United States of the Americas and Oceania

Goal: without making it utterly implausible, to make the USA grow as close as possible to resemble 1984’s Oceania in size, incorporating all of North America, South America, and Oceania.

My tentative take on a good start to that goal:

1774: due to the influence of George III and a few powerful anti-Catholic MPs, the British parliament passes a Quebec Act that reaffirms the second-class status of Quebec French Catholics, putting legal limitations to Catholic religious practice and use of French. Anti-British agitation from the 13 colonies spreads to Quebec and takes root in Nova Scotia as well. Quebec and NS representatives join the first Continental Congress.

1775: Quebec and Nova Scotia join the thirteen colonies in the American Revolution. The Continental Army secures Canada by spring of 1776.

1776: The 15 colonies sign the Declaration of Independence. New York is captured by the British along with Halifax but the Americans stubbornly fight on.

1777: The Americans win great victories defending Quebec City and besieging New York. France joins the American Revolutionary War.

1778: Spain joins the ARW as well. The Americans and the French beat back British assaults on Georgia and Florida is captured by the French and the Spanish.

1779: New York is finally captured by the Continental Army, Howe flees to Halifax. The peace party seizes control of the British Parliament.

1780: Benjamin Franklin goes to Paris to secure a peace treaty with the British. Negotiations begin with Britain.

1781: Britain agrees to a peace treaty with France, Spain, and the Americans. It recognizes the 15 colonies as free and sovereign States (Quebec, Georgia, Nova Scotia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island). Florida is ceded to Spain. The treaty guarantees ownership of Rupert’s Land to the Hudson Bay Company for 99 years, the United States may buy it at a later date. The HBC cannot cede the area to the British Crown or any other foreign state without the assent of the United States. All British forts will be turned over to the Americans as of 1788. United States fishermen are granted fishing rights off the coast of Labrador territory and British fishermen across the Great Lakes. The United States shall allow access from Rupert’s Land to the Great Lakes for Britain's fur trapping and fishing. British may still use the Mississippi river for trading with Spanish Louisiana and Great Britain and the United States are each to be given perpetual access to the Mississippi River. Prisoners of War on both sides are to be released and lawfully-contracted debts are recognized to be paid to creditors on either side. The Congress of the Confederation will 'earnestly recommend' to state legislatures to provide for the restitution of all estates, rights, and properties, which have been confiscated belonging to Loyalists to prevent future confiscations of property of Loyalists still within their boundaries. The latter provision shall never be acted upon, and the Loyalists begin an exodus from the united States. The Loyalists shall settle in Ireland, Patagonia, South Africa, and Australia.

1785-86: The Constitutional Convention occurs in Philadelphia. The constitution is mostly similar to OTL. Every state is empowered to establish Churches for non-discriminatory purposes and additional official languages besides English. The President gets a line-item veto on appropriations. Every law may relate to but one subject. The Congress is empowered to give subsidies to commerce, charter agencies to carry out its delegated powers, and Executive Departments to fulfill the responsibilities of the President. A Bill of Rights, with strengthened provisions about freedom of religion, conscience, speech, and protection of privacy and the press, is incorporated in the Constitution and directly enforceable against the states. The Congress may acquire territories, set up territorial governments, and admit new states to the Union from territories and foreign republics alike. Copyright is given a maximum duration of fifty years and cannot infringe freedom of speech or scholarship.

1787-88: Debate rages across the 15 states about the ratification of the Constitution. Hamilton, Madison, and Jay write the Federalist Papers.

1789: All 15 states have by now accepted the Constitution. George Washington is elected first President and inaugurated in New York with the first Congress.

1791: Vermont joins the US as the 16th state.

1792: George Washington is reelected President. Kentucky joins the Union as the 17th state.

1793: Washington declares US neutrality in the French Revolutionary Wars.

1794: The Whiskey Rebellion occurs and is suppressed by federal troops without bloodshed. Jay’s treaty is signed between Britain and the USA. The British agree to vacate their forts in the Midwest and Northern territories outside of Rupert’s Land, provide compensation for US ships confiscated during 1793-94, and are granted freedom of navigation in St. Lawrence River and the Great Lakes. The Americans get the British West Indies reopened to their trade. The boundary between US territory and Rupert’s Land is established on the 51st parallel north along to the Pacific, outside of Oregon Country. The British receive Most Favored Nation status.

1795: Franklin (OTL southern Ontario) joins the Union becoming the 18th state.

1796: George Washington is reluctantly elected US president for a third term and by now the Federalists (led by Adams and Hamilton) and the Democrat-Republicans (led by Jefferson and Madison) are firmly established, despite Washington’s misgivings about a party system. Tennessee joins the Union as the 19th state.

1797: French seizure of American metrchant ships turns US-French relations sour. The XYZ Affair occurs, setting off a firestom of anti-French sentiment in the US.

1798: Repeated French impressment of French-speaking Americans fans the flames of anti-French sentiment. The Congress declares war on France. The US Navy and Marines capture the islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, and invade Guiana. The British do not cooperate operationally with the Americans, but they do sell naval stores and munitions to the Americans from the Bahamas and their other Caribbean possessions. President Washington persuades Congress not to pass the Alien and Sedition Laws.

1799: US Marines invade Guadalupe and Martinique, defeating the local forces.

1800: The Mortefontaine peace treaty is signed between France and the United States. France cedes French Guiana (which includes former Dutch Guiana), Guadalupe and Martinique to the USA. The Americans and French agree to free travel of all goods, save war provisions, stop impressments, and all French citizens who fled to the US are granted citizenship once they register. All prior agreements concerning alliance and mutual trade are rendered null and void. The Americans agree to return all prisoners of war to the French. Spain cedes Louisiana to France. Former Vice-President John Adams, riding on a wave of popularity for the victory in the French-American War, becomes President with Charles Pinckney as Vice-President.

1801: Haitian revolutionary leader Toussaint Louverture conquers Santo Domingo, and declares himself emperor of the entire island of Hispaniola, abolishing slavery and instituting reforms. America starts the First Barbary War in response to Barbary pirates' demands of tribute from American merchant vessels in the Mediterranean. The Federalist Congress and Administration use the French-American War and the First Barbary War as justification to pass a Naval Act and a Preparedness Act to enlarge and mandate proper training, funding, and equipment of both the Army and Navy.

1802: Haitian ships repeatedly attack American slave-trading ships. US Marines from Georgia and American Guyana invade Hispaniola in retaliation. In response to the fighting in the Caribbean, Napoleon reinstates slavery in the French colonies, which had been abolished in the French Revolution, and sends a French expeditionary corps to retake Hispaniola. Americans and French reach a deal that returns the island to France, but with the option for America to purchase it at a later date. The two countries re-affirm that there are no hostilities between the two countries.

1803: Ohio is admitted as the 20th state. Another slave revolt erupts in Hispaniola. French troops trying to suppress it meet severe losses from the rebels and tropical diseases. Napoleon wants to be rid of this increasing headache. The Louisiana Purchase is made, selling Louisiana and Hispaniola to the United States. France divests itself of its residual North American land and a troubled island to aid Napoleon's efforts in Europe. France deports the majority of the island's slave population to other French colonies in Africa, leaving the island of Hispaniola largely unpopulated. In response to the flaws in the Presidential election system which surfaced in the elections of 1796 and 1800, as well as concerns about possible Presidential death or inability from past illness bouts of Washington and Adams, the 1st Amendment to the Constitution is passed. It revises the system for the election of President and Vice President, and regulates cases of Presidential and Vice-Presidential inability and succession. It incorporates the provisions of the OTL 12th, 20th, and 25th Amendments. The precedent is established to make constitutional amendments as integral revisions to the original text, not separate footnotes.

1804-1805: The First Barbary War ends with a treaty between Tripoli and the US which freeds American priosners without ransom. Simon Bolivar dedicates himself to liberating New Grenada from Spanish rule after visiting American Guyana and seeing the peace and prosperity of that territory. This leaves him with a strong favorable impression about the American system. John Adams is re-elected president. During his two terms, he strives to implement internal improvements, develop American commerce, banking, and manufacturing, and reinforce the army, navy, forts, and state militias of the US, on the advice of his influential Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton. British-Patagonian War begins with the British fighting against the Spanish-speaking settlers existing in Patagonia. Spain declares war on Britain.

