Marching Through Georgia (50 page)
B. Air transport became a practical reality in the 1870's; the
Dominations need for fast long-distance transport provided the
incentive. The first dirigibles were steam-turbine powered,
with laminated wood frames and cloth hull coverings. By 1914,
"metalclad" airships were the rule (a thin metal hull providing
gas sealage, with an internal frame). Size had increased to
1,000 feet length, 250 feet maximum diameter, 8,000 mile
range and 100 tons useful lift, burning a mixture of kerosene
and hydrogen as fuel. Heavier-than-air planes were developed
primarily to destroy dirigible bombers, and did so very
effectively. Transport dirigibles continued in use, and by the
1940's could carry up to 200 tons for 12,000 miles at 90 mph.
Long distance air freight dates from the 1890's (the decade of
the first Atlantic crossing). The more primitive areas of the
continental interiors were largely opened up by dirigibles:
Yunnan, Tibet, the New Guinea highlands…
C. Urban mass transit got an earlier start, since the
autosteamer could be employed on city streets. Monorails
evolved from elevated urban railways
—
first pneumatic, then
electric, then powered by linear induction motors.
Autosteamers and trucks served as feeders to railways from the
beginning, ousting animal transport very gradually over a
period of generations
—
-first in the advanced countries, and
spreading from there
.
D. "Modern" (Bauhaus) architecture never really got under
way in the Domination's timeline; Frank Lloyd Wright
practiced, but the German school was never born. Steel-frame
and ferroconcrete construction are common, but the unadorned
"glass shoebox" is reserved for industrial uses. Public and
domestic architecture in the Domination is predominantly
"Drakastyle"
—
an Art-Nouveauish version of earlier
Classico-Mughal schools: lines are fairly simple, but with
elaborately decorated surf aces (mosaic, murals, stained glass).
Euro-American styles are variously historic, Art Nouveau-Art
Deco, and "Mechanist." Skyscrapers are common in the larger
American cities, but not much imitated elsewhere. Central
air-conditioning was developed in the Domination in the 1850's,
immediately after the invention of practical refrigeration, and
spread rapidly to the tropical areas of the U.S.; small,
single-dwelling units were available in America by the time of
the Great War
.
E. Clothing makes less use of synthetic fabrics, since the
natural equivalents are much cheaper than in our history.
Draka clothing adapted early to tropical climates; it is loose,
light, and nonconfining. This has had some influence on general
Western styles. Trousers for women were introduced for
sporting purposes in the Domination in the 1860s, and for
casual wear in "daring" circles by about 1900. The U.S.
followed about a generation behind, and Europe still later. Hats
remain common for both sexes past the 1950's; colors are
usually brighter.
F. Social intoxicants have a rather different history in the
Domination's timeline. Both the United States and the
Domination are exposed to
cannabis
on a large scale fairly
early
—
the Draka from the North Africans and the U.S. from
Mexico. Sporadic attempts at prohibition in the United States
break down in the 1930's, with social acceptance (outside the
Bible Belt) following during the Eurasian War. (In the process,
ethnic Mexican come to dominate organized crime in most
major cities, much to the discomfort of the law-abiding
majority of Hispanics.)
Canja
is popular and legal in the
Domination from the early nineteenth century; both countries
launch occasional educational campaigns to prevent abuse. The
first studies linking tobacco to cancer and heart disease are
done in Germany in the 1930's and at first, widely discounted
as Nazi propaganda. The U.S. is otherwise a spirits-and-beer
country, with some wine-drinking enclaves. The Domination is
a wine-and-brandy region with a minor key in (German and
Scandinavian-influenced) beer
.
G. Solar-power units (glass circulating-water collectors,
with underground pressurized-water heat sinks) were
developed for isolated plantations in the Domination in the
1860's, and spread widely in high-sunlight tropical regions. By
the 1920's most ranches and farms in the American Sunbelt
have one.
H. Household appliances (vacuum cleaners, etc.) are
primitive, and outside the U.S. rare.
Population:
world population 2,500,000,000 (approx.)
Birth Rates per thousand, 1940:
Domination: Citizen 24, serf 30 (serf death rates are
also higher)
Western Europe: average 17, lower in France and
Scandinavia
U.S.: overall 24, Mexican states, 28, Philippines 37
South Asia: 38 China: 43 Japan: 32
In 1942, the free population of the Domination was 36,750,447, and the serf 501,792,544. Approximately 75 percent of the free and 38 percent of the serf population was urbanized.
Of the serfs, 101,897,000 were owned by the Combines or the state; the remainder were in private hands. The African territories had a total population of 324,000,000 and remained the richest and most densely settled area of the Domination.
The population of the United States was 179,000,000. This included roughly 20,000,000 Hispanics and Asians (mostly Filipino) and about 11,000,000 blacks.
Race Purity Laws
Acts of 1836,1879, and 1911 forbid sexual intercourse between
Citizen women and unfree males. Apart from prohibitions on
rape (of free women; rape of serf women is a civil tort
actionable for damages by the owner) and molestation of free
children, this is the only morals legislation in the Domination,
and this has been (roughly) the case since the mid-nineteenth
century.
Serfdom:
The institution of serfdom grew out of efforts to mobilize the
labor of the native population of southern Africa, whose formal
enslavement was forbidden by the British. While ordinary
chattel slaves existed, prior to the British abolition of slavery
throughout the Empire in 1833, they were never very common
south of the Limpopo except in the Western Cape Province.
