AHC: More Modern City States
- Thread starter Edwin Moore
- Start date
Please remember that NYC was under British occupation and was very loyalist until 1783. A different outcome of the ARW endgame could have resulted in a British enclave of NYC. Over time and after the Canadian dominion resolution this could have resulted in a NYC city state.
This is a fascinating idea. How would a British NYC look today?
It would probably depend largely on immigration patterns. If they took in roughly the same sorts of people that Canada did, it would probably be a somewhat straight-laced anglophile enclave, like pre-multiculturalism Toronto or Westmount, and with even less influence from the French, Slavs, etc.
Not sure if you'd have the same large-scale Irish immigration to a British NYC. Canada IOTL did get quite a few Irish, but a good chunk of them settled in French Catholic regions.
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^ And I suppose you could also have black freemen of Loyalist persuasion settling in a British New York, either supplementing or replacing similar settlement in Nova Scotia.
Number one is Zanzibar, which at minimum would've been a middle-income country with plenty of foreign investment with a chance (given the right leadership) to become African Singapore. No matter what, it would've been one of the most important cities in 20th century Africa, and the success of the coup that ended Zanzibar relied in large part on luck.
Aden could've been an Arab Hong Kong, dominating the Red Sea and free from the squabbles and conflict in Yemen.
Penang could've been like a lesser Singapore instead of being part of Malaysia.
I think the United States could've grabbed New Brunswick and Nova Scotia in the American Revolution but Halifax would've remained British since it was too valuable for them to lose (and would take an insane amount of effort for the Americans to evict the British that simply wasn't available to the Continental Army). I could very easily see Halifax staying separate from the remainder of British North America and thus existing as a city-state.
Aden could've been an Arab Hong Kong, dominating the Red Sea and free from the squabbles and conflict in Yemen.
Penang could've been like a lesser Singapore instead of being part of Malaysia.
I think the United States could've grabbed New Brunswick and Nova Scotia in the American Revolution but Halifax would've remained British since it was too valuable for them to lose (and would take an insane amount of effort for the Americans to evict the British that simply wasn't available to the Continental Army). I could very easily see Halifax staying separate from the remainder of British North America and thus existing as a city-state.
It's illegal under the US Constitution and IIRC the New York Constitution, and since NYC dominates New York as a whole they have plenty of political influence. More likely is some sort of internal "rearrangement" creating city-states out of the largest cities in the US via Constitutional amendment, like maybe a city-state gets one senator and apportioned representatives and perhaps has some form of relationship with the state it split from. If city-states can totally split from states, they might get two senators. There's too much risk in becoming a city-state.
A city-state is not a US state consisting of a city. It is an independent entity consisting of a city and its immediately dependent hinterland (and possibly not even that). Since the end of the ARW the closest NYC as been to being a true City-State would have been the semi-delusional ravings of Fernando Wood in 1861 to declare the independence of NYC as opposed to being part of the Union campaign to suppress the Confederate rebellion. However, a post-ARW British NYC that would eventually become independent (and it would) would be a true City-State and an international entrepot such as Singapore or a truly independent Hong Kong or Macao.
Neutral Moresnet - Wikipedia
Vladivostok could end up as an independent White city under Japanese protection after the Russian civil war. The same could possibly happen to other strategically important cities that are located on the Russian coast or near its borders, like St. Petersburg, Murmansk, Odessa or Sevastopol, if either the Germans and/or the western powers manage to occupy the cities and refuse to leave after the Bolsheviks manage to take over the rest of Russia.
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I am more intrigued by the architectural impact that a British NYC would have as opposed to its demography.
New York is viewed as the birthplace of the skyscraper, would that still have happened had the British been in charge?
Assuming New York is British, which city becomes the American alternative? The welcome port from the old World? Philadelphia? Somewhere in Florida?
The only semi-plausible one after 1900 would be Hamburg. Say Germany as a state is dissolved after WW2 and Hamburg may become an independent city state, along with Bremen, Lubeck and others. It's not guaranteed that it won't merge with a neighboring state or a reunified Germany.
