Pax America

[vovan]

Any time.

[Centauri18]

Okay, I've finally got the map of the world at the end of World War 2. America and the Celts are colonizing Australia, and Russia is only a shadow of its formerself.
Well, here is is:

India had long since expanded into Southeast Asia, as shown on the map. America recevied Hong Kong in negotiations with the Chinese in exchange for Steam Power, and the Americans have built it into a cultural center, and an economic powerhouse of a city.
The Celtic takeover of England meant access to the former English prison colonies in Australia. America received some of the mini-continent in negotiations for English surrender just before Queen Elizabeth's execution by the Celts.
Persia expanded into Afghanistan through negotiations with India, and because mostly-Muslim Persia has powerful friends in the Indian province of Pakistan who are fellow Muslims.
America exploted its naval superiority by colonizing several groups of islands in the Pacific, and building a large naval and Air Force base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
Iroquois-Canada had expanded into northern Greenland, also thanks to Celtic concessions.
The World exists in an uneasy state of peace. German interests in Poland bring resentment toward the Celts. The French are surrounded by enemies - The Celts in Britain and Spain and the Germans.
Rome is witnessing reforms within the Catholic Church, but Caesar is looking to expand as well. He seems to miss Rome's former glory.
Arabia and the Ottomans are peaceful. The Ottomans have made Jerusalem an open city, free for any religious pilgrims to visit whenever they like. Just as Arabic Muslims regularly visit Jerusalem, Ottoman Muslims regularly come into Arabia to visit Mecca and Medina.
Greece, like Rome, is a shadow of its former glory, but has had the opportunity to expand its industry and culture. The Greek educational system is one of the best in Europe.
Russia is on the verge of collapse. There have been numerous attempts to assassinate Carina Catherine, and from her own people, no less.
Often it seems like the world is walking on eggshells. Sooner or later, something is going to break...

[Centauri18]

Okay, I think I've about got this. Almost done with the next chapter. Thank you all for being patient. Eventually I hope to have maps for all my chapters.

[Centauri18]

New Washington Junior High School, 2003 A.D.
"So what happens today?"
"Do you even read the chapters, Tad? The years between the wars, I guess. The beginning of the 1920's up till the end of the 1930's."
"So we deal with everything before Europe went to hell?"
"Not my exact choice of words, but yeah, I guess so."
"Do you know much about this?"
"Just that America was at the pinnacle of modern technology. Modern for the time, anyway. Skyscrapers towered over practically every city in America, mainly because business grew so fast. Stock Exchanges in every city meant that people made money, and there was hardly a poor person in America. Practically zero unemployment in the factories producing new cars, TV's, computers... but then it had been like that for a while. Technology went on. America had put a dozen men on the moon, and NASA was working on putting an American on Mars. The first steps had been taken toward a joint American/Iroquois mission to a newly discovered planet in the Alpha Centauri system."
"What about the Iroquois?"
"They had just finished the new CN Tower in their capital city of Salamanca. It was bigger than the Empire State Building. The Salamanca Bluejays met the Phoenix Diamondbacks in the World Series. George Ruth and the D'Backs won it in seven. The Iroquois had railroads and superhighways, and everything. Just like us. The Iroquois were almost all connected to the Internet, the center of International research."
"The Iroquois built a building bigger than the Empire State Building?"
"Yeah, but the World Trade Center was being designed in those days. It was going to be even bigger."
"So... what about Lincoln and Hiawatha?"
"All I know is that they still spent a lot of time talking politics and such together. Lincoln kept to himself, mostly. He could have had his pick of women, but he still wasn't sure he could bear to marry and then outlive his wife, and any children they might have. Hiawatha felt the same way, so they had something in common. Besides being immortal."
"They spent a lot of time together, huh?"
"Not like that. Both men dated regularly. But nothing permanent. Foreign affairs were getting better. The Celts were a rising power in Europe, so we kept good relations with them. France and Russia were nations in decline, and so we could see where the real power was in Europe: Scandinavia and-"
"And Germany. Good morning."
"'Morning, Mr. Grant."
"Don't let me interrupt you two. I take it you forgot to read the chapter again, Tad?"
"Yeah."
"No problem. I'll finish. Listen up, class. Everybody do the homework? Read the chapter? Yeah? Good. Today we're getting into a period that is... well, less hectic than the last couple of chapters. We're dealing with a time of uneasy peace in the world."
"And the years between the wars."
"That's right. Now, while four hundred years passed between the first two World Wars, less than a generation would pass before the third. Not a good sign."
BRRRRIIIINNNNGGGG!

Lincoln looked out over the city of Washington in the recently-named District of Columbia. Columbus had been honored and overwhelmed, hearing about the new name for the area, but in the end he took it well.
But most of the time, Columbus was worried.
Europe was full of tension, and old rivalries waiting to be renewed. Carthage and Egypt were getting increasingly paranoid about their borders, Germany was re-arming, obviously with the intention of going after Celtic-held Poland. Russia was on the edge of collapse, and it seemed as if either Germany or Scandinavia were waiting to finish the formerly powerful nation off. An American political cartoon of the time depicted two vultures circling above an almost skeletal brown bear, with St. Basil's Cathedral in the background so you knew this was taking place in Moscow. One of the two circling vultures wore a horned helmet, commonly associated with the VIkings. The other wore a helmet with an iron spike on top, which had been made popular by Bismarck during the second World War.
The two scavengers were just waiting for Russia to lay down and die before they devoured what was left.
The Mongols' hunger, meanwhile, had been satiated. The Mongols were building on their new land, and it seemed as if the Mongols were content to become a nation of builders.
China seemed to have taken its fill of the Russian Empire. The industrious Chinese were building their own railroads, and new cities.
Korea and Japan seemed to be on the verge of squaring off. There were no longer any nations to act as a buffer zone between them - but then there never had been, only a narrow sea separating Japan from Korea,
India had united most of Southeast Asia under its rule, and seemed to be the only sign of hope. India had signed an alliance with nearby Persia and Arabia. It was a strange friendship, the Muslims embracing a nation mostly made up of Hindus.
The Muslim religion had been reformed over the years. Critical passages in the Koran had been examined and reinterpreted. Women had an equal role in Arabian society, much to the changrin and anger of many hard-liners. These small groups were no trouble at the time, but in later years they would change the world...

In Germany, things were rough. While the nation had come out of World War One with virtually all of its territory, it was Celtic Poland that seemed to many Germans to exist only as a source of anger.
A rebellion briefly arose in Berlin, but Bismarck crushed it before it could seize the reins of power. The rebellious faction - calling itself the National Socialist Party - fell with the death of its leader.
The leader, a man named Adolf Hitler, was tried for treason and excecuted by a firing squad.

