Reloj. But I agree that in this case, Tekax would be pronounced with an S sound, because Spanish avoids ending syllables with j.
Affiliated States of Boreoamerica thread
- Thread starter False Dmitri
- Start date
I've mapped out Poutaxia's counties and expanded its history. I hope the map isn't too terribly hard to read.
In the 18th century the Poutaxat valley was a neutral ground between three strong regional powers: Pennsylvania, New Netherland, and Iroquoia. Besides people from those three places, Lenape, Shawnee, Susquehannock, Germans, and Yankees inhabited settlements scattered across the area. These diverse groups co-existed or fought as the situation called for.
In the 1780s and 90s a new class of Mixed local merchants, at the same time White and Indian, were emerging as the key local leaders. They were beginning to organize governments on the basis of the regions that later became Poutaxia's provinces. In some areas, local leaders were more or less beholden to one state. So the Wyoming Valley settlements were dependent on support from Connecticut; Pennamite loyalists were predominant in Kitchatinny; Tioga had treaties with the Iroquois. Other provinces were more fully independent, though neighboring states meddled in them. Pennsylvania and New Netherland had forts in Lehigh, Susquehanna province had influence from all four states, plus Maryland and Christiana.
The Anglo-American Congresses of the 1780s established relations between the English-speaking states and what were called "the settlements west of the Poutaxat". The Congresses helped to refine the emerging class of local leaders, giving them experience in continental politics and diplomacy. Agreements reached in Congress began to define the region's borders. When the Anglo-American Congress merged with the Iroquois-Dutch Covenant Chain in 1795, it cleared the way for all of the regional powers to reach an agreement on Poutaxia's status.
In 1798, the assembled allies in Congress agreed that Poutaxia ought to become a neutral, independent state. Local chiefs and notables met in the town of Wilks-Barré, modern Wilkspar. They created something which they called the "State of Poutaxia", though for the time being the state government was nearly nonexistent: it was little more than a large committee for choosing and giving instructions to the provinces' delegation to the Congress. Still, all of Poutaxia's neighbors agreed to call it a state and recognize it as such. It was therefore the first of the "neutral ground" states created in the spaces where colonial influence overlapped; the arrangements that created it would be applied after the creation of the ASB in Allegheny, Ohio, West Florida, and other states.
In the wars of the first decade of the 1800s, all of Poutaxia's immediate neighbors fought on the same side, that of England, and so the state did not see much major fighting. There were some skirmishes on the western edge. Virginia, which fought on the other side, actively tried to win over some of the Poutaxat towns and provinces, but succeeded only in drawing a few recruits. The surrounding states also raised militia units in Poutaxia; most of these went north to fight in the bloody Lake Erie theater of the war.
But the war also spurred the new state government to organize Poutaxia's defense. It oversaw the construction of forts and blockhouses. These had to be manned and provisioned, and the garrisons had to be trained and fed. This required money, which required statewide taxes, largely in the form of contributions from the seven provinces.
Among Poutaxia's emerging elite, the opinion was emerging that the state should adopt a proper government that could put it on equal terms with its neighbors. The constitution that they put forward in the 1820s was a fairly radical change: it centralized most of the sovereign power, leaving the provinces as local administrative units and little more. Poutaxia became a state in fact as well as in name.
Neighboring states (Pennsylvania, New Netherland, Lower Connecticut, and Iroquoia) still had forts and other properties in several provinces. They operated roads and bridges and charged tolls for their maintenance. This legacy of Poutaxia's history remained in place for almost half a century after the adoption of the first modern constitution. The modern idea that all of the states are fundamentally equal had not yet come into being. It was only after the rise of the confederal Parliament that laws were passed to prevent stronger states from meddling in the affairs of weaker states.
In the 1870s, all sides finally reached an agreement to make Poutaxia a state coequal with the rest of the Confederation. The State of Poutaxia took control of all assets which had belonged to other states.With this hurdle cleared, the state embarked on a series of reforms to make local government more efficient. The larger and more populated of the seven provinces were broken up into counties. In the 1950s the provincial governments were abolished completely, all powers of local administration passing to the counties. Provincial names and boundaries were kept only as a geographic convenience; they mark out not only physical features, but major features of the state's human geography as well.
In the 18th century the Poutaxat valley was a neutral ground between three strong regional powers: Pennsylvania, New Netherland, and Iroquoia. Besides people from those three places, Lenape, Shawnee, Susquehannock, Germans, and Yankees inhabited settlements scattered across the area. These diverse groups co-existed or fought as the situation called for.
In the 1780s and 90s a new class of Mixed local merchants, at the same time White and Indian, were emerging as the key local leaders. They were beginning to organize governments on the basis of the regions that later became Poutaxia's provinces. In some areas, local leaders were more or less beholden to one state. So the Wyoming Valley settlements were dependent on support from Connecticut; Pennamite loyalists were predominant in Kitchatinny; Tioga had treaties with the Iroquois. Other provinces were more fully independent, though neighboring states meddled in them. Pennsylvania and New Netherland had forts in Lehigh, Susquehanna province had influence from all four states, plus Maryland and Christiana.
The Anglo-American Congresses of the 1780s established relations between the English-speaking states and what were called "the settlements west of the Poutaxat". The Congresses helped to refine the emerging class of local leaders, giving them experience in continental politics and diplomacy. Agreements reached in Congress began to define the region's borders. When the Anglo-American Congress merged with the Iroquois-Dutch Covenant Chain in 1795, it cleared the way for all of the regional powers to reach an agreement on Poutaxia's status.
In 1798, the assembled allies in Congress agreed that Poutaxia ought to become a neutral, independent state. Local chiefs and notables met in the town of Wilks-Barré, modern Wilkspar. They created something which they called the "State of Poutaxia", though for the time being the state government was nearly nonexistent: it was little more than a large committee for choosing and giving instructions to the provinces' delegation to the Congress. Still, all of Poutaxia's neighbors agreed to call it a state and recognize it as such. It was therefore the first of the "neutral ground" states created in the spaces where colonial influence overlapped; the arrangements that created it would be applied after the creation of the ASB in Allegheny, Ohio, West Florida, and other states.
In the wars of the first decade of the 1800s, all of Poutaxia's immediate neighbors fought on the same side, that of England, and so the state did not see much major fighting. There were some skirmishes on the western edge. Virginia, which fought on the other side, actively tried to win over some of the Poutaxat towns and provinces, but succeeded only in drawing a few recruits. The surrounding states also raised militia units in Poutaxia; most of these went north to fight in the bloody Lake Erie theater of the war.
But the war also spurred the new state government to organize Poutaxia's defense. It oversaw the construction of forts and blockhouses. These had to be manned and provisioned, and the garrisons had to be trained and fed. This required money, which required statewide taxes, largely in the form of contributions from the seven provinces.
Among Poutaxia's emerging elite, the opinion was emerging that the state should adopt a proper government that could put it on equal terms with its neighbors. The constitution that they put forward in the 1820s was a fairly radical change: it centralized most of the sovereign power, leaving the provinces as local administrative units and little more. Poutaxia became a state in fact as well as in name.
Neighboring states (Pennsylvania, New Netherland, Lower Connecticut, and Iroquoia) still had forts and other properties in several provinces. They operated roads and bridges and charged tolls for their maintenance. This legacy of Poutaxia's history remained in place for almost half a century after the adoption of the first modern constitution. The modern idea that all of the states are fundamentally equal had not yet come into being. It was only after the rise of the confederal Parliament that laws were passed to prevent stronger states from meddling in the affairs of weaker states.
In the 1870s, all sides finally reached an agreement to make Poutaxia a state coequal with the rest of the Confederation. The State of Poutaxia took control of all assets which had belonged to other states.With this hurdle cleared, the state embarked on a series of reforms to make local government more efficient. The larger and more populated of the seven provinces were broken up into counties. In the 1950s the provincial governments were abolished completely, all powers of local administration passing to the counties. Provincial names and boundaries were kept only as a geographic convenience; they mark out not only physical features, but major features of the state's human geography as well.
Lol, Dunder and Mifflin.
If the map were bigger, I'd show the nearby town of Schrutenhof. Nowadays mostly known as an artists' colony.
I've honestly spent years tinkering with maps looking for a way to show the English-speaking ethnic groups of Boreoamerica, and I think this is the solution. Rather than different colors, the major English stocks are shown in a single color separated by dashed lines, which taper off at the ends. This shows that the places where they live overlap considerably, and that while they are definitely considered distinct, the groups intermarry often.
The color is meant, in a vague and non-mathematical way, to show areas that have noticeable or substantial English populations. It most definitely does not show areas with an English or English-speaking majority. Cities like New Amsterdam, Havana, and the capitals of the southern Indian states have well-established English communities, but they are far from the majority there.
Briefly, the major stocks are:
- Yankees: Descendants of the original colonists of New England are the most geographically dispersed of all English ethnic groups. Major communities extend from Acadia to the Mississippi River. Communities founded by Yankees are recognizable. They are defined by self-governing townships, town centers focused on a green common, prominent Congregational churches, and governments with features of direct democracy. The eight New England states are the Yankee homeland; other states and regions founded by them include St. John's Island, Upper Connecticut, Wyoming Province in Poutaxia, and the Ashkany and Sanduskey Countries in the Upper Country.
