When a nation is divided into two through whatever circumstances, creating two opposing and hostile nations that at the same time share a common cultural and national heritage, not only does it create geopolitical tensions. At the same time, it comes to fundamentally affect how such nations view their national identities, since, in essence, what is happening here is that two hostile countries are each claiming to be the more legitimate representative of their nation and culture. It happened with West and East Germany, with each side trying to argue that they were the more legitmately "German" of the two; West Germans would present their capitalist system and integration with the world as a better representation of the German people, while East Germany considered their Marxist-Leninist system to be more consistent with German identity. It happens today with North and South Korea, as both sides consider the other government to be corruptions of what it means to be Korean.
And a similar thing could've happened with American identity as well, if it had been split by north and south between the United States and the Confederate States. So, let's look at this aspect of a CSA victory world: we've got two American nations, sharing a fundamentally similar cultural and linguistic heritage, but who are hostile due to a war which was caused by an acrimonious division in political beliefs. They both claim to revere the Founding Fathers, the Declaration of Independence, democracy, and so on. But now they have split into two very distinct, opposed systems, and each one is trying to prove itself to be the more legitimate "America."
So, how could the two countries define themselves in this regard? To a Yankee and a Confederate (either government or everyday person), what would they claim it means to be "American," and how would they go about contrasting themselves with the other country in order to make themselves out to be the better representation? How would the two countries interpret their shared political and cultural heritage in this context of contrast between two systems? What would nationalist propaganda look like in both countries?
And a similar thing could've happened with American identity as well, if it had been split by north and south between the United States and the Confederate States. So, let's look at this aspect of a CSA victory world: we've got two American nations, sharing a fundamentally similar cultural and linguistic heritage, but who are hostile due to a war which was caused by an acrimonious division in political beliefs. They both claim to revere the Founding Fathers, the Declaration of Independence, democracy, and so on. But now they have split into two very distinct, opposed systems, and each one is trying to prove itself to be the more legitimate "America."
So, how could the two countries define themselves in this regard? To a Yankee and a Confederate (either government or everyday person), what would they claim it means to be "American," and how would they go about contrasting themselves with the other country in order to make themselves out to be the better representation? How would the two countries interpret their shared political and cultural heritage in this context of contrast between two systems? What would nationalist propaganda look like in both countries?
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