1806: US troops suppress the last remnants of revolutionary insurgency in the Dominic territory (former Hispaniola). Britain conquers Rio de la Plata.

1807: the US Congress and the British Parliament forbid slave trade. The British sign a peace treaty with Spain that cedes the Rio de la Plata and Montevideo region to Britain. British South America is created. Aaron Burr is convicted of treason and conspiracy to set up an independent state in the Louisiana territory. The Congress renews the Naval Act and Preparedness Act in response to French and British interference with American commercial shipping as result of the British Blockade and Napoleon's "Continental System".

1808: the importation of slaves in the United States is banned. Portugal cedes the Rio Grande district to Britain and it is incorporated in British South America. Former VP and Federalist candidate Charles C. Pinckney is elected President with Alexander Hamilton as VP. Economic prosperity and lingering popularity from past military victories ensure continued dominance of Federalist party, which keeps fostering internal infrastructural improvements, banking and manufacturing, and a strong military.

Hm, ya know I think you should actually do the whole thing yourself, since what you have so far is actually pretty good.

Iori said:

Hm, ya know I think you should actually do the whole thing yourself, since what you have so far is actually pretty good.

Click to expand...

Yeah I agree with Iori here, looks a good Ameriwa-wa-wa I MISS BIG TEX!!!!! I NEED MY WANK FIX!!!

This is good. MUST HAVE MAP.......

1809: the increasing use of blockade as an economic weapon by France and Britain alike causes serious damage to US trade. Napoleon, being mindful of the FAW's experience, mollifies the US by making concessions and promises. The British remain obdurate, and US-UK relations gradually worsen as a result. Another issue which greately annoys the American public is British impressment of English-speaking Americans. The Congress passes yet another Naval Act and Preparedness Act as a response. East Quebec joins the Union. The state has a large French immigrant population owing to the French Revolution a decade prior, but also a large Scottish and Irish population, and a large English-speaking minority. Most of the population of the state came from Quebec, Nova Scotia, New York, and Franklin. There are now 21 States in the Union, with 2 French-speaking states.

1810: Second Patagonia-British War - Renewed clashes occur between Spanish and British settlers in South America. Spanish troops south of British claims in South America lead raids on British settlers. Loyalists from the Revolution have settled this area, and Spanish encounter armed resistance. Britain declares war on Spain due to continual harassment by Spanish of British settlers in the region. A confusing diplomatic mess ensues, by which Britain is simultaneously fighting Napoleon in mainland Spain, nominally on behalf of the deposed Bourbon king of Spain, and Spanish colonies in South America on behalf of its own settlers. In addition to the Napoleonic invasion of Spain, this effectively pushes the Creole colonial elites of the Spanish colonies towards semi-independence. British Navy captures the Falklands, sinking the Spanish ships of the region. British troops invade the Viceroyalty of the Rio de la Plata and the Captaincy General of Chile, ruthlessly putting down the resistance of Spanish settlers. Spanish Independentists in the other Viceroyalties, initially sympathetic to the British, become alarmed by brutal British repression and begin to turn to the USA as a possible alternative for their independence. Independentist anti-Spanish, anti-British militias form in the Viceroyalties of Peru and New Granada.

Simon Bolivar travels to the USA with a group of followers. They are greately impressed by the freedom and prosperity that US citizens enjoy and vow to bring the benefits of the "American experiment" to their land. Bolivar gathers monetary and weapon support for the cause of pro-US Spanish-American independence from US government officials and sympathetic private citizens. British expansionism in South America, as well as clashes between British and US trappers and fishers in the Midwest and North regions, further antagonize the US public against Britain. British troops march on Lima, but Antonio José de Sucre leads a successful counter-attack. de Sucre shall be instrumental in later union between Peru and the USA.

1811: The "Continentalist" opinion movement spreads in the USA, which supports the forceful expulsion of all remaining colonial empires from the Americas and the union of all its inhabitants under the American model. The movement takes a definite anti-British and anti-Spanish slant, and many Congressmen (the "War Hawks") are elected as supporters of war against British and Spanish colonial rule in the Americas. The volunteer "American Legion" militia gathers to support the cause. Simon Bolivar returns to New Granada with a cadre of US and creole volunteers, meeting strong popular support and indecisive opposition from Spanish authorities. He quickly deposes the Viceroy and forms a revolutionary junta. The junta declares independence of New Granada from Spain as the republic of Gran Colombia and sends entreaties to the US for diplomatic recognition and support.

Spanish Revolutionaries rise up in British South America, in the former Buenos Aires area from the countryside. British Marines quell the rebellions after several days of harsh combat and hang hundreds of Spaniards. American pamphlets are found in possession of some rebels, leading British colonial authorities to suspect American involvement in the issue. The colonies of East and West Florida declare independence from Spain, supported by American Legion militias, and petition for annexation to the USA.

President Pinckney sends a diplomatic note to France and Britain promising that if either Britain or France stopped harassing American ships, the USA would cease trading with the other. France sends a letter promising to do so, which President Pinckney grudgingly accepts, knowing Napoleon might not honor the agreement. Britain is outraged at this, and it continues to harass American ships, refusing US requests for a compromise on the issue of blockade. Other US attempts to achieve a satisfying solution to other issue that trouble the American public (British impressment, revision of Rupert's Land settlement, UK expansion in South America) are equally unsuccessful. War fever in the USA gradually increases.

Peace of Buenos Aires: British Empire and Spain sign treaty yielding Rio de la Plata and Chile to Britain, as well as a slice of Peru up to La Paz. Brirain recognizes Spanish rule in New Granada and Peru in exchange. Spanish-speaking inhabitants are allowed to move from British territory. A large number do remain, but an equally large number move to other parts of New Spain. US government strongly protests the treaty.

This is actually pretty good,it's not often that I read these. You should put up a map to show how the world is at the time,it would help to display what your putting up and how things are changing.

Ameriwank is ALWAYS good!

1812: New revolts by Spanish-speakers happen in British South America, harshly repressed by British troops. Such revolts by Spanish-speaking settlers and Native Americans intermittently flare up for the next two decades. The Republic of Gran Colombia signs a treaty of “friendship, alliance, protection, and association” with the USA, and becomes a US protectorate. Simon Bolivar is elected first President. The pro-Colombia revolutionary junta of the Viceroyalty of Peru proclaims the independence of Peru from Spain. They are opposed by Spanish troops and colonial authorities, as well as pro-British elements. British troops enter Peru. The Peru junta appeals to Gran Colombia and the USA for protection. The independence movement of the Spanish colonies spreads to New Spain (Mexico). Luddite uprisings begin in northern England and the Midlands. The majority of the Luddites are deported; some to Australia, some to Africa, and some to South America. West Florida and East Florida are admitted in the Union as US territories, and Louisiana becomes the 22nd state of the Union, and the 3rd French-speaking state. The rest of the Lousiana Purchase is renamed the Missouri Territory. US President Charles Pinckney asks the US Congress to declare war on Great Britain, in retaliation for British blockade, impressment, agitation on the frontiers of the US (British forts in the Midwest and Northern territories not being evacuated, and encouraging Indians to attack Americans in Quebec, Franklin, and the Ohio River Valley), and aggression against US allies in South America. The Congress eagerly delivers it. The War of 1812 (later called the British-American War, or the Second War of Independence) begins.

British troops invade Franklin and the Ohio valley territory using their as-of-yet still occupied forts within the Midwest and Northern Territories and river boats from their Rupert’s Land territories, which were still allowed to the Great Lakes by the 1781 Treaty of Paris for their fur trappers. Prompt reaction by the US Army and state-territorial militias, raised to good efficiency by a decade of development, defeat the invasion. The young but effective US Navy scores several naval victories against the US Navy. The British invade Hispaniola and quickly take the western half of the island, inciting slave revolts to aid their capture. President Pinckney is re-elected with Alexander Hamilton as VP.

1813: British make headway across the unorganized Territories, heading for Franklin and Quebec, but are again repulsed by US troops. American forces crush pro-British Indian tribes in the Ohio Valley and the Northern territories, seizing several British forts in the area. US landing attempts in Cuba and Trinidad are defeated by the Royal Navy. Another landing in Jamaica succeeds, and the US Marines seize half of the island. A large US expeditionary corps land in Gran Colombia and heads to attack British and Spanish forces in Peru and Guyana. British attacks on Montreal and the capital of Franklin, Franklin City, are repulsed. British raids on New England and New York inflict damage.

