This was a really fun read. Completely hypothetical, of course, but worth your time. Most of the big states became bastions of power all to themselves, and from there they took in smaller states to consolidate their power.
What’s missing, and probably done so on purpose, is alliances with foreign powers and attacks from other countries seeking to exploit the disarray of the US. If we fall into a 2nd civil war like this, I don’t think there’s any way the likes of China, countries in the ME, or Russia stays out of it. Europe would probably try to broker a peace and mediate between the states.
Not much was made of the motivations. If we do break up, I think that would be an important factor. I just don’t see the likes of CA and NY, or MS, AL, GA, SC, TN, or NC dividing themselves. Those states would join up within days of the start of fighting. Of course if we’d just split it along the blue/red states, I think that would be a more realistic fight.
Notice that until very late in the game, nobody gives a damn about the Dakotas. Which is as it should be, since in reality they are nothing but Southern Manitoba. California would still win in the end, of course.
If I was playing the California side, I’d make serious moves to take Arizona, Utah and New Mexico immediately after absorbing Nevada. Put the pressure on West Texas before they can stabilize their expansion northward. A peace treaty could be easily arranged with the Northwest, since there is little for us to fight over early on. Amphib assault on the Gulf Coast will capture Houston, then a drive towards DFW while the Mexican mercenaries we hired with a promise of reclaiming Tejas punch through at El Paso and sprint towards Amarillo. Easy peasy.
California has the best chance for international support. Long coastline, lots of world-wide recognition, and every one wants movies and Apple products. They also have easy victories over their neighbors creating a good buffer zone.
One thing I was hoping they’d touch on that was missed was that little do people realize, but California has quite a large agriculture. We don’t need the Midwest breadbasket states as much as say, the Northeast. We can grow our own stuff and have our own livestock. Plus, if we attack during certain months, we can be sure that some of the Gulf states will be preoccupied with hurricanes and tornados.
Unless the western states and western California turn off Coastal California’s water. I’d bet many of the Western Californians would ally themselves with the other western states over coastal California. Terrorism by way of damaging the aquaduct system would put a major hurt on CA.
Michigan still has pretty good industrial capacity,If raw goods could be secured, . A fairly short land border to bottle neck(screw the U.P) The navy would have to be fishing boats with machine guns for a while, but t’s not like anybody else has that many landing craft ready.
Michigan could hold it’s own for a while as not being worth the effort to capture. Then some idiot general would probably surrender the whole place to Canada again.
Read the article. It posits that all military return to their home states rather than fight for the states they are based in. Since nobody is from South Dakota, the missile bases lay dormant. Until the wily Canadian horde pours over the border and captures them, of course. Then they convert them into Strategic Poutine Silos.
I think there would be more alliance forming than the author gives credit for. For example, the West Coast would surely unite, with a military powered by hybrid armored personnel vehicles and gluten-free MREs.
Not quite understanding you about “Western Californians” (that’s a new one for me) going after Coastal California and the water supply. The linked hypothetical has Californians united together to fight for and protect in the states’ entirety, not just portions of the state. There would be no Nor-Cal v. So-Cal, but a unified California. But what I do see as an easy scenario that California would easily treaty with Nevada and Arizona and maybe Utah as well since we all rely on lakes that are formed from damming the Colorado river. Water for food trades would be very sensible for these states. The Sierras and the Mojave Desert are pretty decent barriers to any other states trying to push their way into California as well, although capturing the Colorado River Basin would definitely hurt us. Hmm…maybe that is what you meant to say. Yeah, I would broker an alliance with Arizona and Nevada and Utah. And then broker something with Oregon and Washington to keep the Pacific to ourselves. And then I would push our way at least to the Continental Divide to ensure our water supply. California could easily feed everyone on this side of the Divide. Just hope the rainfall holds up to replenish the reservoirs.
What’s the bait? Moose knuckles? Bear-infested forests? Heaps of crazy? I think it’s a fair bet Alaska would be urged to go free and just barter their natural resources for things like hot water and snowmobiles.
I’d have to think that one seriously important advantage that the Virginia, California and Washington militaries have (that the author never seems to take into account) is naval warfare. Specifically, aircraft carriers. It’s hard to be certain who would end up with all of the carrier groups out there, but those three states (not counting Hawaii) are the logical choices. And if Texas starts getting a little too uppity with its neighbors, they might want to take a good hard look at just how close a carrier group could get to Houston.
And whoever’s currently in command of the George Washington, based out of Tokyo and therefore a very enticing “free agent” instantly becomes a major player in neo-American politics… or one lucky rich S.O.B. living it up off the coast of Monte Carlo.
I think the whole dissolution was just a ruse to get California to piss off. Once we’re free of them, everyone will rejoin. India and Europe make fine movies and East Asia has electronics.
