AHC: US still with 48 states

Your challenge is to have the U.S. still remain with 48 states all the way up to 2016.

EDIT: POD must be after 1900.
 
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Driftless

Donor
Combine the Dakotas & put Idaho with Wyoming..... Or split Idaho between it's other neighbors.

*edit* OR, combine Montana & Wyoming, and split Idaho between Washington & Oregon. That group of Northwestern states is geographically huge, but not a lot of population, even today. I think Idaho only broke 1 million in the '80's, Montana is about 1 million, and Wyoming is a little over half a million. The Dakotas - about the same. Recently, I beleive some parts of those states were below the Frontier threshold for population density - till the oil shale boom.

Alaska & Hawaii come in as OTL.



(For a greater historic challenge - but sensible otherwise, split Rhode Island between Massachusetts & Connecticut pre-1776. Post 1861, add in a Franklin state made out of portions of Tennessee, NC, and SW Virginia) ;) Nevermind - Post 1900 POD
 
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Axis are on some reason victorious and Japan conquers Hawaii and Alaska.

Or then United States decide give independence for Hawaii and population of Alaska remain even lower and it doesn't get statehood.
 
Post 1900? Oklahoma never gains statehood. Instead it is kept as a cluster of reservations directly controlled by Washington. If you want, you can have the US take a page from the South African Apartheid playbook and split Oklahoma into a dozen 'independent' Native American 'Homeland countries' so that every Native American living in any other part of the US is legally a foreigner and therefore ineligible to vote, own property and enjoy most social services.

This is one state. Now one more:
a) If the Oklahoma model proves successful, do the same with one of the Dakotas, Colorado or New Mexico.
B) Do the same with Hawaii for all Asian Americans
C) Have the 'big one' hit Los Angeles, have the San Andreas rift break open and have California sink into the ocean.
D) In order to promote rationalization, Bain Jnvestments buys Rhode Island and Maryland, lets them both go bankrupt, Sells all the profitable counties to Texas and merges the remaining ones into one new combined state while passing the bill to the federal government.
 
Fine then, Mr. Smarty-Pants!

In 1983 Nuclear War erupts and by 2016 the US has only just barely restored control to the lower 48.

Good enough?:rolleyes:
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How about this:

Japan does not attack Pearl Harbor. They go after the "northern option" and attack Russia. The axis does loose the war by 1946-1947. America remains pretty isolationist. The main Pacific fleet is moored in San Diego and Seattle. There is not a great investment in Hawii. Except for Dole fruits. America in an age of nuclear arms, realizes it does not need a forward naval base. Perhaps the islands join some sort of union with micro islands.

Alaska is pretty simple. IOTL Ike and most republicans did not want to admit them. Just have the republicans horse trade with the dixiecrats, who in our time were pretty much for it, and no state hood. Alaska joins Canada in the late 60's.

Here is one more point after puerto rican's assinate Truman, the US sees terr. As nothing but unloyal minorities and a financial drain and chops them.

Unrelated the first Alaskan to serve as prime minister of Canada is the Hon. Todd Palin. His wife Sarah is elected as a MP. She later serves as foreign sec. In 2014 she announces she will lead the conservative party back to power.
 
How about this:

Japan does not attack Pearl Harbor. They go after the "northern option" and attack Russia. The axis does loose the war by 1946-1947. America remains pretty isolationist. The main Pacific fleet is moored in San Diego and Seattle. There is not a great investment in Hawii. Except for Dole fruits. America in an age of nuclear arms, realizes it does not need a forward naval base. Perhaps the islands join some sort of union with micro islands.

Alaska is pretty simple. IOTL Ike and most republicans did not want to admit them. Just have the republicans horse trade with the dixiecrats, who in our time were pretty much for it, and no state hood. Alaska joins Canada in the late 60's.

Here is one more point after puerto rican's assinate Truman, the US sees terr. As nothing but unloyal minorities and a financial drain and chops them.

