Okay. From one point of view, the American civil war analogy works I guess. Except in this case, you could look at it like this: The government on Taiwan actually represents the North or the legal government of the country, which is the Federal US Government, and what constitutes mainland China actually represents the Southern states that rebelled against the legal government, or the Confederation. Why?
You see, in the U.S. Civil war, it was the rebellious south that pulled out of the legitimate government at that time, which was the US federal government, and went to war against it to have their own governing system prevalent. The whole Civil war, although it was about many things, mainly involved from the North trying to bring the rebellious southern states back to the federal system.
So to make this analogy work, you have to have the Government of Chiang Ki shek as the Federals, or the north: his Government was the recognized government of China at that time. The groups that were dissatisfied with his Government have to represent the south or Confederation. The north and south analogy will have to start there.
OK, the North had control of the money, the industry, the really good things I guess. By all accounts, this group should have been economically and militarily prepared to put down a pull out from the federal system by a rebellious group, which was the South. However, in the case of the rebellious group, they were victorious. Guess their Robert E. Lee and soldiers with a lot of heart just whupped them Northerners.
Rather than admit total defeat, the Northerners and as many followers as they can gather, go to Bermuda. There, because it still has an identity, the other nations that were friendly to the North still recognize it as the government of US, despite the fact it’s a lot smaller.
Of course, once the southern group gets its government switched from a war to a peacetime footing, the rest of the world will recognize the South as well. Some, like Great Britain, actually do. But the South never does get to that peaceful state entirely. Seems like there always something to do. A war that develops in Mexico takes some resources and time; a little kick from the Canadian government about the current border takes a little more time to straighten out, then there’s all them debts that some how the south gets stuck with because they are the victorious group that has the remaining industries.
Now the Northern group still wants to be the group that wants to rule the country, so they keep it business as usual: They act as if one day they will go back, so they keep the federal system going, even if it is a little island in the Atlantic.
The southerners are victorious, yet the nagging feeling that the Federal system may come back really bothers them: they don’t want any chance of living back under that federal system any more you see. So we have a stand off of sorts: In additions to all them other problems mentioned above, the South stands ready to repel the Northern group should they ever try to return.
The years pass. The North on Bermuda goes through a lot of adjustments: industries that can flourish on Bermuda do, the population increases, and things are really looking good for the Northern group.
The Southerners have tried to maintain business as they want it: cotton is grown, the food finally get out to the cities, mint juleps are drank. Life is serne. But as far as industrial progress is concerned, well they have all that land and resources, but since a good part of the really industrial minded folks went with the north, and since nobody in the south has any time to learn how to use it, being involved with them Mexico and Canada problems and always that little island in the Atlantic that keeps a lot of their resources tied up, things stay the same.
Now, most of them Northerners have lost their dream to return to the US but hey we have everything on Bermuda we need: banking, industries and taxes, so why should we want to go back.
However, them Southerners are just starting to realize that they need some of the people back, to run the factory’s, to do the figuring and the what not. Plus, all them countries that still out some misbegotten loyalty to the North, plus a built up of trust over the years, still do business with them. Because the south is new and its not sure of which way they will go, they are pretty much ignored.
Kinda sound familiar?
