AHC: Independent California

AYC

With a POD no earlier than 1845, make California an independent entity, free from both the Mexican Empire and the United States.

Stipulations:

-Either English or Spanish can be the language.
-Must extend from, at the very least, San Francisco to the south and Oregon Country to the north. Larger Calis are of course permitted.
-California cannot be admitted into the United States as a state.

Get to work!

-AYC
 

Diez Mil Cantos

Perhaps have more intense immigration before Mexican Independence (eg. Southern Europeans fleeing from Ottoman E., Italians/Spanish/Portuguese fleeing from Napoleon, etc.) This would mean that there would be a large population with relatively little representation to Mexico City when the revolution occurs. Could trigger a gold rush earlier (since there's a higher population in the region), and tons of people from all over the world (incl. China/Japan/ Phillipines depending on if they opened up early/came under Mexican Control). With such a high population and relatively similar policies as OTL to Northern States of Mexico, could result in cession from the EUM (estados unidos de Mexico). Britain might recognize it in an attempt to bar the U.S from the Pacific(provided they're independent too).
Would be a very mixed place and might have to have a Canada-ish stance of compromise to avoid imploding on racial/political tension
doable, but needs certain things to occur to become solidified.
 

Titus_Pullo

Banned
AYoungContrarian said:
With a POD no earlier than 1845, make California an independent entity, free from both the Mexican Empire and the United States.

Stipulations:

-Either English or Spanish can be the language.
-Must extend from, at the very least, San Francisco to the south and Oregon Country to the north. Larger Calis are of course permitted.
-California cannot be admitted into the United States as a state.

Get to work!

-AYC
Click to expand...


Vigorous Russian colonization efforts beyond Fort Ross and Bodega Bay. Have the Tzar dump all his excess serfs, political provocateurs, and common criminals in a California colonization scheme to help alleviate potential troubles at home.
 

libbrit

Banned
I cant see how before 1845 is plausible

Id say a few things, in no particular order

  • Deeper US defeat in the war of 1812. Less cultural enthusiasm for expansion-none of this `manifest destiny` nonesense
  • Earlier discovery of the Californian gold, perhaps during the very early 1800s when the US was still quite far away and the Mexicans hadnt lost complete control of their territories.
  • More intense slave debate in the US earlier on, makes the Americans focus more on solving internal problems than expansion
  • Greater philosophical development of Jeffersons original statements that `the west` would be a sister republic rather than an integral part of the US proper
  • Mexicans crush Texas. Texas then doesnt exist as an independent distraction causing tension between US and Mexico, which in turn makes the future of US-Mexican wars.
If all this happens, especially the gold, then you could have extensive immigration to California, but no shared borders with the US means no direct justifiable interest in absorbing California. The growth in wealth and population, and a comensurate feeling that `Californias gold` is being taken away and used for Mexicos benefit. That and the trickle through of the notion of `liberty` and `taxation without representation` could provoke a rebellion.

The result being a sort of hybridized Hispanic-Anglo American republic on the west coast-perhaps, perhaps not including the likes of Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Arizona etc
 

jycee

I guess all you need is to curb US power early on. More devastating war of 1812 or getting into war with Britain over Oregon could do it. Just enough to keep California in Mexico at the time of the gold rush. Keep the US with a more Whig mentality afterwards.

A few years past gold rush California's population revolt against Mexico, distance and sponsorship from Britain - and maybe US - help prop up California Politics between both sponsors and the nature of a less territorial expansionist USA guarantees Cali's de jure independence though it would depend on both sponsors for survival.

Gold rush allows it to pay its debts, so it is not in a bad financial position to start from. And like OTL, it will have steady immigration - with a likely population boom in the early 1900s.
 

libbrit

Banned
To me, the only plausible POD is more of a defeat in 1812, whereby the US doesnt have the likes of the Battle of New Orleans around which to build a really strong national identity and start the ball rolling with this manifest destiny nonsense.

It would also mean the survival of a British sponsored Native American state in the midwest, which would be a real block on expansion
 
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