In Rome, nationalism was on the rise. Many radicals sought a return to the former glory that was Rome in the old days. But it was not possible. Rome's armies were technologically advanced, but hardly a match for the other, more batle-hardened nations of Europe.
France was not doing well. A sort of eternal pessimism had gripped the nation. The Eiffel Tower, which was suppoed to be the main attraction of a Paris World Fair, was never finished.

Life went on. The Modern Olympic Games went through Europe and America, and in 1936, Bismarck himself opened the Berlin Olympics. As always, America dominated the games, winning nearly every event, including the newly-added event of baseball.
Plans were made to establish a European Baseball League - which would even send its best team to play against the Americans, in a true 'World Series' - but these plans were put on hold as economic hard times gripped the continent.
America felt the effects of Europe's hard times, but not as keenly. Sure, a small recession gripped American shores, but things were certainly better than in Europe.
Also, the Great European Depression brought a new age of immigration.
The American continent, as well as the American and Celtic colonies in Australia, were suddenly full of immigrants from all over Europe and, to a lesser extent, Asia.
The two main cities for American immigration were New York and New Washington. Coming into New York, would-be Americans were greeted by the Statue of Liberty - some Greeks said that it was an obvious duplication of their Colossus, an ancient Wonder of the World located in Rhodes, but not many agreed with them - and were processed at Ellis Island. Lady Liberty was a gift from France to celebrate the 5900th anniversary of both their civilizations.
New Washington saw people being greeted by a landmark not even built by Americans. Spanish settlers had built the large statue of Christ with arms outstretched overlooking the city. Many incoming immigrants - Christian or not - saw it as a sign of good times to come.
[OCC: New Washington is real-world Rio de Janiero, in case you haven't figured it out.]
Immigrants built churches and synagogues and mosques and added culture to the cities they populated.
American culture had become a mixture of cultures. In a way, that was what it had always been. From the beginning, America had been a combination of other tribes, other nations. In a way, now it just became more obvious.

A great Missile Defense System was built in orbit over America, but this was not how it started. The SAM batteries in American cities had been developed after closer examination of the Barringer Crater north of Phoenix. Moves were made to make sure American cities would not have to worry about being struck by a missile. It was only later that the stations were updated to deal with nuclear missiles.
The White House was finally finished, I guess you could say, when the people built one last addition onto the Presidential Mansion.
[OCC: Needless to say, it's much bigger than the White House we all know and love]
Lincoln's aprroval rating had never been higher, and nationwide literacy was - as it is today - at one-hundred percent. Disease was at a minimum, and population restrictions were passed through Congress but never passed into law.
The new armor units and American F-15's trained for a battle that would likely never come. As had happened for thousand of years, Amerians and Iroquois squared off in war games partly to pass the time and partly to practice new tactics. Modern technology meant modern tactics. Cavalry was dead, probably forever, and so was the old European art of marching into battle in lines. That no longer worked. But then, it was a stupid idea to begin with, in a lot of ways.
American citizens on the coasts would regularly get a free show as Iroquois Hiawatha-class aircraft carriers and American MacArthur-class carriers launched their F-15 fighters over American soil and went into pretend dogfights. Most of the Iroquois carriers were moored at the harbor in Quebec City, and war games were often held there.
Most American carriers - hell, most of the navy - was moored at Pearl Harbor, in Hawaii.
Hawaii had grown. Its Commerical Docks took in goods and currency from China, Japan, Korea, and even India. Occassionally, Mongol goods even came in.
Pearl Harbor was strategically important, too. Any planes launched from America could refuel in Hawaii and go on to strike at almost any target on the Pacific Coast of Asia, or go on to the Air Force base in Hong Kong, or similar bases in Sydney and Melbourne.
America sat uncontested as the major military power of the world.

Apparently the Europeans had short memories. Germany seemed ready for another big expansion move. France was weakened, and no longer a member of NATO. Beyond France were the mostly undefended Celtic colonies in Spain, and Celtic England itself.
The Vikings also seemed ready for expansion. As mentioned before, they saw Russia as weak enough to be completely wiped out.
But the biggest tension was in Africa. Egypt and Carthage, old rivals who had sworn eternal hatred of each other, were ready for war. Communist Egypt had devoted most of its resources to building a large military. Their spies had stolen technology from the more advanced Celts and Germans, and now had tanks.
Carthage was ready to fight, but only time would tell if they could hold out against Egypt.
As the 1920's became the 1930's, tensions increased. German Panzers were mobilized to the Polish border. Viking tanks were ready to attack Russia, and even Germany through Celtic Denmark.
NATO was disbanded by the Celts.
Soon the world would be at war again.

"So the whole world was ready to go to war again. The Americans and Iroquois were hoping to keep out of this one, if they could, but inevitably, the world's top superpower would become involved. Mongolia and China prepared for attacks by Japan, which had been building up its own military and was preparing to attack the Chinese and maybe the Koreans. Germany and Scandinavia were getting ready to expand again as well. Germany set its sights on France and Poland, while the Vikings were ready to attack Russia, Denmark, and ultimately, Germany itself."
"So were they the only nations involved?"
"No. Rome, Greece, Arabia, Persia, and India, the neutral nations, planned on staying that way, but eventually the Arabs decided that a war between the two African powers could benefit them in the long run. Plans were made to invade Egyptian Africa. Arabia would not stay neutral for long. Neither would the Ottomans or the Persians."
"Why not?"
"The Chinese, whose borders were now on the edge of Ottoman territory, were benevolent. If the Germans attacked the Russians, they might break through the new Chinese territories and attack the rich Ottoman Empire, and use their deep gold coffers to fund their war effort. The Ottomans were practically defenseless, but would not be for long."
"Persia and India?"
"The Ottomans and Arabs were their allies. They were obligated to help."
"So that was it, huh? Another World War?"
"Apparently so. But this war in many ways helped to build the world we live in."
BRRRRRIIIIINNNNNGGGG!

Next: World War

[vovan]

Very good. Keep the goods coming.

[Centauri18]

Thanks for the map, Vovan.

[Centauri18]

My next chapter has the Persians and Arabs expanding - representing, sort of, the threat that the Arabs, at least, will pose in later years. I also have Russia getting wiped out once and for all, and all this with America supporting a democratinc Germany. Not weird enough? Okay, America wipes out the Celts, and the Persians manage to keep the Chinese, who hope to expand west - from doing so, and even gain land.
Egypt and Carthage square off, but they don't manage to finish their feud... yet. The Arabs, on the other hand, expand into Egypt even as Egypt expands into Carthage.
That's all for now. No Nazis, though, in case you're wondering. Hitler was killed by a firing squad, after all.

