Imagine If?

Both the United States and Socialism have had long histories. Socialism is a political ideology which was created by Karl Marx in the mid-19th Century. It calls for the abolition of capital and private property. In China, Russia, Cuba, and other countries throughout the world, Marxism (the collective term for socialism, communism, and other Marxist ideologies) has been embraced, but has widely been rejected by the United States. However, during the Great Depression, many Americans called for the implication of Socialism. In light of modern American politicians being openly Socialist (See Senator Bernie Sander (D-VT) and Representative Alexandria Oscario-Cortez (D-NY) for example), Imagine If the US had become Socialist in the 1930s.

September 26th, 1983 was probably a pretty normal day for our audience who lived in the 80's. However, that was the day humanity came closest to extinction. It was the height of the Cold War, and only 26 days early the USSR shot down Korean Airlines Flight 007, killing all 269 passengers, including Representative Larry McDonald (D-GA) and several other Americans. On September 26th, 1983, Stanislav Petrov was a lieutenant colonel in the Soviet Air Defense Forces. and was the officer on duty when the Soviet nuclear detection system detected a nuclear warhead, previously fired, somewhere over Siberia. The Soviet Union's doctrine of mutually assured destruction should have resulted in the end of the world as we know it, but Petrov believed that where the U.S. to launch a nuclear strike at the U.S.S.R, it would be bigger than the five missiles detected. In reality, it was a rare alignment of sunlight on the clouds in the atmosphere. The aftermath of the 1983 False Alarm was very little. Stanislav Petrov died in 2017. However, Imagine if Stanislav Petrov was sick on the 26th, and another officer declared it an American attack? Imagine if the entire world was dotted in mushroom clouds and nuclear fallout.

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The United States of America is one of the largest, most powerful countries on Earth. It makes up a quarter of the world's GDP, and is the third largest country, in both terms of population and land area. It also is a founding member of and an influential leader in NATO and the UN. However, for a large and powerful nation, few would call the United States an empire. American Expansion, for the most part, has come to a complete stop. The last state to be admitted to the U.S. (Hawaii) was back in 1959, 61 years ago. In addition, the last major land acquisition was in the Spanish-American War in 1898. Compare this to the Mongol, Roman, British, French, or Spanish Empires and the U.S. looks like any other country. Imagine If this wasn't the case, though? Imagine if the US didn't stop her expansion at the Pacific. Imagine if it encompassed the world.

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The state of Texas has one of the strongest state identities of all states in the US. One of the most iconic pieces of this identity (aside from Oil and the Dallas Cowboys), is San Antonio de Bexar, more commonly known as the Alamo. The Siege and the Battle of the Alamo where part of the much broader Texan Revolution. Despite the fact that Texans pride themselves on the fact that their state was once its own independent country and no other states where (not true, see the Green Mountain Republic (Vermont), Bear Flag Republic (California), and Kingdom of Hawai'i (Hawaii)), many revolutions where occurring simultaneously in Alta California, the Rio Grande, and the Yucatan. Also, one of the Alamos most iconic defenders, William B. Travis, wrote a letter commonly called the 'The Travis Letter' or 'Victory or Death', that called upon the United States of America and the nations of the world to assist the defenders of the Alamo in their cause. Although the letter was not answered, it could have impacted history by a very wide margin. This episode imagines if the US Government, lead by Andrew Jackson, had intervened in the Texan Revolution and helped secure the independence of other regions as well. 

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General George Washington was arguably the most important and most famous person of the American Revolution, and was essential in his role in the United States Constitution and his shaping of the role of the Presidency. However, he had some close calls. This story shows an alternate of if he had died on a British prison ship after being capturing following the Battle of Long Island (aka the Battle of Brooklyn Heights). He may have been the only person who kept the United States of Congress Assembled, later the United States of America, in one piece and may have saved it from becoming like the Monarchy they just left.

Welcome to ‘Imagine if?’, the Alternate History Podcast. I’m your host, Brody Burton, and this is our episode on an alternate American Civil war. The American Civil War was the bloodiest conflict in American history. 620,000 people died in the war, compared to the 644,000 total for all other conflicts in American history combined. The Revolution, War of 1812, both World Wars, Korea, Vietnam, all are overshadowed by the incredibly high casualty rates of the Civil War. The conflict grew out of the Republican Party’s candidate Abraham Lincoln winning the White House, which caused South Carolina to secede on December 20th, 1860. In between January 1st and February 1st of 1861, seven states, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and finally Texas seceded. The incumbent president, James Buchanan, proved highly incapable and incompetent at keeping the states in the Union. This episode explores what would of happened had Abraham Lincoln succumbed to his 'melancholy' spells, what modern historians equate to Depression

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Our first full-length Episode, the Quarter Reich, explores an alternate World War Two, where the United States of America and Union of Socialist Soviet Republics never enter the War, but Portugal enters on the side of the allies and fascist Spain enters on the side of the Axis. Germany becomes a dominant European power. Switzerland is the only neutral nation in continental Europe to survive, and no allied nation lives save Ireland only. The United Kingdom's and France's colonies become part of the Axis Powers, and the UK is dissolved. Nazi Germany annexes England and make Cornwall, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland puppet states.

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Imagine If? is an Alternate History podcast. Each week we dive into a alternate story line of a universe where something big that happened in reality doesn't happen or happens differently, such as if Nazis won World War II or if Confederates won the Civil War. Airs every Wednesday with your host, Brody Burton.

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