Nothing major, but Britain is a little more paranoid about Russian designs on India (not that the Russians could really invade India because of logistical issues)
The American System: A Henry Clay TL
- Thread starter TheHedgehog
- Start date
so I guess alexander the second was never blown up, on the subject, how is this the result of henry clay being elected? America wasn't that much of a player on the world stage until the 1900s, is there more then one pod?
Yeah, AII was never assassinated.
Nothing in europe is strictly because of Henry Clay becoming President, but butterflies spread out from the US as a result of alternate negotiations with the British, no Mexican-American War, and the like. You could say that they are secondary PODs, but given a decade or so, it's unlikely that events outside of North America would've happened exactly as OTL.
the earliest example would be Napoleon the third dying in 1840, the same year clay wins, how do you explain that?
I could've sworn that was in 1841 but you're right. I'll change it to him dying of a disease in the mid-1840s while in a French prison.
bit of a cop-out, but I understand not wanting to rewrite everything so fair enough
I don't see how it's a cop-out, it's a small fix that's more plausible and has the same result.
so really we have two pods, clay being president and napoleon part 3 never rising to power, the chances of him catching something and dying IS high (this was a 19th century prison after all), but it feels a bit too random for my taste, but whatever it's your tl
Realistically, Britain is probably going to deal with America's growing naval strength by...completely appeasing it and trying to defuse conflict. The fact of the matter is that Britain is spread thin, and it just can't afford to fight the United States and any power or coalition of powers in Europe--and the latter are much more important (since it is after all European) and easier to deal with, in a sense (as they can find local allies) than the United States, which is clearly far more powerful than anyone else in the Western Hemisphere (and especially Mexico). British foreign policy towards the United States following the conclusion of the War of 1812 was generally oriented towards maintaining peaceful relations without complete surrender of perceived British interests, and I expect that policy would also be followed here.
Or, to put it less wordily, if the U.S. Navy is getting big Britain will probably start trying to find ways that to ensure that the United States is friendly or at least neutral in any future wars, rather than starting to make serious plans to fight the United States, because that fight will be so costly that any victory will be a defeat.
Or, to put it less wordily, if the U.S. Navy is getting big Britain will probably start trying to find ways that to ensure that the United States is friendly or at least neutral in any future wars, rather than starting to make serious plans to fight the United States, because that fight will be so costly that any victory will be a defeat.
I agree 100%. Britain desperately does not want a rivalry with the US (and neither does the US, really, because a war with the UK would massively screw the US export business) so expect a tentative rapprochement sometime around/before the turn of the century. The US naval expansion and suspicion of British interests in Central/South America isn't going to lead to a war, whether hot or cold, but it prevents the formation of a "Special Relationship" like OTL.
Hmmm, I'm not sure about that. The "Special Relationship" was functionally speaking the result of Britain winning two world-spanning wars at grievous cost and realizing that it was no longer in the very top echelon of power, and deciding to take advantage of cultural and business ties between the United States and the U.K. to leverage itself into the position of the main ally of one of the new very top powers. The main factors in whether something like this come about at this point in your timeline, I think, are whether Britain gets into wars that so grievously harm it--if it does, then it is likely to try to develop a "Special Relationship" (and the main factor auguring against it would be disinterest or hostility from the United States), and if it doesn't then it will try to keep the United States as a basically friendly power but not do anything extreme.
Fair point. TTL, the UK won't get saddled with the enormous cost of two devastating wars so they and the US will have, as you said, a friendly relationship, cordial but not super close.
Good question, I'll include an update on Mexico in a coming chapter, but with the discovery of oil, they'll receive a flood of American investors and oil companies coming in to drill for it. One major difference is there
I'd imagine that Mexico would have about the same level of immigration from the OE.
Until it was pointed out that Stevens was the first president to take office after the death of his predecessor, I completely forgot no other president had died in office in this timeline.
Its a small, but major difference from OTL. Does Stevens being Acting President mean that there will be an emergency election in the future if the president dies much earlier before the election since Stevens ascended with 1892 closely approaching?
Its a small, but major difference from OTL. Does Stevens being Acting President mean that there will be an emergency election in the future if the president dies much earlier before the election since Stevens ascended with 1892 closely approaching?
Elections stay on schedule, I think the consensus would be that Acting Presidents are Presidents in everything but name, and serve until the regularly-scheduled end of term.
Ah, so its more or less a formal title moving forward, and that Stevens isn't going to be an outlier.