[ChrisiusMaximus]

Great stuff yet again

[Centauri18]

New Washington Junior High School, 2003 A.D.
"World War Three, right?"
"Wow, Tad. You actually read the chapter. I'm impressed."
"Cut the patronizing."
"Wow. 'Patronizing' - four syllables. You hurt yourself?"
"Are you finished?"
"Yeah, I guess so. Sorry, man."
"No problem. So what's going on in this period in history? I just want to be sure I got it right."
"Okay. Basically the whole world goes to hell."
"That's it?"
"That's it. The whole power structure in Europe changes. Nations rise, nations fall, the whole thing."
"So is there any backstory?"
"We took care of that yesterday, remember?"
"Oh, yeah."
"I'm surprised Mr. Grant hasn't gotten into things today."
"He's busy. It's nearly finals time."
"Oh, yeah. Crap, I haven't evn thought about studying."
"No big deal. We can do it at my place."
"Your parents won't mind?"
"My parents encourage it, buddy. Remember?"
"Yeah, I remember. Your parents, who love our country's school system so much that they left their native countries to come here just so their kids could have better opportunities than they did."
"Don't laugh, Tad. My dad was in the military. In his day, being a career soldier was the most steady job in Scandinavia. And Mom married young."
"I know. My grandparents on my dad's side were Russian refugees, so I know. I know the whole thing."
"Just don't make fun of my family, okay?"
"Okay, okay."
BRRRRIIIINNNNGGGG!

In the last days before war, in the year 1939, all of America's alliances had fallen apart, except for America's long-standing alliance with the Iroquois. The Celts and the Vikings had built empires using gifts of American technology. Carthage had backed out because it wanted to concentrate on Egypt. And they knew that the moment they let their troops out to play NATO-style war games, the Egyptians would strike.
France had backed out because Joan of Arc requested it. She now sat in her palace, as she had for years, letting her advisors take care of the people. Paris was no longer the center of art and culture in the world. In fact, almost all the works of art and artifacts from the museums in Paris and London, once the greatest museums in the world, had been sent to New York and Washington. The Germans had even contributed a large number of works of art. So had Egypt, Carthage, Rome, Greece... well, practically all the nations of the world contributed to American museums. American culture flourished. French culture was now insignificant. And the Celts sold the artifacts to America because they wanted the old English influences removed. Even the clock tower in London, nicknamed Big Ben, had been shipped to America, where it still rests in the Smithsonian, along with full-scale models of the old British Parliament building before the Celtic takeover. The Celtic Democracy was still a nation of warriors, like their Viking cousins, and there was little that American influence could do about that.
The Celts still ruled justly and fairly, but culture was not their priority. Even Shakespeare's descendants had packed up and gone to New York. The theatre was still there, but it was not used for Shakespeare's classics, but for Celtic performances based on old war ballads, and the occasional church service.
The Celts had indeed adopted Christianity, learned from their English subjects.
Celtic culture flourished. The people living there knew no other life.
America and Iroquois-Canada looked at this from across the sea and made plans to someday liberate England from its Celtic overlords.
The warrior Celts had little place in a culturally rich city like London.
It was time for the new American Alliance to get involved with world affairs again.

Germany mobilized troops on both of its borders - one with France and one with Celtic Poland.
Bismarck was astonished to receive a message from Lincoln and Hiawatha - they wanted to enlist Germany in building a new Europe. Democracy would help bring Europe into a new age.
Now while many scholars question the motives of Lincoln and Hiawatha, we now know that they chose Germany to help them confront the Celts and Vikings mainly because of Bismarck's record of always being true to his word. He had stopped several revolutions to maintain the German Republic. He had stopped a would-be fascist from taking over and possibly leading the nation of Germany into ruin. But that is an exercise in alternate history. We will probably never know what a fascist Germany would have been like. Fortunately.
America and Iroquois-Canada knew that Germany would not turn on them, and that Bismarck was a good person at heart. German culture was the strongest in Europe, and after all, the Germans had beaten the Romans back when they attempted to invade and subjugate Germany nearly two millennia before. And Germany had pulled itself out of the Depression, and militarized.
But Bismarck was wary. NATO had pushed him out of Poland and let the Celts take over. NATO had stood idly by and watched as the Asian powers tore Russia to shreds.
But NATO was dead.
the new alliance between the three nations was a controversial one, but then the Americans had helped Germany out after they were invaded and occupied by the French. Scandanavia was a continuing threat to Germany, and was becoming more and more powerful all the time. The Vikings would want a shot at Russia, and possibly Celtic Denmark.
Germany agreed to the alliance in exchange for the freedom to take care of France. Lincoln and Hiawatha agreed, reluctantly. France, much like Russia, was on the edge of collapse. Something needed to happen. France was dead - the problem was, simply. that no one had told them yet.
America would invade Spain for the second time, this time to liberate instead of conquer it.

It was September of 1939 when the strike took place. It happened on multiple fronts, and around the same time, the VIkings began moving their troops into Celtic Denmark. Bismarck's Panzers moved into both Poland and France, and American troops headed into Spain. Washington handled Ireland, while Shanendoah and Cornplanter, Generals in the Iroquois Army, handled England.
The French were forced to evacuate their own country, and set up shop in the formerly American Philippines, now given over to the French.
Lee and Sherman handled the German campaign while Grant helped the Germans move through Europe.
At the same time Germany blazed a trail toward Russia, the Vikings moved in on Celtic Greenland. They had no idea what the Americans, Iroquois, and Germans were doing, just that they were making their move on the Celts.
The Vikings and Germans together, without intending to do it together, finihed off the Russians, once and for all.
Spain fell to the Americans, Britain to the Iroquois, and Ireland and the Celtic colonies in Australia fell to the Americans, thanks to General Grant.
The Celts were forever gone. And so were the Russians.
The war seemed to be over. The Germans held hegemony in Europe, and the people subjugated by the Celts had finally been liberated. Shakespeare's compnay finally took up residence in the Globe Theatre in London again.
Germany held France, and began work to finish the Eiffel Tower. The French, surprisingly, welcomed the new arrivals. Joan of Arc had been a terrible leader as of late. Hopefully, being conquered and relocated would be enough to get her to go back to leading her people.
The Germans made moves to consolidate their empire, while the Vikings did the same. They couldn't go any further without risking war with the Mongols.
The armies had barely returned to American shores - and some to Spain and Ireland, or even England - when something else happened.
Pearl Harbor was attacked.
The campaign had taken a matter of months, and now the Japanese were attacking, fearing American involvement in their war against the Koreans.
We might have stayed out of it if they hadn't attacked, but there was a problem: they had attacked, and after dozens of ships were sunk and thousands killed, it spurred the American people to action.
The Armies were mostly busy quelling riots in the new territories, and helping the Germans fight off the Vikings. Very few troops could be spared. So those who could be spared to go to Asia were hopelessly outnumbered. It was only a matter of time before Korea was completely wiped out. Korean refugees took up residence in American cities, mainly in the Southern Continent.

