The United States of America has had several periods of mass panic, and has arguably been experiencing one ever since September 11, 2001. The two classic examples are the Red Scares of 1919-1921 and 1947-1954, the latter of which gave us the word McCarthyism to describe bad-faith accusations of disloyalty against political opponents.
This week's featured article at the Sobel Wiki is the Starkist Terror, a similar period of mass panic that struck the Confederation of North America between 1898 and 1902. Like the Red Scares of our history, the Starkist Terror was a reaction to events outside the borders of the affected country. Specifically, it was a reaction to the Great Northern War between the United States of Mexico and the Russian Empire.
The Great Northern War was engineered by the Mexican supercorporation Kramer Associates after the Russian government reneged on an agreed mineral concession in Alaska after the discovery of gold there. The Russian military proved no match for that of the U.S.M., and within months of the outbreak of war in May 1898, the Mexicans had conquered all of mainland Alaska.
The result was a wave of panic sweeping across the neighboring North American confederation of Manitoba. For the first time in its history, the Manitoban legislature adopted a resolution calling for an increase in military spending. This ran counter to the policy of Ezra Gallivan, an isolationist who had just won a third term as governor-general. Gallivan became the focus of the hysteria, especially after Councilman Fritz Stark accused him of being a paid agent for K.A. Gallivan ultimately had to resign in 1901
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