Our Revolution

In September 2018, on the long drive back from a brief vacation in San Diego, BAE Systems engineer Theo Bell and cook-turned-nurse Liz Krauss, along with their 1997 Jetta are flung into the forests of western Pennsylvania, during the spring of 1775.

1775-89 CE: Revolution

1775

March- After recovering from hitting a tree, Liz and Theo explore the surrounding countryside eventually spotting the town of Wyoming, Pennsylvania. Realizing that they are obviously no longer in Southern California, much less their own century, the couple decide to hide the Jetta during the day and in the dead of night drive to Philadelphia. Upon reaching the edge of town the following night, they hide the Jetta in an abandoned barn and sneak into town until they find the only name they recognize "The Pennsylvania Gazette." Wrapping on the door as sun begins to rise a bleary eyed apprentice, James Lapham greets the two who beg him to fetch Doctor Franklin. After some initial confusion, they show the apprentice their smart phones, and he agrees to shelter the time displaced Americans.

April- Theo and Liz spend April frantically scribbling everything they can remember about their country's history and useful innovations of their era. The one laptop and two cell phones they possess are of only limited use, as they contain files relating to their personal lives and some old college coursework that isn't entirely relevant for the challenges of the day. Theo comes up with a Tech Tree that he believes can be rapidly put into production to help the colonies. On April 19, 1775, the Revolution begins at Lexington and Concord.

May- Upon Franklin's return from London he finally meets the mysterious "guests" of young master Lepham. After a sleepless night learning the history of his country-to-be, Franklin recommends that only a handful of people should even be made aware of their situation: himself, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington. Despite Theo's worries about Jefferson, he and Washington are invited by Franklin to a private meeting and are told of the future that would-have-been. These three, considerably wealthy men, agree to many of the proposals in Bell's Tech Tree, and personally stake their efforts.

June- With a great deal of his personal wealth committed, Franklin begins working with Theo to build an electric arc furnace. Working from memory and aided by local smiths sympathetic to the patriot cause. Liz spends her days attempting to invent modern principles of medicine under a pseudonym and publish a book with a false heir of legitimacy, a book Washington takes with him before leaving for New England as commander-in-chief. Franklin successfully develops an alkaline battery after studying the car battery in the Jetta. Working together from memory, and highly motivated to do so, Bell and Krauss also design a ceramic flush toilet commissioned through local potters.

A diagram of the 1777 version of the M1 Revolving Rifle.

July- The Philadelphia Iron Works opens. The forge isn't much bigger than a large barn, and has a single smelter. But with it high quality steel can be produced at scale, and sent to a nearby machine shop where gunsmiths work on the world's first assembly line to rapidly deploy a revolving rifle, and centerfire ammunition. With the allies money starting to run a bit thin the group stands up a chemical plant to produce potassium chlorate, and sawmill for the wood furniture. The Olive Branch petition is sent to King George III by the Congress.

August- The first hundred M1 Revolving Rifles are given to the Pennsylvania Volunteers, a regiment made up mostly of Scots-Irish and Freedmen and then deployed to the Canadian front. Liz begins training up a corps of medics from among women volunteers and camp followers of the Continental Army. King George III issues the Proclamation of Rebellion. The Bell Sawmill expands into producing lumber products for the civilian market as well. Work begins on Bell's instructions to develop a papermill with the first intended products being toilet paper and cardboard.

A sketch of the first rotary cannon.

September- The Philadelphia Iron Works is now producing 100 revolving rifles a month. A functional machine gun similar to the original Gatling Gun also begins rolling off the line, but at far fewer numbers. Thomas Jefferson opens his water-powered textile mill in Virginia, and reverse engineers denim from uptime jeans.

November- Richard Montgomery's forces complete the rout of British forces at Montreal. Working on half-remembered information from Bell, Franklin and Washington manage to contact David Bushnell at Yale and the Turtle becomes the first "Black Project" of the Continental Army. In Philadelphia, the potter who manufactured the first Flush Toilet has begun selling them at scale to the local populace.

