Secession through Succession

[Chrispi]

I know that the title sounds like a colossal joke about the common confusion between the words secession and succession, but it was this very thing that established the Empire of Brazil, for example.

It is also this mix-up that helped inspire my short story Rapt. Basically, the British quashing the American Rebellion (although it was more of a Continental collapse than a British victory) and the subsequent reorganization of the Colonies into (four in my case) independent Dominions with the British monarch as head of state. These Dominions pass Acts of Settlement soon after, where male-preference primogeniture (the Prince of Wales as heir) is replaced by absolute primogeniture (the Princess Royal Alexandra.) At the demise of the crowns, the Princess Royal is also married to the ex-Holy Roman Emperor; she abdicates in favor of her eldest son William, who becomes king of the American dominions, and acclaimed and soon crowned Emperor of North America.

Are there any other stories with this secession-by-succession trope?

 

[Emperor Constantine]

Not to sound mean, but that's not very realistic. First off, the idea of absolute primogeniture in the 18th/19th century is laughable at best and second, the Dominions didn't gain legislative independence from the UK until 1931, with the Statute of Westminster. So there's no way the UK would let any American Dominion legislative themselves independent.

 

[Mina-van-Mako]

I'd say it could happen in specific occasions (like a royalist colony during a revolution) but it's a very unlikely thing to happen because it would most likely be pretty high on the to do list of the former metropolis to re create this bond

 

[Emperor Constantine]

The only thing I can think of would be something like a long-term personal union ending because one state allows female succession and one does not. It would kind of be secession by succession but that's all I got.

 

[Chrispi]

Not to sound mean, but that's not very realistic. First off, the idea of absolute primogeniture in the 18th/19th century is laughable at best and second, the Dominions didn't gain legislative independence from the UK until 1931, with the Statute of Westminster. So there's no way the UK would let any American Dominion legislative themselves independent.

I know it doesn’t sound realistic, but the alternatives are just as fantastic or even more so. The combined populations of Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa were still smaller than Britain’s in 1931; The United States’ population was larger in 1831, so the late Statute of Westminster does not apply. I suppose that a personal union is possible... but in this case it would be with His Imperial Majesty George V, Emperor of North America, King of Great Britain, Elector of Hanover, Lord of Ireland &c &c, not exactly something London would want.

Although a history sequence of English Colonies -> British North America -> Empire of North America -> Oceania would be immensely interesting (most especially to Orwell’s estate lawyers,) it is not my story to tell; that, and there is even among the staunchest Loyalists a desire for an American king on American soil, preferably a cadet branch of the House of Hanover. There would be a plausible reason for a change to absolute primogeniture: if the Prince of Wales be an absolute clod à la Prince George in Blackadder the Third (my favorite of the series btw,) and the Whigs grant the Americans enough autonomy (also likely, just to spite the Tories,) they would also likely not object to sending the Princess Royal as a cadet Queen to the Americans.

I'd say it could happen in specific occasions (like a royalist colony during a revolution) but it's a very unlikely thing to happen because it would most likely be pretty high on the to do list of the former metropolis to re create this bond

With regard to the North Americans, the main priority of Whitehall would be to minimize their military power while maximizing their trading potential. It’s rather like the scene in the Odyssey, where they have to sail the Strait of Messina between the Scylla and Charybdis: the former involves having 16+ small colonies agitating for a customs and military union as they have since Albany; the latter involving a singular Dominion of North America that is already a customs and military union greater than Britain herself, or even two states, the Dominion of Virginia and the Dominion of New England (no brewing civil war here, no siree...) The Goldilocks porridge seems to be four or five autonomous dominions/states/countries that I have mentioned in earlier posts.

 

[Tyler96]

The only thing I can think of would be something like a long-term personal union ending because one state allows female succession and one does not. It would kind of be secession by succession but that's all I got.

The most readily apparent example being the split of Britain and Hanover upon Victoria's accession to the former in 1837?

 

[LNSS]

Doesnt LTTW do something like this?

 

[Eparkhos]

*furiously scrabbling notes and drawing comparison*