1814: Americans route the British out of Guyana and Jamaica. British forces are repelled from Essequibo, Demerara, and Berbice by American militia, army, and naval forces in the Battle of Essequibo, taking the land from the British. New British offensives towards Franklin and Quebec temporarily occupy Franklin City and Montreal, but fail to conquer Quebec City. Later US counteroffensive push the British completely put of Franklin and Quebec. Brazilian forces attempt to attack Guyana, perceiving it to be an easy target, but are repelled by the American army, and a bombardment by four navy ships anchored at port. US expedition marches on the retreating Brazilians, and chases them to the Amazon River, claiming it as the new border to Gran Colombia and Guyana. This dubious claim is made (semi-)legitimate when the US Commander orders the Brazilian General to sign a document handing the land to the Americans. The Brazilian's authority to do so is questionable at best, but the Americans take it to the treaty table in 1815. US-Colombian forces storm Peru to relieve pro-independence Peruvian forces and defeat the British-Spanish troops in the Battle of Ayachuco. British troops attack Washington, DC, but after two days of battle, are repulsed by US regular army and militias. The fight in sight of the Capitol and the White House inspires Francis Scott Key, a combatant in the battle, to write “The Star-Spangled Banner”, the future hymn of the United States.

The Congress of Vienna breaks down when Britain, Austria, and Bourbon France refuse to go along with the Poland-Saxony plan of Prussia and Russia, and the latter powers do not back down. Britain and Austria declare war on Prussia and Russia. Talleyrand persuades Louis XVIII to make France join Britain and Austria, even as this war and the restored Bourbon monarchy grow more and more unpopular within France.

1815: Americans in Franklin and Quebec gather troops to drive the British into the Pacific. They invade Rupert’s Land and begin a march across the continent, routing the British from the northern countryside. The US Navy destroys several British ships in the Great Lakes, while a different US offensive from Ohio and Michigan Territory leads troops marching through the Missouri Territory and British-claimed territory. Several British forts in Rupert’s Land are captured. American forces in Louisiana under General Andrew Jackson defeat an invading British force in the Battle of New Orleans. Treaty of Macapa occurs: Brazil signs a treaty with the US recognizing the Amazon river as its border with Gran Colombia and the territory of Guyana. US forces defeat the British Army in the Battle of Regina and force the retreating British to surrender at Regina, exhausted and malnourished. The British terms of surrender cede control of Rupert’s Land to the American government. American counteroffensive in Hispaniola bottles British troops in the southwestern corner of the island. Algiers' renewed requests of tribute from American merchant shipping results in the Second Barbary War.

The French Army, already making a lackluster performance fighting for an unpopular regime, and the French populace quickly switch their allegiance to him and Napoleon enters Paris after escaping from Elba, beginning his "Two Hundred Days" rule. The resurgence of Napoleon turns the European conflict in a three-way war, as Britain and Austria fight Prussia and Russia, and both sides fight Napoleonic France. Joachim Murat, King of Naples, makes an alliance with the Russo-Prussians (even if after Napoleon’s return he wavers between an alliance with Napoleonic France or with the Russo-Prussians) and declares war on Austria, in an attempt to save his throne, sparking the Neapolitan War. Prussian Army makes a good performance thanks to its recent reforms, Russian Army deploys overwhelming numbers, this and the effective lack of French support doom Austria.

Prussians decesively defeat Austria in the Battle of Sadowa, and Russians do as well in the Battle of Vilagos. Vienna and Buda-Pest are occupied by the Russo-Prussians and Austria is forced to beg for peace. The Kingdom of Naples defeats the Austrians in the Battle of Tolentino. Russo-Prussian armies defeat British-Hanoverian forces at the Battle of Langensalza. At the Battle of Quatre-Bras and Waterloo, Napoleon inflicts a decisive defeat to the British and their Dutch and Belgian allies and occupies Belgium. Mounting defeats in Europe and the Americas and economic hardship trigger widespread Luddite riots in Britain that are barely suppressed and bring down the pro-war Tory government. A Whig government takes over, promises economic and political reforms, and makes a bid for peace. Napoleon skillfully maneuvers against Russo-Prussian armies for several months and inflicts them several indecisive defeats but is eventually crushed by overwhelming numbers at the decisive Battle of Sedan. The Crown Prince of Prussia, Frederick William, takes part in the battle and gains an enduring sense of Romantic loyalty to the cause of German unification. Napoleon abdicates again and spends his last years of life as a Russian prisoner.

1816: Treaty of Ghent ends the British-American War. The USA annex Rupert’s Land, North-Western Territory, Labrador, Jamaica, the Bahamas, Bermuda, and British Guiana. Britain and Spain recognize US suzerainty over Florida and the independence of Gran Colombia and Peru as US protectorates, and the USA recognize British suzerainty over Rio de la Plata and Chile, although conflicting claims linger between Peru (later the USA) and British South America about portions of Upper Peru (OTL Bolivia). US diplomats fail to gain Cuba, Puerto Rico, Newfoundland, the rest of the British West Indies, or official recognition of Mexican independence at the treaty table. USA and Britain agree to “joint occupancy” of Pacific Northwest and restore normal trade relation. Britain pledges to end impressment of US citizens. Indiana is admitted as the 23rd state of the Union. Enthusiasm from victories in the British-American War results in a new victory for the Federalist Party as Alexander Hamilton is elected as President with Pierre Duval as VP, the first Quebecker to become so. American naval squadron defeats Algiers' forces. The Treaty of Algiers ends the Second Barbary War: it frees American and European captives, indemnifies the US for seized shipping, guarantees no further tributes and grants the United States full shipping rights.

The Congress of Vienna reconvenes, with victorious Russia and Prussia as the dominant parties. Russia annexes Finland, the Duchy of Warsaw, the Grand Duchy of Posen, Galicia, Bukovina, Moldavia (Bessarabia had been already annexed in 1812) and Wallachia (the latter two nominally Ottoman vassal states, but the Russians shall proceed to evict the Ottomans with the assent of the other powers in no time). Prussia keeps West Prussia and annexes Rhineland-Westphalia, Hannover, Saxony, and Bohemia-Moravia. Prussia becomes the president of the German Confederation and the dominant power among its 37 members.

The Russo-Prussians are initially at a loss about what to do with France, which has shown itself to be politically unstable and hostile under the Bourbon and Napoleon alike. They have got rather disllusioned with the Bourbon restoration but certainly they don't want to keep Napoleon in charge, either. Eventually they decide to keep young Napoleon II on the throne with a reaffirmation of the liberal 1815 Napoleonic constitution, in the hope that new regime may be more stable.

Since France sided against the victors, and Napoleon was more successful, France gets an harsher peace than was initially stipulated in 1814. The provinces of Alsace and Lorraine are carved out to re-create the Kingdom of Burgundy which is given to the former King of Saxony. Corsica goes to Sardinia-Piedmont.

A strong Kingdom of Netherlands is set up under the House of Orange and includes the Seven United Netherlands, Austrian Netherlands, and Limburg. Since the Duchy of Luxemburg is deemed to be a German land, it is set up under the joint rule of Netherlands and Prussia.

The victorious powers are equally initially at a loss about to do with Italy, but certainly they don't want it to be an Austrian or French playground. Eventually they decide to build some strong Italian states, as a bulwalk against France and Austria, diminishing the political fragmentation, and since Murat proved to be a good ally against Austria (not that much trustworthy against Napoleon, but he didn't anything really substantial to help him, either), they make his kingdom one of the main Italian states.

Joachim Murat keeps the throne of Naples (although Sicily remains a separate kingdom under the Bourbon dynasty) and gains Lombardy and Veneto. Tuscany, Parma, and Modena are united as the Kingdom of Etruria under the Bourbon-Parma dynasty. Savoy-Piedmont includes Nice, Savoy, Piedmont, Corsica, and Sardinia as the Kingdom of Sardinia. Since Orthodox Russia and Protestant Prussia don't care as much about the territorial integrity of the Papal States, Ferrara and Bologna are given to Etruria and Ravenna, Romagna and Marche are given to Murat to build a land connection between his northern and southern possessions. The Pope keeps Umbria and Latium.

Austria is made to renounce its Imperial title and becomes the Kingdom of Austria and Hungary. It loses Bohemia-Moravia, Galicia, Bukovina, and all Italian possessions, but keeps the rest.

