Martí [Quantum 4] – Google Docs
Martí [Quantum 4]
Infinity uses this designation ironically: the divergence point for this world stems from the accidental death of Cuban pro-independence revolutionary José Martí in 1881. His absence effectively prevented the Cuban War for Independence; faced instead with a significantly better-funded and American-controlled revolutionary army, Spain agreed to sell Cuba to the United States in 1896. Ironically, the Spanish-American War happened anyway, more or less on schedule, leading to the outright annexation of the rest of Spain’s overseas colonial empire.
The year is now 1907. Teddy Roosevelt is President — his Rough Riders participated in the capture of Manila, and Roosevelt himself was instrumental in defusing the Philippine Crisis — and actively debating whether or not to run for President again, in defiance of tradition. His lack of a clear political successor in the Republican party, coupled with perennial Democratic candidate William Jenning Bryan’s clear willingness to campaign again on an anti-imperialist platform, is exceptionally tempting. The political maneuvering has already begun.