Unrelated the first Alaskan to serve as prime minister of Canada is the Hon. Todd Palin. His wife Sarah is elected as a MP. She later serves as foreign sec. In 2014 she announces she will lead the conservative party back to power.

I think that early 1940's is too late keep USA outside of WW2. There will be surely war between USA and Japan on some poin of WW2.

And Sarah Palin not be Alaskan born. She would remain in USA if even born.
 
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True, Gov Palin was born in Idaho. I know nothing about Canada's political scene

I was poking fun at another lady (Hillary!)
 

jahenders

Banned
After 1900, I think Alaska is a given to eventually be a state as we've owned it for a while. by 1900, HI is also a US territory.

There's no chance of combining existing states, so your best bets would be to:
- Have HI or AK remain a perpetual territory (ala Puerto Rico), but that's hard to do with either after WWII

and/or

- Combine a few of the post-1900 states (AK, HI, AZ, NM, and OK) instead of letting them in individually

You could potentially have:
- "Pacifica" state that encompasses both HI and AK.
- "Great Southwest" state that encompasses AZ and NM, and possibly even OK.

Your challenge is to have the U.S. still remain with 48 states all the way up to 2016.

EDIT: POD must be after 1900.
 
Post 1900? Oklahoma never gains statehood. Instead it is kept as a cluster of reservations directly controlled by Washington. If you want, you can have the US take a page from the South African Apartheid playbook and split Oklahoma into a dozen 'independent' Native American 'Homeland countries' so that every Native American living in any other part of the US is legally a foreigner and therefore ineligible to vote, own property and enjoy most social services.

This is one state. Now one more:
a) If the Oklahoma model proves successful, do the same with one of the Dakotas, Colorado or New Mexico.
B) Do the same with Hawaii for all Asian Americans
C) Have the 'big one' hit Los Angeles, have the San Andreas rift break open and have California sink into the ocean.
D) In order to promote rationalization, Bain Jnvestments buys Rhode Island and Maryland, lets them both go bankrupt, Sells all the profitable counties to Texas and merges the remaining ones into one new combined state while passing the bill to the federal government.
That is still not post-1900. Though Oklahoma did not become a state until 1907, it was settled by a land rush in 1889. So once homesteaders settled the territory (before 1900), statehood was inevitable.
 
Couldn't the Oklahoma Territory just join Texas, with the Indian/Sequoyah Territory staying a permanent territory or use the model ennobee suggested? That'd solve one state solved. Then either force Arizona and New Mexico to gain statehood together (wasn't there even precedent for this with a Civil War proposal to admit that area as the State of Montezuma?) or allow independence for Hawaii (more likely than Alaska)/make either Hawaii or Alaska a second Puerto Rico and you're done. Since we have four different options here, one could even keep the number of states as low as 46.
 
Hand Hawaii back to the Hawaiians after WW2, with a 99 year (or longer) lease on the military and naval facilities on Oahu.

Not sure how Alaska would work out though... other than declare it to be one gigantic National Park?
 
Much poorer relations between the US and UK leads to America joining the Central Powers. The join too late to save their European allies, and spend the next few years fighting the combined military forces of the Entente (which includes several Latin American countries in retaliation for the Banana Wars). After several years of economic isolation, naval defeats and the loss of the Panama Canal to a join British, French, and Columbian invasion of Panama, the Americans are brought to the negotiating table. In exchange for peace the Entente takes Hawaii, Alaska, and other overseas territories.
 

Asami

Banned
Much poorer relations between the US and UK leads to America joining the Central Powers. The join too late to save their European allies, and spend the next few years fighting the combined military forces of the Entente (which includes several Latin American countries in retaliation for the Banana Wars). After several years of economic isolation, naval defeats and the loss of the Panama Canal to a join British, French, and Columbian invasion of Panama, the Americans are brought to the negotiating table. In exchange for peace the Entente takes Hawaii, Alaska, and other overseas territories.

With America as their enemy in WW1, the Entente was going to get their teeth kicked in. And even if the U.S. loses, they're going to come back in 1939 with their German allies, and they're going to bring Britain to her knees, screaming for mercy.
 
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