The Korean War was a disaster.
And while America felt its first real defeat in war, war continued back in Europe and the Middle East.
China was now making a move on the seemingly weak Middle East, particularly the Ottomans. America protested the war, and protests were heard throughout the United Nations.
The Persians, it seemed, could hold their own. They pushed the Chinese invaders back, and actually gained land for their own nation. When the Persian Democratic Republic reached the southern borders of Scandinavia, the Chinese sued for peace.
The Chinese could now focus all their attention on India.
India held Thailand and Indonesia, and China wanted that land.
But the Indians held them back. No ground was gained, but the Chinese would try again in later years.

Arabia grew as well. They had begun an expansion campaign into Communist Egypt, even as Egypt closed in on its old enemy, Carthage. But when the Egyptians realized that the Arabs were quickly striking and taking numerous territories away from them, the Egyptians sued for peace with both sides. Persia took a big chunk out of occupied Russian territory, and then agreed to peace with the Chinese.
America's war with Japan, on the other hand, continued. Up to a point where America attacked with its most powerful arsenal.
In New Mexico, the Manhattan Project had been completed. Americans had split the atom, and used an ICBM (inter-continental ballistic missile) on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Immediately, the Japanese sued for peace.
The Third World War was over, but a new kind of war took its place. Nations scrambled to get the bomb, hoping to be as powerful as the Americans. the Persians, Egyptians, Mongols, Chinese, and Germans were able to secure large amounts of Uranium for use in building nuclear weapons. While America was well-defended against such weapons - there were Defense Stations in each city now adapted to protect against these missiles in each city, as well as Civil Defense posts - other countries were not so well-defended.
America almost immediately moved large numbers of missiles to its bases in Australia, Hong Kong, Spain, and Ireland.
In this era, America and Iroquois-Canada came together in a completely new way.

In the wake of the Chinese making their own bombs, America took the initiative and created a defense post deep unerneath the Rocky Mountains, near the old defense post at Colorado Springs.
It was called the IAAD - Iroquois/American Air Defence.
History would know this new period of history as the Cold War.

"So we're into the heavy paranoia period?"
"Sort of. Mao hadn't held his Communist revolution in China yet, and Vietnam hadn't even taken place. But with Red Egypt having the bomb, and even Germany, which had proven itself to be a loose cannon, was a reason to be afraid. And with the Vikings purchasing technology from the Chinese, and soon having the bomb for themselves, it was a very scary time."
"For us, anyway."
"For everybody. Most nations had the resources to get both ICBMs and tactical nukes. One false move could turn the world into a radioactive mudball if it ever came to that."
"So what happened?"
"The Kyoto Accords."
"What happened there?"
"Plans to reduce the number of all kinds of nuclear weapons, and ban nuclear testing. And also crack down on pollution."
"Sounds good to me."
"Yeah, and everybody signed it. Even Egypt. But I think they kept a few extra nukes, just in case."
"Just in case of what?"
"Either Carthage or the Arabs getting too close to Thebes. Same reason we kept nukes. Same reason everybody kept a couple."
"Paranoia."
"Yeah."
"The American Strategic Missile Defense (Operation: Shield) would keep over seventy-five percent of enemy missiles from reaching American soil. And that meant that we coul retailiate with more than they threw at us. If it came to that."
"Did it?"
"Certainly not for us. So far, there has yet to be an all-out nuclear war."
'Fortunately for us."
"Fortunately for everybody, my friend. Fortunately for everybody."
BRRRRRIIIIINNNNNGGGG!

Next: The Cold War and Vietnam

[ChrisiusMaximus]

Fantastic stuff most gripping,

[Centauri18]

Oh, yeah. Here's a map of the world after World War Three:

[Centauri18]

By the way, I can make up more detailed versions of the maps for anyone who's interested.

[ChrisiusMaximus]

Just one thing Id like if you could do a colour key to all the nations. I know most of them but unsure of a few, thanks in advance

[Centauri18]

Well, the blue is Germany, dark green is Persia, neon green is Greece, bright red is Rome, dark red is China, the two dark blues from left to right are the Vikings and Japanese, respectively (if those two ever come to a conflict, I promise I'll change the colors), the neon pink is France, the lighter pink is Arabia, the gray is the Ottomans, the dark brown is Carthage, the greenish-brown is Mongolia, purple is India. And obviously, the darker purple is the Iroquois, and light blue is America.

[ChrisiusMaximus]

Thanks

[Centauri18]

I'll be ready with the next installment soon, which documents a very different Vietnam War - instead of a war in Vietnam for control over the country, it's a war over control of all of Southeast Asia.

[vovan]

Very nice. The story is even better with the maps.

[Centauri18]

Stay tuned for the Vietnam War, and the Second Carthage-Egyptian War - tactical nuclear war is involved with the latter.

[Centauri18]

Now, I made World War Two different because of one thing - would one nation (or two) having hegemonyin Europe be such a bad thing? I have a theory that Germany winning the First World War would have meant no Nazis, no rise of fascist regimes. No WW2, Or at least no Holocaust.
Would that have been such a bad thing?
Think about it, that's all I'm saying.

Oh, and I'll have Vietnam up in a little bit, When Pax America returns. Stay tuned.