Will this USA include Britain and South Africa like Oceania did?

Pretty good, it's a good dose of Ameriwankage. I agree map is needed!

vultan said:

Will this USA include Britain and South Africa like Oceania did?

Click to expand...

As far as I can foresee things at present (i.e. alt-WWI or so), it's difficult to envisage the USA in the position and wishing to annex Britain itself. Maybe with the right kind of WWII. South Africa is a more murky issue. America may be willing to get southern Africa IF racial segregation is no more an issue at the time. However, at the pace they are annexing large swaths of Latin American territory with sizable Indian or mixed population, I expect this USA shall be forced to deal with its racial problems a lot sooner than IOTL. Quite possibly, slavery ends in a way that uproots strong racism, e.g. with a Civil War and a more thorough Reconstruction that stamps out racial segregation in the South. However, we must also take into accout that the outcome of TTL's Napoleonic Wars put the seeds of a strong Greater Germany (and a uber-Russia) too, which might have designs of its own on southern Africa in the distant future. We shall see.

What I see no difficulty about (and were part of the original TL idea) are British South America (OTL Argentina and Chile) and Australia-New Zealand. As the USA completes its continental expansion, spreads out its interests in the Pacific, and imperial antagonism with Britain flares again, those areas (as well as Brazil) shall be its main expansionistic targets. Of course, first of all the usual victims: Mexico and the Spasish colonial empire.

Legosim said:

Pretty good, it's a good dose of Ameriwankage.

Click to expand...

Yup, however pay attention to how the tailend of the Napoleonic Wars substantially boosted the fortunes of Prussia and Russia too.

TTL's 19th century shan't be unchallenged Pax Britannica, although the tea-sippers gained a rather good swath of South America (as long as the USA shall not be strong enough to kick them out), have their Australia (ditto), India, and could make a more serious effort to grab the lion's share of China (but Russia may be a problem) and South East Asia now that British North America is no more and their possibility to expand in South America is significant (for now) but ultimately limited by US growth. They are still one of the 19th century present and future great powers, but they shall not be the unchallenged overlords.

Austria has been dealt a severe blow and despite its possible future thrashings it has nowhere to go but downhill. Ditto for the Ottoman Empire, with stronger-than-ever Russia greedily looking its direction. France is still a great power, but has not nowhere the same potential as the other ones and its status is likely waning in the long term after Germany and Italy unify.

Russia is poised to make a grabfest in the Balkans and the Middle East, although Britain shall make a valiant opposition, is the dominant power of continental Europe with its Prussian/German alliance (at least, as long as Germany shall not turn liberal, which might or might not create an estrangement; OTOH, it is also possible that ITTL Russia itself may follow a more liberal course), even if nationalism among its growing number of subject peoples (Finns, Poles, Romanians, and possibly more to come in the Balkans and Middle East) might be a serious future problem. They are another present and future great powers.

Prussia got a very good lucky break and an excellent headstart to unify Greater Germany rather sooner and more successfully than IOTL, with rather less national minority problems than Russia (the early transfer of Czechia in more cohesive Prussia and future Greater Germany rather than multinational and waning dynastic Habsburg state could butterfly out or severely dampen their OTL national awakening, and Poles are now essentially united under Russia, which might be a future blessing or curse for them). So they are another great power with their star on the rise.

Italy is still kinda of disunited, but the Austrians got evicted, the level of fragmentation got lessened and some good candidates for a future unification kinda quicker than OTL have emerged, too, one with early liberal leanings. They are still but a promishing potential great power, but in the long term they could easily outstage say France or Austria.

And of course, we have the uber-USA, the stars of the TL. An handful of very good lucky breaks and an excellent headstart in their early history handed them all of North America as their playground (the British residual foothold in the Pacific Northwest shall not last anymore than Oregon did IOTL) and good chunks of the Caribbean and South America, which look promising as the groundwork for future expansion. Once they manage to develop and integrate what they have, assimilate Mexico as well, and deal with their sectional and racial problems, either peacefully or with the Civil War, their march to continental supremacy and expansion in Latin America and the Pacific shall be essentially unstoppable.

I agree map is needed!

Click to expand...

Well, I'm map-challenged, sorry. I'm only able to make rough tweaks to existing maps with Paint and little more. If I find some good maps as a basis, I may provide something, but don't hold your breath, sorry.

BUMP! I want more!

1817-1827

Russia delivers an ultimatum to the Ottoman Empire, asking for the cession of Moldavia and Wallachia. When the Sultan refuses, Russia declares war. Superior Russian numbers and organization results in a steady string of Russian victories, eventually backed by the insurrection of Greece. Ottoman control over the Balkans collapses, leading to anarchy in the western Balkans, while Russian armies close in to Constantinople. The perspective of total Russian conquest of Ottoman possessions eventually stirs the other powers to plead for a compromise peace, although Britain and France are still wary to challenge the Russian-Prussian alliance. Eventually the Treaty of Constantinople in 1819 saves the Anatolian-Middle Eastern cores of the Ottoman Empire, although its possessions in Europe are summarily abolished. Russia annexes Moldavia, Wallachia, and Bulgaria, Greece is restored as an independent client kingdom of Russia, Naples annexes Albania and Montenegro, Austria gets Bosnia and Serbia. Constantinople and the Straits are established as a free territory ruled by the powers (Britain, France, Prussia, Russia, Austria, and Naples), under the nominal suzerainty of the Sultan. The merchant and war ships of every power are guaranteed free passage through the Straits in peacetime and wartime.

Elated by these victories, which he sees as blessing by Providence on his plans, and with swelling prestige among the Russian aristocracy, Tsar Alexander I decrees the gradual emancipation of Russian serfs and a Constitution for Russia in 1820. The Constitution is broadly similar to the one previously passed for the Kingdom of Poland in real union with Russia, albeit some freedoms are more limited and the suffrage is restricted to people who match education and wealth qualifications.

Prussia and Germany spend a few years resettling to the post-Napoleonic settlement. The massive victories of the recent years are seen by many members of the ruling class as a confirmation of the reforms previously implemented by Prussian reformer ministers such as Stein and Hardenberg, which gain much additional influence as a result. Such reforms (the military system was completely reformed, serfdom and class distinctions respecting occupations and callings were abolished, municipal institutions were fostered, free trade in land was established, the civil service was thrown open to all classes, and attention was devoted to the educational needs of every section of the community) are expanded to the economic sphere with the abolition of all customs barriers and tolls within Prussia. Since the Treaty of Vienna has resulted in Prussia expanding to be the by far largest German state, including most of the economically dynamic German areas, such as Rhineland-Westphalia, Saxony, Silesia, Hanover, and Bohemia-Moravia, with a budding manufacturing base, the internal customs union soon results into a massive economic boom propelled by those areas. Strong economic Prussian industrialization soon takes off, promising to match British one in a few decades, to match newfound Prussian military strength. Economic boom gives added impetus to the efforts of reformers, liberals, and German nationalists that push for liberal reform and economic-political unification of Germany. Such efforts, backed by liberal-national German students' unions, influential reformer ministers, and unexpectedly by the Prussian Crown prince, who had a romantic German nationalist epiphany on the battlefield of Sedan, and hence became sympathetic to the liberals, eventually prevail on the resistance of the Prussian King and a Constitution of Prussia is established in 1820 when Russia provides an example. It is broadly similar to the Polish model. There is a parliament with a Lower Chamber elected by a suffrage system based on education and tax-paying ability, an Upper Chamber broadly similar to the British House of Lords. It has competence over civil, administrative, and legal issues, and it approves new laws and taxes. It had the right to control government officials and file petitions. The King retains extensive powers, it nominates and dismisses the Chancellor and high officers and on his advice the ministers and high officials, commands the Army, declares wars and signs treaties, he has legislative imitative, his assent is required to make legislation into laws and he may temporarily suspend legislation. The Chancellor and the Council of State exercise the executive and administrative duties, prepare legislation for approval by the King and Parliament. Despite the extensive powers kept by the King, the Constitution guaranteed several important freedoms, such as freedom of speech, religious tolerance, equality under law, freedom of the press, and freedom of contract. It soon became a model for the constitutions of many other German states.