December- Quebec falls to the Patriots. Benedict Arnold and his corps of flying artillery marches East to Nova Scotia. American Electric is established by Ben Franklin and Theo Bell to begin large scale production of electric motors, the first use is to be to propel the Turtle.

1776

Second generation Turtle.

January- Bushnell tests a modified version of his Turtle, now a more effective two man submersible similar in appearance to 21st century Narco subs. Common Sense is published.

March - Halifax falls to Benedict Arnold's forces. News reaches the Royal Navy in Boston just in time for the Patriots to launch their raid on Boston, destroying the Eagle with black powder incendiary rockets.

May - British troops land on Manhattan Island. Philadelphia Iron Works tests the first cyclone steam engine, initially using waste heat from the steel mill to power it.

June - Thomas Jefferson, John Dickenson, Ben Franklin, with support from George Washington push for the creation of a special committee to create a draft of a potential constitution and a separate committee to draft the Bill of Rights to define the civil liberties of the new Republic. Franklin will head the Constitutional Committee, while Dickenson will chair the Bill of Rights Committee (of which Jefferson is a member).

July - The Declaration of Independence is adopted. Benjamin Rush is ordered to adopt Liz's medical reforms by Washington after repeated conflicts with the continent's premier medical expert over the use of the newly discovered wonder drug, Penicillin.

August - The Treaty of Fort Pitt is signed with the major allied tribes. It effectively promises to recognize whatever post-war government the American-aligned nations of the Haudenosaunee establish, and defines the official border. The Philadelphia Iron Works is now producing 100 M1 revolving rifles every week.

September - Admiral Howe diverts his forces to the South. The war is now almost entirely concentrated in the southern colonies. Howe reverses promises to end slavery in an attempt to rally slave-holding loyalists to the British cause.

1777

February The first Howitzer enters production. Washington has now fully implemented some of the army tactics imported from the future. The structure of a modern army in particular is of great interest to Washington, who has taken to wearing green khakis when in the field adorned with black stitched stars indicating his rank.

July - Lafayette arrives in Philadelphia and joins the Continental Army for its planned endgame in the South and against the British aligned-Iroquois. Washington frees his last slave, as does Jefferson. This is partly the result of continued ruminations on their place in the history-that-would-have-been, but also the fact that they're making far more money off of dividends returned on their investments into Theo's industrial efforts.

September- Admiral Howe is killed during a failed assault on Philadelphia from his limited position in Maryland. The Royal Navy has been devastated, and the British Army flees.

October- After repeated trial and error, Franklin demonstrates a working light bulb. The first steam locomotive begins running from western Pennsylvania's coal mines to Philadelphia. In London, the devastation of the Royal Navy and death of the Howe brothers has led to the hardliners taking control of Parliament. General Clinton is given carte blanche to do whatever is necessary to put down the rebellion in the American colonies.

November- After word reaches the colonies of Britain's intent to send more troops to America, Jefferson asks that the Congress table the debate over the Articles of Confederation until Dr. Franklin returns, nominating him to write a new draft.

1778

March- King George issues the "Must and Shall" Decree, giving his full support to crush the American rebellion. Franklin help install working telephone and telegraph lines across the colonies. The Constitutional Committee finally submits a completed Constitution to the Continental Congress. Dickenson and Jefferson give it their full endorsement. Jefferson frankly isn't wild about the strength of the Federal Government in this near-copy of the uptime US Constitution, but heeds the lessons of history to at the very least.

April- The Patriots begin laying down more ironclads at the Boston Shipyards, and fitting them with turreted cannons firing centerfire exploding rounds. Word reaches Paris about the British plan to throw everything they have at the Colonies.

July- Bell begins work on an airplane for reconnaissance and close-shore defense. Washington is preparing to defeat a massive invasion from the British.

