The ''North American Confederacy'' is an

alternate history Alternate history (also referred to as alternative history, allohistory, althist, or simply A.H.) is a subgenre of speculative fiction in which one or more historical events have occurred but are resolved differently than in actual history. As ...

series of novels created by L. Neil Smith. The series begins with ''

The Probability Broach ''The Probability Broach'' is a 1979 science fiction novel by American writer L. Neil Smith. It is set in an alternate history, the so-called " Gallatin Universe", where a libertarian society has formed on the North American continent, styled ...

'' and there are eight sequels. The stories take place in a fictional country of the same name.

Novels

By publication

* ''

'' (1979) * '' The Venus Belt'' (1980) * '' Their Majesties' Bucketeers'' (1981) * '' The Nagasaki Vector'' (1983) * '' Tom Paine Maru'' (1984) * '' The Gallatin Divergence'' (1985) * '' Brightsuit MacBear'' (1988) * '' Taflak Lysandra'' (1989) * '' The American Zone'' (2001)

By chronology

* ''The Probability Broach'' (1979) * ''The Nagasaki Vector'' (1983) * ''The American Zone'' (2001) * ''The Venus Belt'' (1980) * ''The Gallatin Divergence'' (1985) * ''Tom Paine Maru'' (1984) * ''Brightsuit MacBear'' (1988) * ''Taflak Lysandra'' (1989) * ''Their Majesties' Bucketeers'' (1981) takes place in the same universe, although none of the characters from the series appears in it.

History

The ostensible point of divergence leading to the North American Confederacy (NAC) is the addition of a single word in the preamble to the

United States Declaration of Independence The Declaration of Independence, formally The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen States of America in the original printing, is the founding document of the United States. On July 4, 1776, it was adopted unanimously by the Second Continen ...

, wherein it states that governments "derive their just power from the ''unanimous''

consent of the governed In political philosophy, consent of the governed is the idea that a government's political legitimacy, legitimacy and natural and legal rights, moral right to use state power is justified and lawful only when consented to by the people or society o ...

." Inspired by this wording,

Albert Gallatin Abraham Alfonse Albert Gallatin (January 29, 1761 – August 12, 1849) was a Genevan-American politician, diplomat, ethnologist, and linguist. Often described as "America's Swiss Founding Father", he was a leading figure in the early years ...

intercedes in the

Whiskey Rebellion The Whiskey Rebellion (also known as the Whiskey Insurrection) was a violent tax protest in the United States beginning in 1791 and ending in 1794 during the presidency of George Washington. The so-called "whiskey tax" was the first tax impo ...

in 1794 to the benefit of the farmers rather than the fledgling United States government as he does in real life. This results in the rebellion becoming a Second American Revolution, which ultimately leads to the overthrow of the government and the execution by

firing squad Firing may refer to: * Dismissal (employment), sudden loss of employment by termination * Firemaking, the act of starting a fire * Burning; see combustion * Shooting, specifically the discharge of firearms * Execution by firing squad, a method of ...

George Washington George Washington (, 1799) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot (American Revoluti ...

for

treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state (polity), state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to Coup d'état, overthrow its government, spy ...

. The

United States Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the Supremacy Clause, supreme law of the United States, United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, on March 4, 1789. Originally includi ...

is declared null and void, and Gallatin is proclaimed the second president. In 1795, a new caretaker government is established, and a revised version of the

Articles of Confederation The Articles of Confederation, officially the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, was an agreement and early body of law in the Thirteen Colonies, which served as the nation's first Constitution, frame of government during the Ameri ...

is ratified in 1797, but with a much greater emphasis on individual and economic freedom. After the war,

Alexander Hamilton Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757July 12, 1804) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the first U.S. secretary of the treasury from 1789 to 1795 dur ...

flees to

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

and lives there until he is killed in a

duel A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two people with matched weapons. During the 17th and 18th centuries (and earlier), duels were mostly single combats fought with swords (the rapier and later the small sword), but beginning in ...

in 1804. Over the ensuing century, the remnants of

central government A central government is the government that is a controlling power over a unitary state. Another distinct but sovereign political entity is a federal government, which may have distinct powers at various levels of government, authorized or deleg ...

dissipate. The government can no longer create money, and only individual people can, it being backed by

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

silver Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...

