In a swamp caused by the San Jacinto River meeting the Gulf of Mexico, Sam Houston routed the troupes of one Santa Anna and won freedom for the people of Texas. He was elected their first President, and a plucky little Republic was born.
As the Spanish withdrew south, it then became somewhat of a race between the Texans and the Brits to make it to the west coast. The race ended when the Spanish realized that the west coast—California, they called it—was worth fighting for and they claimed it. So, the continent relaxed into the last third of the nineteenth century with three nations sharing its land. The borders were testy, but calm.
It might have stayed this way forever had not Kaiser Bill decided he wanted to rule the world. "The War to End all Wars" was fought from 1914-1925 before Bill was finally defeated. Many believe it could have ended much sooner if the British Americas had provided more support. But, they were still stifled by Parliament and had only recently been allowed to carry weapons. This meant that Britain's only two allies were the few bullish Texans and the numerous but unorganized Russians.
The Russians were unorganized because they had just recently been turned upside down. Their centuries old system of tzars was now in the rubbish pile and a new idea—known as communism—was arising. Under a man named Stalin (who had read the works of Marx but never paid any attention to them) the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics rose quietly to prominence.
The world missed much of this rise because they were too busy watching a madman named Adolph Hitler come to power in Germany. A former aid to the Kaiser, he had pulled the defeated and destroyed nation together and put it back on its feet. By 1939, the world was back where it had been in 1914—waiting for Germany to attack.
In 1941, the Japanese attacked the west coast of America and had soon overthrown the underequipped and poorly led Mexican armies. By 1945, they had cast the Russians out of Alaska because the Russians were too busy fighting the man with the little mustache to worry about another section of frozen tundra. By 1948, the Japanese were knocking on Texas' door and the leaders at Austin were forced to recall many of their troupes from Europe in order to fight the more immediately threatening menace at home.
In 1952, it looked as if Hitler would finally be defeated. He was hard-pressed on both fronts and it looked like the end. Mussolini—disheartened and weakened by pneumonia—had surrendered the previous winter, and all looked black for the Third Reich. But the madman played his hole card.
It was an offensive of two airplanes that brought the war to an end. The first airplane left a German-held airfield in western France while it's counterpart was refueling over the enemy territory of Russia. Then, it happened.
On June 17, 1952, the world entered the nuclear age as the first atomic bomb was dropped over London. The ultimate death count exceeded a million people when the fires were put out. The British were forced to surrender when another bomb dropped on Glasgow two days later.
Meanwhile, bombs had also dropped on Leningrad and Moskva. But as Hitler waited for news of the Russian capitulation, a rallied and angry Russian army swept across Germany like men possessed and ended the Third Reich. When the new year rang in, Europe was an entirely communist continent. Britain and its colonies had been under German rule for less than seven weeks before the Russians took over.
The Texans were able to fight off the depleted Japanese troops, and a cease-fire was called in the summer of 1951. The war had provided no winners, but millions had lost. The continent of the Americas soon had an entirely new face. The emperor Hirohito ruled the western coast of the continent, Khrushchev controlled most of the rest, and the defiant Texans stood their ground in the middle.
If the Russians had listened to Khrushchev, the Americas would have been theirs by the turn of the century, at the cost of all the resources the U.S.S.R. had. But wiser (or cowardly, depending on who you ask) heads prevailed, and the world was held in a cautious abeyance.
The world was more peaceful than it had been in two hundred years as the two super-powers watched over each other.
It was all a mask, however. For, under their calm exteriors, both sides searched frantically for what became known as The German Secret—the atom bomb. Somewhere, buried beneath the rubble of the Third Reich, lay the finder's means to ruling the world.
That's where the world stood, nervous toe to nervous toe, back there in March of 2005. If nothing else, at least maybe I averted the war that was sure to come...sooner or later.
To read more about Garison, Heather, Sarah and other Samuel Ben White characters and writings (including books about Edward, Garison’s grandson)—or even ask the author a question—go to garisonfitch.com.
The Legend of Garison Fitch (Book 1): First Time Page 37