| July 8 |  |
Editor says, what if the 1940 Tokyo Olympics went ahead in a world where the Confederacy survived the American Civil War? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).
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In 1940, on this day the XII modern Olympics was started in Tokyo, Japan. The United States was boycotting those games as a consequence of Japan's decision earlier in 1940 to join Nazi Germany and fascist Italy in the Anti-Comitern Pact.
Long Jump by Raymond SpeerThe Confederate States of America participated fully in the games. President Huey Long's decision to send fully-integrated teams to compete was a subject of much controversy back in South. Noting that Jesse Owens' running had been the high point of the 1936 Olympics, Long had chosen black skins and medals to a few prizes and an all lily white roster, as per Southron tradition.
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Raymond Speer
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Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Hampton Roads Source: Wikipedia Labels: 1940 Olympics, Civil War, 1865, 1940, Jesse Owens.
~ I doubt the Confederacy would send a racially integrated team to the Olympics. We need only look at what was to know that the South's internal politics were very very racist. Indeed, they considered anybody with even the remotest african ancestor to be Black no matter how caucasion they looked. The Native American tribes of Virginia actually destroyed a lot of their documentation to prevent the state of Virginia redesgnating them all Black. The One Drop rule was the Politcal Correctness of a Hundred years ago. Blacks and anybody with black ancetory were deemed to be biologically programmed to be sexually promiscuous and totally irresponsible. Hughy Long routinely attacked those he disliked by accusing them of having black ancestors. The guy who shot him being son in law to one.
~ The CSA might have had all-black teams for some sports, and all-white teams for other sports.
~ A lot depends on the political development of the CSA after independence.
I know it's traditional in AH to assume that a latter-day Confederacy would have been a sinkhole of bigotry, but it needn't have been so in the long run, especially given that the South would not have been nursing bitterness over defeat by the "Yankees" as in our history.
It's therefore possible that by 1940 the "Southrons" might be moving toward a less racist social order, one which would permit blacks to compete in at least some areas, such as athletics. And Huey Long, even in our history, was less overtly bigoted thsan most major Southern politicians of his era. Addirionally, sending an integrated team to the Olympics could have been seen as a diplomatic thumb in the eye to the Nazis, especially after their embarrassment by Jesse Owens in '36.
~
September 21
Editor says, what if the 1940 Tokyo Olympics went ahead in a world where the Confederacy survived the American Civil War? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).
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In 1940, on this day in the city of Tokyo, the opening ceremony of the Games of the XII Olympiad were marked by the conspicious absence of the United States with the only American competitors representing the Confederacy.
Tokyo Olympics by Rob Barta and EdThe Union had been increasingly isolated since the Great War. At Versailles, the CSA, with her British allies, had sought to regain the so-called "occupied territories". And two years later, a successful attempt to break Japanese Naval Codes had ended in disaster at the Washington Naval Conference. The result was the current four power alliance which was being showcased at the Games. And hence the Union's absence.
Although the opening ceremony went smoothly, there were however a number of acts of defiance at the Games itself. Even though the German athlete Carl Ludwig "Lutz" Long won the broad jump, he mailed the Gold Medal to his absent friend Jesse Owens. Due to the anti-espionage measures in operation in the Union, he never received it though. For his actions in the spirit of sportsmanship, Long was posthumously awarded the Pierre de Coubertin medal after fighting in Sicily and dying in a British military hospital.
Entry posted by
Rob Barta
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Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Hampton Roads Source: Wikipedia Labels: 1940 Olympics, Civil War, 1865, 1940, Great War. ~ My understanding is that the Confederacy was very lucky to get as far as it did. It was entirely dependent on the failure of the Federals to impliment new technologies, such as the breach loading, repeating rifle and the Gatling gun. In addition, their commanders during the first two years of the war failed to follow up their victories, much to Lincoln's frustration.
I don't buy the "If the South won the war" obsession. It's been done to death, especially by Harry "20 Chapters, four equal length scenes to a Chapter" Turtledove (not for publication). I am more interested in the more sublte, but realistic, "If the south lost at Bull Run."
~ I don't see a British intervention leading to anything more than the occupation of the Canadas. (Feelings in the US were high after the 1859 "Pig War" on San Juan Island. The war was mainly a Mel Brooks comedy, but the Americans were furious, with good reason.)
~ Would the Olympic movement even exist? A change as far back as you're postulating might have butterflied it out of existence. No big loss...
~ I'm not sure there would have been a 1940 Olympics either...
~ I doubt the US would boycott the Olympics. They refused to heed that call for that with the Berlin Olympics over HItler's mistreatment of Jews. Japan had done things far less offensive to the eyes of the Washington establishment.
November 12
Editor says, what if the former belligerents of the American Civil War clashed again at the Washington Naval Conference? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).
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In 1921, two years after the Confederacy sought to regain the so-called "occupied territories" at Versailles, the Great Powers conducted further round table talks at the Washington Naval Conference. This time around the goal was to defuse the naval arms race that was threatening the fragile world peace that had existed since the end of the Great War.
Washington Naval Conference by Michael N. Ryan & EdIn reality, relations between the United States and Britain had been at boiling point even before the Trent Affair. And ever since the scuttling of the Reichsmarine at the Scapa Flow, tension had escalated sharply. Matters had worsened in Paris, with the British advocating the return of the "occupied territories" to the CSA as part of a comprehensive peace settlement.
Both navies had been rebuilding at a frightening rate, and the new sixteen inch guns that were being fitted on battleships would soon be upgraded to eighteen. Worse still, Japan, France and Italy had now joined the arms race too. The Union insisted upon a formula for a larger allocation of capital ships because of her commitments in both the Atlantic and the Pacific.
As if that demand wasn't offensive enough, the Americans also took the opportunity to break the naval codes of the Japanese delegation led by Admiral Yamamoto (pictured). It was a bad mistake that would bring the Japanese strongly into the British camp. And when the British offered the Japanese shared usage of the new super-modern fortified port at Singapore, the Union would wake up to some grave new security threats in the Pacific theatre.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Michael N. RyanStory Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Hampton Roads Source: Wikipedia Labels: Washington Naval Conference, Civil War, 1865, 1919, Great War. ~ OUCH!
~ Yamamoto was a Comander at the time and studying in Harvard. Italy and France were still too war
tired from the previous conflict to be effective but they did none the less join the negotiations and
signed in on the dotted lines. Italy actually scrapped its fifteen inch gun battleships under
construciton and stayed with the twelve inch gun battleships she had from before the war.
The irony about the Japanese codes was that they were broken so quietly but the top American
negotiator made that public with the denunciation "Gentlemen do not read other Gentlemen's mail".
~ I don't think Britain would have shared Singapore though. Japan was at the time their big ally but I d
don't think they would share so far as that.
~ This sounds a little like something out of Turtledove's TL-191 books. I don't know that the CSA would necessarily want to drag the rest of the world in on its quarrels with the US.
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