[Centauri18]

New Washington Junior High School, 2003 A.D.
"So what did they mean, 'Cold War'?"
"Wars where people died were considered 'hot wars', in comparison, but this was a war where armies did not have to fight each other for countries to be destroyed or conquered. Nations could destroy other nations at any time through nuclear arsenals. Not a very pleasant time, let me tell you."
"Oh, sure, like you know what it was like to live back then."
"I know enough, thanks very much."
"Okay, so who was it we were afraid of?"
"Well, the Germans were our allies, and that was about it. Well, we weren't afraid of Egypt or Carthage, because all their attention was focused on each other. It was like Rome and Carthage all over again. We were worried about pretty much everyone else."
"So why didn't nuclear war ever break out?"
"The Hiroshima Accords. It was a product of the United Nations basically saying that any use of nuclear weapons by one nation against another would be considered an atrocity, and the whole world would go against the one who had used them, regardless of consequences."
"So no one used nukes?"
"No one wanted to chance having the whole world ganging up on them, that's right. America could have pulled it off - well, maybe - but I guess you never know."
"I don't want to think about that. New Washington could have been hit by a nuke, and then we'd either not exist because our parents were dead or sterile, or we'd die of radiation poisoning or something."
"They figured how to take care of that in the 1970's. But it probably wouldn't have happened."
[OCC: I don't know. I have never fought another civilization that had nukes. Well, not since Civ2, but that doesn't count since I quit soon after because I couldn't keep any of his cities. He'd nuke his own cities to keep me out!]
"I'm glad. So do we still have nukes?"
"Some. But there are getting to be less and less all the time. People figure that the cost to the environment is too high to keep having them, let alone using them."
"What about the nuclear waste?"
"Jettisoned into space. It's somewhere around Jupiter by now, most of it. And you know no one uses nuclear power, not since Chernobyl."
"Why space?"
"Come on, man. That stuff would take ten thousand years to become... well, not lethal anymore. That's older than civilization."
"What if it ends up on some other planet?"
"It's been targeted towards a star - Alpha Centauri C - and it should be there in a few years."
"What will happen then?"
"Nothing, far as NASA scientists can figure."
"Oh. So what about what we're going into today - you know, Vietnam?"
"I still don't know why they call it that. Sure, the bulk of the fighting took place there, but it was over all of Southeast Asia. And the Chinese lost a lot of territory by the time this was over. If it was up to me, it'd merely be the Sino-Indian War."
"Persia got involved, too."
"Yeah, but because of a peace treaty they signed with India. They were mostly fighting India's war. The Persians counterattacked when the Chinese attacked India, and the Persians gained a lot of territory. Liberated a lot of old Russian territory that the Chinese had been subjugating for decades. The locals didn't seem to notice, thinking they were trading one conqueror for another. The Chinese Revolution took place after that. Mao was so angry at his subordinates - whom he blamed for losing the war - that all of China went Red."
"Oh, yeah. And now things are getting better over there."
"Thanks to modern medicine, strangely enough. Mao is getting psychological treatment from American doctors. he has been since the beginning of Red China."
"Oh. So what about Vietnam?"
"Well, I guess we're going into that as soon as the bell rings."
BRRRRIIIINNNNGGGG!

The War in Vietnam came as a result of Chinese expansionism. Mao had a lot of young soldiers causing trouble throughout the Chinese Empire and decided to give them something to do. So he mobilized for war on India.
Why India? You see, Mao was still afraid of the Mongols, who had been building their military despite also building up their cities. The Mongols, after all, had to deal with possible enemies on three sides: the Vikings on one side, the Japanese on another, and the Chinese to the south.
But Mao was less afriad of the Indians. Historically speaking, Gandhi was a pacifist. He had not participated in any of the World Wars, even though he could easily have dominated. In ancient times, he could have used his grand War Elephants to destroy the Chinese at one point. But he sold them all to Carthage for use in World War One.
India's land and riches interested Mao. India's military spending was very low, and they sold weapons to other nations, so India had to have a lot of money. They were a civilization that rewarded commerce, after all.
But Mao wondered how the religious Indians would handle having the militaristic, industrious Chinese for overlords.
So in the end, Mao decided not to attack mainland India, except as a diversionary attack. He decided to go after the Indian conquests - all through culture, of course - in Southeast Asia.
Especially a small province of strategic importance. The Chinese called it Vietnam.
The attack on India came at about the same time as Indian diplomats met with Prime Minister Xerxes to discuss an alliance. India was peaceful, they had no weapons, and they needed allies. The Persians agreed, and when the Chinese attacked, they were greeted by hordes of machine-gun-carrying Immortals from Xerxes' special forces.
The Persians expanded to the north, and within months, China had lost all the territory it took from Russia during the second World War.
China had territory in Southeast Asia already, and things did not go too much better there.
Indian fighters were experts at fighting in the jungles, and they fought using what the Americans called guerilla tactics, after an old Spanish word meaning "little war."
The local group that held off the Chinese in Vietnam would become infamous - the Viet Cong.
Anti-war riots soon took place throughout China, and after five years of fighting, China pulled its forces out of Southeast Asia. India took over.

America and Iroquois-Canada paid attention mostly to their own affairs during the Vietnam era. They signed alliances with Persia and the Ottoman States. America also signed treaties with the Vikings, and eventually the two nations would become friends again.
Sweeping reforms swept through Scandinavia around that time. The Vikings finally asopted Democracy, and the old Berserk warrior class was finally retired. While the Vikings built up their military, it would take more of a defensive role. They soon joined the United Nations Security Council and regularly contributed troops for peacekeeping missions.
These forces were most needed in Carthage, where Hannibal (nicknamed "Hannibal the Cannibal" by Egyptians) was ready to declare war on his old rival. He had signed an alliance with Arabia and they were ready to close in on Egypt like a vice.
The people were, of course, behind Hannibal, and there would indeed be war.
It was the only exchange of nuclear weapons between nations in world history, but only on the battlefield. For every inch of Egyptian territory that was gained, Cleopatra would claim part of Carthage for Egypt. The war between those nations ended up as a stalemate.
But once again, Miss Cleo was so busy with Hannibal that she did not notice Arab forces landing near Johannesburg, near the southern tip of Africa. Most of the southern part of Africa was soon part of Arabia, and Cleopatra sued for peace.
But she was merely waiting, building up her military after the devastating damage it had taken due to Hannibal's tactical nukes, but she knew that Arabia had overextended itself and Hannibal's troops were no better off than hers, due to Egyptian tactical nukes.
She was merely biding her time unti she would expel Carthage from Africa, once and for all.

The war ended - finally - and workers on both sides of the Carthage-Egyptian War worked fervently to clean up the pollution caused by the detonation of the tactical nukes. Under the rules of the Hiroshima Accords, they were not allowed to build more, so it was just as well. Tactical nukes generate less radiation than regular nukes - ICBM's, used to kill cities. Tactical nukes were designed just to kill troops. The blistering heat generated by a detonation would be enough to do so.
As the 1960's became the 1970's, American technological development once again accelerated. America was still working on the Mars Project, mostly in the hopes of terraforming the planet into a possible second Earth. The rest of the world was still hopelessly behind in technology.
America and Iroquois-Canada shared technology, and as the 1970's became the 1980's, the two nations began work to collaborate on the first international space station.
America had built the Hubble Space Telescope and launched it into space, but this was to be more than simply looking into space. Someday there would be travel involved.

