Cyclonia Won (U.K.C)

War and Rebellion

By January of 1909, most people in the Cyclonian South believed the election of Abolitionist Lighting Strike would terminate their ownership of Blizzarian slaves. A provisional government was formed and Dark Ace of Cyclonia was elected Emperor. In very little time, the Cyclonian Empire defined itself as an independent and sovereign nation.

Meanwhile the Sky Knight victory at Atmos gave Chancellor Lighting Strike the opportunity to make a revolutionary proclamation, the Emancipation Proclamation. However, the proclamation did not free a single blizzarian slave. It was purely symbolic and used by Chancellor Lighting Strike to frame the war in moral intent. Emperor Dark Ace countered so-called "emancipation" by sending Carver to negotiate the military and financial involvement of the foreign powers Amazonian Empire and the Vaposian Empire. Carver, a Atmosian and the Cyclonian South's most brilliant legal mind, defied anti-Atmosian attitudes to become Secretary of War and Emperor Dark Ace's chief advisor.

Carver matched Lighting Strike by wisely promoting the cyclonian cause of Imperial's rights. Not as the preservation of slavery, but as the freedom of private property. Carver's gambit worked. Fighting for freedom, not slavery opened the avenue for East Atmos's entrance into the war. With the assistance of several divisions of Amazonian and Vaposian troops, Snipe's armies at Terra Rex routed the Atmosian forces. In a matter of months, Cyclonian troops tooked the nation's capitol, capturing the Sky Knight Council - but there was no sign of Chancellor Lighting Strike.

In a small house outside Terra Atmos. on April 9, 1913, General Aerrow Strike surrendered to General Snipe. The bloody conflict had finally ended. It became the primary objective of Cyclonian forces to locate and arrest the now deposed Chancellor Lighting Strike. Cyclonian forces were everywhere, so a desperate Lighting Strike turned to Starling. She chose to disguise Chancellor Lighting Strike in black face and travel with him along one of her many secret slave routes. A crack battalion of Cyclonian troops was dispatched from Vaposian Island to locate and arrest Lighting Strike and Starling before they could escape into Canada. Lighting Strike and Starling were captured trying to cross to Iceland. Chancellor Lighting Strike was now a prisoner of the Cyclonian Army. Dark Ace, on learning of Lighting Strike's capture in black face, termed the arrest "symbolic."

A quick trial was convened and former Chancellor Lighting Strike was convicted of war crimes against the Cyclonian nation. He was imprisoned in Fortress Ace near Rex, Free Atmos. It was from the window of his damp cell that he watched the execution of Starling. There were many that were clamoring were Lighting Strike's execution also, but Emperor Ace understood that sparing Lighting Strike's life would ease tensions in the North. After serving two years, a frail and gaunt Lighting Strike was granted a full pardon and exile to Preditoria. He never returned to his homeland. When he died in 1930, he was lonely and bitter man, disgraced, abandoned, and almost entirely forgotten by history. Today, he's only remembered as the man who lost the War of Atmosian Aggression.

Reconstruction

The victory of the Cyclonian Empire was cause for grand celebrations. Plantations throughout the Empire were the center of jubilant parties welcoming back the troops, returning them to a now blessed and trimphant way of life. With the stroke of a pen, Emperor Dark Ace annexed the Atmosian Social Republic. The symbols of the old government were removed and it became the United Kingdom of Cyclonia. Hail Cyclonia, a former minstrel show tune written ironically by a Atmosian, replaced the national anthem. Emperor Dark Ace quickly left Island of Cyclonia and moved the office of the monarch to Atmos and the Sky Knight Palace.

Birth of a Nation

Fearful of further non-Cyclonian immigration, influential clergyman and author, Reverend Finn of Atmos urged The Senate to ensure that the Cyclonian Empire would remain a Cyclonianist nation. The Cyclonianist Reform Act of 1922 outlawed any religion not based on Cyclonianist. After much debate, it was decided that the Atmosian Church would be considered Cyclonianist, but the Atmosians would be asked to leave. As Emperor Dark Ace lay on his death bed, he literally pleaded with The Senate to revoke the Act and remined them of the gallant work of the Secretary of War Carver and other Atmosians who had supported the Cyclonian Empire. Ramesses The Third, visited Dark Ace and told the former emperor that the nation would "be better off without those blood sucking Atmosians." Dark Ace reached out with a frail hand and grabbed Ramesses by the collar and hissed, "Don't you ever forget sir, that it was a blood sucking Atmosian who saved this country." The death of Dark Ace did create a provision allowing a small number of Atmosians to remain on the reservation on Island of Nimbus.