August- The first steam tractor rolls off the line and is adopted immediately by Jefferson and Washington who hope to use it as a way to incentivize the end of the slave economy.

September- The first airplane is flown at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. It is a simple top-mounted monoplane with an electric motor powered by a cyclone steam engine. Congress approves the creation of the Continental Air Corps, with Bell made its first Captain.

1779

March-French ships engage the British at sea, while the ironclads and turtles prepare to defend the coast.

August- Battle of the Atlantic - British ships stage a combined attack against the American coast. Numerous ships are sunk by ironclads, turtles, and aircraft, but a sizable portion of the invasion force is able to break through to New York, and sack the city. Benedict Arnold is killed leading his troops during the city's defense, and is remembered as one of the greatest heroes of the war.

September- The British are bottled up on the ashes of New York, and cut off from supply. The Army surrenders mere weeks after the Whigs oust the Tories and sue for peace.

November- A light machine gun similar to the BAR rolls off the line in Pennsylvania.

1780

March- The Constitution of the United States is ratified, in no small part thanks to aggressive lobbying by Franklin, Washington, and even Jefferson.

April- The Bill of Rights is passed. Per Theo and Liz's urging, and the realities of the war against the British, Jefferson agrees that a constitutional protection of firearms rights is not a good idea. The 2nd Amendment is instead a amendment abolishing slavery (largely a moot point

May- While the Paris peace negotiations continue, a separate council is called at Greenville in the Ohio country wherein the United States negotiates a treaty promising to recognize any townships established west of the Appalachians by tribes that fought for the United States, and to ban settlement west of the Appalachians south of the 41st Parallel.

June- At the Treaty of Paris, Great Britain agrees to cede all of their territory in North America to the united States. Attending the conference is Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and Liz Krauss.

November- George Washington is elected unanimously as the first President of the United States. Bell is appointed Chief of the Air Corps. The sanitary movement is one of the first things to kick off post-war in the United States, as New York adopts Liz Krauss's plan for an artificial marsh for the treatment of blackwater.

1780-1796: Keeping the Republic

The Sixteen States and Hudson Bay territory of the United States upon the signing of the Treaty of Paris.

1781

• Franklin's lightbulbs enter mass production.
• Franklin Electric begins stringing telephone lines across the American east coast.
• Thomas Jefferson's 1775 plan for dividing the new territory of the US is adopted with some minor modifications.
• Washington and Bell work to create a national bank for the United States and a national debt.
• Thomas Jefferson and Theo Bell invent the American System of Measurement, based on a system Bell had been using in his factories from the beginning. Its similar to Jefferson's proposed system from OTL, but is based on the Speed of Light as the least arbitrary metric available (this is not stated to the public), set at 1 Billion meters/second.

1783

• Electrical lighting begins to appear in major cities.
• The Northwest Territory Land Ordinance is established, all but written by Bell to colonize the most valuable land not already inhabited by local tribes. A standard template for the layout of industrial cities is included with the ordinance to create walkable, grid-pattern communities in the West.
• Bell retires from active duty to return to the private sector.
• Philadelphia Iron Works is renamed US Metal. Bell begins laying railroad lines westward and opening new shipyards across the northeast and great lakes.
• Quebec and Newfoundland cede much of their territory to the newly formed Labrador territory. Canada is established as the nation's newest state.

1786

• US Metal develops the technique for large scale aluminum processing.
• Franklin pushes the adoption of Alternating Current.
• Early industrialization means the majority of people heading west are not going exclusively into expansive farmland, but small industrial, company-towns near navigable bodies of water or mining sites.

1787

• Washington lays the railroad spike linking Richmond with Boston.
• Liz unveils a new design for a hypodermic needle and autoclave.
• The US Army adopts a select-fire rifle similar to OTL AR-15 derived rifles.
• Ben Franklin and a group of researchers demonstrate the first transistor.