The rest of the world was peaceful, for the time being, at least.
But in Arabia, a coup was on the horizon, something that would ultimately lead to one of the worst tragedies of the twenty-first century so far...

"So, of course, the Vietnam War in many ways marked the beginning of the world we live in today. The beginning of the rise of the Arab nation, and the ultimate rise of Democracy throughout the world."
"And another war."
"And, sadly, another war. Yes. If you'll turn to page 325 in your books, we have an updated map of the world as it was in the year 1972, when the war between Carthage and Egypt - and while the Arabs capitalized on it, they could not truly be called participants - ended in an uneasy peace between the two nations."
"What was happening in Arabia, anyway?"
"Like I mentioned before, there were conspiracies to overthrow Abu Bakr, leader of the Arab people, and replace him - keeping him alive, of course, because killing him would mean the death of Arabia - and take over leadership. There were numerous would-be despots waiting in the wings, waiting for the opportunity to bring their view of the world and their own personal squabbles to the world stage. All right, the homework is on the board, and you don't have to do the essay questions. See you in the morning."
BRRRRRIIIIINNNNNGGGG!

Next: Operation: Desert Storm

[Centauri18]

Reviews?

[Centauri18]

New Washington Junior High, 2003 A.D.
"This chapter's important, Tad. I'm gonna explain it to you only once."
"I know, man. This was the only chapter in the book so far I was even alive for."
"Yeah, you were what, a year old?"
"Shut up. I was stil alive for it, and I spent last night reading newspaper articles about it, and watching my mom's old recordings of CNN."
"Okay, okay. So do you know that led to this?"
"A coup in Arabia. A man named Sadaam Hussein took over the country, locked Abu Bakr in a dungeon, and embarked on a reign of terror, planning to take Ottoman Palestine, and probably finish off Egypt."
"Yes, and it was also Arabian expansionism finally coming to a head. It shattered Arabia's power base and changed the balance of power in the Middle East."
"Yeah, I guess that makes sense. So did your dad serve over there?"
"Yeah. How did you know?"
"Your dad was in the Viking Army and then came over here and joined the Army, right? It was during that time, so it makes sense."
"Right. He was in the military, but he didn't do anything big. He was sent over there with U.N. forces trying to keep Sadaam from running rampant all through the Middle East and Africa. Sadaam made enemies out of Egypt and Carthage - one of the few things both nations agreed on - and he took part of Egypt in a brief skirmish before U.N. troops came in and stopped the Arabs from going any further or the Egyptians from using what was left of their nuclear arsenal to attack."
"I thought that they'd destroyed their tactical nukes."
"Not their ICBMs."
"Oh, crap."
"Yeah. The U.N. barely managed to stop them from launching nukes against Baghdad. The Desert of Arabia was a better place to live now, since the introduction of new American terraforming technology that could make even the desert into grassland."
"Is that even possible?"
"What do you think happened to Phoenix?"
"Oh."
"Well, Carthage took a small piece out of Egypt as well. But this was through negotiations. Perhaps Hannibal and Miss Cleo would finally get along someday. Maybe it was because they shared a common enemy in Sadaam."
"But once he was taken care of, would they be at war again?"
"No. Egypt and Carthage seemed to realize that if they could agree on wanting to take Sadaam out, they could agree on other things, too. Hannibal and Cleopatra met at the Pyramids in Giza, Egypt, to celebrate peace."
"A democracy making peace with a communist nation. I bet a lot of people were shocked."
"They were. Even the Iroquois had introduced elements of socialism into their government, with the state owning sources of food, clothing, and other things."
"The essentials."
"Yeah. Senator Jack Kennedy from Boston had socialist tendencies, and he became a member of Lincoln's cabinet. But back to the Middle East. Persia was consolidating its conquests, and the Ottoman States were at peace with their neighbors. Up until 1991."
"Yeah, and that's when Desert Storm happened, right?"
"Right."
BRRRIIIINNNNGGGGG!

The Gulf War started with the rise of Sadaam Hussein, who had appointed himself as leader of Arabia for life. Abu Bakr, the true Arab leader, was locked up in a dungeon deep under Baghdad - the new capital of Arabia, built just ten miles from Babylon, which Sadaam decided to rebuild - and Sadaam took over.
Sadaam's ascension delighted many Islamic hard-liners, who wanted a return to the old ways of Islam, including the traditional roles of women, and a regression in technology. The hard-liners didn't beliueve any accounts of history or science that contradicted their views, and so it was like a new Dark Age. Many decent Muslims were forced to flee the country when the hard-liners took over. Most fled to Persia or the Ottoman States, and Sadaam invaded them in 1991, as punishment.
Now, the Ottoman States were America's allies, and we were obligated to help them fight back. We sent tanks and the new F-22 Falcon jets. The new M-1 tanks would go through anything Sadaam could attack with like a hot knife through butter.
But it was by sheer numbers that Sadaam managed to voerwhelm many American positions.
Persia and the Ottomans fought back with everything they had.
CNN had dubbed the American operation Desert Storm, and the name stuck. Even though Sadaam did most of the storming at first.
His initial forays into Persia and Ottoman Palestine were successful, but the Coalition forces caught a second wind, and pushed Sadaam back.
The Arabic province of Iraq (formerly Babylonia), Sadaam's base of power, was overrun. American troops stormed past Babylon, long since captured by the Arabs, and the Hanging Gardens. The flag of Persia was raised over Iraq as the Ottoman Army, spurred on by the Ottoman people, poured into the Saudi provinces, liberating the Arab capital of Mecca from Sadaam's regime. Muslims all over the world rejoiced with the liberation of the holiest city in their faith. Sadaam had turned the city into a fortress and supressed the religion for his own purposes. Medina, home to the second-holiest shrine in Islam, fell to the Ottomans soon after.
The Arabs were driven to the edge of the Arabian peninsula, in the province of Yemen. The province of Oman fell to Persia.
The new Arab capital was built in Mogadishu, in the province of Somalia. Sadaam was excecuted by a firing squad made up of Xerxes' elite guards, the Immortals, in the square at Baghdad. All of Arabia rejoiced.
The extremists who had supported Sadaam fled into other nations, taking refuge among the mountains of Persia, particularly in the small province of Afghanistan.
Among them was a former Saudi oil tycoon named Osama bin Laden, who took his wealth with him to Afghanistan. For the most part, Persia, who was still trying to consolidate its new holdings, ignored them.
It would prove to be a costly decision.
Abu Bakr was released and headed to the new capital in Somalia. The Ottomans still allowed Arab pilgrims the right to enter their territory, which now included all of Saudi.
The world was very forgiving, and life went on as it always had.

