AHC: Balkanize Mexico

What POD could be used to divide Mexico into as many independent states as possible by 2017? I don't know too much about Mexico, and the best I can think of is secession of the Rio Grande Republic, Yucatan, and Chiapas. I'm sure other people can do better. What do you think?
 
Have the Republic of Sonora (Sonora and Baja California) survive and not be annexed into America as well, for starters.
 
You could also have an alternate Mexican conquest that involves a much more feudal style of ownership, with each conquistador owning his own semi-autonomous polity.

It might technically be united under a single Mexican region and, if the writer wants, made into a federation or confederation but by then the individual fiefdoms will have developed so much history, culture and probably inter-regional wars of their own that it would be more difficult to keep united for long.
 
You could also have an alternate Mexican conquest that involves a much more feudal style of ownership, with each conquistador owning his own semi-autonomous polity.

It might technically be united under a single Mexican region and, if the writer wants, made into a federation or confederation but by then the individual fiefdoms will have developed so much history, culture and probably inter-regional wars of their own that it would be more difficult to keep united for long.
This. This could lead to a collapse similar to what happened in Central America.
 

missouribob

Banned
Have the United States annex more of Mexico. Butterflies flap and Mexico becomes incredibly anti-American. In response the U.S. doesn't want to annex Mexico but keep it weak and fighting among itself. The U.S. seizes important port cities and installs local warlords. They then through economic attrition see the development of this rump-Mexican state. This rump-Mexico is a series of squabbling warlord states with the U.S. intervening when necessary to keep it broken apart.
 
Mexico's current size is good enough to keep it completely under strict American influence, further balkanization would be detrimental to the economic development of the region and thus to the American economic interests in it.

The only pausible scenario that comes to mind right now is a scramble for Mexico, giving to the US influence over the northern states (Sonora, Rio Grande) to Britain the Yucatan and the French rest of Mexico.
 

missouribob

Banned
Mexico's current size is good enough to keep it completely under strict American influence, further balkanization would be detrimental to the economic development of the region and thus to the American economic interests in it.

The only pausible scenario that comes to mind right now is a scramble for Mexico, giving to the US influence over the northern states (Sonora, Rio Grande) to Britain the Yucatan and the French rest of Mexico.
Not if in an ATL Mexico turns communist/anti-American and America feels as if it needs to keep it weaker vs trying to profit off a larger version of it.
 
Not if in an ATL Mexico turns communist/anti-American and America feels as if it needs to keep it weaker vs trying to profit off a larger version of it.

True, but you'll need serious butterflies to make the US ignore or underestimate such a threat. Mexico isn't Cuba.
 

missouribob

Banned
True, but you'll need serious butterflies to make the US ignore or underestimate such a threat. Mexico isn't Cuba.
Agreed. I don't think it would be easy to balkanize Mexico to be honest. I mean it is possible and not ASB, but not likely without a big POD.
 
Jackson declares war in support of the Texan revolution as well Rio Bravo and Yucatan, on the compromise with his government that he won't annex Texas. They survive with American support and eventually republics in New Mexico and California declare independence offsetting another war with Mexico leading to the country falling apart completely.
 
When the South secedes, they form an alliance with the Imperialist forces in the Mexican civil war. When the South returns, Johnson decides against intervening in the war, letting Confederate companies & people give arms to their former allies. When the Radical Republicans take power, they finally march into Mexico. This begins nearly a century of charismatic Mexican leaders speaking out against the Americans, going to war, sometimes allying with the Germans, losing & granting independence to more areas. The new governments' weakness allows powerful drug cartels to take power & wage war over the corrupt Mexican government. This TL balkanises mexico without changing that much else. The World Wars might end a little later, but the result is the same.
 
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