A different geographical distribution of wealth and population in your country

Every country has certain areas with more population, wealth and political power than the rest.

Your challenge is to change it, with a Pod after 1750.

For example, have the North Weast Coast being one of the most wealthy, populated and politically important regions in the US by the years 2000s. (If you prefer, you can choose any other area of the US area that isn't rich, populated or politically important nowadays IOTL and make irt much more important)

Other examples: Have a Brazil in which the North-East is the richest region nowadays. Have an Argentina with a much more populated Patagonia, and/or a less pooerer NorthWest.

Your country borders don't have to be exactly the saame that IOTL, but their shape musn't change significatly. If somehow Argentina was a British potectorate consisting only of Patagonia and Southern Chile, Santa Cruz might end up being relatively more populated and wealthier part of Argentina than IOTL. But that wouldn't count, as the borders would have far changed too much.

I started a similar thread in the Post-1900 forum, but I realised it's easier to change this kind of things in a single century, except by resorting to a great war or other cathaclismic event. It could have happened in Russia if the nazzis had won, or in Germany if there's been no WWII, as others have stated in that thread. But to get something like that in the US, Argentina, Brazil or Australia you'd probably need a great war/revolution or natural cathastrophe, none of which occured IOTL. With a pre-1900 Pod, things might be achieved without the need of these types of events. Or isn't it?

EDIT: You don't have to limit yourselves to your country of origin. Any country will do.
 
America:

POD1: The Preemption Act of 1841 is a bit more liberal (it uses the terms of the Homestead Act), but it only applies to "current" territories of the US. It's never truly updated to include later territories like California and Texas, because, more or less, there's still so much land to be used up. As a result, the Louisiana Purchase and Midwest territories are slightly more populated, the West and Southwest are slightly less populated.

POD2: In 1896, IBM is founded in Buffalo, NY by Herman Hollerith. Historically, he founded it in Endicott, NY (central part of the state) and it later moved to Armonk, NY (near NYC); ITTL, he decides to locate it in the city of his birth. Attracting large numbers of mathematicians and engineers, Buffalo gains a minor reputation as an intellectual city.

Decades later, computers begin to rise. A man named Ed Roberts founded a company called MITS in Chicago, Illinois. Historically, it was founded in New Mexico, where Roberts was stationed in his air force days. With the shift of population from the west to the central and midwest parts of the US, assume a slightly larger Scott AFB, so ITTL Roberts is stationed and begins his business in IL. A young Harvard student named Willian Gates is hired by Roberts, and a MITS subsidy called MicroSoft is also founded in Chicago.

In 1955, two Syrian immigrants have a son in San Francisco. Historically, he was adopted by a couple of Californians, but ITTL, their ancestors moved to Kansas instead of California as a result of POD1. The child becomes a slightly above average student that ends up working as a midlevel drone at some computer company, instead of becoming the Steve Jobs that founded Apple.

With the roots of the American computing industry in Buffalo, and other large companies springing up in other Great Lakes cities (MicroSoft, as described above, for example), the Great Lakes states begin attracting large numbers of young minds and entrepeneurs. The Great Lakes begin being known as the Silicon Lakes, coloquially, due to the large amount of high-tech industry along them. California, meanwhile, becomes primarily known for Hollywood. A small number of high-tech companies are founded there, but nowhere close to the level of the Silicon Lakes.

Ultimately, slight population shift from west and southwest to great planes and midwest, and a very large economic and political shift from California to the Great Lakes states.
 
Every country has certain areas with more population, wealth and political power than the rest.

What if the three are different, though?

In the U.S., frex, population is increasingly concentrated in California and the Sunbelt, but our economic center of power remains in New York City (this would be hard to change w/o some disaster befalling them).

Political power, depending on your point of view, is either concentrated in Washington or whatever sparsely populated chunk of the midwest is representing "swing voters" this year.

Is the challenge to adjust one of the three? Not too hard, delaying the invention of cheap air-conditioning would largely eliminate the migrations to Florida, Arizona, et al -- for something less broad, have Hollywood set up shop somewhere other than SoCal and send all the population and wealth that poured into OTL Los Angeles to that other location.

If, OTOH, you want something to meet the trifecta, you should probably start by keeping the capital in New York and move from there to a general New York-wank.
 
Hmm... If the Midwest transitions more or less peacefully from manufacturing to technology, does this reduce the protectionist streak in American politics?

Also, does this mean that the technology industry is more unionized than OTL? :D

America:

POD1: The Preemption Act of 1841 is a bit more liberal (it uses the terms of the Homestead Act), but it only applies to "current" territories of the US. It's never truly updated to include later territories like California and Texas, because, more or less, there's still so much land to be used up. As a result, the Louisiana Purchase and Midwest territories are slightly more populated, the West and Southwest are slightly less populated.