And so the Gulf War passed as little more than a footnote in American history. Persia now owned the long-conquered remnants of its old rival, Babylon, and the Ottoman States now ran the three holiest cities in Islam. They still allowed Jewish and Christian pilgrims to visit Jerusalem, and there was even a large population boasting members of all three faiths sharing the city. The Holy Land was finally at peace.
But America looked on the situation with a small amount of what was considered cynicism at the time. Americans called it realism. In a world where war was the norm, peace was just too good to last...

"And the extremists in Afghanistan banded together eventually, right?"
"Right, Tad. They banded together to form Al-Queda, meaning "the base" in Arabic, one of the world's first true terrorist organizations. Unless you count the National Socialists in Germany in the 1950's."
"And we ignored them."
"They were a bunch of guys living in the mountains with machine guns. Against the most powerful nation in history they were hardly a threat. Sure, the Persians had trouble dealing with them. But they proved just too hard for even the Immortals to catch."
"Unfortunately."
BRRRRIIIINNNNGGGG!

Next: The Twenty-first Century and Enduring Freedom

[ChrisiusMaximus]

Very good and exciting stuff to read and the maps are great.

[Centauri18]

Well, the next chapter is probably the last for "Pax America" - Which, if you didn't notice, is a play on Pax Romana, a great Roman Peace which gripped Europe because of Roman conquest. A lot of the stuff is based on reality - for instance, Germany really did hold off the Romans, the Iroquois really were the first American democracy, and the Pope really did divide up the new world for colonization, only among the Spanish and Portuguese. People in Brazil still speak Portuguese (And some German, FYI). Also, the battle between the two ironclads off the coast of Virginia is based on a real battle between the first ironclads, with the same names (You might know the Virginia better as the Merimack
The scene with Caesar's friends killing the Pope is based on a scene from Skakespeare'd Julius Caesar, only with the line being, "We come not to praise Caesar, but to bury him."
I try to throw in those little historical things every now and then when I can.
I'm working on "Twenty-first Century and Enduring Freedom," and what it covers ought to be obvious. It'll probably be more in-depth, since I saw the whole thing happen on TV.
Stay tuned.

[vovan]

Good stuff, Centauri18.

[Centauri18]

[OCC: Sorry if I get too into this, but it's the only event in the history part of the story that I have real-world experience with. Sure, I saw the whole thing on television, but I have done some research into the circumstances that led up to the events of 9/11/2001. If you are offended, I apologize. I did not mean to do so. If this kind of event hits too close to home for you, you don't have to read it. I won't mind if you decide not to. Now, on with the story.]
[Also, this is fiction loosely based on reality. Loosely. Sorry if there are things I don't get right.]

New Washington Junior High, 2003 A.D.
"Man, I never liked this part of the book."
"Why not? I actually know about this part."
"Tad, buddy, it hits too close to home for me. I lost an older brother in New York. He was a firefighter."
"Oh, man, I'm sorry. I didn't know. You never told me."
"I've only had two years to mourn... okay, I guess that's long enough, I should have told you."
"You know, I heard Mr. Grant's letting kids who lost somebody out of this lesson. I'm sure Mr. Grant would understand. And you, of all people, you know all this stuff. About the attack and the operation afterward, American troops in Persian Afghanistan and everything..."
"No, I want to hear this. I want to know. And I don't see anybody else leaving."
"This is New Washington, buddy. Not many people have real connections to the homeland. Even with the Second White House here in New Washington, we never really have many connections to D.C. or even New York."
"Everyone became a New Yorker that day, my friend. Everybody. Even me."
BRRRRIIIINNNNGGGG!

I'm sure you're all familiar with the events of this next chapter. I'll give you all the opportunity to leave, those of you who were... personally affected by those events... No? Okay then, here we go.
In the days after the Gulf War, America and its allies were on top of the world. America was in many ways the center of the world, the nation that almost all other nations emulated. the Communist movement was coming to an end in China, slowly, as Mao Zedong was treated and began to realize that it was his own mental instability that led to the decline of China. American psychologists treated him, trying to discover what made the great leader tick.
America hosted several Olympic Games - all Summer Games; 1992 in New Barcelona, in the Spanish territories, 1996 in Atlanta, and eventually 2000 in Sydney.
The European Baseball League took off, as the New Washington Liberators took on the Berlin Blitzkrieg in the first true World Series. America also won the World Cup in soccer.

Deep within Persian Afghanistan, the terrorist cartel called Al-Queda fought a guerilla war against Xerxes' elite Immortals and wreaked havok on local towns. They blamed America for, as they put it, 'perverting their religion.' The people of Persia were, of course, moral people. Corruption was almost nonexistant in Persia, but these extremists seemed to hate everything. They blamed America for it, of course. America had brought democracy to the whole world. Even isolated Japan was a democratic nation. Even Genghis Khan had adopted Democracy.
These terrorists went a step further, saying that the presence of the Ottomans 'desecrated' Mecca and Medina and Jerusalem, and they hated the Jewish and Christian population of the latter. They took over the small province of Afghanistan and suppressed al dissenting opinion. The whole region seemed to regress both in technology and in the ways of society itself.
To put it lightly, they were fascists.
Even the Chinese considered them terrorists.
Xerxes was having trouble governing such a far-flung empire, especially just a few years after expending so much military power in the Gulf War. The Persian military was still rebuilding.
The terrorists would also conduct regular raids into Indian Pakistan, often murdering so-called 'traitors to the faith.'
It was like the Inquisition - which the Catholic church had long since apologized for - all over again.

America did not feel the effects until the latter part of the decade, when American embassies throughout Persia and Arabia were bombed and totally destroyed. Some would even find a way into Jerusalem and destroy Jewish synagogues and American churches, often blowing themselves up to do so.
It seems ridiculous, I know, but these misguided souls believed that by destroying themselves and others in the name of their god would get them a ticket straight into heaven. Examination of Muslim scriptures shows that the tactics used - to say nothing of their targets - go against everything Islam stood for.
But of course, the actions of a few shed suspicion on Muslims around the world.
It was exactly what the terrorists wanted.