, wheat, corn, iron, and even whiskey. In 1803, Gallatin and

James Monroe James Monroe ( ; April 28, 1758July 4, 1831) was an American Founding Father of the United States, Founding Father who served as the fifth president of the United States from 1817 to 1825. He was the last Founding Father to serve as presiden ...

arrange the

Louisiana Purchase The Louisiana Purchase () was the acquisition of the Louisiana (New France), territory of Louisiana by the United States from the French First Republic in 1803. This consisted of most of the land in the Mississippi River#Watershed, Mississipp ...

from the French Empire, borrowing money from private sources against the value of the land.

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (, 1743July 4, 1826) was an American Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was the primary author of the United States Declaration of Indepe ...

successfully leads an abolitionist movement that brings a peaceful end to

slavery Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

in 1820. Jefferson is also responsible for developing new systems of weights and measures (

metric Metric or metrical may refer to: Measuring * Metric system, an internationally adopted decimal system of measurement * An adjective indicating relation to measurement in general, or a noun describing a specific type of measurement Mathematics ...

inches and pounds, among others) in 1800. He also devises a new calendar system to honor the birth of liberty as the old year 1776 becomes

Year Zero A year zero does not exist in the Anno Domini (AD) calendar year system commonly used to number years in the Gregorian calendar (nor in its predecessor, the Julian calendar); in this system, the year is followed directly by year (which is the ...

, ''Anno Liberati's'' (

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

for Year of Liberation). When Jefferson first proposes the new calendar system in 1796, he originally marks it as Gallatin's ascension to the presidency. However, Gallatin protests that the real revolution was in 1776 and that the Federalist period should be regarded as an aberration and that commemorating, even by implication, the overthrowing and execution of George Washington might set a hideous precedent (as Gallatin insisted that historians should still count Washington as the first President). Jefferson and Gallatin compromise and utilize 1776 as the new

. The absence of government interference creates a

libertarian Libertarianism (from ; or from ) is a political philosophy that holds freedom, personal sovereignty, and liberty as primary values. Many libertarians believe that the concept of freedom is in accord with the Non-Aggression Principle, according ...

utopia where science and medicine advance at a pace significantly greater than in our baseline history. As

Elisha Gray Elisha Gray (August 2, 1835 – January 21, 1901) was an American electrical engineering, electrical engineer who co-founded the Western Electric, Western Electric Manufacturing Company. Gray is best known for his Invention of the telephone, dev ...

had already invented the telephone in 1867 (91 A.L.),

Alexander Graham Bell Alexander Graham Bell (; born Alexander Bell; March 3, 1847 – August 2, 1922) was a Scottish-born Canadian Americans, Canadian-American inventor, scientist, and engineer who is credited with patenting the first practical telephone. He als ...

instead develops a

voder 400px, Schematic circuit of the VODER The Bell Telephone Laboratory's Voder (abbreviation of Voice Operating Demonstrator) was the first attempt to electronically synthesize human speech by breaking it down into its acoustic components. It was ...

technology that allows

chimpanzee The chimpanzee (; ''Pan troglodytes''), also simply known as the chimp, is a species of Hominidae, great ape native to the forests and savannahs of tropical Africa. It has four confirmed subspecies and a fifth proposed one. When its close rel ...

gorilla Gorillas are primarily herbivorous, terrestrial great apes that inhabit the tropical forests of equatorial Africa. The genus ''Gorilla'' is divided into two species: the eastern gorilla and the western gorilla, and either four or five su ...

orangutan Orangutans are great apes native to the rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia. They are now found only in parts of Borneo and Sumatra, but during the Pleistocene they ranged throughout Southeast Asia and South China. Classified in the genus ...