1789

• George Washington leaves office after 2 terms. This is not a precedent set by the virtue of the man, but a limit established by the Constitution.
• Thomas Jefferson, Washington's Vice President, is sworn in as America's second President.
• Near the end of his life, Franklin oversees the demonstration of an integrated circuit created using acid etching.
• Erie and Ontario are admitted to the Union as states.

1791

The United States upon its entry into the French Revolutionary War in 1791.

• Lafayette, acting on suggestions from Jefferson and Franklin, leads the Army to depose the Bourbon monarchy and calls for a constitutional convention.
• Britain and Austria launch a war against France, desperate to avoid a repeat of what happened in America.
• Theo Bell is recalled to active duty and placed in charge of the American Expeditionary Force after Jefferson issues a statement that America will honor its alliance with France and come to the defense of her sister Republic.
• The previous unrecognized state of Westylvania is admitted to the Union, only after changing its name to Franklin days after the late founder's death.

1792

• Barbed wire and trenches dot the north of France, while the country's shipping is cut off by the Royal Navy.
• Near the end of the year, the Atlantic Fleet lands the IEF in southern France before steaming to the English Channel.
• In Paris, General Bell debuts the American A-3 Osprey, essentially a version of OTL's Vought V-173.
• The Royal Navy is defeated by the new generation of John Paul Jones-class destroyers and Boston-class turtles.
• Spain enters the war with Portugal.
• Liz proposes to Lafayette a plan to renovate Paris similar to Haussmann's renovations of OTL. The plan is put forward as "The Plan for a Capital of the Revolution."

1793

• The Franco-American Alliance breaks through the trenches into western Germany using the first generation Tanks. Like all vehicles, they're electrically driven, and steam powered.
• The first examples of incendiary bombing are carried out against Austrian and Spanish supply lines.
• Intermediate range missiles are launched from France against London and Berlin.

1794

• With Austria on the ropes, Bell is repositioned to lead the invasion of Britain. The island has been blockaded, and Republican groups are rebelling across the country. Operation Downfall begins on June 6, 1794.
• London Falls, George III's government relocates to Newcastle, but this only fuels the public's contempt for the regime.
• Jefferson is re-elected with overwhelming support.
• The Supreme Court forces Congress to seat black representatives from states that offer universal male suffrage.

1795

• King George escapes to Hanover with his family, a provisional government is established in Britain with the Republicans drafting a constitution.
• Spain issues a formal surrender.
• Edward Jenner begins working with Liz on a cure for smallpox.

1796

• Austria, Spain, and Prussia sign the Treaty of Gent, King George III renounces all claim to Great Britain and Ireland.
• Spain cedes its North American territories to the United States. Calls for all of Spanish territory are squashed by nativists in Congress, fearing dominance by Spanish-speakers.
• The United States, France, the Batavian Republic, the Helvetic Republic, the British Republic, the Irish Republic, and the newly formed Federal Republic of Italy form the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, promising mutual defense and economic cooperation.
• Per pre-war conversations with Theo, Jefferson authorizes a maritime expedition to San Francisco Bay under the US Navy. The expedition is to make contact, and then travel inland to determine the mineral wealth of the Sierra Nevada mountains.
• Former subjects in the Spanish Cession begin a series of revolts against American rule.
• John Adams, Jefferson's Secretary of State, is elected to the Presidency by an extremely narrow margin.

1797-1824: The Era of Good Feeling

1797

The United States after the post-war cessions from Spain and Britain.

• Cuba, Jamaica, Borinquén, and Santo Domingo are admitted as states, along with the previously unrecognized state of West Florida. While there is some pushback against the older generation of white supremacist members of Congress, a new generation of more liberal, working-class representatives (most of whom are veterans from the American Revolutionary War) are largely supportive of the measure that would grant immediate representation to the islands and their populations of now former slaves. The final sticking point is the name of Santo Domingo (Saint Dominic in English). The newly formed territorial government officially submits their state as "Liberia."

