I really enjoy this alt history, one of my favorites. The train map is pretty good. I think a map which would follow modern routes or the original couple trans continental routes would be good, but that map is really great. It would be interesting to see a North America with a train system like that.
Thanks! I did follow OTL Amtrak to a big extent, the line in California mostly follows the route of OTL's proposed HSR there (
we are never going to see that thing oh my god), and the middle proposed Amerail route is more or less the same as the first Transcontinental Railroad.
A few questions... what would have stopped Canada from annexing territory to get to the Pacific? It seems that with the low population of Oregon that Canada would have negotiated for the territory since (minus the fur trade) it was costly for the British to maintain and very difficult to defend... I could see them negotiating for Oregon/Washington area and maybe leaving the rest of Rupert's Land to be either a sparsely populated territory of some sort, a very weak nation, or even a part of Canada but as a vast territory of federal lands...?
The actual Pacific coastline is too far away and hard to reach and the remaining territory east of the Rockies wasn't worth it, so it just stays with the British - who I imagine might invest more into the area if it's their only large colony in North America.
What map program are you using? I've been working on an alt-history with a more powerful France. It's always cool to see more French/France oriented time lines. I think the "what if" concerning Canada, Louisiana, etc. to be very interesting... if France, with considerably more people... had actually colonized America.
I'm using mostly Inkscape, plus Paint.net for some touchups.
I'm interested to see what you come up with! As I currently have it, ITTL France is the dominant power in Europe until being replaced by Germany via the Great Wars, but I keep going back and forth on whether I should just have France stay as the European hegemon, have a Franco-Canadian dominated world in contrast to OTL's Anglo-American one. If I were going for straight plausible realism I'd do that by having France win the Seven Years' War but then I'd have to redo North America too, and I don't have it in me to try to figure out what global politics might look like without the French Revolution. I didn't want to do a Napoleonic victory TL either... maybe a more successful Napoleon III? Or just stay with what I have now. Decisions!
Would there be a true superpower in this world like the United States is OTL? What is really interesting is that not having the US but a sort of smaller French US means the power dynamic on the world stage is radically different... you need to build coalitions and alliances... and since no one nation is so dominant, it could be a destabilizing force if people aren't so worried about the OTL US parking multiple carrier groups and destroyers off their shores and air striking and cruise missile-ing them to oblivion.
That's exactly it, I'm imagining that TTL Canada is one great power among many and not a dominant superpower like OTL's US, so the world as a whole is more multipolar with more shifting blocs and alliances.
Any spoilers on what the next installment will be? A Second Great War entry?
It's nice of you to think this is planned out enough for me to have anything to spoil, but honestly your guess is as good as mine!