With the Treaty of Vienna, the German states had formed a loose confederation of 38 states, the German Confederation. The Federal Assembly, presided by Prussia, was created as a permanent congress of envoys of all member states, nominated by state governments. In the inner council that determined the legislative agenda, Prussia had five votes, Austria and Bavaria two, the other 10 larger states had one vote each, 5 seats for the 23 smaller states and one seat for the four free cities. The plenary session had 72 seats, according roughly to the state's sizes, and voted legislation by absolute majority and constitutional changes, by a 2/3 supermajority. The decisions of the Federal Assembly were mandatory for the member states, but the execution of those decisions remained under the control of each member state. As well, the member states remained sovereign regarding customs, police and military, although they were bound to mutual defense. Spurred by growing demands for economic and customs union, this arrangement soon proves unsatisfactory, even Prussia finds it difficult to implement decisions to its satisfaction due to the lack of a proper federal system to execute them. Austria and other southern German states, fearing assimilation by Prussia, often stalemate proper implementation of confederal decisions within their borders.

Some central German states make pressure for an economic union, which are soon supported by Prussia after it implements its own domestic customs union and it proves a success. After Prussia passes a Constitution and its example is soon followed by several other German states, it becomes evident that Austria and the southern German states are not likely to be bound within a strong Prussian-led federation without coercion, but another war against Austria and Bavaria is yet frowned upon in Prussia and Germany for political, diplomatic, and economic reasons. On the other hand, it becomes clear that Prussia has enough economic, political, and military weight to bring most other German states to accept a tighter federal union within the loose confederation. After some negotiations, in 1821 the Northern German Union is proclaimed. It includes all the German states north of the river Main but Luxemburg and Holstein, plus Prussia's Bohemia-Moravia and eastern territories, but it excludes Austria, Bavaria, Württemberg, Baden, and Burgundy. Differently from the German Confederation which includes it, the Northern German Union is a true federal state. The highest organ of the federation is the Bundesrat (Federal Council). It represents the governments of the North German states. Prussia has the plurality of votes in the council, giving it the right of vetoing. By constitution, the King of Prussia was the President of the Council and also the Federation. During the drafting of the Federal Constitution, many propose to give the title of German Emperor to the President of the Federation, but this is eventually skipped for concern that it may further antagonize the southern German states. As a compromise, he is given the title of "Imperial President of North Germany" and is the Emperor of North Germany in all but name. He nominates and dismisses the Federal Chancellor and ministers, and had similar powers concerning federal matters as the King of Prussia within his state, the chief of executive (however assent by the federal council was required to make treaties and declare non-defensive wars). The Reichstag is the parliament, elected by a suffrage system akin to the Prussian one, and the Reichstag and Federal Council together have the legislative power. Federal laws take precedence over those of the individual states. The Federation was responsible for, or entitled to legislate on, business activity, citizenship, immigration and emigration, coinage, banking, foreign trade, intellectual property, weights and measures, foreign policy, post service, roads and canals, civil and criminal law, and the Federal Army and Navy.

Creation of the NGU rocks the structure of the German Confederation. Austria and the southern German states fear forcible assimilation in the NGU now that North Germany has grown into true union, strengthening Prussian hegemony, and threaten to leave the Confederation. Nonetheless, German national sentiment is still strong after the Napoleonic Wars, and many are wary to dissolve all bonds of pan-German unity. Hasty negotiations results into a revision of the constitution of the German Confederation. The Presidency of the German Confederation is given to Bavaria, and the voting system in the Federal Assembly is revised to give the NGU states a unitary block of votes just short of the majority. In exchange the non-NGU states agree to form a pan-German customs union. Tentative talks start among the southern German states to form their own federation, although rivalry between Austria and Bavaria and Austrian reluctance to loosen its centralized political union between German and non-German lands hamper such efforts. The formation of the NGU stirs German national sentiment in the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, which are ruled by the King of Denmark, and appeal for union with neighboring NGU is bound to grow in the duchies, clashing with Danish attempts to centralize their possessions. Some interest for German political developments also occurs in Switzerland, and their example also fuels the hopes of Italian liberals and nationalists.

In Italy, equally momentous changes had transpired during the Napoleonic Wars. During Napoleonic rule of Italy, many legal, economic, and social reforms had been passed extending the legacy of the French Revolution and Napoleon to Italy. After the Treaty of Vienna, King Murat of Naples had found its rule confirmed and extended to eastern North Italy as a reward for its lucky choice to support the Russo-Prussian Alliance. In the following years, he strived to maintain a moderate course, balancing diplomatic and military support to the Russo-Prussian alliance with equal economic links with France and Prussia, and quiet support for the Italian national movement. At home he strived to foster economic development, internal customs union, and a moderate land reform which built upon the legacy of Napoleonic rule, matched after a few years with the concession of a liberal constitution, a slightly improved of the Polish model which was spreading across Europe, after Russia established a safe precedent. He gave diplomatic and military support to Russia during its invasion of the Ottoman Empire, and to Prussia during its efforts to unify Germany. Support from the liberal aristocracy and budding middle class and the eastern Alliance strengthened Murat's rule, even if he did not dare provoke a clash with Britain to expel the Bourbon from Sicily. However, the liberal example of Naples strongly clashed in the mind of Italian liberal-nationalists with the tyrannical and obscurantist rule that the Kings of Sardinia and Etruria had implemented in their states. Soon both states were bubbling with discontent, which eventually exploded into overt insurrection in Piedmont in 1821. Initially the rebels had aimed to get a constitution and the king's regent, prince Charles Albert, acting while the king Charles Felix was away, approved a new constitution to appease the revolutionaries, but when the king returned he disavowed the constitution and requested assistance from the European powers. The revolutionaries, in turn, declared the king deposed and appealed to Murat for assistance. The King of Naples, capitalizing on his links with Prussia and Russia, was able to persuade those powers that extension of enlightened Neapolitan rule to Piedmont was the best way to keep order in northern Italy. France was busy dealing with trouble in Spain, and Austria distracted by ongoing developments in Germany, so Murat got his way. Neapolitan troops quickly dispersed royalist supporters, and Piedmont’s revolutionaries welcomed Murat to rule them. Piedmont and Liguria were joined to the Kingdom of Naples, which grew to include all mainland Italy but Etruria. Charles Felix fled to Sardinia, and was able to keep control of Corsica and Sardinia by making itself a client of Britain, pretty much like the Bourbons in Sicily. Dissent festered in Etruria, too, but its King was able to make some minor last-minute concessions which prevented the revolutionary movement from spreading to Etruria for the moment, albeit liberal-national feelings of sympathy for Naples remained strong.

vultan said:

BUMP! I want more!

Click to expand...

I hope the imperial expansion of Russia and German/Italian unifications getting into high gear fixes your needs just for a little while. Some coverage of Britain, France, and Spain, as well as ongoing internal development and expansion of America remains to be done, but frankly its was too much stuff to check sources and write in the same session.

I have also decided to be flexible with the year-by-year TL breakdown, it is great with periods of frequent and dramatic changes like the ARW and Napoleonic Wars, not so good with Restoration Europe and American "Age of Good Feelings" which was a period of apparent quiet and actual substantial economic and sociopolitical changes suddently exploding in revolutions, wars, insurrections, and stuff.

1817-1827

In America, the period following the British-American War was one of consolidation and expansion. The United States had successfully affirmed its independence beyond doubt and gone from young North American nation to main continental power in the Americas. The war had filled the nation with pride and patriotism, giving it a fresh new national epic to rally around after the American Revolutionary War (which most Americans came to see the War of 1812 as the last battle thereof). Most importantly it had shown the nation and the territories, all of them, whatever their religion, culture, and language, something great to unify around. Monuments, squares, plazas, and parks soon rose to honor the battles and the heroic deeds of the war in all major American cities. Many of such battles and deeds were celebrated, but one above all catched national imagination as the main symbol of the whole war, the successful "last stand" defense of Washington D.C. against British raiding.

When the mourning, celebrations, and joyful homecomings were finished, it was time to get down to business and adjust the Republic to the new national and international landscape. There was the matter of all the new territory the US had acquired or established as protectorates, which needed to be organized, moreover several territories were asking for statehood. Then the military had made a rather good perfomance against one of the most powerful empires in the world, but it needed to be reformed to provide adequate protection to the largely expanded territories and interests of the USA. The issue of the election was settled without too much contention. The clear military victory in the war gave a powerful new boost of popularity to the Federalist party and their Presidential candidate, Alexander Hamilton, got a confortable victory in the 1816 election. The Democratic-Republicans did not stand much of a chance, the war had proved the wisdom of many Federalist policies such as the buildup of a strong military and fostering US finance and manufacturing to make American economy as self-sufficient from European powers as possible.

