Like the title says, how likely is it to have a North American continent with many small nations instead of three big ones.
Like the title says, how likely is it to have a North American continent with many small nations instead of three big ones.
A failed Constitutional Convention would also be a possible POD for a Balkanized North America.
That sounds like quite a good idea for a TL. Too often the failed-constitutional-convention idea seems to assume that America will stay forever separated, ignoring the fact that the shared language, heritage and interests might well re-spark unionism when 19th century nationalism comes along.Do you think the idea would be revisited in light of late 19th century nationalism?
I.E. a bunch of formerly-English colonies in North America see Italy and Germany unite and think "Why can't we do that too?" Could be an interesting TL. I've always been sort of interested to see what people think would've happened to Western North America if the United States hadn't expanded. Russia builds up her colonies? Britain? Japan?
Interestingly, we could see a TL like this leading to an independent Amerindian nation (something like the Iroquois Confederacy) in the center of the continent.
I'm thinking of doing that timeline, if anyone has any suggestions please do not hesitate to inform me of them
Do you think the idea would be revisited in light of late 19th century nationalism?
I.E. a bunch of formerly-English colonies in North America see Italy and Germany unite and think "Why can't we do that too?" Could be an interesting TL. I've always been sort of interested to see what people think would've happened to Western North America if the United States hadn't expanded. Russia builds up her colonies? Britain? Japan?
Interestingly, we could see a TL like this leading to an independent Amerindian nation (something like the Iroquois Confederacy) in the center of the continent.
I suppose the idea just seems strange to Americans. I mean to us we can only think that "Americaa is Divided, bad!" and the whole unification things seems very... foreign.That sounds like quite a good idea for a TL. Too often the failed-constitutional-convention idea seems to assume that America will stay forever separated, ignoring the fact that the shared language, heritage and interests might well re-spark unionism when 19th century nationalism comes along.
What I wonder is how English Canada may take this. Uniting them OTL came mostly with how powerful America became; take that away, and I can see most of the provinces staying seperate. Would they too be tempted to join the independent states below uniting?
Suppose, that France applies the same policy in LousianaLike the title says, how likely is it to have a North American continent with many small nations instead of three big ones.
Do you think the idea would be revisited in light of late 19th century nationalism?
I.E. a bunch of formerly-English colonies in North America see Italy and Germany unite and think "Why can't we do that too?" Could be an interesting TL. I've always been sort of interested to see what people think would've happened to Western North America if the United States hadn't expanded. Russia builds up her colonies? Britain? Japan?
Interestingly, we could see a TL like this leading to an independent Amerindian nation (something like the Iroquois Confederacy) in the center of the continent.
I agree with Thande and Umbric, though of course any such TL going into the later 19th Century will be so artificial that the writer will obviously be planning what he wants to happen. (Which doesn't mean it wouldn't be a great read.)That sounds like quite a good idea for a TL. Too often the failed-constitutional-convention idea seems to assume that America will stay forever separated, ignoring the fact that the shared language, heritage and interests might well re-spark unionism when 19th century nationalism comes along.
So once you consolidate on the Eastern Seaboard (already dominant over the interior in terms of access to trade and resources), you have it harder to resist any sort of expansionism by the wide open, small population areas that don't want to join.
On the other hand, a rival that had New Orleans would be one of the first targets for expansion/assimilation/cooption. That's what happened OTL, after all.That's true, however a rival that had New Orleans would also be well positioned to compete for the interior.