three-elected terms as he leads the U.S. through the Fourth Pacific War.
  • Notable southern politicians from our timeline are stated to end up political prisoners and victims during Featherston's reign; John Nance Garner (FDR's first VP) and Hugo Black (Supreme Court Justice from 1937 to 1971) for example.
  • Picking up on a small scene from The Center Cannot Hold, Adolf Hitler is stated to die from syphilis in 1937. His only notable post-mortem legacy is Morrell recalling his unpleasant meeting with a nameless Austrian corporal in his memoirs.
  • Several British authors such as J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, George Orwell (Eric Blair), and H. G. Wells expatriate to Australia and New Zealand due to being either politically opposed to or targeted by the Churchill/Mosley government. They still work as writers with varying degrees of success.
• Sequel Escalation: The series goes quite a bit more into events and developments in the rest of the world outside of North America than the books ever did.
• Shout-Out: The Russian Army's official name, following the Second Russian Revolution, is the "Grand Army of the Republic". A reference to both the Real Life organization from our world that was a veterans group of Union soldiers from the American Civil War and to the name of the Clone Army from Star Wars.
• Shrine to the Fallen: Camp Humble and other Confederate Death Camps are stated to be the only remaining Confederate-era installations that weren't destroyed by U.S. occupation forces. They stand as memorials to the victims of The Destruction.
• The Space Race: Called "The Space Chase" in this world. Originally just between Germany/Austria-Hungary and the United States it eventually expands to involve the other Great Powers of the world. By time of the epilogue, humanity is on the eve of it's first interstellar mission.
  • And for all the differences, the mastermind behind the first lunar landing is still Wernher von Braun. Only this time for the German Empire.
• Story Within a Story: Doctor Lexington, an alternate history (called "spec fic" in this universe) published in the 1970s where the premise is a what-if scenario based in a world where the Confederacy won the Second Great War. Described by the author as Watchmen meets The Man in the High Castle.
• Villainous Legacy:
  • It's stated that even by the time of the Distant Finale the residents and region of the former Confederacy (now referred to as the Midsouth due to the U.S. holdings further south in the Caribbean) never fully shake off the legacy of Jake Featherston and the Freedom Party. The region both economically and demographically lags behind the rest of the country due to the disasters of the Great War, the Red Rebellion, the Population Reduction program, Second Great War, and post-war flight of many diehard Confederates to independent Texas.
  • On a smaller note also, much like the name "Adolf" has fallen off in popularity as a name in Real Life, the name "Jake" is stated to no longer be commonly used in mainstream American society.
  • Alec Pomeroy, the six-year old son of Mary MacGregor-Pomeroy and grandson of Arthur MacGregor, is a more somber tragic example. He spends the remainder of his childhood being raised by state orphanages and later a military school. He eventually decides he wants nothing to do with his family's history but still faces much prejudice on account of this and him being a Canadian-American. After getting drummed out of the military (never rising above Private, Second Class), he goes onto live in general obscurity working at diner for 30 years and going through three failed marriages. He passes away in 2002.
  • General Ishii's disastrous leadership leading up to and during the Fourth Pacific War is what's largely to blame for the the Empire's collapse into revolution and civil war. Eventually resulting in Japan ending up a Balkanized isolated pariah state (under the subsequent Syndicalist and Ecological regimes) even by the 2162 epilogue almost two centuries later.
• Villainous Lineage:
  • Raymond Longstreet Pinkard, Jeff Pinkard's only son introduced as an infant in the Settling Accounts tetralogy, goes onto become a terrorist against U.S. occupation of the former Confederacy and later mercenary for the Rhodesian military, eventually being killed in combat in 1968 by an American OSS agent.
  • General Ishii Yamada is stated in the author's footnotes to be the fictional alternate son of Real Life Japanese General Ishii Shiro, who commanded the notorious Imperial Japanese Army Unit 731
• Velvet Revolution: The epilogue states "The Japanese Spring" of 2011 was a mostly peaceful toppling of the Syndicalist regime.
• Voluntary Vassal:
  • The U.S. has a few of these:
    • As with the novel series, there's Quebec which becomes largely a haven for refugee Frenchmen fleeing German-dominated Europe as well also a tax haven for U.S. businessmen due it's lax tax laws.
    • Texas (minus the portion used to create the state of Houston) has maintained it's independence but largely because of the U.S. allowing it and is thoroughly demilitarized. It also ends up a tax haven for U.S. businessmen and also a destination for Confederates who can't stomach living under the damnyankees.
    • Haiti is an interesting case in comparison to the aforementioned two. It becomes a haven for many survivors of the Population Reduction program and eventually enters a permanent "Compact of Free Alliance" with the U.S. where the dollar becomes it's currency and allows Haitians to serve in the U.S. military.
  • Following Japan's defeat in the Fourth Pacific War, Mongolia comes under protectorate status of the Russian Republic.
• "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: The post-war fates of both major and minor characters from the main series are expounded upon by both the main timeline and when the author is asked.
  • Joshua Blackford, Flora's son, gets into politics as a Democrat and becomes President from 1973 to 1981.
  • Sam Carsten dies, unsurprisingly, from melanoma in 1947.
  • Abner Dowling dies in 1955 and his memoirs on his service in the Great Wars serve as the basis for a trilogy of biopics on George Custer.
  • Armstrong Grimes becomes one of the first recruits for this universe's version of the Green Berets, called the "Grey Berets". He serves in the Fourth Pacific War and passes away in the 1980s.
  • Boris Lovochkin doesn't adjust well to being part of a peacetime occupation force and gets into numerous altercations with former Confederate civilians across his stations in South. He eventually gets demoted and transferred to Grenada where he commits suicide in 1954.
  • Cassius Madison founds the Remembrance Center (the equivalent of the Holocaust Memorial Museum) and also helps track down fugitive Confederate war criminals well into the 2000s.
  • Jonathon Moss eventually retired from both law and service in the military. He settled in California to get as far away as he could from Canada and the former Confederacy. He wrote his own set of memoirs before dying in 1967.
  • Irving Morrel serves as Vice-President under Harry Truman from 1953 to 1961. He acts as a de facto Secretary of Defense in helping oversee post-war Army reforms. He dies in 1971 after stepping out of public life following being Vice-President.
  • Don Partridge, Featherston's VP and last President of the Confederacy, is given a life sentence and lives the rest of his days in maximum security prison in Oregon. He dies in 1974.
  • George Patton is tried and setenced to life imprisonment for war crimes. He's sent to a military prison in Wyoming with other Confederate military officials. He dies in 1959.
  • Clarence Potter is assassinated in 1947 by a bitter Confederate veteran who didn't take kindly to Potter telling him to learn to live with living under U.S. occupation. His unfinished memoirs aren't published until the late-90s. He's surpassed only by Jake Featherston as the most loathed person in United States history.
  • Michael Pound is forced to retire from the army from 1950 but his connections to Morrel secure him a teaching position at a military academy in Kansas.
• World War III: After Timeline-191 ended WWII with the US, Germany, and Japan as the major superpowers of the world, Japan and the US enter an extremely destructive Fourth Pacific War in the 1960s, ending with the destruction of the Japanese monarchy and the balkanization of its empire.

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