- Pennamites: The Pennamite people are not purely English by ancestry; they emerged as a mix of people from the British Isles and Germany. Some Pennamite communities speak English, some German, and some are bilingual, but they perceive themselves as a single group. The first colonists of Pennsylvania were Quakers and many of their descendants still are, but the defining religious trait of the Pennamites is pluralism. Pennsylvania itself was unable to expand its territory very much, but its people, numerous and wealthy, spread far beyond its borders as far as Ohio, the Upper Country, and Illinois.
- Virginians: Virginia just after independence pursued a policy of aggressive westward expansion, and its people settled all the way down the valley of the Ohio and into Illinois. Virginian culture has been described as assertive, individualist, and tending toward enthusiastic expressions of religion. These democratic impulse have always been offset by attempts by the old gentry to assert itself. Virginian states and communities tend to divide independent cities from the surrounding countryside, as opposed to the combination of the two seen in Yankee townships. Virginians and Marylanders are considered to belong to the same stock; near the Chesapeake, the term "Waterman" is often used to refer to this combined group; further west, they are simply called Virginians.
- Piedmonters: Scotch-Irish colonists settled all along the valleys and ridges of the Alleghenies, but are associated above all with the culture of inland Carolina. Poor, clannish, largely Presbyterian, the Piedmonters conflicted often with Carolina's political establishment. Although many of the founders of the State of Watauga were Virginians, the state came to be seen as an expression of the aspirations of the Piedmonter people. For many years there were rumblings that the western counties of Carolina should either join Watauga or form their own state.
- Low Carolians: The culture of Carolina's traditional ruling class has been called genteel, well-mannered, hospitable, conservative to the point of closed-mindedness. In religion, the established Anglican Church achieved dominance among the Lowlanders during a century-and-a-quarter of Loyalist government; but it evolved to be much more Low Church and emotionally expressive to fit the mores of the Carolian people. Outside of Carolina, Low Carolians make up the bulk of the English population of West Florida.
- Black English: The homeland of the Black English runs from Maryland to Cherokee. Centuries of legal and social segregation caused this population to have strong ties across state lines, and to remain distinct from their White neighbors. In most of the areas on this map, communities of Black English overlap with the other groups; the exception is some of the cities in the inland south outside the English states, which were major destinations for freedmen and others fleeing discrimination. The Great Migration happened in this timeline, dispersing the Black English to cities throughout the ASB; particularly important destinations were Chicago, Detroit, Cleaveland, New Amsterdam, New Orleans, and Havana. Other sizable groups settled as farmers in central Dakota and in the Plains nations west of the ASB.
- Newfers: The Newfoundlander population is a mixture of English, Irish, and French ancestry. Its maritime culture, music, and food are much celebrated. Some Newfers have settled in Labrador but otherwise have not moved far beyond their island homeland.
- Old Marylanders: Sometimes seen as distinct from the Virginian/Waterman stock, the Old Marylanders are the descendants of the persecuted English Catholics who founded the state.
- Accomacs: On the Accomac peninsula in Virginia and Maryland, a unique mixed-race culture emerged that cut against the general trend of racial segregation in the English slave colonies. On the peninsula, a class of free, landowning Black farmers intermarried with their White neighbors.
- Gullah: The Gullah are a creole ethnic group comparable to similar cultures in the Caribbean. Their language and way of life set them apart from the other Black English on the mainland. They live along the coast of southern Carolina and East Florida.
- Mormons: The Mormons are largely descended from Yankees, but a different religion and years of physical separation have led to their being considered a separate group. They largely live along the Missouri River at the western edge of the ASB and across the border in Mexico and Omaha.
- Assiniboia English: England first tried to settle people in Assiniboia in the late eighteenth century, but most of the Assiniboia English today are descended from people, many from Cornwall, who arrived to work the mines almost a hundred years later. The largest concentration of Assiniboia English is actually in Mesabi in the Upper Country, center of the iron mining industry.
- Bermudans, Bahamians, and Caymanians: The little island states of course have their own distinct cultures. Most of the people of all three archipelagos have both Black and White ancestry. The population of Turks and Caicos is about half Bermudan, half Bahamian, and the two groups do not always get along.
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I have an outline of the ASB's space program. It's something like this:
-The ASB was not the first country in space, but it was among the first.
-The space program was established by an act of Parliament but its predecessor organization was called the Boreoamerican Organization for Advanced Research, or BOAR.
-The BOAR was created much like the ASB itself: It was a collection of disparate organizations such as universities, corporations, state-level government agencies, and research hospitals that was created to encourage information sharing between researchers. Research organizations had developed a culture of competition and secrecy regarding scientific research in the '20s to the '40s, and the BOAR was established to combat that.
-There was originally a launch facility in southern Carolina, but nowadays all spacecraft are launched from Punta Cana, East Dominica, although suborbital research rockets are sometimes launched from northern Labrador.
-Various sub-agencies are scattered throughout the ASB, with Mission Control in Chicagou, R&D in Huronia, Astronaut Training in Carolina, a radio telescope in southern Cuba, and other, smaller groups.
-The ASB was not the first country in space, but it was among the first.
-The space program was established by an act of Parliament but its predecessor organization was called the Boreoamerican Organization for Advanced Research, or BOAR.
-The BOAR was created much like the ASB itself: It was a collection of disparate organizations such as universities, corporations, state-level government agencies, and research hospitals that was created to encourage information sharing between researchers. Research organizations had developed a culture of competition and secrecy regarding scientific research in the '20s to the '40s, and the BOAR was established to combat that.
-There was originally a launch facility in southern Carolina, but nowadays all spacecraft are launched from Punta Cana, East Dominica, although suborbital research rockets are sometimes launched from northern Labrador.
-Various sub-agencies are scattered throughout the ASB, with Mission Control in Chicagou, R&D in Huronia, Astronaut Training in Carolina, a radio telescope in southern Cuba, and other, smaller groups.
I like this a lot! The idea of states just going along doing their own space research is something I find rather charming, and I really like the locations you picked for the various components of the program. And having grown up near Chicagou, I'm now imagining what my childhood would have been like if it had included regular day trips to Mission Control.
I suppose the catchphrase would be something like "Chicagou, on a un problème".
I suppose the catchphrase would be something like "Chicagou, on a un problème".
I figured that they'd have communications largely in English, but with everyone involved required to learn French at the insistence of the Francophone state governments.
Here is a first draft of the history of the ASB's space program, covering mostly the formative years.
History of space flight in the ASB, 1860-1960
History of space flight in the ASB, 1860-1960
Perhaps the earliest proponent of rocket-powered space flight was the little-known New Scottish clergyman and educator William Bure. Bure had a strong background in science and mathematics, and was the first to propose using rocket propulsion for space flight in the 1860s. However, he lacked the technical background required to make this proposal a reality.
The father of rocketry in the ASB was Nathan Hoyt, a Massachusetts man of Dutch descent, who published several papers in the 1910s and 1920s describing chemical reaction engines which could provide thrust in a vacuum. The topic had already been thoroughly explored in Russia a decade prior, though the research involved was labeled an Imperial State Secret and was thus unavailable outside the country. Hoyt designed and developed chemical rocket engines, eventually launching one in 1928.
The successful rocket launch inspired the foundation of numerous amateur rocket clubs in the ASB, many of which grew out of already-existing aero flying clubs, which in turn grew out of the automobile clubs late in the century prior. The first rocket club was the New England Rocket Club, followed quickly by the New Amsterdam Rocket Club, the Upper Country Rocket Society, and dozens of others.
State governments also became invested in rocket research. In Pays d'en-Haut, the State Aeronautic Consultative Congress, or CCAPH, began to research the incorporation of rockets into aircraft. In Carolina, the state government established the Carolina Test Pilot School in 1939, hoping to gain an experimental edge on other, more theoretically-oriented organizations.
In 1936, a group of university students and non-student enthusiasts at Huronia University established a rocket research group called the Laboratoire Aéronautique de l'Université de la Huronie, or LAUHur. LAUHur's dangerous experiments eventually achieved enough notoriety that the group was forced to move to the distant suburb of Ganatsequaigon in 1937. The group eventually founded their own company, Motespace.
These early years were fraught with interorganizational rivalry. In particular, CCAPH liked to send undercover agents to different rocket clubs, eventually narrowing their focus to monitoring LAUHur. In 1938, there was a scandal when CCAPH agents were found to have sabotaged one of LAUHur's rockets; the agents were tried and jailed, but CCAPH itself managed to deflect culpability.
This adversarial environment was not limited to aerospace research, but indicative of a broader malaise in Boreoamerican scientific research. Beginning in the late 1920s and continuing until the late 1940s, scientific organizations began to compete more and more, cooperate less and less, and kept much of their research secret. By 1940, virtually all university students and scientists were under strict non-disclosure agreements. Scientific advancement in the ASB risked lagging behind the rest of the world. Spies from the various, state governments, universities, and corporations stole secrets from one another and sabotaged experiments; even hospitals did not escape conflict.
