The Articles of Deconfederation: A World Without America

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    • GBehm

    GBehm

    After about a week and a half of debating with myself as to whether or not I should actually do it, I've decided that the answer is a semi-confident "yes." This "graphic-timeline" started as a fascination with the idea of a world in which the United States either didn't exist or held significantly limited influence. This can be seen in some of my earliest posts on the site; election wikiboxes about an America that existed as a dominion of the United Kingdom. At first, "Articles of Deconfederation" started as a universe that I had no serious plans to expand upon, as I was sure it would fall through due to some kind of eventual disinterest. However, the idea stuck with me, and the demand seemed like it was there. So here it is.

    Big props to @Kanan and, to a lesser degree, @LeinadB93, for giving me the thought, via their insanely fleshed-out and well-made timelines "Our Fair Country" and "Hail, Britannia" (respectively), of making a separate thread for this project.

    If I had to give a basic outline of "Articles of Deconfederation" it would be this: Due to much more severe public resistance and a stronger distaste of the idea of a powerful federal government (a-la colonial rule), the United States falls apart after the failure of the Articles of Confederation. What was once a federation of thirteen states dissolves into an assortment of six sovereign nations: New England, New York, Pennsylvania (now Midatlantica), Virginia, North Carolina (now Carolina), and the Union of Southern American States (now the Union of Socialist American States). The world that results from this dissolution is drastically different from the one we know today.

    I'll leave a link to all previous "Deconfederation" graphics below the included world map. If you had an idea for an infobox request; don't worry, I'll still take requests for expansion on in-timeline information every once and a while.

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    Articles of Deconfederation:
    New York Legislative election, 2008
    New York Progressive Party
    Midatlantica Legislative election, 2017
    Carolina Presidential Election, 2017; Matt Watson
    Cabinet of President Bob Casey Jr.
    Mexican General election, 2012; Robert F. Kennedy
    Union of Socialist American States; Gavin Newsom
    Louisiana general election, 2017; Ernie Chambers
    Alaska; Doug Jones; Roy Moore
    French Presidential Election, 2017; Xu Qiliang
    Danic General/Presidential elections, 2016; Loretta Sanchez
    ​
     
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    • GBehm

    GBehm

    Americans are a national, ethnically semi-exclusive group residing mainly in approximately ten to twelve countries in northern North America. Americans are typically classified as English-speaking whites of Germanic origin born in or with heritage from New England, New York, Midatlantica, Virginia, Tecumsia, Carolina, the USAS, or Dana. When examined on an ethnic level, Americans tend to have immigrant ancestors who settled in one of these countries from the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, or the like. French-Americans, for example, are not considered to be part of the "American" collective, but are classified in their own separate group due to their Romance heritage. For information on other prominent groups that reside in America, please see French-Americans, African-Americans, Native Americans, Asian Americans, etc.

    Although they do meet many of the criteria for being considered "American," Canadians do not fit within this group as the British colonial province of Quebec did not participate in the American Revolution or federate with the short-lived United States of America. Thus, North-American whites with Canadian or Oregonian heritage are rarely referred to as Americans outside of occasional instances in documents from Asia, Africa, and continental Europe.

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    GBehm

    GBehm

    Last graphic of the day before I get back to work. I'll try to keep uploads of full wikipages relatively frequent, although they'll definitely be less frequent that boxes with write-ups.
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    Ivoshafen

    Ivoshafen

    Okay okay
    I was so excited by Ingria that I didn't even notice Siberia and Chechnya

    You have my full support in this TL,
     

    Gladsome

    Loving this already. This world looks absolutely fascinating, and I'm looking forward to finding out more of it.

    How interesting to see Americans considered as more of an ethnic-cultural diaspora than as a national identifier. Is there some sort of pan-American organisation between nations on an economic, cultural or political scale, or are relations still somewhat chilly? edit: Ah, I note the presence of an 'American Union'.

    What's the general sentiment towards the failed articles of confederation in the modern day?

    I also note the delightful sight of a 'Dominion of Cyprus'. What's the present status of the British Empire/British Commonwealth/Commonwealth of Nations?
     
