What if the 13 colonies never united?
The Tobacco Republic Timeline
After their failure to unite in 1776, the splintered republics of North America are pawns in a Cold War between the 21st-century’s superpowers – the USSR and Francia, the empire born of Napoleon’s victory at Waterloo. Blending espionage, romance, and vivid historical flashback chapters, Tobacco Republic is a “provocative and unforgettable” alternative history. (Historical Novel Society)
1776 - On July 4th, Thomas Jefferson proposes a daring resolution: unite the thirteen British colonies into a single independent nation. But his dream unravels. The vote fails amid fierce debate over a common currency, interstate trade, and whether enslaved people should count toward representation. Instead, Congress adopts the Lee Resolution, declaring each colony an independent nation—free from British rule but not bound to each other. The idea of a “United States” dies in the cradle.
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​1779 - After three years of war, King George III signs the Treaty of Paris, granting independence to thirteen fractured colonies now called the Britannic nations. Victory comes at a steep price. Crushed by war debt, the fledgling countries hike taxes and slap tariffs on one another’s goods. Inflation spirals. Angry farmers and shopkeepers fill the streets. Unpaid veterans erupt in open revolt. In capitols from Boston to Charleston, the great experiment in representative government teeters on the edge. Independence has come—but unity, peace, and prosperity are nowhere in sight.
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​1783 - During their war of independence from England, the four northernmost Britannic nations create a pact allowing their neighbors to deploy troops within their borders. At the war's end, Massachusetts—by far the strongest nation—refuses to withdraw. On the pretext of containing the peacetime unrest, President Samuel Adams of Massachusetts orders his troops to seize control of his neighbors’ capitals in a bloodless coup. Within the year, Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Hampshire have been annexed into an expanded Massachusetts with Samuel Adams as its permanent president.
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​1785 - From the earliest English settlements, tobacco becomes the Britannic regions’ most valuable cash crop. To meet the high demand for tobacco exports, colonial growers chain their fortunes to indentured labor and later to enslaved workers. An experiment growing cotton in the region fails. Removing its stubborn seeds from the cotton bolls proves too costly The tobacco fields are owned by the heirs of lords granted lands by the British crown over a century before. Their control of the land will eventually be displaced by better capitalized plantation barons from France.​
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1795 -Unable to fund their idealistic policies and facing unrest in Pennsylvania, Thomas Paine and Benjamin Franklin plan an audacious move for their nation: seize the lucrative tobacco plantations of Delaware and Maryland. Their army will be raised by soldiers paid with free land in the newly acquired territory. The invasion is given a veneer of idealism: Paine and Franklin vow to replace the enslaved people working the tobacco plantations with free citizens. Pennsylvania's annexation of their southern neighbors ignites a firestorm of regional hatred and conflict that will smolder for centuries.
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1800 - Pennsylvania's population grows from two-and-a-half to three million after conquering New Jersey following a brief, decisive war. The acquisition also increases Pennsylvania's wealth, adding expanded control of canals and railroads, additional ironworks and textile mills, along with new ports for maritime trade. Despite these gains, Pennsylvania continues to struggle economically, its debt increasing through corruption and wasteful management.
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1801 - Following his decisive victory over England and its allies at Waterloo, Napoleon Bonaparte annexes Austria, Germany and Poland. He names this new empire “Francia.” Then, in a treaty with George III, Napoleon forces England to give up its territories in North America. Though the Britannic nations—now independent—escape his rule, Napoleon tightens his grip on the region through economic dominance, exploiting their poverty and instability. His ambitions stretch far beyond the Atlantic. Napoleon's ultimate objective is access to the elusive Northwest Passage—a direct trade route to the Orient.
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1802 - In his first year as president of Virginia, Jefferson’s dream to reunite the former colonies through a third Continental Congress is rejected by Virginia’s House of Delegates. Economic collapse follows as Napoleon’s rise in France slashes demand for Virginia tobacco. Planters turn against Jefferson. After Pennsylvania occupies New Jersey, unrest erupts. Washington moves troops loyal to him toward Jefferson’s presidential residence. Too proud to keep personal guards, Jefferson flees into exile with his family. Washington assumes power as Virginia’s new president.
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1825 - When Napoleon claims all lands west of the Alleghenies, the frontier closes. With nowhere left to go, Indigenous nations and settlers face a brutal choice—war or assimilation. Many native tribes are conquered, converted, and absorbed into European ways. Over generations, intermarriage with settlers and freed Africans forges a new people—English-speaking, European in custom, but strikingly diverse. Over time, this mixed heritage becomes a target of scorn and derision in Europe and other developed nations.
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Visit the Tobacco Republic Timeline page again for these upcoming segments:
1861 – Pennsylvania and Virginia Go To War
1890 – Masses from Europe Flock to New Francia
1933 – The People’s Republic of Pennsylvania
2007 – The Second Pennsylvania-Virginia War
2030 – German Separatist Plot Independence from Francia
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