1798

• Liz is invited by President Lafayette to the grand opening of the Champs-Élysées, essentially the re-opening of Paris.
• Gold is discovered in California.
• The first vaccine for anthrax and rabies are perfected.

1800

• Theodore Bell is elected the 4th President of the United States defeating Adams and his scandal ridden administration.
• The American population now stands at 15 million. The population explosion is fueled by immigration, falling mortality rates due to improved medical technology, and increased food reserves from industrial agriculture.

1803

• Bell's first act as President is to transfer control of US Metal's rail lines to the Federal Government, guaranteeing low-cost overland transport to the country and a new source of revenue for the government.
• Bell Launches the Transcontinental Review, an effort to map and explore the whole of North America. It also serves as a way to demonstrate American air power via arial mapping.

1805

• Bell reduces the size of the US military to its lowest numbers since the Revolution, and pursues an effort of modernization.
• California becomes the 38th state, and the country's fastest growing.
• At Franklin University, two students successfully build a marketable desktop computer
• Bell announces a program to send humans to the Moon before 1810. The President is reportedly directly involved with the planning of the mission.

1809

• Theo Bell and Liz Krauss-Bell leave the White House after two successful terms and retire to the Puget Sound in the Oregon territory.
• Aviators Merryweather Lewis and William Clark become the first humans to walk on the Moon.

1812

• France establishes its first lunar orbiting space station, the Passerelle.

1814

• James Monroe launches the Race to Mars.

1818

• Jefferson, Adams, Theo, and Liz attend the unveiling of the portrait of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Theo and Liz are invited, despite neither having actually attended the original signing, as a courtesy to Mr. Jefferson.

1821

• The Panic of 1821 - The stock market finally crashes under President Clay.
• Labor organizations call for massive reforms to the economy and the right to negotiate with management.
• Clay orders the Army to put down a strike by out of work miners in Virginia.
• Samuel Hill becomes the first man on Mars.

1824-1860: The Age of Jackson

The United States of America shortly after Andrew Jackson's inauguration.

1824

• Bell's former protégé during the French Revolutionary War, Andrew Jackson, is elected President of the United States on an extremely pro-labor platform.

1825

• Bell attends the inauguration of Andrew Jackson and the two men speak at length before he's sworn in. Bell has been grooming Jackson to be a far better man than he was in OTL.
• Jackson's first 100 Days see the government launch massive public-works programs including the expansion of rail infrastructure, the creation of new rural electrification projects, the passage of the Social Security Act, and the creation of a National Health Service with help from an endorsement by Liz.

1826

• At the Quinquagenary celebration at Promontory Point, Theo, Adams, and Jefferson are all that remain of the Founders and witness Jackson striking the Last Spike, completing the Transcontinental Railroad. Adams dies that very night.
• Jackson becomes the first President to have a computer in the White House linked to the internet.
• Border conflicts between Mormon settlers in Utah and Lakotah tribesmen in the area result in President Jackson's deploying the US Army to the area.
• Disputes between Cascadia and the California territory over the North Coast are brought before the Supreme Court.

1833

• Jackson leaves office as one of the most popular Presidents of the era, having done more for working-class Americans than any previous President.
• At 90 years old, Theo Bell dies in his home in Seattle, Washington. The announcement is the most widely shared story online that year.

1841

• Construction begins on the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C.
• Honduras and Nicaragua are granted statehood.

1857

• Abraham Lincoln, a lawyer from Illinois, publishes the Liberty Manifest; it is the first document to suggest that the people should have total control of the economy as well as the political system. Unlike OTL's Communist Manifesto, Lincoln champions the ideas of the peaceful transition of power through protest and voting.

1860

• Frederick Douglass is elected President in one of the most contentious elections in American history. Former President Robert E. Lee (Our Revolution) fails to gain a second term and calls for an insurrection against Douglass.

Everything Below Here is No Longer Canon

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• Charles Babbage emigrates to the United States in hopes of more support for his difference engine.

The United Sates of America shortly after the inauguration of President Andrew Jackson

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