A/H Challenge--small American territory/state in Europe

How about a post WWI settlement that places Danzig under a US protectorate? A semi-autonomous Danzig might evolve into something valuable to US commercial interests and therefore worth protecting, and a US presence would complicate immensely any German plans to invade Poland.
 
Danzig, Helgoland, Palestine, or Tripoli

Looking at things, (And as much as I'd LOVE an Irish-American union for a TL) I'm beginning to think that American territory in Europe is very difficult to near impossible. Helgoland, perhaps, if Britian was dead set on not letting Germany keep it--and that's an obvious flashpoint. Heck, it might lead to a war between Hitler's Germany and the USA even before he invaded Poland...

Danzig, perhaps could be an American protectorate if the USA was seen as an honest broker, but that is a strech.

I did once see a map, proposed early in World War II by the British, to foist Palestine off on the USA to gdt it away from the Ottomans, yet not be saddled with the responsibility for it.

Or Tripoli, or another Barbary state, after one of them reneged on a deal with the USA one too many times, especially of the Ottoman Empire was also busy elsewhere.

I'm beginning to think that Helgoland has the most potential for mischief. There's a wildly different World War II, if the first nation Germany's at war with is the USA...
 
Consider the League of Nations with the US included

Looking at things, (And as much as I'd LOVE an Irish-American union for a TL) I'm beginning to think that American territory in Europe is very difficult to near impossible.

And that was my first reaction. I didn't and still don't know why you wanted to specify this particular means of entangling the USA into the war earlier; more plausible ways of getting that result come quickly to mind.

(And unless someone brings in a new angle, I've shot my bolt on Ireland here and won't, um, harp on it any more!)

A way of getting some kind of territorial involvement for WWII would be if the USA had gone ahead and joined the League of Nations after WWI. Which is part of why this was opposed--but actually, according to Richard J. Barnet in The Rockets' Red Glare, many of Wilson's opponents, including Lodge, were also on record long before the war as favoring some kind of international peacekeeping body, and had Wilson been able to accept some sort of compromise he probably could have gotten a majority for a revised treaty in the Senate. If we imagine this happened, or that Wilson got shunted aside, then, if the revised version was in turn acceptable to the Versailles powers, the USA would be a charter member of the League, and probably also a signatory of the Versailles Treaty as well. (OTL, the USA never did sign Versailles and we eventually made a separate peace with Germany and the other Central Powers).

Thus, as a League member, all sorts of possibilities would have been open for the USA to be granted Mandate authority--perhaps over places like both Heligoland and Danzig! I can see the League choosing America as the Mandate power for any territory carved out of a major European state, precisely because the USA did not have other territorial interests there, whereas giving it either to Britain or France would have been tantamount to old-fashioned conquest, despite the restrictions League mandates theoretically imposed.

All I know about Heligoland is what it says on the Wikipedia page, but from the maps there it looks, as I said somewhere above, hella tiny.

Now on the other hand, besides Danzig, there was also--the Rhineland. Which I believe US forces actually did occupy a portion of immediately after the Armistice. I can see the League handing over the responsibility of keeping the Rhineland demilitarized to the USA, under long-term Mandate authority, rather than Britain and France trying to hold it. And, given the conciliatory mood of American policy toward Germany during Weimar, perhaps the Germans would tolerate a minimal US presence there right up to Hitler's seizure of power in 1933. Then, when Hitler wanted to march into the Rhineland, it would be against at least a token US force there.

Since 1935 is way too early for Hitler to start the war, I suppose that the Americans would yield, at least if the League ordered them out. But if the USA held some other mandate near or partitioned from Germany, there would be your tripwire, with Americans already once burned and very wary and thus perhaps hairtriggered to join the Allies immediately upon the invasion of Poland. Indeed the League might continue, despite having failed as spectacularly as it actually did OTL, with one of its founding powers based safely across the Atlantic, and the Allies would operate as the League fighting renegade powers. It would be the League rather than the UN that might eventually win the war.

I did once see a map, proposed early in World War II by the British, to foist Palestine off on the USA to gdt it away from the Ottomans, yet not be saddled with the responsibility for it.

See, now you are talking about yet another League mandate, OTL, if your reference to "World War II" above is a typo for WWI as I assume. Because Britain did hold Palestine as a League mandate, just as France held Syria/Lebanon.

Not to suggest the USA would have been handed every single League Mandate in the whole Europe/Mediterranean region! Mix and match as you like.
 
Looking at things, (And as much as I'd LOVE an Irish-American union for a TL) I'm beginning to think that American territory in Europe is very difficult to near impossible...

I'm beginning to think that Helgoland has the most potential for mischief. There's a wildly different World War II, if the first nation Germany's at war with is the USA...

Do you really think that the USA is willing to go to war in Europe over a small island with no value? And why would they want Helgoland in the first place, knowing it will only lead to trouble with Germany?

If you want the Americans to care, if you want the USA to feel they have something to loose, than its either recources or people.

There is no way that any major power would let the USA get hold of a recource rich area in Europa.

That leaves people and this is why I thought of the Irish.
With millions of Americans claiming family roots in the green island there is an emotional connection, there is something to loose.

Now to get the USA into Ireland is, as you say, almost impossible.
The best I can come up with is that the civil war in the late 20ies drags on and on until somebody calls for a UN-like occupation force to end the killing.
Who better than the USA, esp before the British return - which would be a very good reason why the Irish would accept foreign troops. And the British could live with this solution as well.

That will put US troops and ships in Europe right at the time as Hitler took power. Now let the Kriegsmarine sink a few US-ships as part of the blockade and you have the USA at war by the middle/end of 1940.
 
Spanish American War -- US takes Canaries?/Azores?/Madrids?


During the Berber War The US signed a Treaty 1804? 1806?, with the Kingdom Of Sicily, allowing the US to establish a Base for Resupply.
Have this Base be on the Island of Cominoto http://maps.google.com/maps?f=s&utm...-us-bk-gm&utm_medium=ha&utm_term=goggle maps] search MALTA
After the Napoleonic War when Britain takes Malta, The US keeps the Base and expands over the next couple years to control the entire Island.
 
Spanish American War -- US takes Canaries?/Azores?/Madrids?


During the Berber War The US signed a Treaty 1804? 1806?, with the Kingdom Of Sicily, allowing the US to establish a Base for Resupply.
Have this Base be on the Island of Cominoto http://maps.google.com/maps?f=s&utm...-us-bk-gm&utm_medium=ha&utm_term=goggle maps] search MALTA
After the Napoleonic War when Britain takes Malta, The US keeps the Base and expands over the next couple years to control the entire Island.

Cominotto is tiny. I dont think even Comino would be enough for a large army base. But also, before the British arrived in Malta (1800) it was ruled by the Knights of St.John, not the Sicillians.
 
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