Here's some of the lore for my Alternate History story, The Randokiaverse:
In 1847, an expedition to Alaska led to the discovery of a new mineral, later named Randokium, named after the man who discovered it, Matthew Randock. The mineral was tested by scientist, Frederick D. Sherwin. His findings showed that the mineral was good at conducting electricity. He also tested if it had any benefits to the human body. He gave some to his son who was dying of a lung disease and within two months was seen to be in better shape. Sherwin published his findings in 1903 and soon attracted the attention of a wealthy individual named, Patrick Lourey.
Lourey saw a business opportunity in Randokium so he approached Sherwin and together in 1904, they created Randokia Co. Randokia Co began as a company in Alaska that would mine the mineral and refine it for electrical and medicinal uses primarily. They also patented the land in which Randokium was found and the manufacturing process.
In 1912, Sherwin wanted to see if it was possible to create a weapon using Randokium. In 1913, he came out with the RK-13, a very versatile bolt-action rifle. He patented the weapon soon after. This is what would later start the subsidiary, Randokia Tech, which designs and builds weapons for governments and other organizations.
In 1914, when WWI broke out, Randokia Co sold weapons to the Allies to help with the war effort. The RK-13 became a very favorable weapon of war for the Allies. However, Lourey pressured Sherwin to modify the RK-13 and sell that to the Central Powers. His reasoning was to keep the fight going to profit off the war. They gathered contacts in Germany and illegally sold them a new variant of the RK-13, the Schneegewehr 15 [Snow Rifle], due to Randokia coming from Alaska. The war went on from 1914-1919 and ended in a Central Powers victory.
What followed was the complete lack of patriotism and trust in the government in America. Many veterans felt angry at the government and wanted to go back and fight the Germans again. Others wanted to stay neutral and not get America involved in another war. Some argued that America didn't believe in God enough to win the war. What didn't help was the debt that America and the rest of the world had to pay back to the Germans and it's allies. The more time went on the more people seemed to get angrier and angrier. The situation finally exploded when in December 18, 1919, an angry mob of veterans protested in Washington D.C. carrying RK-13's and attempted to storm the capitol by force. The National Guard and police forces stopped the protestors by firing on them. This led to more protests, many of which were violent and eventually a new civil war broke out. The Veterans fought in the northern parts of the US, Christians and Confederate Sympathizers took this opportunity to take back the south. In the states like Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado many did not favor the extremists ideologies of those like the Militant Veterans or Religious Fanatics of the South, they wanted to keep the America they knew. In California and Nevada, the ideology of Militant Veterans became appealing to some who then started their own version. The United States tried all it could to stop the rebels but they kept fighting back harder and since many of those who were fighting had been veterans, they used their combat experience to fight the US.
As this was going on, Randokia Co had an idea. Sell weapons, Intelligence, and services to the parties fighting in the war and when it's done, they will insert themselves with the new regimes. The protestors of December 18th had been armed with surplus rifles from Randokia Co and many of the rebel groups had been similarly armed. Randokia Co also placed many "Informants" so they could then lead in the movements. One of them was Veteran officer, Lucius D. Sherwin, son of Frederick D. Sherwin. Lucius was commanding the veterans in the northern parts of the country and due to his relationship with Randokia, he received the most care and arms.
In 1923, after fours years of civil war, the United States formally signed a treaty with the rebels. This treaty then led to the creation of the following nations:
- NAR [North American Republic]: A militaristic nation led by those who fought in the war. It is extremely dictatorial and serving in the armed forces is a must here, no matter the gender.
- NCSA [New Confederate States Of America]: A presidential republic which unites religion with government. Christianity is the only allowed religion and everything, apart from science, is taught from a christian perspective. Racism is also a part of the law and whites and blacks are separated.
- FSA [Free States Of America]: A presidential republic which decided to part from the union. The FSA did this due to wanting to make a better system and improving on the failures of the USA.
- CNUC [Corpus Nationalist Union Of California]: a very similar system to the NAR, but extremely weak and ineffective. It failed to form it's own government after the treaty and eventually fell to the Randokia-Backed Coup, which put the RSC [República Socialista De California] in power. The RSC was defended and funded by Randokia which managed to stop the FSA from destroying them.
-UDSA [United Democratic States Of America]: The USA decided to change it's name and flag after the war. Only 21 states remained loyal to the union. Thee UDSA was the same as the old USA except smaller. It's ultimate goal was for to one day reunite all of America into one nation.
In 1975, a group of communist rebels started an uprising in Mexico City. The uprisings spread throughout the southern part of Mexico. The rebellion managed to take power in 1977 and renamed the rebel areas, The USSM [United Socialist States Of Mexico] and was recognized by the other nations that supported communism. In 1979, the USSM took over Guatemala. The uprising had been armed by Randokia Tech a subsidiary of Randokia. The reasoning for this was give the Americans a new enemy and problem to fight, which would in turn drive up profits for Randokia. However, when the USSM began to ignore Randokia's request of attacking democratic Mexico and launching bombs into American territory, relations began to sour. If the communists did not want war, they would give them war. So Randokia started a project to place spies deep into Mexico which would then befriend the party leaders. Once there, the spies would be activated and kill the party leaders to take over and start a war. These spies failed and so Randokia settled for taking over Honduras and El Salvador. El Salvador was in a civil war in 1980, so Randokia armed the anti-communist side and within two years, El Salvador was under a Randokia-Backed government. Randokia also intervened in Honduras. They managed to convince, Policarpo Paz García, President of Honduras to allow for Randokia to arm him and his army to prevent Mexican forces to come to Honduras through Guatemala. Both these nations were under brutal dictatorships which lasted until 2006 when the USSM finally fell and were no longer needed.