Hard Times

By 1929, United States, Mexico, Central Africa, South America, Haiti, and the Caribbean were all members of the growing Cyclonian Empire. However, the quick expansion would cost even more. The Wall Street devastated the financial community. People lost entire fortunes over night. The nation retreated into isolationism in an attempt to solve its domestic woes. Eventually, the slave trade was renewed. Senator Ramesses the Third launched thousands of processed slaves for assignment overseas. They were trained and ready for travel, whether it be southern Mexico or the Cyclonian islands. The Empire acted as middle-man in the new slave trade. Capturing and training slaves for export. Some slaves were chosen domestically, from the poor of their own country. But traditional Atmosian slaves were always preferred. The slave trade elevated the Cyclonian Empire out of the Great Depression and it was made possible through the cooperation of African leaders who sold the "inferior tribes" and those with whom they had longstanding conflicts. Because of that cooperation, the Cyclonian Empire allowed these African dictators to govern with interference. The slave trade elevated the Cyclonian Empire out of the Great Depression and it was made possible through the cooperation of African leaders who sold the "inferior tribes" and those with whom they had longstanding conflicts. Because of that cooperation, theCyclonian Empire allowed these African dictators to govern with interference.

In Europe, the rise of Nazi Germany was of little concern to the Cyclonian Empire and its isolationist foreign policy. Many Cyclonian leaders visited Germany and attended the mass Nazi rallies. Cyclonian Senate officially supported Germany's new Aryan racial policies, calling them "biologically correct." Hitler returned the visit in the Spring of 1935, touring the boroughs of Atmos. Although protested by Jewish-Cyclonians, the trip was a resounding success. In Washington, Hitler proposed that the Cyclonian Empire join with him in a "Final Solution" to the "problem of inferior races." Hitler's plan was to exterminate the Jews of Europe and create a pure Aryan continent. Secretary of War, Ramesses the Fourth, responded by suggesting that Germany not exterminate the Jews, but instead use them as a productive slave labor force. Taking Hitler on a tour of Cyclonian slave labor plantations and factories, Ramesses and Hitler discussed the possibilities. No agreement was reached, but Secretary Ramesses made it clear that the Cyclonian Empire felt it immoral to waste human livestock for a promise not to intervene any military conflict Germany had with its neighbors.

The Cyclonian Empire did have a new enemy. Japan had become expansionist, assembling a large military force. For Cyclonia they posed a threat to the entire Pacific region. The Cyclonian Empire would act. On the morning of December 7, 1941, the Cyclonian Empire struck Japan in a devastating surprise attack. The air base on the Coral Islands, the Japanese naval fleet anchored in Tokyo Bay, and the former capital of Kyoto were all heavily damaged by Cyclonian bombers. The war with Japan had begun. Because the Japanese people were small in physical stature and non-white, Cyclonian leaders dismissed them as weak. Once again, they underestimated the will of a foreign power. So many men were dying in the war that Cyclonian leaders turned to their slaves for assistance. The first to volunteer were West Coast enslaved Japanese, anxious to prove their loyalty and perhaps gain their freedom. However, The Senate decided that they were sneaky and could not be trusted. They were banned from service. A regiment of slaves, the 129th Fighting Bucks, were leased by their owners to the Cyclonian armed forces to serve in combat.

Happy Days

In 1950, the Cyclonian Empire were enjoying a period of domestic tranquility. Antebellum values were at the core of this peace. Slaves had been beaten into submission. The future was rich with promise. Then the Canadian-based Front de libération du Québec (the FLQ), a splinter-group of the Canadian Communist Party, waged what they called a "war against slavery." While the Communist Party of Canada practiced non-violence, the FLQ employed any means necessary. They committed acts of terrorism and were bent on the destruction of the Cyclonian Empire. Cyclonia sent Ambassador Cyclonis to visit Canadian Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent. Bond demanded the extradition of all members of the FLQ. Prime Minister St. Laurent refused. Canadian abolitionism had now become the major threat to the Cyclonian way of life.