With the advent of nuclear weapons [I assume the ASB did not invent nukes TTL], the ASB quickly recognized the vital need to centralize and organize its research. In 1952, Parliament established a Special Office for Research Cooperation. SORC gathered representatives from twelve organizations from around the ASB to form the core of what would become a centralized research institution. These included universities, research hospitals, state-level government science institutes, and technology corporations. The institution was formally created in 1955, called The Boreoamerican Organization for Advanced Research, or BOAR. In conjunction with several acts of Parliament aimed at encouraging scientific cooperation, the late 1950s and early 1960s saw a marked decrease in the type of espionage that had become commonplace; there was a consequent boom in scientific research in many fields, not merely rocketry.
CCAPH had earned extra scrutiny from Parliament due to its domestic espionage activities. The decision was made to disband the department, but all the information it had gathered on the activities of all the different rocketry organizations proved useful in establishing a coordinating body. To this end, the Confederal Space Research Organization was founded in Chicago, with many former CCAPH agents hired to lead the new body. Motespace agreed to become an organ of the Confederal government in 1959, changing its name to the Boreoamerican Rocketry Research Institute, which then became the ASB's primary space R&D center. Additionally, the Carolina Test Pilot School was reorganized into an Astronaut Training Center in 1963 when it became clear that human spaceflight was not only a possibility, but practically a requirement for continued advancement.
[next part: choosing a launch site]
The father of rocketry in the ASB was Nathan Hoyt, a Massachusetts man of Dutch descent, who published several papers in the 1910s and 1920s describing chemical reaction engines which could provide thrust in a vacuum. The topic had already been thoroughly explored in Russia a decade prior, though the research involved was labeled an Imperial State Secret and was thus unavailable outside the country. Hoyt designed and developed chemical rocket engines, eventually launching one in 1928.
The successful rocket launch inspired the foundation of numerous amateur rocket clubs in the ASB, many of which grew out of already-existing aero flying clubs, which in turn grew out of the automobile clubs late in the century prior. The first rocket club was the New England Rocket Club, followed quickly by the New Amsterdam Rocket Club, the Upper Country Rocket Society, and dozens of others.
State governments also became invested in rocket research. In Pays d'en-Haut, the State Aeronautic Consultative Congress, or CCAPH, began to research the incorporation of rockets into aircraft. In Carolina, the state government established the Carolina Test Pilot School in 1939, hoping to gain an experimental edge on other, more theoretically-oriented organizations.
In 1936, a group of university students and non-student enthusiasts at Huronia University established a rocket research group called the Laboratoire Aéronautique de l'Université de la Huronie, or LAUHur. LAUHur's dangerous experiments eventually achieved enough notoriety that the group was forced to move to the distant suburb of Ganatsequaigon in 1937. The group eventually founded their own company, Motespace.
These early years were fraught with interorganizational rivalry. In particular, CCAPH liked to send undercover agents to different rocket clubs, eventually narrowing their focus to monitoring LAUHur. In 1938, there was a scandal when CCAPH agents were found to have sabotaged one of LAUHur's rockets; the agents were tried and jailed, but CCAPH itself managed to deflect culpability.
This adversarial environment was not limited to aerospace research, but indicative of a broader malaise in Boreoamerican scientific research. Beginning in the late 1920s and continuing until the late 1940s, scientific organizations began to compete more and more, cooperate less and less, and kept much of their research secret. By 1940, virtually all university students and scientists were under strict non-disclosure agreements. Scientific advancement in the ASB risked lagging behind the rest of the world. Spies from the various, state governments, universities, and corporations stole secrets from one another and sabotaged experiments; even hospitals did not escape conflict.
With the advent of nuclear weapons [I assume the ASB did not invent nukes TTL], the ASB quickly recognized the vital need to centralize and organize its research. In 1952, Parliament established a Special Office for Research Cooperation. SORC gathered representatives from twelve organizations from around the ASB to form the core of what would become a centralized research institution. These included universities, research hospitals, state-level government science institutes, and technology corporations. The institution was formally created in 1955, called The Boreoamerican Organization for Advanced Research, or BOAR. In conjunction with several acts of Parliament aimed at encouraging scientific cooperation, the late 1950s and early 1960s saw a marked decrease in the type of espionage that had become commonplace; there was a consequent boom in scientific research in many fields, not merely rocketry.
CCAPH had earned extra scrutiny from Parliament due to its domestic espionage activities. The decision was made to disband the department, but all the information it had gathered on the activities of all the different rocketry organizations proved useful in establishing a coordinating body. To this end, the Confederal Space Research Organization was founded in Chicago, with many former CCAPH agents hired to lead the new body. Motespace agreed to become an organ of the Confederal government in 1959, changing its name to the Boreoamerican Rocketry Research Institute, which then became the ASB's primary space R&D center. Additionally, the Carolina Test Pilot School was reorganized into an Astronaut Training Center in 1963 when it became clear that human spaceflight was not only a possibility, but practically a requirement for continued advancement.
[next part: choosing a launch site]
While I do agree that any ASB Space/Science organization would be de facto French-English bilingual simply because of sheer numbers, I'd also argue that French might be the dominant language - especially when you look at the little tidbits scattered across this thread (Far weaker England/English America, Far more influential France/French Americas, the Russian/PIC's continued use of French as a Language of the Royal Court, etc. - due to the highly probable chance that French in this world is never replaced by English or any other language as a Global Lingua Franca.
Agreed. English is so dominant in the US because immigrants had to learn it to find work. But here, non-French immigrants in French parts of the ASB would probably learn French first, bolstering the French speaking population.
It may be at parity rather than dominant though.
Oh definitely.
In regards to those who live within the ASB and don't do much international travel/work, I would definitely agree. Someone who lives in New Amsterdam or Christiana would probably find it much more practical to learn English as a second language than French, because they are surrounded by English Speaking states.
But if said individuals wanted to do a cross-travel trip across Europe or the PIC or work in international business/diplomacy/etc., then I'd argue that learning French would be the better option for them with French presumably more much widespread outside the ASB than English. Of course, considering how many languages that the ASB has, many people are probably trilingual/multilingual.
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This is a really entertaining read and it seems so crazy! Is this based on anything in OTL, or just the fact that the ASB is more decentralized?
It's loosely based on the founding of ESA, but the stuff about scientific secrecy is 100% made up. It just seemed like the kind of stupid thing a country might end up doing when regulators stop paying attention for too long. Based on what I already know about companies going after each others' proprietary tools and information, it seemed like a logical step for some to go overboard with protection, and others to go overboard with defeating that protection.
EDIT: To clarify, this would be pretty much buried and not seen by the public. Say in OTL you're friends with a grad student and you meet him in a bar, you ask "So what's this new project you're working on," and he says, "Oh, I'm using neural networks to program AI!" In TTL, it would be "So what kind of project are you working on," and then "You know I'm not allowed to discuss work. You'd think it was boring anyways!"
Also, when I say "Sabotage," I'm not talking about "rocket explodes people die," I'm talking about a lab assistant who makes a bad batch of rocket fuel; the thrust is drastically lower than predicted so the designers have to check their math and then look at the schematics to see what went wrong. It takes them weeks, maybe months to figure out that the assistant was behind it, but in that time they've been spending all their energy trying to solve a problem that didn't exist.
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History of the Upper Country
This has been a long time coming: a general history of the Upper Country. It's a lot of text; the spoiler tags are to break it up a little. I always feel guilty posting history without any new graphics, since this is the graphics forum. But there are some illustrations and I'm re-posting the map for reference. (Edit: The map has some slight changes compared to the last version. I added a couple of towns and shifted one internal border.)
1. Refugees (1640-1665)
2. Forming the alliance (1665-1701)
3. Era of the alliance (1701-1769)
4. The revolutionary era (1769-1810)
Trading for guns at Fort Michilimackinac
The Wars of Independence brought new challenges to the Upper Country alliance. On the one hand, disunity among the English meant a shift in the balance of power toward the French. On the other hand, independence unleashed expansionist impulses in the new states. Unprecedented numbers of traders and settlers from the English states began to come west. Three major Yankee communities took shape around Lake Erie: Connecticuters on the Cuyahoga, Massachusetts republicans on the Ashkany, and New England loyalists around Sanduskey Bay. Increasing numbers of Virginians and Pennamites were coming to the trading towns near southern Lake Michigan. The stream of newcomers put great stress on the alliance.
Leaders of the Upper Country had to build the alliance's institutional strength. The Grand Assembly began to meet in 1777, giving the allied leaders a permanent forum for the first time. Within the individual countries, French officials and Métis village leaders spurred the creation of local governments. The first elected councils and magistrates appeared in Green Bay, Kekionga and Michilimackinac. Canadian officers began to form militia units as well, channeling the warrior traditions of the Upper Country into an organized defense.
The French Revolution brought still more changes, realignments, and conflicts to the region. Canada stayed loyal to France and accepted the new regime, but Louisnana wavered. In 1793 the French Republic and England went to war, and some of the fighting spread to America. In a serious blow to the alliance, English and loyalist forces captured Fort Michilimackinac. The French were able to begin a new fort on nearby Mackinac Island, but it was an obvious sign of weakness. Canada had to scramble to keep leaders on its side. The war ended four years later with France in a weaker position in the Upper Country than at any time since the start of the colonial era.
