AHC: New Jerusalem, Missouri

Rex Mundi

Banned
With a POD after the foundation of the Latter Day Saints church, is there any way to have Joseph Smith's plans for a New Jerusalem in Missouri realized? He apparently had a relatively clear vision for the city with a preliminary street-grid layout and proposals for the foundation of separate nearby communities once the population reached certain numbers.

In OTL, this endeavor failed due to opposition from locals who were wary of LDS, plural marriage, etc. Is there any way to prevent an escalation of their hostility into actual violence?
 
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Zioneer

Banned
With a POD after the foundation of the Latter Day Saints church, is there any way to have Joseph Smith's plans for a New Jerusalem in Missouri realized? He apparently had a relatively clear vision for the city with a preliminary street-grid layout and proposals for the foundation of separate nearby communities once the population reached certain numbers.

In OTL, this endeavor failed due to opposition from locals who were way of LDS, plural marriage, etc. Is there any way to prevent an escalation of their hostility into actual violence?

Well, the layout was actually realized in the creation of Salt Lake City. Up until fairly recently, we had a complete grid street layout, and even now, our streets are very easy to navigate (if you avoid the bad drivers) because they've got the grid structure.

Same with the communities; most of the cities around Salt Lake were built in the same way as SLC was once it started getting crowded.

As for preventing the escalation of hostility, unlikely. Smith was too much of a threat to the established order; not only did he teach a popular message that took members away from their regular congregations, the Mormons also voted as a bloc, so their growing numbers translated into free votes for one side or the other. Combine that with Smith's missteps, and with the frontier mentality present in Missouri and Illinois at that time, and it's nearly impossible for violence not to occur. Nauvoo got to have it's own army unit just so it could protect itself from anti-Mormon violence.
 

Rex Mundi

Banned
Well, the layout was actually realized in the creation of Salt Lake City. Up until fairly recently, we had a complete grid street layout, and even now, our streets are very easy to navigate (if you avoid the bad drivers) because they've got the grid structure.

Same with the communities; most of the cities around Salt Lake were built in the same way as SLC was once it started getting crowded.

As for preventing the escalation of hostility, unlikely. Smith was too much of a threat to the established order; not only did he teach a popular message that took members away from their regular congregations, the Mormons also voted as a bloc, so their growing numbers translated into free votes for one side or the other. Combine that with Smith's missteps, and with the frontier mentality present in Missouri and Illinois at that time, and it's nearly impossible for violence not to occur. Nauvoo got to have it's own army unit just so it could protect itself from anti-Mormon violence.

Disappointing. Is there perhaps a more isolated or less densely populated place where violence wouldn't have resulted in the destruction of the city? Or would it have been possible for Smith to not attempt a New Jerusalem until Utah?
 
The obvious solution is for Joseph Smith and his followers to build Troy-esque walls with great bombards on each tower.
 

Rex Mundi

Banned
The obvious solution is for Joseph Smith and his followers to build Troy-esque walls with great bombards on each tower.

That would be exceedingly awesome. I'm now picturing a modern Missourian city replete with Mormon architecture and surrounded by huge walls.
 

Zioneer

Banned
That would be exceedingly awesome. I'm now picturing a modern Missourian city replete with Mormon architecture and surrounded by huge walls.

....I have been meaning to write something recently... It might not be Missourian, but I could write something about that.
 

Rex Mundi

Banned
Zuvarq's topic on ATL Mormonism got me really fascinated, for some reason. Timelines based on the LDS Church (as well as some others like the Bahai and Rastafari faiths) are fertile ground because you can significantly alter the conditions in which those religious movements develop with a recent POD.
 
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