AH Challenge: Other Regions Secede During ACW

Your challenge is to have another region besides the South feasibly and at least moderately realistically secede from the Union with the POD being either at the same time the first Southern state left the Union (that being South Carolina) or during the Civil war.
 
I wouldn't call this seceding, but the New York draft riots, sparking a revolution, could give the Union Army another rebellion to handle up north.
 
easy. Butterfly away Lincoln
in his place a weaker, less politically adept as Lincoln, have him ban slavery, causing the border states (Missouri, Delawere, Maryland, kentucky) secede
if you wanted to go farther with that the areas just barely north of the Ohio River might if slavery were to be banned completly
 
Your challenge is to have another region besides the South feasibly and at least moderately realistically secede from the Union with the POD being either at the same time the first Southern state left the Union (that being South Carolina) or during the Civil war.
Wasn't there a serious movement for the Old Northwest to break away (van vallingam sp???)
 
Wasn't their talk of the western states forming Cascadia?

There was, I think it was during the Great Depression, but I don't think that was ever taken seriously.

I had never heard of Clement Vallandigham, just read about him on wiki. He sounds like a total badass!
 
Wasn't their talk of the western states forming Cascadia?

There was a very long running idea, I believe starting from the point when that area was being settled, of breaking away to form Cascadia (it was the American and Canadian Pacific Northwest; not the west per se). It had some success during the Civil war among Oregonians but was linked to the Confederate Knights of the Golden Circle, even though it was not pro-Slavery or pro-Confederate, which sullied it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cascadia_(independence_movement)
 
Simple.

Buchanan, being the wasted space that he was, instructs the US army confronting the Nauvoo Legion to enter Utah Territory and subjugate the Mormons. This sparks a religious war in the newly drafted "Deseret".

The Governor of Pennsylvania, highly critical of the President's treatment of Utah mormons, and authorizes militias to volunteer to fight in Utah in defense of the rights and priviliges of their fellow Americans. (This last was threatened should the troops actually engage the mormons during the Utah War of 1857-58. Sometimes called the Mormon War, though there was one similar situation in the 1830s as well.)

The Native Americans of the Western US, who distinguished between "whites" and "Mormons" see their own independence threatened and organize various groups in agreement with Mormon leaders to jointly fight the US military.

As things in the West heat up, other people disheartened by Buchanan (or otherwise contemptuous) begin to speak out and more militias around the country are called up... a growing sense of isolation by Oregon country inhabitants...California sees itself as a potential powerhouse...Mexico, seeing the dissolution of the American West, voids the Treaty of Guadeloupe Hidalgo and reclaims large Southwest territories (possibly offers to aid Deseret and California in exchange for what would be come New Mexico and Arizona)...Texan rumblings?

And so on and so forth. East vs. West
 
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Well, there's always the option of the Trent Affair going a little worse so relations with Britain are even more stretched, not to the point of war but to economic consequences(tariffs, etc.) which could hurt New England and lead to secession movements there.

Alternatively, I once had a vague idea for a TL where German immigrants are even more focused on the Great Lakes and Great Plains than OTL. When the Civil War rolls around, the draft riots there are intense and the Union Army is called in to put down the "rebellious germans". Abuses by the Union and "attempts to crush German culture" lead to the secession of the Federation of the Heartland(Foderation des Kernlandes, though my German is horrible these days and I could be wrong). From there, the cut off West coast gradually drifts towards its own independence. Not really certain this is plausible, just a vague idea in my head as a response to the fact that the midwest never secedes unless its mormon.
 

archaeogeek

Banned
How do you all feel about Southwestern secession as a result of a successful Invasion of New Mexico?

You mean all 10.000 citizens of it? (okay probably overstating)
Arizona and New Mexico became states in 1912
Nevada and Utah hate the confederates and Utah is in no position to fight the federal government.
Colorado is still a territory.

And of course, California, the only state in the SW until 1864, is strongly unionist, it's also economically dependent on the east until the Hoover Dam and other major projects make it able to produce enough food and energy to feed itself.
 
You mean all 10.000 citizens of it? (okay probably overstating)
Arizona and New Mexico became states in 1912
Nevada and Utah hate the confederates and Utah is in no position to fight the federal government.
Colorado is still a territory.

And of course, California, the only state in the SW until 1864, is strongly unionist, it's also economically dependent on the east until the Hoover Dam and other major projects make it able to produce enough food and energy to feed itself.
New Mexico had almost 100,000 people in 1860. Colorado had about 40,000, and that's before the Pikes Peak Gold Rush. If the government is preoccupied with the Civil War and doesn't make a proposal to create Colorado Territory in 1861, I could see a secessionist sentiment springing up in the area of the proposed Jefferson Territory. IF they get the New Meixcans to go along with it you could have a viable country and would isolate California from the rest of the US.
 
Alternatively, I once had a vague idea for a TL where German immigrants are even more focused on the Great Lakes and Great Plains than OTL. When the Civil War rolls around, the draft riots there are intense and the Union Army is called in to put down the "rebellious germans". Abuses by the Union and "attempts to crush German culture" lead to the secession of the Federation of the Heartland(Foderation des Kernlandes, though my German is horrible these days and I could be wrong). From there, the cut off West coast gradually drifts towards its own independence. Not really certain this is plausible, just a vague idea in my head as a response to the fact that the midwest never secedes unless its mormon.

I like that idea. My similarly tortured German suggests Bund der Herzlanden. A lot of those '48ers who settled in the Midwest leaned towards pacifism, as much as they were for abolition. You could probably bring the Scandinavians into the cause, although I don't know how early they started immigrating into the area.

More realistically, though, I think what you'd probably get are little rebellions springing up than outright secession, lots more of Missouri. It might be enough to distract the Union Army from the south, and their actions could lead to a sort of positive feedback which expands the rebellions.
 
Alternatively, I once had a vague idea for a TL where German immigrants are even more focused on the Great Lakes and Great Plains than OTL. When the Civil War rolls around, the draft riots there are intense and the Union Army is called in to put down the "rebellious germans".

In OTL, the Germans were one of the most pro-Union, anti-slavery groups of immigrants. Shift more of them to the the Great Lakes and Great Plains and you have more men wearing Union blue, not a rebellion.
 
If the government is preoccupied with the Civil War and doesn't make a proposal to create Colorado Territory in 1861, I could see a secessionist sentiment springing up in the area of the proposed Jefferson Territory.

The proposal was made before the ACW started. The Territory was formed before Lincoln was President. And as the Confederates found out at Glorietta Pass, the Territory was pro-Union.
 
In OTL, the Germans were one of the most pro-Union, anti-slavery groups of immigrants. Shift more of them to the the Great Lakes and Great Plains and you have more men wearing Union blue, not a rebellion.

Ah, but what if those Germans are also mostly Amish or Mennonite? Okay, that's probably ASB...
 
The proposal was made before the ACW started. The Territory was formed before Lincoln was President. And as the Confederates found out at Glorietta Pass, the Territory was pro-Union.
So what if the proposal was delayed for some reason and then tabled because of preoccupations with the Civil War? Or have the government antagonize the prospectors in some way (like a requirement of sending found gold to the government to fund the war effort).
 
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