America and Iroquois-Canada assisted local forces trying to arrest these extremists, but no luck.
For the most part, America did not even consider these terrorists a threat. They were "Persia's problem."
They were no real threat, even as the terrorists began getting bolder and more ambitious. Buildings throughout the Ottoman States would be attacked.
America helped its allies as best it could, but these terrorists had grown too good at hiding. Even with modern identification technology used by police and military, they were all but impossible to find. They knew American tactics - many of them were American-taught to wage a guerilla war in case of an invasion by Communist Egypt, which America considered a true threat. These guerillas had been expected to help America against Sadaam's regime, but instead they joined with him because they shared the same ideas as Sadaam.
They just kept getting bolder.

New York, under new city Governor Rudy Giuliani, reached a golden age. The New York Stock Exchange was at an all-time high, the city's cultural scene was at a high as well, and it was voted by the United Nations as the best city in the world to live in. The people could hardly argue.
New technology kept the streets clean. There were very few poor people in the city, and almost nobody was unhappy. No one wanted for food or a place to live. New York's skyscrapers stretched as much as a quarter-mile into the sky.
But the envy of them all was the World Trade Center.
Nearly half a mile tall, and built of the latest building materials, the Twin Towers were by far the tallest buildings ever built. Nearly half a million people worked inside or went to the shopping mall inside or came through on the subway system each day.
It was no wonder then, that on September 11 of 2001, it was their first target.
An American commercial jet coming from Berlin and another one from Paris crashed into each of the towers. Thousands were killed in the explosion.
New York firefighters and police worked their way inside, getting hundreds of thousands to safety. Helicopters were even used to rescue trapped people from the roof of the buildings.
It was a day for heroes, and a quarter of a million people were saved.
But that was just before they collapsed.

In the aftermath of the attack, news stations worldwide showed footage of the attack. The world was stunned, and the footage was shown a few more times, as if to illustrate the disbelief felt worldwide. Not even in the attack on Hiroshima had so many people died. Every war AMerica had ever fought had not seen this many casualties.
Debris littered the streets for miles. A cloud of smoke would be seen over Manhattan for months.

In Washington, another plane streaked toward the Pentagon, one of the oldest buildings in Washington. It hit and destroyed roughly ten percent of the structure. Hundreds died.
Another plane was seen streaking toward the White House. Fortunately, Lincoln was in Florida that particular morning talking to a group of schoolchildren.
But that plane never hit the Presidential Palace. It skewed to one side about a mile off, heading towards Philidelphia.
It crashed in a field just three miles from the city.
It was not known until later that a group of men onboard that plane had decided to try and re-take it from the hijackers. Saying goodbye to their families over cellphones and computers, the men decided to attack.
The last words heard from a person on that plane by the outside world were quite simply: "Let's roll."

There might have been more attacks. We'll probably never know, because police and military police worldwide managed to stop Al-Queda operatives from hijacking planes as far away as Tokyo, Japan.
It was discoered that Los Angeles, Salamanca, and even New Washington were among the terrorists' targets.

The whole world was stunned.
People say that the whole world was in a state of stunned silence for hours.
The only other type of activity was in Afghanistan.
They were celebrating.
They wouldn't be for long.

As the source of the attack was identified, America planned for war once again.
Persia had long since pulled out of Afghanistan - the terrorists were running things there now.
In conjuction with the Indian Army, American and Iroquois forces prepared to move in on Afghanistan.
THe Indians were peaceful, but they knew about running a country. They could keep such a rebellion from happening again by paying close attention to Afghani politics in the future.
The operation was first called Infinite Justice, but religious organizations said that infinite justice could only be handed out by God.
So then it was re-named Enduring Freedom. That's what they were protecting, after all.

Troops moved across the country like wildifre. America and Iroquois-Canada fought the enemy, and India picked up the pieces. Civilian casualties were nonexistant. America's military was that good.
Terrorists or sympathizers - and there weren't many sympathizers - were captured and shipped back to old NATO (Now U.N.) military prisons in Australia or the Carribean.
Humans rights activists were angry at the treatment until they were reminded that these terrorists killed a quarter of a million people in one fell swoop.
The human-rigths activists were quiet after that.
As for Bin Laden, the ringleader, he was to be tried on neutral ground where Americans couldn't get to him - in Nuremberg, Germany, home of the U.N. Court of Inquiries. There he was tried for war crimes and sentenced to one thousand consecutive life sentences - I'm not making this up - for murder and the intent to cause further harm to civilians.

After that, America celebrated the fact that justice had been done. India took over Afghanistan, Persia vowed to crack down on possible terrorists, and life went on.
Charities held concerts and other events to benefit victims of the attacks. Musicians and others from around the world came to lend their support.
Life went on. It wasn't good to dwell on the past, and so life continued. Don't get me wrong - people were still mourning well into the next year, and I know people still mourn, but life goes on.
A memorial was planned, to be built sometime within the next few years. The debris was cleaned up, any human remains were claimed, and once Again Americans could sleep well knowing justice had been done.

"And that, kids, is all the major events to take place in American history so far."
"Not a good start for the century, huh?"
"No, I'm afraid not. But then the twentieth century began with a war, and so did the nineteenth."
"What are you saying, that this is supposed to happen?"
"Things like this are never supposed to happen. If it was up to me, all of history would be peaceful. But... we have to learn from the past in order to change the future. If we don't learn from history, we'll make the same mistakes our ancestors did."
"I guess that makes sense."
"I hope so. Anyone who wants to talk with me, I'll be here all afternoon after school. And remember, your reports are due on the last day of class. Finals are next week, so you have until then to study. Good luck, kids. I just hope, for the world's sake, that your generation doesn't make the same mistakes as mine."
BRRRIIIINNNNGGGGG!
Fin

[Centauri18]

Thanks a million to everybody. I plan on writing at least one story set in the Pax America universe, starting with my next endeavor, to be named in the future.
I find myself nominated in the story contest, and if I win I'll be very... surprised!
I wrote it out of boredom, posted it because, well, what else could I do with it? And it was kinda fun, putting a new spin on history.
I am a huge history buff myself, so it was truly fun.
Thans everybody who reviewed and liked my story.
Until next time.

[ChrisiusMaximus]

Centauri I have put my support in the nominations thread and well deserved it is.

[Centauri18]

[ChrisiusMaximus]

Centauri did you see my first story that won round 13, Mikes Story ? well I would like to know what you think if you get chance to read it

I won with my first story and so did Tom aka The Guitarist With his first one. I think this has a good chance also of being a first story winner, its very well written and a great read.