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Divided States Of America
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The "Stars and Stripes" on Jericho, reduced to 21 stars. The United States of America is very large and even more diverse. Californians don't think like Texans don't think like New Yorkers don't think like Virginians and let's not even get into Vermont. Indeed, the relationship between some states can even border on hostile, especially with regards to issues like water rights.
America began its existence as 13 colonies united only by their dislike of taxes, and over two centuries later, that hasn't changed much. So it's a small miracle that the nation has remained in one piece all these years (and even then, there's been a close call or two ten).
So now you're writing a story Twenty Minutes Into The Future, or perhaps in an Alternate Universe. How do you show that things have irrevocably but believably changed? If your audience is American, your best bet is to disunite the Union. Just say that America was suffering through some sort of crisis, and then It Got Worse.
As a bonus, your Hollywood Atlas will seem a lot more authentic. The new and smaller nations, without the tempering influence of what voters on the opposite side of the continent think, will be able to run free with their own agendas, resulting in a bit of cultural Flanderization, or even Days Of Future Past, that might actually seem justified (well, almost). Thus you may see:
- A Mormon theocracy in the Holy State of
Utah Deseret.
- A Freestate Amsterdam clone in the San Francisco Federation or the Coalition of Las Vegas.
- The loud, proud, rather jingoist Republic of Texas.
- The South has risen again to form the New Confederacy.
- The Midwest or Southwest reclaimed by the Reformed Tribal Territories.
- Some of the provinces of Canada becoming U.S. States (Québec often ends up an independent nation).
- Frequently, the New England States are also off on their own, something that both New Englanders and non-New Englanders find very appealing.
...and so on.
After The End settings usually have this on a grander scale, with a bunch of city-states that barely have any contact outside the random trade route. Odds are, most of them won't resemble the smoking husks they were built on at all, unless it was a Cosy Catastrophe.
Often combines with some form of Punk Punk. The polar opposite of this is having America turn into The Empire and grow larger. If there's still an "official" U.S. government, but its control over the country is massively weakened, this can overlap with Vestigial Empire.
Examples
Anime
- In Ghost In The Shell, America has split in three: the Russo-American Federation, the United States of America, and the American Empire. Only the last one actually does anything, having allied with Japan, attacked South America, and then ending up on the brink of economic collapse. (Though possible not in that order.)
Comic Books
- In Frank Miller's Give Me Liberty, we get to see the U.S. balkanize throughout the series. The biggest split occurs when the Big Bad Takes Over The Presidency and discovers he's not capable of keeping the various blocs from leaving.
- Judge Dredd of 2000AD has Mega-Cities One and Two on the east and west coasts, and Mega-City Three (Texas City).
- In DMZ, a second American Civil War has the Midwest fighting against both coasts, to the point where New Jersey and New York are on opposite sides and the title location (the Demilitarized Zone) is Manhattan Island, where an uneasy cease-fire has formed.
- In Aaron McGruder and Reginald Hudlin's "Birth of a Nation," after election fraud causes a George Bush look-alike to be elected president, the city of East St. Louis declares its independence from the United States to become Black Land.
Film
- The V For Vendetta movie, set in Britain Twenty Minutes Into The Future, refers to "the former United States", presumably by analogy with "the former Soviet Union". There was no nuclear war in the movie, but from what little is shown (on the propaganda-heavy television of the fascist British government), it looks like they have fallen into anarchy and internal strife and are plagued by disease to no end.
Literature
- The Choose Your Own Adventure books Escape! and Beyond Escape! and the series Trio: Rebels in the New World took place in an America that had been split into the "nice" Turtalia, the "evil" Dorado, and Rebellium.
- Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash takes place in a future where America has broken up into millions of "micronations", where a given McDonalds store, for example, would be on the sovereign soil of the McDonalds nation. The US government is still around, but they just mainly run the post office.
- Orson Scott Card's Alvin Maker series is set in a United States that never became one country to begin with. It features a hyper-religious New England, the hard-working United States, and the slave-owning southern Crown Colonies, each a country unto itself. None of these reach further west than the Mississippi River, where the Native American nations stopped the colonial expansion.
- Robert Ferrigno's novel Prayers for the Assassin and its sequel, Sins of the Assassin, take place in a future where the United States is split into four pieces following the nuking of New York and D.C., with the northern states becoming an Islamic Republic and the southern states becoming "The Bible Belt". The inside cover has a handy map
 ◊.
- In Whitley Strieber and James Kunetka's novel Warday, following a (relatively) limited nuclear exchange with the USSR, Washington DC has been destroyed and the US is slowly splintering into a collection of Balkanized nations, with California aggressively leading the pack.