POD2: In 1896, IBM is founded in Buffalo, NY by Herman Hollerith. Historically, he founded it in Endicott, NY (central part of the state) and it later moved to Armonk, NY (near NYC); ITTL, he decides to locate it in the city of his birth. Attracting large numbers of mathematicians and engineers, Buffalo gains a minor reputation as an intellectual city.

Decades later, computers begin to rise. A man named Ed Roberts founded a company called MITS in Chicago, Illinois. Historically, it was founded in New Mexico, where Roberts was stationed in his air force days. With the shift of population from the west to the central and midwest parts of the US, assume a slightly larger Scott AFB, so ITTL Roberts is stationed and begins his business in IL. A young Harvard student named Willian Gates is hired by Roberts, and a MITS subsidy called MicroSoft is also founded in Chicago.

In 1955, two Syrian immigrants have a son in San Francisco. Historically, he was adopted by a couple of Californians, but ITTL, their ancestors moved to Kansas instead of California as a result of POD1. The child becomes a slightly above average student that ends up working as a midlevel drone at some computer company, instead of becoming the Steve Jobs that founded Apple.

With the roots of the American computing industry in Buffalo, and other large companies springing up in other Great Lakes cities (MicroSoft, as described above, for example), the Great Lakes states begin attracting large numbers of young minds and entrepeneurs. The Great Lakes begin being known as the Silicon Lakes, coloquially, due to the large amount of high-tech industry along them. California, meanwhile, becomes primarily known for Hollywood. A small number of high-tech companies are founded there, but nowhere close to the level of the Silicon Lakes.

Ultimately, slight population shift from west and southwest to great planes and midwest, and a very large economic and political shift from California to the Great Lakes states.
 
Hmm... If the Midwest transitions more or less peacefully from manufacturing to technology, does this reduce the protectionist streak in American politics?

Also, does this mean that the technology industry is more unionized than OTL? :D

Probably, to some extent, in the first case. Not so much in the second, though. The people typically involved in the tech industry, the geniuses and artists, tend to be relatively independent. As a whole, we (and I use the term "we" loosely, I'm still a student and only work during summers ;)) just don't tend to care about unionizing as much. The companies know that individual men and women working for them aren't nearly as replaceable as in manufacturing or agriculture, so they tend to treat their employees pretty well. That reduces tech unionization, too.

I wouldn't really say that the Midwest has transitioned to a technological economic base, though, at least not entirely. Think of how California, the main analogue to this TL, has an agricultural based economy even though it's host of the biggest tech center in the nation. Texas and New York are both agricultural based economies, despite also hosting large tech regions (Houston and Tech Valley, respectively).
 
For whatever reason the First Fleet stops at OTL Portland, Victoria in 1787, Australia's first settlement starts here instead of Sydney. Unlike OTL the colony is not hemmed in by the Blue Mountains and quickly spreads out, soon finding the Gundijitmara settlements around the Condah swamp. In the 2 years between the first and second fleets these 2 population centres learn from each other by osmosis, and the beginnings of a hybrid population emerge.
 
In the case of my country, if for some reason the Portuguese capital was moved north (say, a worse effect of the Earthquake of 1755, or some different borders that make the "centre" of the nation far norther than OTL), that could have propelled more investmanet in the north and make it more prosper, it would prevent a lot of the internal migrations from the centre (and occasionally, the north) to the centre south - Lisbon, and make the north more populous than the Lisbon area.
 
Australia Divided - Swan River and the Dutch

Frederick de Houtman was the first European explorer to happen across Swan River, the most habitable part of Western Australia, back in the 17th century. However, he never landed because the surf was too rough that day.

So, let's say the surf was calm. He lands, then he and his crew explore a bit. They find the Swan River, the interesting flora and fauna, and a few of the natives, the hunter-gatherer Noongar. The natives behave rather amicably (for the moment), despite the impossibility of communication between themselves and the Europeans.

Fast-forward to 2009. Half of Australia is a former Dutch colony, while the other half is a former British colony. Each is a seperate nation, with their own states, constitution, laws and such-on. Perth could be nearly as big as Sydney, while Queensland could have been subdivided, leading to enhanced growth of northern Queensland cities like Mackay and Cairns, as they become state capitals.

EDIT: Oh, wait, you said PoD of post-1750. My bad. Let's just say that the Dutch get the idea of trying to colonise New Holland in the 1750s, then, a few decades before Captain Cook drops anchor at Botany Bay on the opposite side of the country.
 
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