The Land of Freedom
is an alternate history work published by Sakura_F on alternatehistory.com. The premise of the story is the death of George Washington, the general rout of the Continental Army, and a mass exodus of several thousand Americans to South Africa to avoid British persecution. As a result, when the Netherlands is taken over by France in 1795, Georgia, as the state is called, declares independence, and begins the process of taking over the African continent.
A rebooted version of the timeline, The Shield of Liberty, can be found here.
Provides Examples Of:
- Anti-Hero: General Thomas Jefferson Rhodes; he's a racist and tried to set up an apartheid state in Zimbabwe named after himself, but it quickly fell apart after he tried to convince the government of Georgia to let him stay as an associated state. He hightailed it to Georgian Somalia to save face. But he acted in what he felt was the best means of helping the government of Georgia.
- Born Unlucky: Even in a completely alternate universe, William Henry Harrison still dies after an extremely brief presidency.
- Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp":
- Communism is in fact moderate social democracy, and later on, social liberalism.
- Georgia is neither the Caucausian Georgia or the American, but a third, wholly different one.
- Cincinnatus:
- George Stevens (OTL's Thaddeus Stevens) becomes Acting President twice after the death of two different presidents. He doesn't try to hold onto power outside of democratic means.
- General Kesselring launches a military coup, but relinquishes power in 1861.
- Distaff Counterpart: Franklin D. Roosevelt, J. Edgar Hoover, and many more...
- For Want Of A Nail:
- The actual name for Chapter 19 of the story.
- A strong trope in general for this ATL, as a general rolling effect due to the American Revolution's implosion lead to a whole new set of affairs.
- The Generalissimo:
- George Heath tries to be this when he launches a monarchist rebellion.
- Thomas Jefferson Rhodes, President of Rhodesia.
- Historical Villain Upgrade: Charles de Gaulle, who as the absolute dictator of France is responsible for the deaths of over 100 million people in TTL's Holocaust and the Dark War.
- In Spite of a Nail:
- The actual name for Chapter 20 of the story.
- Despite a civil war in a less developed part of the world, the Union still wins.
- Istanbul (Not Constantinople): Because ATL Georgia becomes a really well known state, the land of *actual* Georgia becomes known as Kartvelia.
- My Death Is Just the Beginning: George Washington's death may lead to defeat at first, but it becomes something much, much more interesting.
- Necessarily Evil: Project Ozymandias nuclear bombing France to oblivion is considered this by ATL for Georgia. To OTL readers it was a
Moral Event Horizon. - Whole-Plot Reference: Stirling-esque is the ATL term for what Orwellian means in OTL. It is a reference to the Draka, which inspired the author to write about an "anti-Draka", of sorts.