s, and other

simian The simians, anthropoids, or higher primates are an infraorder (Simiiformes ) of primates containing all animals traditionally called monkeys and apes. More precisely, they consist of the parvorders New World monkey, Platyrrhini (New World mon ...

s to communicate and prove they are sentient, and the greater primates are granted citizenship rights equivalent to all races of

human Humans (''Homo sapiens'') or modern humans are the most common and widespread species of primate, and the last surviving species of the genus ''Homo''. They are Hominidae, great apes characterized by their Prehistory of nakedness and clothing ...

s. Later on,

dolphin A dolphin is an aquatic mammal in the cetacean clade Odontoceti (toothed whale). Dolphins belong to the families Delphinidae (the oceanic dolphins), Platanistidae (the Indian river dolphins), Iniidae (the New World river dolphins), Pontopori ...

porpoise Porpoises () are small Oceanic dolphin, dolphin-like cetaceans classified under the family Phocoenidae. Although similar in appearance to dolphins, they are more closely related to narwhals and Beluga whale, belugas than to the Oceanic dolphi ...

s, and

orca The orca (''Orcinus orca''), or killer whale, is a toothed whale and the largest member of the oceanic dolphin family. The only extant species in the genus '' Orcinus'', it is recognizable by its black-and-white-patterned body. A cosmopol ...

s revealed their

sentience Sentience is the ability to experience feelings and sensations. It may not necessarily imply higher cognitive functions such as awareness, reasoning, or complex thought processes. Some writers define sentience exclusively as the capacity for ''v ...

and joined the land civilizations. In 1888 (112 A.L.),

Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February11, 1847October18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventions, ...

invents electrically heated streets. In 1947 (171 A.L.), colored television is invented. In 1993 (217 A.L.),

mastodon A mastodon, from Ancient Greek μαστός (''mastós''), meaning "breast", and ὀδούς (''odoús'') "tooth", is a member of the genus ''Mammut'' (German for 'mammoth'), which was endemic to North America and lived from the late Miocene to ...

s are cloned back to life with frozen tissue.

Presidents of the Old United States/North American Confederacy

''The Probability Broach'' includes a timeline for the history of the United States which comprises a listing of those who followed Washington and Gallatin as the

Presidents President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *''Præsidenten ...

. In this history, the United States merges with several other North American nations to form the North American Confederacy in 1893. From that point, the individuals listed here are considered Presidents of the NAC. Many of these individuals are prominent in the history of either

anarchism Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...

libertarianism Libertarianism (from ; or from ) is a political philosophy that holds freedom, personal sovereignty, and liberty as primary values. Many libertarians believe that the concept of freedom is in accord with the Non-Aggression Principle, according t ...

, and they are the following:

Themes

The North American Confederacy is much more advanced in science and technology and much wealthier than our Earth, implying the author's view that

is a superior political order. Smith states that his novels are written with the purpose of promoting libertarianism.

Awards

''The Probability Broach'' won the 1982

Prometheus Award The Prometheus Award is an award for libertarian science fiction given annually by the Libertarian Futurist Society. American author and activist L. Neil Smith established the Best Novel category for the award in 1979; however, it was not award ...

, an award created by Smith himself and given by the Libertarian Futurist Society."Prometheus Awards"
. ''The Nagasaki Vector'', ''Tom Paine Maru'', ''The Gallatin Divergence'' and ''The American Zone'' were all Prometheus Award finalists.

References

{{Reflist

External links

North American Confederacy Wiki
Book series introduced in 1979 Alternate history book series Fictional North American countries Novels set on the Moon Novels set on Mars Libertarian science fiction books Cultural depictions of George Washington Cultural depictions of Thomas Jefferson Cultural depictions of Alexander Hamilton Cultural depictions of James Monroe Cultural depictions of Alexander Graham Bell Cultural depictions of Thomas Edison Cultural depictions of Ayn Rand Books about Frederick Douglass