American Famine

The **American Famine**, also known as the **Great Starvation**, occurred between 1939 and 1942 concurrently with the Continental War, causing the deaths of roughly 2 million. The famine mainly affected the Midwest, Great Plains, and the Southwest, though surrounding regions were also drastically affected by its effects.

## Causes

Main factors included:

* The continuation of the Dust Bowl, worsened both the Pacific States and Syndicalist States forcing farmers in the Great Plains to meet a quota for military production.
* The mass slaughter of Navajo sheep in an effort to reduce supposed overgrazing, resulting in the "Second Long Walk".
* Record-breaking droughts in the northern Great Plains and Southwest.
* The intense "Armistice Day Blizzard" that broke out across the Midwest during the winter of 1940.
* Inefficient food distribution programs in the Syndicalist States, skewed by the need to ration supplies in favor of the Continental Army.
* Complete blockade of the Syndicalist States by Entente naval forces between 1939 and 1943.
* The internal displacement of millions of civilians across war zones straining local supplies, exacerbated by the scorched-earth policy implemented by both sides of the war.

## Effects

The ramifications of the famine were enormous, both internally and internationally. The usage of food production quotas differed between the two sides of the American war, with the Syndicalist States implementing widespread land and production reforms, as well as slashing production quotas. While they were able to do this more successfully due to being carried by trade with Mexico, as well as having far more arable land than the deserts of the Pacific States, slashing the quotas and bringing healthcare and relief efforts to the affected became a major point for propaganda in the East, portraying Syndicalist forces as far more benevolent than that of the Pacific States.

George C. Marshall, the highest-ranking general in the Pacific States and an extremely popular figure within it, openly expressed his disdain for the government's lack of relief towards the needy, eventually succeeding in organizing a relief aid program in the Great Plains. This would kickstart the nominally apolitical general's headway into national politics, eventually causing him to win a landslide in the 1948 Pacific States presidential election.

### Native Americans

Native Americans, particularly the Navajo and the Sioux, were uniquely affected by the famine, with the former having a substantial amount of livestock culled for "overgrazing" with little compensation, and the latter being forcefully relocated to internment camps by occupying Canadian-Pacific forces and accused of collaboration with Syndicalists. Anti-syndicalist forces in the war performed uniquely devastating act on indigenous populations, with rations sent towards these camps being increasingly few and far between. During the winter of 1940, the Heart Mountain Relocation Center faced brutal conditions that would lead to mass starvation, killing 201 Sioux people held there.

Apache held in the Gila River War Relocation Center would be forcefully drafted into the Pacific Army, often being forced to fight many of their own, who comprised a substantial percentage of Red Guard guerillas in New Mexico. At this center, the introduction of draft cards would be resisted, with many in the facility advocating for the restoration of their civil rights as a prerequisite for accepting the draft. This, however, was rejected by Pacific authorities, leading to 92 men and women being convicted and imprisoned for their resistance to the draft.