America Appears in Another World

Chapter 21: Fall Festival

Two months have passed since representatives from the Kingdom of Astra came to the United states on an official visit. To say the least, many things have been done over these past two months. Although the average US citizen is not really informed on international relations with other countries, dialogue is always happening. Whether they know it or not, immense work is happening when concerning international relations. The embassy in Iraq at the height of the Bush administrations invasion employed over a thousand employees to keep it staffed. The work required to constantly make revisions over and over is immense. 

The situation with the Kingdom of Astra is no different. When the US decided to create a new treaty organization to manage and further ensure the spread of democracy and security, the only problem laid in the fact that the US is the only known democracy in the New World. That means with only two members in DATO, half are democratic at this point. To ensure that Astra would move towards opening up their democratic processes, there has been frequent dialogue between the two countries. Or in other words, pressuring the kingdom to change through agreements which may or may not be cancelled. The US learned the hard way in the past that liberalizing a nation's economy does not always lead to democratized countries.

NATO back on Earth had a system where there would be a council to determine whether potential members can be admitted into the organization. DATO would essentially be doing the same thing. It's just that the US at this point is the only member of that council. The kingdom of Astra at this point could only try and make reforms. The US has since built a huge embassy in the main capital of Astra. Staffed with over 700 personnel, the embassy building is built with the resemblance of a prison. Intelligence agencies have deemed Astra to be somewhat dangerous with its current development and safety, and thus the embassy was built with security in mind. 

Tall iron fences with US marines posted at the gate, the embassy in the middle of the capital looked daunting. Although the really daunting part was installing the lighting and plumbing in the building. To current knowledge, the United States embassy is the only building in the kingdom with plumbing and lighting. In addition, it has full communication abilities with its own built in network towers. Although from the outside it looked like a prison, it was far from it. It served as a means to communicate between the two governments.  

In addition to the embassy, many American contractors were brought out to renovate essential infrastructure. This was to modernize their port while also improving facilities in the royal palace, parliament, and other government buildings. Much work was being done to try modernize the capital. However, it would be decades before the kingdom would see infrastructure and an economy on the levels of the US. 

The democratization of the kingdom was occurring at a snail's pace. The fact that aristocratic families still control most of the power is still a fact in the kingdom. There exists a parliament, however only the most powerful are to actually vote. Two houses. One made up of mostly male wealthy merchants and the other is entirely made up of noble dukes, barons, viscounts, earls, and other titles. The lower house of merchants and upper house of nobles. The lower house would often propose measures while the upper would examine them and reject them when necessary. As you can probably tell, they are not elected. Although the merchants were elected among wealthy individuals to represent themselves. 

Now, the US just had to open up the elections without destroying the ruling powers.... Although that is easier said than done. Of the total Astra population, the US came to the conclusion that some 5% of the population can read or write. The 5% being nobles, merchants, or scribes. The US not only had to advise changes in government, but their entire society as a whole. To say the least, the kingdom had a ton of work to do. However, democracies were never made in a day. 

On this day, nearly two months after the official visit, a carriage pulled up in front of the US embassy with the prime minister and prince Damion stepping out. They entered the embassy without a problem and went to meet the head ambassador of the diplomatic mission. No matter how many times they enter, they are never dulled by the lights and air conditioning within the building. The hallways were always filled with officials moving about with papers and other documents. Since the computer or even type writers were not a thing yet, most work was done by paper. Although they were figuring out a program to teach Astra officials to use the computer. One must remember that even people back on Earth had trouble using technology. The US officials could only imagine the problems of trying to teach people who didn't even see the industrial revolution in this world.