Travel Time

Wow. It’s already been a month since I posted “On A Dusty Road in Kansas”. Perhaps this is a great opportunity to tell you a thing about me and time. The best way to describe the relationship is that I think in centuries and it’s all a little wibbly wobbly.

Yes. I am that girl. The one who says “it wasn’t that long ago” and could mean anything from a few days to a few centuries ago (that really depends on the context of the conversation). The girl who argued with her adviser and a couple other professors that the “modern era” should really be considered from the fall of Rome forward. I refer to America as a young country and fully expect people to understand why. So you can understand my surprise when I looked at the calendar and realized it had been A WHOLE MONTH since I had posted my premier Sidetracked. It really seems like just last week.

Never fear though. I am working on another Sidetracked as you read this. I am switching countries and going back a few centuries which will hopefully be fun for all. I do not want to get stuck in a certain era or geographical area, so do not be surprised at all of my hop scotching through history.

Speaking of hop scotching, I plan on going all over the world and throughout time with this blog. If you have something you would like to see me write a Sidetracked about, let me know. If I can put a new spin on your favorite history moment, I certainly will. Just remember me and Time – we have that funny relationship. It might just be a little while before I get through then all.

Stay tuned for my next Sidetracked. It should be a “merrie olde” time in one of my favorite countries.

On A Dusty Road In Kansas

I was born and raised in a small Kansas town. On January 29^th I, along with hundreds of school children across the state, acknowledged its’ 153^rd birthday. So I decided to write my first Sidetrack about Kansas (a tip of the hat if you will).

My hometown was burned during the Kansas/Missouri border raids of the late 1850-60s, which the local historical society re-enacts every year. Needless to say, from a very young age I was aware of the violence and intrigue that accompanied Kansas entering the Union. Members of both parties are fighting within the state, while others poured inside the borders in order to swell the vote. Why? What was so important about this small, seemingly nondescript, territory at that particular time?

In 1861, Kansas is about to become a state and that’s going to affect the balance of power in Congress. There are a whole lot of people interested in whether it enters the Union as a pro- or anti- slavery state, also an indication of the predominant political party. Before elections, the Southern Democrats held the majority in the Senate while the Northern Republicans had the vote in the House. Now, in real life, Kansas joined as a Republican majority, anti-slavery state. The Republicans gained the majority in both houses, some Southern states seceded, and war broke out not long after. I wonder what would have happened if Kansas had entered as a Democratic, pro-slavery state.

Let’s face it – this war was going to happen. The change in Kansas politics, leading to a continued divided legislature, would not have prevented the conflict. The Republicans would have had the majority as soon as West Virginia entered the Union as an anti-slavery state in 1863. It might have postponed the war though. This delay in the change of power gives us (and the South) some time to play with; and time could have been all the South needed.

A delay would give the South time to prepare. The main advantage of the North was industrialization. With another two years of political side stepping in the works, the South can begin to build the necessary factories that would assist in the war effort. Don’t get excited. They would not be able to construct enough to make self-arming a winning factor. But, let’s not forget the politics. Politics also win wars.

At this time, the South is the main supplier of cotton for most of the world. Cotton has become popular because it is lightweight, durable, and easier to clean than other fabrics. It is the South’s main bargaining chip. Leaders of the Confederate States of America want to bargain with Great Britain in particular. A more industrialized South could be an easier ally for Britain to back than a completely agrarian one, so Britain might be willing to negotiate.

If Great Britain had allied itself with the Confederate States, the industrialization factor would have been practically negated, as well as the North’s blockade. At the very least, it would have been a completely different war. Both the Southern soldiers and the civilian population would have been better equipped. Aside from the obvious benefits of this, Southern morale would have stayed high so it would have been harder for the North to break Southern will to fight. At the most, we might have had a victorious South, and ended up with two different countries on the North American continent.

The South winning is an intriguing possibility. Don’t worry, I’m not going to leave you hanging forever – but that is a Sidetrack for another day.

Getting Sidetracked

Picture a history where Adolf Hitler won WWII. On a different path, 300 Spartans and 1000 soldiers from other city-states did not hold the Thermopylae Pass long enough for Greece to marshal an army. In another world, Abraham Lincoln was not assassinated. Thinking about those other timelines and how our present could be different has kept me distracted throughout my studies of history (much to the chagrin of my professors).

Most of the time, history is considered as a strict progression of events. However, I think of it as a progression of possibilities. These possibilities arise from watershed moments of history. Watershed moments are points in which the events of the time changed the world. The moments can be big, with clearly defined and immediate consequences; or they can be small, with more subtle and far-reaching results. Sometimes changing them simply alters the path to the same conclusion.

For several years now, I have played a game in my head – a “what if” game. How much effect would changing a watershed moment have on the events that followed? In what ways would the present be changed by those events? Through a combination of research, reasoning, and imagination we can begin to speculate on the possibilities of history, rather than the results of it.

Whenever I have studied history before, I have had to work at not getting sidetracked. This time it is the point.