United States part of the Commonwealth

[Xen]

With a POD just before or just after World War II have the US become a member of the British Commonwealth. The US does share a British heritage, and I believe it qualifies to join the Commonwealth, it just chose not too. How would the US being part of this organization effect it?

[Jared]

Originally Posted by Xen

With a POD just before or just after World War II have the US become a member of the British Commonwealth. The US does share a British heritage, and I believe it qualifies to join the Commonwealth, it just chose not too. How would the US being part of this organization effect it?

Well, for one thing it would probably mean that Australia no longer gets more gold medals at the Commonwealth Games than all the other countries put together...

[Susano]

Well, isnt the Commonwealth basically an Fanclub of the UK? And I dont think the USA would join any international organisation it doesnt lead itself...of coruse, we could let the ASB give the japanese massive weapons of d00m, and let GB head reconstruction. Then again, this would not be the right forum for this.

[poster342002]

For a long time, republics were not permitted to join the comonwealth, so the USA would be unable to do so until this rule changed (I don't know when it did, unfortunatley). This makes the whole scenario less likely, IMO, since it would mean the US joining at such a late point in it's history that I can't see any reason for it to do so. What would the US possibly gain from membership? Little or nothing that it doesn't have already, so far as I can tell.

However, lets for a moment imagine if things turned out differently at some point in the US' recent history causing near-total bankruptcy of the country. Perhaps a more humiliating defeat in Vietnam? Or greater losses sustained in WW2? This could lead to it applying for commonwealth membership sometime in the late 70's or early 80's as a last hope.

[wkwillis]

Long Valley Caldera blows in 1900. The Northern Hemisphere loses two years of crops. 90% of the population dies. England and Canada send lots of immigrants to Australia, get some food back, and lose essentially no population. The American population decreases due to famine and disease epidemics, and no longer gets immigrants from Europe because everybody in Europe has plenty of farmland right at home.
England in 1900 had the world's largest navy, and a substantial population. The US didn't have as many nonBritish people as it did later. Eventually the British commonwealth starts looking good to the US, after China and India industrialize (since the smaller post epidemic/famine population has lots of resources to spare to invest in industrialisation) and start to take a predatory interest in America.
Latin America is now bottom heavy after most of Mexico's population has moved to Argentina during the Years without a Summer. There are some threats coming north about readjusting the border back to 1835. They aren't serious, but why take chances? Africa isn't really a threat. Neither is Southeast Asia because it's disorganised, but still, Australia would like a another friend.
Unless Europe, India, China, and Latin America all go after the Commonwealth at once, it should be safe. Africa is one country and is stable, but South East Asia and Japan are on China's todo list...India has designs on South East Asia of it's own. Unless the Europeans get shirty about wanting to push them south of the Black Sea again...

[Sean Swaby]

For a long time, republics were not permitted to join the comonwealth, so the USA would be unable to do so until this rule changed (I don't know when it did, unfortunatley). This makes the whole scenario less likely, IMO, since it would mean the US joining at such a late point in it's history that I can't see any reason for it to do so. What would the US possibly gain from membership? Little or nothing that it doesn't have already, so far as I can tell.

Well, not that long really. The Commonwealth and the Empire were practically one and the same before the Statute of Westminister in 1931 (after which independent countries could be part of the Commonwealth). The first republic to join the C'wealth was India (and Pakistan) in 1948, so republics were not allowed simply because no former colony ever became a republic- witness New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Canada- until Indian indepedence. Republics also had not been in the C'wealth for only 17 years (out of the 73 years since the C'wealth became an effectively separate body), so the USA could hace joined at any time after 1948.
What would the USA gain? Well...admittedly, not much more than it can get from bullying...ahem..I mean "valiantly leading" other nations, but let's think on it a moment:
1) US citizens would automatically become Commonwealth citizens and as such could stand for elections or even vote in any C'wealth country in which they had been resident for 12 months (so all those Americans in Britain, Canada and Australia could actually vote....brrrr.. shuddering at the thought).
2) US citizens would be eligible for Commonwealth scholarships
3)the US could take part in the Commonwealth Games
4) maybe the US could field a good cricket team and bust things up in the various Commonwealth cricket games

and most likely once the US was in the organization, there would be some move towards a C'wealth defence pact or something, especially between the USA, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand (other C'wealth countries may have joined)
There might also very well have been some kind of Commonwealth free trade agreement or some such between the usual suspects listed above, heck maybe other C'wealth countries would have joined.

Most Commonwealth citizens (except Indians and Pakistanis since the 1970s and (I am embarassed to say) Jamaicans since 2002/2003) could probably have travelled to the USA without visas. WOW. Imagine that.