- The setting for the Robert A Heinlein novel Friday balkanized the States in just this fashion, with Vicksburg being a center of a laissez-faire economy where the nation of Texas, for example, could go to hire mercenaries for use in battles along the Mississippi River. Meanwhile out on the west coast there is the California Confederacy, headed by a "Chief Confederate". Another RAH's setting ("If This Goes On...") had an oppressive theocracy as one part of a divided US. In "If This Goes On..." ruled pretty much the whole U.S., with the exception of Hawaii (mentioned as an independent republic).
- In His Dark Materials, Lee Scoresby is from the country of Texas, which happened briefly after splitting from Mexico and before becoming part of the USA. It doesn't go into it any further than that.
- Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five shows Billy Pilgrim wandering into the future, where the US has been balkanised for its own good. So it goes.
- The Wingman Series by Mack Maloney takes place in such a setting. Somewhat subverted in that, by the end of the series, the country has reunited (primarily due to the heroes' efforts).
- A Canticle for Leibowitz is set in a postapocalyptic North America and spans several hundred years. In the opening chapters, North America is divided into feudal kingdoms with names reminiscent of the States, such as "Texarc" (Texas+Arkansas).
- Robert Silverberg's short story "The Palace At Midnight" is set in The Empire of San Francisco, in a really balkanised USA. One of the characters is the ambassador from the Republic of Monterey; also mentioned are the Holy Carolina Confederation, the Three Kingdoms of New York, the Realm of Wicca in Oregon, and The Grand Duchy of Chicago.
- The book ''Th13teen' splits the US into three such countries, The racist, extremely religious and poor Confederated Republic of America (AKA Jesusland), The more civilized and educated North Atlantic Union (New York + New England) and the rich, sex soaked and amoral Pacific RimSec states (Washington, Oregon and California). Basically the author took an electoral map of the 2004 election and split it into ‘Red State’ and ‘Blue State’ countries.
- Many Russian science fiction writers include in their novels a mention that the US has been split into several nation-states due to ideological differences and/or corruption. One notable exception is Mikhail Akhmanov's novel Invasion, in which the US actually merges with Canada to form United States and Canada (USC) and is as strong as ever (with Russia by its side).
Live Action TV
- Jericho has two federal governments in the wake of a Cosy Catastrophe; the larger of the two's flag is at the top of this article. It is the Allied States of America. The other is what's left of the Federal government centered around Columbus. Off on its own, able to tip the balance, the fully independent Republic of Texas.
- The town of Concord, Massachusetts tried to secede from the United States in a episode of Boston Legal, citing reasons involving disagreement with the government's current policy. Judge Brown threw it out as ridiculous.
Role Playing Games
- The Cattle Punk Role Playing Game Aces and Eights takes place in an Alternate Universe, where the Divided States Of America include the U.S., the Confederate States of America, Deseret, and a Tribal confederacy. This editor curses his responsibilities that keep him from spending $50 on a 300-page rulebook bound in faux leather.
- Similarly, in the Table Top RPG Deadlands: Weird West, set in the 1800s in America, the discovery of ghostrock has fostered the continued division of the Union and the Confederate States. The various states' focus on managing their own territories has kept them from expanding into areas of what would otherwise become U.S. territory. Four nations pop up instead: Mormon-run Deseret, the native Coyote Confederation, the theocratic Free and Holy City of Angels in California, and Sioux territories.
- Steve Jackson's Tabletop Games Car Wars features something like this in an After The End of easy oil scenario. Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma fall away to become a spirited republic (convenient for the Austin-based Jackson), a theocracy, and a corporate plutocracy. Utah tries breaking away as well. Quebec makes a run for it from Canada, too.
- The Table Top RPG Dogs in the Vineyard never specifically mentions any real-world locations or dates, but it takes place in an area similar to the pre-Civil War American west, in the lands of the Faith (analogous to the Mormon nation of Deseret). The Terrestrial Authority of the East is analogous to the US government and the east coast states. Though in this setting, the lands of the Faith are technically still part of the Terrestrial Authority, they give little regard to it.
- Shadowrun's back history includes the secession and/or annexation of parts of the US (and other nations) as corporations and mystic elements cause social upheaval. The map in the back of the Fourth Edition book splits what used to be the United States into eight separate nations, with three more in what was Canada. Mexico has absorbed much of the South into the new nation of Aztlan.
- Rifts has rebuilt portions of the US and Canada into an alliance called the Coalition States. The rest of the continent is made up of independent cities and towns separated by wilderness.
