AHC:No Rise of the USA

The challenge is,with a POD no earlier than 1815,to prevent the USA from becoming not only a superpower,but also a first rate Great Power,meaning for example in a early 20.century OTL context it is considered at most an equal to italy or austria-hungary,but not britain or germany. Both economic and military might are to be put in consideration.
Additional rules:
1: The United States must still exist as a nation by today,though it does not need to cover all OTL lands.
2: Achieving Superpower/first rate great power status but then loosing it in any way does not count.

Bonus points if they are never even considered a Great Power at all,staying at Brazil or Argentinia levels.
 
By 1815 the US already had a GDP per capita that was higher than most of Western Europe excepting the UK, Netherlands, Belgium, and Denmark, so you'd need either a tremendous economic fall or a major, major halt in American population growth.
 
By 1815 the US already had a GDP per capita that was higher than most of Western Europe excepting the UK, Netherlands, Belgium, and Denmark, so you'd need either a tremendous economic fall or a major, major halt in American population growth.

Simple all you need is a couple of argentines, and a 66 year civil war.
 
Then the slavery debate must go hot as soon as possible. And they should lose the war with Mexico.

Well, you'll need a radically different Mexico for that. But, without the South, there wouldn't even be a need for the expansion into Mexico (at least as much as OTL). And then there are the demographics of Northern Mexico that need to be changed.

I mean, the Adams-Otis treaty would probably still go forward at this point. No reason for it to not. And, with that, they get a claim to the Oregon country. Even without Pacific Coast, though, you'll need major societal upheaval for decades, or a splintering of the country to acheive that. (And, even without the South, a US sans the South will not be greatly weaker than OTL, at least initially) And, in that case, you'd not have a US anymore, just the remnant states. It's simply difficult to do.
 
Split off New England (center of early American industry) and the South as soon as possible. Then try and get the American West to organise itself into a separate country distinct from the remnant of America. More places like Texas, for instance. I think another Anglo state made out of the Mexican North seems doable. Get Britain/Canada to take the disputed Oregon territory. Finally, get more restrictive immigration policy as soon as possible.

All these countries will be strong in their own right, but none will be great powers much less capable of changing world history like the US. Latin America will also be stronger both as a result and because more immigrants will find their way to places like Brazil and Argentina.
 
I think you would need to really break the USA up - as a whole it was already a significant and rising power by 1815. Then maybe a series of wars between the smaller states that would inhibit their economic development and make them less attractive for immigrants.
 
A USA that includes everything east of the Mississippi, the New Orleans purchase, and the Oregon area seems like it is going to be a fairly strong nation, even without the territories we took from Mexico. I'd think you'd at least need to negate the NO purchase, restricting the US to east of the Mississippi, have the Texas revolution fail, and the south win the ACW...
 
If it's about perception, have the US be super isolationist so everyone thinks that they're too weak and that's why they're not fighting.
If it's not about perception, have an extremely racist, jingoistic regime take over somehow and start having race wars and constant fighting with their neighbors by 1855. That should put a pretty large dent into US growth.
 
By 1815, the existing territory of the United States has the natural resources, the farmland, the industry, and the rivers and seaports to become a Great Power - it doesn't need to take anything from Mexico, doesn't need Florida from Spain, can lose the Oregon Territory to Britain. You need to actually dismember the existing territory into multiple nations, and that means breaking apart the United States.

If you want there to be a continuing United States that remains a second-tier power, you need to prevent the Louisiana Purchase from becoming part of the country, and the War of 1812 (with Napoleon's early defeat allowing Britain to massively shift forces) would have been the last chance for that.
 
By 1815, the existing territory of the United States has the natural resources, the farmland, the industry, and the rivers and seaports to become a Great Power

well,this assumes you can actually use all this. was there a possibility for the USA to attract less immigrants,or turn into a highly inefficient nation like most of latin america did?
 
Simple all you need is a couple of argentines, and a 66 year civil war.

Argentina has some interesting historical parallels with the United States. Both are New World immigrant nations, and both have had gold rushes, cowboys, civil wars, and Indian wars. Argentina was considered a developed nation in the 1910s. However, Argentina declined significantly later in the 20th century and was much more unstable than the U.S. due to all of the coups.

Perhaps similar instability in the U.S. could make it have a "lost century" of its own?
 
*Break off New England in 1815 with the Hudson as a boundary and a radius around New York City out to 20-30 miles
*Break off South Carolina in 1829-1833 and let the Southern States join them, including Kentucky and Missouri
*Texas rises on its own, becoming a gradually larger and larger nation eventually stretching to the Pacific with borders on the Sabine, Arkansas, and Colorado rivers in the North (OTL AZ, NM, OK, TX, and parts of KS, CO, and UT)
*California and OTL westernmost Nevada become a Republic built on gold, agriculture, and later gambling with aircraft production and new technologies
*Cascadia arises from OTL OR, WA, BC, AL, YK, northern ID, and later after buying it Alberta
*Deseret is forged from OTL UT, eastern NV, western CO. southern ID, and southeastern WY
*Much of Montana and Wyoming becomes a no-mans-land inhabited by native tribes, prepper communes, and religious groups who want little to do with the outside world
*US stretches to the Rockies until the Depression when the Federal States of America secede with a capital at Chicago, taking Ohio and everything West of it
*Remnant 11 US states with a capital moved to Philadelphia compete with eight other nations from the OTL US territory, as does a shrunken Canada also with a boundary at the Rockies
 
I think the major and unavoidable problem is that the United States is huge, resource heavy, and well populated. Even at half strength individual US states would be major nations in today's world. For example North Carolina by itself has a population and GDP equivalent to Sweden.
 
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