Although England and France continued fighting, peace held for a few years in America. It was events in the Upper Country that provoked the next round of warfare. The independent English commonwealth of Virginia had grown increasingly close to France, England being an enemy common to both. In 1802 officers from both powers met in Upper St. Joseph to negotiate the future of the Ohio Country. They formed a plan to divide the whole region between them, shutting out all other powers. The pact sparked the War of the League of St. Joseph, the last and fiercest major imperial war in Boreomerica's history. The Great Lakes became a major theater of fighting. During the war it became clear that England was unable to sustain a military presence on the Lakes. English and allied forces made some gains but could not hold them.
Negotiations following the fighting were different from what had come before. After past wars, each empire had looked for advantages that would prepare it for the next one. This time, all sides sought a solution that would prevent future wars. There were so many sides involved now, most of them pursuing local agendas rather than European ones. Continental peace became the goal. The rise of the neutral Ohio Alliance was one clear sign of this. In the Upper Country, the combatants agreed that it would remain a French protectorate, but other communities were to govern themselves within it.
5. The imperial era (1810-1836)
6. The Miami War (1836-1838)
This was all in an earlier post. I've cleaned up some bits of grammar, that's all.
Fort Detroit in the early 19th century
The Miami War shook the Upper Country in a time when it was still sorting out just what its identity was. The fallout from the English Wars of Independence had brought peace among the continent’s major powers and recognition of the Upper Country as a single unit. The much smaller Kishwauki War (1822-1825) against Illinois defined its borders and clarified the relationship among the Francophone states. But much was left unsettled when it came to the Upper Country’s internal workings. It was not yet completely clear if the Grand Assembly in Detroit was a true government or a mere meeting of allied, self-governing countries. The governor, though chosen by the Assembly, still had to go to Quebec to confirm his position. Much of his power was military as the commander of Fort Detroit. He ruled his local domain of Detroit Country with nearly unchecked power; the old French paternalistic government was still basically in force there. The Miami War revealed the inherent conflict between the governor’s statewide and local roles. It also revealed that the structure of the Upper Country was fragile and inadequate to meet the needs of a growing population.
The conflict grew from the undefined boundaries between the constituent countries of the Pays-d’en-Haut. Sanduskey Country was simply defined as the largely English settlements around the bay and the islands. Did it extend up the shore a little? Who knew? It was not urgent when the population was small, but as the population of English and Mixed people grew and spread, the question became an important one. Likewise, Detroit country certainly included the land around Lake St. Clair and the newer settlements down on Lake Erie, but whether it extended farther was an open question. The lively Mixed town of Kekionga (*Ft. Wayne) was located at the forks of the river Miami-du-Lac and no one was sure how far downriver it extended.
The lower Miami-du-Lac and Miami Bay were thus located between three major clusters of settlements who all had reason to think of the area as their own natural backyard. By the 1820s it was becoming clear that it would be an important crossroads for trade and a big source of income for whoever controlled it. The three adjacent parts of the Upper Country began to compete to be the one that would have it.
So all three constituent countries made moves to get the land. They commissioned traders to build fortified posts at or near the mouth of the river. Militia came in to man the forts. There was no artillery - the separate towns could hardly afford that - but there were plenty of muskets and ammunition, and some of them were used to intimidate or attack the other side. There is no clear date when the “war” began, but parts of the Miami-du-Lac and western Lake Erie were decidedly unsafe by the the 1836 trading season.
The war’s only real offensive came at its climax in the spring of 1838. The key figure was Rémi Taschereau, member of a prominent Canadien family who had had an impressive military career in the Great Lakes. He had become Governor of the Upper Country five years earlier and therefore was also commander at Detroit. He agreed with the Detroit merchants that Miami-du-Lac was important to the town's interests. He also saw the actions of the Kekiongans and Sanduskeymen as an affront to his authority as governor. Taschereau resolved to drive them out of the area by force, occupy the Miami-du-Lac area, and use his authority to goad the state assembly into approving the new status quo.
Tashereau’s campaign was preceded by a delegation to the Kekiongans and Sanduskeymen with official orders to abandon their trading posts. The traders and militia did not quite know what to make of this, since the Upper Country’s governor had never ruled by decree outside of Detroit Country. Soon after came the Detroit Militia in two sloops and several dozen canoes, led by Tashereau. They quickly stormed the blockhouses of their rivals, who mostly fled at the approach of such a large armed force. But the attack had the effect of uniting the other two sides in the three-way rivalry. The Sanduskey militia joined the Kekiongans in paddling upstream to a defensible position at the fork of the Miami-du-Lac and the Glaise Rivers, where there sat an abandoned fort. They quickly dug in, reinforced by new militia companies called up from Kekionga. John Gibbs took command, a soldier of mixed Scottish, French, and Indian origin typical of the Mixed leadership in Kekionga. He enthusiastically re-declared the fort’s old name, Fort Defiance. By the time Taschereau and his men arrived, Gibbs was ready for them. The defenders of the fort threw back the first attack. Taschereau had no choice but to withdraw to the mouth of the river, having occupied the land that was his objective but failed to defeat the rival forces outright.
By then, delegates to the Grand Assembly were gathering in Detroit. Taschereau knew that the assembly could not begin proceedings without him, and he hoped to delay it until he could establish more firmly Detroit’s military control of the Miami-du-Lac. He sent word to his lieutenant, Pierre Jalbert, to send additional men. Most of the delegates in Detroit, however, were outraged at the heavy-handed way that Taschereau was acting. They met outdoors, in front of the fort and the newly built hall of assembly, and began to hold an extralegal session, speaking forcefully against the governor’s actions. Jalbert was unwilling to arrest en masse the leaders of the entire Upper Country, so the delegates continued meeting. The situation in Detroit was so tense, furthermore, that Jalbert feared that if he sent additional men to the Miami-du-Lac, he might lose control of the town entirely. Taschereau raged against his lieutenant’s inaction, but it probably kept the Upper Country from erupting into full-blown rebellion.
The delegates sent an appeal to Canada, whose judicial council still served as the court of last resort for the Upper Country. Canada ordered both Taschereau and Gibbs to stand down and the militia to disband. In a related ruling, they declared that the lower Miami-du-Lac valley was to be neutral territory subject directly to the state government of the Upper Country; the Grand Assembly was left to draw the borders with more specificity. The governor, afraid to return to Detroit, went to Montreal to account for his actions.
The crisis in Miami-du-Lac showed the serious need to reform the Upper Country’s institutions. First and foremost, the city and country of Detroit needed local governments separate from the governorship. Next, the powers of the Grand Assembly to make state laws had to be made clearer. Finally, the powers of militia had to be taken away from the individual towns and regions and made subject to the Upper Country’s civil government. The reforms passed over the next two years helped the Upper Country transform from a frontier alliance into a modern state.
The Miami War actually helped to create a more united Upper Country identity. Earlier it had been feared that largely Anglophone Sanduskey would eventually leave the state and join with Upper Connecticut, and the fact that it had sent no men to the Kishwauki War had fed those fears; but the Miami War confirmed its loyalty to the Pays-d’en-Haut, despite differences in language. Likewise Kekionga, in many ways tied more to the Ohio than to the Great Lakes, earned the sympathy of the lakeshore settlements and solidified its political and social ties to the rest of the state.
The rival trading posts at the mouth of the Miami-du-Lac were consolidated into one, termed Great Miami, which was under the direct authority of the state and the Grand Assembly. The town that took shape around it grew into an important commercial and industrial city, taking its name from the post. In 1862 it became the seat of its own country government, which it remains today.
7. Statehood (1838-1865)
8. Growth (1865-1899)
9. Binding the state together (1899-1970)
10. The Upper Country in a shrinking world (1970-present)
1. Refugees (1640-1665)
The Upper Country began as an alliance between people from France and the local villages of the Lakes. But before the start of that process of coming together, the Great Lakes underwent a terrible period of tearing apart. Beginning in the 1640s, competition over the fur trade fueled a cycle of wars that left much of the region nearly depopulated. The Iroquois are usually regarded as the aggressors in the Beaver Wars. Their raids destroyed villages and scattered the people. Several eastern nations, such as the Erie and the Neutrals, ceased to exist. Others saw their power drastically reduced. Europeans at this time came only rarely to the Upper Country, so most of what is known about this era of turmoil must be pieced together from oral traditions and accounts by Frenchmen who did not well understand what was happening.
Survivors scattered in all directions. Large numbers moved to towns in Canada, and others were adopted into the Iroquois themselves. In the Upper Country, refugees inhabited new villages to the west, out of reach of the Iroquois attacks. Green Bay and Chequamegon became the most important of the new population centers. These new centers drew people from many different tribal backgrounds. To keep the peace, they had to innovate. Simply relying on the old clans and lineages would not do when people from so many different tribes lived side by side in the same village. A class of informal village chiefs emerged as leaders throughout the region.