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    GBehm

    GBehm

    Gladsome said:
    Loving this already. This world looks absolutely fascinating, and I'm looking forward to finding out more of it.

    How interesting to see Americans considered as more of an ethnic-cultural diaspora than as a national identifier. Is there some sort of pan-American organisation between nations on an economic, cultural or political scale, or are relations still somewhat chilly? edit: Ah, I note the presence of an 'American Union'.

    What's the general sentiment towards the failed articles of confederation in the modern day?

    I also note the delightful sight of a 'Dominion of Cyprus'. What's the present status of the British Empire/British Commonwealth/Commonwealth of Nations?
    Click to expand...
    The perception toward the articles in modern America is that they were well-intentioned, but that a general association rather than federation, was the path toward peace that America needed. The idea of an American Union was floated around as early as the beginning of the 19th century, but the advent of the Second World War gave the region the kick it needed to start cooperating on a higher level.

    The commonwealth operates much in the way that it does IOTL, but with a larger sphere of influence.
     

    Gladsome

    GBehm said:
    The perception toward the articles in modern America is that they were well-intentioned, but that a general association rather than federation, was the path toward peace that America needed. The idea of an American Union was floated around as early as the beginning of the 19th century, but the advent of the Second World War gave the region the kick it needed to start cooperating on a higher level.

    The commonwealth operates much in the way that it does IOTL, but with a larger sphere of influence.
    Click to expand...

    My thanks for the elucidation.
     

    Pragmatic Progressive

    I also love this already! Cool endeavour!
    How democratic is a "Centralist Republic" (which are predominant in East Asia) and how is it governed? Am I right that Xinjiang, Tibet and Bhutan are more oppressed Reichskommissariate than anything else?
     

    Pragmatic Progressive

    Also, what is the relation between Dana and California, and why is California not in the American Union - although I am not able to spot any outright undemocratic system of government or something? Is Dana effectively "North California"? Has Dana influenced the exclusion of (South?) California from the AU?
     
    GBehm

    GBehm

    SaveAtlacamani said:
    I also love this already! Cool endeavour!
    How democratic is a "Centralist Republic" (which are predominant in East Asia) and how is it governed? Am I right that Xinjiang, Tibet and Bhutan are more oppressed Reichskommissariate than anything else?
    Click to expand...
    Centralism is an ideology deeply rooted in original Italian fascism. Essentially, a centralist believes in spreading fascism through violent nationalistic expansion, and that a centralist government should consolidate as much power as possible within a single central government, although the Chinese eventually abandoned this idea to make governing its western territories easier. Centralism does not place as much of an emphasis on race and gender roles as fascism did, but it is extremely restrictive of religion, and China forces its citizens to practice a form of Buddhism in which participants worship party leaders and historical figures as idols, much like OTL systems of Buddhism in contemporary Vietnam. Xinjiang, Tibet, and Bhutan are ruled by territorial governors that answer directly to the president, and hold relatively little autonomy despite their devolved status.

    SaveAtlacamani said:
    Also, what is the relation between Dana and California, and why is California not in the American Union - although I am not able to spot any outright undemocratic system of government or something? Is Dana effectively "North California"? Has Dana influenced the exclusion of (South?) California from the AU?
    Click to expand...

    Dana is, more or less, the white, English-speaking counterpart to California. Dana declared itself independent from California in the late 19th century after about fifty years of settlement in the north by Americans. For a long time, there was serious animosity between the two, until a series of negotiations drafted by Danic president Pierre Salinger in the early 1970s opened up trade and communication out of the necessity of cooperating against China and its fascist bloc of allies during the Cold War. Today, Dana and California are close allies, and Danic president Gavin Newsom, upon taking office, negotiated California's place into the Hamilton Travel Zone, allowing people from either country to come and go between the two as they please. California has stayed out of the American Union due to a lack of cultural similarity; despite meeting all Union requirements, Californians are generally opposed to joining because of the country's low number of English speakers and fear of becoming involved in possible conflicts the Union might get itself into.

    Gabingston said:
    How did the south end up Socialist/Communist?
    Click to expand...
    A working-class white/minority-led revolution in 1924 overthrew the aristocratic and wealthy white classes that ruled the Union of Southern American States. More information can be found here.
     
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