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alternatehistory.com
I was reading the "The Worst piece of Alternate History Ever" thread, and a thought occurred to me: what would happen if we actually removed "America"? But then a further question occurs: what is "America," as in the United States of? What defines it and makes it so important? One particular key trait of America is the midwest: a massive contiguous area of arable land, which links up directly to the greater Mississippi basin, as seen in this image:
Without a westward expansion, wouldn't "Louisiana" (or whatever particular government seized control of that territory) become the new America?
So what if, some horrible disease tears up all this wonderful, fertile land, leaving only a river and some infertile land behind, at some point in the mid-12th century? How would history develop?