Instead, the natives were subject to a "poll tax." Since they
had no access to the cash economy (and fairly
soon
after the
conquest, no title to land) they were forced to accept
employment as indentured servants, theoretically for a fixed
term. However, the "wages" never equalled the charges for
upkeep and the accumulated tax; hence, a servant could be
legally forced to reindenture to pay off the debt. In theory only
the debt and contract of indenture could be sold, but the
distinction quickly became academic once the debts were made
hereditary. Children of bondservants were automatically
contracted to their parents' owners as they came of age
.
Successive Master and Servant Acts subjected bondservants
to restrictions more and more closely resembling those imposed
on outright slaves. By the time slavery was formally abolished
in 1833, the distinction had become very largely academic. In
point of fact, the pretense of "contracts of indenture" was a
legalistic farce almost from the beginning. Newly conquered
population! were rounded up, culled and auctioned as property.
The word slave was avoided for political reasons.
"Bondservant" remained the technical and legal term until the
1880s, when the colloquial "serf' was introduced into Draka
law.
In its classical form (after about 1840), Draka serfdom
resembled that ofCzarist Russia. Serfs were effectively personal
property, and could be sold either as individuals (although
there were restrictions on separating mothers from small
children) or as part of an economic unit such as a plantation or
mine. All persons born to serf mothers were serfs; serf status
was unchangeable, with no manumission. Originally, the
institution was also racially based: the free population was of
European origin, the serf, African. Miscegenation and
expansion into racially Europoid areas such as North Africa
(and later the Middle East) tended to blur this, as did the
decline of immigration and the hardening of the caste system.
In essence, the only restrictions on a master's rights over
his/her serfs were those imposed by the Domination for
police/security purposes
—
serfs had to be kept under effective
supervision, could not be allowed to wander at large, etc.
Draka law held an owner responsible for torts committed by
serfs, where negligence could be shown. A master who did not
meet certain minimum standards of maintenance (food,
clothing, etc.) would have control over their serfs removed and
the serfs either auctioned or placed under a receiver. While
there were no formal limits on physical punishment, informal
administrative and social pressures tended to restrain the more
bizarre types of sadism, at least when conducted in the public
view.
By law, serfs could own no property and make no contracts.
Their testimony was not accepted in law courts, and their
marriages had no legal validity. In fact, their status closely
approximated that of a slave under Roman law
: pro nullis, pro mortis, pro quadru-pedis: "as
nothing, as one who is dead, like a
beast." The law forbade all education of serfs except under
carefully regulated licenses. This was kept to the minimum
necessary to manage an industrial economy, with a certain
degree of inflexibility accepted as the price of security. Such
education and training as was given tended to be as narrowly
specialized as possible; e.g., serf typists would be taught
sight-reading but have no knowledge of geography or history.
Elaborate controls existed to prevent uncensored reading
material from reaching literate serfs; as much as possible,
training was conducted via visual media. Serfs were forbidden
to carry any form of weapon, to travel outside their immediate
place of residence or work without a permit, and were under a
legal obligation of absolute deference to all Citizen adults
.
Agricultural serfs generally lived in small villages near the
manor of the plantation-holder. Others were usually housed in
"compounds"
—
enclosed barracks of up to 10,000 individuals.
The compound system was originally developed for mine labor,
and gradually extended to manufacturing. Compounds are
sited in convenient cleared zones in the industrial areas of
Draka cities and towns, or at isolated enterprises in the
countryside. Domestic servants, and certain types of clerical
and service labor, live in their master's households. A curfew,
usually dusk-to-dawn, keeps all non-Citizens off city streets
unless operating under special permit. It should be noted that
there were classes within the serf caste; priviledged elements
—
Janissaries, technicians, strawbosses, etc
.—
that received better
material treatment and, in practice, protection from random
brutality. Also note that many of the compound-dwellers had
very little contact with the Citizen population, even at work
.
Economics and the Standard of Living
The Domination has three economies, separate but
interlinked: the command economy of the Combines
—
huge
quasi-monopolistic corporations usually partially owned by the
State; the bureaucratic/civil service economy of the free
employees of the State and the Combines; and a large "private
sector" of small business, which employs both serf and free
labor
.
Most town serfs are compound-dwellers. Their lifestyle was
described by an American visitor as "life imprisonment in a
cut-rate boarding school." Clothing is a standardized uniform;
rations (adequate and well-blanced but dull) are issued in
compound messhalls; accommodations are clean but spartan
dormitories. The general tenor of life is of an unutterable
drabness, with virtually every non-leisure moment done by a
mass lockstep "time-and-motion" system. Religion, folk-culture
(e.g.,
song, dance, etc.) and a furtive black market in alcohol
and recreational drugs are the main outlets. Compound serfs
had no contact with the market economy, never touch money
(and rarely even the compound-scrip issued for bonus and
incentive programs), and often remain their entire life in the
compound and its creches. Each compound, therefore, tends to
develop its own subculture. There is a carefully maintained
gradation of conditions, so that transfer may be used as
a
punishemnt/incentive; for example, some compounds are
single-sex, others involve more disagreeable work, and so forth,
until the mine-compound
of the Ituri and Kashgar are reached.
