Name: État Libre de Québec / Free State of Quebec

Location:
[img]https://s23.postimg.org/x382fe2nf/fourth_horseman_map_territories_by_aaronmk_daron.png[/img]

History:

[b][center]The Foundation:[/center][/b]

The Anglo-French relationship was never 'good', but adversity only made them worst as Canada, rather than join together in solidarity seemed to slowly disjoint itself, the population center of the Capital in Ontario bickering with east and west as the Great Plains once again were forced to provide oil and food to both the Vancouver Region and the East for what it saw was no valid reasons. After all, Quebec had plenty of untapped reserves of oil and minerals it didn't want to exploit because of 'Environmental' concerns or not to frustrate the natives. So, with all this potential, it had the guts to come to parliament and expect the hard earned wealth of the west to be handed to them freely?

The federal power was unfortunately stretched thin and it was getting obvious that someone would be left unhappy no matter what so the Prime Minister, an english speaking Ontarian already unpopular in Quebec, decided to force the province to exploit the resources it had to support the rest of Canada. The Quebecers of course saw this as not only a violation of their rights but as pure theft as it was perceived that the resources exploited would go to the rest of Canada! (Rather than the reality, which was stay locally but as such allow the west to concentrate on its own problems.) The Separatists of course saw this as water to their mill and gained popularity significantly, so much it looked like a landslide victory for the next elections. 

Before that could happen however, Yellowstone happened.

Though some in Quebec said 'Good riddance' to those they saw as their enemies, most saw this as atrocious and fearing the sympathy vote could cost them the election, the leader of the Partie Quebecois decided at the last minute to moderate his position and show sympathy toward the rest of Canada, postponing any referendum on separation until 'the crisis had passed'. He was elected with a majority, but not nearly as much as he had wanted and with severe strain in his government as hardliners screamed traitor in his ear.

The story however now moves to a Lieutenant at the Valcartier military base in Quebec, LT Etienne Boulanger, who saw his unit, and indeed pretty much all the military forces in Quebec shifted west to help manage the crisis. It was understandable of course as it was the most affected area but the Quebecers, who didn't want to be so far from their home and spoke broken english found themselves disliked by both the Albertan civilians and the other military units, which was fine with them because they began to hate their guts as well and earned a reputation for quickly turning to violence to solve the problems and alienated the natives.

The main problem arose however when rumors reached the French soldiers about what was going on back East about how the Provincial Government had given complete collaboration to federal forces and had outlawed strikes, even forcing people to work in the mines and new oil fields to provide for the Anglo scum while their own people were forced to freeze during electricity shortages because their abundant hydroelectric resources were sent west. This combined with the departure East of Ontarian forces made Lieutenant Boulanger and many others convinced that they had been deployed so far East because the Federal forces knew they would rather be loyal to their French Brothers than them and would have fought back.

It was the Lieutenant that spearheaded the mutiny of the Quebecers and led them back to the province, leaving their post undefended against looters and taking the resources they were supposed to distribute to the civilians with them. It wouldn't be enough however and they had to pillage their way to Quebec, something the Ontarians are to this day extremely resentful of. When they arrived, they found that indeed the Provincial Government had gotten cold feet and was now subordinate to the Federalists completely. The troops deployed East had originally been sent to the maritime provinces but had stopped when the locals, having heard their troops were coming back to liberate them, had taken to the streets in a General Strike paralyzing the entire province.

Isolated, this garrison was quickly forced into surrender when the Lieutenant, now self declared General Boulanger, arrived and promised to send them back to Ontario in exchange for their surrender. He would however do nothing but watch as the forces leaving were lynched by the mob that saw them come out. The provincial government tried to change its tune quickly and thank the 'General' for liberating them and proclaim an independent state of Quebec, but he was shouted down by the crowd who saw him as a filthy collaborator only trying to save his skin. A Kangaroo court was held on the spot, he and his most unpopular subordinates hung for high treason against the people of the province while the hardliners formed a provisional government investing General Boulanger with extraordinary powers to bring back order. The state of emergency would never be ended and the 'Généralissime' would, to this day, be the highest office in what is essentially a populist military dictatorship.

[b][center]L'État Libre[/center][/b]

Although the reason Quebec didn't get its electricity from its dams was that the power lines had been destroyed by the ashes of Yellowstone, the Generalissime was quick to blame that on both the English speakers and the natives. The natives had gotten restless for obvious reasons and were now either living in isolation or outright raiding the French speaking towns and villages next to them. Boulanger at first ordered them to stand down but this was just to boilster his popularity and forge an image of himself being 'reasonable'. He then had the luck to see a Mohawk tribe burn an entire village to the ground, making any opponent of a violent solution shut up. He sent one of his most brutal subordinates to do the job and although he ordered 'moderation', it came to no surprise when the situation had devolved to ethnic cleansing. The commanding officer had been left with the impression that this was what Boulanger wanted and indeed it was, but what he didn't know was that Boulanger felt that he was popular enough and violent enough that he was a disaster waiting to happen and so used the opportunity to trial him and execute him as well. This didn't stop the war with the Natives who tried to wage guerilla warfare but this only prompted the Quebecer forces to use discrimination and force the natives in internment camps based on their skin color. The tactic was effective but since there was some food shortages, the soldiers were ordered to take care of their own first which resulted in malnutrition killing off most of the Natives, the rest being forced to flee persecution.

Ethnic warfare would prove to be the Generalissime's favorite tool of control as he subverted the Quebecer's spirit of independence into hate of the outsiders, which made for a united ethno-state in north America. With the constant influence of the military on all affairs however, it made the soldiery become the elite class of people in the new State since while others warned of excessive influence of the military on the state, Quebecers were wary of bureaucrats and pencil pushers taking control of it, feeling a man, a single man, with experience and who understood the plight of the people, was the ideal man to have a vision the people should strive for.

To this end, the Generalissime, always chosen from a small clique of high ranking officers that were personal friends and trusted by the previous Generalissime, generally points the determination of the Quebecers toward the Outsiders just like how it all started and pushes north to exterminate the inuit population that constantly sabotages the power lines from the hydroelectric damns and south west in Ontario to recapture farmland that 'Historically belong to Quebec'. Surprisingly however, the Generalissimes always do their utmost to enjoy a good relationship with the US remnants down the south since the first Generalissime warned that an ethno-state was easy to paint as an unambiguous enemy of all you were and that Quebec shouldn't become the enemy that unites the Americans.