With that set, the next order of business was to organize the territory. Several territories, either carved out from old territorial gains, and newly conquered possessions, had achieved sufficient development and organization to petition Congress for statehood. After much debate in congress several new states were admitted in rapid succession during the few next years after the war: Indiana, Mississippi, Illinois, Alabama, Jamaica, West and East Dominic (the Hispaniola island was divided in two states), Maine, Missouri, Michigan, and Ottawa (southestern portion of OTL northern Ontario facing Michigan) as the eastern Great Lakes, Ohio-Mississippi valley (the internal improvements subsidied by the Federalist Administrations had been substantially accelerating westward expansion in those areas), and the American Caribbean became settled. The territories around the western Great Lakes and to the west of the Mississippi began to be populated as well. The Congress also approved a northward territorial increase for the states of Franklin, Quebec, and East Quebec to include areas that had become settled with Frankliners and Quebeckers beyond old state boundaries. The admission of so many new states sparked an heated debate in Congress and the nation. Public opinion in the slaveholding and free states alike questioned about the proper partition of US territories for settlement by either section. In the end it was officially recognized that the nation had grown so vast and with sections so different that no simple geographical partition scheme would be effective. The compromise of "popular sovreignity" was affirmed in law, by which the decision to admit slavery in a territory or not would be the choice of the local territorial government. Unofficially it was acknowledged and expected for various reasons that states craved out from Rupert's land and northern Louisiana Purchase would be free, Caribbean ones and the ones from southern Louisiana Purchase wold be slaveholding and the unspoken boundary was settled at a line drawn from the southern boundary of Missouri. However, the southern states found the compromise not wholly to their satisfaction, since the USA had expanded more in the North, towards regions little suited to slave economy, than southwards towards areas that were suited and politically amenable to slavery. Although most did expect that Gran Colombia and Peru would join the US in a few years, slavery had been abolished there, and Spanish-American populace seemed little sympathetic to its reintroduction. Therefore, Southern public opnion lamented that the US had failed to conquer all of the slaveholding British West Indies, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Central America, and Mexico, and soon began to push for restarting US southward expansion in thopse areas, by conquest or purchase. This pressure was to mount and find fulfillment in the following decades.

The lessons of the recent wars indicated the need to defend US territories, its South American protectorates, its coasts, and naval lines of communications in the Caribbean adequately, as well as to project some effective force and protect US merchant shipping against the encroachments of European powers. The military was reformed and expanded to have a strong standing Army and Navy with forts and bases located across US coasts in the Americas, although the military was still substantially smaller than the ones of Britain, France, Russia, and Prussia, the army relied heavily on reservists, and local defenses still had positions and duties for militias. Training, equipment, and efficiency was strongly fostered for the military and it was expected that in wartime the regular army would become the nucleus to organize a much larger reservist army, whileas the Navy was to be able and guarantee naval parity for the US in the theaters of the Americas.

As it concerned foreign policy, the USA maintained official neutrality towards the European powers and kept apart from their quarrels. However substantially greater suspicion and antagonism was maintained against those colonial powers which the US had warred against in the last two decades and had kept colonial empires in the Americas, such as Britain, France, and Spain. Powers that had never had colonial empires in the Americas, like Prussia, Russia, and Naples, and had aims in wholly different areas of the world, were seen with more equanimity and sympathy, despite political differences. The USA declared the Hamilton Doctrine, by which America was hostile to any attempt to establish a colonial empire or use force to maintain it anywhere in the Americas, or to trade colonial possessions thereof from one extra-American power to another. Such a doctrine was an affirmation of recent US actions to support and sponsor the pro-independence struggle of Spanish-American revolutionaries. Of course, a glaring exception to the application of the Hamilton Doctrine existed in recent actions by Britain to carve a new colonial empire in the southern cone of South America. Such an exception was reluctantly acknowledged by American politicians as supposedly "preceding" the establishment of the doctrine. In truth it was plain that America only allowed British South America to stand for the time being simply because it was not yet strong enough to evict the British from the Americas completely. A partition settlement of Spanish South America, north to the USA, south to Britain, had gone into effect with the Treaty of Ghent, and no side was yet willing to put it into question, although it was one of the main reasons that fueled US-UK rivalry.

Gran Colombia and Peru had been organized as US protectorates after the peace of Ghent. They were set up as federal republics, under the leadership of Simon Bolivar, Sucre, and other luminaries of the independence struggle. Although nominally independent, the US guaranteed their security and financial livelihood, in exchange for a customs and economic union and basing rights for its military. Although some separatist tensions had surfaced, US influence had helped to suppress them, and as a rule the local elites were fairly friendly to the USA thanks to all the support provided during the War of Independence and aferwards. By the terms of the protectorate treaties, the south american republics were expected to hold plebiscites to decide on political union with the USA within a decade after independence. Brazil, too, had achieved independence from Portugal, crowned an emperor, and had lost territory to America and USA alike in recent years, so it tried to maintain a difficult balancing act between the two great powers, whose expansionism it was equally wary of. The Mexican independence movement had won several important victories, despite the fact that political links with the USA and hence support had been much scarcer than with the south american states. However, the USA maintained growing local influence and sympathies in some Mexican areas, such as Texas, California, Rio Grande states, and Yucatan, which were the destination of increasing American settlers and investments. This piecemeal pattern was to shape the fate of Mexico in the coming decades. In 1819-1820 Spain had sent an army to reconquer Mexico. However this army had faced limited success and serious interruption of supply links with Spain, when the US Navy applied an unofficial but effective blockade. The commander of the Spanish Army, Augustin de Iturbide, switched sides and went rogue, took control of Mexico and declared himself the emperor of an independent Mexico. This effectively ended the war of independence for Mexico and Central America as well. However Iturbide was only the start of a painful string of exceeding political instability and revolving tyrannical and corrupt rulers that plagued Mexico in the coming years. The instability of Mexico contrasted with the stability of Gran Colombia and Peru under US protectorate, which helped make local creole elites amenable to American overlordship.

One curious offshoot of US territorial expansion, and America's struggle to deal with its own slavery problem, was the African quasi-colony of Liberia. It was created on the shores of Western Africa in 1820 by the American Colonization Sociery, a private group that aimed to find a middle ground between continuation of slavery and integration of freed black in US society by organizing their resettlement to Africa. Although it was a private group, it included or had the sympathies of many high-profile members of American society and influential politicians of both parties. As a result, it got strong support from the Congress and various Administrations since the 1820s, and over the years it was able to organize the resettlement of about 20-25% of the free black population in Liberia. Once there, these "Americo-Liberians" did their best to rebuild a close copy of American society, especially its Southern variant. While this had the unfortunate side effect of making native Africans of the region second-class citizens, this entity grew into a considerable success in comparison with surrounding areas and maintained close economic and political links with America, as a de facto protectorate.

As it concerns the social landscape of the USA in the 1810s-1830s, for the North it was a trying but exciting time, full of change and promises. Their region was rapidly moving from agriculture to manufacturing. The internal improvements (roads and canals), fostering of banking, and subsidies to manufacturing, sponsored by the central government, controversial as they were in the south, were a mighty push to this process. The new territories of the United States saw a boom in trade with the north at the center. The gradual switch to an urban trade and manufacturing economy and the integrated development of the Great Lakes region also helped lessen the cultural differences between French-speaking, Catholic northerners and their Anglo-Protestant neighbors. The US political system gave ample latitude to Quebeckers to use state autonomy to protect their own religion and culture, which they put to good use. Having been a part of the American political experiment since its inception, they quickly learned its unspoken rules and generally acknowledged that their autonomy would be sacrosanct only as long as they did not try to encroach on equality of US citizens or threaten the unity of the nation. Some amount of prejudice did exist within both communities, but generally it was limited to bigot fringes on either side of the cultural divide. Soon the admission of other French-speaking and Spanish-speaking states made Quebeckers feel less of a special case, even if it was plain that America was going to be a basically English-speaking nation for the foreseeable future, and English was accepted as the national lingua franca outside the state boundaries. Above all, however, it was the gradual socio-economic transformations that made Quebeckers and New-Englanders, as well as French and Anglo inhabitants of the Great Lakes region, realize that they had much more in common than cultural differences would imply. All in all for the typical northerner the 1810’s-1830s however were an exciting time as they began to turn the North into the manufacturing, financial, and political core of this new continent-spanning nation.