A different end to Apartheid leads to Balkanization. Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg, with no clear majorities, become independent city states outside of the Zulu/Xhosa/Sotho/Coloured/Afrikanner states being born all around them.
Maybe a different decolonization could see Egypt fail to nab the Suez Canal and it becomes an independent zone, with it's major Port being the bulk of the population and a de facto city state.
Maybe a different decolonization could see Egypt fail to nab the Suez Canal and it becomes an independent zone, with it's major Port being the bulk of the population and a de facto city state.
Treaty of Sevres is upheld, International Zone of the Straits somehow remains independent following de-internationalization.
Things shake out differently during the Balkan Wars, leaving Salonika (or perhaps more properly סלוניקה/سلانیك)a Sephardic Jewish dominated exclave of the Ottoman Empire that goes the Taiwan route when the CUP turfs the Sultan.
While it is way too small to pass for a 'City' anything, a more cordial British/German relationship could turn Heligoland/Helgoland/deät Lun into a neutral co-principality in the mold of Andorra.
While it is way too small to pass for a 'City' anything, a more cordial British/German relationship could turn Heligoland/Helgoland/deät Lun into a neutral co-principality in the mold of Andorra.
Maritime Southeast Asia fit a lot of good locations for city-states due to the fact they are located on islands.
- Puerto Princesa on Palawan
- Cebu City on Cebu
- Zamboanga in Mindanao
- Manila in Luzon (Technically due to pejorative of Imperial Manila, it can be argued that OTL Philippines is a ruled by the city-state of Manila)
- Sandakan and Kota Kinabalu in Sabah
- Ambon, Ternate and Tidore in the Maluku Islands
- Island of Bali
Also in Insular Southeast Asia, Phuket in Thailand comes to mind
East Asia
- Hainan
- Dalian (aka Port Arthur)
- A number of different islands on the coasts of China could be good spots for city-states although its too many to mention.
- Ryukyu Islands (aka Nansei Islands)
- Jeju
- Busan
- In general a number of islands in South Korea and Japan also makes possible spots for city-states to emerge as well.
Pacific Islands/Oceania
- Independent Hawaii
- Wellington in New Zealand
- Island of Tasmania
- Perth and Darwin in Australia
- New Caledonia
- Fiji
- The Samoas
- Guam
- Port Moresby in the PNG
- Through colonialism a number of different islands can become good locations for settler city-states to emerge in places like the Bismarck Archipelago or the Solomon Islands.
Russia
Petropavlosk-Kamchatsky
North America
- San Francisco Bay Area
- Los Angeles
- Vancouver Islands
- Juneau in the Alaskan Panhandle
- Anchorage
- Puerto Princesa on Palawan
- Cebu City on Cebu
- Zamboanga in Mindanao
- Manila in Luzon (Technically due to pejorative of Imperial Manila, it can be argued that OTL Philippines is a ruled by the city-state of Manila)
- Sandakan and Kota Kinabalu in Sabah
- Ambon, Ternate and Tidore in the Maluku Islands
- Island of Bali
Also in Insular Southeast Asia, Phuket in Thailand comes to mind
East Asia
- Hainan
- Dalian (aka Port Arthur)
- A number of different islands on the coasts of China could be good spots for city-states although its too many to mention.
- Ryukyu Islands (aka Nansei Islands)
- Jeju
- Busan
- In general a number of islands in South Korea and Japan also makes possible spots for city-states to emerge as well.
Pacific Islands/Oceania
- Independent Hawaii
- Wellington in New Zealand
- Island of Tasmania
- Perth and Darwin in Australia
- New Caledonia
- Fiji
- The Samoas
- Guam
- Port Moresby in the PNG
- Through colonialism a number of different islands can become good locations for settler city-states to emerge in places like the Bismarck Archipelago or the Solomon Islands.
Russia
Petropavlosk-Kamchatsky
North America
- San Francisco Bay Area
- Los Angeles
- Vancouver Islands
- Juneau in the Alaskan Panhandle
- Anchorage