This is not to say that the old forms of tribal power and authority disappeared. They remained very important, especially for politics beyond the village. The Council of Three Fires, for example, an alliance of the three main Anishinaabe tribes, remained one of the strongest regional powers. And Europeans preferred to treat the tribes as sovereign nations rather than as scattered ethnic groups that blurred together. But increasingly, real life in the Upper Country came to be organized on the basis of villages and regions rather than the traditional tribes. And above it all remained the frightening sense that the old world had shattered, with no new structure to replace it. In the later decades of the 17th century, the Upper Country would look to France to provide that structure.
Survivors scattered in all directions. Large numbers moved to towns in Canada, and others were adopted into the Iroquois themselves. In the Upper Country, refugees inhabited new villages to the west, out of reach of the Iroquois attacks. Green Bay and Chequamegon became the most important of the new population centers. These new centers drew people from many different tribal backgrounds. To keep the peace, they had to innovate. Simply relying on the old clans and lineages would not do when people from so many different tribes lived side by side in the same village. A class of informal village chiefs emerged as leaders throughout the region.
This is not to say that the old forms of tribal power and authority disappeared. They remained very important, especially for politics beyond the village. The Council of Three Fires, for example, an alliance of the three main Anishinaabe tribes, remained one of the strongest regional powers. And Europeans preferred to treat the tribes as sovereign nations rather than as scattered ethnic groups that blurred together. But increasingly, real life in the Upper Country came to be organized on the basis of villages and regions rather than the traditional tribes. And above it all remained the frightening sense that the old world had shattered, with no new structure to replace it. In the later decades of the 17th century, the Upper Country would look to France to provide that structure.
2. Forming the alliance (1665-1701)
The alliance took shape from the bottom up. Many French traders and missionaries, and many Indian men and women, played a role in laying its early foundations. It was formed through countless individual interactions and relationships, economic, diplomatic, marital, religious.
Perrot among the Sioux
Among the many alliance chiefs of the early years, the figure of Nicolas Perrot stands out, and today he is honored as the Upper Country's founder. Perrot was an explorer, trader and interpreter from Bourgogne. He traveled so extensively that the Indians called him Metamiens, "Iron Legs". In fact, his journeys helped to delineate the boundaries of the Upper Country. He lived at times among the Ottawa, Potawatomi, Sioux, and other nations, learning their languages and their ways. He built French posts at Green Bay and Prairie-du-Chien. In 1671, he used his influence to draw over a thousand Indian leaders to Sault-Sainte-Marie, where, in what is known as the "Pageant of the Sault", French officials symbolically claimed sovereignty over the Lakes. The gathering marks the start of the wider French alliance and is considered the founding moment of the Upper Country.
The alliance took shape over the next several years. The Indians and Métis of the Great Lakes looked to the governor of Canada as a regional leader, calling themselves "Children of Onontio". The 1701 Great Peace of Montreal cemented the alliance, committing all the chiefs of the Upper Country, Huronia, and much of Ohio to the cause of France and to one another.
Perrot among the Sioux
Among the many alliance chiefs of the early years, the figure of Nicolas Perrot stands out, and today he is honored as the Upper Country's founder. Perrot was an explorer, trader and interpreter from Bourgogne. He traveled so extensively that the Indians called him Metamiens, "Iron Legs". In fact, his journeys helped to delineate the boundaries of the Upper Country. He lived at times among the Ottawa, Potawatomi, Sioux, and other nations, learning their languages and their ways. He built French posts at Green Bay and Prairie-du-Chien. In 1671, he used his influence to draw over a thousand Indian leaders to Sault-Sainte-Marie, where, in what is known as the "Pageant of the Sault", French officials symbolically claimed sovereignty over the Lakes. The gathering marks the start of the wider French alliance and is considered the founding moment of the Upper Country.
The alliance took shape over the next several years. The Indians and Métis of the Great Lakes looked to the governor of Canada as a regional leader, calling themselves "Children of Onontio". The 1701 Great Peace of Montreal cemented the alliance, committing all the chiefs of the Upper Country, Huronia, and much of Ohio to the cause of France and to one another.
3. Era of the alliance (1701-1769)
In the eighteenth century we see the French alliance system in its mature form. It became the dominant political structure in the Upper Country, overshadowing older tribal affiliations like the Council of Three Fires. Detroit, founded the same year as the Great Peace, became the center of regional trade and diplomacy. All of the established chiefs of the region worked to maintain the alliance, while new men sought opportunities outside it.
These opportunities were numerous. The English and Dutch continually sought to expand their influence westward. The Dutch built forts at Oswego on Lake Ontario and on Grand Island in the Niagara River. English traders built posts at Black Rock on the Niagara, at the Forks of the Ohio, along the St. Joseph River, and above all on Sanduskey Bay. Each new trading post was built to entice groups of Indians away from the French. Other chiefs sought more complete independence outside the reach of any of the empires. They had the most success in the Ohio Country. Throughout the century the new republics of Ohio steadily grew, causing French influence there to gradually unravel.
But the core of the alliance held together. The key parts of the Upper Country - Detroit, Manitoulin, the Mackinac Straits, Green Bay, Chequamegon, and Ouisconsin - remained under the firm control of the Children of Onontio.
These opportunities were numerous. The English and Dutch continually sought to expand their influence westward. The Dutch built forts at Oswego on Lake Ontario and on Grand Island in the Niagara River. English traders built posts at Black Rock on the Niagara, at the Forks of the Ohio, along the St. Joseph River, and above all on Sanduskey Bay. Each new trading post was built to entice groups of Indians away from the French. Other chiefs sought more complete independence outside the reach of any of the empires. They had the most success in the Ohio Country. Throughout the century the new republics of Ohio steadily grew, causing French influence there to gradually unravel.
But the core of the alliance held together. The key parts of the Upper Country - Detroit, Manitoulin, the Mackinac Straits, Green Bay, Chequamegon, and Ouisconsin - remained under the firm control of the Children of Onontio.
4. The revolutionary era (1769-1810)
Trading for guns at Fort Michilimackinac
The Wars of Independence brought new challenges to the Upper Country alliance. On the one hand, disunity among the English meant a shift in the balance of power toward the French. On the other hand, independence unleashed expansionist impulses in the new states. Unprecedented numbers of traders and settlers from the English states began to come west. Three major Yankee communities took shape around Lake Erie: Connecticuters on the Cuyahoga, Massachusetts republicans on the Ashkany, and New England loyalists around Sanduskey Bay. Increasing numbers of Virginians and Pennamites were coming to the trading towns near southern Lake Michigan. The stream of newcomers put great stress on the alliance.
Leaders of the Upper Country had to build the alliance's institutional strength. The Grand Assembly began to meet in 1777, giving the allied leaders a permanent forum for the first time. Within the individual countries, French officials and Métis village leaders spurred the creation of local governments. The first elected councils and magistrates appeared in Green Bay, Kekionga and Michilimackinac. Canadian officers began to form militia units as well, channeling the warrior traditions of the Upper Country into an organized defense.
The French Revolution brought still more changes, realignments, and conflicts to the region. Canada stayed loyal to France and accepted the new regime, but Louisnana wavered. In 1793 the French Republic and England went to war, and some of the fighting spread to America. In a serious blow to the alliance, English and loyalist forces captured Fort Michilimackinac. The French were able to begin a new fort on nearby Mackinac Island, but it was an obvious sign of weakness. Canada had to scramble to keep leaders on its side. The war ended four years later with France in a weaker position in the Upper Country than at any time since the start of the colonial era.
Although England and France continued fighting, peace held for a few years in America. It was events in the Upper Country that provoked the next round of warfare. The independent English commonwealth of Virginia had grown increasingly close to France, England being an enemy common to both. In 1802 officers from both powers met in Upper St. Joseph to negotiate the future of the Ohio Country. They formed a plan to divide the whole region between them, shutting out all other powers. The pact sparked the War of the League of St. Joseph, the last and fiercest major imperial war in Boreomerica's history. The Great Lakes became a major theater of fighting. During the war it became clear that England was unable to sustain a military presence on the Lakes. English and allied forces made some gains but could not hold them.
Negotiations following the fighting were different from what had come before. After past wars, each empire had looked for advantages that would prepare it for the next one. This time, all sides sought a solution that would prevent future wars. There were so many sides involved now, most of them pursuing local agendas rather than European ones. Continental peace became the goal. The rise of the neutral Ohio Alliance was one clear sign of this. In the Upper Country, the combatants agreed that it would remain a French protectorate, but other communities were to govern themselves within it.
5. The imperial era (1810-1836)
The end of the war brought a new order to all the French colonies. The emperor Napoleon sent his brother Jerome to America to rule most of the large colonies as King of New France. Jerome's rule was mostly a peaceful one in which the Upper Country continued to grow and develop. The new groups of settlers who arrived, such as the Dutch founders of New Holland, by and large were content to live under French protection. But the Upper Country was still an alliance, not yet a state. The different constituent countries were basically free to act independently. New Holland and Sanduskey were alliance members, but at this point their people were still citizens of New Netherland and the Dominion of New England, respectively.