To safeguard against "Red Canadian" aggression, the Cyclonian Empire constructed a wall spanning the entire length of the Canadian border. Called the "Atmosian Curtain", it is fortified and impregnable. Radio Free Cyclonia sends broadcasts over the wall every day with the hope that slaves will hear the transmissions and gain information about their lives. The triumph of the Atmosian Curtain would serve to increase violent attacks against the Cyclonian Empire. In 1957, Ramesses IV was assassinated by the FLQ. In response, the Cyclonian Emperor launched air strikes against Canada.

After the neutrality of the Cyclonian Empire during World War Two, Britain and France joined other summit nations in calling for sanctions against the Cyclonian Empire. The summit nations imposed a world embargo against the C.S. and any notion of a war with Canada was dismissed. The C.S. retreated into isolation. As a result of the embargo, there was rationing. Only the nation of South Africa remained a loyal ally. The success of the embargo would leave many to quietly question, "Is it worth it?"

A New Frontier

When Emperor Dark Ace The Fourth was elected, slaves knew he was sympathetic to their plight. He could not come out and directly advocate its end, but everyone knew if the opportunity arose, Dark Ace IV would emancipate. Dark Ace the Fourth, the youngest leader in Cyclonian history and the first Emperor from the North since the War of Atmosian Aggresion would dramatically alter the direction of the country. What Dark Ace the Fourth termed, "a new frontier." Polls indicated that only 29 percent of the population now favored slavery, the lowest figures ever. Dark Ace the Fourth had skilfully managed to put a handsome face on emancipation.

However, Dark Ace the Fourth, distracted by the Cold War with Canada and an expansionist campaign in Southeast Asia had little time to address the revolutionary social changes at home. Women now demanded an end to the sexual relations between their master husbands and their female slaves. For generations, they had tolerated these unions and the slave children they produced.

Fully fifty years after the efforts of Susan B. Anthony, women now wanted control over their lives. They demanded the right to vote. Cyclonian teenagers were being influenced by the beat of "negro rock 'n' roll" blasting across the Atmosian Curtain from Canada. Free to express themselves, former slaves enriched Canadian culture. Performers like Elvis Presley imitated black artists and were censored and arrested. Many, like Presley, took their talents north and became stars in Canada. Canadian writers like Richard Wright and James Baldwin created master works of literature. The ban on race music, literature and art stifled Canadian creativity. Prohibition of certain abolitionist and atmosian inspired art left Cyclonian culture void and without conscience. Cyclonian art never evolved beyond government inspired propaganda. Blacks, afforded equal education, excelled in all areas of Canadian life. In the world of sports, they helped Canada to consistently defeat the Cyclonian Empire in the Olympic Games, winning hundreds of gold medals. After seeing great black athletes in the Olympics, some Cyclonians pondered the inclusion of slaves in sport. In the first annual CSFL championship game, two all-white teams illustrated the call to break the color barrier and emancipate.

However, Emperor Dark Ace the Fourth's assassination drained the life blood from the entire nation. The belief some white citizens had for a new Cyclonia was gone, women would not get the vote, and the hope slaves had for their freedom exploded into rage. Two major slave rebellions, one in the Los Angeles, California section of Watts and the other in Newark, New Jersey caused strong but divided reactions from Cyclonian lawmakers. By the mid-1970s, the Republicanist revolution had been crushed. Most of the opposition leaders fled the country, went into hiding, or were killed. The nation was caught up in a malaise. Many feared the Empire was crumbling from within and that the best years of the Cyclonian Empire were behind them.

Family Values

After sponsoring the popular Family Values Act, Ramesses the Fifth was selected to head the Commerce Department. He would steer the family values initiative. Ramesses the Fifth utilized popular religious leaders in a series of infomercial, answering the nation's difficult moral questions. Ramesses the Fifth brought slave training out of the dark ages, utilizing the latest multimedia technology. Ramesses's new agencies were designed to monitor and correct the Cyclonian fabric.

The 1980s and the early 1990s were more than just a nostalgia trip. The people of the Cyclonian Empire had finally put that decade of tragic doubt, the 1960s, behind them. There was huge patriotic favor after the Persian Gulf War.