Not
long ago, the United States of America was a nation of vast opportunity and
promise. As the world burned in the fires of the Weltkrieg, US citizens enjoyed
a decade of peace and prosperity beyond compare.  Though a bystander, the US profited greatly
from the Entente war effort, with many companies subsidizing and trading with
the warring nations. When German U-Boat warfare threatened transatlantic trade
in 1915, a quick diplomatic interjection seemed enough to make the German
Empire back down and seek reconciliation. Following that, the accidental
British torpedoing  of a German-American
cruise liner soured relations with Great Britain and the Entente as a whole. In
the meanwhile, Kaiserreich agents, long present in the United States, worked
tirelessly to bolster isolationist politicians in Congress. Through subversion,
stalling and filibustering, US intervention in the Great War was effectively
paralyzed. By 1919, US citizens would wake up to newsreel pictures of German
soldiers marching through Paris. In Europe, the Weltkrieg was over, but in the
Americas, their misfortune had only just begun.