American Dissolution

The state of TIAH

February 17th, 2007

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Alternate Historian's Note: Our Guest Historian, Stephen Payne, had a great suggestion – we haven't had a good contest in a while, so we're going to have an April Fool's Day Contest! Email us up to 3 entries for an alternate April 1st and we will post the best 10, with your own credit and link to your website (if you have one). We'll also see if we have enough credit for an ultimate winner to get a complimentary TIAH mug, but we can't promise anything on that yet. Get researching those alternate histories now, folks! The deadline will be March 29th.

in 1801, in only the 4th presidential election for the young American nation, Thomas Jefferson, President John Adams and Senator Aaron Burr find themselves in a three-way tie for the leadership of the small country. Ballot after ballot was cast indecisively in the House of Representatives, leading only to more rancor and entrenchment among those who wanted one of their candidates to come out on top. Thomas Jefferson urged Senator Burr, who had ostensibly been running with him to become Vice-President, to drop out and throw his supporters to the Virginian. The senator, seeing himself this close to power, balked, and campaigned vigorously for the top office. In the end, his congressional relationships carried the day, and he won the presidency, with Jefferson serving, yet again, as Vice-President. The enmity between the two men over this incident spilled out into legislation as Jefferson, in his post as President of the Senate, blocked many of Burr's initiatives out of spite. In 1803, this proved to be too much for Burr to take any longer, and he challenged Jefferson to a duel. Jefferson, the better shot of the two, emerged victorious, and assumed the office of President as Burr died on the field of honor. This caused an uproar in the dead president's home state of New York, which sent its militia to the capitol to seize President Jefferson. They were met by Virginia's soldiers, and a civil war erupted between the northern supporters of President Burr and the southern partisans who backed Jefferson. Great Britain, seeing the chance to reclaim their old colonies, jumped in on the side of the north, which then annihilated the southern states. Massachusetts alone of the northern states resisted the British reconquest of the states, but it was overwhelmed, too. In 1812, all of the colonies were placed under a royal vice-regent, and welcomed back into the United Kingdom.

Harry Turtledov..	In 1991 Harry Turtledove published the counter-history novel On the Beach, in which he posed the Dunkirk question – what if the British Expeditionary Force had escaped Guderian's panzers in 1940? The book was ridiculed as ludicrous, Allied soldiers would have had to walk along two ..
.. jetties in single file, being strafed by the Luftwaffe, to be met by fishing vessels. It was agreed that this time Harry had gone too far.
~ entry by Steve Payne from counter history in context - you're the judge!

In 1820 the Missouri Compromise sealed an agreement between the pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions in the United States, involving primarily the regulation of slavery in the western territories. Contemporary historians believed that a War of the States would have been inevitable without the agreement.	The Missouri C..
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Assassination o..	In 1974 U.S. Army private Robert K. Preston stole a United States Army helicopter from Fort Meade, Maryland, flew it to Washington, D.C., and hovered for six minutes over the White House before descending on the south lawn, about 100 yards from the West Wing. Preston's actions inspired ..
.. Samuel Byck to crash a passenger air plane into the White House on February 22, 1974 killing President Richard Nixon and Vice President Gerald Ford.
~ entry by Steve Payne from counter history in context - you're the judge!

In 1871 the victorious French Army paraded though the Brandenburg Gate after the end of the Siege of Berlin during the Franco-Prussian War.	Napoleon III of..
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

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