AHC: Unitary USA

With any POD you want, have the United States be a unitary republic, with no principle of federalism.

Very, very hard. The only way it can be done is if the USA is far smaller in terms of territory. Say that the British do a lot better in the war, and manage to keep hold of the deep south, and New York and the Hudson river valley, and also win rights for Indian tribes in Western New York and the Ohio country. The geographic split accentuates the feelings of difference between New England and the rest of the USA, so New England splits off. You're left with an embattled USA of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia and North Carolina. Feeling hemmed in, they try to settle the Ohio country, get into a war with the British and lose. Anarchy threatens to break out and a military general launches a coup d'etat. Blaming division between the states, he announces a unitary government.

Simple, have the United States only comprise New England and New York.

If you mean the entirety of the United States than it's very close to ASB; Federalism is itself at the heart of America and really large countries do not work as Unitary states, their's a reason that four of the worlds five largest countries are Federations.

Iori said:

Simple, have the United States only comprise New England and New York.

If you mean the entirety of the United States than it's very close to ASB; Federalism is itself at the heart of America and really large countries do not work as Unitary states, their's a reason that four of the worlds five largest countries are Federations.

Click to expand...

It is very close to ASB, however, even acknowledging that, I suppose it is remotely possible with the right mixture of Civil War tweaks. Off the top of my head, I'm imagining an earlier (1864) Lincoln assassination, with Seward and Hamlin also being killed, combined with a burning New York attributed to Confederate Spies, and perhaps Grant stepping into the chaos with a military government to bring the war to a successful close, with the backing of Radical Republican Congress passing emergency legislation...the perfect storm if you will....I could vaguely see from the Horizon constitutional ammendments that might result in a more unitary state that presently conceivable.

If the USA somehow became unitary as a result of the Civil War, what would be the consequences? How would a unitary USA function? For instance, how would race relations develop?

FDR's New Deal turns south. No fascist movement seizes power, but a somewhat power-hungry and authoritarian populist takes over either through election or manoeverings. Huey Long perhaps.

Said populist then manoevers again to centralize power in himself. States "voluntarily" relinquish power to the federal government on a "temporary basis until conditions improve".

Assuming no butterflies in Europe or Asia, by the eve of WW2, there is significant grumbling over the level of centralization which is alien to the US experience.

Japan attacks Pearl Harbor. US declares war on Germany and Japan. All the grumbling disappears and the nation is united behind a single cause.

Following the war, the US is now as centralized as OTL Russian Federation: states still exist, but just as in OTL Russia only possess nominal poewrs.