- In Castle Falkenstein, America consists of the United States of America (from the east coast to the Mississippi), the Republic of Texas, the Bear Flag Empire of California (ruled by Emperor Norton!), the Twenty Nations Confederation and the Unorganized Territories.
Video Games
- The Crimson Skies series takes place in an Alternate Universe where the United States broke up in the early 20s.
- In Shattered Union, the United States breaks into seven factions; six are made up of former states trying to rebuild the country in their image, the seventh is the grievously unpopular European Union Occupation zone.
- The leader of the Believers faction in Sid Meiers Alpha Centauri is specified as coming from the "Christian States of America." She is identified in the background material as born in Athens, Georgia. So this seems to be a mixture of Deep South and Christian Fundamentalists. These "Christian States" obviously do not reach that far north, for the Pirates' leader, Ulrik Svensgaard, comes from Gloucester, MA. And the background material actually gives Miriam's country of origin as the USA.
- The upcoming game Fracture has America's East Coast joining with Europe to form the cybernetics-using Atlantic Alliance, while the West Coast joins with Asia in the genetics-focused Republic of Pacifica.
- The Fallout games have the US annexing Canada in the third World War. Roughly a century after the nukes fly, the US is broken into independant city-states - such as Shi Town, Necropolis, and New Reno (formerly San Francisco, Bakersfield, and... well, Reno) - and small nations such as the New California Republic, with the wilderness in between dominated by raider clans and native-styled tribes. Other major players include the Brotherhood of Steel, descendants of an army unit that rejected their illegal orders and holed up during the war, and the Enclave, the remnants of the federal government, which still regards itself as a legitimate authority despite being in hiding almost the entire time.
Web Comics
- In S.S.D.D, the "Tower Of Babel" storyline starts with an animated map of the states and their progressive division.
Real Life
- The United States has fought already one Civil War over this issue, which resulted in 4 years of fighting and at least 700,000 deaths. Whether this makes Lincoln a national hero or the American version of Saddam Hussein is still hotly debated today.
- Texas is often singled out as its own constitution has an opt out clause from the union. Texas was, in fact, its own nation for a short time before it became a state.
- Firm precedent demonstrates the Texan "opt-out" clause is void. Well, maybe not. At the end of the day, no matter what legal justifications exist to prevent it, the only predicates for a rebellion are force of arms and the will of the people. The Constitution has the Second Amendment in it for the sole purpose of allowing for a rebellion if the American government ever devolved into tyranny or a foreign power took over, with the understanding that rebellion is a last resort. The fact remains that many Texans feel more allegiance towards their state than to the federal government. Add to this these facts: A massive number of US military personnel are from Texas; there are several major military bases (with Dallas-Ft. Worth practically built around one); and that on its own Texas would comprise the 8th largest economy in the world in terms of GDP ... and you can see that if Texas did up and say "Screw you guys, I'm going home!" it would be a very serious business.
- California, too, was briefly a sovereign nation before being conquered after several pitched battles. Interestingly, even Anglo-American settlers of California fought the invading American army. No opt-out clause in its annexation, though.
- Hawaii was an independent monarchy before America deposed Queen Liliuokalani in a coup d'état.
- New Hampshire's state constitution would seem to suggest not the right to independence, but in fact the duty to revolt should the government become overly oppressive.
- There are quite a few active organizations arguing for peaceful secession. Ironically, the main complaints cited are high taxes and an overbearing Federal government.
- In 2008, Dr. Igor Panarin, a Russian expert on American affairs, caused a small stir when he issued a.. controversial.. thesis which predicts/gloats/warns that America has about a 50% chance of collapsing if the economic crisis continues, with wealthier states withholding money from the federal government to preserve their own level of services to their population, causing a breakdown of services in less successful areas of the country that are dependent upon federal money. According to this analysis, America would probably break up into at least five different pieces:
- The Californian Republic – The West Coast states, along with Utah, Idaho and Arizona. Area would be either under Chinese control or influence. California would be at its political core.
- The Texas Republic – Most of the Deep South, as well as New Mexico and Texas. Area would be either under Mexican control or influence. Texas would be at its political core.
- Atlantic America – New England, as well as the Carolinas, Kentucky and Tennessee. Area may join the European Union, or be under the E Us influence or control. New York may make up its political core, although Washington DC would probably still claim to be the legitimate American government.
- The Central North American Republic – The Midwest and continental states not already claimed by the other Republics. Area would be either under Canadian control or influence. No definite core political core, since these states are all at about the same level of economic prosperity.
- Occupied territories – Alaska would be gobbled up by the Russians quickly, Panarin saying that it "only makes sense for Russian to reclaim this territory". Hawaii would end up a protectorate of either Japan or China.
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