(8x08) Columbia Resurgent: Part 3, Episode 2
As war rages between the new Columbian Union and the Redstone Empire to its west, the Union spreads its tendrils east across the continent, bearing the colors of the United States along trade routes and establishing free lines of communication to help rebuild national unity. That increased communication and trade, the common enmity against the long-suffered tyranny of the Redstone Empire, the ancient shared Columbian national pride, and the ever-growing fame of "Columbia" herself leading them, cause many of the more distant city-states and territories to pledge their allegiance to the new Columbian Union.
This spreading reach of the Union expands to even more far-flung peoples as it reaches out of the innermost depths of the continent to stretch across the Appalachians to the east coast, the lands of the Sunken Cities and their diaspora. They remain a moderately powerful coalition of survivors themselves, thanks in no small part to their high population, but largely isolated from the rest of the continent in their narrow corridor between the mountains and the sea, and far from the tyranny of Redstone, they keep mostly to themselves. But as home to the former capital of the United States, a long-forgotten patriotism is reignited within them when postmen bearing her colors and claiming to be lead by Columbia herself come to visit them.
Negotiations with them are more difficult than with the many smaller territories that have pledged their allegiance to the union thus far. In particular, they feel somewhat challenged by the notion that the resurgent Union hails from somewhere other than their own lands. And they are hesitant to engage in a war with a power so far across the continent that has thus far largely left them alone. But the threat that Redstone will eventually pose if they win and conquer the entire midwest, plus their ancient national patriotism, and Metis' concession that the capital of the rebuilt Union can be located near the site of the old capitol, eventually convince the east to pledge their considerable economic might and manpower to the Columbian Union.