Growth accompanied peace. New farming villages were cropping up around the main towns as the Lakes' economy began to look beyond the fur trade. Most of the cultivation was done in the Indian fashion with hoe rather than plow; the plow would not predominate in the Upper Country until canals and railroads made commercial farming possible, and even then, traditional methods persisted in many villages, even to the present day. The spread of livestock, however, was altering life in many places. Pigs and cattle led to changes in land use, soil treatment, hunting practices, and many other aspects of village life.
A traditional "three sisters" field today on village land in Kekionga Country
The lead mines on the Aux-Fèves produced another newly important commodity. Located on the upper Mississippi River along the border between the Upper Country and Illinois, the Aux-Fèves mines became the subject of intense rivalry between the parts of New France. A royal decree declared the mining region to be part of the Upper Country and therefore subject to Canada, but their position on the river made it easy for Louisiana merchants to dominate the trade. Canada sponsored two major road projects linking the river to ports on Lake Michigan. But the more southern route, from Galènie to Chicagou, passed through disputed territory. Illinois, still subservient to Louisiana, attempted to take control of that disputed zone, posting militia to collect tolls and rebuff the Canadians. The result was the Kishwauki War of 1822-5. The war was notable for the inability of the royal government to contain it. Ultimately it was resolved thanks to mediators from Ohio who convinced the two sides to stand down. The war also led Illinoisans to resent Louisianan control, and they declared themselves to be a separate colony within New France soon after.
King Jerome allowed the parts of New France to develop their own institutions, signing off on Illinois's separation from Louisiana and Huronia's new provincial government. In the Upper Country, much development happened at the local level. Most of the main towns were beginning to function as bureaucratic states, and new governments formed in Chicagou, Miliouqué, and Grand Portage.
The 1833 fall of the Bonapartist regime did not cause much disruption. Canada declared independence and continued to oversee its dependencies as before. The governor at Detroit was not even replaced.
Growth accompanied peace. New farming villages were cropping up around the main towns as the Lakes' economy began to look beyond the fur trade. Most of the cultivation was done in the Indian fashion with hoe rather than plow; the plow would not predominate in the Upper Country until canals and railroads made commercial farming possible, and even then, traditional methods persisted in many villages, even to the present day. The spread of livestock, however, was altering life in many places. Pigs and cattle led to changes in land use, soil treatment, hunting practices, and many other aspects of village life.
A traditional "three sisters" field today on village land in Kekionga Country
The lead mines on the Aux-Fèves produced another newly important commodity. Located on the upper Mississippi River along the border between the Upper Country and Illinois, the Aux-Fèves mines became the subject of intense rivalry between the parts of New France. A royal decree declared the mining region to be part of the Upper Country and therefore subject to Canada, but their position on the river made it easy for Louisiana merchants to dominate the trade. Canada sponsored two major road projects linking the river to ports on Lake Michigan. But the more southern route, from Galènie to Chicagou, passed through disputed territory. Illinois, still subservient to Louisiana, attempted to take control of that disputed zone, posting militia to collect tolls and rebuff the Canadians. The result was the Kishwauki War of 1822-5. The war was notable for the inability of the royal government to contain it. Ultimately it was resolved thanks to mediators from Ohio who convinced the two sides to stand down. The war also led Illinoisans to resent Louisianan control, and they declared themselves to be a separate colony within New France soon after.
King Jerome allowed the parts of New France to develop their own institutions, signing off on Illinois's separation from Louisiana and Huronia's new provincial government. In the Upper Country, much development happened at the local level. Most of the main towns were beginning to function as bureaucratic states, and new governments formed in Chicagou, Miliouqué, and Grand Portage.
The 1833 fall of the Bonapartist regime did not cause much disruption. Canada declared independence and continued to oversee its dependencies as before. The governor at Detroit was not even replaced.
6. The Miami War (1836-1838)
This was all in an earlier post. I've cleaned up some bits of grammar, that's all.
Fort Detroit in the early 19th century
The Miami War shook the Upper Country in a time when it was still sorting out just what its identity was. The fallout from the English Wars of Independence had brought peace among the continent’s major powers and recognition of the Upper Country as a single unit. The much smaller Kishwauki War (1822-1825) against Illinois defined its borders and clarified the relationship among the Francophone states. But much was left unsettled when it came to the Upper Country’s internal workings. It was not yet completely clear if the Grand Assembly in Detroit was a true government or a mere meeting of allied, self-governing countries. The governor, though chosen by the Assembly, still had to go to Quebec to confirm his position. Much of his power was military as the commander of Fort Detroit. He ruled his local domain of Detroit Country with nearly unchecked power; the old French paternalistic government was still basically in force there. The Miami War revealed the inherent conflict between the governor’s statewide and local roles. It also revealed that the structure of the Upper Country was fragile and inadequate to meet the needs of a growing population.
The conflict grew from the undefined boundaries between the constituent countries of the Pays-d’en-Haut. Sanduskey Country was simply defined as the largely English settlements around the bay and the islands. Did it extend up the shore a little? Who knew? It was not urgent when the population was small, but as the population of English and Mixed people grew and spread, the question became an important one. Likewise, Detroit country certainly included the land around Lake St. Clair and the newer settlements down on Lake Erie, but whether it extended farther was an open question. The lively Mixed town of Kekionga (*Ft. Wayne) was located at the forks of the river Miami-du-Lac and no one was sure how far downriver it extended.
The lower Miami-du-Lac and Miami Bay were thus located between three major clusters of settlements who all had reason to think of the area as their own natural backyard. By the 1820s it was becoming clear that it would be an important crossroads for trade and a big source of income for whoever controlled it. The three adjacent parts of the Upper Country began to compete to be the one that would have it.
So all three constituent countries made moves to get the land. They commissioned traders to build fortified posts at or near the mouth of the river. Militia came in to man the forts. There was no artillery - the separate towns could hardly afford that - but there were plenty of muskets and ammunition, and some of them were used to intimidate or attack the other side. There is no clear date when the “war” began, but parts of the Miami-du-Lac and western Lake Erie were decidedly unsafe by the the 1836 trading season.
The war’s only real offensive came at its climax in the spring of 1838. The key figure was Rémi Taschereau, member of a prominent Canadien family who had had an impressive military career in the Great Lakes. He had become Governor of the Upper Country five years earlier and therefore was also commander at Detroit. He agreed with the Detroit merchants that Miami-du-Lac was important to the town's interests. He also saw the actions of the Kekiongans and Sanduskeymen as an affront to his authority as governor. Taschereau resolved to drive them out of the area by force, occupy the Miami-du-Lac area, and use his authority to goad the state assembly into approving the new status quo.
Tashereau’s campaign was preceded by a delegation to the Kekiongans and Sanduskeymen with official orders to abandon their trading posts. The traders and militia did not quite know what to make of this, since the Upper Country’s governor had never ruled by decree outside of Detroit Country. Soon after came the Detroit Militia in two sloops and several dozen canoes, led by Tashereau. They quickly stormed the blockhouses of their rivals, who mostly fled at the approach of such a large armed force. But the attack had the effect of uniting the other two sides in the three-way rivalry. The Sanduskey militia joined the Kekiongans in paddling upstream to a defensible position at the fork of the Miami-du-Lac and the Glaise Rivers, where there sat an abandoned fort. They quickly dug in, reinforced by new militia companies called up from Kekionga. John Gibbs took command, a soldier of mixed Scottish, French, and Indian origin typical of the Mixed leadership in Kekionga. He enthusiastically re-declared the fort’s old name, Fort Defiance. By the time Taschereau and his men arrived, Gibbs was ready for them. The defenders of the fort threw back the first attack. Taschereau had no choice but to withdraw to the mouth of the river, having occupied the land that was his objective but failed to defeat the rival forces outright.
By then, delegates to the Grand Assembly were gathering in Detroit. Taschereau knew that the assembly could not begin proceedings without him, and he hoped to delay it until he could establish more firmly Detroit’s military control of the Miami-du-Lac. He sent word to his lieutenant, Pierre Jalbert, to send additional men. Most of the delegates in Detroit, however, were outraged at the heavy-handed way that Taschereau was acting. They met outdoors, in front of the fort and the newly built hall of assembly, and began to hold an extralegal session, speaking forcefully against the governor’s actions. Jalbert was unwilling to arrest en masse the leaders of the entire Upper Country, so the delegates continued meeting. The situation in Detroit was so tense, furthermore, that Jalbert feared that if he sent additional men to the Miami-du-Lac, he might lose control of the town entirely. Taschereau raged against his lieutenant’s inaction, but it probably kept the Upper Country from erupting into full-blown rebellion.
The delegates sent an appeal to Canada, whose judicial council still served as the court of last resort for the Upper Country. Canada ordered both Taschereau and Gibbs to stand down and the militia to disband. In a related ruling, they declared that the lower Miami-du-Lac valley was to be neutral territory subject directly to the state government of the Upper Country; the Grand Assembly was left to draw the borders with more specificity. The governor, afraid to return to Detroit, went to Montreal to account for his actions.