For the South, this was a period of agricultural expansion and a push away from the coasts into the hot interior. In the wake of Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin and inspired by the extremely profitable plantation economy of the Caribbean, southerners began clearing land and importing vast amounts of slaves. The start up for this style of economy and push into the southern interior however started a bit slower than the economic changes in the North. Cotton was profitable, and a necessity for northern and European textile mills, however investment from the north and elsewhere was also directed for the Caribbean territories and their vast sugar profits. While this slowed the growth of the south by some years, the agricultural potential for the region could not be ignored and by late 1820s and early 1830’s, slave powered cotton plantations began to dominate both the south economically and socially. It was at this time, starting with the admission of the state of Missouri, that southern politicians and congressmen began to push slavery into the western and southern corners of the new nation and to advocate further southward expansion of the United States.

In the West, the social backbone was the average settler family, seeking their own plot of land to farm. All across the western and northern boundary of the US, breakthroughs in technology, infrastructrure improvements, migration policy, and a rise in population pushed people westward and northward like never before. From New Caledonia and Wisconsin to Arkansas, people were pushing west and north, crossing the Mississippi and settling beyond the coastal areas of the Great Lakes.

The Caribbean of this time was basically an old money version of the South. Sugar plantations, aristocratic families, and institutions such as slavery had been the norm here for centuries. While the people enjoyed their new country’s success and exercised their democratic rights freely, little changed socially and economically for the most part. The region was an economic powerhouse for the South to match the growing weight of the cotton states, a bastion of trade and sugar cane.

Spanish South American republics, still nominally independent but looking more and more likely to join the USA in the near future, were an interesting picture. Although culturally akin to the Caribbean in some ways, the plantation economy and its chattel slavery had never become so predominant there. The economy was still strongly based on agriculture and mining, with a hierarchical social system based on affluence and race. The white or lightly mixed affluent and educated elite dominated the region, controlling vast amounts of poor Indian and heavily mixed peasants. Those elites and the yet-limited urban middle classes had for the large part supported the fight for independence from Spain, yearning what had been achieved to their north by the United States, a political voice, economic prosperity, and rights. US strong support to the fight for independence and the economic and poltical links after it had apparently steered those feelings from simple separatism to growing acceptance of larger unity among the former American colonies. Although some concerns existed about the safety of their Spanish, Catholic culture in a predominantly Anglo Protestant nation, the example of the French Catholic states did a lot to dispel such fears. On the part of the US public, some significant concern, essentially based on racial prejudice and mainly present in the South, did exist about giving an equal place in the nation to such large numbers of uneducated poor Indians. However, growing familiarity revealed that in many ways the lifestyle and worldview of the creole south American elite gentleman and his Southern or Caribbean counterpart were akin in many ways, which helped to lessen prejudice. Moroever, it was also increasingly recognized that the affluent educated elites were generally able to keep a tight rein on the Indian lower classes, and an unspoken pact between US and creole elites was forged by which the latter would be acknowledged an equal place in the American political system, and in turn they would keep the Indian lower classes on the margins of it (typically by a mix of patronage and wealth/education qualifications for voting). In the decades after those states joined the Union, however, the question of slavery made the public opinion of the southern american states grow closer to the North in sympathies and attitude. Moreover, growing northern investment began to transform the social and economic landscape of the region, fostering modernization of the agriculture and mining sector and the birth of a signficant manufacturing sector, which greately expanded the urban middle classes and elites and lessened the social, economic, and cultural differences with the rest of the nation. This also made US South America more sympathetic to the North. A significant cultural push for North American-South American integration also came from the fact that in both regions, the theory of Pan-Americanism and "Manifest Destiny" was spreading like wildfire. Basically it stated that for their own happiness and protection form external threats as well as internal corruption and instability, all the current and former colonies in the Americas should band together in one political unity shaped by the US system and such entity should spread across to settle all undeveloped territory in both continents.

Alexander Hamilton won an easy re-election in 1820 as economic prosperity ensued sufficient ongoing popularity for himself and his Federalist Party. The old Jeffersonian Democratic-Republican party which stood for extreme decentralization, an agrarian free trade economy, and a non-interventionist foreign policy was in rapid decay, although there were signs that a new crop of young leaders, such as Andrew Jackson, which accepted the strong state built by the Federalists but pushed for its radical democratization, was on the rise and could revitalize it in the future (they simply called it the Democratic party). Hamilton, however, could find abundant solace in his lifelong political program having largely become the agenda of the nation, the continuing strength of his party, and the rise of a new crop of young Federalist leaders, such as Henry Clay and John Quincy Adams, that stood for both.

Hamilton's economic program, in recent years having being dubbed the "American System" had several key features: support for a high tariff to protect American industries and generate revenue for the federal government; maintenance of high public land prices to generate federal revenue; preservation of the Bank of the United States to stabilize the currency and rein in risky state and local banks; development of a system of internal improvements (such as roads and canals) which would knit the nation together and be financed by the tariff and land sales revenues. During Hamilton's terms, this program, having been in large part the basis of the Federalist economic program under previous Administrations, was further systematized (mostly by Clay) and vigorously pursued. In 1816 Congress passed a strong protective tariff and re-chartered the Bank of the United States for 20 years. As it concerns the internal development of the country, from turnpikes to canals, the nation’s infrastructure, long neglected by the British, made an impressive growth and extended well past the Appalachians. Toll roads, also known as turnpikes, sprang up across the nation to facilitate travel. The most famous road was the National/Cumberland Road. The National Road extended from Cumberland Maryland to Vandalia Illinois. This road helped to encourage westward migration and saw Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois become amongst the first new states to join the US. While road building was popular the most important form of travel was on the water. Robert Fulton’s steamship Clermont was the first commercially viable steamship in history. Its creation led to the increased water travel, especially on the nations major arteries, the Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, and St. Lawrence. Gradually large numbers of river boats and steamships began to ply the shores of the Great Lakes as well, greately encouraging settlement and economic development of the neaighboring states and territories. Canals were an even more impressive feature in the Continental US. The two most famous canals in America were the Welland Canal and Erie Canal. The Erie Canal was a canal that connected Lake Erie with the Hudson River. The Welland Canal was an opposing Canal that connected Lake Ontario with Lake Erie, bypassing the impassible Niagara Falls. The two canals were the expression of a long-running competition for economic supremacy between Montreal and New York City, two of America’s largest cities and economic centers. The most successful canal would almost certainly dictate which city would become the supreme city in the US. At the end of the next decade, the Erie Canal made New York City the nation’s largest, but the Welland Canal ensured that Montreal would always remain a worthy rival. These internal developments helped to facilitate the growth of the American factory system in the Northeast. Supplied by domestic supplies of Cotton in the south and Sugar in the Caribbean, protective tariffs, and with more than enough domestic markets the Northeast quickly developed into the nation’s, and one of the world’s, manufacturing cores. Only the similarly impressive growth of German industry in the North German Union seemed to match the expansion potential of the American economy. The development of economy and infrastructure in the Northeast also blurred the old cultural differences between the states. Economic and social links grew between Quebec and New England, Nova Scotia and Maine, Franklin and New York, Michigan and Ottawa.

Hamilton chose to retire at the end of his second term and the Federalist Party chose John Quincy Adams, the son of the second US President and one of the rising stars of the party, as its candidate for the 1824 election, with Henry Clay, the other rising star, as his VP candidate. However the newly rechristened Democratic Party was revitalizing under the leadership of Andrew Jackson, spurred by opposition to the Federalist economic program. Although the American system had done a lot to promote northern industrial growth and infrastructural development, especially in roads, and canals, it did lead to problems. The tariff and the National Bank were vehemently opposed by Andrew Jackson and his supporters in the south, Caribbean and the west. However, the West also shared in the economic benefits of the American System, and Clay had developed a strong following there, so in the end Adams and Clay won a victory narrower than the halcyon days of Federalist supremacy but confortable enough. A major issue of the day that was transforming the landscape of the US party system was the spread of enfranchisement. At the time states had laws that varied from state to state on voting rights. Every state except for Haiti forbid blacks from voting, and the last state to remove a religious restriction was Maryland in 1828 when Jews were given the right to vote. No state let women vote. From the late 1700’s to the 1830’s states did begin to let non-property owning whites vote. This massive new base formed the core following of frontier politicians like Jackson and Clay.

