Across the Atlantic, a storm was brewing near the Rio Grande—a river that served as a natural barrier between the United States and the Latin world beyond it. Border skirmishes had been flaring up for the past few years, the most infamous of which came when Pancho Villa dared to lead incursions into U.S. territory.
But in this timeline, the United States was not the burgeoning global military-industrial titan it had begun to resemble in the latter half of the 19th century. Teddy Roosevelt's ambitions of forging a world-striding American Empire had been stillborn, smothered by his more isolationist successors.
Once again, the electorate had chosen withdrawal over expansion. While American markets cautiously reopened to the world, its overseas colonies were increasingly seen as burdensome relics—especially with domestic concerns mounting along the Mexican border.