The crisis in Miami-du-Lac showed the serious need to reform the Upper Country’s institutions. First and foremost, the city and country of Detroit needed local governments separate from the governorship. Next, the powers of the Grand Assembly to make state laws had to be made clearer. Finally, the powers of militia had to be taken away from the individual towns and regions and made subject to the Upper Country’s civil government. The reforms passed over the next two years helped the Upper Country transform from a frontier alliance into a modern state.
The Miami War actually helped to create a more united Upper Country identity. Earlier it had been feared that largely Anglophone Sanduskey would eventually leave the state and join with Upper Connecticut, and the fact that it had sent no men to the Kishwauki War had fed those fears; but the Miami War confirmed its loyalty to the Pays-d’en-Haut, despite differences in language. Likewise Kekionga, in many ways tied more to the Ohio than to the Great Lakes, earned the sympathy of the lakeshore settlements and solidified its political and social ties to the rest of the state.
The rival trading posts at the mouth of the Miami-du-Lac were consolidated into one, termed Great Miami, which was under the direct authority of the state and the Grand Assembly. The town that took shape around it grew into an important commercial and industrial city, taking its name from the post. In 1862 it became the seat of its own country government, which it remains today.
7. Statehood (1838-1865)
In the years following the Miami War, the Upper Country transformed into a state. Three intertwined processes brought this about: separating from Canada, building a state government, and growing a modern economy. These processes fed one another during the middle decades of the nineteenth century. They greatly changed life in the Upper Country, building on the core cultural essence that was already in place.
Confederal politics did much to help the Upper Country to think of itself as a state. People from the PH had served on the Grand Council for years, and with the fall of the French Empire, Canada and its dependencies also joined the growing Congress of the Nations. The constituent countries each sent members to Congress, but they were seated together as representatives of a single neutral region, similar to members from other underdeveloped regions like Ohio and West Florida. From the 1840s the members of the confederation were generally known as states, including the Upper Country. Then in 1847 Huronia achieved independence from Canada. It was generally assumed that the Upper Country would follow, once it was ready.
A candidate for Grand Assembly gives a speech in Detroit, c. 1850.
The reforms of the late 1830s and 40s produced a Grand Assembly that had real legislative power. Among the first things it did to exercise its power was sponsor a series of road building projects, something Canada had done in past decades. In the early 1850s it launched an even more ambitious project with Illinois to build the Chicagou Canal, which allowed navigation across the old portage between the Illinois River and Lake Michigan. The canal did more than draw people to Chicagou: it was an economic declaration of independence from Canada. From that point, a growing portion of the state's trade would be with the Mississippi River basin. The Canadian trade that had once been the Upper Country's raison d'être declined in relative importance.
The Assembly also embarked on a long quest to harmonize the different legal systems in the state. It took jurists more than twenty years to produce a code that was acceptable to all of the constituent countries. The basis was the Napoleonic Code Civil, with enough flexibility to allow for varying local customary law, as well as the pockets of the Upper Country that had used English Common Law. The code was propagated in the early 1860s, and it became the foundation for a new state judiciary. At this point, it can truly be said that the Upper Country was operating as a modern state. Canada loosened its last political controls over the Upper Country, leaving only a few symbolic connections; for example, a Canadian official was still on hand in Detroit to formally open each session of the Grand Assembly.
The consolidation of the state meant an end to the independence of the constituent countries. New Netherland accordingly severed all links with New Holland, so that its people could be citizens of the Upper Country alone. But in Sanduskey Country, the change was much more controversial. Sanduskey had originally been an English possession, but the political changes made this harder to keep up. In 1855 it voted to abolish the vestiges of its royalist government, replacing the viceroy with an elected deputy-governor. But the people the easternmost towns, called the Firelands, objected strongly. Their parents and grandparents had been diehard Loyalists, and they did not want to lose their connection to England. They split from Sanduskey to form a separate country and refused to approve the new law code. England refused to step in to the controversy, and so the Firelands found itself in the odd position of being a royalist territory without any Crown representative. It would have an anomalous status within the Upper Country for several decades.
Confederal politics did much to help the Upper Country to think of itself as a state. People from the PH had served on the Grand Council for years, and with the fall of the French Empire, Canada and its dependencies also joined the growing Congress of the Nations. The constituent countries each sent members to Congress, but they were seated together as representatives of a single neutral region, similar to members from other underdeveloped regions like Ohio and West Florida. From the 1840s the members of the confederation were generally known as states, including the Upper Country. Then in 1847 Huronia achieved independence from Canada. It was generally assumed that the Upper Country would follow, once it was ready.
A candidate for Grand Assembly gives a speech in Detroit, c. 1850.
The reforms of the late 1830s and 40s produced a Grand Assembly that had real legislative power. Among the first things it did to exercise its power was sponsor a series of road building projects, something Canada had done in past decades. In the early 1850s it launched an even more ambitious project with Illinois to build the Chicagou Canal, which allowed navigation across the old portage between the Illinois River and Lake Michigan. The canal did more than draw people to Chicagou: it was an economic declaration of independence from Canada. From that point, a growing portion of the state's trade would be with the Mississippi River basin. The Canadian trade that had once been the Upper Country's raison d'être declined in relative importance.
The Assembly also embarked on a long quest to harmonize the different legal systems in the state. It took jurists more than twenty years to produce a code that was acceptable to all of the constituent countries. The basis was the Napoleonic Code Civil, with enough flexibility to allow for varying local customary law, as well as the pockets of the Upper Country that had used English Common Law. The code was propagated in the early 1860s, and it became the foundation for a new state judiciary. At this point, it can truly be said that the Upper Country was operating as a modern state. Canada loosened its last political controls over the Upper Country, leaving only a few symbolic connections; for example, a Canadian official was still on hand in Detroit to formally open each session of the Grand Assembly.
The consolidation of the state meant an end to the independence of the constituent countries. New Netherland accordingly severed all links with New Holland, so that its people could be citizens of the Upper Country alone. But in Sanduskey Country, the change was much more controversial. Sanduskey had originally been an English possession, but the political changes made this harder to keep up. In 1855 it voted to abolish the vestiges of its royalist government, replacing the viceroy with an elected deputy-governor. But the people the easternmost towns, called the Firelands, objected strongly. Their parents and grandparents had been diehard Loyalists, and they did not want to lose their connection to England. They split from Sanduskey to form a separate country and refused to approve the new law code. England refused to step in to the controversy, and so the Firelands found itself in the odd position of being a royalist territory without any Crown representative. It would have an anomalous status within the Upper Country for several decades.
8. Growth (1865-1899)
From this time the Upper Country began to experience economic changes to match these political changes. The late nineteenth century brought railroads, large-scale shipping, commercial farming, and industry to the Great Lakes. Indigenous people provided much of the labor, but they were not enough. Immigrants from other states and from Europe came to do the work that this revolution required.
A team of German laborers digging the Ouisconsin-Renard Canal, Prairies Country, c. 1870.
The state's developing transport network made commercial farming possible. Many indigenous communities began to adopt European-style methods so that they could produce enough to sell. This brought men into the fields for the first time. Immigrant farmers had to contend with a bewildering system of land ownership, which combined large areas of communal village land with echoes of the seigneurial system inherited form Canada. Some reforms opened up limited tracts to private ownership, both to attract newcomers and to encourage productivity among local farmers. Agriculture, like all other aspects of Upper Country life, evolved as a mix of indigenous and European ways.
In the north, logging and mining finally replaced furs as the drivers of the economy. These industries, more than farming, relied on outside capital and local labor. Customary law held the companies in check and prevented them from exploiting the resources to the extent that they might have liked, but they still changed the face of the north. Hunters became wage laborers. Villages became half-empty for much of the year as men went away to work. Trading towns like Grand Portage and Fond-des-Lacs transformed into bustling, dirty port cities. It had not been so long since sails had replaced paddles on the Lakes; now they gave way to steam as the age of the great freighters began.
The mines were a root cause of the Upper Country's last war. To the northwest of Lake Superior lay the rich iron range of Mesabi. The Mesabi mines employed many local Anishinaabe men, but they had also attracted a large English immigrant population. This was because, while the border was fuzzy, Mesabi was under the control of the English colony of Assiniboia, part of the greater region of Rupertsland. In 1893, the largely French-speaking people of Assiniboia revolted and became a state of the ASB. Five years later, the young state voted to separate from England entirely and become a republic. This alarmed the English people of Mesabi. They staged their own revolt and asked to become a constituent of the Upper Country. Assiniboia and the Upper Country came to blows over this, but ultimately the confederal government sided against Assiniboia.
A team of German laborers digging the Ouisconsin-Renard Canal, Prairies Country, c. 1870.
The state's developing transport network made commercial farming possible. Many indigenous communities began to adopt European-style methods so that they could produce enough to sell. This brought men into the fields for the first time. Immigrant farmers had to contend with a bewildering system of land ownership, which combined large areas of communal village land with echoes of the seigneurial system inherited form Canada. Some reforms opened up limited tracts to private ownership, both to attract newcomers and to encourage productivity among local farmers. Agriculture, like all other aspects of Upper Country life, evolved as a mix of indigenous and European ways.