The crowning achievement of the Adams Administration was the annexation of the south American republics (although it was but the final step of a decade-long process). In 1826 the votes from Gran Colombia and Peru were tallied and every province narrowly voted to join the United States. Once again the United States had effectively doubled in size. After a quick landslide vote by Congress to accept the territory, Adams went to Bogota and Lima for a flag raising ceremony as well as to sign the treaty with Simon Bolivar and de Sucre turning Gran Colombia and Peru into US territories. Adams and the Congress would spend most of their energies during his term tied up in the process of absorbing Gran Colombia and Peru in the US. By the terms of the accession treaty, south American states that matched US continental territories criteria of population and development for statehood were promised it within a decade. However the huge territories of Gran Colombia and Peru needed to be partitioned into units comparable to existing US states. Therefore a Congressional commission that hosted several prominent South American and North American politicians was charged with the task of carving out the huge Gran Colombia and Peru entities into suitable US territories and prepare a schedule for their statehood. A side effect of the south american annexation was that it spurred efforts in North America by the North and South alike the accelerate the set up of new states as a way to keep predominance in the Congress. Bolivar and to a lesser degree, Sucre were welcomed in the Pantheon of American national heroes as the "last Founding Fathers".

I made an Uber-Rough map of the US in this timeline. I didn't really bother touching anything else, so you can't really tell anything about British South America. Also, I lazily gave America all of the Carribean sans the four islands I know the allegiances of at the time. And took a random jab at what I thought the borders might be like with Brazil. And ddn't bother mentioning the British have some control over the Northwest part of the country. And none of the state boundries are meant to match what you did. One more and: the world has OTL 2009 borders. But you probably get the point.

Helios Ra said:

I made an Uber-Rough map of the US in this timeline.

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Rather good job, except with the Treaty of Ghent, the British colony of Newfoundland/Labrador was split: London kept Newfoundland island, Washington got mainland Labrador (after the experiences of the British-American war, the US aim was to deny the British a mainland foothold on North America as much as possible).

I didn't really bother touching anything else, so you can't really tell anything about British South America.

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Nor the significant territorial changes in Europe. But after all, the situation there has not yet found a definitive settlement, German and Italian unifications are ongoing and yet incomplete, the Habsburg monarchy teeters on the brink and is headed for trouble, the Russians have hitten a pause in their runaway expansion but hard to say how much it shall last (and sooner or later they shall start getting trouble from subject nationalities), Netherlands-Belgium ITTL could stay together or Belgium be partitioned between Netherlands and France, or the whole Low Countries be partitioned between Britain or Germany and France, Denmark is headed for trouble too because of Schelswig-Holstein too. Plenty of possibilities. However, the equivalent of the 1830-1848 revolutions should hit soon, within the next decade at most, and settle many of those processes.

Moreover, Britain ITTL is not just going to expand in BSA, there is Asia as well, I'm not yet sure whether they shall shall grab Indonesia, South China, none, or both. Still a bit unsure where their imperial overstretch threshold would lay.

And ITTL the European colonization patterns shall be rather different, with Germany and Italy being great powers on the rise (and Germany in the top tier) from the get-go.

Also, I lazily gave America all of the Carribean sans the four islands I know the allegiances of at the time.

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Don't worry, I undestand. Despite I know it would be less plausible, and the USA need more time to build the strength to donkey kong the RN and make a total Caribbean grab, I keep being sorely tempted to edit the 1816 peace settlement and make *all* the British West Indies go American then, just to spare me the trouble.

And took a random jab at what I thought the borders might be like with Brazil.

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Well, the border with Brazil is at Rio de Amazones, so in your map it seems roughly right to me. Anyway, it's just endless uncharted jungle at this point in history, no doubt borders remain a bit ill-defined and controversial, a good casus belli in the future when the rubber industry makes the area valuable and the USA need an excuse to carve another slice of Brazil.

And ddn't bother mentioning the British have some control over the Northwest part of the country.

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Again, don't worry, you did it right. The 1816 treaty defines the Pacific Northwest as a US-UK condominium, and in practice is just a placeholding compromise so that the UK can still reap some fur trade and the USA are reasonably confident that in due time the region shall be available to their settlers. In a decade or two, the USA shall buy or bully the UK out of it entirely.

And none of the state boundaries are meant to match what you did.

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*Sigh*. I really wish somebody would show up with rather more expertise on the American state boundaries than me, I am basically fumbling along and grabbing random ideas from wikipedia and other Ameriwank threads, and give me some good hints as to draw OTL US, Canadian, Mexican, and South American states borders that make sense as an integrated uber-USA whole in 19th century terms.

One more and: the world has OTL 2009 borders. But you probably get the point.

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Never mind, the map of Europe would in all likelihood need a closer scale anyway. And likely the effort is only worthwhile after the liberal-national revolutions are done, and the political landscape is a bit more stable.

I... Love... This... Infact, I want more!

I must say, things are going very very well for the nation. Though I do wonder how the civil war will play out now that the nation is expanded more.

New Patomic said:

I... Love... This... Infact, I want more!

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Patience, grasshopper. Have you noticed how *big* the last updates were ? And the German/Russian/Italian update might have been larger yet if a computer mishap had not erased the first writeup, afterwards I had not the patience to rewrite it at the same level of detail.

I must say, things are going very very well for the nation.

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The benefits of a good upbringing ?

Though I do wonder how the civil war will play out now that the nation is expanded more.

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Likely a bit earlier, since ITTL the South are going to be even more the panicked kamikaze minority, trapped between the huge North and the antislavery Latinos. They only have the Caribbean on their side. For another 2-3 decades or so, they shall bid their time, they are making big plans to redress the balance by building a lot of slave states in Southwest, Mexico, Central America, and Spanish/British Caribbean. When they shall realize it's an hopeless task (this USA can and shall certainly conquer or buy almost all of what they covet, but then either the freesoilers or the natives shall stop them from extending slavery to most of the booty, picture Bleeding Kansas twenty times large), well it is Dixie panicked raging bull time.

Surely bloodier and more strategically complex, since there shall be more theaters (Mexican, Caribbean, Central American) and both sides shall have more states and resources.

But in the end the outcome is absolutely not in doubt, the South is even more the foolhardy kamikaze ITTL, the North outweights them in population, industry, and resources even more than IOTL and they are trapped in the North-Latino strategic vise.

Dunno yet if Britain, France, and Spain shall side with the Confederacy ITTL, they might as well as a last-ditch attempt to cut the growing American giant down a notch or two (after the USA are done putting their big house in order, it is clear that next item on the table is to grab the rest of South America and challenge the British in the Pacific) and this might make the Secession look less foolhardy suicidal. But I would say that even with Western intervention, the war would be longer and bloodier for the Union, but they would still be victorious, they have resources enough, Britain has no foothold in North America, and this America has already started to build a USN that may challenge the RN at least in their own seas. Moreover, Britain may or may not have colonial trouble to settle in India and China, and UK, France, and Spain have to guard their backs in Europe and the Middle East, the Russo-German-Italian behemoth already got the upper hand in 1815 and has just started to grow.

While German-Russian bickering is definitely possible in the far future, it is not really likely as long as they have a common enemy in the Western powers. Oh, ITTL the World Wars shall be mind-boggling (well, the Western powers might decide that the American-Russian-German front of the upcoming superpowers is simply too much to fight and basically give up the fight for global supremacy, in such a case the three giants have nowhere to go but turn on each other, but I do not see this happening before WWII at the earliest, the chosen theaters of expansion for Russia, Germany, and America are too far from each other till then; and I don't think that the UK would surrender its Empire without a suitable WWI Gotterdammerung).

Here you go. Slightly better map. Go ahead and take all of the British West Indies for America. It'll be easier on whoever does maps for you. (Hint hint). Some of China's north border is probably off, and the Ottomans might have had more of the Balkans, but I think you siad Greece was independent. And the Central American Federation (Though that might not be its name) might have still been around.
There is an animation on wikipedia somewhere of the evolution of Mexican states, so that could help a little.