In the north, logging and mining finally replaced furs as the drivers of the economy. These industries, more than farming, relied on outside capital and local labor. Customary law held the companies in check and prevented them from exploiting the resources to the extent that they might have liked, but they still changed the face of the north. Hunters became wage laborers. Villages became half-empty for much of the year as men went away to work. Trading towns like Grand Portage and Fond-des-Lacs transformed into bustling, dirty port cities. It had not been so long since sails had replaced paddles on the Lakes; now they gave way to steam as the age of the great freighters began.
The mines were a root cause of the Upper Country's last war. To the northwest of Lake Superior lay the rich iron range of Mesabi. The Mesabi mines employed many local Anishinaabe men, but they had also attracted a large English immigrant population. This was because, while the border was fuzzy, Mesabi was under the control of the English colony of Assiniboia, part of the greater region of Rupertsland. In 1893, the largely French-speaking people of Assiniboia revolted and became a state of the ASB. Five years later, the young state voted to separate from England entirely and become a republic. This alarmed the English people of Mesabi. They staged their own revolt and asked to become a constituent of the Upper Country. Assiniboia and the Upper Country came to blows over this, but ultimately the confederal government sided against Assiniboia.
9. Binding the state together (1899-1970)
The twentieth century turned in an atmosphere of growing pride in the Upper Country. News reports of the course of the Mesabi War, culminating in the "victory" handed down by the confederal Parliament, caused many citizens to look beyond their local areas for the first time and identify with the wider state. An outpouring of creative works can be seen in this era celebrating the Great Lakes - their beauty, peoples, and folklore. The poem Song of Manabozho had been written earlier by a Yankee who had spent some time on Lake Erie and learned a little about Anishinaabe folklore. Now, translated, it became more widely read and came generally to be considered the Upper Country's national epic.
Early 20th-century illustration of Nokomis descending from the moon
By now railroads crisscrossed the state, linking the farming lands with the growing industrial centers and the lakeside ports. The Upper Country had become an economic powerhouse, no longer the colonial backwater it had been just a generation or two earlier. But urbanization caused concern. The village, and the extended family network that it represented, was seen as the bedrock of society. People feared the isolation of individuals and nuclear families that city life could foster. Most city families maintained links with the old home village and made an effort to visit regularly, something still typical today.
The early twentieth century was also an age of centralization in the state. The constituent countries surrendered their power progressively and quickly. By the 1930s they were little more than administrative units. The Firelands finally agreed to stop pretending to be an English dominion and consented to reunification with Sanduskey.
Early 20th-century illustration of Nokomis descending from the moon
By now railroads crisscrossed the state, linking the farming lands with the growing industrial centers and the lakeside ports. The Upper Country had become an economic powerhouse, no longer the colonial backwater it had been just a generation or two earlier. But urbanization caused concern. The village, and the extended family network that it represented, was seen as the bedrock of society. People feared the isolation of individuals and nuclear families that city life could foster. Most city families maintained links with the old home village and made an effort to visit regularly, something still typical today.
The early twentieth century was also an age of centralization in the state. The constituent countries surrendered their power progressively and quickly. By the 1930s they were little more than administrative units. The Firelands finally agreed to stop pretending to be an English dominion and consented to reunification with Sanduskey.
10. The Upper Country in a shrinking world (1970-present)
Beginning in the 1970s, this trend began to reverse itself. A series of Devolution Acts restored some authority and fiscal independence to the separate Countries. Concurrent with this was a revived interest in the particular cultures of the different parts of the state. An indigenous literature has blossomed as people desired to tell their own stories in their own languages. Other writers explored the meaning of the blending of the European and the Indian that characterizes many Upper Country communities. Traditional festivals that had been losing energy were revived with the help of folklorists and artists.
Ongoing issues in the Upper Country center around a transitioning economy. Industry, especially in the smaller cities, is on the decline, and some of the mines are no longer productive. Farming, too, employs less people as agriculture becomes even more mechanized. This has served to sharpen the age-old disparity between the chief cities and the countryside. A strong agrarian Green movement has attempted to address some of these concerns. And of course, the Upper Country grapples with the same question faced by people everywhere: how to adjust to a changing world without losing sight of who they are.
Ongoing issues in the Upper Country center around a transitioning economy. Industry, especially in the smaller cities, is on the decline, and some of the mines are no longer productive. Farming, too, employs less people as agriculture becomes even more mechanized. This has served to sharpen the age-old disparity between the chief cities and the countryside. A strong agrarian Green movement has attempted to address some of these concerns. And of course, the Upper Country grapples with the same question faced by people everywhere: how to adjust to a changing world without losing sight of who they are.
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A few notes on the names of the Upper Country.
The French used the name le Pays d'en Haut for all the lands above Montreal in which they traded. The area covered by that name shrank as some regions were changed by treaties and other developments. Huronia, Ohio, and Illinois - earlier considered parts of the Pays d'en Haut - had become clearly separate regions by 1800, and the name from that point was only used for the lands around the lakes to the north and west of those places. The state's postal abbreviation, PH, comes from the French name. The French demonym is Hautois.
The names used in other languages are translations from the French. The English term Upper Country has existed since the early eighteenth century. The Dutch name, het Opperland, has influenced some English speakers to prefer the name the Upperland, which is a bit less of a mouthful. The older name has persisted officially, but "Upperland" can be found in the names of businesses and organizations throughout the state. It is also the source of the standard English demonym, Upperlander, though depending on where they live many English speakers may be as likely to call themselves Hautois.
The Anishinaabe name Ishpaki, "the high land", first appears in writing in the Imperial era, when records of the Grand Assembly first began to be kept in the Anishinaabe language. Its usage has ebbed and flowed with the years. From an indigenous perspective, the name makes little sense, as the land is only "upper" from the perspective of Canada. For many years, the name seems to have been more popular among the Whites than the Anishinaabe themselves; it was used for romantic and poetic reference to the emerging state. For example, it appears three times in the epic poem Song of Manabozho, such as in the much-quoted lines: "All the peoples of Ishpaki, of the Lands that Ring the Waters." Nevertheless, Ishpaki gained currency due to the lack of a good alternative name. One reinterpretation of its meaning can be seen in a mural in the Hall of Assembly built in the late nineteenth century: the mural depicts Boreoamerica as the Great Turtle, with the Lakes sitting at the center of its back, at the highest point of its shell. Nowadays.when speakers of European languages use the name it is generally to show solidarity with indigenous people, as in the Ishpaki Green Party.
The French used the name le Pays d'en Haut for all the lands above Montreal in which they traded. The area covered by that name shrank as some regions were changed by treaties and other developments. Huronia, Ohio, and Illinois - earlier considered parts of the Pays d'en Haut - had become clearly separate regions by 1800, and the name from that point was only used for the lands around the lakes to the north and west of those places. The state's postal abbreviation, PH, comes from the French name. The French demonym is Hautois.
The names used in other languages are translations from the French. The English term Upper Country has existed since the early eighteenth century. The Dutch name, het Opperland, has influenced some English speakers to prefer the name the Upperland, which is a bit less of a mouthful. The older name has persisted officially, but "Upperland" can be found in the names of businesses and organizations throughout the state. It is also the source of the standard English demonym, Upperlander, though depending on where they live many English speakers may be as likely to call themselves Hautois.
The Anishinaabe name Ishpaki, "the high land", first appears in writing in the Imperial era, when records of the Grand Assembly first began to be kept in the Anishinaabe language. Its usage has ebbed and flowed with the years. From an indigenous perspective, the name makes little sense, as the land is only "upper" from the perspective of Canada. For many years, the name seems to have been more popular among the Whites than the Anishinaabe themselves; it was used for romantic and poetic reference to the emerging state. For example, it appears three times in the epic poem Song of Manabozho, such as in the much-quoted lines: "All the peoples of Ishpaki, of the Lands that Ring the Waters." Nevertheless, Ishpaki gained currency due to the lack of a good alternative name. One reinterpretation of its meaning can be seen in a mural in the Hall of Assembly built in the late nineteenth century: the mural depicts Boreoamerica as the Great Turtle, with the Lakes sitting at the center of its back, at the highest point of its shell. Nowadays.when speakers of European languages use the name it is generally to show solidarity with indigenous people, as in the Ishpaki Green Party.
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Nice update!
Unrelated question though. Do you have any maps that show the borders of the Southern ASB states overlaid on the borders of OTL Southern counties? I only ask since it's kind of hard for me to figure out what parts of places like say Metro Atlanta/Western Georgia are located in relation to the ASB's state borders. Thanks!
Unrelated question though. Do you have any maps that show the borders of the Southern ASB states overlaid on the borders of OTL Southern counties? I only ask since it's kind of hard for me to figure out what parts of places like say Metro Atlanta/Western Georgia are located in relation to the ASB's state borders. Thanks!
Thanks! The QBAM makes that easy. Here it is, with both layers visible and blown up for easy viewing.
I made sure to draw the border so that Atlanta is just barely part of Carolina, though looking back I'm not sure why. Atlanta was founded in OTL as a rail hub... I suppose it could have been a late border adjustment that brought Atlanta into Carolina. Cherokee was more or less a Carolian dependency during that era, and no doubt Carolina took advantage of that relationship once or twice to pressure the Cherokee into giving up bits of land.